Carroll County Farm Bureau

By Chastity Welch, Farm Bureau Manager

Applications are now available for nurse practitioner scholarships through the Illinois Farm Bureau® Rural Nurse Practitioner Scholarship Program. There will be five scholarships, worth $4,000 each, granted this year.

The scholarship program, now in its twentieth year, helps encourage and develop the pool of rural health practitioners to help meet primary health care needs in rural Illinois. Students who receive scholarships agree to practice for two years in an approved rural area in Illinois.

To be eligible for the scholarship, students must be Illinois residents and be a Registered Nurse accepted or enrolled in an accredited Nurse Practitioner Program. Funding is provided by the Rural Illinois Medical Student Assistance Program.

Applications are available at our office and on the Rural Illinois Medical Student Assistance Program website on the Internet (RIMSAP.com). Applications are due May 1.

This Friday marks the deadline for the Carroll County Farm Bureau Foundation scholarship applications to be in our office. They will be leaving our office at 4 p.m. to be sent to our board members for review. So be sure to get yours in! This deadline also includes the Josh Heeren Memorial scholarship.

March is Illinois Farming Month. Farmers see it as a great time to address some of the misconceptions about farming, such as cow tipping. Stories of cow tipping usually involved a group of teens sneaking up on a sleeping, upright cow and pushing it over for fun. The problem with these stories? Cows don’t sleep standing up. It’s impossible to tip a cow!

Most Americans have never been on a farm and their only experience with farming is what they see on TV or read on the Internet. Some people will take advantage of that. They will stretch the truth and create a myth about farming that seems believable.

Cow tipping is a relatively harmless tall tale, but other myths can be more serious. Just like some people will swear to you that they tipped a cow in their younger days, they will swear to you that their feelings about farming are facts. How many times have you been told that chickens are pumped full of growth hormones? Not true. Giving chickens hormones has been illegal since 1954. Unfortunately, someone will unknowingly make a food decision based on this 50 year-old myth.

Illinois Farm Bureau offers another example. Ninety-four percent of farms in Illinois are family farms. It is a number determined and confirmed by the USDA.

“People refuse to believe it,” said IFB’s Mary Ellen Fricke. “They have been bombarded with tales like there are only a handful of family famers - that most farms are run by faceless, absent corporations who don’t care about animals, the environment, or even the public. That’s a myth. Almost all farms are run by farmers that care - by farmers who are proud to grow healthy food for their family and yours.”

Farm Bureau Classifieds

Carroll County Farm Bureau members can place up to two (2) free classified ads per week, with a limit of 250 characters per ad (not including spaces). Ads are limited to personal or farm items for sale/wanted to buy, or farm labor or services available or wanted. No ads for the sale or rental of real estate, garage sales, or commercial businesses will be accepted. To place an ad, call the Farm Bureau office at 815- 244-3001 by noon Friday to get your ad in the following week’s paper.

FS: 900 lb bales of oat & alfalfa hay mix

WANTED: John Deere 212-214 Lawn Tractor for parts

FS: Chicken manure, sold by the wheelbarrow, great for the garden

FS: Happy Hens Healthy Eggs, chicken & duck eggs, will deliver.

FS: 1992 Mazda Pickup.4X4 Auto, 81K miles, new battery,-plugs & wires. In good condition $3,500 OBO

FS: Recumbent exercise bike, 12 programmed workout $150 (

FS: Oak California King Sleigh Bed, with two night stands $500 (

FS: 14 ft. Woods mower, manual lift wings, $425 obo, 3 pt. bale mover $75 obo, 10 inch Black & Decker table saw, $40 obo,

FS: 7 long formals (prom dresses), Sizes 8/9/10, assorted colors, all but one have been worn once and are cleaned, Cheap!

FS: Older Electrolux vacuum cleaner w/power module and attachments, $35, Dirt Devil Swivel stick vacuum cleaner $15,

FS: 2005 Pontiac Grand AM, V6, 77K miles, very good condition, $5400,

FS: IH800 series planter, 6 row, many new parts, ready to plant,

FS: Pro-Form Airwalker w/electronic control excellent condition $25.

FS: 1996 Red Chevy Corvette LT1, targa top 88k miles, in great shape-loaded, $10,500.00 OBO. For more info please call

FS: Farrowing stalls with stainless steel feeders, waters, etc.

FS: Large round and small square bales of hay. 1st & 2nd cutting.