By RANDY GRUENEICH

Editor’s note: Barnes County Extension Agent Randy Grueneich will be writing a monthly column on agriculture issues for the Times-Record. This is his first column. Welcome to our pages, Randy!

What a great time to be asked to write about agriculture in Barnes County! My goal, as your Barnes County Extension Agent, is to help you understand how awesome agriculture is and what a great place Barnes County is to be a farmer.  
It would be easy to get the impression from what you read and hear that everyone in agriculture is making more money. A close look at the 2007 net farm income of farmers enrolled in the Adult Farm Management program reveals a group that has been left behind.  
Average net farm income for all farms enrolled in the program in 2007 was $192,000. This was a large increase from the previous five year average net farm income of $ 61,600. A closer look at the numbers shows that crop farms had average net farm incomes of $ 252,000 while beef farms averaged less than $ 42,000.
Why have ranchers been left in the dust in the increase in net farm income?
The simple answer is that the price ranchers receive for calves (income) has not increased in proportion to the increase in expenses. Crop farmers have had the benefit of a doubling or, in the case of corn, nearly a three times increase in price that has offset the steep rise in production costs.
 If beef calves were to experience a similar increase (doubling) from the 2007 price of $1.10 per pound, a 600-pound calf would increase in value from $660 to $1320.  I’m not suggesting that beef calves will be selling for $2.20 per pound in the near future, but I do hope and predict that a time is coming when beef ranchers will have a price increase that will allow them to enjoy higher net farm incomes.   

Randy Grueneich maintains an office in the Barnes County Courthouse. You may contact him via e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

By James Michael
Environmental Health Practitioner for CCHD

Radon is a cancer-causing natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste, but its presence in your home can pose a danger to your family’s health.
It comes from the natural decay of uranium that is found in nearly all soils. It typically moves up through the ground to the air above and into your home through cracks or holes in your foundation. Once inside, the radon is trapped and can build up.
Radon is estimated to cause thousands of deaths each year because when you breathe air containing this gas, you can potentially get lung cancer. According to the surgeon general, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States today.
Only smoking causes more lung cancer deaths. And if you smoke and your home has high radon levels, your risk of lung cancer is especially high.
You can check for radon in your home using either short-term or long-term testing. Free short-term test kits are available through City-County Health District, located in the Barnes County Courthouse. The test is simple. You are instructed to complete the test and send it to the laboratory noted in the instructions. They will send you the results, usually in a couple weeks. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and surgeon general recommend testing all homes below the third floor for radon.
The test kit should be placed in the lowest lived-in level of the home (for example, the basement if it is frequently used, otherwise the first floor). It should be put in a room that is used regularly, like a living room, playroom, den or bedroom, but not you kitchen or bathroom.
If a short-term test indicates that radon levels are unacceptably high (4 picocuries per liter or higher), it is recommended that you do a second short-term test. If it’s still high, steps to repair your home are needed.
A long-term test will give you a better understanding of your year-round average radon level. Needed repairs can be made for about the same cost as other common home repairs ($800 to $2,500). Even very high levels can be reduced to acceptable levels.
Any home can have a radon problem, even newly constructed ones. Radon gets into houses through cracks in solid floors, construction joints, cracks in walls, gaps in suspended floors and/or around service pipes, cavities inside walls, and through the water supply.
Nearly one out of every 15 homes in the U.S. is estimated to have elevated radon levels, according to the Citizen’s Guide to Radon, a publication provided by the EPA and Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
There are several proven methods to reduce radon in your home, but the one primarily used is a vent pipe system and fan, which pulls radon from beneath the house and vents it to the outside. This is known as a soil suction radon reduction system and does not require major changes to your home. Sealing foundation cracks and other openings makes this kind of system more effective and cost-efficient. Similar systems can also be installed in houses with crawl spaces.
After repairs are made you should retest your house to be sure that radon levels have been reduced. It’s also a good idea to retest your home every two years to be sure radon levels remain low.
Radon is a controllable problem. It is to everyone’s benefit to test homes for this silent creeper.
For more information, contact City-County Health District at 845-8518.  
YOUR HEALTH column is coordinated by Mercy Hospital.

