With harvest season getting underway, farmers are urged to take note of electrical lines when moving equipment like portable grain augers, oversized wagons and large combines, and to use a qualified electrician for electrical system repairs. "Equipment contacting overhead power lines is the leading cause of farm electrocution accidents in the Midwest," said Bob Aherin, University of Illinois Agricultural Safety Specialist. "Moving portable grain augers poses the greatest risk because those who are on the ground moving the equipment would provide a direct path for electricity if there's a contact with overhead wires." "Always lower grain augers before moving them, even if it's only a few feet. Variables like wind, uneven ground, shifting weight, or other conditions can combine to create an unexpected result," Aherin said.

Farm workers also are advised not to use metal poles when breaking up bridged grain inside and around bins and to use qualified electricians for work on drying equipment and other farm electrical systems.

It's also important for operators of farm equipment or vehicles to know what to do if the vehicle comes in contact with a power line. It's almost always best to stay in the cab, call for help and wait until the electric utility arrives to make sure power to the line is cut off. "If the power line is energized and you step outside, your body becomes the path and electrocution is the result," Aherin said. "Even if a power line has landed on the ground, there is still the potential for the area nearby to be energized. Stay inside the vehicle unless there's fire or imminent risk of fire."

In that case, the proper action is to jump – not step – with both feet hitting the ground at the same time. Jump clear, without touching the vehicle and ground at the same time and continue to shuffle or hop to safety keeping both feet together as you leave the area. "Like the ripples in a pond or lake, the voltage diminishes the farther out it is from the source," Aherin said. "Stepping from one voltage level to another allows the body to become a path for that electricity. A large difference in voltage between both feet could kill you."

"Be sure that at no time you or anyone touches the equipment and the ground at the same time. Never should the operator simply step out of the vehicle–the person must jump clear."

For more information on keeping you and your family safe, go to the University of Illinois Agricultural Safety and Health website http://www.age.uiuc.edu/agsafety/index.html.

Bob Aherin, Prof., Dept. Ag and Biol Eng, University of Illinois, 217-333-9417, raherin@uiuc.edu

Henbit, shepherd's purse, mustard, chickweed, and downy brome may be lurking in your alfalfa field as young seedlings. If allowed to over winter, they will grow quickly in the spring, thinning alfalfa stands and reducing the yield. Winter annuals in alfalfa stands more than a year old can be controlled once the alfalfa goes dormant.

Scout in the fall for winter annual seedlings such as mustard, annual bluegrass, and downy brome. To learn what these and other winter annuals look like in the seedling stage, check out the University of Illinois Weed Identification website at http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/weedid/.

Once alfalfa is dormant following a freeze but where the soils have not frozen, there are several herbicides you can chose from to control these weeds. Choosing the correct herbicide is important. The Weed Control for Small Grains chapter in the Illinois Pest Management Handbook provides a guideline on which herbicides are most effective at controlling these winter annuals. http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/pubs/iapmh/03chapter.pdf. Double check the herbicide label for temperature ranges for their use. Controlling winter annuals in the fall will give you a jump on the spring activities.

Ellen Phillips, Crop System Extension Educator, Countryside Extension Center, 708-352-0109, ephillps@uiuc.edu.

Farm Beginnings is a program for farmers who want to learn more about low-cost, innovative methods of sustainable farming. And, for the first time, this farmer training program is available in Illinois. Applications are now open for the 2005-2006 Farm Beginnings course, which will run from October 2005 to August 2006. The classes will be held in Bloomington at the University of Illinois Extension Office. Developed by The Land Stewardship Project, Farm Beginnings is now in its ninth year and has trained over 225 people -- over 60 percent of whom are currently engaged in sustainable farming enterprises, including: dairy (cow and goat), beef, hogs, meat goats, sheep, poultry, wholesale vegetables, Community Supported Agriculture, organic grains, and specialty products such as flowers.

Many Farm Beginnings participants have said that they were discouraged at a young age about going into farming and view this program as a way to determine if farming makes sense for them at this point in their lives. Women make up 50 percent of the participants. About half do not have land or previous farm experience. The other 50 percent have had farming experience or are currently farming but are looking for new ideas and skills to succeed. "Many people are pessimistic about the future for family farms," said Terra Brockman, who co-coordinates the central Illinois Farm Beginnings program. "But this program is proving that an environmentally and economically sound future for family farms and rural communities is possible."

Farm Beginnings offers training through a series of sessions that will be held this fall and winter. Topics to be covered include: goal setting; planning for the whole farm; creative financing; how to get started; innovative marketing; and social, environmental and financial monitoring.

The foundation of the program is a mentorship component that links established farmers with course participants. This farmer-to-farmer networking has proven immensely successful in Minnesota, where Farm Beginnings participants have drawn on the expertise and experience of farmers who are doing everything from management of intensive rotational grazing to commercial vegetable production. Participants interact with the established farmers through field days as well as one-on-one farm visits and informal meetings.

