(Ames, Iowa) – The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association (ICA) annually honors an individual who has contributed a great deal of time and effort in promoting the beef industry in Iowa. The 2022 recipient of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association Hall of Fame award is Dr. John Lawrence, of Ames. Lawrence was nominated for this prestigious honor by a group of producer and allied leaders for his service and engagement through many Iowa beef industry evolutions throughout his career.

Dr. John Lawrence, Vice President of Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, will retire in March 2023. He’s been a livestock economist at heart even when his title changed. Always a cattleman, John was raised on a southwest Iowa crop and livestock farm. And always an Iowan at heart, it’s been his home except while he earned his Ph.D. in agricultural economics at the University of Missouri in Columbia, and served as extension livestock economist in marketing and assistant professor at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. In 1991 he returned to Iowa as the ISU extension livestock economist and assistant professor.

Dr. John Lawrence (ISU photo)

John continued as extension livestock economist as he advanced in his faculty position, and began adding administrative responsibilities which often overlapped. In 1998 he was named Iowa Beef Center director, a position he held until 2010. From 2004-2010, he was assistant director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. In 2010 he became associate dean of extension and outreach for the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and director of agriculture and natural resources extension. Seven years later he was named acting, then interim ISU Vice President for Extension and Outreach, and the following year was appointed to his current VP position.

Along the way he held several interim positions in addition to his full time role, including interim director for the ISU Beginning Farmer Center and Iowa Nutrient Research Center, and interim chair for the ISU animal science department. The constant through the decades has been his dedication to working with people. From early days on Iowa farms and at producer meetings, to advocating for livestock industry members at the state, national and international levels, John has been a strong supporter of Iowa agriculture and its people.

“John is a true believer in engaging Iowans. Without question, his commitment to building strong, sustained partnerships like the one we enjoy with the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association make him worthy of hall of fame status,” said Wendy Wintersteen, president of Iowa State University. “For more than 30 years, John’s devotion to the power of ISU Extension and Outreach to change Iowans’ lives for the better has been unwavering.”

John and his contributions have made him an important piece of the beef industry past, present and future, and thanks to John, that future is bright. The ICA would like to thank Dr. Lawrence for his commitment and sacrifice to Iowa’s cattle industry by inducting him into the ICA Hall of Fame.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra is pushing to expand a 2018 law about a new technology that processes data dramatically faster than traditional computers do. It’s called quantum computing and it has the potential to improve existing industries — and create new ones. “This is the fastest computing apparatus that is in the world and we always talk about health care and we talk about financials and all of this other stuff that quantum computing can do,” Feenstra says. “And I said, ‘Well, wait a minute. When you look at quantum molecular simulations, you can start modeling with fertilizer, with input costs for agriculture.’”

Here’s how the concept works: computers use quantum mechanics to store data on what are called subatomic particles — basically the fragments of atoms. Quantum computing has the potential to process data in seconds that would take a traditional computer days or even months to sort. Congress is expected to reauthorize the government’s National Quantum Initiative in 2023. Feenstra says agricultural applications need to be specified.

“I don’t want agriculture left behind when we start talking about the efficiency and effectiveness of quantum computing,” Feenstra says. “…The next generation, this is what it’s all about, is how we can be more efficient, more effective in what we can do on the farm and we can do that with quantum technology.” Feenstra made his comments during an appearance on KMA earlier this month.

Federal spending on quantum information science has doubled in the past two years. Feenstra says it has the potential to expand battery storage and create more effective medications as well as create the next generation of farm fertilizers.

(Additional reporting by Mike Peterson, KMA, Shenandoah)

Des Moines, Iowa – A reminder to farmers and ranchers: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will spend several months gathering information about farm economics and production practices from farmers and ranchers across Iowa, as the agency conducts the third and final phase of the 2022 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). Greg Thessen, director of the NASS Upper Midwest Regional Field Office, says “ARMS is the only survey that measures the current financial well-being of Iowa producers and
their households as a whole. The results of this survey will help inform decisions on local and federal policies and programs that affect Iowa farms and farm families.”

In an effort to obtain the most accurate data, NASS will reach out to more than 35,000 producers nationwide, including 1,600 in Iowa, between January and April. The survey asks producers to
provide in-depth information about their operating revenues, production costs, and household characteristics. The 2022 ARMS survey includes a version of the questionnaire focused on farm
costs of production and expenditures for wheat producers. The survey also includes questions to help measure any impacts of COVID on farms, farm and household finances, and off-farm
employment.

Thessen says “In February, our interviewers will begin reaching out to those farmers who have not yet responded. We appreciate their time and are here to help them with the questionnaire so that their information will continue supporting sound agricultural decisionmaking. Completing this questionnaire fulfills your 2022 Census of Agriculture requirement.” Information provided to NASS is kept confidential, as required by federal law. The agency only publishes data in aggregate form, ensuring that no individual respondent or operation can be
identified.
The expense data gathered in ARMS will be published in the annual Farm Production Expenditures report on July 21, 2023. That report and others are available at nass.usda.gov/Publications. More reports based on ARMS data and more information about ARMS are available at ers.usda.gov/arms.

(Radio Iowa) – Licenses for a chance to snag one of the state’s most unique fish are now on sale. The D-N-R’s Missouri River fisheries supervisor, Chris Larson, says paddlefishing licenses are on sale through January 7th.”It’s one fish per license that you can purchase two licenses of there’s some available after January one,” he says. The season starts February 1st and runs through April 30th on the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers. The paddlefish season returned in 2015 and Larson says there are still many who like to participate. “It’s kind of remained pretty steady the last few years, it’s been around 300 to 400 licenses sold per year. Most of the non residents only sell out — there are 50 non-resident licenses — but we have plenty of resident licenses available,” he says.

