A32—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, May 22,1912
U.S. Senator battles ag weather forecasting elimination
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S.
Senator Howell Heflin (D-Ala) has
led successful battles in the Senate
to save a key agricultural weather
forecasting service from being
eliminated and to prevent the
Federal Trade Commission from
interfering with agricultural
cooperatives.
In Senate Committee action.
self-sufficient farms by 1990
WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Scientists at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture are working on
three broad fronts in an effort to
help make this country’s farms
and ranches energy selt-etficienl
by 1990.
Terry B. Kinney, Jr., ad
ministrator of USDA’s
Agricultural Research Service,
briefly sketchted the areas of
scientific endeavor:
—One project focuses on
developing alternative sources of
energy, such as solar power for
heating and crop drying, wind
power for irrigation pumping,
manure from cattle feedlots and
herds as a biogas fuel, and farm
grown crops including some
weeds that may be processed
into fuels and substitutes for
petrochemicals.
—Another project aims to im
prove the efficiency of plants in
converting sunlight to food and
extracting nitrogen from the air.
—Still another strives to save
fuel by minimizing tillage, using
sludge as a fertilizer, developing
new irrigation techraques and
other direct energy-cutting ap
proaches.
One example of an energy
oriented research project that
could pay off big, said Kinney, is
the research on soybeans.
USDA researchers are trying to
get soybeans to stop wasting
carbon dioxide thatTSe plant uses
in making sugar in the
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Heflin successfully fought an
Administration proposal to kill the
federal government’s only
agricultural weather forecasting
program—an essential service
that saves American farmers
hundreds of millions of dollars
each year.
Heflin, also a member of the
USDA’s goal is energy
photosynthesis cycle. Success
would mean that farmers could use
a third less land and still harvest
the same amount of soybeans,
hence radically cutting the amount
of energy needed to grow food.
About 25 percent of the carbon
dioxide the soybean could use for
sugar production and growth now
is wasted in the photosynthesis
cycle as plants change sunrays to
food. Stopping that energy waste
could lead to as much as a 45
percent increase m productivity
for soybeans and other major
Senate Agriculture Committee,
restored the |1.2 million budget for
the National Weather Service
Agricultural Program.
"This farm weather forecastmg
service saves American farmers
more than $750 million each year in
production costs of the major
agricultural commodities of
crops such as wheat and beets.
If a crop utilized 25 percent more
carbon dioxide m synthesizing
sugar in the plant, tanners could
use a third less fuel to grow the
same number of plants as before.
Kinney said more details about
USDA research designed to save
energy in agriculture are available
in a 70-page publication, “Energy
Research for the Farm.” Copies
may be obtained from the Office of
Governmental and Public Affairs,
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D.C. 20250.
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cotton,‘corn, soybeans, livestock,
wheat and nee,” Heflin said.
"The $1.2 million price tag for
this vital agncultural weather
forecasting program is money
wisely invested in helping farmers
with their planting, fertilizing, and
harvesting and in insuring an
abundant and affordable supply of
food and fiber for the American
people,” he said.
Heflin said he has been told by
numerous Alabama farmers that
the state’s multi-bilhon dollar
agncultural economy is dependent
upon the weather reporting ser
vice.
"Weather information is
especially vital to farmers,” Heflin
said. "This program provides
accurate weather forecasts that
keep costs dovt i while increasing
farm product!' ty. This valuable
information 1 elps the farmer
decide when to irrigate, fertilize,
plant, control pests and weeds, and
even when to harvest his crops. ’ ’
Heflin pointed out that the
nation’s first Agricultural Weather
Service was established at Auburn
University in 1973. The program is
administered by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad
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In Alabama alone, Heflin said,
there are 10 NOAA weather radio
stations and 76 commercial radio
and television stations,
newspapers, and cable television
systems that subscribe to the
agricultural "weather wire.”
In other committee action,
Heflin led the fight to prevent the
Federal Trade Commission from
gaining jurisdiction over
agricultural cooperatives and
farmers’ associations.
"American farmers are having a
tough enough time making ends
meet now without having to deal
with yet another layer of
bureaucrats in Washington, O.C.
meddling m their affairs,” Heflin
said.
“The U.S. Department of
Agriculture was created in 1862 to
deal with the problems confronting
American fanners,” Heflin said.
“Granting the Federal Trade
Commission jurisdiction over
agricultural cooperatives and
farmers’ associations is un
necessary would only add to the
production costs which are!-
alreaday threatening the future of*
American agnculture.”