The Spam State & CSP Deadline

The Spam State & CSP Deadline plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

There could be a rush of applicants in the closing days of sign-up for this first round of the Conservation Stewardship Program, according to Tom Christensen of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service says the deadline is tomorrow.

CHRISTENSEN: It’s actually starting to jump significantly here in the last few days and this is not abnormal under the previous conservation security program which preceded the stewardship program. We saw a lot of the sign-up activity in the last couple of weeks, the last few days.

They may be famous for their potatoes but Idaho is quickly getting another reputation and it’s not a good one. For some reason Idaho residents get more unwanted and unsolicited emails that any other state according to Symantec’s MessageLabs Group. The company says spammers don’t target certain state per se, but several factors like areas with lots of small businesses and those with big marketing, recreation and real estate sectors also see lots of spam. Of course the report could just be a sales gimmick since they are the company that created Norton Antivirus.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

Can there really be “too much of a good thing”? Yes, ‘fraid so.  This year has seen several different kinds of bumper crops and believe it or not for farming communities as a whole, bumper crops can actually be bad news; rather like a case of darned if you do and darned if you don’t.  Several powers that be in the ag industry are predicting a “monster” crop of corn this year. Only time will tell, but a “monster” crop yield can backfire for producers with a disproportionate drop in price, having them see any profitability fly out the window.  The challenge then is how to sell ever increasing bumper crops while at the same time not causing economic strife in farm regions. With the hog, poultry and dairy producers losing money right now like water through a sieve the question of whether there will be a demand for a high yield corn crop remains to be seen. I’m not about to get into a farm subsidies debate. First there isn’t enough time and secondly I’m no expert. Farm policy can be extremely volatile and is definitely complex. And again, only time will tell if “time” will be on the corn farmer’s side.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.