Farmers' deadlines
moved back a week
Farmers now have until April 7 to set base acreage and choose the safety-net program they'll use under the 2014 farm bill, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday.
The department had already pushed the deadline back a month to Tuesday. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack decided to give farmers an extra week to update yield histories or reallocate base crop acreage as well as to choose between Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage. The programs are designed to protect against crop losses from a disaster or changes in commodity markets.
Filings in Arkansas are running slightly behind national figures, said Linda Newkirk, executive director of the USDA's Farm Service Agency in Arkansas.
"Mostly what we've got is just finishing up paperwork," Newkirk said. Producers must schedule an appointment with the agency by April 7.
More information is available at county Farm Service Agency offices. More information about the farm bill is available at usda.gov/farmbill.
-- Glen Chase
Truckers push U.S.
on safety-data step
The American Trucking Association continued its push for change within the safety measurement system, urging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration this week to make a "common-sense change" by removing crashes that trucking companies and their drivers did not cause.
In a letter to the agency, the association pointed to a "serious shortcoming" of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, highlighting examples of companies penalized by accidents in which they were not at fault. The association argued in its filing that "merely being struck by another motorist does not make one more likely to strike others."
All crashes are posted on a carrier's safety record.
The trucking association has previously called for the agency to pull safety rating scores from public view until the system is overhauled. The Arkansas Trucking Association agrees with the national association's call for changing the safety system but does not believe the ratings should be removed from public view.
-- Robbie Neiswanger
State stocks gain
2.55, end at 395.52
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 2.55 to 395.52 Friday.
Shares of Windstream Holdings Inc. fell 5.1 percent
Murphy Oil Corp. shares declined 1.03 percent.
Shares of Dillard's Inc. rose 1 percent.
Shares of America's Car-Mart Inc. increased by 3.4 percent.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 03/28/2015