Farm Help

When it comes to fencing, there is always a job to be done to maintain a quality fence.

On Nov. 28, 2011 USDA's Economic Research Service forecast U.S. 2011 net farm income at a record $100.9 billion, up 28 percent from 2010. Livestock sales were projected to rise by almost 17 percent, with double digit gains in red meats. So… cattle producers are doing better. But are they doing well?

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) offers a variety of Farm Loan Programs for farmers and ranchers. FSA makes direct and guaranteed farm ownership (FO) and operating loans (OL) to family-size farmers and ranchers who cannot obtain funding from a commercial lender. FSA Farm Loans may be used to purchase acreage, livestock, farm equipment, feed, seed and other supplies. Loans can also be used for making farm improvements and constructing buildings.

About the Extension in the United States
The Cooperative Extension System is a nationwide, non-credit educational network. Each U.S. state and territory has a state office at its land-grant university and a network of local or regional offices. These offices are staffed by one or more experts who provide useful, practical and research-based information to agricultural producers, small business owners, youth, consumers and others in rural areas and communities of all sizes. (1)

Healthy pasturelands provide livestock products, flood protection, wildlife habitat, purification of air and carbon sequestration. These lands also provide aesthetic value, open space and vital links in the enhancement of rural social stability and economic vigor.

What is the cost-share program?
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ Soil and Water Conservation Districts Commission has developed this program to provide financial incentives to help farmers control soil erosion on their land.

The following programs are available through the United States Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency.

Extension in the United States
The Cooperative Extension System is a nationwide, non-credit educational network. Each U.S. state and territory has a state office at its land-grant university and a network of local or regional offices. These offices are staffed by one or more experts who provide useful, practical and research-based information to agricultural producers, small business owners, youth, consumers and others in rural areas and communities of all sizes.(1)

In the late 70s and early 80s, Mike McClintock, agriculture specialist for Boone County, Ark., with the University of Arkansas Extension, was the assistant ranch manager at Louisiana State University. Part of McClintock’s duties as ranch manager was to demonstrate to an animal science class the concept of shrinkage in cattle. “We’d talk about shrinkage in the classroom, then we would go out and weigh 10 head of calves at random, and then I, or some of my hired men, would load those calves in a trailer and haul them around for three hours. After those three hours of haul time, in the fall Louisiana temperatures of I’d guess an 80-degree day or so, those calves would almost always have lost right at 6 percent of their body weight. That’s huge.”

Each year the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association sponsors a tour of varied venues that are of interest to cattlemen. This year the tour ventured across northern Texas and back through Oklahoma. This year 55 people gathered for the five-day learning experience.