Georgia Farm Bureau's Leadership Alert - April 7, 2010

April 7, 2010

www.gfb.org

Vol. 28 No. 14

GFB WORKSHOP PROVIDES TIPS FOR AVOIDING PREMISE LIABILITY Identifying and/or eliminating unreasonable risks present on your property is the best defense against potential premise liability lawsuits, GFB insurance staff and an attorney specializing in agriculture law advised Farm Bureau members during a workshop held at the GFB state headquarters March 31.

“The key thing to remember when you open your farm to the public is your risk is increased, and you have a responsibility to look at your operation for potential risks and take steps to prevent accidents,” GFB Underwriting Manager Leanna Sherman said.

“Trip and fall” hazards are one of the biggest liabilities agritourism owners have, said GFB District 5 Field Underwriter Joey Shipp. “Treat everyone who comes on your premises as if they’re 2 years old or 90 years old and things will probably go a lot better for you,” he recommended.

Shipp advised property owners to fill in holes visitors could fall in and rope off potentially hazardous areas that cannot be fixed or eliminated, such as protruding tree roots, old debris or farm equipment. He also advised posting caution signs to warn visitors of potentially hazardous areas.

“If you mix signs with a gate or door you’ve done your due diligence,” Shipp said.

“Doors, gates or ropes are important to keep kids or people who can’t read out.”

GFB District 6 Field Underwriter Bryan Mitchell encouraged property owners to contact their insurance agents and arrange a farm visit for an insurance underwriter to discuss possible risk exposures and steps property owners can take to limit their liability.

“Having a regular plan in place to check your property for potential risks to remedy them is a defense for showing you were being responsible,” Mitchell said. He also urged property owners to review their insurance policies and know what is and isn’t covered, saying, “It’s easier to have this discussion before an accident occurs than having your insurance adjuster have to explain why you aren’t covered.”

Property owners operating agritourism venues can do simple things like walking through their corn mazes daily to check for holes that need to be filled or checking the air pressure on equipment used for hayrides. Doing so establishes that reasonable inspection procedures were being followed, which can offer a defense should a lawsuit be filed, said Joel McKie, an agricultural lawyer with the law firm Hall, Booth, Smith & Slover, P.C. “Your goal is not to win a lawsuit but to eliminate risks to avoid being sued,” McKie said. “You know holes are going to develop in your corn maze and strawberry field, so you need to level them out as long as it’s business feasible.”

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U.S., BRAZIL NEGOTIATE PATH TO RESOLUTION IN COTTON DISPUTE Representatives of the office of the United States Trade Representatives met with Brazilian officials last week and worked out a plan that moves the two countries toward resolution in the ongoing dispute over U.S. government payments to cotton producers, which Brazil has maintained creates an unfair market for its cotton growers. The plan calls for the U.S. to fund technical assistance for Brazilian growers instead of the implementation of tariffs. The U.S. also agreed to change its export credit guarantee programs.

“We believe it is appropriate on the part of both governments to take steps to avoid the imposition of retaliatory tariffs and other countermeasures,” Senate Agriculture Committee ranking minority member Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said in a joint statement. “Failure to do so would make it far more difficult to reach a negotiated resolution in this long-running dispute.”

The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in August 2009 that Brazil could impose $820 million annually in retaliatory tariffs against U.S. growers. Of that amount, $147.3 million was the penalty for government payments to producers and the remainder was for U.S. export guarantee programs. On March 8, Brazil released a list of items - many of them unrelated to cotton - that would be subject to tariffs effective April 7.

Deputy USTR Miriam Sapiro and USDA Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Jim Miller met with Brazilian Ambassador Antonio Patriota, secretary general of Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations, to discuss possible resolution of the dispute. They reached an agreement for the U.S. to provide $147.3 million per year in funding for technical assistance and capacity building to Brazilian producers until the passage of the next Farm Bill or until the two countries reach a final agreement in the cotton dispute, whichever comes first.

The U.S. also agreed to make changes to the operation of the GSM-102 Export Credit Guarantee Program, and in turn Brazil agreed not to impose any countermeasures on U.S. trade on April 7.

GEORGIA FILES APPEAL IN LAKE LANIER WATER CASE In the latest development in its ongoing water dispute with Florida and Alabama over use of water drawn from Lake Lanier, the state of Georgia last week filed an appeal of U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson’s ruling.

Magnuson ruled last summer that water from Lake Lanier was not intended for use as a regional water supply and gave the three states until July 2012 to forge an agreement on how the water from the lake is to be shared.

In its appeal, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia argues that provisions to supply water to metro Atlanta were made in the Congressional approval of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Buford Dam project that formed Lake Lanier.

Further, the state asserts that the penalties in Magnuson’s decision are excessive.

Georgia continues to negotiate with Alabama and Florida, and the Georgia General Assembly recently passed two water conservation bills aimed at streamlining use of water in the state.

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EQIP PROGRAM FACES POSSIBLE FUNDING CUTS The U.S. Senate Ag Committee last month unanimously passed a bill reauthorizing child nutrition programs and allocating $4.5 billion over 10 years to fund programs for school lunches, child obesity prevention and other programs. Part of that funding, however came at the expense of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), a provision of the 2008 farm bill from which $2.5 billion would be cut if the bill becomes law.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the ranking minority member of the committee, pointed out that EQIP had more than $1 billion in unfunded applications in FY 2009.

