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K E L K P U B L I S H I N G L L C W E D N E S D A Y, J A N U A R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 6 S I X T E E N P A G E S

2016

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Times staff report

Each spring, the Sullivan High School FFA Alumni As-sociation Consignment Auction acts as a major fundraiser forthe schools chapter.

This year, the event is schedule for April 2, the branchs

sponsor and SHS ag teacher Kevin Cross said.A portion of the auctions proceeds go to the organiza-

tion. Jeff Boston Auction Service runs the event.This will also be the first time the spring event has been

preceded by a fall consignment auction, which was held Nov.28.

Overall, we felt it was a pretty good success, Cross saidof that event, noting that they will be looking at possibly hold-ing another such event this fall after seeing the effect on thespring auction.

For further details of the event, see a future edition of theTimes.

FFA alumni auction set for April 2

Wednesday, January 20, 2016 Agri-Business 2016 Page B2

Restaurant1616 N. Section Sullivan 268-3388

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Times file photo

Brad Wible, left, and Adam Butler, right, call out bids from members of the crowd for rolls of fencing during last years

Sullivan High School FFA Alumni Association Consignment Auction. This years event is scheduled for April 2.

theinside

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Wednesday,January 20, 2016 Agri-Business 2016 Page B3

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Tami Unger holds her granddaughter Sallie Everhart as

she takes a bite of one of the pancakes served at the break-

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years event is still in the planning stages.

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Hoosier turkey farmers with strickenbirds looking to move forward

By WYATT STAYNER (Jasper) Herald

DUBOIS At 7 oclock Saturday morning, Cyrillaand Ralph Senninger learned that 13,000 turkeys housedin their barns were to be euthanized. The flock had testedpositive for the low-level pathogenic version of H7N8, astrain of avian flu that has swept through Dubois Countyand left more than 400,000 birds dead and a handful offarmers without their livelihood.

Take a quick drive around Dubois and youll finddozens of workers in hazmat suits and signs saying checkin here planted at the entrances of affected farms.

Testing sites for the disease have spread outside of thecounty and into Martin, Orange, Crawford and Daviesscounties.

State and federal agencies have visited more than 900

residences in a 6.2-mile testing area established aroundSteve and Dan Kalbs Dubois farm on East Dubois RoadNorthwest just outside of town, the initial site of the firstU.S. outbreak of avian flu since June.

But only a select few have gotten notice that theirturkeys tested positive.

It was devastating, Cyrilla Senninger said. You hateto hear that. It was a shock.

Senninger and her husband Ralph have been farmingin their three turkey houses since 1985. They produce forPerdue Farms in Washington. For the Senningers, the newscould have been worse, as a week prior to the diagnosis ofavian flu in their barns, Cyrilla said one of the barns wascleared out, with all of the approximate 6,000 turkeys sold all of them healthy, too.

(Ours) is minor compared to some farms, Cyrilla

said.One of the farms Cyrilla mentioned was the Kalbs,

who produce for Huntingburg-based Farbest Foods. TheKalb farm housed about 60,000 turkeys and when SteveKalb talked to The Herald late last week, he mentioned thatavian flu is always a fear in everyones mind. He hopedat the time the virus wouldnt spread.

Cyrilla said she wasnt sure about any kind of reim-bursement for her family, mentioning she was more con-cerned for farmers who have more turkeys than her andRalph.

Well do what they tell us to, Cyrilla said of the var-ious state agencies that have already depopulated theturkeys. Were fine. Well manage. Were moving on.

See STRICKEN

on B7

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Purdue nonprofit helps farmerskeep working despite ailments

FORT WAYNE (AP) Farmers areknown for squeezing every last bit of useful-ness from things ... including their own bod-ies.

But thats not always easy.Farmers tend to get arthritis pretty regu-

larly, and it makes it hard for them to do theirjobs, said Ned Stoller, an agricultural assis-tive technology specialist with AgrAbility.

Formed in 1991, the Purdue University-based national nonprofit helps farmers findand pay for tools and technology that allowthem to keep working whether they areslowed by arthritis, paralysis, amputation or

other disabilities.

One example of such adaptive tools is a$35 glove that uses Velcro to firmly attach atool to hands with limited gripping strength.

