[fogish]

The engines used on small backhoes is usually 7-9 hp. Do you have a pump already?

[fogish]

How often do you apply it?

[fogish]

Still on the subject of rotational grazing and the trouble with hay, I read this article recently: http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.com/articles/view.php?entryID=28
I don’t know how well it would work in the North East but it’s something to think about if you have limited hay supplies.

[fogish]

Here is an article I have posted before on the same subject, it is from Ireland.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[fogish]

I have used Dannie Gilder a few times. He has good rates and I have never had a problem with him. I also suggest you get your own insurance no matter who you ship with. Don’t assume they have all of the coverage you want, get it for yourself.

http://www.dustygilder.com/home.html

[fogish]

On your right hand side is your nickname just above “logout.” Click on it and then on the left side under your avatar will be an “Edit” button, click on it. I believe about half way down the page is a box that you can add your signature which will automatically be added to your posts. I don’t think there is any way to add your location yet.

[fogish]

Good point. My wife has to be very careful. She is already allergic to certain types of mold so she has limited contact with anything that could be growing it. She does hate wearing the masks I bought her though. I think your health is more important than a little discomfort or pride.

[fogish]

Thanks Gabe, you’re doing a great job with the transfer of the forum.

[fogish]

To answer the first question you need to ask: Does this process have the chance of raw manure coming into contact with the produce? The 270 day period between application and harvest is to make sure all the bacteria from the raw manure has died or is at negligible level. From the FSMA fact sheet:
“An untreated application of soil amendment of animal origin applied in a manner that does not contact covered produce during application and minimizes the potential for contact with covered produce after application. Can be applied every 9 months.

An untreated application of soil amendment of animal origin applied in a manner that does not contact covered produce during or after application. Can be applied at any interval – 0 days.”

Adequate measures to prevent contamination. That depends on the inspector. Some would say having wide enough paths for the horse to walk down is enough, others may want a manure bag, maybe even putting a flag in the ground wherever they urinate or defecate would be enough. “Implement measures to prevent the introduction of hazards onto covered produce from working animals if working animals are used in a growing area where a crop has been planted. For example, if you use draft horses, you could establish and use horse paths that are segregated from the produce.” Don’t walk your horses on your crops and anything they relieve themselves on or near is not suitable to be sold as food for human consumption. I’m fairly certain you already follow the example they give.

[fogish]

I apologize for posting so much and I think it is still important for people to voice their opinions here whether or not they agree with the majority so far. I have another item I would like to address, it is related to the makeover but not the advertisements or memberships.

Making sure we maintain the existing threads and pictures after the make over occurs. I don’t know how extensive the make over will be, just adding some ads or upgrading the version of vBulletin or redoing the majority of the coding for the site. Anyway I just wanted to bring up that concern as well. Keeping what we currently have after the transition; backing up the site in it’s working form. Losing any of the information in the threads would be horrible but losing your personally subscribed threads, private messages and uploaded pictures, things that are part of your personal account would make for a bumpy new start.

[fogish]

You can submit it online if you want. It is essentially the same thing as the 10 year census of the entire population. They want to know what is going on with agriculture in the USA. It’s odd that they haven’t contacted me, I would assume they would get most of their list from the FDA, FSA, NASS(?) or USDA. It does say the IRS and USDA do not share information with each other so it doesn’t come from there.

“The Census of Agriculture is the responsibility of every farmer and rancher, regardless of the size or type of operation. For Census purposes, a farm is any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the Census year. If you do not meet this criterion, please write this information on the front of the survey form and return it in the envelope provided. If you do not respond, we will continue to contact you by mail, phone or in person to obtain a response.”

“The Census provides the only source of uniform, comprehensive and impartial agricultural data for every county in the nation. Through the Census, producers can show the nation the value and importance of agriculture and they can help influence the decisions that will shape the future of American agriculture for years to come. By responding to the Census, producers are helping themselves, their communities and all of U.S. agriculture.