By Joe Bessie

Today is the first full day of classes at VCSU, and I am reminded of my years teaching philosophy. Perhaps no other discipline better fits the designation “purely academic,” at least in the popular mind. I’d like to offer a few observations on the utility of studying things that are “purely academic,” by looking at a couple of very academic puzzles.
First is a problem posed by the ancient mathematician Zeno of Elea, called The Racecourse: Imagine a runner is going to move from point A to point B around a racecourse.  After leaving point A, the runner must pass the half-way mark before reaching B. Before reaching the half-way mark, he must pass the quarter-way mark, and before that, the eighth-way mark, etc. Indeed, there is an infinity of points the runner must pass before getting to point B.  Zeno asks, “How can any runner, no matter how fast, pass infinitely many points in any finite time?”  He answers, “Clearly, the task is impossible—real movement, therefore, must be impossible.”
The next puzzle is called the Monte Hall Problem—named after the emcee of the long-running game show Let’s Make a Deal. Suppose you’ve won a chance at the Big Deal of the Day—a large prize behind one of three doors on the stage.  You’ve guessed that the prize is probably behind door number three. Monte then says, “OK, you’ve chosen door number three! Before we open it, let’s see what’s behind door number one!” Door number one is then opened…and there’s a month’s supply of macaroni!  It’s a joke prize, not the Big Deal—you’re getting pretty excited now! Monte now gives you a choice: “You’ve seen that the Big Deal is not behind door number one—so it’s behind door number two or door number three, which you’ve chosen. Before we open door number three, we’ll give you a chance to switch to door number two—what do you say?” When presented with this choice, a person is inclined to reason as follows: “Let’s see, the prize isn’t behind door one, so it’s either behind the door I’ve chosen or behind the remaining door. So, I’ve got a 50-50 (i.e., 50 percent) chance of winning—it doesn’t matter whether I switch, because my chances stay the same—therefore, I will not switch!”  And this strikes most of us as a perfectly reasonable line of thought.  But the mathematical truth of the matter is this: your chances of winning actually go up to 67 percent if you switch.  
In the Zeno example, the reasoning from one step to another sounded good, but the conclusion is obviously false.  In the second example, however, both the reasoning sounds good and the conclusion (that there’s no reason to switch doors) sounds reasonable—but in fact that reasonable sounding conclusion is wrong.
Most of life’s most difficult choices that require us to think hard more closely resemble the second puzzle than the first, because our reasoning seems good to us and our conclusions sensible.  But what if a choice concerns an important moral issue?  Or how to build a bridge or aircraft on which our lives depend?  What if it concerns important medical treatment?  The only hedge against error we possess—aside from grace or luck—is the quality of the reasoning we employ.  And this is one of the great and useful benefits of training in things that are “purely academic”—like the effort that has been devoted to solving the two problems above—that it helps condition the mind to rigorous and high quality thought, to be deployed when it matters most.

By Steve Shirley 

Greetings and welcome to the first of what will be a regular column every other week in this space providing an update of the happenings and current issues at Valley City State University.  
As President, I will author most columns, but will also be asking others from the University to contribute from time-to-time allowing a broad base of campus perspectives to be shared.  Thanks to the Times-Record for this opportunity, and my appreciation for their dedication of this space as a regular mode of VCSU communication.  
With this initial column, allow me to introduce myself and provide some background information. As a North Dakota native and product of the North Dakota University System, I am extremely honored, humbled, and privileged to serve as President of Valley City State. I grew up in Fargo and earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Business along with a PhD in Higher Education, all from the University of North Dakota. My higher education experience includes seven years as a business faculty member at the University of Minnesota, Crookston in Crookston, MN and four years as the Vice-President and Dean of Student Affairs at Dakota State University in Madison, SD.  Additionally, I have been on staff and taught at UND and South Dakota State University.
Throughout my higher education career, I have maintained an active schedule working with student clubs and organizations. I am a firm believer in the important role extra-curricular and co-curricular activities have in the university experiences of our students.  I have led several student and faculty groups abroad on educational and cultural trips to other countries.  This is one of my strongest interests in higher education and you will no doubt be hearing more from me on this subject in future columns.
Since starting at VCSU on July 1 and being in the Valley City community for two months now, I have had the good fortune to meet many community people, alumni, and friends of the University. We are fortunate to live in such a terrific community, and I feel privileged to be in a situation where the relationship between the community and university is so positive and strong. It is definitely a “Win-Win” partnership!
This is an important week at VCSU, and so it is especially appropriate for this first column to be reaching you today.  This past weekend approximately 200 new students went through Orientation activities, got settled into the Residence Halls, and began the transitional process to becoming VCSU students.  
Classes begin this week, and the rest of our students are returning to campus with the first full day of Fall Semester classes beginning on Tuesday.  It is truly a special time in the academic calendar, and we are so excited to be welcoming our new and transfer students and welcoming back our returning students.  
Hopefully, you will have the opportunity to stop out on Saturday, Aug. 30, to our first Viking home football game of the season against Minnesota State, Moorhead.  Additionally, I invite you to attend our other football or volleyball games or musical, theatrical, or artistic university performances throughout the fall. There are numerous campus activities during the year, and I sincerely hope you will take the time to attend some of these events in the months ahead.  
Thanks to everyone in the community for your support of the University.  On a personal note, thanks also to all of you I have had the opportunity to meet so far, and I look forward to meeting and working with many more of you in the weeks, months, and years ahead.  The future is an exciting one for Valley City and VCSU, and I am excited to be a part of it!