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(Radio Iowa) – Two scientists who played key roles in creating a world seed vault are the winners of the 2024 World Food Prize. World Food Prize Foundation president, Terry Branstad, Thursday, announced Geoffrey Hawtin of Great Britain and Cary Fowler of the United States as the winners.
“They focused their careers on preserving and protecting the world’s heritage of crop diversity and mobilizing this critical resource to defend against threats of global food security,” Branstad says. During the ceremony at the U-S State Department, Branstad says they conserved more than six-thousand varieties of crops and culturally important plants. “Sustaining storehouses of seeds that we need to breed tomorrow’s crops for more nutritious, and climate smart crops,” Branstad says. “They then went on to work to establish the famous Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.”
World Food Prize Foundation President Terry Branstad. (photo from World Food Prize Foundaiton)
The Norway facility is often referred to as the “Doomsday Vault,” and holds one-point-two-five million seed samples in an underground facility in the Arctic Circle. More than anyone else these laureates have together shaped the global system we now have for protecting, sharing, and utilizing crop diversity for the benefit of humanity,” Branstad says.
Hawtin is the founding director and executive board member at the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Fowler is currently the U-S Special Envoy for Global Food Security. The World Food Prize was created by Cresco, Iowa native Norman Borlaug, who received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work that contributed to increases in agricultural outputs which was termed the Green Revolution.
The two will receive the World Food Prize at an event at the Iowa State Capitol building in October.
(Corning, Iowa) – Officials with ISU Extension in southwest Iowa say an online course is being offered to teens who are seeking employment, and must be certified to drive or operate, tractors or farm machinery for hire. AgSafety4u is designed for youth, 14 and 15 years of age. It includes required 24 hours of training, and a written and driving test in order for participants to be certified. The online program can be used for the classroom portion of the Hazardous Occupations Order for Agriculture (HOOA) safety certification program. The training is required by law for any 14 or 15 year olds who want to safely operate a tractor over 20 HP and other machinery on a farm, acreage or any other business. Youth aged 13 must be turning 14 during the summer of 2024 in order to be eligible for the certificate.
Extension Offices in Adair, Adams, Cass, Montgomery, Page, Ringgold, Taylor and Union County are partnering with the Southwest Valley Agricultural Education Program to provide the additional hands-on training and test-out that is required for issuing a US DOL certificate. This hands-on training will be Saturday, June 1 at Agrivision Equipment, 74235 Richland Road in Massena. The training and test-out will run from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM, and participants should plan to stay for the entire time to complete education and testing requirements. Participants MUST complete the training online, and pre-register for the in-person training prior to attending the driving and testing event on June 1. The online certificate course costs $10/person, and must be paid online before completing the course. There is no additional cost to attend the drive/test date. 
To complete the online training, visit https://ag-safety.extension.org/ and scroll down and find the “Online Safety Course” option. Youth will receive a certificate upon completion of the course that they are required to bring with them to participate in the driving and testing day. To pre-register for the driving day, please scan the QR code on the event flier or visit https://form.jotform.com/240924783634059. Registrations must be received by Friday, May 24 for the June 1 driving day. Due to scheduling, no late registrations or walk-in registration will be allowed. With questions regarding the training, contact class coordinator Chandler Arnold at Adams County Extension: 641-322-3184 or ckarnold@iastate.edu, or one of the other partnering Extension Offices listed above.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says prospects for congressional approval of a new Farm Bill are fading. “So what we call the five-year Farm Bill of 2018 last year became a six-year Farm Bill,” Grassley says, “and it could become a seven year Farm Bill.” The Democrat who’s chairwoman of the Senate Ag Committee released a framework for negotiations last week, but Grassley, a Republican, says the most likely outcome is that congress will vote to extend current Farm Bill policies for another year.”The certainty of a five-year Farm Bill is what we really need,” Grassley says. Disagreements over farm subsidies are holding up negotiations.
“It may sound like rhetoric when you say: ‘We want more farm in the farm bill,’ but remember only 15% of the Farm Bill goes to the Agriculture Department,” Grassley says, “and then just a small percentage of that 15% may wind up in farmers’ pockets.” The rest of the Farm Bill is mainly for food stamps and other government nutrition programs. Grassley says Senate Democrats have proposed a five percent increase to potential subsidies to cover rice, cotton and peanut farmers’ losses. However, the so-called reference prices for corn and soybeans that trigger federal subsidies to cover losses would remain the same. “That doesn’t reflect this inflation of seed, fertilizer, chemicals, diesel and higher interest rates,” Grassley says. “We want the new five-year Farm Bill to reflect that inflation.”
The one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill expires at the end of September.