Paddlefishing stopped in 1986 to protect fish numbers, and Larson says they have done okay since things restarted. “They’ve remained stable over our sampling. We did some sampling back in the middle 2000s and Nebraska and Missouri also look at their populations,” Larson says. “They’re all pretty steady as far as the numbers go, and paddlefish move all up and down the river. They go from Gavin’s Point Dam up north of Sioux City, all the way down to Tennessee and back.”

Paddlefish are snagged on the bottom of the river with heavy duty rods and 50 to 100 pound test line. Larson says you need to physically be ready because snagging involves more work than simply dropping a line in the water and waiting — but he says it’s also not that difficult to do. The drought has left water levels lower in the Missouri — which Larson says may be a good thing for those seeking the paddlefish.

Paddlefish catch(DNR-photo)

“It should probably help concentrate the fish into the deeper pools. So yes, it could be an advantage advantageous season depending on what Mother Nature does with snowfall and snow melt and stuff,” he says. I know in the past I’ve heard from different paddlefish anglers that they do better earlier in the season before the fish start moving up river. And sometimes they do better later in the season because it’s been too cold and the fish aren’t moving yet. So it kind of varies from year to year.”

A resident paddlefish license costs 25-50 and a nonresident license is 49 dollars. You must also have a valid Iowa fishing license. For more information about Iowa’s special paddlefish season, visit www.iowadnr.gov/paddlefish.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa hunters will get a second chance to bring home a deer with a new season. The D-N-R’s, Tyler Harms, says they’re calling it the excess tag January season. “That season will be implemented in counties that have unsold county antlerless licenses available on January 10th,” Harms says. He says the season will help them achieve the goal of the antlerless season. “Every county in the state has a county antlerless license quota, and it’s those licenses that that we allocate primarily for population management of deer in those counties,” he says. Harms says it can be a good extra chance for hunters to get a deer.

“I encourage hunters to take advantage of that opportunity if they were interested,” Harms says. “It is a limited method of take season — so only centerfire rifles, calibers to 223 to 500 are allowed for use during that season. So that is something to consider.” Harms says you can easily find out online where you can hunt. “We do have information on our website as well on as on the go outdoors Iowa app where hunters can monitor the remaining licenses available on January 10th. So, come that day, they should be able to go online and see which counties have licenses remaining and whether or not they want to try to obtain any of those licenses,” according to Harms.

The second regular shotgun deer season wrapped up on December 18th.

(Radio Iowa) – The annual Iowa State University survey has found the average price of an acre of farmland set a record again at 11-thousand-411 dollars. I-S-U’s Wendong Zhang oversees the survey. “This represents a 17 percent growth over the past year, and this is really phenomenal because that when you’re thinking about over the past few years — last year 2021 Iowa will farmland values rose 29 percent — and so this is a ramp up that is that we haven’t seen since the 1980s, essentially,” Zhang says.

Zhang says the inflation adjusted farmland value was a nearly nine percent increase — which is also a record. He says it is the first time since they since they started collecting information in the 1940s that both the regular and inflation adjust values have set records. He says overall medium quality ground rose the most at 17-point-seven percent, the high quality ground rose about 17 percent, and the low quality ground rose 15 percent. Each county saw an increase. “All 99 counties rose 10 percent or more — so it all rose between 10 percent to about 22 percent,” he says.

Zhang says landowners are happy to see an increase in their land value — but do wonder how long it will last. “There are more growing concerns about the sustainability of the land market growth, and also the elevated entry barriers for beginning farmers and less resource to farmers to enter the market because of the higher prices,” he says. Zhang says commodity prices are the number one reason those in the survey say prices have increased — as everyone was thinking four-dollar a bushel corn would be good — and nobody was expecting corn to get to six and seven dollars. He says there are several reasons for that rise — including the conflict in Ukraine.

“The Russia Ukraine war, the geopolitical uncertainty essentially further pushed up the commodity prices,” he says. “And the strengths and the stability in the U-S market, and the consistency and the quantity of the U-S agricultural markets sort of benefited from that.” He says corn and beans aren’t the only commodities seeing the impact. “This is happening for soybeans and for hay as well. But also this time, we are also seeing tremendous growth in terms of the livestock prices as well. And when you are thinking about especially cattle prices,” Zhang says.

He says this has shown up in the increased growth in land values in the northwest part of the state as there’s a significant presence of cattle producers, and to a lesser extent hogs. He says producers need to have land to spread manure on for nutrient management purposes, so they are more aggressive in bidding nearby grounds.

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(Radio Iowa) – The acquisition of land in Minnesota could help boost the water quality in northwest Iowa’s Spirit Lake. The Spirit Lake Protective Association’s, John Smeltzer, says he’s been worried for a decade about the amount of sediment being pumped from the cropland north of the lake — and that’s why they’ve partnered with a Minnesota conservation organization to buy the 195 acres to restore it to wetland and prairie.

“Cause Iowans drink this water. Iowans come to this area to birdwatch to enjoy the wildlife. And also to know that the wildlife is being cared for,” Smeltzer says. The watershed protection project is expected to decrease phosphorus and nitrogen deposits by 85 percent. Smeltzer says it also will restore habitat for diverse types of waterfowl, like trumpeter swans and Sandhill cranes. Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation communications director Joe Jayjack says the hope is to significantly reduce the amount of runoff that makes its way from the often flooded parcel of land.

“It’s a place for this water to go into to slow down, have the plants that are naturally occurring in these wetland areas pull out a lot of those nutrients and clean the water before it can go into these bigger lake systems,” he says. Jayjack estimates it will take two to three years until the natural habitat is restored. The land will then become a Waterfowl Production Area and be managed by the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service.

(reporting By Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)