пятница, 14 сентября 2012 г.

Agriculture briefs - Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)

Cooperative offers

more meetings

FENNIMORE, Wis. - The Farmers'Health Cooperative of Wisconsinwill offer a second round of informational meetings in southwestWisconsin this fall.

Farmers and businesses primarily serving agriculture also areinvited to contact the Farmers'Health Insurance Cooperative ofWisconsin for more information by visiting the Web site atwww.farmershealth

cooperative.com.

On Tuesday, Oct. 16, there will be a meeting at 10 a.m. and oneat 1:30 p.m. at the Memorial Building, 860 Lincoln Ave. inFennimore.

Illinois governor signs

wine-shipping bill

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Earlier this month, Illinois Gov. RodBlagojevich signed a new law that will allow wine makers to shipwine directly to residents of Illinois who are older than 21.

House Bill 429 represents an agreement between Illinois wineriesand liquor distributors concerning the direct shipment of wine toconsumers.

It allows Illinois wineries to sell a limited supply of theirproduct directly to consumers, with distributors handling the rest.

Wine makers will be allowed to sell up to 12 cases of wine peryear directly to those of legal age in Illinois.

The bill includes several safety precautions to ensure winerecipients are of legal age, including requiring the delivery personto verify the recipient's age and identity by checking his or heridentification. The Illinois Liquor Control Commission will alsoconduct compliance operations to ensure wine shippers are followingthe law.

Educational Farmetrics

program introduced

ST. LOUIS - Farmetrics, a prediction market tailored for U.S.agriculture, recently introduced the Farmetrics Prediction MarketEducational Program and a new Web site for agricultural educationteachers and students. The Web site is www.farmetrics.com/scholar.

Classes that win weekly contests with the accuracy of theirpredictions benefit their schools by earning reward points that canbe redeemed for award cards, which can be used by the school topurchase necessary goods and services.

There is no cost to participate or win.

The classroom participants submit predictions for yield, acresplanted and acres harvested for crops such as corn and soybeans.

Schools determine in which of these weekly contests their classeswill participate.

Class performance is measured against that of other classesaround the country by the accuracy of predictions, as determined byofficial U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics.

Meetings to focus on

animal-feeding sites

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. - The Crawford Steward Project willpresent two informational meetings in Crawford County this month sothe public can discuss Confined Animal Feeding Operations.

The first meeting is scheduled to be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct.16, at the Crawford County Highway Building south of Seneca.

The second meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, atthe Prairie du Chien City Hall.

Discussion topics will include the legal and health

issues associated with CAFOs as well as how they could impactlocal geology.