The year 2007 marks the 10^th year of the Clark County 4-H Shooting Sports Program. Last year 20 youth enrolled and enjoyed the advisement of Indiana State 4-H certified instructors giving them firearm safety instruction and several "hands on" range experiences with shotguns, rifles and handguns.
    Clark County’s 4-H Youth Educator, Robert C. Allen, also an IDNR Hunter Education instructor, works with the County Shooting Sports Committee to build a foundation to use as a springboard to specialized firearm instruction in the future.
    Allen stated, "This is an excellent program to start with since many adults and youth specialist as they age. A basic understanding of sporting arms safety is critical in building a County Shooting Sports Program."
    Youth will have an opportunity to explore several new shooting disciplines in the Spring of 2007 thanks to the "Friends of NRA" who funded $1,800 towards purchasing new sporting arms equipment.
    Hunter Education teaches critical concepts regarding wildlife management, being a good sport, landowner relationships, ethics, and responsibility. This 13-hour course is taught by certified IDNR instructors and Clark County and Indiana Conservation Officers. The course’s number one priority is basic sporting arms safety, including muzzleloaders, modern firearms (handguns, shotguns and rifles) and archery equipment.
    Allen continued, "Many people are in fact finding out that their children born after December 31, 1986 are required to pass a hunger education course in order to purchase a hunting license."
    Passing the end of the course exam certifies the student as an Indiana Hunter Education graduate, which is nationally recognized by fish and wildlife agencies. Student graduates will be invited to participate in a live fire range experience on a date the class sets, which will be supervised by Indiana Conservation Officers and Clark County’s state certified firearms instructors.
    This program is especially designed to reach any Clark County youth grades 3 to 12, who would be interested in joining the 2007 program. Parents and legal guardians are asked to attend as well since 4-H is a family affair. It is required that youth 9^th grade and younger attend with an accompanying adult. Adults with a special interest to teach youth firearm safety are also needed to assist with this growing 4-H program. If families have youth interested in learning the mechanics of shooting, please plan to attend the 4-H Shooting Sports program "call out meeting" on March 20 at 6:30 p.m. in the Food Center at the 4-H Fairgrounds near Charlestown.
    These classes will be held on Tuesdays on February 6, 13, 20 and 27 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Bass Pro Shops Theatre Room in Clarksville. The course will conclude with a range firing exercise on Saturday, March 3 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Silver Creek Conservation Club on Highway 60 outside of Hamburg.
    Completion certificates and cards will be presented on that day.
    Attendance at all sessions is mandatory. This program has no charge. Pre-registration is required and must be done by January 26 by calling Scott Harvey at 812-218-5500.
    For more information about the hunter education class please call Gary Graf, County Coordinator at 246-3427 or Robert Allen, Clark County 4-H Youth Educator at 256-4591.

    High School juniors have a chance to join other Indiana youth on a trip of a lifetime. Applications are now available for the 2007 Electric Cooperative Youth Tour to Washington, D.C. Indiana’s Touchstone Energy cooperatives have hosted the Youth Tour since 1960, providing hundreds of young Hoosiers the opportunity to visit our nation’s capital ans learn the federal government and the cooperative utility industry. The trip begins on June 7 in Indianapolis ans ends on June 14.
    According to Davis A. Vince, General Manager of Clark County REMC, the Indiana delegation will be approximately 60 students from throughout the state, each selected by a local Touchstone Energy cooperative. In 2006, more than 1,500 students from around the were in Washington for the conference.
    "Clark County REMC is pleased to be able to provide this opportunity for local students," General Manager Vince said. "It’s a great trip and a wonderful chance to see the sights, make new friends and learn how everyone, even young peoples, can make a difference in the political process."
    For more information about the 2007 Electric Cooperative Youth Tour to Washington D.C., or to receive an application, contact Alice Wenning at 248-7510 and visit this website www.thremc.com or Indiana’s electric cooperative website at www.indremcs.org in the section entitled "Youth Tour."

