Hazardous Materials Transportation: Security Requirements For Farmers
Fall Treatments Jumpstart Growth Next Spring
Hazardous Materials Transportation: Security Requirements For Farmers
Persons, including farmers, who ship or transport hazardous materials in commerce in amounts that require the shipment to be placarded must have security plans and implement them. Examples of materials to which the security plan requirement applies include explosives such as dynamite or detonators, pesticides, fertilizers such as anhydrous ammonia or ammonium nitrate, and fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and propane.
If you ship or transport fertilizers, pesticides, gasoline, diesel fuel, or propane in packages or containers that are larger than 119 gallons or the total quantity you ship or transport at any one time is more than 1,000 pounds, then you must have a security plan.
If you only transport fertilizers, pesticides, and fuels between fields of your farm, then you do not need to have a security plan.
If the security plan requirement applies to your operations, the plan must include measures to address personnel security, unauthorized access, and en route transportation issues as applicable. For example:
Personnel Security: If you use employees to pick up placarded hazardous materials from your supplier and transport them to your farm, your security plan must include measures to confirm information provided by the employee on his job application of resume’. Note that this requirement only applies to employees who are involved in the actual shipment or transportation of the materials covered by the plan.
Unauthorized Access: If you do not transport the materials directly from your supplier and transport them to your farm, your security plan must include measures to protect against unauthorized access by such means as locks or physical observation of the vehicle. For example, if you stop on the way back to your farm for a snack or a meal, you should keep your vehicle in sight or lock or secure the material in the vehicle.
En route Security: Your security plan must include measures to enhance the security of the materials between the time you pick them up and the time you arrive at your farm. In this case the most effective security measure would be to minimize the time that the shipment is in transit by going directly from your supplier to your farm.
If you have any questions about your security plan, please give us a call at 308-423-2941 or 800-423-0350
Harvest time is upon us and I hope all is going well for all of you. Looks like yields will be good here, along with everywhere across the nation.
With the lower prices we must again look to ways of being more efficient in our businesses with the higher input cost. Fuel cost skyrocketing also effects another of our main inputs, that is the cost of fertilizer. Look to take a 20-30% increase this coming year.
A couple of things that we are going to address this coming year are ways to be more efficient with our nitrogen and also alternative crops that don’t use as much nitrogen as corn, such as: wheat, sunflowers, soybeans, pinto beans or any other edible bean. These crops can cut your nitrogen needs by 50-75% depending on which crop you grow. We will also be looking at ways to increase efficiency by putting nitrogen with other products such as phos and sulfur.
It looks as if 2005 will be another challenging year for all of us. I look forward to working with you this winter and helping you decide what options of crops and fertilizer programs work best for your farming operation. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about those pesky weeds. Top Hat will be working hard to find new ways and tweaking the old to help you control them. I’ll try to catch a lot of you during harvest and ride along to get a hold of what worked and what didn’t this season. Have a safe harvest and I will see you later.
Shawn
For the KIDS, On Your Own in Rural America is a fun site for kids who are ready to hang out at home alone. Not sure if your child is ready to go solo? Take the “Are you ready for self-care?” quiz to help make the decision.
For the FARMER, Agriculture Online is a great internet extension of the magazine Successful Farming. Check out the markets, weather, and what’s going on in the ag world. You can even chat with farmers across the nation or post questions to see what has worked in other farm operations.
Fall Treatments Jumpstart Growth Next Spring
The effects of several years of drought conditions has taken a toll on everyone and everything. Yet the one thing that may have suffered the most is our pastureland.
Persisting drought conditions weaken grass stands and opens up sod to let in production robbing weeds. Late season rains brings more even more weeds into the midst by producing regrowth and germinating new weed seedlings.
Perennial and biennial weeds thrive on late and early season rains. Although as winter approaches, these plants move nutrients from their leaves to their root systems as they prepare for dormancy. With a fall application you can give your grass a head start by targeting the root system now and leaving a good residual for control next spring.
These are a few of the toughest weeds that are vulnerable to a fall application: Musk Thistle, Canada Thistle, Leafy Spruge, Field Bindweed, Spotted & Diffuse Knapweed, and Russian Knapweed.
Give your grass a helping hand and call Top Hat to schedule a fall application!