AFBF’s Andrew Walmsley, director of congressional relations, explained the intent of the electronic logging device mandate and what it means for agriculture in a recent RFD-TV segment. Most farmers and ranchers should be exempt from the ELD mandate because they can claim covered farm vehicle status, but drivers who haul livestock, live fish and insects are likely to fall under the requirements.
The Transportation Department’s “one-size-fits-all approach” to implementing the regulation is of great concern, Walmsley noted.
Drivers who have to use ELDs would be limited to current hours of service rules, which restrict a driver to only 14 “on duty” hours, with no more than 11 active driving hours. Once a driver hits those maximum hour allotments, he must stop and rest for 10 consecutive hours, which would be problematic when transporting livestock and other live animals. DOT’s 90-day waiver from the requirement that agricultural and livestock haulers install ELDs in their vehicles expires March 18. AFBF remains in contact with the agency regarding agriculture’s concerns and continues to urge lawmakers to come up with a legislative solution.
Watch the RFD-TV clip.
The “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP-21) was signed into law in July 2012, and it included changes to the exemptions that farmers had for hauling agricultural commodities to and from market as they related to for a Commercial Driver’s license, these additional exemptions were allowed when the farmers operated a “Covered Farm Vehicles” as defined in the act.
When planning for the sale of their crops, grain farmers should use “realistic optimism.”
The American Farm Bureau Federation is calling on all members of Congress to support House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte in his goal of including the AG Act in the Securing America’s Future Act.
The nation’s system of laws and regulations is filled with policies that come from good intentions but, when applied without enough thought or input, don’t make sense in their implementation. One example that agriculture faces right now is the requirement that truck drivers install electronic logging devices in their vehicles. By switching from paper records to the electronic devices, it’s supposed to be easier to keep truckers honest about not going over the hours of service limits.
After rebounding slightly in 2017, net farm income in 2018 is expected to fall to $59.5 billion, a 12-year low, according to the Agriculture Department’s most recent 2018 Farm Sector Income Forecast from the Economic Research Service. If realized, this would be the lowest net farm income since 2006 and would represent a decline of 6.7 percent from USDA’s 2017 projection.
“The budget deal approved by Congress and signed by President Trump today includes a number of important agricultural provisions that will help America’s farmers and ranchers and support food security for all Americans,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall in a 
It was typical day at the Lynchburg Regional Animal Health Laboratory of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Veterinarian John Moody necropsied two calves from the same farm. The farm reported that three of four calves in a pen, all different ages, had died on the same day. Two of the calves were submitted to the laboratory for a necropsy, an animal autopsy, in hopes of determining the cause of death.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) just announced the detection of a new invasive insect pest in Virginia. In early January, VDACS inspectors discovered the Spotted Lanternfly (SLF), Lycorma delicatula, at a stone yard in Frederick County near Winchester. The Spotted Lanternfly is native to China, India and Vietnam, and prior to the January detection, was not known to occur in Virginia. Both SLF egg masses and dead adults were detected at the Winchester site.
For Virginia farmers, January is a time for tax preparation, livestock births, equipment maintenance and professional conferences.
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