Click It or Ticket Campaign in Full Gear

DuQuoin, IL  – The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is generally one of the busiest travel holiday periods of the year. As millions of travelers take to Illinois roadways to celebrate Thanksgiving, Illinois State Police (ISP) District 13 / 22 Interim Commander, Lieutenant Michael Alvey, reminds motorists to drive safely.

Drivers can do their part to ensure they, and their passengers, experience safe travels. Simply keeping your eyes on the road, watching your speed, buckling your seatbelt, and refraining from driving after consuming alcoholic beverages can reduce your chances of being involved in a traffic crash.

Please click on the link for the full story from WSIL-TV

http://www.wsiltv.com/story/36891086/investigators-searching-for-cause-in-johnston-city-fire

From Gay Bowlin -Franklin County Farm Bureau Manager 

Gay Bowlin -Franklin County Farm Bureau Manager

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! According to AFBF, the price of an average Thanksgiving dinner for 10 dropped this year to $49.12, a 75-cent decrease compared with last year and the lowest since 2013. While the price of the meal has steadily increased since 1986 when AFBF first conducted its survey, the average cost has been trending downward for the last two years. Be sure and thank a farmer for your Thanksgiving Dinner.

BIG CROPS HIGHLIGHT NEED FOR STRONG AG MARKETS – Thinking back to August, IFB President Richard Guebert, Jr. wasn’t too worried about who would buy this year’s crops. He wasn’t sure there’d be much of a crop to buy in the first place. But Guebert’s yield monitor showed surprisingly high numbers this fall, and his thoughts have returned to where his crops are going to go. “We really need good export and trade agreements to move this product out into the world market,” he said. (FarmWeekNow.com)

  IL SHORT OF TEACHERS – A recent report finds Illinois schools needed 2,000 teachers at the start of this year, and 16 percent of schools had to cancel something last year because they didn’t have the teachers to conduct the classes or activities. Experts say teachers’ starting salaries, cost of a four-year degree and certification requirements are contributing to the lack of teachers in the state. (Illinois News Network)

Illinois Dicamba Training will roll out this winter, with sessions beginning Nov. 27 and continuing until April 1, just prior to spring planting.

Illinois is following the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) parameters as it relates to dicamba use in 2018.

“We are now moving forward with one of the new requirements on this label for 2018, which is that this is a restricted-use pesticide,” Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association (IFCA) President Jean Payne recently told the RFD Radio Network^®.  “So you already have to be a certified applicator to apply it.”

Those applicators must also prove that they have been to dicamba-specific training in order to apply the product, she added.

“And you have to keep proof of training as part of every record of application,” Payne said. “You don’t have to have proof of training to buy dicamba products; you just have to be a certified applicator and provide the pesticide dealer your license.”(Jim Taylor for FarmWeek.now)

FRUIT ORDERS MUST BE IN BY MONDAY. 

     Oranges – a 40 lb box is $35.00 and 20 lb box is $25.00

     Grapefruit – 40 lb box is $30.00 and 20 lb box is $20.00

     (we will not have Tangelos this year at all – sorry for the inconvenience.) 

   Orders must be received by November 27 for fruit and it will be in before Christmas.

  WE CURRENTLY HAVE PECANS IN THE OFFICE – so you can call or stop by and pick them up. Supplies are limited so don’t wait.

  Pecans are $10.00 for a jumbo 1 lb bag of  ½ shelled and $7.00 for a 12 oz bag of choc covered pecans.

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

The 38^th Annual Mt. Vernon Teacher Conference was held on October 27, 2017, at the Mt. Vernon Twp. High School campus with a “reach~teach~inspire” theme. Ag in the Classroom Coordinators from Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Saline Counties provided an exhibit table with free resources. Those resources included posters, Ag Mags, Illinois Reading Council information, IL AITC calendars and much more.  The coordinators owe a big Thank You to Jacob Kueker, Mt. Vernon FFA Chapter, and Derek Sample, Sesser-Valier FFA Chapter, for watching over the exhibit booth while the coordinators presented at 4 sessions throughout the day.

The Coordinators presenting included: Leslie Kueker, Jefferson/Hamilton Co., Maridy Tso, Saline/Gallatin Co, and Melissa Lamczyk, Franklin Co. The session titles were “What’s Growing On?”  These sessions focused on specialty crops growing in Illinois and how to use new learning standards to incorporate hands on activities with some locally grown produce as well as produce from around the state. The new Specialty Ag Mag has several items highlighted from around the state with interviews from growers on the back page and information on the front page and inside. The newer Ag Mags have the standards listed on the back page and the web page for finding more lessons and activities, as well as many more links and FREE resource materials.

Mrs. Lamczyk shared an informative video from the Horseradish Festival in Collinsville , IL and presented a horseradish root, how it’s grown, special equipment needed during the planting, harvesting and storage of the produce.  Mrs. Lamczyk shared her experience of touring Heepke Farms in May of 2017, where they grow horseradish and many other commodities, and learned that Collinsville, IL is the horseradish capitol of the world.

Mrs. Tso presented an activity on broom corn. Mrs. Tso had some broom corn on hand to share with the teachers and told them she relates to the product from childhood memories with her grandparents. She demonstrated the difference in use of broom corn and todays brooms. She also did a fun hands on activity of moon sand using watermelon kool-aid. She told teachers that students could make the sand with different flavors of kool-aid while learning about different produce.

Mrs. Kueker demonstrated how to pull the dna cells from a strawberry, while also providing some for snacks for those teachers attending class though the lunch hour. Mrs. Kueker demonstrated that different equipment used during the extraction process and products used could make a difernce in the outcome and the time needed to do the experiment. She talked about the different orchards available within the county for finding different produce and their products.

Teachers left with handouts, Ag Mags, and some with a variety of door prizes, such as highlighted ag related books. More than 1000 teachers and administrators and several counties participate and attend the Mt. Vernon Conference.   A huge Thank You to the Regional Office of Education and all those who assisted with the planning, preparation and carrying out of the conference.