The Central Illinois Farm Beginnings program has been developed by a local steering committee consisting of experienced farmers, farm financial advisers and members of The Land Connection, the University of Illinois and the University of Illinois Extension. Steering committee member Stan Schutte, a farmer from Shelbyville, said "We aren't reproducing farmers anymore.""Farm Beginnings has the potential to launch a whole new generation of farmers in the region. We need to make it possible for young people-men, women, and families- to be involved in farming," said Leslie Cooperband, U of I Extension specialist who is also involved with the program. It's imperative for the well-being of our rural communities -- and of our state and nation -- to encourage and support farming methods that are good for the environment, as well as being economically viable. The fee for the full-year program is $800, which includes course books and materials, eight workshops, conferences/field day fees, refreshments, mentorships, and a one year complimentary Land Connection membership. "The program also offers excellent opportunities for established farmers to pass on their experience and knowledge as mentors or as a part of the steering committee," said Brockman. Illinois will have two programs: Central Illinois Farm Beginnings and Stateline Farm Beginnings, which will be for northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. The Stateline Farm Beginnings is a project of the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training, http://www.csalearningcenter.org/craft.html and partners with the Churches' Center for Land and People www.op.org/cclp.

For more information on being a Farm Beginnings participant or mentor/steering committee member for the Central Illinois Farm Beginnings, contact Deborah Cavanaugh-Grant at 217-968-5512; cvnghgrn@uiuc.edu. Additional information is available at the Central Illinois Farm Beginnings www.farmbeginnings.uiuc.edu. For the Stateline Farm Beginnings, contact, Parker Forsell, CSA Learning Center at Angelic Organics at 815-389-8455; CRAFT@CSALearningCenter.org .

Deborah Cavanaugh-Grant (217) 968 5512; cvnghgrn@uiuc.edu, Contact: Debra Levey Larson, (217) 244-2880; dlarson@uiuc.edu

http://www.extension.uiuc.edu/ruralroute/

The Rural Route 2 service is designed to help farm families get through tough times. This confidential service provides referrals for farm business and family financial advice; helps manage economic as well as personal situations; helps locate local support; and identifies assistance through the Illinois Farm Development Authority.

Curbing What Goes Down the Drain

Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, comis@ars.usda.gov, USDA ARS News Service

The underground drainage systems that criss-cross much of the U.S. Corn Belt are about to get a major overhaul to improve both farm efficiency and the environment. The upgrade is important because the same pipes that deserve a lot of credit for America's agricultural bounty bear some of the blame for carrying nitrates, phosphorus and other pollutants to waterways such as the Gulf of Mexico. Norm Fausey leads the Agricultural Research Service's Drainage Research Unit at Columbus, Ohio. He and ARS agricultural engineers Kevin King and Barry Allred, along with Ohio State University-Columbus scientist Larry Brown, are now in the sixth year of running drainage management studies in northwest Ohio.

Drainage management is a new system of draining water only as needed for planting and growing crops. Currently, most drainpipes just drain continuously year-round. With drainage management, control structures allow farmers to raise or lower the water table in various fields as conditions warrant. This even gives farmers the option of letting farm fields provide wetland functions and wildlife habitat for birds and ducks during the non-growing season.

ARS serves on a task force called ADMS, for Agricultural Drainage Management Systems, that is promoting the field drainage upgrade. The task force's members are banking on the concept of drainage management to reduce nitrate losses by at least 30 percent while draining 40 to 60 percent less water. Those numbers, recently reported by the ADMS task force, come from research findings in Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio.

ADMS is also considering the idea of creating new wetlands alongside crop fields to filter contaminants from drainage water. Farmers could store the filtered water in a reservoir for later reuse during drier parts of the growing season. Fausey has designed such a system, called a Wetland Reservoir Subirrigation System. He has seen these reuse systems raise corn yields by more than 45 percent and soybeans by about 40 percent in dry years.

Future Fashions Made of Silky Smooth Wool?

Jim Core, (301) 504-1619, jcore@ars.usda.gov, USDA ARS News Service

Forget the "itch factor." A new "biopolishing" process developed by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) makes scratchy wool feel silky and look whiter. Not only does it change the texture and appearance of wool, it also modifies the surface to make it shrink-proof. Besides comfort and form, the method improves aesthetics, according to Jeanette Cardamone, a textile chemist at the ARS Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pa. The process results in an increased shine on the fabric's surface from the removal of projecting fiber yarn ends. This contributes to a smooth feel, which increases wool's appeal in women's fashions.

In biopolishing, the wool is pre-treated with a stable, activated peroxide, followed by a treatment with either serine or cysteine protease cellular enzymes. The hydrogen peroxide step bleaches the wool at lower temperatures and in half the time as conventional techniques, which results in reduced processing costs, according to Cardamone. The bleaching technique also makes it easier to dye the wool.

Shrinkage in conventional wool occurs during machine washing because the resulting heat and pressure lock wool's scales in place. The wool is shrink-proofed by another step that uses enzymes to modify wool's surface by degrading its proteins with enzymes called proteases, so its scales no longer get tangled-up. Shrinkage is controlled without loss in strength or elastic recovery. Wool scales are usually resistant to enzyme attack, but in biopolishing, enzymes "digest" the scales, resulting in a smoother surface.

