The teaser pulls you in with a titillating promise, “The thrill of drilling, the hazards and rewards as you bring in your own, Offshore Oil Strike.”

These are the words on the cover of an old board game of the 1970s which has some interesting similarities to the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf. In fact, it’s downright eerie.

The game is called BP Offshore Oil Strike – yes, as in British Petroleum – in which four players explore for oil, build platforms and construct pipelines to carry their black gold from the ocean depths. Reach $120 million, and you’re the winner.

On the way, however, you face a multitude of potential hazards that can erode your profits, including large-scale oil spills and subsequent cleanup costs of over $1 million.

Of course, this very same BP is today spending millions per day to clean up the Gulf spill, and costs are already into the billions.

The board game didn’t include unforeseen public relations disasters, like when BP CEO Tony Hayward took a few days off during the spill for a sailing trip. Nor did it address the huge scope of a mega-disaster caused by 62,000 barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf daily, washing onto beaches and swamps. Nor did the roll of the dice compel a player to bypass procedures which might gotten an oil spill contained a lot sooner.

No doubt, if the BP oil spill was a board game, BP would have finished last.

The caution comes from out west, but the message fits all: With an increase in rural crime, do what’s needed to lock down your valuable farm property.

Julene Reese of Utah State University quotes Extension ag agent Clark Israelsen as saying some of the most common items stolen are gasoline and diesel fuel, especially where large quantities are stored. Feeds, produce, tools, fertilizer, livestock and field equipment are also common targets.

Israelsen adds that law enforcement officials note a fundamental element of rural crime is opportunity. Criminals are seeking opportunities to steal without being seen, without taking much time and without making much noise. Farms are ideal targets because of the relative isolation.

So what to do? The Utah Extension agent offers a pretty good list. Here’s a quick look:

• Go around your property and look at it through the eyes of a thief, but do vary your routine.

• Construct sturdy, secure sheds with high-quality locks. Use strong chains and locks on all gates, access routes and loading ramps. Mark or stamp tools and equipment with a permanent ID number.

• Form a ‘rural watch group’ to look after each other’s farms.

• Install security lighting around sheds, storage facilities with lights operating on time switches or sensors.

• Lock fuel storage tanks and have lockable fuel caps on all tractors and vehicles. Park machinery close to your home or headquarters if possible. If nothing else, hide it behind a treeline or other obstacle. Remove keys and lock the cab on machinery and consider disabling machinery by removing the distributor cap, rotor or battery. Don’t leave tools in vehicle trays.

• Use animals as deterrents. A good watchdog would help and even geese are good noisemakers.

• Keep photographs or video records of property. Inventory livestock on a daily basis, but not at the same time each day. Make sure all animals are marked for identification. Photograph valuable animals.

• Keep a record of past employees, especially if there has been a dispute or a firing.

That’s a pretty good list, but there are probably others out there. If you have something to offer on theft prevention, help out others by offering up a comment. It could make a big difference in somebody’s day.

My journalism professors used to rant on and on about not using shopworn, hackneyed phrases, and I’ve gotten away from them for over 30 years now (the phrases and the professors), but I just don’t know any other way to explain the latest rash of Internet feed back I received from a story. I wrote a story recently (Superweeds Put USDA On Hot Seat) about testimony given to a U.S. House Sub-Committee by farmers and university specialists related to Super Weeds spefically and in general other gene transfer technology that some contend has done more harm to farmers and the environment than good. I thought it was (and is) important that farmers in the Southeast know what folks are saying to Congress on their behalf. Shortly after the article came out on our online issue, I received two separate e-mails—one accusing me of being a lackey of Monsanto and other high tech corporate giants. The second accused me of being anti-technology and intent on destroying the technological revolution gene splicing has brought to farming and to setting agriculture back 25 years. I’m not real smart, but I don’t think I could be both. So, here goes the adage—please don’t read any further Professors Burnett and Logue: You can’t have it both ways. I hope you will read the article and let me know what you think.

During an early August interview, I asked Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln about the $1.5 billion Pigford/USDA settlement and Congress’ seeming reluctance to fund it (http://deltafarmpress.com/legislative/senates-full-plate-0809/index.html).

