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Today's News

  • Evergreen Outreach-Feb. 3, 2011

    By Pat Rhodes

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  • Church Briefs

    Northside Christian to start Bible study

    Northside Christian Church will start a new Bible study, beginning this Wednesday, from  Ray Vander Laan’s “That the World May Know” lesson series.
    The title of this series is “God Heard Their Cry.” It illustrates how God hears and answers the cry of his persecuted people. It was filmed on location in the Middle East.
    The study will be held each Wednesday in February, from 6:30-7:30 p.m., at the church, which is located at 1845 W. Jackson St. in Vandalia.

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  • Farm Briefs

    January's temps, precip below norms

    Last month, statewide temperatures were below normal, and precipitation was also below normal for all of the state.

    Wheat crops were reported to have been blanketed by snow throughout much of the state for most of the month. Winter wheat conditions stand at 5 percent very poor, 14 percent poor, 36 percent fair, 42 percent good, and 3 percent excellent.

    Temperatures averaged 21.7 degrees, 3.1 degrees colder than normal.

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  • Corn growers behind E-15 plan

    "Dividing the approval of E15 among model year segments has the potential to make fueling decisions unnecessarily confusing at the pump, especially considering the labels that EPA has proposed," said Illinois Corn Growers Association president and corn farmer Jim Reed.

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  • Farm Bureau applauds EPA's E-15 approval for 2001 and newer vehicles

    Illinois Farm Bureau representatives welcomed the recent announcement by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that it has approved a higher blend of ethanol in gasoline for use in cars and trucks produced since 2001.

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  • USDA survey to assess farms' financial health

    Starting in January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will contact farmers and ranchers across the nation to conduct the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). This survey will provide farmers and ranchers with an opportunity to provide accurate, real-world data that will help shape the policies, programs and issues that affect them.

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  • USDA releases final 2010 crop summaries

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s final fall crop summary and grain stocks report was issued recently. The highlights for Illinois follow.
    Corn
    Production of corn for grain totaled 1.95 billion bushels in 2010, 5 percent less than was produced in 2009. The final yield was a disappointing 157 bushels per acre, 17 bushels below the previous year. There were 12.6 million acres planted to corn in Illinois in 2010, with 12.4 million acres harvested for grain.

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  • Lambing Time

    Though the weather hasn't been exactly welcoming, this year's lamb crop has begun arriving during the past couple of weeks. These lambs were born about a week ago on the Lynn Wollerman farm northwest of Vandalia. Wollerman, who has about 80 ewes scheduled to deliver lambs this year, uses a camera in the barn to monitor the ewes' progress. Even with that, he's up several times a night to check on them and help the newborns get started nursing.

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  • Mueller, Knebel receive Abes

    Two individuals who have been involved extensively in community activities were honored with Abe Awards at Thursday’s annual banquet of the Vandalia Chamber of Commerce.
    Receiving the non-chamber-member award was Joyce Mueller, a longtime volunteer in a variety of Vandalia organizations. The chamber-member award went to Doug Knebel, the community bank president for Midland States Bank, 2008 president of the Vandalia chamber and member of a number of civic organizations.

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  • Reading of Lincoln Farewell is next Friday

    A live webcast has been set up to allow anyone in the nation to participate in the Feb. 11 simultaneous reading of a famous Abraham Lincoln speech that organizers hope will set a new Guinness World Record™ as part of the national kickoff of the Civil War Sesquicentennial.

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