ATLANTIC, IA (November 23, 2024) – Produce in the Park’s Harvest Market is this Monday, November 25 from 3-6 PM at the Cass County Community Center, 805 W. 10th Street in Atlantic. Local shoppers are invited to pick up food and  decorations for their thanksgiving celebrations and get a head start on holiday gift shopping when they browse the wide variety of locally grown and home-made items.

This year, everyone 18 and older who attends Harvest Market can enter a free drawing for a $100 gift card to spend at the upcoming Christmas Market in December. Produce in the Park Board President Bailey Smith explained the drawing is designed to encourage people to visit Harvest Market and bring awareness to Christmas Market. “We’re hoping that the chance for a $100 gift card encourages more people to check out our amazing Harvest Market. Additionally, folks love Christmas in Atlantic, and we want everyone to remember that the Christmas Market is part of that.” Produce in the Park’s Christmas Market will be held on Saturday, December 21 from noon to 3:00 PM at the Nishna Valley Family YMCA in Atlantic.

Harvest Market is always held the Monday before Thanksgiving so shoppers celebrate with local foods, gifts, and decorations. This year’s Harvest Market is expected to offer a plethora of local vegetables including greens, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and squash, along with local meats, desserts, pastries, baked goods, honey, eggs, jams, jellies, syrups, popcorn, and more.

In addition to local foods, Harvest Market offers an opportunity to purchase local and handmade holiday decor and gifts. Shoppers can expect to find evergreen decorations, candles, soaps, crocheted toys, earrings, artwork, lavender products, wood crafts, seasonal hand towels, and more.

This year’s Harvest Market also includes a soup supper for those wanting a warm bite to eat before or after shopping. Imagine Gifts and Greenhouse will be selling Chicken Noodle, Vegetable Beef, and Loaded Baked Potato soups by the cup or bowl for dine-in or carry-out. Lastly, as is common for Produce in the Park farmers markets, local organizations will be in
attendance providing information and resources to the public. Visitors to Harvest Market can expect to find information on Cass County Tourism, Healthy Cass County, and the Cass County Grow Another Row program.

Harvest Market 2024 is sponsored by Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce, Cass County Tourism, Cass Health, City of Atlantic, First Whitney Bank & Trust and Nishna Valley Family YMCA. For the latest information on Harvest Market, and all Produce in the Park markets, follow Produce in the Park on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ProduceInThePark) or Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/produceintheparkatlanticia/).

Produce in the Park continues to accept vendor applications for Christmas Market, and additional holiday markets planned for winter 2024-2025. Vendor applications can be found online at www.ProduceInTheParkAtlanticIowa.com; printed copies of the application are available at the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce (102 Chestnut St., Atlantic, IA 50022). Produce in the Park seeks vendors selling handmade or homegrown products, including local foods, as well as beauty products, candles, crafts, art, and decorations.

Re-Shows must be scheduled by December 18 in Cass County

The Cass County Extension office is again hosting continuing instructional courses (CICs) for local commercial pesticide applicators, but wants to remind anyone who has yet to attend the training that all CIC training must be completed by the end of December to keep a license current. To avoid conflicts with year-end scheduling, Cass County Extension is requiring that all training dates be scheduled by Wednesday, December 18^th.

‘Year end is a busy time for all, but we don’t want anyone to miss the opportunity to attend their annual required training, as time to meet those annual requirements is getting short,” according to Kate Olson, Cass County Extension Director. “We do offer trainings on a first-come, first-serve basis, and our hours will be slightly different during the holidays, so we’d like to remind folks to call and get their classes scheduled before our year-end calendar fills up.”

According to Olson, reshow dates can occur after December 18^th, as scheduling allows, but they must be on the calendar before then to be honored. To ensure a spot on the training schedule, applicators needing to complete CIC for the year are asked to call as soon as possible if they have a preferred training date, but no later than Wednesday, December 18^th at 4:30 PM. Applicators calling after this date will NOT be placed on the training schedule. Training dates can be scheduled locally by calling the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or by emailing Office Manager Lori Anderson at lander@iastate.edu. For more information on the Commercial Pesticide Applicator program or the CIC classes, please visit www.extension.iastate.edu/psep/.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Officials with ISU Extension and Outreach in Montgomery County say 4-H members, their families, and community members gathered November 17, 2024, for the annual Montgomery County 4-H Awards Night. The program was hosted by the 4-H County Youth Council, a group of 4-H members from across the county ranging in age from high school freshmen to seniors.