Mark Ziemann, a field sales trainer forK&M Manufacturing, attended the 27th an-nual Fort Wayne Farm Show with a colleaguelast week.

As they met with dealers, they were try-ing to decide whether Minnesota-based K&Mshould rent a booth next year to display prod-ucts that include steps, handrails, mirrors,warning lights, swivel seats and other prod-ucts that make older tractors more accessible.

K&Ms products, which are used by

some AgrAbility clients, work with tractors up

to 80 years old.Stoller, who works with AgrAbilitys

Michigan operation, said his office servesabout 120 people a year. Anyone who contactsthe nonprofit can schedule an evaluation of hisdaily tasks and what assistance he needs toperform them.

Charles and Annette Best were volun-teering at the AgrAbility booth, ready to talkwith anyone who doubts he can overcome aphysical limitation.

Charlie, as hes called, lost his left handin 1967 when he reached into a piece of farm-ing equipment to try to dislodge an ear of corn

that was stuck.

He got careless, Annette said, addingthat her 87-year-old husband adjusted verywell to losing his hand and forearm.

When that happened, there wasnt any-thing like this, Charlie said, referring toAgrAbility and the various tools it procuresfor clients.

Available technology includes a lift thatcan place even a paralyzed person on the seatof large farm machinery.

Ziemanns father could have used such alift. He farmed into his 70s but eventually hadto stop.

See AILMENTS

on B9

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ServingSullivanCountySince1854The

SullivanDaily

Times

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) Farmers inCalifornias fertile San Joaquin Valley are

bracing to receive no irrigation water from afederal system of reservoirs and canals for athird consecutive year and looking to El Nioto produce the very wet winter they need.

The year kicked off with heavy rains andan above-average snowpack in the Sierra Ne-vada. The El Nio a global weather sys-tem associated with wet winters in California may play out nationwide through latespring or beyond, officials at the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationsay.

Another welcomed series of storms isexpected to dump more rain and snow onCalifornia through Thursday, according toNational Weather Service forecasters.

While many are celebrating a break tothe long dry spell, however, the four driestyears on record for California have left theirmark, and experts say it will take time for theparched state to recover.

We need a wet winter this winter and

next and the following winter probably to getus anywhere close to equilibrium, said Dave

Kranz, a spokesman for the California FarmBureau Federation.

State water managers say Californiassnowpack needs to be at 150 percent of nor-mal on April 1 to signal an end to drought.Friday it was at 110 percent, according to theDepartment of Water Resources statewideelectronic reading.

Lake Shasta, the states largest reservoir,remains at half of its historical average for

this time of year. Other major reservoirs inOroville and Folsom that collect and store

rain and snowmelt had reached or came closeto historical low levels before the winterstorms hit.

The lack of surface water supplies for ir-rigation during the drought has forced manyfarmers to use groundwater to keep theircrops alive, drawing down wells and leadingmany to run dry.

See SHORTAGE

on B7

California farmers bracefor water shortage despite El Nio

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StrickenContinued

from B4

Stephen Sander might want toshake your hand, but he cant.Sander, a Dubois resident whoalso produces for Perdue, spentMonday preparing his Duboisbarn and 23,000 dead turkeys for

the composting phase of cleanup.Sander, who is 57 and has farmedfor 25 years, said hes worked tocombat diseases before: choleraand coronavirus are two.

Its not our first (time) fight-ing a disease, Sander said, stand-ing at the base of a hill below histurkey farm, where workers earliersprayed disinfectant on automo-

bile tires before they left the prop-erty.

Sander said getting the newsof avian flu was sad, dishearten-ing, and that he lost too manybirds.

He wouldnt talk about the fi-nancial hit hes taking but did say

hes hopeful for some kind of as-sistance.We dont know, Sander said

of reimbursement. We dont haveany idea of whats happening. Wealways hope so that somethingwill help pay for all of this.

But thats the future. Today,Sander will start composting thedead turkeys with moisture and a

carbon source. Its a recipe, asDenise Derrer with the IndianaBoard of Animal Health called it.

Then, about a month later, theturkey carcasses will be brokendown to the point that theyre dis-ease free and usable as organicmaterial. Other local farmers have

said it could be six months to ayear before the affected farmerscan restock their barns with morebirds.

