Franklin County Farm Bureau

By J. Larry Miller

It’s hard to believe but we have had 5-6 days of dry weather. Activity on farms is at a fever pitch with the planting of corn, spraying of fields, fungicide applications on wheat, fertilizer spreading and tillage. Other than that most farmers have nothing to do except mow their yards, work in the garden, bale hay or just spend a few minutes enjoying this beautiful weather.

Larry Miller, executive director Franklin County Farm Bureau

I talked with a farmer on Monday who said this is the worst day of the year because this is when we get serious and everything happens at once. Today farmers are checking wheat fields looking for a window to spray fungicides.

During the last few days wheat development has rapidly increased and literally heads of wheat are showing in fields overnight. This will allow for a very narrow window of opportunity for aerial application of fungicides. Once the head of wheat is visible flowering begins and there is a 36 hour window of opportunity for effective use of fungicide. Fungicides have become a very important part of wheat management because diseases will now be the most dangerous to the wheat crop. Farmers have seen economic benefits from this added investment.

With all of the activity occurring in the county equipment will be moving up and down roads and we certainly ask for your patients when traffic is not moving as quickly as you would like because of the farmers moving from field to field. Please remember that we need to be able to see you in your vehicle so that we are aware of where you are. Stay far enough back that we can see you.

I have had the opportunity in the last few days to attend Honors Awards Presentations at Sesser, Benton and West Frankfort. Your Farm Bureau dues have made it possible for us to grant a total of $2,500 in scholarships to three individuals – Fallon Dublo from Sesser, Brooke Jones from Benton and Hannah Ice from West Frankfort. We wish all three of these girls the best of luck in their college agriculture careers.

This past weekend we had a successful Antique Tractor Drive and Touch-A-Tractor event. We had 36 Antique Tractors involved in the Tractor Drive. It was an almost perfect day for a young or old farmer to enjoy her/her “old” tractor. We had participants from as far away as Indiana and Kentucky. We appreciate the Young Leaders Committee and the Junior Young Leaders Committee all of their efforts in making this a success.

There was a lot of activity on both the state and national legislative fronts this week but, at the end of the day, very little was actually accomplished. Yes, I know you are shocked. The action that did occur though has certainly set up some interesting debate and discussion as they move forward in both the state and national arenas. The next couple of weeks will be very significant ones for many of our issues.

In Springfield, action on pensions turned to the Senate. Earlier this week, it was announced that the We Are One Coalition, representing employee unions, had put an offer on the table for a pension reform plan that they would support. The plan would offer options for pension reform to both current and active employees. This approach of offering pension reform options to employees for them to choose has been supported by Senate leadership as a way to make pension reforms constitutional. It was reported that this pension reform proposal does not provide the same amount of pension savings as SB 1, the pension reform proposal that passed the House last week.

The pension reform proposal supported by the We Are One Coalition, SB 2404, passed the Senate on Thursday with 40 yes votes and 16 no votes. It has now been sent to the House. It is not yet clear if the House will take up this proposal for a vote or continue to encourage the passage of SB 1.

Related to the development on pension reforms, the House held a public meeting this week regarding the transfer of downstate teacher pension costs to local school districts. No proposal on this transference has yet surfaced, so stay tuned.

Finally, some movement on hydraulic fracturing also took place this week. Negotiations on the final remaining issues on the hydraulic fracturing legislation occurred with the hope of reaching a final agreement on the legislation very soon.

Remember we are farmers working together if we can help let us know.