Kansas

Grain Sorghum

Leader Update 

March 19, 2010

USCP Booth will be at Salina Farm Show

The United Sorghum Checkoff Program (USCP), will be among more than 325 exhibits at the 45^th Annual Mid-America Farm Exposition March 23-25 at the Bicentennial Center in Salina.

The Sorghum Checkoff has proved valuable due to declining sorghum acres and production over the past years along with decreased private investment in sorghum. The NSCP was created to bridge technology gaps and improve the profitability of the sorghum industry through research, promotion and information. For more information on the checkoff visit www.sorghumcheckoff.com

The Board of Directors of the USCP is represented well by Kansas growers. Bill Greving of Prairie View, serves as Chair and Jeff Casten of Quenemo, serves as Secretary of the Board. Members of the board also include Gary Kilgore of Chanute, Earl Roemer of Healy, and Greg Shelor, of Minneola.

The exhibits will be open 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. on March 23 and 24 and 9 A.M to 4 P.M. on March 25. Admission and parking are free for this event.

KGSPA Sends Letter to RMA Addressing Non-Irrigated Crop Rotations in Western Kansas and parts of Colorado and Nebraska

Follow this link for a pdf file of the letter we sent to RMA  on behalf of the Kansas Grain Sorghum and Kansas Corn associations to RMA regarding the non-irrigated crops proposal. We, along with other organizations, have asked that RMA have workshops to address our concerns with the proposal.

Six Kansas Towns in Federal Lawsuit Filed Over Atrazine

On March 8, 2010, St. Louis trial lawyer Stephen Tillery and his Dallas-based partner, the Baron & Budd law firm, filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Illinois on behalf of 17 cities in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, and Missouri, asking Syngenta to pay for water filtration in their communities.

Plaintiffs in the case are water systems in Coulterville, Evansville, Farina, and Gillespie, and Greenville, Illinois; Creston, Iowa; Jasper, Indiana; Carbondale, Dodge City, Marion, Miami County, Oswego, and Plains, Kansas; Cameron and Concordia, Missouri; and Monroeville and Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

These systems are in compliance with drinking water standards. It is not about atrazine. It is about greedy lawyers duping the systems into thinking they will get something for nothing.

It should be noted that a similar federal lawsuit was dismissed in 1999 when the judge ruled that removing safe and approved levels of atrazine from drinking water was unnecessary.

Atrazine Is Safe

Atrazine is an herbicide farmers have safely used for more than 50 years. EPA has more than 6,000 atrazine studies in its files. It was after an exhaustive 12-year review of many of these studies that EPA re-registered atrazine as safe for use in 2006. EPA stated that the cumulative risks associated with triazine herbicides pose “no harm that would result to the general US population, infants, children or other . . . consumers.”  Atrazine has also been given a clean bill of health by the governments of Great Britain and Australia, as well as by the World Health Organization.  For 50 years, atrazine has been used safely in agriculture with no adverse effects on humans or animals.

Not surprisingly, media reports have preceded any actual legal receipt notifying the registrant of this action. Included with this update is the actual filing from the plaintiffs.