Wel l get cleaned up,Sander said of whats to come.The big hope is that nobody elsebreaks and this outbreak gets(contained). Down the road, wellget birds again and start over.

Continued

from B6

Westlands Water District, which relieson water from the U.S. Bureau of Reclama-tion, has warned hundreds of farms it servesin the San Joaquin Valley that they may not

be receiving any irrigation water yet againthis year, said district spokeswoman GayleHolman.

Westlands is the nations largest sup-plier of irrigation water, and for the last twoyears, the bureaus initial allocation was forzero percent of the districts contractedamount. It remained at zero throughout bothyears.

Holman said that this stormy winter hasraised hope that in the spring theyll receivesome federal water, even if officials at first

announce that theres none available. Hol-

man said that by that time it may be too late.The need for that water is now, she

said, adding that any federal water sent tothem early in the year would be stored inreservoirs for use when the weather warmsand the growing seasons begins. Thats

why the timing is so critical.Federal officials say it is too early now

to know how much water will be available.Californias wet season is just underway.The bureau is monitoring the snowpack,rainfall, reservoir levels and other factorsbefore saying how much water it will releaseto farmers and other users.

That announcement typically comes inlate February, said bureau spokesman LouisMoore.

The Water Resources Department,

which also manages part of Californias vast

water system, said in early December that itanticipated releasing 10 percent of expectedsupplies this year half of the last yearsallocation.

The states figure could also change, de-pending on the amount of precipitation that

falls in the next several months, officialssaid.

San Joaquin Valley farmer ShawnCoburn, who grows 1,500 acres of almonds,pistachios and tomatoes along the SanJoaquin River near Firebaugh, said the rainhas become an exciting event.

On a recent stormy night, Coburn wasup at 3 a.m. watching satellite images ofclouds moving over California. He ex-changed text messages with another farmeron the other side of the valley, alerting each

other when raindrops started falling.

But Coburn relies in part on federalwater supplies, and he said officials have re-peatedly warned farmers like him that theyshould expect no irrigation water. He mayleave his tomato fields unplanted this year,saving his limited water to keep his trees

alive.We may never recover, said Coburn,

who also blames environmental regulationsdesigned to protect endangered fish for de-priving farmers of water. This may be thelong death spiral.

Lester Snow, executive director of theCalifornia Water Foundation, said thedrought has exposed a weakness in thestates water management system built 60 ormore years ago.

See SHORTAGE

on B10

Shortage

W d d J 20 2016 A i B i 2016 P B8

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3rd-grade Ag Daystill in works

Times staff report

Plans are still forming for thisyears annual Third-Grade Ag Day

event, hosted by the Sullivan HighSchool FFA chapter.

We have not yet set a date,said FFA sponsor and agricultureteacher Kevin Cross. But it will

be in late April or early May.While still in the infancy of

planning stages, the event usuallyconnects third-graders with ele-

ments of farming.Mainly, its just an opportu-

nity for third-graders to under-stand the ag industry, Crossadded.

Past events have includedlivestock (ranging from cattle topigs to alpacas), all-terrain vehicleand fire safety, forestry, weather,

and soil and water conservation toname a few elements.

F or f ur ther details of theevent, see a future edition of theTimes.

P

ROUD

tobe

apartofSullivan

Countyprogress!

32 S. Court Street, Suite F, Sullivan

268-4900

Times file photo

Last years Third-grade Ag Day featured a demonstration by the Terre Haute Police K-9

Unit. Above, Ryan Adamson is attacked by Luca, a Belgium Malinois, as handler Adam Louder-

milk keeps him on a lead. This years event is still in the planning stages.

Wednesday January 20 2016 Agri Business 2016 Page B9

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SULLIVAN TIMESDaiillyy

Continued

from B5

The only thing that kept him from working was he could-nt get behind the wheel. He could do everything else whenit came to operating a tractor, Ziemann said.

The Life Essentials-brand lift, which is on display at

AgrAbilitys Farm Show booth, costs about $12,000. But itsnot out of reach for even the most frugal farmer; the AgrAbil-ity staff works with various funding sources to cover costs oftechnology a farmer needs to keep working, Stoller said. Hedescribed his work with disabled farmers as being like a casemanager who coordinates services.

The average amount spent to make a farmer fully pro-ductive is $10,000, Stoller said.

