The Boondocks blog, No. 55 for the week starting February 3, 2008.
Monday
Farms Continue to Consolidate in NYS
Tuesday
The Devestation of Timber Theft
Farmers Feeling the Impact of Global Warming
Energy looks at high energy prices and our future.
Enviroman looks at man and the environment.
Hayseeds looks at politics and life in our nation.
Individual looks at myself and how I'm changing
Outblog is all about my outdoor experiences.
Transit looks at the changing ways we get around.
Truck gives you stories and trips in my Ford Ranger.
Farms Continue to Consolidate in NYS. While actual land in production hasn't changed much from last year, it looks like farms have gotten larger and fewer in number.
Farms that where making between $1,000 to $10,000 where the biggest hit, losing 1,800 farms of this size. Larger farms increased in numbers, and in increase in acrage kept the net loss of farms at only 800 for last year.
There are currently 34,200 farms in New York State that produce $1,000 or more a year, and that consists of 7.5 million acres of land or about 12 thousand square miles of the state farmed.
That equals about 22% of the land of our state in active agricultural production. That number is slightly lower then reality, as it includes water bodies within state limits. P'Link
The Devestation of Timber Theft. There is an interesting article in the New York Times that talks about the problem of timber theft leaving farmers without a valuable crop that takes years to grow.
The trees around George and Agnes Spaulding’s 170-year-old farmhouse here are as good as money in the bank, many being old-growth maples that are valuable not only for the quality of their wood but also for the sweet sap that the couple boils into syrup each spring.
Mr. Spaulding at home with his wife, Agnes, and Mark Farlow, who works on their farm.
Having been born on the farm, Mr. Spaulding, 78, loves the trees the way only someone who grew up with them could. But beyond that, he counts on the syrup sales to supplement the family income, which comes mainly from the twice-a-day milking of three dozen cows.
Interesting read. P'Link
Farmers Feeling the Impact of Global Warming. Last Wednesday, farmers and global warming scientists came to the Capitol to talk about the issue of global warming and it's effects on local farms.
New York state already is showing warning signs. In the 1970s, upstate had snow on the ground an average 87 days—a full two weeks longer than now, according to figures from the National Climatic Data Center. Since then, average winter temperatures in the region climbed 4.5, and more rain is replacing snow.
Continued warming temperatures will hurt dairy and fruit farms. Cows produce the most milk when temperatures are between 40 and 70, and by 2070, milk production could be off by as much as 20 percent, said Rosenzweig.
It's a bit scary for so many people that have set their lives around traditional crops and stock. P'Link
Copyright ©1999-2008 Andy Arthur.
All mistakes are intentional or otherwise.
Mind where you step in a cow pasture or legal mindfield.