    Prosser School of Technology, 4202 Charlestown Road in New Albany, will hold its annual Open House on Thursday, January 25, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Students, parents, business representatives, and all community members are invited to tour the facility and visit the 28 different program areas offered by the school. Principal Alan Taylor stated, "We are very proud of what we offer at Prosser, and we hope people will visit and see for themselves why Prosser students are becoming some of the highest paid employees in our Southern Indiana community."
    A computer will be given away, and the Culinary Arts Department will offer an all-you-can-eat spaghetti with meat sauce dinner which includes garlic bread sticks, drink, and assorted cookies for only $2 from 5:30 to 7p.m.
    Prosser School of Technology serves students from Austin, Borden, Charlestown, Christian Academy of Indiana, Clarksville, Corydon Central, Crawford County, Eastern, North Harrison, Providence, Restoration Christian, Salem, Scottsburg, Silver Creek, South Central, and West Washington. Students will earn a Prosser Certificate and will earn high school credits toward their Indiana high school diploma. In addition, students will receive on-the-job training and may earn college credits in some programs. Prosser offers a free lifetime job placement service to its graduates and offers programs for adults who are seeking additional training.
    For more information about the Open House of Prosser School of Technology programs, please call Qudsia Davis, Marketing & Recruiting, at (812) 949-4266 ext. 305.

     A government subsidy many farmers have relied on for years is gone. Ethanol and soy biodiesel- not budget-cutting legislators- are behind the suspension of the loan deficiency payment (LDP), said a Purdue University agricultural economist.
   Producers will need to learn to live without the LDP for as long as the biofuels market inflates corn and soybean prices, said Corinne Alexander. That means farmers should sharpen their marketing skills in order to maximize their profits in volatile grain markets. "The biofuels boom makes marketing much more important for farmers," Alexander said.
   Alexander and fellow Purdue agricultural economist Chris Hurt will lead a seminar series on grain pricing and selling for producers. "Grain Marketing in the Biofuels Era" takes place on four Mondays in January and February, with sessions broadcast at sites across Indiana.
   With biofuels production driving up the demand for corn and soybeans, crop prices are too high to trigger LDPs, Alexander said. A longstanding support payment, the LDP pays producers the difference per bushel between local market prices and local loan rates on program crops, when prices dip below loan rates.
   "What we’ve seen over the last five weeks or so is that corn and soybean prices have increased dramatically," Alexander said. "Going into this year, we were saying that there may be a chance for an LDP this fall. Well, we are way above LDP levels. Going forward with the price levels well above the loan rates, farmers aren’t going to have that downward price protection offered by the government. They are going to face the ful spectrum of price variability."
   In the past, most farmers factored the LDP into their grain marketing decisions, Alexander said.
   "There also tended to be large storage returns, so producers would use storage hedges or forward contract on the cash market, so that pricing early was often a winning strategy," she said. "Now we’re seeing prices increase substantially for future deliveries, so waiting to price seems to be a better strategy."
   Even farmers who miss the price peaks or want to wait longer for still higher prices can utilize other marking techniques, Alexander said. "Should there be another energy price spike that increased demand for corn again, they can use a sell-and-defend strategy, where you price your grain with a forward contract and then buy an out-of-the-money call," she said.
   Those issues, and others, will be covered in the Purdue marketing seminar.
   "This four-part marketing course covers all of the different pricing options producers have for setting the price for their grain, from futures to options to cash market alternatives," Alexander said.
   Seminars are scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. EST January 22, January 29, February 5 and February 12.
   Sessions titles and topics include:
   January 22- "The New Era- Market Instead of Government"- Marketing concepts for the new era; why futures markets love biofuels; introduction to the mechanics of future markets and using futures markets.
   January 29- "Options to Manage Price Risks in Volatile Markets"- The mechanics of options; valuing options in the biofuels era and options strategies.
   February 5- "Current and Future Pricing Alternatives at the Local Buyers"- The importance of basis; seasonality of futures; cash and basis; impacts of biofuels; basic pricing alternatives at the elevator; new generation contracts and will the future be "specific attribute-identify preserved marketing?"
   February 12- "Market Decision Making in the New Era: What Works?"- Characteristics of price patterns in the biofuels era; predicting price direction; overview of potential pricing strategies; optimum pricing strategies and a 10-step marketing plan.
   Twenty-five counties are broadcast host sites, with most showing the seminars live.
   Host counties and contacts are: Clark- David Trotter at 256-4591; Harrison- Adrienne Rich at 812-738-4236 and Orange- Andy Boston at 812-723-7107.
   For broadcast site locations, call the contact person listed above for the county. Other broadcast sites could be added. Check with a county office of Purdue Extension for additional locations.
   Seminar registration is $20 and includes grain marketing materials and the Purdue Extension CD, "Commodity Marketing" To register, call the contact person for the specific county site where you wish to attend. The registration deadline is January 5.
   The seminar series is being presented with financial support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency.