Archive
2011 Farm and Ranch Safety Survey
2011 Farm and Ranch Safety Survey (PDF)
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
In 2011, there were an estimated 4,355,000 tractors in operation on 2,181,630 farms and ranches in the United States. This estimate is based on a telephone survey of 25,000 farm operators conducted by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Tractors are the leading cause of occupational fatalities in agriculture. Of the estimated 4.4 million tractors in operation on farms and ranches in 2011, 2,563,000 or 59% were equipped with a roll-over protective structure (ROPS), a proven engineering control in the prevention of tractor overturn deaths. More than 3,000 operations were estimated to have at least one tractor overturn in the previous 12 months; 1,600, or 53% of these overturned tractors were equipped with ROPS.
All-terrain vehicles (ATVs), another source for injury, are common on agricultural operations. In 2011, there were an estimated 1,580,000 ATVs in use on farms and ranches, 1,385,000, or 88%, of which were used for work. Of the ATVs used for work, 107,000, or 8%, were equipped with a power-take-off (PTO) drive. The most common work tasks for which an ATV was used were general farm transportation, moving materials, spraying, and moving livestock. In 2011, there were an estimated 836,000 ATVs used for general farm transportation, 541,000 were used to move materials, 332,000 were used in spraying, and 309,000 were used for moving livestock. Over 119,000 operations had youth less than 16 years of age who operated an ATV.
Storage facilities commonly found on farms and ranches can create a variety of hazards. For example, manure storage facilities can produce toxic environments. Silos and grain bins can expose operators and workers to hazards such as grain engulfment. In 2011, 98,000 operations were estimated to have manure storage on the operation, with approximately 13% of the 127,000 manure storage facilities being enclosed pits. An estimated 19,000 operators entered an enclosed pit in the last 12 months. An estimated 361,000 farms and ranches have a silo and/or grain bin storage. Of the 770,000 estimated grain bins, less than 8% were equipped with a harness and life line system attached to the center of the ceiling to prevent individuals who entered the bin from being engulfed by grain.
New From the GAO
New GAO Report
Source: Government Accountability Office
USDA’s Implementation of New State-Delegated Meat Inspection Program Addresses Most Key Farm Bill Requirements, but Additional Action Needed. GAO-13-332R, May 30.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-332R
New From the GAO
New GAO Reports
Source: Government Accountability Office
1. Agricultural Research: Two USDA Agencies Can Enhance Safeguards against Project Duplication and Strengthen Collaborative Planning. GAO-13-255, April 12.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-255
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/653753.pdf
2. Management Report: Improvements Are Needed to Enhance the Internal Revenue Service’s Internal Controls. GAO-13-420R, May 13.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-420R
3. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief: Shift toward Partner-Country Treatment Programs Will Require Better Information on Results. GAO-13-460, April 12.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-460
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/653767.pdf
4. Defense Logistics: The Department of Defense’s Report on Strategic Seaports Addressed All Congressionally Directed Elements. GAO-13-511R, May 13.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-511R
Report on the National Stakeholders Conference on Honey Bee Health
Report on the National Stakeholders Conference on Honey Bee Health (PDF)
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
From press release:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released a comprehensive scientific report on honey bee health. The report states that there are multiple factors playing a role in honey bee colony declines, including parasites and disease, genetics, poor nutrition and pesticide exposure.
“There is an important link between the health of American agriculture and the health of our honeybees for our country’s long term agricultural productivity,” said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. “The forces impacting honeybee health are complex and USDA, our research partners, and key stakeholders will be engaged in addressing this challenge.”
“The decline in honey bee health is a complex problem caused by a combination of stressors, and at EPA we are committed to continuing our work with USDA, researchers, beekeepers, growers and the public to address this challenge,” said Acting EPA Administrator Bob Perciasepe. “The report we’ve released today is the product of unprecedented collaboration, and our work in concert must continue. As the report makes clear, we’ve made significant progress, but there is still much work to be done to protect the honey bee population.”
New From the GAO
New GAO Reports
Source: Government Accountability Office
INSPECTORS GENERAL
USDA Office of Inspector General Resources, Accomplishments, Coverage, and Quality
GAO-13-245, Mar 22, 2013
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS
Improvements Needed for Measuring Awardee Performance in Meeting Medical and Public Health Preparedness Goals
GAO-13-278, Mar 22, 2013
Bird Health Webinar Available Online – Around 300 Bird Enthusiasts Participated Live!
Bird Health Webinar Available Online – Around 300 Bird Enthusiasts Participated Live!
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
As part of Bird Health Awareness Week, USDA recently hosted a webinar on “Growing Chicks into Healthy Chickens.” Dr. Martin Smeltzer, Andy Schneider (aka the “Chicken Whisperer”) and Dr. Claudia Dunkley spent an hour helping backyard bird owners learn more about keeping their flocks healthy. Around 300 people participated in the webinar, most of who are just getting started with backyard birds.
USDA Proposes Standards to Provide Healthy Food Options in Schools
USDA Proposes Standards to Provide Healthy Food Options in Schools
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
USDA today announced it will seek public comment on proposed new standards to ensure that children have access to healthy food options in school.
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The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 requires USDA to establish nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools — beyond the federally-supported school meals programs. The “Smart Snacks in School” proposed rule, to be published soon in the Federal Register, is the first step in the process to create national standards. The new proposed standards draw on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, existing voluntary standards already implemented by thousands of schools around the country, and healthy food and beverage offerings already available in the marketplace.
Highlights of USDA’s proposal include:
- More of the foods we should encourage. Promoting availability of healthy snack foods with whole grains, low fat dairy, fruits, vegetables or protein foods as their main ingredients.
- Less of the foods we should avoid. Ensuring that snack food items are lower in fat, sugar, and sodium and provide more of the nutrients kids need.
- Targeted standards. Allowing variation by age group for factors such as beverage portion size and caffeine content.
- Flexibility for important traditions. Preserving the ability for parents to send in bagged lunches of their choosing or treats for activities such as birthday parties, holidays, and other celebrations; and allowing schools to continue traditions like occasional fundraisers and bake sales.
- Reasonable limitations on when and where the standards apply. Ensuring that standards only affect foods that are sold on school campus during the school day. Foods sold at an afterschool sporting event or other activity will not be subject to these requirements.
- Flexibility for state and local communities. Allowing significant local and regional autonomy by only establishing minimum requirements for schools. States and schools that have stronger standards than what is being proposed will be able to maintain their own policies.
- Significant transition period for schools and industry. The standards will not go into effect until at least one full school year after public comment is considered and an implementing rule is published to ensure that schools and vendors have adequate time to adapt.
US Forest Service Forecasts Trends and Challenges for Next 50 Years
US Forest Service Forecasts Trends and Challenges for Next 50 Years
Source: U.S. Forest Service
A comprehensive U.S. Forest Service report released today examines the ways expanding populations, increased urbanization, and changing land-use patterns could profoundly impact natural resources, including water supplies, nationwide during the next 50 years.
Significantly, the study shows the potential for significant loss of privately-owned forests to development and fragmentation, which could substantially reduce benefits from forests that the public now enjoys including clean water, wildlife habitat, forest products and others.
USDA Releases Results of the 2011 Certified Organic Production Survey
USDA Releases Results of the 2011 Certified Organic Production Survey
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-certified organic growers in the United States sold more than $3.5 billion organically grown agricultural commodities in 2011, according to the results of the 2011 Certified Organic Production Survey, released today by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). NASS conducted the survey for USDA’s Risk Management Agency to help refine federal crop insurance products for organic producers.
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Mirroring its conventional counterpart, corn leads organic field crops in sales and accounted for more than $101.5 million in 2011. The only other field crops to have more than $50 million in sales were alfalfa dry hay and winter wheat, accounting for $69.5 million and $54 million in sales respectively.When it comes to organic field crops acreage, Wisconsin leads the nation with more than 110,000 acres harvested in 2011. Wisconsin is followed by New York, with organic growers harvesting more than 97,000 acres. California closely follows the Empire state growers with more than 91,000 acres of organic field crops harvested in 2011. These top three states illustrate just how geographically diverse organic crop production is in the United States.
