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Show Ask A Specialist Readers ask questions about wasps, apples, pesticides New Wasp Species? Q. I have captuicd an insect that appears to be part wasp and part praying mantis. It has the head and front limbs of a mantis and the body and wings of a wasp or yellow yel-low jacket. Its coloration is not like you would expect from a normal wasp but somewhat subdued. Do you have any classifications of this insect? This is the strangest thing I have ever seen! A. You have a mantisfly belonging belong-ing to the family Mantispidae, Order Neuroptera. The common species we are finding this year is Climiciella brunnea. They are harmless except to the many Insects upon which they feed. They are very good predators and eat many insects, good and bad. - Dr. Jay B Karren, USU Extension Entomologist Is this Product Safe? Q. My nursery supplier has told me to use ECHO 720 (tetra-chloroisophthalonitrile) (tetra-chloroisophthalonitrile) on my hydroponic tomato crop to control botritis caused by trimming the lower leaves off. USU to hold training Oct. The Bureau of Land Management issued payments last week to local governments for tax-exempt lands known as the Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act for the fiscal year 1999. Uintah County received $653,683, Duchesne County $412,534 and Daggett County $35,884. Total payments for 1999 totalled $125 million to approximately 1 ,977 local government units across the U.S. Utah received a total of $9,783359. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit announced that this year's payment is nearly $6 million more than last year's total, which was $119 million. The BLM, an agency of the Interior Department, distributes the PILT payments to eligible units of local governments each year. The payments are intended to offset the loss of tax revenue to states and localities caused by the presence of tax-exempt federal land within their jurisdictions. Vernal City SECRET WITNESS program call 789-8888 -- If you would like to adopt a male, black lab-mix, three months-old dog or any other of a variety of pets, call the Uintah County Animal Shelter, 789-5601. Mon.-Fri., Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. YOU WOULDN'T TRUST JUST ANYONE TO DRIVE YOUR CAR, SO WHY TRUST JUST ANY COMPANY TO INSURE IT? Don't trust just anyone to insure your car, see me: ED HACKING, Agent 317 W. Main 1 789-1234 Litre good neighbor State farm it then 3Mi fwwi MtwRfcjf (H) Mont Offles Hm&$o&, I . , 1 p L The label on this product only lists uses for ornamentals and turf crops and states that it is extremely toxic. Should I not use this on my food crop? A. You should not use the product prod-uct on your food crop. Only pesticides pesti-cides specifically labeled for specific specif-ic food crops can legally be applied to food crops. You were given inaccurate inac-curate advice by the nursery supplier. suppli-er. - Howard Deer, USU Extension Pesticide Specialist Will My Apple Trees Pollinate? Q. I recently planted three apple trees in my yard. One is a red delicious, deli-cious, one a granny smith and the third is grafted tree with golden delicious, gala and johnnygolds. Will my trees pollinate, or do I need two of each species? A. All of the apple varieties listed will crosspollinate each other. The only apple varieties that don't crosspollinate belong to the Winesap family. - Tony Hatch, USU Extension Fruit Specialist wastewater 19-21 The annual PILT payments are made for tax-exempt federal lands administered by the BLM, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (all agencies agen-cies of the Interior Department), the U.S. Forest Service (part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture), and for federal water projects and some military installations. Congress appropriates PILT pay-menu pay-menu each year. The BLM allocates allo-cates according to a formula in the PILT Act that includes population and the amount of federal land within an affected county. These payments are in addition to other federal revenues (such as, livestock grazing, and timber harvesting) that the federal government transferes to the counties. The BLM has distributed more than two billion dollars in PILT payments to local governments since these payments began in 1977. USU enrollment increases Preliminary numbers show enrollment enroll-ment up eight percent at Utah State University over the same period last year. USU student headcount is 20,865 as of day 15 of the fall 1999 semester. semes-ter. This number encompasses enrollment both on and off campus for state-funded students including those attending USU continuing education centers in Blanding. Moab, Roosevelt and Vernal. These numbers also include self-supported enrollment such as workshop classes given by USU faculty where students pay the full cost "These figures are obviously very gratifying to us ," said USU President George H. Emert "We knew that enrollment would dip . when we switched over to a semes ". '.:x is !L2nt - ... Uintah County Utah State University is offering an on-site wastewater treatment training course Oct. 19 through 21 at the Crossroads Senior Center in Roosevelt This is the first time this training has been offered in the Uintah Basin. Licensed contractors completing the entire training will be listed as certified by TriCounty Health Department to design and install wastwater disposal systems and to World food The new century will be a turning point in agriculture. But whether farmers and people in agribusinesses agribusiness-es are part of the "golden age of agriculture" or declare bankruptcy depends on their willingness to tell people about agriculture's