Census data are used by all those who serve farmers and rural communities – federal, state and local governments, agribusinesses, trade associations and many others.
—Farmers and ranchers can use Census data to help make informed decisions about the future of their own operations.
—Companies and cooperatives use the facts and figures to determine the locations of facilities that will serve agricultural producers.
—Community planners use the information to target needed services to rural residents.
—Legislators use the numbers from the Census when shaping farm policies and programs.”

http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Help/FAQs/General_FAQs/

This information can be used to our advantage. We can show which counties in which states there is growth in small farms and local farming. Then we can compare that to local laws and in what ways agriculture is supported. How smaller farms are viable and it needs to be supported at the city, county, state and federal levels. People can make a living at it, should make a living at it and provide more for the community. The census occurs every 5 years so we can compare the data to past census and show the growth patterns. It can be a great tool to advance the overall smaller farm and local farm movement. I don’t know what the form looks like yet but it would be interesting if there were a way to track the growth of farming done with horse power as well.

That’s my 2-bits. I over analyze everything and probably spend too much time thinking so it’s worth what you paid for it.

[fogish]

There are also debit cards, pre-paid credit cards, some gift cards can be used online like a credit card, paypal and payment systems like that can withdraw directly from a bank account. Something that happens on a couple other forums I visit, someone will sometimes make a donation for another person. Like a surprise gift or to help them out. It depends on what the back end (coding) of the system is like to keep track of it, but it is done.

[fogish]

@dominiquer60 39221 wrote:

I like how by everyone donating (at least a tiny bit) to register we will be able to sort out the hundreds of spammers and hopefully a makeover will solve the problems we’ve been having with real people not being able to register successfully.

I agree, those are very good points. Has anyone done an informal poll of the newest members to see if they would have donated $1 or more when they joined? Will you be rotating ads in from the existing DAPNet.org Sponsorship Circle and Business Directory or will advertising be separate, with the forum ads being much more narrow in scope?

It’s important for the people reading this to either state your opinion here or let Donn and Andy know what it is. I recently became a member because of what I get from the forum and I wanted to support that. I think we can maintain certain types of ads that will not detract from the forum and that is very important.

*Edit – Recently became a paying member of DAPNet to support the forum. I’m in Washington so I won’t be making it to many meetings back east.

[fogish]

Definitely talk to your CPA about this but as I understand it: if it is considered a hobby farm and your expenses are $10,000 and your income is $5,000 you can only deduct $5,000. So if it is considered a hobby the maximum amount you can deduct equals the amount of income (not profit but income) for that year. A farm can deduct all $10,000.

“Hobby Farms: Taxpayers who engage in an activity (such as raising horses) without an intent to make a profit can deduct the expenses of the activity only to the extent of income from the activity. Furthermore, the expenses can be deducted only as an itemized deduction that is subject to a 2% of adjusted gross income reduction, which means many taxpayers do not get the full benefit of the deduction. The purpose of this hobby loss rule is to prevent taxpayers from deducting the cost of their personal activities from their taxable income from other sources.

Cross Reference: See pages 6 and 27 of IRS Publication 225, Farmer’s Tax Guide (for 2010), for further information about the not-for-profit activity rules.

Presumption of Profit Motive: An activity is presumed to be engaged in for profit if it produces a profit (gross income exceeding deductions) in 3 of 5 consecutive tax years. Horse breeding, training, showing, or racing activities meet the presumption if they show a profit in 2 of 7 consecutive tax years. If the taxpayer meets the threshold for the presumption, the IRS has the burden of proving the lack of a profit motive.”

http://ruraltax.org/htm/small-farm-tax-guide It’s a 3.2MB PDF in chapter 4 on “page” 4.17 Tons of information in the file and on the rest of the site.

[fogish]

You are a lucky man. I wish I had neighbors with things like that.

[Author]

Posts