(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra says it’s time for the U-S Justice Department to take real steps to sanction the four companies that control 80 percent of the U.S. the beef packing industry. Feenstra cites the amount one of those companies is paying to settle a lawsuit filed by grocery stores and wholesalers. “JBS, the world’s largest meat supplier paid $52 million to sweep their price-fixing shenanigans under the rug, but they can’t hide what we’ve known all along,” Feenstra says. “These big meatpackers are illegally distorting the market to increase their profits.” The lawsuit filed against J-B-S as well as Tyson, Cargill and National Beef accused the packers of working together to intentionally suppress the number of cattle slaughtered, to drive up beef prices.

“We need to pass the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act to finally hold big packers accountable and help Iowa’s small, independent producers compete on a fair playing field,” Feenstra says. “That is what a free and fair market is all about.” Feenstra is a Republican from Hull. He made his comments during a short speech on the floor of the U.S. House. The Department of Justice opened an investigation of meatpackers two years ago, but has not indicated publicly what its findings may be or if a lawsuit is pending. The Biden Administration is providing a billion dollars in grants to expand processing capacity in small packing plants.

In February, the U-S-D-A unveiled an online portal for livestock producers to report allegations of price fixing. The four major companies in the beef packing industry say the prices they pay for cattle — and the prices consumers pay for meat — are driven by supply and demand.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Spring is in the air, and plans are underway for gardening projects in Cass County. Local groups planning community gardening, beautification or education programs will again be eligible for assistance from the Cass County Master Gardeners. The group is offering grant money to be used in the 2022 growing season, to encourage gardening to grow food for donation, for gardening education, and/or for gardening projects to improve local communities. The Cass County Master Gardener Memorial Grants are offered in remembrance of the many years of service to the community provided by long-time Master Gardener volunteers who have passed.

Any Cass County not-for-profit group may apply. Schools, churches, libraries, 4-H clubs, Scouts, or other organizations/individuals working to improving their communities can apply for money to begin or improve gardens or landscaping for community benefit, or to provide education for their members or the public. To ensure the money is helping a wide variety of community organizations, those who were funded by 2021 grants will not be eligible to apply in 2022. Each grant has a maximum value of $300. Applications must include plans for teamwork and sustainability. Consideration for the environment is also an important factor in selection. All grant recipients will be expected to submit a report at the end of the growing season, detailing how the money was spent. Recipients will also be given a sign to place in their garden area for the 2022 growing season.

Applications must be received by 4:30 PM on Wednesday, May 4 for guaranteed consideration. They may be submitted by mail or email. Grant recipients will be informed of their application status no later than Monday, May 9 so they can make plans for the growing season. For more information, or with questions, call the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or email keolson@iastate.edu. You may also contact Master Gardener LaVon Eblen. Application forms can be printed from the Cass County Extension website- www.extension.iastate.edu/cass. You can also call or email the office to request a form be mailed or emailed to you, or stop by 805 West 10th Street in Atlantic to pick one up.

The Master Gardener program trains volunteers to develop their knowledge and skills in horticulture. These volunteers then give back to their communities through gardening service and education. The program is available in all 50 states and Canada through land grant university Extension programs such as Iowa State University Extension. Education courses are available throughout Iowa on a regular basis, with the next statewide training class open for enrollment beginning June 1. For more information on the program, contact Cass County Extension Director Kate Olson, at 712-243-1132 or keolson@iastate.edu.

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) – The owners of a cattle feedlot in northeast Iowa are asking to renew a permit that allows the facility to take nearly 22 million gallons of water a year from the Jordan aquifer in Clayton County. Residents asked the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to deny another permit for Supreme Beef L-L-C during virtual public meeting Monday. Tammy Thompson says the application does NOT take into account her nearby private well.

“This permit should not be renewed as is because by doing so it would result in an unreasonable use for only the applicants’ personal gain while negatively impacting residents of the nearby communities of Monona and Farmersburg, as well as nearby domestic well and cattle farming users,” Thompson says. The earlier permit for water use was for fewer cattle.

Larry Stone lives near Elkader.  “I contend that the use of the Jordan water by Supreme Beef for 11-thousnd-600 cattle will result in pollution that impacts the public’s quality of life and Iowa’s land air and water resources,” Stone said. The forum was for public information gathering and the D-N-R employees listened but did not speak. The D-N-R is expected to make a decision on the permit renewal next month.

