Saturday, 8.13.11 PRESS D Regulations Change For Refillable...

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Regulations Change For Refillable Containers PIERRE — On Aug. 16, the Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) will require all portable and refillable pesticide containers tomeet the following requirements.

• One way valves or tamper evident device on openings (otherthan vents) is required. Standard zip-ties are not acceptable for atamper evident device.

• Containers must have a unique method of identification suchas serial number or ID code.

• Must meet DOT design, construction and marking with a mini-mum of PGIII.

• Must be cleaned between uses unless tamper evident and/orone-way valves are intact and filled with same product.

• Containers must be on an approved list from the registrant.Containers with the product name molded into the containershould remain dedicated to that product.

• Must have registrant’s cleaning instructions and repackagingauthorization on hand.

• EPA Establishment number and net contents must be on theproduct label affixed to the tank.

• Container integrity is the responsibility of both the re-fillerand registrant.

• Records must be kept for each inspection and fill that includesthe pesticide, amount, EPA establishment number and tank serialnumber or code.

• All DOT tanks must be pressure tested every 2 1/2 years ac-cording to DOT re-testing procedures. There is a month/year datestamped near the UN Marking that indicates the original certifica-tion date.

The person who owns the pesticide refillable container mustcomply with these regulations, whether they are the manufacturer,distributor, retailer or farmer. After Aug. 16, many existing portablerefillable containers will be obsolete. If the refillable container can-not meet these requirements it is not to be refilled.

Grassland Conference Slated For Sioux FallsSIOUX FALLS — The National Wildlife Federation and South

Dakota State University announce the upcoming conference:“America’s Grasslands: Status, Threats and Opportunities,” to beheld in Sioux Falls Aug.15-17.

The conference brings together biologists, policy experts,ranchers, federal and state agency staff, representatives of electedofficials, and conservationists for two days to discuss the latest in-formation on the status, threats and opportunities related to NorthAmerican grasslands in order to raise the national profile of this en-dangered ecosystem and inform those interested in developing aroadmap for its conservation.

The event will be immediately followed by a “Grasslands PolicySummit” Aug. 18, sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation,Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy and World WildlifeFund.

The conference begins the afternoon of Aug. 15, with an op-tional field trip to EcoSun Prairie Farm and an evening welcomingreception at the Sheraton Conference Center in Sioux Falls. August16 and 17 are dedicated to a series of symposia discussing selectedtopic areas including: grazing and grasslands, grassland restorationand management, energy development, climate change and grass-lands and federal policy.

The conference is followed by a policy summit Aug. 18. The goalof the policy summit is to brainstorm strategies to elevate nationalinterest in and conservation of North American grasslands.

Anticipated speakers include:• Alan Knapp — Knapp is a professor of Biology at Colorado

State University. Knapp has done grassland research at the KonzaPrairie Biological Station in Kansas.

• Kevin Doherty — Doherty is the science coordinator for thePrairie Pothole Joint Venture, one of the six priority joint venturesunder the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. His discus-sion will focus on energy development in grasslands.

• David Archer — Archer works for the Agriculture ResearchService in North Dakota. Archer is continuing his research on theeconomics of agricultural systems to develop more sustainable in-tegrated crop and livestock production systems.

• Jim Faulstich — Faulstich has played an integral part in mak-ing the South Dakota Grassland Coalition (SDGLC) a strong non-profit organization and an active producer-led conservation groupfocusing on voluntary improvement of privately owned grassland.

• Julie Sibbing and Lynn Tjeerdsma — Sibbing with the NationalWildlife Federation and Tjeerdsma with Senator Thune’s office willbe providing a brief preview to the grassland policy summit, to beheld Aug. 18, following the formal grassland conference.

• Bob Budd — Budd will provide the keynote presentation Buddis the Executive Director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Re-source Trust — a program established to enhance wildlife habitatsand the natural resource heritage of Wyoming.

