Farmer Makes Mineral Feeder Portable

Lee Gooder already had three perfectly good feeders, one in each of his three pastures. Why, then, did he need a brand-new one, his wife, Jill, wanted to know.

“This mineral feeder has curtains and scratchers and a large, rubber tub for salt and mineral,” he explained to her.

Still skeptical, she asked him how he intended to move it from one pasture to the next. “That was a good question. Once I made it portable, she was OK with it, and we were all good to go,” he says.

That portability has worked out extremely well, Gooder emphasizes. The transition began by mounting a snowmobile trailer axle to the self-feeder.

Son Zach helped build the axle mount and a hitch. They got help from a local welding shop with fabrication and mounting.

“That axle is removable, so when we want to take it off and make a stationary unit, we can,” Gooder points out.

switch out when fly season is over

Since dust bags and an oiler aren’t required during the winter, the Gooders can have their trailer back in time for snowmobile season.

The Cattle Saver feeder built by Easy Way Cattle Care in Decorah, Iowa, gets shedded. “I put the three old feeders back out until springtime,” he says.

The Gooders’ pastureland has steep slopes. So steep, the ground has never been used for anything but pasture. Yet, Gooder says, he’s had no trouble pulling the feeder with his Gator.

“I can easily lift the tongue even when the feeder is full of mineral. It’s nimble, but it’s stable, too. We get quite a bit of wind up there, and, so far, it hasn’t been knocked over,” he says. 

Another winner

Gooder is the last recipient of a $2,500 Firestone in-store credit offer for having his idea chosen as the Idea of the Month.

More about Lee Gooder

Family farm: Besides fall-calving stock cows, Gooder grows corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. He also feeds out Jersey bottle calves. He is a full-time road maintenance employee for Howard County in northeast Iowa.

Anticipation: The county has ordered him a new Caterpillar road grader.

Changing practices: Gooder sold his disk recently and bought a super coulter. “I’m trying to go as minimum-till as possible. The goal is to eventually do no-till,” he says. 

Family: Wife Jill works full time at the local hospital. Both of their children, daughter Shelley and son Zach, are grown.

To join in the all farm contest click here and submit your ideas

UN Conference reaches agreement to Mainstreaming Biodiversity to ensure Sustainable Development

As part of efforts to achieve sustainable development, governments from 167 countries have given an unparalleled recognition to the need to protect biodiversity across the agricultural sectors towards ensuring food security and addressing climate change.

The global leaders while making the agreement at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP13) held recently in Cancun, Mexico consented on specific steps to promote the integration of the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity within and across the agriculture, fisheries, forestry and tourism sectors.

Addressing participants at the Conference, Deputy Director General Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Maria Helena Semedo explained that though agricultural sectors and biodiversity have often been regarded as separate and even conflicting concerns, they are inextricably connected.

“Agriculture is by nature a major user of biodiversity, but it also has the potential to contribute to its protection,” she added

The Conference declaration stressed that the international community must involve different governmental and economic sector and not just environment ministries to protect biodiversity- the thousands of interconnected species that make up a vital web of ecosystem services upon which global food production depends.

The platform which is aimed at facilitating cross-sector dialogue, will allow ministries of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and environment to share experiences and explore how to best encourage sectors that depend or have an impact on biodiversity to adopt integrated approaches for its conservation and sustainable use.

Dangote extols Nigerians’ perseverance, canvasses for agric resurgence

The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has commended Nigerians for their resilience and perseverance in the face of prevailing economic challenges, while stressing the need for Nigerians to return to agriculture.

 

Dangote who stated this while addressing a group of small and medium scale enterprises in Lagos, on the challenges faced in the country stressed the need to become a producing nation and reduce importation.

 

According to him, “We need to produce what we consume as opposed to importation, which takes away our forex. 

 

We import just anything and the reality is dawn on us now that we have to change this habit, this is why the federal government has been emphasizing the need to go back to agriculture and total manufacturing so that we also can produce what we need and even export rather than import.”

 

He furthered that the nation has abundant raw materials to produce and did not need to import of some of these products.

 

Expressing confidence that the sacrifices made by the citizens would see the country out of the woods the business mogul urged the people to cooperate with the government in bringing Nigeria back to a path of sufficiency and economic buoyancy.

 

Vanguard reports that the business mogul had indicated that his new $12 billion three in one project, the refinery, petrochemical and fertilizer plants currently under construction would create a minimum of 235,000 new jobs, both direct and indirect jobs, as it becomes operational in the first quarter of 2019.

FG increases import duties on rice, salt and other food items

The Federal Government has raised duties on some food items being imported into the country. Some of these food items include rice, salt and sugarcane and are known have alternatives that can be sourced locally.

 

The new rate which is contained in a circular by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun to Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is an increase from the 20 per cent which the owners currently enjoy. 

 

According to the Finance Minister, President Buhari has already approved the new tariff structure.

“This is to confirm that Mr. President has approved the 2016 fiscal policy measures made up of the 

 

Supplementary Protection Measures (SPM) for implementation together with the ECOWAS CET 2015 – 2019 with effect from 17th October, 2016”, she said.

 

“Consequently, all transactions prior to the effective date of this circular shall be subjected to the tariff rates applicable before the coming into effect of this 2016 fiscal policy measures”, she added.

 

Due to the increase,  sugar cane and salt prices have now increased by 60 per cent; alcoholic spirit, beverages and tobacco from 20 per cent to 60 per cent; and rice from 10 per cent to 60 per cent.

 

Medicaments such as anti-malarials and antibiotics; crude palm oil; wheat flour; tomatoes paste; and cassava products are also affected in the upward review of duties.

 

It will be recalled that the plan to raise the duties was first contemplated by former Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala under the immediate past administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

How AfDB is helping transform Agriculture in Africa – Report

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has deployed $5.5 billion in investments into the agriculture sector over five years up to 2015, the new Development Effectiveness Review on Agriculture, has revealed.

 

According to the review, the bank trained three million people on better farming practices, put 20,000 food marketing and storage into use, constructed four thousand kilometres of feeder roads, offered 150,000 microcredit loans, irrigated and built other water systems on 181,000 hectare of farmland.

 

While commenting on the review, the Director of Quality Assurance and Results of the Department that authored the Review Simon Mizrahi explained that the Review is Mission accomplished.

 

“The Development Effectiveness Review is mission accomplished, as the AfDB sets out an even more ambitious agenda in its Feed Africa strategy to end hunger and extreme poverty by 2025” he said

 

The Review which details the progress and the pitfalls to date in transforming Africa’s agriculture sector, lays out what steps must be taken to catapult Africa into becoming a global agricultural power house in the next decade.

 

It maintains that, agriculture has zoomed to the top of Africa’s policy agenda, with African countries pledging to eradicate hunger and halve post-harvest losses in under a decade. 

 

Some of other most noteworthy operations of the Bank cited in the report during the period include the Africa Food Crisis Response Programme, which fast-tracked relief that raised US$1.0 billion and led to better harvests; New Rice for Africa, which boosted the hardiness, nutrition and yields of rice and improved the livelihoods of almost a quarter of a million subsistence farmers amongst others.

 

To end hunger, the development report stresses the need to invest in agriculture as it remains the only panacea to the problem of hunger and poverty in the continent.

 

“It has become increasingly clear that investing in agriculture is the best way to end hunger, malnutrition, and extreme poverty in Africa,” the development report states. 

 

“Given that seven out of 10 Africans earn a living from the land, agriculture can create economic growth spread more evenly across society, and extending deeper into rural areas, and helping more women, who make up 70 percent of farmers”, it reads.