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New Jersey Farm Bureau News

Ag Matters Online

The stakes for U.S. agriculture and all farmers from a trade war are huge. Canada, Mexico and China are the destination for more than 50% of U.S. ag exports annually; that market becomes an inviting target for retaliation. The risk of losing customers to competitor ag export nations becomes real.  U.S. consumers cannot absorb the surplus commodity production of U.S. farmers; stable commodity prices require strong export trade. For more insight on ag aspects of new tariff activity, read this Market Intel report from American Farm Bureau.

The following article was provided by American National Insurance Company.

As your operation begins to prosper, you may find that you’re no longer confined to just one location. Farmers are spending more time today moving equipment and machinery on public roads to various locations for many reasons including the planting, cultivating and harvesting of crops.

Whatever the reason for moving your equipment, traveling public roadways with your agricultural equipment requires extra care to ensure the safety of you and other motorists. Taking the time to consider some safety tips can help reduce your risk of loss.

Driving Your Equipment on Public Roads and Highways

When the distance you are traveling is shorter, it is often quicker and more appropriate to travel on the highway. However, for your safety and the safety of others, consider these tips:

Before You Drive

• Check your equipment’s tire pressure and inflate all tires to the manufacturer’s recommended pressure for traveling longer distances.

• If possible, only operate equipment on public roads during daylight hours.

• Adjust all your mirrors so that you can safely see behind you.

• Make sure you have installed reflective tape and Slow-Moving Vehicle (SMV) emblems on the equipment. Be sure these items are clean and easily visible.

• When driving machinery on a highway, display a red flag atop a pole that is approximately 12-14 feet high. This makes it easier for motorists traveling the highway to see your machinery when visibility is difficult, or even when your machine is hidden from view by a rise or curve in the highway.

• Be sure your machinery is equipped with an approved rollover protective structure and seat belts. This may help prevent the operator from being crushed or thrown out in the event the machine overturns or has a collision.

• Verify that all operating lights including head lights, flashers and any brake lights are in working order.

• When traveling on a roadway that has hills and/or curves that impair visibility, consider having someone follow you in a “trailer” vehicle with their flashers on. This will encourage others to maintain a safe distance behind your vehicle as well as prevent inattentive motorists from “catching” you unexpectedly.

While You Are on the Road

• Look both ways before safely entering the highway. Be aware of the time your machinery takes to accelerate, and the speeds of the motorists already traversing the highway.

• Be alert to the road conditions. Watch for any icy areas, pot holes, low clearances, or sudden drops on the shoulder.

• Be sure you are alert and listening for vehicles and pedestrians. You should not be fatigued or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

• Make sure you are traveling at safe speeds on the highway. Slow down while going around curves and while going up and down hills. Verify that your headlights, tail lights and hazard flashers are in operation while you are traveling on public highways.

• Use hand signals when you are slowing, stopping or turning to alert motorists of your intentions.

• If you begin to obstruct traffic, look for a safe place to pull off so others can pass. This will help ensure impatient motorists do not take unnecessary risks to get around you.

• Review your local and state laws and regulations before transporting or using your agricultural equipment on public highways. Taking the time to use practical safety measures such as these can reduce your chances of injury, damaging your agricultural equipment, or the downtime of your operations.

Hauling Your Equipment

Instead of driving your equipment over long distances, it may be more efficient and safer to transport your machinery by use of a trailer. Consider these tips when this is the option you choose:

• Haul your agricultural equipment on an approved flatbed trailer.

• Make sure all equipment has a parking brake engaged and locked.

• Install blocks or stops under each tire of your equipment for added protection.

• Be sure to safely tie down your equipment.

• Verify that you are obeying state laws and regulations, including height and width requirements.

• Ensure that your trailer and equipment have all necessary flags, lights and reflectors to warn any oncoming motorists and pedestrians.

On Tuesday, March 18, US Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the release of $10 bil. nationwide for an Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) for the 2024 crop year. It will be administered by the Farm Service Agency and is meant to help eligible agriculture producers “mitigate the impacts of increased input costs and falling commodity prices.” It is authorized by the American Relief Act of 2025, enacted in January at the very end of the last session of Congress.

Economic relief payments will be based on planted (and prevented planted) acreage for the 2024 crop year. FSA will send pre-filled applications to those who have submitted acreage reports; sign-up period opens March 19 and closes August 15, 2025. Among the eligible commodities are wheat, corn, sorghum, barley, soybeans and oats. For more details, visit FSA’s ECAP webpage or contact your local FSA office.

Eligible acreage, commodities, and ECAP payment rates (per acre):

 

Ownership Information (BOI): FinCEN Halts Enforcement of BOI Compliance

On February 27th, FinCEN announced that it will not issue any fines or penalties or take any other enforcement actions against any companies based on any failure to file or update beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports pursuant to the Corporate Transparency Act by the current March 21, 2025, deadline. No fines or penalties will be issued, and no enforcement actions will be taken, until a forthcoming interim final rule becomes effective and the new relevant due dates in the interim final rule have passed.

No later than March 21, 2025, FinCEN intends to issue an interim final rule that extends BOI reporting deadlines, recognizing the need to provide new guidance and clarity as quickly as possible, while ensuring that BOI that is highly useful to important national security, intelligence, and law enforcement activities is reported.

FinCEN also intends to solicit public comment on potential revisions to existing BOI reporting requirements. FinCEN will consider those comments as part of a notice of proposed rulemaking anticipated to be issued later this year to minimize burden on small businesses while ensuring that BOI is highly useful to important national security, intelligence, and law enforcement activities, as well to determine what, if any, modifications to the deadlines referenced here should be considered.