(Des Moines, Iowa [Iowa News Service]) – A Des Moines-based farm co-op is taking high-tech sports-training into the country and has hired an athletic physician to do it. The field of high-tech sports training is usually reserved for athletes and other high-level performers but the mindset is taking a dramatic turn, as the Landus Co-op in Des Moines has hired a physician.
Dr. Dehra Harris has spent much of her medical career training the Toronto Blue Jays minor-league baseball players and is bringing those skills to the Iowa countryside. Harris said she has always been drawn to helping people who have to perform physically to make a living. “You don’t have days off. You can’t take it easy, right?” Harris pointed out. “It’s that ‘rub some dirt on it’ kind of world. And to be able to take the things that we’ve been learning, in sports and in medicine, and apply it to this group is just an incredible opportunity.”
Harris explained she will start by listening to farmers’ physical needs, then developing proper nutrition and recovery programs even if it means responding to a farmer who’s delivering a calf at three in the morning, and whatever else it takes to help with America’s ag production backbone. Harris noted her regimen will not stop with physical training. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports suicide rates are nearly twice as high for farmers compared to the general public. The threat was most severe during the pandemic.
Harris will design wellness plans for farmers’ mental health, although she noted getting the information might not be easy. “I love it when I talk to farmers because I’m going to hear all about their family,” Harris added. “I’ll hear about everything to do with their farm but I’m also not going to hear a lot about what they need. So, we think that the strategies that are actually going to work best here are actually to approach this as a family, and see what the needs are for the whole unit.”
Landus is among the first co-ops in the country to take the new approach.
(Radio Iowa) – The U.S. Labor Department says a Tennesse-based cleaning company will pay $649,000 in penalties for employing children at facilities that included the Sioux City Seaboard-Triumph pork plant.
An investigation earlier this year found that children, some as young as 13, were put on overnight sanitation shifts at the Sioux City plant and Perdue farms facility in Virginia. At the Seaboard Triumph facility, federal investigators witnessed children concealing their faces carrying glittered school backpacks before starting their overnight shift.
They learned children were assigned to use corrosive cleaners to clean dangerous kill floor equipment. Seaboard Triumph has since fired the company.
ADAIR COUNTY—Heavy precipitation is causing a bypass of untreated wastewater from the City of Fontanelle. It is flowing from the lift station located at Washington and Main Streets in town to an unnamed tributary which runs over a mile before reaching the Middle Nodaway River.
The bypassing began at 11:15 p.m. last night. The amount of the discharge is unknown at this time. DNR staff are monitoring the situation and sampling has been required.
It is recommended to stay away from this area until the bypass has stopped.
(Des Moines, Iowa)- Fieldwork activities were limited as rain across the State held Iowa farmers to just 1.4 days suitable for fieldwork during the week ending May 5, 2024, according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service. Rains the past two weeks have resulted in reports of some counties moving out of the extreme to severe drought stages. Topsoil moisture condition rated 4 percent very short, 12 percent short, 65 percent adequate and 19 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture condition rated 7 percent very short, 20 percent short, 64 percent adequate and 9 percent surplus.
Just 8 percent of Iowa’s expected corn crop was planted during the week ending May 5, 2024, for a total of 47 percent planted. This meant progress went from ahead of average to lagging 2 days behind both last year and the 5-year average. Seven percent of the corn crop has emerged, 3 days ahead of last year and 1 day ahead of the average. Soybean planting progress fell behind the previous year with 5 percent of Iowa’s expected soybean crop planted during the week ending May 5, 2024, for a total of 30 percent of the expected soybean crop planted, 2 days behind last year. Four percent of the soybean crop has emerged. Ninety-six percent of the expected oat crop has been planted, 2 days ahead of last year and 10 days ahead of normal. Oat emergence reached 68 percent, 5 days ahead of last year and 1 week ahead of the 5-year average. The first oat condition rating of the season was 1 percent very poor, 2 percent poor, 29 percent fair, 59 percent good and 9 percent excellent.
The first hay condition rating of the season was 1 percent very poor, 3 percent poor, 21 percent fair, 64 percent good and 11 percent excellent. Pasture condition rated 57 percent good to excellent. There were many reports of cattle being turned out to pasture. Unseasonably wet conditions continued through the reporting period with several disturbances crossing the state. Rain on already saturated ground produced flooding in pockets of northern and southeastern Iowa. Temperatures varied from cooler than average in northwestern Iowa to unseasonably warm southeast; the statewide average temperature was near normal at 55.0 degrees.
