Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors welcome new business Renew Ag Supply to 811 Sunnyside Lane in Atlantic. Owner and manager Peggy Beschorner hosted the group and shared her story of 30 plus years in the ag supply industry serving the Atlantic Area.

Pictured are: Lana Westphalen, Carole Schuler, Jolene Roecker, Nedra Perry, Deb Leistad, Sue Muri, Peggy Beschorner, Arlene Drennan, Bil Saluk, Dolly Bergmann & Tessa, Pat McCurdy, Connie Wailes, Donnie Drennan, Gerald Brink, Russell Joyce, Jim Kickland, Chip Hansen, Kathie Hockenberry, Rich Perry, Karl Aldag, JoAnn Runyan, Tammy Waters, Melanie Petty, Diane Harris, Lucas Mosier, Keith Leonard, Josh Dvorak, and Sara Nelson.

Renew Ag Supply offers products for large animals including antibiotics, vaccinations and many other products necessary for farming operations. Beschorner said they hope to expand and fill their new space as the business grows.

The Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources reports the State’s 15-day annual pheasant population survey began with tempered expectations on Aug. 1, after a record setting wet spring, with cool temperatures that followed a snowy winter. Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources , coordinates and collects the data from the 208, 30-mile survey routes.

Bogenschutz says “When our pheasants do best, it’s after mild winters with less than 30 inches of snow followed by a warm, dry spring nesting season where we receive less than eight inches of rain. We had that scenario last year and our birds responded. But that is not the case this year.”

The nesting season is April 1 to May 31 and during that period, the average temperature was 51 degrees and Iowa received 15.4 inches of precipitation, including a significant snowfall during the first weekend in May. In years with similar weather, the pheasant survey found declines ranging from 4 percent to 51 percent. “It’s probably assured that the pheasant count will decline, the only question is by how much,” according to Bogenschutz, who says “We will know soon.”

The 30-mile routes are driven at sunrise on gravel roads preferably on mornings with heavy dew and little wind. The surveyors watch for hens moving their broods to the road edges to dry off before starting to look for insects. Surveyors note the number in the brood, any adult pheasants present and the size of the chicks, which tells Bogenschutz if this was an initial nest or if the nest was washed out and this brood was from a second or even third nest attempt. Each attempt after the first has fewer eggs than the previous attempt. They are the same routes each year.

The survey also collects data on cottontail rabbits, jack rabbits, quail and Hungarian partridge. The information will be available online at www.iowadnr.gov/pheasantsurvey by the middle of September.