(Radio Iowa) – This is Soil and Water Conservation Week in Iowa, with the theme this year, “Healthy Soil, Healthy Life.” Lynn Knutson is with the Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation Service.  “Iowa Soil and Water Conservation Week is an opportunity to recognize the important conservation work that has been placed on the Iowa landscape,” Knutson says, “and bring attention to the ongoing work by farmers, landowners and residents to protect the state’s soil and water resources.”

Knutson says there are all sorts of services being offered to Iowans to help them conserve our soil and water. “Farmers can apply to receive some cost-share funding for things like cover crops, strip till, no till, grass waterways, buffer strips,” he says. “The USDA actually approves the work orders that meets the standards and then us as commissioners approve the work that meets the priorities for our county that have been set.”

There are soil and water conservation offices in all 99 Iowa counties. Iowa leads the nation in the continuous conservation reserve program buffer initiative with more than 600,000 acres. Statewide, there are more than 60 active watershed and water quality projects.

(Radio Iowa) –  The Iowa legislature has approved a bill that is estimated to require that the majority of Iowa gas stations sell gasoline with a 15 percent ethanol blend. Governor Kim Reynolds was speaking with reporters in West Des Moines when she learned the vote tally in the Senate.

The governor initially proposed an Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard last year. An adjusted plan passed passed the House this February. This week, Senators made changes that are expected to let an estimated 30 percent of smaller gas stations opt out of the requirement to sell E-15. Senator Waylon Brown, a Republican from Osage, says it’s a way to push back against the oil industry and federal regulators who’ve resisted using ethanol as a gasoline additive.

“This does tell the state, it tells the nation, it tells our region that E15 is important in Iowa and we are going to be the leader in the E15 market,” Brown says, “in production and in selling it.” Republican Senator Dennis Guth, a farmer from Klemme, says the mandate violates the principles of free enterprise. “I do support E15 in every way that I can,” Guth said, “but I don’t think it’s the government’s job to use their big club to make things happen.” Senator Todd Taylor, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, says the bill will be an economist boost for rural and urban Iowa.

“It’ll help with clean air and clean energy,” Taylor says, “and renewables for the future are what we need for growing our economy, creating jobs and sustainable jobs.” Republican Senator Adrian Dickey of Packwood, who has owned fuel stores, voted for the bill, but Dickey says retailers who install new systems to pump higher blends of ethanol will make zero profits from that investment.

“I think when we get done with this bill we should pass another bill that’s a ‘Green Tractor Mandate,'” Dickey said. “…We should mandate that every farmer uses a green tractor, a green planter, a green combine to put their crop in and take their crop out and the first response would be: ‘Well, I’m not going to make any more money doing that. I’m not going to have any more yield doing that.’ Well, exactly. It’s the same scenario, but ‘Green Tractors’ are good for Iowa. We make ’em and we sell ’em in Iowa.”

The House approved Senate adjustments in the plan early this (Tuesday) afternoon and sent the bill to the governor on an 81-to-13 vote.

DES MOINES, Iowa (April 25, 2022) – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, Monday, commented on the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report released by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. The report is released weekly April through November. “It was another active weather week with additional periods of severe thunderstorms and locally heavy rainfall,” said Secretary Naig. “Cooler temperatures and windy conditions also persisted, though soil temperatures are slowly rising. Soil temperatures are at or above 50 degrees for much of the southern two-thirds of Iowa.”

The weekly report is also available on the USDA’s website at nass.usda.gov.

Crop Report
Rain, high winds, and cold conditions continued to stall spring planting, limiting Iowa farmers to 2.3 days suitable for fieldwork during the week ending April 24, 2022, according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service. Fieldwork activities were primarily applying anhydrous and fertilizer. Reports were received of limited corn and soybean planting as well as planting oats. In addition to periodic precipitation, cool soil temperatures have some farmers waiting to plant row crops.

• Topsoil moisture condition rated 4 percent very short, 18 percent short, 67 percent adequate and 11 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture condition rated 9 percent very short, 29 percent short, 58 percent adequate and 4 percent surplus.
• Forty-seven percent of the expected oat crop has been planted, 10 days behind last year and 5 days behind the 5-year average.
• Pastures were slowly turning green. Hay supplies were dwindling in some areas. Livestock conditions were generally good, with calving in full swing.