success stories and on world trade regulations, regula-tions, global food analyst Dennis Avery told an audience at Utah State University Friday. Avery directs The Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues, the agriculture and environmental environ-mental policy research group of the institute's overall public policy analysis focus. His lecture was part of College, of Agriculture Week activities at USU. "Prosperity for American agriculture agricul-ture cannot be delivered by producing produc-ing more food for overfed Americans, and it cannot be delivered deliv-ered by Congress," Avery said. "Prosperity depends on whether world trade rules allow farmers to sell to China, India and Indonesia." Avery said that thanks to increased yields, made possible by biotechnology, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and improved management manage-ment practices, American farmers continue to feed more and more people on less and less land. Avery said, America is caught in a syndrome syn-drome of having plenty of relatively relative-ly low-cost, high-quality food. Consequently, most people don't appreciate the good that agriculture does and are often against the things that make high-yield farming possible. "If farm yields were the same today as when I was in high school, we would have had to plow under 15 million square miles of wildlife habitat to provide enough land to grow today's food supply." Avery said. "We have saved wildlife and fed people and yet farmers are being beaten up for being bad to the environment That's pretty stupid on everyone's part Farmers ought to be bragging, and they should be grateful, and I don't see either one happening." Avery said greater use of biotech- ter system last year, but we were hopeful that it was only a temporary tempo-rary decline. These preliminary numbers indicate that it was and that the university is back on track for steady grow th." The number of full-time equivalent equiva-lent students (FTE) is 15.274. This is up by 720 students from one year ago. Of this number 14,516 receive state funding. PTE are the basis upon which the university is funded. fund-ed. It is not funded by a head count of enrolled students. For example, if there are 20.000 students attending attend-ing classes, but some are only taking tak-ing one three-credit class, that 20,000 figure would be reduced when full-time equivalent numbers are used. Vernal s first Orthodontist. ..,.. il receives funds perform percolation tests. Any individual interested in submitting sub-mitting alternate wastewater disposal dispos-al system proposals or constructing alternate wastewater disposal systems sys-tems must complete this training. The cost for the complete course is $322. Those registering after Oct 5 needto arrange to pick up a study guide at either the Vernal or Roosevelt . TriCounty Health Department offices. supply nology, not curtailing population growth, is key to feeding the world without destroying wildlife habitat, but campaigns against biotechnology biotechnolo-gy threaten higher yields and better diets. He added that, contrary to what many believe, birth rates go down when people get better food Avery predicts that the world will need more than 250 percent more farm products by the year 2050 to feed the population, and that will either have to come from better yields or from expanding farming into rain forests, on steep slopes and other poor land that poses huge soil erosion and fertility problems. But campaigns banning food produced pro-duced using biothechnololgy, especially espe-cially campaign in Europe, threaten the ftiture of the world food supply and safety, he said. He touted biotechnology breakthroughs break-throughs in breeding plants that survive in high acidic soil and a new rice variety, golden rice, that produces high yields and has had genes inserted to make it a great source of vitamin A and Iron, to vital nutrients that are often lacking in poor diets. "In any previous era these scientists scien-tists would be on the short list for a Nobel Prize, and instead they are being vilifies," Avery said He disputed claims about pesticides pesti-cides causing cancer, adding that everything - including salt, water and sunlight - is toxic in extremely high doses. "People who work with rats doing lab studies say the most dangerous thing they do for the rats' health is letting them eat all they want," Avery said. "You cut your cancer risk by. eating five fruits and vegetables daily regardless regard-less of how they were grown Avery concluded with a plea for people involved in agriculture to tell agriculture's story in a way that gets through to urban people. "People say, 'We just want to be left alone to farm." Sorry, part of the price of staying on the farm is telling people about the good you da-Financial da-Financial Focus Is it time for your annual financial checkup? Submitted by Steven S. Holt Edward Jones If you're like many people, you get an annual physical checkup. After all, it's your health and you want to do whatever you can to maintain it But how about your financial health? Are you taking similar measures mea-sures to preserve its well-being? You should and you can start by conducting an annual financial "checkup." How should you go about performing per-forming this checkup? Start by setting set-ting aside a special time each year to meet with your financial professional profes-sional to review your progress. And when you get together, ask questions ques-tions similar to the following: 1. Do changes in the financial markets require a change in some of my investments? You don't want to adjust your portfolio just because the market is up or down. But you may want to make adjustments if your goals change or if your portfolio portfo-lio has gotten out of balance. For example, if you own a lot of stocks, and their prices have gone up substantially sub-stantially as part of the prolonged bull market, then more of your portfolio's port-folio's value than you intended may be in stocks. 