Compeer Financial awards blue ribbons for fair projects

Compeer Financial awarded students with blue ribbon prizes for projects that couldn’t be shown at county fairs because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Farm Credit lender encouraged young people across its 144-county territory in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin to submit photos and descriptions of their projects.

With 542 total submissions, 54 entrants were awarded prizes. Blue ribbon winners received $100 for themselves along with $100 for a nonprofit organization of their choice. Grand champions received $500 for themselves and $500 for their nonprofit organization. Winners were determined based on age and geographic location.

Nineteen Illinois youths were among the winners. Two were grand champions: Carl Rozanas, Rockford; and Paige Schramer, Maple Park. Other blue ribbon Illinois awardees included Emily Boelens, Cambridge; Ryan Carlson, Henry; Olivia Charles, Carroll; Jordan Craven, Sterling; Grace Emmerich, Morris; Jersey Hese, Ursa; Grace Jacobs, Geneseo; Ashlyn Kratochvil, Fairbury; Lydia Oker, Sandwich; Kelsi Parks, Colchester; Lydia Penn, Bloomington; Weston Solomonson, Gridley; Sidney Stiers, Williamsfield; Briley Swarringim, Rushville; Alyna Thorndyke, Bloomington; Kayli Thorndyke, Bloomington; and Grace Trone, Stockton.

Applications open to recoup organic certification costs

USDA’s Farm Service Agency recently announced organic producers can apply for federal funds to assist with the cost of receiving and maintaining organic certification. Certified producers and handlers are now eligible to receive reimbursement for up to 50% of the certified organic operation’s eligible expenses, up to a maximum of $500 per scope.

Producers can apply for the Organic Certification Cost Share Program for eligible certification expenses paid between Oct. 1, 2019, and Sept. 30, 2020. Applications are due Oct. 31, 2020.

Eligibility extends to any certified producers or handlers who have paid organic certification fees to a USDA-accredited certifying agent. Eligible expenses for cost-share reimbursement include application fees, inspection costs, fees related to equivalency agreement and arrangement requirements, travel expenses for inspectors, user fees, sales assessments, and postage.

U of I receives grant for AI ag institute

The National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program awarded $20 million to the Center for Digital Agriculture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the new Artificial Intelligence for Future Agricultural Resilience, Management and Sustainability Institute.

The AIFARMS Institute is led by Vikram Adve, principal investigator and the Donald B. Gillies Professor of Computer Science at U of I.

“By fostering close collaborations between these researchers, and by growing and diversifying a workforce skilled in digital agriculture, we have an exciting opportunity to help address some of the most daunting challenges faced by world agriculture today,” says Adve.

Adve will work alongside 40 researchers from U of I, University of Chicago, the Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center, Michigan State University, Tuskegee University, USDA Agricultural Research Service and Argonne National Laboratory.

AIFARMS will help develop a prototype autonomous “farm of the future,” anticipating a world where low-cost AI systems enable farmers to achieve large improvements in profitability and yield with minimal or positive environmental impacts.