A vote in Ohio helped agribusiness owners in their struggle with animal rights activists. The vote to establish a livestock care oversight board has given livestock farmers much-needed ammunition in the attempt to quell animal rights activists’ attempts to dictate how livestock can be housed. The referendum, approved by 64% of Ohio voters, establishes the Livestock Care Standards Board. The governor is required by the referendum to appoint the ten-member panel, of which two appointments are guaranteed to go to the speaker and president of the state Senate.
Fighting Agribusiness Fraud
November 5th, 2009
No one really thinks of fraud being a major agribusiness concern. But when a Georgia-based Temple-Inland, Inc., a corrugated packaging and building products manufacturer, recently found out it was a victim of a $4.8 million fraud scheme, the company became an example of how no industry is safe.
An employee of the company and eight of his accomplices alleged dreamed up and implemented a plot to overcharge the company for timber deliveries and then skim the overage off the top of the company’s payment for the non-existent timber. The employee is said to have discovered how to adjust the computer system in the company’s scale house so that he could produce two weight readings when one truck passed over the scales, thus creating an extra, fictional load. The employee allegedly secured the involvement of truck drivers to pull off the scheme. In one case, a driver received $910,000 in payments for deliveries when in fact he’d delivered nothing to the mill. The result – Temple-Inland paid close to $5 million for shipments they never received. That’s a lot of damage caused by one employee.
A Real Barn Burner
October 29th, 2009
While the jury is still out on whether Mrs. O’Leary’s cow was the culprit behind the fire that wiped out Chicago, fire damage is a constant, somewhat overlooked threat to the agribusiness. While most people consider fire exposure to be limited to buildings and electrical equipment, there’s a significant fire threat throughout your operations. Grain fires, haystack fires, and even pasture fires can result in devastating losses to your income and product.
Yes for the Agriculture Appropriations Bill
October 26th, 2009
Hang on, dairy farm owners. The federal government is sending aid. The much talked about, much debated, and much anticipated 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Bill is at this writing sitting on the President’s desk awaiting his signature. In it, over $350 million has been allocated for emergency aid to dairy farmers, with $290 million of it going directly into farmers’ hands. And $60 million will allow the government to buy surplus dairy and cheese, which will be funneled into food banks and government nutritional programs.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s examine what that means to you individually. At present, dairy farmers are paid under one-half of their productions costs for dairy products. The existing Milk Income Loss Contract is help for bad times, but it hasn’t been able to scratch the surface of the market’s current disastrous conditions. Read More…
Are you sure your Ag technology is covered?
October 15th, 2009
When you think of agriculture insurance covering equipment breakdown or failure, you think immediately of tractors, combines, and plowing equipment. But do you think about computers?
Today, it’s not your father’s farming. While many farm business owners may not even realize it, they’ve gone high-tech. Most farms nowadays operate on computerized equipment, replacing traditional farm equipment and processes or enhancing business practices and farm management. If you have updated your farm equipment recently, are you sure your agriculture insurance package covers the new equipment? Read More…
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