Immigration – Know your rights

30 Jan 2025, Posted by admin in National News, News

The threat of immigration enforcement raises concerns among many New Jersey residents who may avoid engaging with local services and businesses out of fear that they could be putting themselves and their family members at risk. Every person who lives in or visits New Jersey has rights regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. The following information is designed to help organizations and businesses understand their rights and responsibilities when interacting with immigration enforcement officers, primarily Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers.

For a two page fact sheet about your rights, click here.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now accepting applications for the Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC). Applications are due to USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) through Jan. 8, 2025. Funded by the Commodity Credit Corporation, MASC was announced in November alongside the $140 million Commodity Storage Assistance Program for facilities impacted by 2024 natural disasters.

MASC helps specialty crop producers meet higher marketing costs related to:
• Perishability of specialty crops like fruits, vegetables, floriculture, nursey crops and herbs;
• Specialized handling and transport equipment with temperature and humidity control;
• Packaging to prevent damage;
• Moving perishables to market quickly; and
• Higher labor costs.

To be eligible for MASC, a producer must be in business at the time of application, maintain an ownership share and share in the risk of producing a specialty crop that will be sold in calendar year 2025.

MASC covers the following commercially marketed specialty crops:
• Fruits (fresh, dried);
• Vegetables (including dry edible beans and peas, mushrooms, and vegetable seed);
• Tree nuts;
• Nursery crops, Christmas trees, and floriculture;
• Culinary and medicinal herbs and spices; and
• Honey, hops, maple sap, tea, turfgrass and grass seed.

For more information or to apply, producers can contact theirlocal FSA county office or visit MASC program webpage.

This information provided by the New Jersey Division of fish & Wildlife:

Six-day Firearm Opens Dec. 9

The week of December 9 may be the busiest week of the year for deer hunters:

  • Six-day Firearm deer hunting season opens Monday, Dec. 9
  • Permit Bow season continues in many zones
  • Permit Shotgun and Permit Muzzleloader seasons are open for antlerless deer only in a limited number of zones

Don’t miss out on some of the best deer hunting anywhere!

In Memoriam – 2024

21 Nov 2024, Posted by admin in Meetings and Events, News, State News

We, the delegates to the 106th Annual Meeting of NJ Farm Bureau gathered in
Cherry Hill, NJ hereby mourn the passing and recognize the lifetime accomplishments
of our fellow Farm Bureau members and NJ agriculturalists listed below.

Wally Johnson, Retired Farmer – Monmouth County

Evans Neale, Farmer – Gloucester County

Dan Farrand, Farmer – Morris County

Dorothy Pettit, Farmer – Burlington County

James Durr, Farmer – Burlington County

Bill Brooks, Farmer  – Salem County

Bob Hughey, Former NJDEP Commissioner

Fred and Jean Wainwright, Jr., Farmer – Burlington County

Joe & Donarose Atchison, Parents of Joe Atchison, III – Asst. Secretary of Ag

Congressman Bill Pascrell, New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District

Congressman Donald Payne, New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District

Assemblyman Chuck Haytaian, Former New Jersey Assembly Speaker

Elizabeth Infante, Mother of Michelle Casella – County Ag Agent-Gloucester County

                                   Mother-in-law of Ben Casella – NJFB staff

Sam Alloway, III, Farmer – Burlington County

Janice Krowicki, Co-owner of Krowicki Farm and Greenhouses – Ocean County

Chris Kleinguenther, Staff – NJ Department of Agriculture

Edward Kralovich, Farmer – Somerset County

Michael Thompson, Husband of Liz Thompson – NJFB staff

Ginny Murray, Mother of Al Murray – NJFB consultant

Franklyn Wooden, Beekeeper – Hunterdon County

Robert Best, Sr., Farmer – Warren County

Sam Race, Farmer – Farm Bureau director – NJDA Soil Conservation official

John Rigolizzo, Jr., Former NJFB president; farmer – Camden County

Frank Zamensky, Sr., Farmer – Burlington County

Steve DuBois, Farmer – Salem County

Mary Duffield, Farmer – Gloucester County                          

(November 18, 2024)

For its 2024 public hearing on water issues, the NJ Clean Water Council has chosen to seek public input on the impacts of the PFAS family of chemicals, also known as “forever chemicals.”  The virtual meeting (Microsoft Teams) will be held on Tuesday, December 17 from 10am-1pm.  The goal of the hearing will be to focus on challenges and potential/known solutions to better address PFAS in the water cycle.

Click here for the public hearing announcement.

More information about PFAS can be found at the council’s website:  www.dep.nj.gov/dwq/pfas/

Statewide Farmland Preservation Formula

08 Nov 2024, Posted by admin in News, State News

The SADC recently added two important documents to its website for the new formula value. One is a summary report of the outreach and research that was done, key findings and the valuation for the new formula.  Click here to read the summary.

The second is the presentation that was presented at the last SADC meeting on such.  Click here for the presentation.

Both documents detail the potential for farmland owners to receive up to 90% of the fee simple value through four categories of features.  Landowners will continue to receive their normal easement value based on two appraisals and certified by the SADC as they do now. However, the formula will be based on the farm’s fee value. 50% of the fee value will be used as the basis, and then additional value will be added based on the farm’s characteristics and more to compensate for additional voluntary deed restrictions if the owners choose that option. It is also important to note that the concept is preliminary and that final regulations have yet to be adopted.

For more information reach out to Ashley at the Farmhouse.