She said the following:

“The Pigford case has been settled. The government settled and we just need to pay it and make sure it happens. This is the sixth time that we’ve asked … to get it done and it’s been objected to.

“Republicans are objecting but other Republicans support it. (Iowa Senator) Chuck Grassley came down yesterday and spoke with us about this.

“If we can file cloture on it, we could move it. I’ve encouraged (Reid) to do that—just file cloture.”

On August 18, I read Lincoln’s quote to John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association — who is spearheading the effort to secure the settlement funding – then asked  where the settlement currently stands.

“Well, the actual vote has been turned down seven times, now,” said Boyd. “Among them: the tax extender, the war bill, the small business bill, the Katrina and FEMA bill.

“I was disappointed the (Obama) administration made a deal with Sen. Lincoln for $1.5 billion primarily in disaster payments or subsidy payments to large-scale corporate farmers. … I can promise you there won’t be many black farmers taking part in that relief effort.

“I’ve been after President Obama and the administration to offer the black farmers an administrative remedy to help get us out of this political gridlock. The same kind of offer should’ve been made to black farmers like it was to Sen. Lincoln when she took her measure out of the small business (bill). We were taken out of the small business (bill) too. But there wasn’t any type of deal offered to us. That’s pretty much a double standard and I’m hopeful that the president will meet with me in the coming weeks so we can discuss where we are in the process.

“You asked where we are? We’re stuck in the Senate! We’re stuck in gridlock politics. It’s mid-term election politics.”

That was my next question: if this wasn’t an election year do you think this would’ve already gone through?

“I think so. I do think we need the involvement of President Obama to reach out to leadership – Republican and Democrat – to see what can be done to move the bill.”

I’m sure you’ve seen the reports … regarding the census and how the numbers (of black farmers) don’t line up with the class size. Have you heard those claims? How do they stack up?

“Number one, the complaints went back from 1981 to 1997. Now, because it’s taken so damned long, there are heirs involved in this. They’re going to count. And you have the actual black farmers (who) between 1981 and 1997 filed a lot of complaints.

“Many tens of thousands (of complaints) were found at the USDA in boxes that had never been processed. That’s why the definition of the class action went from 1981 to 1997.

“I wanted to go back to 1960 when we saw the biggest drop of land loss for blacks. But that didn’t work.

“They (started claims in) 1981 … because that was the year the civil rights office was closed during the Reagan administration. It didn’t reopen until the Clinton administration (provided) money to reopen it and they began to look at all the complaints black farmers had been sending to the USDA that were stacked up in boxes.”

Look for the full Boyd interview soon.

It’s hard to believe that Delta Farm Press will soon begin the process of selecting our 17^th High Cotton Award winner. The selection process without question always reminds me of the abundance of excellent cotton producers out there who meet and in many cases exceed the qualifications for the award, which will be presented at the 2011 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in Atlanta.

Today’s cotton producer faces volatile prices, a maze of rules and regulations, the vagaries of weather, rising costs of production and uncertainty about farm policy. Some are driven by the pure joy of managing the crop, others by cotton’s stunning reward, a blanket of fluffy-white cotton bolls, waiting to be picked.

 As this harvest season approaches, I thought that I would use this space to remind our readers that the August 31 deadline for submitting nominations for the High Cotton Award is quickly approaching. If you know someone who fits the criteria listed below, please visit http://deltafarmpress.com/images/HI_COTTON_NOM_’11.pdf for an application and submission information. We’d love to hear from you.

1. The High Cotton nominee must be a full-time grower who gets a profitable return from producing cotton in one of the four Cotton Belt regions (Mid-South, Southeast, Southwest and West).
2. The nominee must produce cotton of consistently high quality.
3. The nominee must use environmentally sound production methods.

There seem to be fewer and fewer real traditions anymore, those events and customs that we can depend on occurring year in and year out, without fail. But one that has endured is the East Alabama Crops Tour, held this past Friday in parts of Lee and Macon counties. As is custom, participants gathered early under the towering oaks in a community called Society Hill – just a few short miles but a world away from the bustling college town of Auburn.

