The Boondocks blog, No. 4 for the week starting July 17, 2006.
Monday
The Man Who Permits Those Big Trucks
Friday
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.
The Man Who Permits Those Big Trucks. The TU has a nice article on the structural engineer, Joesph Lee-Civalier, that oversees the program for the oversized and overweight trucks that cross our state.
As Joesph notes, be very, very afraid anytime you cross a bridge in New York State. It was the advise of a Massachussets governor of some time ago—when you drive across a bridge, proceed quickly and do not look backwords. As Tom Madison so proudly noted earlier this year, there are only major failures last year. P'Link
Ag and Markets on NAIS. They now have a nice website with a very content-looking herford with an ear tag on the NAIS program in New York State.
Right now the premisis registration is free, though the idea of when they go to individual animal it could end up getting rather expensive for small farmers. The state is purchasing big RFID scanner for the big cattle markets, but everybody else will have to pay for those RFID tags for livestock and readers to boot.
It's not clear whether or not using other forms of animal identification will be acceptable such as ear tags as shown in the picture. As long as it's just a free paper form supplied by Ag & Mkts with the option of email/internet submission for people with internet, I don't see any real problem with farmers having to let Ag & Mkts know where there animals are going once they leave the farm.
The devil will in be the details, well hidden under the spin between the pro-NAIS and anti-NAIS folks. If it's just some paperwork that doesn't really effect farming much and doesn't cost more then a few minutes time or postage stamps, then I'm fine with it. We should know where cows and other animals are going and coming from when going on to the market. Hell, plenty of farmers already have to deal with the sometimes burdensome CAFO paperwork, not to mention inspectors and all the stuff that goes with milk production in our state.
That not only makes it easier for people who worry about animal outbreaks in the ag industry, it also means more countries will be willing to buy our products. P'Link
Copyright ©1999-2008 Andy Arthur.
All mistakes are intentional or otherwise.
Mind where you step in a cow pasture or legal mindfield.