This year’s county council has nine members: Pace Chaillie (Grant Spitfires), Kennedy DeVries (Stennett Panthers), Oliver Dykes (Stanton Strivers), Landon Gigstad (Stennett Panthers), Kyla Hart (Stanton Strivers), Victoria McFarland (Stanton Strivers), Grace Nippert (East Sunrisers), Will Pollock (Stennett Panthers), and Delaney True (East Sunrisers). The council honored 4-H members and clubs from the past year for their hard work as well as outstanding program sponsors and extraordinary volunteers. 2024 Awards Night PR

2024-25 Youth County Council: Pace Chaillie (Grant Spitfires), Kennedy DeVries (Stennett Panthers), Oliver Dykes (Stanton Strivers), Landon Gigstad (Stennett Panthers), Kyla Hart (Stanton Strivers), Victoria McFarland – not pictured (Stanton Strivers), Grace Nippert (East Sunrisers), Will Pollock (Stennett Panthers), and Delaney True (East Sunrisers).

Four awards are given to adult volunteers, community members, or businesses who support and make positive impacts on the Montgomery County 4-H program. The Friend of 4-H award was given to Farm Credit Services of America. The Montgomery County Ag Society received the Honorary Award. The 2024 Outstanding 4-H Alumni was given to Jenny Ellis and Stephanie Vinton-Pollock of the Stennett Panthers and Red Oak Clover Kids was presented the 2024 Outstanding Leader award.

Volunteers are presented with tenure awards for every five years of service. Those honored on Nov. 17th were:

• Silver Clover Pin for 5 years of service: Ann Gigstad and Naomi McCunn
• 5-Point Diamond Clover Pin for 40 years of service: Jane Waltz

In addition to adult and community awards, youth members received awards for submitting their yearly record books and submitting their officer books. Members receiving an award for their record books were:

Junior Record Books: The Outstanding Junior Record Book was awarded to Reese Herzberg. Loryn Anderson, Lyssa Anderson, Anna Chaillie, Payton Doyle, Carter Taylor, Zane Johnson, and Lauren Ferree received certificates of completion.
Intermediate Record Books: The Outstanding Intermediate Record Book was awarded to Dalton Ferree.
Senior Record Books: The Outstanding Senior Record Book was awarded to Joshua LeRette. Receiving certificates of completion and senior project area awards: Lilly Anderson (Rabbit), Pace Chaillie (Sheep), Landon Gigstad (Dog), Joshua LeRette (Woodworking), Grace Nippert (Poultry), Alyssa Strebe (Photography).

Two clubs received awards for turning in their officer books. Grant Spitfires received a certificate of completion for their Secretary’s book, and Outstanding Historian Book and Treasurer’s book. Stanton Strivers received Outstanding Secretary’s Book.

Six senior 4-H members received additional awards based upon their 4-H participation and project involvement. To be eligible for a senior award, members must turn in a record book as well as meet other award specific criteria.

Service: Pace Chaillie & Grace Nippert
Livestock Achievement: Lilly Anderson
Achievement: Landon Gigstad
Danforth Award: Alyssa Strebe
Hall of Fame: Joshua LeRette

Congratulations to all the 4-H members and community partners who received an award! (See more pictures on the Montgomery County-IA Extension Facebook page)

(Article submitted by Katie Hart, Montgomery County ISU Extension/Outreach)

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s busiest and largest hunting seasons will be kicking off shortly, as the first of the state’s two shotgun seasons for deer will open in about two weeks. Nate Carr, an Iowa D-N-R conservation officer, says deer hunting is extremely popular. “We see roughly 100,000 hunters get out and participate in those two seasons, and during that time, we harvest about half of the total deer harvest in Iowa within a relatively short period of time,” Carr says. “So it’s a really effective way to manage our deer herd across the state, but also see a lot of good hunter participation.”

The first deer shotgun season runs December 7th through the 11th, while the second season runs December 14th through the 22nd. Deer hunters harvested about 60-thousand deer in Iowa last year, and Carr anticipates this year’s harvest will round out roughly the same. “Eastern, southern Iowa, we have really strong numbers and tend to have strong harvest, and so that kind of makes up for the lower population on the western side of the state right now, so it kind of balances out,” Carr says. “I think we’ll see decent numbers. Hopefully, we’ll get colder temperatures. That tends to get deer on their feet and motivate hunters to get out and pursue them.”