Chambliss offered an amendment to replace cuts to EQIP with cuts to the Conservation Security Program (CSP) while adding funding for other nutrition programs, but the amendment failed by an 11-10 committee vote.

The bill’s provisions garnered widespread support, but offsetting its costs with the cut to EQIP funding could strain growers’ conservation efforts. With agricultural producers facing increasing pressure to seek out environmentally friendly farming and ranching methods, the EQIP funding is an important resource to help them meet environmental requirements.

"The cut will mean fewer producers will receive assistance to address the conservation and environmental challenges they face,” Chambliss said. “I can’t think of a less opportune time to reduce assistance available to producers to deal with current challenges and future regulations required by EPA.” The bill will be sent to the full Senate for a vote later this year.

COTTON, HAY ACREAGE EXPECTED TO INCREASE IN 2010 While growers are expected to plant significantly fewer acres with soybeans and wheat, Georgia’s farmers have indicated their plantings of hay and cotton will rise in 2010.

According to surveys by the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) Georgia growers intend to plant 1,150,000 acres of cotton, up from 1 million in 2009, or an increase of 15 percent, consistent with the nationwide expansion of cotton planting.

Hay acreage is anticipated to increase by 11 percent, from 700,000 in 2009 to 780,000 this year. The expected hay acreage is the largest since 1955, when Georgia producers harvested 924,000 acres.

Those increases offset reductions in winter wheat and soybean acreage. Wheat plantings are anticipated to fall by 140,000 acres (from 340,000 in 2009 to 200,000) in part because there is a surplus of stored wheat from the past two years’ crops. Acreage for soybeans, which were planted on 470,000 acres in Georgia in 2009, is down to 320,000.

One other major commodity crop, peanuts, is expected to be grown on a greater number of acres. Peanuts were grown on 510,000 acres in Georgia last year, and that number is expected to rise to 540,000 in 2010.

The state’s growers intend to harvest fewer acres of snap beans and cantaloupes, and while harvested acreage in spring onions is expected to increase by 1,500 acres, onion yields are down for the second straight year.

Leadership Alert page 4 of 4 UPCOMING EVENTS FORAGE FIELD DAY April 10 Joe. B. Harris Pond House 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

Odum Topics to be covered in this workshop include ryegrass variety and fertilization trial results, forage storage methods, seeding rates, nutrient applications, harvesting methods and USDA forage programs.

Register by April 5 by contacting Shanda Thompson via e-mail at Shanda.Thompson@ga.usda.gov or at 912-427-2502.

FORT VALLEY STATE HAM AND EGG BREAKFAST April 13 C.W. Pettigrew Farm and Community Life Center Fort Valley The public is invited to attend Fort Valley State University’s 28th Annual Ham and Egg Breakfast and meet with elected officials who have been invited to this historical event to discuss current topics. Begins at 8 a.m. Cost is $6. Contact Jean Willis at 478-825-6268 or willise@fvsu.edu, to pre-register.

ANTIQUE TRACTOR SHOW April 17 Calhoun Produce 5075 Hawpond Rd. 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Ashburn The Triple River Old Iron and Alapahoochee Historic Farm Heritage tractor clubs will display their tractors and invite anyone with an antique tractor to bring theirs. The public is invited to come see the tractors, take a wagon ride to see the farm animals or pick strawberries. Lunch and assorted strawberry desserts will be sold at the Calhoun Produce deli counter. Call 229-273-1887 for more information.

GA HEIFER EVALUATION & REPRODUCTIVE DEVELOPMENT (HERD) SALE April 20 Tifton Bull Evaluation Center Irwinville Sale begins at 12:30 p.m. Contact Dr. Robert Stewart via e-mail at rstewart @uga.edu or Patsie T. Cannon by calling 229-386-3683.

UGA BEEF CATTLE FIELD DAY Apr. 21 Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center Blairsville Registration starts at 9 a.m. The field day ends at 3 p.m. This free event offers Georgia cattlemen up-todate research-based information. Josh White of the Georgia Cattlemen's Association will give an update during lunch. The field day is sponsored by AgGeorgia Farm Credit and Southeastern Farmers Co-op. For information, call 706-745-2655.

3RD ANNUAL UGA BULLDOG BONANZA BENEFIT HORSE SALE April 24 UGA Livestock Instructional Arena 2600 South Milledge Ave. Athens Sale begins at noon. Horses may be viewed beginning at 9 a.m. Proceeds benefit the Georgia 4-H Horse Program and UGA Equine program. For more information, contact Dr. Gary Heusner at 706-542-9092 or via e-mail at gheusner@uga.edu or Dr. Kari Turner at 706-542-8588 or via e-mail at kturner@uga.edu.

4-H GIVE2VOTE CHALLENGE Through April 30 Anyone who wishes to support their state 4-H program can text CLOVER to 50555 to donate $10. The state 4-H program receiving the most donations in this national fundraiser by mobile phone or by giving online at 4-H.org will receive a bonus $5,000 provided by JCPenney. Each donation counts as one vote.

Participating wireless carriers include AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and Nextel. The state donation designation will be determined by the area code of the mobile subscriber.

DEEP SOUTH POULTRY CONFERENCE May 12 UGA Tifton Rural Development Center Tifton This conference, originally announced for April 7, provides education programming for poultry producers with emphasis on broiler and breeder management. Contact Claudia Dunkley at 229-386-3363 or cdunkley@uga.edu. Leadership Alert regrets any inconvenience the date change may have caused.