(Radio Iowa) – Northwest Iowa crops specialist, Joel DeJong says it’s a chance to brush up on your knowledge. “Farmers like every industry need to continually learn and improve. Any industry that doesn’t improve and doesn’t get better has a tendency to die,” DeJong says. “And although people will still need to eat — we need to be productive, we need to be competitive and we need to look at that on a world basis. So, we need to get better at that all the time, and that’s one of the goals of what we do.”

DeJong says each of the Crop Advantage seminars for northwest Iowa will feature entomologist Erin Hodgson. “Erin is going to talk about corn rootworms. We had a lot of issues with corn rootworms this past year — particularly corn-on-corn acres have had a huge amount of problems — and some of the treatments aren’t working as well as they used to, and she is going to talk about that,” he says.

Joel DeJong. (ISU photo)

Agricultural economist, Chad Hart will try to look into what’s going to happen with the commodities market. “He’s going to try and look ahead. And as Chad says sometimes when you are really high his job is to kind of bring you back down a little bit — and when it is really low — his job is to help you back up. He gets to work with the high end of that price scale this year,” DeJong says.

He says you can contact your local extension office or go online to CropAdvantage.org. Sheldon will host the first seminar, scheduled to take place on January 4th at the Northwest Iowa Community College. Other seminars to follow include Storm Lake, Burlington, Okoboji, Ankeny, Cedar Falls, Mason City, Chariton, Webster City, Atlantic, Davenport, Coralville, Le Mars, and Denison

(Shelby, Iowa) – Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc. will hold its annual meeting on Tuesday, January 11, 2022, at the Shelby Community Hall in Shelby, at 7:30 pm.  Out-going Carstens Board President Mel Hursey says “While we know that the last thing anyone wants to think about is another election, we encourage everyone to come out and vote!”  Members of Carstens Farm will be voting for two director positions. The following board members’ terms are ending as of the date of the meeting:  Harvey Ferris of Missouri Valley, Mel Hursey of Shelby, Bill Johnson of Avoca and Meryle Osborn of Crescent.  Incumbents Harvey Ferris and Bill Johnson are running again.

Gerald McCool of Minden and Terry Torneten of Harlan are candidates seeking the open spots on the board.  Continuing board members are Ben Ausdemore of Minden, Charlie Leaders of Minden, Dale Schroder of Avoca, Rick Newland of Portsmouth, Stan Kern and Doug Martin all of Shelby and David Dittmer of Minden.

Results of the election will be announced following the meeting. Hursey said  “We are throwing around ideas for projects for 2022. We want to continue our focus on more building upkeep and repair.” Reports will be given on the 2021 Carstens Farm Days.  Hursey adds, “I hope to see many members as well as the general public who care about the farm at the meeting.”

Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc. members as well as members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend.  Those attending will have the opportunity to renew their memberships or to purchase new memberships.  Memberships are important for sustaining the farm’s operations. Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc., a non-profit group of local volunteers, oversees this working farmstead museum exhibit located south of Shelby, Iowa.  The farmstead hosts several thousand people annually during Carstens Farm Days which is held the first weekend after Labor Day.  For more information visit www.carstensfarm.com

w/Kate Olson.

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(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa DNR says hunting seasons will begin closing in early January. Pheasant, archery turkey and deer seasons, and late muzzleloader deer season close on Jan. 10. Goose seasons start closing in the north zone on Jan. 8, followed by the central zone on Jan. 15, and the south zone on Jan. 22. Also….

• The season for quail, partridge, ruffed grouse, and squirrels closes Jan. 31. Rabbit season closes Feb. 28. The furbearer hunting and trapping seasons also close on Jan. 31. Furharvesters can continue trapping beavers until April 15.
• Iowa hunters have reported harvesting 91,000 deer so far during the 2021 season.
• 2021 hunting, fishing and trapping licenses expire on Jan. 10, 2022.
• The January antlerless deer season will open Jan. 11 and close Jan. 23, 2022. The season is open in Allamakee, Appanoose, Decatur, Wayne and Winneshiek counties.

HIP Reminder – Beginning this year, hunters who pursue migratory game birds will be required to register for Harvest Information Program (HIP) either through the Go Outdoors Iowa app on their smartphone, through a link at www.iowadnr.gov/waterfowl or at www.gooutdoorsiowa.com and answering a few questions. Migratory game birds mean more than ducks and geese; it includes ducks, geese, coots, doves, woodcock, rails, and snipe.