Biopolishing can be applied to multiple surfaces--everything from loose fibers to yarn, fabric or completed garments. The American Wool Council, a division of the American Sheep Industry (ASI) Association, provided partial funding for the research. The biopolishing process is being tested in woolen mills. There is already interest from the U.S. military in wool treated with the biopolishing process, especially for the manufacture of underwear for troops.

Bacteria Propel Gains in Ammonia Removal

Luis Pons, USDA ARS News, (301) 504-1628, lpons@ars.usda.gov

Using an innovative bacterial process, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are paving the way for new, cost-efficient and large-scale methods of removing ammonia from livestock wastewater. In tests with anammox--a technology that uses rare anaerobic bacteria to convert nitrite and ammonium to harmless dinitrogen gas--soil scientists Matias Vanotti and Ariel Szogi at ARS' Coastal Plains Soil, Water and Plant Research Center in Florence, S.C., have scored noteworthy results.

They're the first researchers to isolate from animal wastewater the planctomycetes bacteria used in the anammox process. They've also highlighted anammox's commercial potential by removing nitrogen from wastewater at rates similar to those obtained using conventional methods. Short for "anaerobic ammonium oxidation," anammox was discovered in the Netherlands during the 1990s. The process is more energy-efficient than traditional biological nitrogen-removal systems because only part of the ammonium in wastewater needs to be nitrified, and it removes ammonium without needing costly aeration or additives.

In tests in Florence and at a swine farm near Kenansville, N.C., Vanotti and Szogi achieved the high nitrogen-removal rates by improving the bacteria's environment for reproduction. The bacteria's slow multiplication makes their cultivation difficult. The scientists' isolation of the bacteria from wastewater during these tests may make possible economical treatments for high-ammonia effluents, because it shows that it may not be necessary to cultivate the bacteria off-site. Vanotti added that although the researchers have used anammox to remove up to 500 grams of nitrogen per cubic meter daily from wastewater, their goal is to triple this rate within the next year.

Publications Plus –University of Illinois Agricultural and Horticultural Publications

Call 1-800-345-6087 or order on the web www.PublicationsPlus.uiuc.edu. It's a one-stop shop for a current catalog of research-based information (Mastercard and VISA accepted)

2005 iFarm Insurance Payment Calculator

An insurance payment calculator has been developed and is available under the 2005 iFarm Insurance Payment Calculator link in the crop insurance section of farmdoc (http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/cropins). A user of this program enters the crop, county, and Actual Production History (APH) yield for the situation of interest.Then, insurance payments are generated for user-specified yields and harvest prices.The calculator was developed to help farmers determine likely payments because of drought conditions on some Illinois farms. This tool can be found in the Crop Insurance section of farmdoc at: http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/cropins.

Limestone Comparisons

If you want to compare the quality of limestone from one quarry to another, consult the new edition of the Illinois Voluntary Limestone Program Producer Information booklet. It is available at Extension offices and on-line at http://www.agr.state.il.us/news/pub/Limestonebooklet.html .

Study Documents Neurologic Effects of Chronic Pesticide Exposure
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2005/113-7/ss.html

Chronic moderate pesticide exposure is linked to neurologic symptoms affecting both the central and peripheral nervous systems, according to an analysis of data collected in the Agricultural Health Study. The results of the analysis were published in the July 2005 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. As part of the AHS, almost 20,000 farmers and private pesticide applicators completed surveys on demographic characteristics, medical history and neurologic symptoms, lifestyle, and pesticide use. Researchers found that applicators with the most cumulative lifetime days of pesticide use reported more neurologic symptoms than those with the fewest lifetime days of use, for pesticides overall. The relationship between cumulative exposure and symptoms was strongest with insecticides. Organophosphates and organochlorines had the strongest relationship with symptoms within the insecticides.

Wisconsin Public Service: Energy on the Farm
www.wisconsinpublicservice.com/farm/ref_brochures.asp

Alternative Fuels Data Center
www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/index.html

Harvesting Clean Energy
www.harvestcleanenergy.org

Windustry: Wind Farmers Network
www.windustry.org

University of Illinois Agriculture Events

New programs are being confirmed every day. Keep in touch with your Extension Office for programs addressing the topics that interest you and are offered in your County. To find your counties website go to: http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/cie2/offices/findoffice.cfm.

Statewide University of Illinois Extension Calendar Website

http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/cie2/offices/calendar.cfm

To search for programs throughout the state, check out Extension's searchable calendar. Search by location, topic or date to find a program of you interest.

About the Ag Update Newsletter

The Ag Update Newsletter is a bi-monthly newsletter providing education and research support to the agricultural industry. Current and past issues may be found at the following website http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/agupdate/index.html.

Contact your county Extension office and request to be put on their agricultural mailing list to receive the local agricultural newsletter and notices about upcoming agricultural events near you. To find your counties location, phone and website go to: http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/cie2/offices/findoffice.cfm.