To register for the event, visit the conference Web site athttp://www.sdstate.edu/wfs/grasslandconference/index.cfm or formore information contact Julie Sibbing, sibbing@nwf.org or SusanRupp, susan.rupp@sdstate.edu.

Annual Winter Wheat Meeting Set For Aug. 18BROOKINGS — South Dakota State University Extension hosts a

winter wheat meeting Aug. 18 at the Auditorium in Draper. Themeeting begins at 6:30 p.m. CST and includes a free meal.

Topics covered during the meeting include:• 2011 Winter Wheat Crop Performance Testing Info;• Variety Introductions and Recommendations;• Crop Rotation Study Findings in 2011;• Marketing the 2011 Wheat Crop;• Wheat Disease Discussion.The meal is sponsored by: AgriPro Wheat, Cone Ag Inc., Dakota

Mill & Grain, Dakota Prairie Bank, Farm Credit Services of America,Farmer’s Union Oil Company, First Fidelity Bank, First National BankJones Co. Crop Improvement, Midwest Cooperative, Randy’s SprayService, Sioux Nation of Ft. Pierre, Valburg Aerial & Ag Service.

To learn more, contact Valerie Mitchell at 605-699-7101 or Va-lerie.Mitchelle@sdstate.edu.

BY RITA BRHELP&D Correspondent

Traditionally, farmers and ranchers don’tlike the idea of the government interfering intheir business — which is why I find itstrange that any livestock producer organiza-tions are already praising the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture’s proposal for amandatory national animal identification planrecently announced.

The response from a couple groups repre-senting producers:

• National Pork Producers Council — “Aneffective traceability program would allowU.S. pork to compete more effectively in theinternational market place with those coun-tries that have already implemented trace-ability programs.”

• National Farmers Union — “We encour-age USDA to move this rule through the fullrulemaking and implementation processquickly.”

• American Sheep Industry Association —“The sheep industry has had a mandatoryfederal ID system for about 10 years now as akey part of the scrapie eradication program,and we expect that it will be fully recognizedand respected in the proposed rule. The sys-tem has allowed us to find and trace back dis-eased and exposed animals and has workedwell for our industry.”

Other groups are a little more reserved intheir reactions:

• Livestock Marketing Association —“While a thorough review of that proposedrule by all the parties involved is certainlycalled for, to determine if areas of concern ordisagreement remain, we are confident thatany such issues can be worked out through

the industry’s comments on the proposedrule.”

• National Cattlemen’s Beef Association —“[We] will continue to actively work with like-minded industry groups, state animal healthofficials, and [USDA] APHIS throughout theentire rulemaking process to ensure the bestinterests of our members.”

One group is outwardly hesitant:• R-CALF USA calls the plan a broken

promise because it removes hot-iron brand-ing from the list of official animalidentification.

The new Animal Disease Traceability(ADT) program, if put into place, would re-place the voluntary National Animal Identifi-cation System (NAIS). The key differencebetween ADT and NAIS is that ADT would berequired of all cattle, bison, sheep, goats,swine, horses, deer, elk, and poultry produc-ers who move animals over state lines. An-other interesting point is that ADT would beadministered by state and tribal govern-ments, rather than on a national level. Essen-tially, ADT would mandate that livestockwould be officially identified and accompa-nied by a certificate of veterinary inspection.

Of course, a national animal ID plan is agood idea. The industry should be able toquickly track down where an animal camefrom, should a disease issue arise. But I dohave a concern: The cost to the producer. Forexample, I sell my lamb crop, which is rela-tively small, once a year and prefer to go anhour across state lines into Kansas to a mar-ket down there rather than drive farther tostay in-state. The ID doesn’t concern me(with the current scrapie eradication pro-gram guidelines, I’m already mandated tohave an official eartag in each animal) as

much as needing to get a certificate of veteri-nary inspection for such a light load. I seethis as an unneeded cost and inconveniencefor a small operation.