This marked the 33^rd year of the tour, having started back in 1978 as a cotton insect tour and evolving over the years into a cotton tour and finally into a crops tour, featuring cotton, peanuts, soybeans and, occasionally, corn. Up until a few years ago, cotton was just about the only row crop being planted in this area. Then, with the end of the government quota program and a bit of urging from cotton nematodes, peanuts were planted, and most growers seem pleased now to have it as an option.

While some things about the tour are the same every year – including the expertly grilled 16-ounce ribeye steaks served at lunch – others change, like the condition of the crops at the time. There are years when there has been so much rain that farmers are discussing tricks for regulating cotton growth and wondering when it’ll be dry enough to get back into the fields. Then, there are years like this one when they are hoping for a few more good showers or even a tropical storm to help salvage an otherwise dismal growing season.

 For as long as I can remember, Jeff Clary and Chuck Browne from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System have always done an exemplary job of planning and conducting the tour, with help from sponsors, area farmers, and administrators, specialists and researchers from Auburn University. This year’s tour featured peanut variety trials, a cotton variety trial under irrigation, and improved soybean varieties. In addition, there were updates on common issues of concern for this time of year, including late-season disease management for peanuts.

Tours such as this certainly serve a practical purpose, informing decision-makers and showcasing the latest technology for farmers. But more importantly, it marks the continuation of a storied tradition, and there just aren’t many of those left. If you have a memory of this or any other crops tour, please share it with us.

Ran across an interesting item out of the University of Florida earlier this week. Seems a team of researchers at UF’s North Florida Research & Education Center near Quincy have discovered that saccharin — the artificial sweetener — may help ward off soybean rust.

UF writer Tom Nordlie  reported that the Quincy study is one example of scientists’ efforts to harness a phenomenon called systemic acquired resistance (SAR). SAR occurs when a plant receives minor exposure to a pathogen and responds by increasing its resistance to that pathogen for a period of time.

In the Florida study, researchers grew soybeans in greenhouses and applied a saccharin solution to their roots or leaves. The plants were then exposed to the soybean rust fungus. Compared with control plants, the treated soybeans showed less severe symptoms, with no effect on plant size or growth.

Jim Marois, a plant pathologist at the Quincy center is quoted as saying, “part of the purpose of the study was to see if SAR works against Asian soybean rust and we were happy to see it did. So even if we don’t end up using saccharin in the future, we could use something else.”

There has been a lot of time, energy and money spent on keeping Asian rust from reaching its potential in the U.S. soybean crop since it made its initial appearance in 2004 — and the effort has been successful to date. But wouldn’t it be nice to have another bullet for the gun?

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

Has there ever been a late summer period with so much thunder and lighting that produces so little rain?

Late July and August are historically hot and dry (2009’s daily gullywashers a memorable exception), with only the occasional meandering thunderstorm, which may last just a few minutes and produce only a spattering of rain.

For weeks now, we’ve had almost daily episodes of dark clouds and thunder and lightning that can go on for hours. A few days ago, it lasted virtually all afternoon — spectacular, jagged streaks of lightning and almost continuous rolling thunder, with the occasional ear-splitting, window-rattling clap. And not a drop of rain.

It was, to quote the bard, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Even the few times these thunder-boomers actually produced rain, it was hardly enough to settle the dust.

Weather gurus say some 77 million lightning bolts strike the U.S. each year. Among areas with the greatest concentration, Florida ranks at the top, but most of the Mississippi Valley and Southeast have high numbers of strikes. Worldwide, the greatest lightning activity is in the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa, the least in Antarctica and over the Arctic Ocean.

A study by Texas A&M University researcher Renyi Zhang, analyzing U.S. lightning strikes over a five-year period, found that lightning can generate as much as 90 percent of nitrogen oxides during the summer and boost ozone levels in the free troposphere by as much as 30 percent.

While ozone is a component of smog (not good for human breathing), the intense heat from a lightning bolt forces nitrogen in the air to bond with oxygen, producing nitrogen oxides, which eventually settle out of the air or fall to earth with rain (good for plant life).

Children frightened by thunder have often been told by their parents, “Oh, it’s just the noise from God’s bowling alley.”

In which case, there must be quite a tournament going on this summer.