Agricultural Research Magazine – September 2012
Agricultural Research Magazine – September 2012
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Table of Contents
Forum—Biofuels: No Single Answer, Many Possibilities (html) or (pdf)
ARS and the Regional Biomass Research Centers (html) or (pdf)
Biofuel Prospects With Prairie Perennials (html) or (pdf)
Same Plant, Different Project, Shared Goals [sidebar] (html)
Finding the Right Biofuels for the Southeast: A Range of Alternatives (html) or (pdf)
Sweet Sorghum Research: Building on the Past for a Better Future [sidebar](html)
ARS Researchers Flying Higher With New Jet Fuels (html) or (pdf)
Pink Lemonade, Razz, and More! Wonderful Blueberries From ARS to You (html) or(pdf)
Making Fruit Flies More Macho for Sterile Insect Releases (html) or (pdf)
Nueva técnica aumenta la virilidad de las moscas de frutas en el programa de liberación de insectos estériles (html)
Banking on Plants as Storehouses (html) or (pdf)
A Cautionary Note About Copper Footbaths for Dairy Cows (html) or (pdf)
Questions and Answers: Proposed Rule – Retail Pet Sales
Questions and Answers: Proposed Rule – Retail Pet Sales (PDF)
Source: U.S. Department of Agricultural (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service)
APHIS is proposing to revise its definition of “retail pet store” to close a loophole that has in some cases threatened the health of pets sold sight unseen over the Internet and via phone- and mail-based businesses. Under the current definition of “retail pet store,” which was developed over 40 years ago and predates the Internet, some breeders selling pets are taking advantage of a loophole that improperly exempts them from meeting the basic requirements of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). The proposed rule will close this loophole, ensuring that animals sold over the Internet and via phone- and mail-based businesses are better monitored for their overall health and humane treatment.
The proposal will restore the definition to its original intent so that it limits the retail pet store exemption to only those places of business and residence:
- that buyers physically enter to observe the animals available for sale prior to purchase and/ or to take custody of the animals after purchase, and
- where only the following animals are sold or offered for sale at retail for use as pets: Dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils, rats, mice, gophers, chinchilla, domestic ferrets, domestic farm animals, birds, and coldblooded species.
APHIS is also proposing to increase the number of breeding females from three to four that small hobby breeders of dogs, cats, and small exotic or wild mammals can own and still be exempt from licensing requirements. To meet the exemption requirements, these breeders can only sell the offspring of the breeding females that were born and raised on their premises, and sold for only pets or exhibition.
Slaughter and Processing Options and Issues for Locally Sourced Meat
Slaughter and Processing Options and Issues for Locally Sourced Meat
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
This report evaluates the availability of slaughter and processing facilities for local meat production and the extent to which these may constrain or support growth in demand for locally sourced meats.
Estimating the Range of Food-Insecure Households in India
Estimating the Range of Food-Insecure Households in India
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service
This study provides a quantitative assessment of food security using a large household-level expenditure survey conducted by the Government of India during 2004/05. The analysis tests the impact of several key assumptions required to estimate actual calories consumed from the expenditure data. The authors found significant differences in the estimates of calories consumed and the number of food-insecure people under alternative plausible assumptions for computing the calorie content of nonprocessed foods, processed foods, and meals eaten outside the household. The measurement errors were largest in accounting for calories consumed by the highest and lowest income households. Overall, the difference between the highest and lowest estimate of the number of people consuming an average of less than 2,100 calories per day was equivalent to about 17 percent of India’s population, or 173 million people in 2004/05. Given the significant measurement error in estimating calories consumed, it is important to consider not only consumption surveys, but also aggregate food availability studies and survey data on anthropometric measures that accompany undernourishment—such as growth stunting—in assessing food insecurity.
The Potential Impact of Changes in Immigration Policy on U.S. Agriculture and the Market for Hired Farm Labor: A Simulation Analysis
The Potential Impact of Changes in Immigration Policy on U.S. Agriculture and the Market for Hired Farm Labor: A Simulation Analysis
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service
Large shifts in the supply of foreign-born, hired farm labor resulting from substantial changes in U.S. immigration laws or policies could have significant economic implications. A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the U.S. economy is used to evaluate how changes in the supply of foreign-born labor might affect all sectors of the economy, including agriculture. Two scenarios are considered: an increase in the number of temporary nonimmigrant, foreign-born farmworkers, such as those admitted under the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Program, and a decrease in the number of unauthorized workers in all sectors of the economy. Longrun economic outcomes for agricultural output and exports, wages and employment levels, and national income accruing to U.S.-born and foreign-born, permanent resident workers in these two scenarios are compared with a base forecast reflecting current immigration laws and policies.
Raising native plants in nurseries: basic concepts
Raising native plants in nurseries: basic concepts
Source: U.S. Forest Service
Growing native plants can be fun, challenging, and rewarding. This booklet, particularly the first chapter that introduces important concepts, is for the novice who wants to start growing native plants as a hobby; however, it can also be helpful to someone with a bit more experience who is wondering about starting a nursery. The second chapter provides basic information about collecting, processing, storing, and treating seeds. Chapter three focuses on using seeds to grow plants in the field or in containers using simple but effective techniques. For those native plants that reproduce poorly from seeds, the fourth chapter describes how to start native plants from cuttings. The final chapter provides valuable information on how to successfully move native plants from the nursery and establish them in their final planting location. Several appendices expand on what has been presented in the chapters, with more details and specific information about growing a variety of native plants.
