The election for the FSA county committee members to represent producers in Local Administrative Area No. 3 was held Dec. 11 with the following results.

Elected for a three-year term in LAA No. 3 as the committee members were Jeffrey L Kennedy of Penn Township and Richard K. Hilliard of Penn Township as first alternate and Adam J Kennedy of Winfield Township as second alternate. LAA No. 3 in Butler County consists of Cranberry, Jackson, Adams, Forward, Middlesex, Penn, Clinton, Jefferson, Buffalo, and Winfield Townships.

Committee members are paid for their time and mileage expenses. FSA committee members are responsible for administering FSA programs in Butler, Beaver and Allegheny Counties.

Alternates are called upon for committee meetings and other assignments when the regular member is unable to attend. A locally elected FSA committee serves each agricultural county in the nation. Meetings are open to the public and are held monthly, sometimes more often depending upon program demand. The Butler-Beaver-Allegheny FSA office is staffed by four employees that conduct day to day operations for the committee.

2009 corn harvest

Although Christmas is only a short two weeks away, some corn producers are still harvesting. Recently, I conducted a poll of producers in Butler County, and the general consensus is that harvest is around 85 to 90 percent complete.

This is very close to the national harvesting progress which is 88 percent and is stalled out due to the snow storm that hit the Midwest. Generally the national harvest is complete by mid to late November and our local harvest is complete by December 10.

Of the producers I spoke to, all had the same story — good to exceptional yields and slow dry down of grain. Many producers were complete with harvesting but indicated standing corn in their neighborhood. If 10 percent remains to be harvested that would be around 2,250 acres. In many cases harvest has stopped until trucks can empty on farm storage bins.

Also commercial storage sites of Deerfield and Witmer's are not accepting corn until dryers can catch up. In some cases corn is being piled on the ground just to keep the combines running, that type of storage presents its own challenges. Corn piles are the result of the exceptional grain yields this fall. It appears average production will be in the 135 to 150 bu/acre ballpark. Normally the average is around 105 bu/acre.

For sure the harvest of 2009 will be remembered as the year the corn harvest was delayed with exceptional yields. One farmer was complaining about not being able to finish because of the volume issue. He wasn't used to that type of production and he wanted to be done with the harvest. I told him that is a good problem to have.

Agriculture humor

A man's car stalled on a country road one morning. When the man got out to fix it, a cow came along and stopped beside him. "Your trouble is probably in the carburetor," said the cow. Startled, the man jumped back and ran down the road until he met a farmer. The amazed man told the farmer his story about the talking cow. "Was it a large red cow with a brown spot over the right eye?" asked the farmer. "Yes, yes," the man replied. "Oh, I wouldn't listen to Bessie," said the farmer. "She doesn't know a thing about cars."

Luke Fritz is executive director of the Butler County Farm Service Agency.