2. How have my stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other investments performed in comparison to similar investments? Ask your financial professional to compare your individual indi-vidual investment returns against appropriate benchmarks. 3. Are there changes in my personal per-sonal circumstances that would affect my investments? If you switch jobs, get married, have a baby, receive i pension plan distribution, distrib-ution, or retire, you may well need to change your investment goals and your investments. 4. Am I making the right moves with my retirement plans? Are you contributing as much as you can to your401(k)? Are you fully funding your "traditional" Wednesday, October j i iri . ) i.Vi AVMC staff member working on renovation for new watting area. AVMC begins renovation project Ashley Valley Medical Center (AVMC) has begun a renovation project which will provide a new waiting area for patients. The complete com-plete front area of the west entrance is currently under construction. Walls are coming down and new walls are being constructed as a complete new look is developed. "We have been aware of the prcb-lem prcb-lem for some time," stated Debbie Spafford, public relations director, "and we have come up with what we consider a good solution." A comfortable area was needed for our patients to wait in while they waited to be checked in for labs, x- Small grain production Major crop activities for the week ending October 3, 1999 included harvesting hay and corn silage, moving livestock to winter ranges, and planting w inter grains, according accord-ing to the Utah Agricultural Statistics Service. There were 7 days suitable for field work during the week. Com in the dough stage was 90 percent, 2 percentage points behind last year but 17 points ahead of the five-year average. Com in the dent stage was 60 percent, 5 points behind 1998 but 8 points ahead of the five-year average Corn was 28 percent in the mature stage, behind last year by 10 points and 17 points behind the five-) ear average. Corn harvested for silage was 68 points complete. 19 points ahead of last year. Winter wheat was 70 percent planted, 18 points behind 1998. Winter wheat emerged, at 18 percent, per-cent, w as 23 points behind last year. IRA or Roth IRA? If you're self-employed, self-employed, are you putting enough aw ay into your Keogh or SEP? Ask your investment professional to run some computerized projections of your retirement savings. If you're not on track toward meeting your goals, you may need to make some changes. 5. Am I adequately protecting my family and my income? Adequate insurance is a key ingredient of a comprehensive financial plan. Do you have enough life insurance to protect your family in case something some-thing happens to you? Do you have disability coverage to make up for any income that might be lost due to an accident or extended illness? Do you have long-term care cover Bank-issued, FDIC - 1-vr 6X3 apy 3-year 6.35 APY 'Annual Percentage YiekHAPY) Merest cannot remain on deposit; periodic period-ic payout of interest s required. Effective KVDS99. ; . j i in li'.i in i ii Vernal Express 3 rays, etc. It was also felt that better privacy was needed for patients as they checked in. A large area w ill be converted to a waiting room and children's play station. When complete, com-plete, the main desk w ill face west and will he the new home for the Pink Ladies, as well as the switchboard switch-board operator. It is hoped that patients w ill find the new area a much nicer place to wait and the added privacy more convenient The construction will continue throughout the month of October and is hoped to be finished by November. The third alfalfa hay cutting was 95 percent complete, the same as last year. The fourth cutting w as 48 percent complete, behind last year by 7 points. Alfalfa seed harvested was 34 percent complete, 40 points behind 1998 and 23 points behind last year. Cattle moved from summer ranges was 37 percent complete, 6 points behind of 1998 and 1 1 points behind the average. Sheep moved from summer ranges was also 37 percent complete, 1 1 points behind last year. Topsoil moisture was 13 percent very short, 22 percent short, 64 percent per-cent adequate, and 1 percent surplus. sur-plus. Subsoil moisture was 10 percent per-cent very short 24 percent short and 66 percent adequate. Range and pastures were 2 percent per-cent very poor, 1 1 percent poor, 33 percent fair, 48 percent good, and 6 percent excellent- age to protan your life savings from the potentially catastrophic costs of a long stay in a nursing home? 6. Should I be doing some estate planning? It's never too early to stan doing estate planning. Parents should draw up a will or a living trust to prov ide for their minor children. chil-dren. And people in or near retirement retire-ment should position their estates to spare their heirs from having to pay heavy estate taxes. As you can see, there are many issues to explore during your annual annu-al financial checkup. By staying on top of these matters from year to year, you'll continue making healthy progress toward all your goals. insured to $100,000 xsz eit ::,c: Minimum deposit $5,000 Call or stop by today. Steven S. Holt Investment Representative 755 West Highway 40 Vernal, UT 84078 Bus: 435-781-2100 Fax: 877-222-3687 www.echvardjones.com Edwardjoncs 6, 1999 |