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State distributes casino tax money

August 1, 2012 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

The state of Ohio has distributed the first tax collections from Ohio’s casino industry to local governments.

According to Hannah News Service, taxes are tallied quarterly and divided among Ohio’s 88 counties according to size. Casino host cities get an extra 5% of the gambling haul and counties with cities of 80,000 or more population must split their revenue with those cities.

The largest check this time went to Cleveland, with a host city check of over $648,000. (Cuyahoga County received a check for more than $500,000.) Vinton County, on the other end of the scale, received a check for nearly $12,000.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Gambling, Ohio, Taxes

More than half of Ohio has had between 50-75% of average rainfall over 90 days

July 31, 2012 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

Another online resource to add to your list of ways to follow information about the drought affecting most of Ohio is Midwest Climate Watch from the Midwestern Regional Climate Center (MRCC).

The MRCC is a cooperative effort of the National Climatic Center and the Illinois State Water Survey. The MRCC serves the nine-state Midwest region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. They focus on research help to better explain climate and its impacts on the Midwest, provide practical solutions to specific climate problems, and development of climate information for issues such as agriculture, climate change, energy, the environment, human health, risk management, transportation, and water resources.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Cattle, Drought, Hay, Midwest Climate Watch, MRCC, Ohio, Ohio Farmers Union

DROUGHT: Corn conditions in Ohio worse than nation as whole

July 30, 2012 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

More than half of Ohio’s corn crop is rated poor to very poor for July – a number up 5 percent since last month. Nationwide, 45 percent of the corn crop is rated poor to very poor.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Corn, Drought, Ohio

DROUGHT: Ohio soybean conditions match national average for ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’

July 30, 2012 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

Not since the drought which hit the U.S. in 1988 has 37% of the nation’s soybean crop been rated at poor or very poor. Thirty-seven percent was the highest number for poor to very poor reached in July of 1988.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Drought, Ohio, Soybeans

Emergency haying and grazing for CRP participants in Ohio

July 28, 2012 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

COLUMBUS –  Ohio Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director Steve Maurer announced additional drought relief for Ohio’s livestock producers today. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack authorized the release of emergency haying and grazing lands for all Ohio counties for certain practices and acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

USDA will allow acres under CRP to be used for haying or grazing under emergency conditions. This will allow lands that are not yet classified as “under severe drought” but that are “abnormally dry” to be used for haying and grazing. This will increase available forage for livestock.

Under emergency haying at least fifty percent of each field or contiguous fields must be left unhayed for wildlife. Under emergency grazing at least twenty-five percent of each field or contiguous CRP fields must be left ungrazed for wildlife, or graze not more than seventy-five percent of the stocking rate as determined by NRCS.

Under emergency haying and grazing CRP participants will be assessed a payment reduction based on the number of acres actually hayed or grazed times the CRP annual rental payment times ten percent.

Participants may sell hay harvested under emergency provisions. CRP participants who do not own or lease livestock may rent or lease the haying or grazing privilege to an eligible livestock producer.

CRP is a voluntary program that provides producers annual rental payments on their land in exchange for planting resource conserving crops on cropland to help prevent erosion, provide wildlife habitat and improve the environment.

Producers must notify their local FSA office and file a request and receive approval before starting this emergency haying and grazing activity.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Drought, Grazing, Haying, Ohio

USDA Restructuring Will Close Some Ohio Offices

January 10, 2012 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2011-The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must be built to meet the evolving needs of a 21st century agricultural economy, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday in presenting USDA’s Blueprint for Stronger Service, a plan that USDA says will help producers by streamlining the department’s operations and cutting costs.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blueprint for Stronger Service, Farm Service Agency, Ohio, Tom Vilsack, USDA

Natural Gas Industry Execs Tell Colleagues to Employ Military Psychological Warfare Techniques Against Citizens in Fracking Zones

November 9, 2011 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

Range Resources Exec Says Tactics Have Been Used in PA

I’m not one prone to the conspiratorial ramblings of the tin-foil hat wearing crowd. There’s enough evil and injustice in the world of reality to process in any given day to get too carried away with 9/11 Truthers and the like.

Evidence of that is in a story broken yesterday by CNBC which bills itself as the network for people of high net worth – not exactly an anti-establishment organization.

According to CNBC’s story, the network was contacted by Sharon Wilson an environmental activist affiliated with Earthworks‘ Oil & Gas Accountability Project who paid to attend a natural gas industry conference on media and community relations in late October. At the conference, Wilson heard executives from some of the key U.S. companies involved in fracking for natural gas in places like Pennsylvania suggest during presentations that military-style ‘psy ops’ be used to combat environmental and other fracking concerns.

From the CNBC story:

In a session entitled “Designing a Media Relations Strategy To Overcome Concerns Surrounding Hydraulic Fracturing,” Range Resources communications director Matt Pitzarella spoke about “overcoming stakeholder concerns” about the fracking process.

