w/ Jim Field
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Mix and set aside:
Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup oil and seasoning from noodle package. Pour over salad and marinate overnight. May top with toasted slivered almonds.
Dressing:
Optional: Can add red cabbage and/or chopped red peppers.
Jim Field talks about some tips for taking care of your lawn during drought from Iowa State University Extension.
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The Adair County Board of Supervisors will hold their regular weekly this (Tuesday) morning, in Greenfield. During the meeting (Which is normally held Wednesday morning’s), the Board will discuss and possibly act on: a Sheriff’s Step Increase; a premium-only plan adoption agreement and Certificate of Resolution; and, an Emergency Preparedness Grant contract for Fiscal Year 2013. The Supervisors will also hear an annual report from the VA Administrator. The meeting begins at 9-a.m.
Class 1-A (Mon., July 23rd) @ Principal Park in Des Moines
Tuesday’s Class 3-A Schedule:
U-S Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says House Republicans need to quit stalling and vote on a Farm Bill that would reinstate expired disaster assistance, providing help for farmers suffering through the worst drought in almost a quarter-century. Vilsack announced Monday that virtually all farmland enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program has been released for haying and grazing of livestock, plus haying and grazing will be allowed on Wetland Reserve Program easement areas in drought-impacted areas where it won’t set back conservation goals. Speaking late Monday afternoon at an event in Mason City, Vilsack said the condition of the crops nationwide is continuing to decline rapidly.
“Our latest crop report that was issued just minutes ago indicates our challenge — 35 percent of the nation’s soybean crop now in poor to very poor condition; 45 percent of the nation’s corn crop now in poor to very poor condition; and nearly 55 percent of our range and pasture land rated poor to very poor condition,” Vilsack said. “That is a challenge for American producers and for all those whose livelihoods are tied to what happens on the farm.” Vilsack is asking Eric Cantor, the Republican leader in the U.S. House, to bring the 2012 Farm Bill up for a vote immediately, as the bill h3as passed the U-S Senate and includes livestock disaster assist3ance programs.
“The majority leader Eric Cantor has suggested he has his finger on the pause button. As I’ve said many times, I wish he would take his finger off the pause button so I don’t have to put my finger on the panic button. I think producers are beginning to be concerned about this because we have until September 30th to have a new (Farm Bill),” Vilsack said. “…People say, ‘Well, maybe they could extend the existing (Farm Bill).’ The problem with that is it will not revive the current livestock programs.” Vilsack accuses House Republican leaders of delaying help to the nation’s farmers. “The House, as I understand it, adjourned a day early last week because they didn’t have anything to do,” Vilsack said. “Well — Farm Bill, now. Pretty simple.” According to Vilsack, speedy passage of the Farm Bill would provide farmers and ranchers with some “predictability” in the midst of all the uncertainty caused by the drought.
“They’re planning on taking a five-week recess,” Vilsack said of congress. “I don’t know of a single farmer who in the midst of harvest when there is work to be done stops the combine and says, ‘You know what? I’ll just take a couple of weeks vacation and the work can always get done later. This has got to get done and there is no better time to do it than now.” Last week during a public briefing in the White House, Vilsack said he was getting on his knees every day and praying for rain. A leading atheist group took issue with Vilsack’s statement. The leader of the Council for Secular Humanism said Vilsack was sending the wrong message to distraught farmers by suggesting prayer was the best response. During an event Monday afternoon in Mason City, Vilsack was asked by a reporter if he had any response. “I’m still praying,” Vilsack said. Vilsack visited Soy Energy in Mason City and spoke to members of the Iowa Biodiesel Board. Earlier in the day Vilsack visited the Cedar Rapids area and toured a farm near Center Point.
(Radio Iowa)
The nation’s largest food distributor has joined a growing list of restaurants and retailers urging pork producers to stop using gestation stalls for sows. Sysco executives released a written statement Monday, saying they take the company’s role as a “responsible corporate citizen very seriously” and would “work diligently with suppliers to ensure humane treatment of animals.” Sysco is the largest food distributor in the country, with over 40-billion dollars in sales last year in the U.S., Canada and Ireland. The president of the Humane Society of the United States says a growing list of food-service companies from McDonald’s to Costco are conveying a “no confidence vote” in gestation crates for pigs. Pork producers say the stalls keep the sows safe, as pregnant pigs are often aggressive and get injured in fights, but major players in the pork industry like Cargill and Smithfield are phasing out the use of gestation stalls.
The National Pork Producers Council accuses what they refer to as “radical animal rights groups” of having the “goal of ending food-animal production in the U.S.” The pork producers also accuse the Humane Society of “not telling the truth about animal care” on America’s family farms.
(Radio Iowa)
A central Iowa man who has appeared in more state high school baseball tournaments than anyone else stepped off the diamond for the final time Monday. Gary Paulsen of Ogden umpired his last game during a record 40th appearance at the State Baseball Tournament.
He’s been calling balls and strikes for more than five decades. Paulsen called his first game as a junior in high school, joining his father and uncle on the diamond. “I was fortunate to work in the 50s and 60s with my dad and my uncle, in the 80s and 90s with my son and then, in the summer, I broke down and trained my grandson. So, that’s four generations of stupidity or whatever you want to call it,” Paulsen said with a laugh. “It’s been fun and I’ve actually been (umpiring) since probably 1957.” In addition to his family, Paulsen credits his long, successful career to good health and a lot of luck. “My mother’s dad lived to be 94 and he was an active runner, so I think I have some of those genes in me,” Paulsen said. “I’ve been fortunate, other than one year I developed a blood clot during football season, otherwise I’ve been very fortunate to stay healthy.” Paulsen is also an accomplished basketball, track and football official.
He was inducted into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame in 1993.