Various supporters, including Ziemann, believe thatsmoney well spent.

Most farmers dont want to go on disability or sitaround, he said. Theyre a pretty hardworking bunch.

Ailments

Ch-ch-cheers! Finger Lakes icewineharvest late this winter

BRANCHPORT, N.Y. (AP) Winter fi-nally came down hard on New Yorks FingerLakes this month with single-digit tempera-tures at dawnand fresh snow blowing over therolling vineyards.

The wait was overfor anice wine harvest.Thick-gloved workers briskly picked

frozenbunches of grapesthat wouldbe pressedinto extra-sweet juice within hours out in thecold air. Hunt Country Vineyards makes asweet wine that has become a specialty for anumber of vineyards dotting upstate New Yorkhillsides albeit one dependent on the in-

creasingly noticeable vagaries of winter.It was probably the most stressful year

that weve ever had. Its the latest that weveever picked, said vineyard owner Art Hunt,standing over a binof vidal blanc grapes aboutto be pressed. Wispsof snow covered the fruit.

Its like biting into the finest sorbet,Hunt said after talking off a glove to taste agrape, just tons of flavor.

Ice wine harvests are a far cry from trave-logue imagesof grapes ripening undera radiantsun. These grapes are left on the vine throughat least the fall. When temperatures get low

enoughto freeze the water in the grapes, wine-makers pounce. The grapes withice crystals inthem yield a thicker, more concentrated juice around 38 percent sugar compared with 22percent for juice used to make white tablewines. The resulting wine is sweeter, heavierand because of the extra work to produce it often pricier.

Ice wine has a long history in Germanyand is big in Canada, but it remains a smallniche in the multibillion-dollar U.S. wine in-dustry, confined mostly to upstate New York,Ohio and Michigan. The Finger Lakes, New

Yorks highest-profile winemaking region, hashad more than about a half-dozen wineries de-voting some acreage to ice wines. Vineyardscloser to lakes Erie and Ontario have also pro-duced ice wines.

In Germany, its a little bit moreof a nov-eltythanit is an annualproduct, said John Fis-cher, professor of wine and spirits managementat the Culinary Institute of America. In upstateNew York,he said, they have turned it into anannual product. Its pretty bankable up there.

See WINE

on B10

Wednesday January 20 2016 Agri-Business 2016 Page B10

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Shortage

Wine

Continued

from B7

The amount of land farmers now cultivateandthe numberof peopleliving in thestate have

bothdramatically increasedsince state and fed-eral officials built Californias massive watersystem.

Yet Snow said the state hasnt adequately

invested in modernizing it,such as finding waysto capture storm water runoff, recycle water,store and recharge depleted groundwater.

Were not going back to the good old

days,saidSnow, a former secretaryof the Cal-ifornia Natural Resources Agency. Wevereacheda newnormalin volatility, and we needto adapt to that.

Continued

from B9

Hunt has been making ice winesince 1987, annually reservinga fewrows of grapes among his 65 acresunder production. Some ice wine

makers use Riesling grapes, butHunt likes the vidal blanc, a tough-skinned grape that hangs in loose

bunches.Grapes plucked this month

range from golden green to deeperpurples and browns. The darkergrapes are affected by botrytis, ornoble rot, a fungus that can be

beneficial for dessert wines.We have a range of flavorswhen we press the ice wine. Its

going to be very complex, Huntsaid. We have raisiny, honey,plummy flavors and a good crispacidity.

Growing grapes is a gamble,but more so for ice wine. More time

on thevine leaves the grapes vulner-able to poaching deer and birds.Some fall off the vine.

Expecting a mild winter, Huntharvested half his ice wine grapes inmid-December for late-harvest wine.That left a bit more than a ton ofgrapes forice wine by harvest, prob-ably not enough to meet demand for

the entire year.Recent warm weather in theNortheast has heightened concerns

about global warming. But Huntthinks winters will stay cold enoughat least duringhis lifetime. While theice wine yield this year was small,they hadbeen good theprevioustwoyears amid cold winters. Its hard to

predict year to year.You never cantell, he said. Itkeeps you humble.

Place your companysADon the front pageC O N T A C T T H E S U L L I V A N D A I L Y T I M E S T O A D V E R T I S E O N T H E F R O N T P A G E T O D A Y L I M I T E D T O O N E B U S I N E S S A D D A I L YCALL THE TIMES...