“We have several former psy ops folks that work for us at Range because they’re very comfortable in dealing with localized issues and local governments,” Pitzarella said. “Really all they do is spend most of their time helping folks develop local ordinances and things like that. But very much having that understanding of psy ops in the Army and in the Middle East has applied very helpfully here for us in Pennsylvania.”

At another session, Matt Carmichael, the manager of external affairs for Anadarko Petroleum, spoke on the topic of “Understanding How Unconventional Oil & Gas Operators are Developing a Comprehensive Media Relations Strategy to Engage Stakeholders and Educate the Public.”

He said he had several recommendations for the oil industry media professionals at the event, one of which, he said, involved the military.

“Download the U.S. Army-slash-Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual, because we are dealing with an insurgency,” Carmichael said. “There’s a lot of good lessons in there and coming from a military background, I found the insight in that extremely remarkable.”

Range Resources is a publicly traded company with a market cap over $11 billion. Anadarko Petroleum, also a public company, possesses market capitalization of $40 billion. These companies can afford to communicate with rural landowners, farmers and small town America in any ways they please. Using tactics that the U.S. military uses against terrorist and Taliban insurgents in places like Iraq and Afghanistan is the choice they are making in Pennsylvania.

I wonder what their operational plan is for Ohio?

You can read the entire CNBC story and listen to audio from the conference here. 

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Anadarko, Fracking, Marcellus, Natural Gas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Psy Ops, Range Resources, Shale, Utica

Ohio Farmers Union members enjoy low Ohio workers compensation rates

October 26, 2011 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

How would you like to save a few bucks on your workers compensation costs?

Maybe you’re satisfied in another workers’ compensation group rating program, but what if we could give you the same, or better, premium savings, along with competitive low fees that can’t be beat? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: BWC, Member Benefits, Ohio, Ohio Farmers Union, Workers Compensation

Ag News Update – October 26, 2011

October 26, 2011 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

A few interesting stories from around Ohio and the U.S. from the past few days …

The fracking industry’s war on the NYT – and the truth

Huffington Post – by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

…

American sourced natural gas might also have helped free us from our debilitating reliance on foreign oil now costing our country so dearly in blood, national security, energy independence, global leadership, moral authority, and treasure amounting to $700 billion per year — the total cost to our country of annual oil imports — in addition to two pricey wars that are currently running tabs $2 billion per week.

My caveat was that the natural gas industry and government regulators needed to act responsibly to protect the environment, safeguard communities from irresponsible practices and to candidly inform the public about the true risks and benefits of shale extraction gas.

The opposite has happened. …

Read the rest at the Huffington Post

Farm Bill process rolling with Ag leaders striving for Nov. 1 deadline

Wallaces Farmer

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is laying out USDA’s farm bill priorities this week. But given the current economic climate, and the efforts of the Congressional Super Committee tasked with finding more than $1.2 trillion in budget cuts, Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says USDA’s leadership may not carry much weight. He says that he thinks there won’t be time for the Administration to have much of an impact.

That’s because the leaders of the Agriculture Committees Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and Collin Peterson, D-Minn., have told the members of the Super Committee that they’ll have a detailed set of 2012 Farm Bill policy suggestions aimed at achieving the $23 billion in savings they previously recommended by Nov. 1. Grassley believes it will mostly affect Title I, food stamps and perhaps conservation. His understanding is that programs outside those areas will be handled next year.

Read the rest at Wallaces Farmer

Corn ethanol may heighten food scarcity for world’s poor

The Iowa Independent

Pumping that golden elixir — corn-ethanol — into the gas tank can do a world of good, or so goes the argument.

It relieves the U.S. from dependency on foreign oil, some reports say, and it reduces the pollution spewed out the tailpipe.

But, those benefits may take a high human toll.

Over 80 percent of the world’s supply of corn comes from five countries. The U.S. leads the pack, supplying over half of world’s exports, according to a study released Oct. 13 at the World Food Prize in Des Moines.

Read the rest at The Iowa Independent

Bridging the GAP: Bringing food safety regs to small farms

Food Safety News

For large farming operations, food safety audits are commonplace. Most buyers require them before purchasing produce. However, small farms are rarely inspected by auditors, because the cost of implementing a safety plan can be too expensive.

That’s where Bridging the GAPs – a program designed to help small and mid-sized growers find a way to meet food safety guidelines – comes in.

Organized by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), the initiative will allow modest-sized operations to reach broader markets such as schools, grocery stores and restaurants, most of which now require Good Agricultural Practices certification.

Read the rest at Food Safety News

New rules proposed for kids working on farms

Ohio Farmer

An update of federal labor regulations governing youth employment could mean significant changes in the types of work young people can do on the farm, according to the leader of Ohio State University Extension’s Agricultural Safety and Health program.

