A fair day

It is county fair season. White eggs, brown eggs; Rhode Island Reds, White Leghorns, and many other breeds of chicken will be on display at fairs all over rural Virginia. Fairs reach back into our agricultural roots, provide rides and amusements to kids, live entertainment, and serve up fresh lemonade, BBQ, and funnel cakes.

Albemarle County fair was last week - weather was good, but organizers were disappointed by turnout. Could it be that the age of the county fair is passing, diminished by suburbia, satellite TV, MySpace, and video gaming? Plus, during a tough economy, the entrance fee, charges for rides, and fairly expensive food makes for a costly family night out.  Augusta's fair is this week and from the program and long list of exhibitors it appears to have grown. Time will tell if attendance will follow. The weather looks cooperative. Many fairgoers think the Rockingham County Fair, next week, is the gold standard of county fairs in Virginia.

Fairs are also political events with local parties setting up booths and candidates working the crowds. I'm not sure how well balloons and bumper stickers competes with chickens, canned veggies, cows, and kiddie rides, but the politicos are working hard. One new aspect of fair politics is the Obama folks looking for new voters to register. You can spot them with an Obama button and a clipboard working the crowds around popular displays and events. With a close race expected in November, newly registered voters (if they vote), could make all the difference. The Obama folks are confident that they will get them to the polls.

Other grist

Rumor is the Obama campaign, which just opened offices in Harrisonburg and Staunton, may open part time offices in Lexington and Bridgewater. They have recruited a big volunteer base. Now, that's grassroots! Pecking for votes all over the 6th district!

Another rumor is the McCain campaign will respond by opening a HQ in Harrisonburg. This should be safe turf for a Republican and even the rumor of this office is an admission of how much trouble McCain and the Republicans are in.

The Gilmore campaign continues wallowing in chicken litter. The other day at an event in Culpepper, only 12 people showed up. A similar thing happened on his recent trip along I-81. Several stops were at businesses where he had a captive audience; those that weren't attracted little attention. Local Democrats are reporting that well-known Republicans are actually coming by and asking for Mark Warner yard signs and bumper stickers. Rumors are flying like feathers that Gilmore's donors are disappearing and his quest for party money will be like scratching for a bug in dry dirt.

Finally, Chris Saxman and Matt Lohr held a press conference in Harrisonburg to talk about ethanol and talk about McCain's energy policy. CCC has discussed ethanol in several earlier posts. Senators Webb and Warner recently asked the EPA to back off the ethanol mandates to ease the pressure on corn as poultry and livestock feed. So, nothing really new from the two McCain surrogates. What interested this bird were the visual images on TV3 and in the DNR - on TV3 the shot was tight and showed Saxman, Lohr, and about three others. The front page pic in the DNR looked like Lohr lost in a cornfield. My guess it they were mostly talking to themselves. Cluck.

Good Eggs - Bad Eggs

Governor Tim Kaine announced that Westport Corp. will invest $3 million to open an assembly plant in Roanoke. They will take over the 200,000 square foot Smurf-it building to build axles for the Volvo Heavy Truck Plant in Dublin. VA bested WV in competition for the plant that will create 60 jobs. Cock-a-doodle-do!

Corn prices are described as the "silent killer" for the poultry industry which is so important to the economy of the central Shenandoah Valley. Feed makes up 70% of the cost of producing chickens and turkeys. Corn prices have gone from $4.60/bushel at the first of the year to nearly $8.00/bushel recently. Most analysts think the federal mandate for 15 billion gallons of grain-based ethanol is a major reason for the nearly doubling of price. So, in addition to your morning bowl of corn flakes, you can expect to see prices rising for chicken, turkey, and beef too. Thanks Congress and President Bush. CCC has posted on this previously - the basic analysis stands.

The increase in feed prices could lead to job losses. Pilgrim's Pride in Broadway has cut back on egg placements by 5% and they closed a NC plant and let go 1,100 employees.

Coarse cracked corn used to be the low cost ingredient in cheap wild bird food - no more. Gimme some thistle seed.

Cheep. 

With Election Looming, Goodlatte Listens

By a vote of 318-106 the House of Representatives passed a $209 billion farm bill that includes crop subsidies, school lunches, and promotes ethanol. It also includes historic funding for cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay. Bob Goodlatte, whose hearing may have improved a bit with elections less than six months away, voted for the bill. The Virginia delegation supported the bill by a vote of 7-4  with Republicans Goode, Wolfe, Davis, and Cantor voting no. Agriculture is important in all of Virginia, nowhere more so than the 6th District.

The bill now goes to the Senate where it has bipartisan support. President Bush, saying the bill gives too much to farmers, is threatening a veto. If the House numbers stay firm, there will be sufficient votes to override. Goodlatte, who has rarely broken from the Bush position on anything, will be one to watch closely. Perhaps the increasing irrelevancy of the president combined with GOP setbacks in recent special elections and a strong challenge by Democrat Sam Rasoul have gotten Mr. Goodlatte's attention. 

Environmentalists have applauded the increased funding ($440 million) for bay cleanup efforts. "This is a win for everybody. It's a win for the farmers who are looking for help in their efforts to improve the Chesapeake Bay and it's a win for everybody in the region who loves the bay," said Doug Siglin, of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The funding would support various programs affecting farms - planting cover crops and forested buffer zones to help filter out contaminants before they get into streams and rivers that flow into the bay. It is estimated that about 40% of contaminants come from farms in the bay's watershed.

The bill retains the traditional commodity subsidies and includes $3.8 billion permanent disaster payment program for farmers hit hard by weather losses.

Any blog named Coarse Cracked Corn has an interest in a farm bill and especially in the ethanol provisions. The president has pushed ethanol as a partial solution to our energy needs but from my perspective corn-based ethanol is not the way to go. It is expensive to produce and puts energy and food in competition. On the positive side, the farm bill places new emphasis on other sources of ethanol including incentives for sugar and cellulosic (like wood chips) ethanol production - a good development that may make ethanol production more efficient and reduce its emphasis on corn. The bill cuts the tax credit for ethanol producers by 6 cents to 45 cents/gallon. On the other hand, the bill preserves some favoritism for corn ethanol and protects domestic ethanol production by maintaining a high tariff to keep Brazilian ethanol, which is made from sugar, out of U.S. markets. I hope this anti-competitive tariff is temporary. For more information on the energy provisions of the farm bill check out this article.

That's all from the barnyard for now. Peck. Peck.