February 2010 Updates page 5
9 February
...we actually found more quail than usual...
The season is already a fading memory that an occasional picture even as simple as one dog honoring another carries with it a smile.
Thanks Mike we share your assessment on the season.
USDA
Historically during financial stress at the national level when budgets are cut within the USDA the first to be affected have been conservation programs while sustaining artificial markets for over production.
"...both corn and soybean acreage will increase in 2010 due to the large decline in winter wheat seedings and maturity of some Conservation Reserve Program contracts..." source: CattleNetWork, Purdue Outlook: South American Production Prospects 02/08/2010.
"...praise for Republicans like former Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer for resisting calls from the livestock sector to open up Conservation Reserve Program land for emergency haying, which would have had a negative effect on corn. 'Think of the mess we’d be in now if we’d opened up all of the CRP acres,'..." Source: Farmers see familiar scenario for ACRE, Feb 8, 2010, AgWeek.
"...U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) decision to purchase up to $9 million of surplus fresh potatoes and up to $21.9 million of surplus fresh fruits for federal food nutrition assistance programs...immediate relief for Colorado potato farmers struggling in the face of low commodity prices and a growing surplus of their product...." Source: USDA To Buy Surplus Potatoes, Monte Vista Journal, February 8, 2010.