Showers remained in eastern Iowa with additional redevelopment in western Iowa ahead of a low pressure center through Sunday (28th) afternoon. Daytime temperatures reached into the upper 60s where cloud cover was sparse with light southerly winds. As the low pressure center propagated towards the Great Lakes, winds shifted westerly with Monday (29th) morning lows ranging from the low 40s northwest to upper 50s southeast. Widespread rain totals were reported at 7:00 am with the highest amounts in pockets of northwest and northeast Iowa; Dyersville (Dubuque County) measured 1.01 inches while Storm Lake (Buena Vista County) collected 1.21 inches with a statewide average of 0.35 inches. Overcast skies persisted north through the day with highs in the 50s, while southern Iowa was 10-15 degrees warmer under mostly sunny conditions. Winds became variable after midnight as starry skies reigned ahead of another approaching strong low pressure system.
Initial Tuesday (30th) morning showers fizzled in eastern Iowa as a warm front lifted across southern Iowa, pumping in moisture and increasing atmospheric instability. Discrete supercells fired rapidly along the cold front near the Iowa-Nebraska line around 3:00 pm; these storms tracked east-northeast and became severe-warned almost immediately. Reports of large hail and isolated straight-line winds followed the consolidating line east with 2.00-inch hail in Massena (Cass County) and a weak tornado near Millerton (Wayne County). The cold front exited eastern Iowa overnight into Wednesday (1st) as skies cleared ahead of another weather disturbance to the west. Event rain totals across western Iowa were in the 0.50-0.75-inch range at many stations with lesser amounts farther east. Showers with some rumbles of thunder increased through the late afternoon and evening hours with temperatures in the upper 50s northwest to upper 60s southeast.
Showers and thunderstorms overspread the state into Thursday (2nd) bringing widespread, moderate rainfall to much of Iowa. Rain continued across eastern Iowa through the afternoon hours with stubborn showers holding over the southeast corner where flood warnings were issued. Northwesterly winds ushered in cooler temperatures behind the system as dense fog developed from southwest to north-central Iowa. Rain totals reported on Friday (3rd) morning for the last 36 hours showed almost 200 stations receiving at least the weekly climatological average, which was just shy of an inch. Nearly 30 stations had 2.00 inches or more with 2.10 inches in Sigourney (Keokuk County) to 4.10 inches in Centerville (Appanoose County); the statewide average was 0.98 inches.
Daytime conditions were pleasant with winds gradually shifting southerly and upper 60s and low 70s. Yet another low pressure center entered western Iowa early Saturday (4th) morning with thunderstorms forming a narrow line along the attendant cold front. Rain totals were highest across west-central to north-central Iowa where amounts were in the 0.75-1.00-inch range; many of the state’s remaining stations collected 0.20-0.50 inches. Skies gradually cleared west to east through the afternoon and evening as highs held in the upper 50s. Variable winds developed into Sunday (5th) with lows generally in the upper 30s and low 40s.
Weekly precipitation totals ranged from 0.31 inches at Muscatine (Muscatine County) to 4.53 inches in Forest City (Winnebago County). The statewide weekly average precipitation was 2.23 inches, more than double the normal of 0.93 inches. Shenandoah (Page County) reported the week’s high temperature of 83 degrees on the 30th, 15 degrees above average. Forest City and Storm Lake reported the week’s low temperature of 32 degrees on the 5th, on average 12 degrees below normal. Four-inch soil temperatures ranged from the mid 50s northwest to low 60s southeast as of Sunday.
Temperature and Precipitation Maps, courtesy of the Midwestern Regional Climate Center, are available at: https:/mrcc.purdue.edu/CLIMATE/
(Radio Iowa) – The U-S-D-A Crop Report says there were less than two suitable days for field work last week due to wet fields. Corn planting advance just eight percent to 47 percent now completed, and the progress is now two days behind last year and the five-year average. Soybean planting progress is now also behind two days as well, with farmers only progressing by five percent for a total crop planted at 30 percent. Iowa State University Extension field agronomist, Angie Rieck-Hinz, says things in her north-central area is one where planting came to halt. “My best guess depending on how much rain we get this week is it’ll be a probably solid seven to 10 days before we’re back in the field to finish planting,” she says. Rieck-Hinz says there’s still time.
“We’re still within that point that we’re not losing a lot of yield potential by planting a little bit later, but that’s all going to depend on how much rain we get this week and even there’s rain in the forecast for next week,” she says. She says farmers don’t like to sit and wait after getting planting started, but that’s going to have to be the case for now.
“Before people get all too worried about losing yield potential I think got some time to get it dried out and get some more crop in the ground,” Rieck-Hinz says. Statewide seven percent of the corn crop that’s in the ground has emerged — which is three days ahead of last year and one day ahead of the average. Four percent of the soybean crop has emerged.
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