Iowa DNR photo

There have already been several smaller deer hunting seasons held in the state, and this year’s hot, dry weather may have been something of a hindrance. “We’re still seeing pretty decent harvest numbers. I think we’ve harvested around 25,000 deer throughout the youth season, in this early split of the archery season, as well as early muzzleloader, so we’re we’re on track,” Carr says. “We’re down a little bit, and you could probably attribute that somewhat to temperature, a little bit of hemorrhagic disease, which we’ve seen impact central Iowa quite a bit this year.”

Find much more information on the hunting seasons ahead at iowa-d-n-r-dot-gov.

Cass County: Corn $3.98 Beans $9.38
Adair County: Corn $3.95 Beans $9.41
Adams County: Corn $3.95 Beans $9.37
Audubon County: Corn $3.97 Beans $9.40
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.01 Beans $9.38
Guthrie County: Corn $4.00 Beans $9.42
Montgomery County: Corn $4.00 Beans $9.40
Shelby County: Corn $4.01 Beans $9.38

Oats: $2.65 (same in all counties)

(Radio Iowa) – A recent Iowa Farm Bureau report shows the Iowa ag economy has seen a down trend from 2023 into 2024 that lead to farm incomes dropping by nearly 25 percent. I-F-B’s economics and research manager Christopher Pudenz says there are some things that could turn the farm economy around. He says getting away from Farm Bill extensions to passing a new five-year bill is one. “One of those aspects that is in that farm bill that’s really important for farmers here in the state of Iowa is the crop insurance programs that are funded in part by the Farm Bill,” he says. Pudenz says the safety net it provides takes some of the uncertainty out for farmers.

“The vast majority of acres for both corn and soybean farmers here in the state of Iowa are covered under crop insurance. That you know really does help during a year like this, when prices are depressed compared to previous years, or like when those folks up in northwest Iowa had all the flooding this spring and wiped out all those acres,” Pudenz says. He says there are some bright spots going forward, including the international export market. “We are looking to have a pretty strong here in terms of corn exports, the beef market remains strong. Iowa is fourth for cattle on feed, and it’s looking like some of those revenues in that in that industry might be shifting to some of those cow calf folks,” he says. “The hog industry, after having a pretty rough stretch there 18 months or so has had a better summer and fall and is looking to have a better 2025.” Pudenz says some of those areas could get farm incomes up a again.

“If farmers have, you know, higher incomes, they can, they can start buying machinery again. And then those manufacturers can start buying, you know, tires from their tire suppliers. Just kind of kick start the whole ag and ag adjacent economy,” Pudenz says. Republicans took back the White House and the Senate in the recent election and that can also impact the Ag economy. Pudenz can’t say yet what that impact will be. “It’s just too early to tell. We don’t know who is going to be the U-S-D-A Secretary yet. We don’t have an announcement about U-S-T-R (US Trade Representative), eagerly awaiting those announcements as we go forward here,” he says.

Pudenz says these factors are all important as the I-F-B analysis shows the negative impact on the state’s economy from the downturn is more than one- and-a-half-billion-dollars.

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced the last seven agricultural drainage wells in the state have been closed, which represents the end of about 30 years of research and management around the wells that negatively impacted water quality in Iowa.

Following the establishment of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act in 1987, IDALS developed an inventory of ag drainage wells in the state and found there were 300, with a majority in Humboldt, Pocahontas and Wright counties. Per the groundwater protection law, the department conducted research on ag drainage wells and in-field nutrient management plans that, according to IDALS had “statewide application in dealing with the water quality concerns about nitrogen and herbicide movement from cropped lands to Iowa’s streams and lakes.”

A schematic showing how agricultural drainage wells operated. (Graphic courtesy of Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship)

Another element of this research found that wetlands could remove up to 90% of nitrogen and herbicides from tile drainage. Drainage from the last seven ag drainage wells, all near Gilmore City, will be redirected to a 137-acre wetland to help manage water quality of the runoff. “Improving water quality takes time, commitment, and dedicated funding, but this demonstrates that when there is a strategy and funding in place, this impactful work can get done successfully,” Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said in a news release.

Closed agricultural drainage wells have a cover like this. (Photo courtesy of Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship)

Michael Schmidt, staff attorney for the Iowa Environmental Council, said the issue of ag drainage wells has been part of the council’s priorities since it started in 1995 and advocated for the 1997 law that required the closure of the wells. In areas prone to excess water, cropland will have tile, or underground drainage structures, to help drain water out of the fields and into ditches or streams. Ag drainage wells would funnel water from the tile down into bedrock aquifers, meaning any ag chemical or excess nutrients from that field would flow down into aquifers, many of which were also used for drinking water.