(Radio Iowa) – Sioux City high school and college students got hands-on experience Monday in grain bin rescue techniques and first aid training at the Sioux City Fire Rescue Training Center. Sergeant Bluff fire chief Anthony Gaul was one of the instructors. “So we’re gonna be able to get to a lot of kids in our community that are around farming around ag and teaches them a little bit of safety that hopefully, they’ll get here and never have to experience for real,” Gaul says. Instructors from the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety brought a trailer with a grain bin simulator that a student volunteer became “trapped” in. Gaul says other students in turnout gear then had to rescue their classmate using a grain auger and other tools.

“I’ve been on three of these for real and we’ve been successful with two of them. And it’s a frightening situation for anyone to be in — the person that’s in the bin, the family,” Gaul says. “The state has done a good job of helping provide training. There have been grants for equipment to bring us to where we need to be.” Keyshawn Canady is one of the high school students who volunteered to be the victim in the training exercise.

Student grain bin rescue training (KSCJ photo)

“For a second, I’m not gonna lie to you it was a little terrifying but then after a while, it was nothing. Yeah, in real life I maybe would have been absolutely shocked. But no, not now. No, I’ve never been in like a simulation with that no,” Canaday says. Canady says the experience and class training he is taking has sparked his interest in becoming a firefighter.

“I really didn’t know too much about firefighting but I’m actually going to continue it and go to WIT (Western Iowa Tech) for two years for fire science,” he says. The students also received training in “stop the bleed” activities with staff from local hospitals.

(Radio Iowa) – The climate-driving weather system known as La Nina may be sticking around still longer, impacting how Iowa’s weather evolves well past summer. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, says the experts had expected La Nina to fade this spring. “We’ve gone through two years of La Nina, that’s not uncommon,” Todey says. “The initial thoughts were that La Nina was going to weaken this spring and dissipate. It has weakened but it really hasn’t dissipated. It actually has strengthened in certain ways. So, La Nina is still very present and impacting our background issues with the outlooks.”

Todey says the forecasting models for the next several months show a tendency toward above-normal temperatures and a lack of rain. “We did have this area of maybe not being warm in the north central U.S, and in June, July, August, that goes away,” Todey says. “So, much of the western U.S. leans towards above (-normal temperatures) and decreased chances for precipitation — sorry about that — throughout the Plains and even extending into Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri.”

Todey says there is the potential for more heat and expanding drought areas into summer, both in Iowa and across the region. “There were hints this could happen,” he says. “It’s not a guarantee. The probabilities still are not high but it’s definitely something we have to keep an eye on as we go ahead here.” A La Nina event occurs when Pacific Ocean surface temperatures cool, and it influences weather across North America.

(Radio Iowa) – The governor’s Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard that won House approval in early February has cleared a committee in the senate — but with an addition that could let nearly a third of the state’s gas stations opt out of the requirement to sell E-15. Molly Severn is the governor’s legislative liaison.

“This bill is the result of significant compromise from everyone along the fuel supply chain,” Severn says, “from farmers to fuel retailers.” The House voted to grant waivers from the E-15 mandate to stations with equipment that’s not certified to handle fuel with higher blends of ethanol. The Senate Ways and Means Committee has voted to let stations get a waiver from the E-15 mandate if they sell less than 300-thousand gallons of gasoline each year.

Supporters of the plan estimate about 30 percent of small gas stations could opt out — leaving about 70 percent of Iowa fuel retailers subject to the requirement to sell E-15. Severn says with uncertainty over federal ethanol rules, Governor Reynolds believes this is an important step for Iowa to take.

“Over 55% of the corn grown in Iowa is processed for the first time at an Iowa ethanol plant,” Severn says. “If we lose the liquid fuel market, that would devastate the Iowa economy, farmers and fuel retailers.” The ethanol mandate does have detractors. Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, says a mandate that gas stations sell corn-based ethanol is ironic since farmers oppose regulating fertilizer application on corn fields to improve water quality.

“The idea that we’d ever regulate or have a mandate for something like a 20 foot buffer strip along a river or creek — we’ll be 100 years from now without that,” Bolkcom said, “because of the opposition to mandates.” The Senate Ways and Means Committee has also voted to reduce the amount of matching funds small gas stations have to raise to secure state grants for installing tanks and pumps that can dispense gasoline with a higher blend of ethanol. Republican Senator Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

“We’re really trying to help out these small retailers in the state, knowing that they support a lot of our rural communities,” Dawson says. “There’s a difference between a high volume station that has the capital to make an investment in something like that versus a small station that might not have as much capital.”

It’s likely the bill will be debated in the Senate today (Tuesday).