Trending
Advanced Cottage Food Producer Food Safety Workshop to be held in Willmar
Do you make and sell baked goods, home-canned pickles, salsa, jam and jellies? Are you a cottage food producer? If you are, attend the Advanced Cottage Food Producer Food Safety Workshop from 1:30-4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, at the U of M Extension Regional Office, Willmar.
This advanced safe food handling course focuses on aspects of cottage food products including baked, confectionery, dried, fruit preserves and, acid and acidified fruit and vegetables. You will learn how to produce, package and label a safe food product.
Wonder if your product tests as an allowable non-potentially hazardous food? Bring it along to the cottage food class and have it tested.
If you sell more than $5,000 annually, this workshop meets the training requirement to register as a Minnesota cottage food producer. Registration materials available at http://www.extension.umn.edu/food/food-safety/courses/cottage-foods/. For more information contact, Karla at (507) 337-2808 or engel114@umn.edu.
Source: Kathy Brandt, Extension food safety educator, brand030@umn.edu, U of M Extension Regional Office, Marshall
Reporting of 2018 forage and fall seeded crops at FSA
All producers are reminded that the acreage reporting date for all forage and fall seeded crops is coming up. The acreage reporting date of Nov. 15, 2017 applies to all of the following categories:
(a) Fall seeded small grains (winter wheat, oats, barley, wild rice...).
(b) Forage production -- fall seeding (insured/no insurance).
(c) Forage for grazing including pasture
(d) Forage production -- prior year seeding (insured/no insurance).
The following exceptions apply to the above acreage reporting date:
If the crop has not been planted by the above acreage reporting date, then the acreage must be reported no later than 15 calendar days after planting is complete.
If a producer acquires additional acreage after the above acreage reporting date, then the acreage must be reported no later than 30 calendars days after purchase or acquiring the lease. Appropriate documentation must be provided to the county office.
If a perennial forage crop is reported with the intended use of "cover only," "green manure," "left standing" or "seed," then the acreage must be reported by July 15.
We know how busy it gets during harvest season; therefore if a producer only needs to report forage that already exists, category (c and d) above, we encourage them to come into the local office as soon as possible but no later than Nov. 15, 2017. Most producers completed this task when they reported their 2017 acres this past summer, the remaining farms not certified will be contacted shortly. If a producer still intends to plant a fall seeding; category (a) or (b) above those cannot be reported until they are planted and by Nov. 15.
Wisconsin dairy farmers consider risk management options
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A change to the Dairy Margin Protection Program means Wisconsin dairy farmers can choose to opt out of the federal program and turn to other risk management strategies.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture no longer requires farmers to enroll in the safety net program, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. Farmers previously had to enroll for the duration of the Farm Bill, which is passed by Congress every four years and sets federal agriculture policy.
The program pays farmers if price drops or other events impact income. But industry groups have been working to create alternatives to the program for the 2018 Farm Bill.
"It seems like there's been a lot of money that's been put into the federal treasury and very little of it's actually went back to dairy farmers," said Darin Von Ruden, president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
The American Farm Bureau Federation has proposed a Dairy Revenue Protection plan that would be similar to crop insurance.
"It would kind of be a hybrid of MPP and using the future market," said Karen Gefvert from the Wisconsin Farm Bureau. "It's something that we're interested in and supportive of moving forward as another tool in the toolbox for farmers to utilize for risk management."