And while I acknowledge that for any ani-mal ID plan to work, it must be mandatoryand not voluntary, I’m still among the major-ity of farmers and ranchers who don’t like theidea of the government knowing more abouttheir operations than it does now. And eventhe USDA realizes this, as was explained inthe ADT proposed rule documentation avail-able at http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFR-Data/2011-20281_PI.pdf: “Many viewed theNAIS as a government-imposed, ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to animal traceability. Produc-ers were concerned about various issues,including having their data maintained in afederal database and the cost of the technol-ogy that would be necessary to achieve the48-hour traceability goal. Overall, the feed-back revealed that NAIS had become a bar-rier to achieving meaningful animal diseasetraceability in the United States in partner-ship with America’s producers.”

The USDA’s response, as the proposedADT, seems to be a more flexible approachthat takes into account the differences inspecies, the need for low-cost ID technolo-gies, and even state-to-state agreements thatwould relax some of the requirements if bothstates agreed. As long as the implementedADT really did include these attributes, I be-lieve it really does have the potential to beaccepted industry wide with much more suc-cess than NAIS.

Comments on the proposed rule will beaccepted through Nov. 9, 2011.

National Animal ID Plan A Good Idea, ButIs The New Plan Better Than The Old?

BY JEAN HOPFENSPERGERStar Tribune (Minneapolis)

(MCT)

MINNEAPOLIS — Across south-ern Minnesota, women fill abouthalf the chairs in workshops on sus-tainable farming.

Outside North Branch, a new“Girls Farm” project just graduatedits first batch of would-be teenfarmers.

Near Rochester, women such asKathy Zeman have joined one of thefastest-growing areas of agriculture,namely women-owned farms.

“Looking back, I don’t rememberseeing any sole female proprietorswhen I was (growing up),” saidZeman, 53, who has run her ownfarm more than a decade, raisinggoats, sheep, pigs, hay and more.

“We had strong women in agri-culture, but none on their own.Whereas now, there’s lots of us outhere.”

“Out here” is in Minnesota andthe nation, where a record numberof women are taking to the land.The number of Minnesota farms op-erated by women jumped from4,205 in 1997 to 7,361 in 2007, themost recent figures available, saidDoug Hartwig, chief Minnesota stat-istician for the U.S. Department ofAgriculture.

Their farms cover more than abillion acres of Minnesota.

The number of women-operatedfarms jumps to more than 30,000 iffarms where women are joint opera-tors are counted, he said. That’sroughly 40 percent of state farms.

The trend is fueled by new op-portunities in small-scale farming,the lure of the land for young

women in particular, and collapsinggender barriers for women such asZeman who grew up on farms buthad few pathways to start theirown.

In addition, more and more non-profits and government groupshave launched programs to educateand attract women to the field.

“We’re definitely seeing this as atrend over the past four, five years,”said Brian DeVore, a spokesman forthe Land Stewardship Project, a

sustainable agriculture associationbased in Minneapolis.

“Roughly half of the people com-ing to our workshops are women,”he said. “Even if a couple takes thecourse, and they need to keep an(outside) income for health insur-ance, it’s not necessarily thewoman taking the job. It’s often theman.”

Men still own and operate thevast majority of large farms withcommodity crops such as wheat or

soybeans that require heavy equip-ment, capital and labor. But women-run farms cover the gamut, USDAfigures show, reflecting everythingfrom widows running dairy busi-nesses to recent college grads en-tering specialty markets such asgrass-fed goats or heirloomtomatoes.

Their farms range from one acreto more than 500, but trend towardthe small. About 40 percent areunder 50 acres.

Female Farmers Taking Root In Minn., Nation

DAVID JOLES/MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE/MCT

Kathy Zeman owns and operates Simple Harvest Farms, where she raises goats, pigs, sheep, fowl and

hens and grows grain and other crops. She considers herself a steward of the soil. "We like to raise good

food," she said.