The Northern Illinois Farm Bureaus along with Tri-State Travel are sponsoring a trip to Louisville, Kentucky February 18-20, 2011 to the National Farm Machinery Show and Championship Tractor Pull. The bus will be leaving first thing in the morning on Friday, February 18 and returning late afternoon on Sunday the 20th. Guests will have the option to attend the Tractor Pull on Friday night or to go enjoy the Derby Dinner Theater. On Saturday, you guys can go to the National Farm Show while the ladies can either go with you or opt to go do a gourmet culinary tour. Attendees will then enjoy the Tractor Pull on Saturday night. Sunday will be spent returning home.

Contact our office or visit our website at www.carrollcfb.org for a detailed itinerary and pricing information.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a regulation extending the deadline to November 10, 2011 for complying with requirements of the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) rule for a very limited number of farms.  The extension of November 10, 2011 applies to farms that came into operation after August, 2002.  

EPA also delayed the SPCC compliance date by which a facility must address milk and milk product containers, associated piping and appurtenances constructed according to current applicable 3-A Sanitary Standards, and that are subject to the current applicable Grade “A” Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO) or equivalent State regulatory requirement. The date is delayed one year from the effective date of a final rule specifically addressing these milk and milk product containers.

While the EPA changed the compliance date for certain new farms from November 2010 to November 2011, farms in operation before 2002 are already under the requirements of the SPCC rule and should have a plan in place or updated to comply with the new requirements by November 10, 2010.

The SPCC rule pertains to facilities, including farms, which have aboveground oil storage with an aggregate capacity greater than 1,320 U.S. gallons, or completely buried oil storage capacity greater than 42,000 gallons.   Single-family residence home oil containers are exempt as are oil tanks smaller than 55 gallons.  

More information is available on our website about the SPCC ruling.

Our annual holiday mailer has now been sent out. If you did not get yours, you can contact our office to order fruit, nuts, and fruit baskets. We also have the order forms on our website. We are also offering free family portraits on Saturday, November 20 and Sunday, November 21 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Appointments are on a first-come, first-served basis. KatieLynn Photography out of Freeport will be our photographer for the weekend. Katie does an excellent job. So be sure to line up your family and give us a call to book your appointment!