“The Hazardous Occupations Orders For Agricultural Employment hasn’t been touched or changed for the past 40 years,” says Dee Jepsen, with OSu’s Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering. “What the hazardous occupations order for agriculture does is prohibit youth under the age of 16 from working in and around certain types of environments, outside two basic exemptions.”

One of the two exemptions allowed for in the order historically included allowing children to work on farms owned and operated by their parents. The second traditional exemption was for children under the age of 16 who completed a prescribed farm safety education and training program.

Read the rest at Ohio Farmer

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Ethanol, Farm Bill, Food Safety, Fracking, Ohio

Natural Gas Boom: Should You Lease Gas Rights on Your Land Now? Or, wait …

October 24, 2011 By Ron Sylvester Leave a Comment

Here are a few headlines from the last several weeks regarding the beginning of the natural gas rush in Ohio:

  • Lowball gas drill leases haunt Pa., Associated Press
  • In North Dakota, Flames of Wasted Natural Gas Light the Prairie, New York Times
  • Rural Ohio is the Wild West as gas and oil companies compete for drilling rights, The Plain Dealer

If you are a farmer or a landowner in eastern Ohio, it’s likely that if you haven’t had a visit – or several – from a gas company, they’re probably just now pulling into the driveway. They will have a deal for you, maybe even a signing bonus. There are two questions to ask yourself. First, if they drill, do you understand all of the impacts to your land and its water supply. Second, will there be better deals down the road?

From the Associated Press story cited above:

The Beinlichs are among thousands of residents living atop the gas-rich Marcellus Shale who signed lowball leases in the years leading up to the boom in Pennsylvania. In those early days a half-decade ago, virtually no layperson had even heard of the rock formation, let alone knew that drillers had found a way to access the huge reservoir of natural gas locked inside it.

An untold number of industry-friendly agreements are now approaching their expiration dates. But landowners who expected to sign new leases — and reap windfalls of thousands of dollars an acre — are facing the reality that energy companies with billion-dollar investments in the Marcellus are not about to let their prime acreage slip away.

As landowners in Ohio and New York prepare for their own round of Marcellus leasing, high-stakes battles are developing in law offices and courtrooms throughout Pennsylvania. Landowners who signed early for pittances are trying to get out of their leases, and gas companies are trying just as hard to keep them shackled to the original terms. In some cases, landowners say they were fraudulently induced into signing by high-pressure sales agents known in the industry as landmen. In others, residents contend that companies failed to abide by the lease or act in good faith.

Perhaps we in Ohio are where the Beinlich family was a few years ago in Pennsylvania. From the Plain Dealer linked above:

Only a handful of shale gas wells — about 14 — have actually been drilled in Ohio, state records show. But a gusher of money has already been pumped into the state in the form of bonuses when landowners sign lease deals. It totals more than $1 billion so far, said David Mustine, head of JobsOhio, Gov. John Kasich’s new privatized department of development.

The billion-dollar gusher is sure to grow.

Those who signed leases 18 months ago received $500 per acre and a guaranteed royalty of 12 1/2 percent of the value of the gas produced from their acreage.

The competitive frenzy has since pushed the bonus offers to about $5,000 per acre and a royalty of 19 1/2 percent.

One would think that the natural gas market must literally be screaming for supply. We’re hearing a a great deal of cheerleading out of the politicians in Columbus about billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs. I was thinking about the natural gas market this morning because natural gas is dirt cheap – near a historic low in price – and I was starting to feel feverish about the boom in Ohio. Should I invest in something now? Buy low! Sell high!

Then I remembered this from the New York Times just a few weeks ago (also cited above):

NEW TOWN, N.D. — Across western North Dakota, hundreds of fires rise above fields of wheat and sunflowers and bales of hay. At night, they illuminate the prairie skies like giant fireflies.

They are not wildfires caused by lightning strikes or other acts of nature, but the deliberate burning of natural gas by oil companies rushing to extract oil from the Bakken shale field and take advantage of the high price of crude. The gas bubbles up alongside the far more valuable oil, and with less economic incentive to capture it, the drillers treat the gas as waste and simply burn it.

Every day, more than 100 million cubic feet of natural gas is flared this way — enough energy to heat half a million homes for a day.

The flared gas also spews at least two million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, as much as 384,000 cars or a medium-size coal-fired power plant would emit, alarming some environmentalists.

All told, 30 percent of the natural gas produced in North Dakota is burned as waste. No other major domestic oil field currently flares close to that much, though the practice is still common in countries like Russia, Nigeria and Iran.

Something is not computing. There’s a guy at the door and he says we need to get this matter of a lease handled right away. But, the stuff that they’re going to spend millions of dollars per well on to extract from the ground is being burned as waste as a matter of course in North Dakota.

There are many reasons for Ohio to proceed with caution when it comes to the gas boom. I just gave you three more.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Farmers, Leases, Marcellus, Natural Gas, Ohio, Shale, Utica

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