Most of these wells were constructed in the early to mid-1900s, and according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency more than 95% of all agricultural drainage wells in the country were in Iowa, Idaho, Ohio, Minnesota and Texas. To date, IDALS has made use of $25 million in state appropriations and an additional $12 million in landowner and partner contributions to close nearly 200 of these wells. The other third of the 300 identified wells were closed by landowners or were non-functioning. Landowners were also eligible for assistance to close the wells from the Watershed Improvement Review Board.

The final seven wells were closed on Tuesday, following six years of planning and construction around the closures, which according to IDALS, involved eight properties and 13 landowners.  Schmidt called the effort a “big step forward” in addressing some of the major ground water pollution issues in the state.

(West Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with the Iowa Farm Bureau said Tuesday, a sharp downturn in the agriculture economy is causing a ripple effect throughout the state resulting in the loss of up to 11,400 jobs and $1.5 billion in value-added economic activity (GDP) and a $100 million loss to the state and local tax base. The data comes from an exclusive Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) economic analysis, and says 23 businesses in Iowa announced layoffs for 4,097 individuals working in production agriculture and adjacent industries from the first of the year through Sept.18, 2024, but IFBF’s analysis finds those numbers balloon when taking broader impacts into consideration.

IFBF economics and research manager Christopher Pudenz says “Ultimately, this starts with depressed incomes at the farm gate that have ripple effects on the Iowa economy,” said Christopher Pudenz, Iowa Farm Bureau economics and research manager. “For example, because farm incomes are down, farmers aren’t making the same machinery purchases they’ve made in previous years which means manufacturers, suppliers and retailers slow down production and are forced to lay people off.”

Iowa’s ag-related layoffs have occurred during a prolonged period of economic hardship and uncertainty for farmers. USDA’s September 2024 farm income forecast projects another challenging year for farmers, who are expected to lose nearly a quarter of their income in just two years due to slumping commodity prices and stubbornly high input costs.  Net farm income, a key measure of profitability, is projected to decline 4.4% from 2023, following a record year-over-year drop of 19.5% from 2022 to 2023.

IFBF photo

Pudenz said that the downturn is particularly impactful in Iowa, considering agriculture accounted for more than 22% of Iowa’s total economic output in 2022, according to a study commissioned by the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers. Nearly one in every five Iowans are employed due to agriculture and ag-related industries, accounting for more than 385,000 jobs. “Agriculture is the heartbeat of the Iowa economy, and when agriculture struggles, those pains are felt throughout the state,” Pudenz said.

IFBF President Brent Johnson says “This analysis underscores why a farm bill is so important – farmers need assurances as they try to balance economic uncertainty. A farm bill extends beyond the farm and protection of our food supply; it also provides access to nutritional programs for families facing hunger, advances conservation efforts and spurs innovation through research. If a new farm bill isn’t passed, many critical programs will face significant interruptions.”

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass/Guthrie County Environment Health Executive Director Jotham Arber, Tuesday, presented his monthly report to the Cass County Board of Supervisors. In his report, Arber said the main thing he wanted to note, is “This weird thing going on with a few septic systems” in Audubon and Cass Counties.

He said there are around 9 or 10 septic systems that have the same weird, greasy substance. He said in Audubon County, the septic systems were installed by the same contractor, but in Cass County there were four different contractors, so it doesn’t appear to be an installation issue. Samples will be taken and sent to the State Hygienic Lab for breakdown and analysis, so see if there are commonalities in the substance.

Jotham Arber said also the Environment Health Department is finishing-up water test sampling in Cass County. The test results will be analyzed and made available during the Board of Supervisors meeting in December.

He said there has been a huge increase in people who are taking the opportunity to contact the EHD and getting their private wells rehabbed. That’s something he’s happy to see.

By “rehab,” he means those wells that were installed more than 40-years ago, both shallow and deep, that used technology that incorporated bricks, and which deteriorates over time, as well as those where the pumps ave gone bad, etc. Those issues can be corrected allowing the wells to be accessed safely.

He said “A lot of folks want to keep their wells, and if we can help them keep it, it’s not bad to have good drinking sources of water.” Arber said also, they’ve seen an increase in the number new wells being drilled in Cass County. Most of the newer wells are drilled deep, because more is known now about nitrates and how to make those wells more secure from bacteria.

The Environmental Health Department, he says, can help property owners better position new wells that are less prone to run-off, and in incorporating better structural features.