Once registered, hunters will need to physically write a confirmation number on the line provided at the top of the license as proof of registration. The HIP registration can be found in the GoOutdoorsIowa mobile app by clicking on the purchase license button, and then logging in to your account. Registering for HIP is a federal requirement for all migratory bird hunters.

The Iowa DNR is busy reserving locations for its town hall-style public meetings that will be held in late February. These meetings are led by local staff who provide updates on recently completed hunting and trapping seasons, discuss possible changes to hunting and trapping rules and regulations, and address other topics as requested. Meeting dates and times will be announced once the locations are finalized.

The meetings are open to the public. Comments collected from these public meetings will be considered along with other related comments received by the Iowa DNR prior to proposing changes to hunting rules and regulations. Proposed rules will be presented to the Natural Resource Commission during a regular public meeting for consideration and additional public comment.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says state conservation officers have charged three men with multiple hunting violations in Des Moines County from two separate investigations for illegal activity that allegedly occurred this fall. An anonymous call to State Conservation Officer Paul Kay in October began an investigation into the alleged unlawful taking of a mature white-tailed deer that lead officers to discover additional deer and a turkey were also allegedly illegally taken, as well as, multiple violations for hunting over bait and a felon in possession of a firearm. The individual faces the possible loss of hunting privileges as well as the loss of the firearm used to take the deer and turkey.

The second case grew from an investigation into suspicious activity in northern Des Moines County in November that lead state conservation officers to a machine shed where they discovered three mature white-tailed deer along with several antlerless deer that were allegedly illegally harvested. Officers identified two individuals who were charged with hunting over bait, using firearms and crossbows in archery season and multiple deer tagging violations. Both individuals face the possible loss of hunting privileges as well as the loss of the firearms, bows and crossbow used to take the deer.

Potential fines and civil damages from these cases could exceed $100,000. All individuals are considered innocent until proven guilty.

(Radio Iowa) – The Loess Hills wildlife management area in western Iowa’s Monona County is shifting its conservation strategy. A forest stewardship plan is proposed, which means techniques would be used like forest thinning and timber harvesting to protect and attract new species. Forester Joe Herring says, in the past, wildlife areas would acquire property and leave the area to grow, but ecologists are pushing for a more hands-on approach.

This kind of active management is vital, Herring says, to solve major forestry issues in Iowa, like the decline of oak tree populations and the rise of invasive species. Iowa D-N-R wildlife biologist Doug Chafa says there’s a need for greater age diversity in the western Iowa woods. It’s a way to make sure a whole range of species can thrive in the 26-hundred acres spread across Monona County.

Similar plans have been developed statewide for many of Iowa’s wildlife areas already, but state foresters say much more active management needs to be done to protect Iowa’s woodlands.

(by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Mark your calendar on January 4th, 2022, for the annual “Soiree with the Swans” event, sponsored by Cass County Conservation. Lake number 4 at the Schildberg Recreation Area in Atlantic is the site for 10-minute presentations pertaining to the Trumpeter Swans that arrive at the SRA every year. The presentations take place every half-hour beginning at 11:00 a.m., with the last one being presented at 2:00 p.m.

There will also be time to view the swans through spotting scopes and witness random swan feeding sessions. Hot chocolate, cookies, and other snacks will be provided free of charge with donations being accepted (for swan care). The Schildberg Recreation Area is located on the northwest edge of Atlantic, Lake 4 is on the north side of Highway 83. Atlantic is celebrating 22 winters of the Trumpeter Swans wintering here. This event is not to be missed!

IF THE WEATHER IS “BAD” OR THE SWANS ARE NOT AT THE PARK…the program will be at the Atlantic Public Library from 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. with hot chocolate, cookies, and other snacks available. This event is being sponsored by the Cass County Conservation Board, Atlantic Parks and Recreation, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

(Radio Iowa) – While the harvest of corn and soybeans was taking place across Iowa’s fields, D-N-R Fisheries employees were conducting a harvest of their own. Northeast Iowa regional fisheries supervisor, Mike Steuck, says they collect the eggs of the brown and brook trout in October and November from Iowa streams. “The brown trout are doing so well we don’t need very many of them anymore. We actually only have one stream that we are stocking fingerlings in. Almost all of our streams have naturally reproducing brown trout in them now,” he explains.