The Future of Environmental Compliance Incentives in U.S. Agriculture
The Future of Environmental Compliance Incentives in U.S. Agriculture
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
In recent years, direct payments—a type of farm commodity program payment—have made up a large share of Federal agriculture assistance that could be withheld from farmers who fail to comply with highly erodible land conservation (conservation compliance and sodbuster) or wetland conservation (swampbuster) provisions, known collectively as environmental compliance requirements. If direct payments are sharply reduced or eliminated to help reduce the Federal budget deficit, compliance incentives would be reduced on many farms, potentially increasing environmental quality problems. Some farmers will still be subject to compliance through existing Federal agricultural programs (e.g., conservation or disaster programs) or programs that may succeed direct payments. Making federally subsidized crop insurance subject to compliance could also make up some of the lost incentive to farmers.
+ Summary (PDF)
+ Full Report (PDF)
Exploring the relationship between outdoor recreation activities, community participation, and environmental attitudes
Exploring the relationship between outdoor recreation activities, community participation, and environmental attitudes
Source: U.S. Forest Service
The relationship between environmental attitudes (EA) and environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) has been the focus of several studies in environmental psychology and recreation research. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between EAs and ERBs at both a general level and at an activity-specific level using a 2009 survey of motorized recreationists (all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and off-highway vehicle (OHV) riders). Questions to measure general attitudes were adapted from the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) and activity-specific environmental attitude questions were developed from the literature.
+ Full Paper (PDF)
The Food Assistance Landscape: FY 2011 Annual Report
The Food Assistance Landscape: FY 2011 Annual Report
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
This report examines trends in USDA’s food and nutrition assistance programs through fiscal 2011. It also summarizes a number of ERS research reports on WIC-related topics that were released in fiscal 2011.
+ Full Report (PDF)
Trends in U.S. Farmland Values and Ownership
Trends in U.S. Farmland Values and Ownership
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service
Because farm real estate represents much of the value of U.S. farm sector assets, large swings in farmland values can affect the financial well-being of agricultural producers. This report examines both macroeconomic (interest rates, prices of alternative investments) and parcel-specific (soil quality, government payments, proximity to urban areas) factors that affect farmland values. In the last few years, U.S. farmland values have been supported by strong farm earnings, which have helped the farm sector in many regions to withstand the residential housing downturn. Historically low interest rates are likely a significant contributor to farming’s current ability to support higher land values. About 40 percent of U.S. farmland has been rented over the last 25 years. Non-operators (landowners who do not themselves farm) owned 29 percent of land in farms in 2007, though that proportion has declined since 1992.
+ Report Summary (PDF)
+ Full Report (PDF)
Farms, Land in Farms, and Livestock Operations 2011 Summary
Farms, Land in Farms, and Livestock Operations 2011 Summary (PDF)
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
2011 Number of Farms and Land in Farms Highlights
- The number of farms in the United States in 2011 is estimated at 2.2 million, down slightly from 2010. Total land in farms, at 917 million acres, decreased 1.85 million acres from 2010. The average farm size is 420 acres, up 1 acre from the previous year.
Farm numbers and land in farms are broken down into five economic sales classes. Farms and ranches are classified into these “sales classes” by summing their sales of agricultural products and government program payments. Sales class breaks occur at $10,000, $100,000, $250,000, and $500,000.
- Farm numbers increased slightly in the $10,000-$99,999, $250,000-$499,999, and $500,000 and over sales classes. Higher commodity prices and larger value of sales contributed to changes in the number of farms within these sales classes. Farm numbers increased 1.3 percent, to slightly over 600,000 farms in the $10,000 – $99,999 sales class and 1.9 percent in the $250,000 – $499,999 sales class to over 100,000 farms. Meanwhile, the number of farms in the $500,000 and over sales class increased by 5.9 percent, to 133,570 farms.
- Land in farms increased in the largest sales class while decreasing in all other sales classes. Land operated by farms in the $500,000 & over in sales class increased 2.5 percent, to 305.7 million acres. Land operated by farms in both $1,000- $9,999 and $100,000-$249,999 sales classes decreased by 3.5 percent, to 100.7 million acres and 138.7 million acres respectively.
- The average farm size increased 1 acre in 2011 to 420 acres per farm. However, average farm sizes declined in some of the sales classes partially due to smaller farms moving up to higher sales classes.
