02/07/07 Larger Farms, Aid & Selling Forests

Fewer but Larger Farms, Disaster Areas & Selling Forests. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The number of farms in the United States continues to decline  but the number of larger farms is growing. The latest numbers out of Washington, D.C. indicate there were 2.09 million farms in the U.S. last year. That's 0.4 percent fewer than in 2005. Total farm land decreased 780-thousand acres to 932.4 million. The average farm size was 446 acres. The largest percentage changes occurred in the smallest and largest sales classes. The smallest sales class declined - most likely due to normal attrition - such as retirements - and rising incomes. While - the larger farms got bigger. As a result of freezing temperatures earlier this month - USDA has designated 18 California counties as primary natural disaster areas. Ag producers in those counties - and those surrounding them - are now eligible for low-interest emergency loans from USDA`s Farm Service Agency. For the second year in a row, the Bush administration on Monday proposed selling off up to 300,000 acres of national forests and other public land to help pay for rural schools and roads. And for the second year, Western lawmakers and environmentalists blasted the plan, saying short-term gains would be offset by the permanent loss of the land. Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden called the plan a "betrayal," and said he would "work around the clock & to convince Congress to act honorably and fulfill the federal obligation to our rural counties." Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. In what the Humane Society of the United States is calling "perhaps the most monumental advance for animal welfare in the history of American Agribusiness," Smithfield Foods, a pork producer, announced they will make the move from gestations stalls to pens. For most of us, with the exception of pigs that is, this doesn't seem like a monumental deal but Smithfield's decision comes in the wake of new legislation in both Florida and Arizona outlawing gestation crates for pigs all together. Europe is banning them by 2013 as well. Meaning if you are a sow lucky enough to be in a state that bans gestation stalls you will now able to move about a bit when pregnant. The fact that pregnant pigs have rights is the result of an animal rights group alleging that one of California largest pig farmers crammed pregnant sows in crates so tight they couldn't move for months on end. It is nice to know that before "this little piggy goes to market" his mommy will now be "sow" much more comfortable. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.