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Wednesday, January 20, 2016 Agri Business 2016 Page B11

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Times file photo

Workers flip pancakes and serve them up to the large crowd in attendance during last year s Sullivan County Ag Day event.

This years event is still in the planning stages.

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[email protected]

A familiar face during recentAg Day and Sullivan County 4-HFair events will be missing in thecoming year, as Purdue ExtensionsLindy Miller recently announcedhis retirement.

My last day was the 4th (ofJanuary), Miller said on Tuesday.

He served 15 years, a little

over, about two years of that inSullivan County, as Purdue Exten-sion Educator for Agriculture andNatural Resources, with him split-ting duties between that role and 4-H Youth Development.

Prior to serving Purdue Exten-sion in this county, Miller workedin the Vigo County office for sevenyears and for another seven as Pur-due Extension Greene County di-rector.

Ive always had a side re-search business and an opportunitycame up with that ... so I decided totake early retirement and pursuethat, he said of his decision.

LFMQuality Laboratories, Inc.is the name of his side-business inclinical pharmaceutical research inanimal health.

We started the business in1994, Miller said, noting involve-ment in clinical research since1987.

I recently got an opportunityto expand that, so Im full-time an-imal health research now, headded.

Miller said the business istwo fold now, including the work

he previously did, and Ill also beworking with a company in TerreHaute, the Amatsi Group, andthats how weve expanded my an-imal health research work to full-time.

He noted he grew up in south-eastern Illinois and came to Indianawhile attending Purdue University,

where he received his PhD. Hetook a job with Pitman-Moore as asenior research scientist in 1987,which brought him to this area.

We kind of stuck in TerreHaute, and Extension gave me anopportunity to stay local and raisethe family locally and work in theeducation field with the kids andthe clientele, Miller said.

He advised he will miss his in-volvement with the SullivanCounty 4-H program the most.

The really good e nrollment inthe 4-H program and working withthe kids at camp and at the fair,Miller said. Well miss workingwith the kids because weve got agood, strong 4-H enrollment.

Miller moves

on from Purdue

Extension

MILLER

Be a voice forYOUR TOWN. Write for the Times.C O N T A C T U S T O I N Q U I R E A B O U T C O N T R I B U T I N G T O T H E S U L L I V A N D A I L Y T I M E S T O D A Y

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Agri-Business

PageTUESDAYS in theSULLIVAN DAILY TIMES

Farm in a box:Shipping containers reused

for fresh produceBOSTON (AP) Shipping containers

have been turned into housing, art, evenplaygrounds. Now, a Boston company is re-cycling them into high-tech mobile farms aspart of a new wave of companies hoping tobring more innovation to agriculture.

Freight Farms and other indoor agricul-ture companies are looking to meet thegrowing demand for high-quality, locallygrown and sustainable produce by farmingfruits and vegetables in non-traditionalspaces such as warehouses, industrial build-

ings and containers.Theyre using hydroponics and other

longstanding methods to grow plants with-out soil and incorporating technology thatautomates much of the work and reduceswaste.

The food system needs to be designedaround technology and equipment thatsavailable today, says Brad McNamara,Freight Farms CEO and co-founder. It wasdesigned 100 years ago without the righttechnology to reach the level that it needs to.

The whole system needs to be modernized.The company says its Leafy Green Ma-

chine helps farmers produce a consistentlybountiful crop roughly the typical yieldof an acre of farmland while using 90percent less water, no pesticides, and just320 square feet of space.

Climate controls, automated lightingand irrigation systems, and mobile apps formonitoring and maintaining crops remotelyalso allow farmers to grow year-round withminimal oversight.

Starting a farm is a lot to ask of oneperson, says company president and co-

founder Jon Friedman. So weve put to-gether a system that gives even a novice thetools to produce thousands of plants and getthem to market.

So far, Freight Farms customers say thebenefits outweigh the costs, which includethe $82,000 base price for the 2016 model,as well as an estimated $8,000 to $16,500 ayear in electricity, water and growing sup-ply costs.

The beauty of the Freight Farm is in itsease of use and its mobility, says Thomas

LaGrasso III, chief operating officer at La-Grasso Bros., a Detroit produce wholesaler

thats been growing lettuce in its unit sinceSeptember. We harvest to meet our cus-tomers daily needs. You cannot have it anyfresher.

