December '99

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Provide Water For Birds In Winter By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University As autumn chills to winter, ponds, puddles and shorelines may freeze. Resident birds will have a harder time finding drinking water. Backyard bird watchers can help birds out by keeping fresh water available to birds throughout the winter. Water will attract birds more readily to an area than specialized supplemental foods, explained Dan Edge, wildlife specialist with the Oregon State University Extension Service. Lure wild birds into view by providing water in birdbaths or other artificial puddles. The containers should be shallow - from an inch-and-a-half to three inches deep, preferably with gently sloping sides. The surface of the bath or puddle should be rough so the birds can get sure footing. Cement is ideal. Place a few water-smoothed stones or flat rocks at the water's edge for a place for birds to get out of the water, stand and rest nearby. Even if you only have a small windowsill, porch, or patio, a shallow tray of water with some rocks or plants placed nearby is much better than doing nothing for the birds. Make sure cats cannot reach the watering area. Many birds are attracted to dripping water. Hang a bucket full of water with a small hole in the bottom over a birdbath or shallow pan and watch the birds come by. Or use a mister or dripper especially designed for this purpose. Keep water unfrozen during cold spells by adding fresh lukewarm water, or by placing an electric oil dipstick heater inside a piece of conduit in the water. There are also small birdbath heaters available at garden, farm, or bird feeding stores. Birds need water for not only for drinking and bathing, but also as a source of water borne foods such as insects and algae. Conservation Reserve Program Sign-up The next Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Sign-up #20 is scheduled to begin January 18, 2000, and run through February 11, 2000. It is presumed that the sign-up provisions will be very similar as compared to the last few signs. Check with your local FSA for details for CRP Sign-up #20, and check for dates of producer meetings. New Owners Announced For Farm & Home Supply It was recently announced that Farm & Home Supply and Ferd Herres Chevrolet of Pomeroy, WA have been purchased by Tom Herres and Dan Wolf of Pomeroy. The two businesses, formerly owned by Ferd and Jim Herres, have been mainstays in the Pomeroy business community since World War II. Plans are to keep the business names the same. Ferd Herres will continue as chief financial officer. Tom Herres is the nephew of Ferd and Jim Herres. Both Tom and Dan say their goal is to maintain local ownership of the car and equipment dealerships. Pfeifer Announces Less Burning From WAWG's Green Sheet According to Grant Pfeifer, air quality supervisor, Eastern Regional Office, Department of Ecology, Spokane: although we've enjoyed a beautiful fall, we received many complaints about polluted air. The bad air came from several sources, but not from agricultural burning. Agricultural burning was not allowed at all in eastern Washington for much of mid- to late October because of the extreme weather inversion, trapping bad air close to the ground. Four compliance over flights in the past 2 weeks have resulted in no observations of illegal agricultural burning. We saw no evidence of farmers burning on a "no-burn" day. In addition, throughout eastern Washington, agricultural burning permits have been issued this fall for approximately 80,000 acres. For the burn season in the fall of 1998, burn permits were issued for more than 150,000 acres. Even accounting for variations in crop and weather conditions that may have called for less burning, this decrease is substantial. We are seeing much better compliance with the law and we believe the permit figures attest to the fact that farmers are rethinking their use of fire as a tool, as Washington's clean air law requires.

Farm & Ranch Column Economist: Analyze Before Buying Equipment By Terence L. Day, Washington State University Agricultural economist Herb Hinman leans back in his chair and grins as he tells about a farmer who came up to him after one of his economics workshops and told him, "Three years ago I went home and pushed a pencil on whether it would pay to buy a new pickup. I couldn't justify it, so I didn't buy it. "The next year, I pushed the pencil again, and couldn't justify buying the pickup. "This year I pushed the pencil and still couldn't justify it, but I bought the pickup anyway, because I wanted it. What do you think about that?" he demanded. Hinman, who specializes in production costs, thought it was just fine providing the farmer could afford it. There's a difference, he explains, between needs and wants. To economists, needed equipment is equipment necessary to do the job, and that is economically justified. Often, Hinman says, wanted equipment is more equipment than necessary to get the job done, and isn't economically justified. Purchase of wanted equipment often leads to unnecessary financial burden. An example would be buying a $125,000 tractor to do a job that a well conditioned $50,000 used tractor can do just as well, and more economically. "However, if a producer wants the $125,000 tractor and has the resources to afford it without putting the operation in a financial bind, there's no reason not to do it," Hinman says. "After all, one of the reasons most people work is to enjoy some of the pleasures of life." Hinman just hopes farmers will do their home work and differentiate between needs and wants before making decisions. The question of equipment purchases came up as we were discussing the $5-billion in emergency assistance recently appropriated for American farmers. Washington farmers who had production flexibility contracts with the USDA will receive $89 million with a limit of $40,000 per person. Many will be tempted to use the payment to buy machinery. Hinman urges them to push a pencil; or, more appropriately these days, to fire up their office computer before deciding to buy equipment. Farmers should ask themselves four questions when contemplating equipment purchases. * Is it needed? * Would used equipment or a less expensive model meet the need? * Is it profitable? * Will their cash flow support any future payments? Hinman tells with obvious admiration of a farmer who gets the job done with three aging combines that have a total value of perhaps $30,000. A new, self-leveling hillside combine costs $280,000 or more. The farmer that Hinman tells about needs two combines for harvest and keeps a third ready to go at the flip of a switch if one of the others breaks down. Hinman will speak on the subject on Jan. 11 at the Inland Empire Farm Forum in Spokane. Equipment dealers may not always appreciate Hinman's cautious advice, but in the long run, it isn't in a dealer's best interest to sell equipment to a farmer who will have trouble paying for it. WSU has a publication and two computer programs that will help farmers decide if they should buy equipment. * Finance: Analyzing Investments in Agricultural Capital Assets (MCP0012) is a software program with documentation for its installation and use. Finance analyzes the economic impact on a farm of investments in land, machinery, buildings and other assets. It costs $25.00. * KEEP/BUY/LEASE (MCP0023) This software compares the economics of keeping a machine versus buying or leasing a different machine. Cost is $15. * Pacific Northwest Farm Machinery Costs: 1997 (PNW0346) This 88-page publication helps farmers calculate fixed and variable machinery costs, depreciation, repair factors, service expectations, and other considerations. Cost is $5.25. These programs and publications can be ordered from the WSU Cooperative Extension Bulletins Office in Pullman by calling 1-800-723-1763. There is a shipping fee and Washington residents must pay sales tax. '99 Market Loss Assistance Payments Friday, October 22, 1999, President Clinton signed the Agricultural Appropriations Bill authorizing $5.5 billion for economic loss assistance or what is commonly known as the Market Loss Assistance (MLA). By now, producers should have received these MLA payments. All MLA payments were processed and issued by October 28, 1999. The MLA payments are equal to the 1999 PFC payments that were issued this past year. The MLA has it's own payment limitation, separate and distinct from the PFC. The 1999 MLA payments rates are: wheat $0.637/bu. oats $0.030/bu. barley $0.271 corn $0.363

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