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The proposed USDA budget comes out. New Farm Bill points to farming's future
and, helping out bees and other pollinators. Those stories and more in This Week at USDA.
The proposed fiscal year 2015 USDA budget is out and Secretary Vilsack says it accepts
the challenges that the Department faces. It focuses on results that matter and places
that matter. It focuses on creating new and additional opportunity in rural areas and
to help revitalize that rural economy and I think it makes a significant investment
in innovation which is going to be helpful to agriculture and to rural America. Speaking
about the new Farm Bill, Secretary Vilsack told the Commodity Classic in San Antonio
Texas it creates a hopeful set of opportunities and rewards and will invest in innovation.
There are some programs that continue from previous farm bills in which you will expect,
as operators, payments. And there are other new programs, that as operators, you need
knowledge and information so that you can make the right and proper choice for your
operations in the future and we at USDA will be focused on doing both in 2014. USDA scientists
are studying ways to help pollinators thrive. An Agricultural Research Service study is
looking at protecting bees and other pollinators by altering grower spraying schedules. In
almonds the pollen is only available until about mid-afternoon and then the flower has
released all of the pollen, so the bees actually quite foraging for pollen at about three or
four in the afternoon. So, if you could put it on at night or late afternoon, there's
just less bees in the air, less exposure. More than fifteen billion dollars a year in
U-S crops rely on pollination. USDA will spend thirty five million dollars over the next
three years to preserve wetlands and grasslands in the prairie pothole regions of North Dakota,
South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Montana. And so there's a lot of pressure right now
to convert grasslands and wetlands to cropland, and what we're trying to do is to work with
those landowners that want to voluntarily retain those wetlands and grasslands and not
convert them to cropland. Prairie potholes are areas that retain water and wet soil and
are used by migratory birds. That's all for This Week at USDA. Follow, tweet, and stay
informed at USDA dot gov.