Launched in 2010, Freight Farms isconsidered a pioneer of container farms.About a half-dozen other companies in theU.S. offer them, including CropBox in Clin-ton, North Carolina; Growtainers in Dallas;and PodPonics in Atlanta.

Freight Farms has sold 54 Leafy GreenMachines, with ones already in operation on

Googles campus in Mountain View, Cali-fornia; Stony Brook University on Long Is-land; and Four Burgers, a restaurant inCambridge, Massachusetts.

Most Freight Farm customers are grow-ing high turnover, compact crops the com-pany recommends lettuce; hearty greenslike kale, cabbage and Swiss chard; andherbs like mint, basil and oregano andselling them to local restaurants and gro-ceries and at community markets, accordingto McNamara and Friedman.

Jon Niedzielski, who heads the U.S. De-partment of Agricultures Farm Service

Agency in Massachusetts, says his office hasalready approved a handful of loans to farm-ers using Freight Farms containers.

Efficient, hydroponic systems thatneed little open space can make a lot ofsense, particularly in urban areas with lotsof potential consumers willing to pay topdollar, year-round, for lettuce and herbs, hesays.

Industry experts caution that upfrontcosts and annual operational expenses likeelectricity for lighting systems that often run

18 hours a day can mean slim profit marginsfor would-be farmers.

But they also suggest technological ad-vances are helping make indoor growingmore feasible.

I think it will take some developmentto make these systems truly sustainable,says Andrew Carter, an urban agricultureconsultant in New York and North Americanregion manager for the Germany-based As-sociation for Vertical Farming. But Im afirm believer in indoor agriculture and

small-scale growing and think it will supplyhealthy, sustainable, and local food.


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E Y E B A L L I N G A U C T I O N I T E M S

Times file photo

Members of the crowd examine the offerings in last years Sullivan High School FFA Alumni Association Consignment Auctionbefore the event started. This years event is scheduled for April 2.


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2249 N Section Street Sullivan, IN(812) 268-4387

www.piggimplement.com

FFAs nature trail included amongststates bicentennial legacy projects

By HAROLD [email protected]

With the states bicentennialkicking off earlier this month, alocal nature trail is included in itsroster of culturally and historicallyimportant projects.

The General Daniel SullivanNature Trail, overseen by the Sulli-van High School FFA chapter, hasbeen designated as a BicentennialLegacy Project by the celebrationcommittee.

The designation was made inlate October, chapter sponsor andSHS ag teacher Kevin Cross said.

The project has to be cultur-ally inclusive, and it has to be opento the public, and it has to ... have ahistorical element, he said of therequirements.

The trail was dedicated by thelocal FFA students on Sept. 2, andit was named after this countysnamesake, Gen. Daniel Sullivan,who was a spy for Colonial forcesagainst Native American troops

during the Revolutionary War.

The process to create the trailbegan in August 2013, when theFFA branch received a Living to

Serve Environmental Grant worthabout $2,000 to fund its construc-tion.

And, with the students provid-ing most of the work, Cross previ-ously told the Times the cost ofmaterials estimated to betweenabout $2,750 and $3,000 was theonly major expense incurred by thechapter.

The trail is also used by theSHS cross country teams as part ofits official competition course.

But the trail isnt just static. Itspart of the ever-evolving Ag Learn-ing Center property created by thelocal FFA.

The ag center is a constantwork in progress, Cross said.This past fall, we started amonarch butterfly habitat, a polli-nator garden ... This spring, we aregoing to continue to develop that.

He also noted that plans arebeing made to add livestock facili-

ties to the barn on the property.

I read it in the SULLIVAN DAILY TIMES

Times file photo

Those who attended a Sept. 2 dedication ceremony for the Sullivan High School FFAs General Daniel Sullivan Nature Trail got a chance to walk the trail,

which features bridges, slopes and winding paths, all amidst the forest thicket. The trail is now a designated Indiana Bicentennial Legacy Project.


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Times file photo

Attendees of last years Sullivan County Ag Day event visited several of the booths set up by local businesses and other vendors.

This years event is still in the planning stages.

A G D AY D R A W S C R OW D

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