They do collect the eggs from the naturally reproducing brook trout from streams, and also have rainbow trout kept at the hatcheries to be used for stream stocking. “They typically spawn in the spring, but we have them pushed back so that they spawn in the winter — so that by the time we grow them up to be that half a pound apiece to be stocked they are ready for the streams. We stagger those spawns so we have the fish ready and we don’t have to hold them any longer than we have to,” according to Steuck.

The growing fish from all three types of trout are kept at the hatcheries and fed and raised to be stocked.  He says it takes about 15 months from the egg stage until they get to be about 15 inches and then they get stocked. Steuk says efforts to improve the water quality in Iowa’s streams have been paying off. “They are, we are seeing more and more natural reproduction as we work with our conservation partners in the watershed to reduce sedimentation and nutrients into our system,” Steuk says. “We stock fish with the right genetics, and the stream has suitable habitat and good water quality, then they do just fine.”

Trout thrive in the cooler waters of northeast Iowa, and they are a fish you can seek out any time of the year. “We don’t close the trout season in Iowa where they do in Minnesota and Wisconsin. You can fish year-round for trout,” Steuck says. “And because those streams are spring fed, that water is 50 degrees coming out of the ground, they never freeze in the winter. So you can fish on a day that is around 30-32 degrees. If the sun is shining that line doesn’t ice up — and you can still go trout fishing and catch some nice fish.”

You need an Iowa fishing license and a trout stamp to fish for trout here. You can find out more about trout fishing on the D-N-R’s website.

(Radio Iowa) – Cow-calf producers hit by this year’s drought in northwest Iowa are dealing with a host of challenges. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach has scheduled a series of drought recovery meetings next month to offer advice on pasture repair and what financial assistance is available. Iowa State Extension beef specialist Beth Doran says the big question is how quickly pastures will recover after cows grazing on the land ate grasses nearly down to the roots. “We know that in some cases maybe those pastures, there’s been some grasses and legumes like clovers and alfalfa that may die out this winter,” she says, “so they might have to go back in and do some reseeding come this spring.”

Dustin Puhrmann says his 20 cows grazed his O’Brien County pastures down further than he would’ve liked to see this past summer. The grass didn’t get enough moisture to grow back. Puhrmann says many farmers he worked with had to give their cows and calves supplemental proteins and feed to get through the summer months. Now, farmers buying hay in the winter are paying more. “To feed those cows is going to cost me a lot more money this winter to get them back to where they’re grazing again next summer,” he says. According to Iowa State University extension, there are about six-thousand cattle feedlots in Iowa where STEERS are fed and sold, but thousands of other Iowa farmers raise cows and calves on pasture ground, selling the calves when they’re around a year old.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katie Peikes)

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer is partnering with a Chicago-area company to reduce harmful emissions from its equipment by replacing diesel fuel with ethanol. Quad Cities-based John Deere is working with ClearFlame Engine Technologies of Geneva, Illinois, where C-E-O B-J Johnson says their initial work was on a Cummins X-15 engine from an on-road semi.  “The partnership with Deere and the investment from Deere is going to allow us to move that over to one of their engine platforms, to use across a range of applications like agriculture and construction, do an engine demo with them,” Johnson says, “and then towards the end of next year ideally translate that into an actual field demo of the technology on a piece of equipment.”

The goal will be to migrate the technology into tractors, combines, excavators and other heavy equipment. Johnson says the next step is for Deere to supply an engine that’s used in a range of its equipment, which ClearFlame will modify in its lab.  “It changes only about 10 or 15% of the parts of the engine. The largest change is just making the fuel injection system compatible with a different fuel, like ethanol, and the rest of it is optimizing the engine to run at a higher temperature,” Johnson says. “Basically, if you get a diesel engine to run a little bit hotter, then you’re freed to use a whole wider range of fuels.”

Johnson says using corn-based ethanol instead of diesel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 45 to 50 percent, with even bigger reductions possible in the future. The word “burning” doesn’t always have to be bad, Johnson says, as it depends on what you’re burning.  “If you’re burning a fossil fuel, yes, that is absolutely bad, but we’ve got liquid fuels today that are 50% cleaner than that because they come from renewable sources,” Johnson says, “and the Renewable Fuels Association has a goal to get to carbon-neutral ethanol by 2035.”

Johnson says this research could help boost the rural economy, especially in Iowa, the nation’s number-one ethanol producer. Today, the U-S is producing about 17 billion gallons of ethanol a year, and every one-percent of trucks converted to burning ethanol can result in the need to produce another billion gallons of the fuel.