(Radio Iowa) – Senator Chuck Grassley and three other Senators say they have developed a compromise plan that give independent cattle producers more clues about what meatpackers are paying for cattle raised under private contracts. “One step closer, a big step closer to making that happen,” Grassley says. Grassley, along with a Republican senator from Nebraska and Democratic senators from Montana and Oregon are co-sponsors of the legislation. It would create a sort of library of sale contracts and require meat packers to disclose how many cattle they plan to buy for slaughter in each of the next 14 days.

Grassley says the aim now is to tack this proposal onto an already-existing livestock-related law that congress has to vote to reauthorize in December. “The next month will be critical as we talk to the leadership of the agriculture committees in both the House and Senate to get this bill included,” Grassley says. Grassley says a key senator who had blocked action on the issue in the past retired from the senate a year ago and leaders of the House and Senate ag committees appear open to negotiations.

“Producers across the country are counting on congress to make real reform to the cattle market,” Grassley says. Cattle producers have complained there’s a growing disparity between what they’re being paid for their livestock and what consumers are paying for beef at the grocery store.

(Radio Iowa) – As the strike at a dozen John Deere plants in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas enters its fourth week, a Deere and Company executive says some production may shift to plants outside of the country to meet customer demand. The president of Deere’s Worldwide Agriculture and Turf Division told The Des Moines Register the company still aims to reach an agreement with striking union workers, but Deere’s international factories employ thousands that can make parts and components that are in demand.

During an appearance today in Pella, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds told reporters she’s confident both sides will reach a settlement to end the strike and she has no plans to try to intervene. “We’re letting the process work out and it is working out,” Reynolds says. “They’ll continue to come to the table, they’ll continue to work on the negotiations and, hopefully, they’ll reach that settlement sooner rather than later.”

A spokesperson for Deere said last week that the company will not resume negotiations with the United Auto Workers and the company’s second contract offer was it’s best and final offer. Union workers rejected the agreement on a 55 to 45 percent vote.

ATLANTIC, Iowa – Nearly a dozen special guests, including Iowa 3rd District Congresswoman Cindy Axne and U. S.  Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Undersecretary Xochitl Torres-Small, attended a roundtable event at Elite Octane, Tuesday morning. The local dry mill ethanol plant in Atlantic served as a backdrop for Axne to announce new rural energy investments in Iowa to help modernize energy infrastructure, lower energy costs, and implement renewable energy systems across the state. Elite Octane President & CEO Nick Bowdish began the meeting by saying the ethanol plant started the morning with 3.25-million bushels of corn on the property. Two huge bins hold two-million bushels each, leaving a large mountain of corn on the ground.

Bowdish said “It’s been a great-great harvest, safe harvest.” Congresswoman Axne, who toured the plant last year, was excited Tuesday to announce a REAP (Rural Energy for America Program) grant of $250,000 was awarded to the company, as part of $1.8-million being invested in Iowa.

Far end of the table, from left to right: Nick Bowdish; Xochitl Torres-Small; Rep. Cindy Axne & Darin Leach, Acting State Dir. USDA Rural Development in Iowa.

Another way the company is saving money and reducing the impact on the environment, especially with regard to the underground aquafirs, is by using recycled wastewater.

The funds are part of the government’s recently passed infrastructure improvement program.

Undersecretary Torres-Small, who is from rural New Mexico, and represented the Biden Administration and AG Secretary Tom Vilsack, said she knows how important biofuels are to the State of Iowa.

Axne and Torres-Small said the USDA investments reflect the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to help rural America build back better.

Other attendees at Tuesday’s meeting included Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones, Acting State Director of USDA Rural Development Iowa Darin Leach, and representatives from the Iowa Corn Growers Association, Cass/Atlantic Development Corporation, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Farmers Union, Iowa Soybean Association, and Iowa Rural Development Council.

(Lincoln, NE.) – Farm Credit Administration CEO Glen R. Smith, of Atlantic, spoke with KJAN recently, about the Farm Credit System’s “Young, Beginning and Small (YBS) Farmer” program, something he’s been pushing for. FCA defines young farmers as those who are 35 years of age or younger, those who have been farming for less than 10-years, and small farmers with gross annual sales of less than $250,000. Plans for promoting the program were put on hold last year – like most other things – due to the pandemic.

Smith said he has been interested in the YBS since he came to the SBA four-years ago, especially in the relationship formed between lenders and young farmers.

Both the dollar volume of the System’s total loans outstanding and the dollar volume of YBS loans outstanding increased in 2020. The total number of loans outstanding both for the System as a while and for YBS borrowers, also grew in 2020.

Glen R. Smith

The dollar volume of loans made in 2020 increased significantly for the System as a whole, and even more for the YBS categories. The number of loans made during the year also increased substantially. In a statement at the FCA’s August Board meeting, Smith said “The Farm Credit System has made consistent efforts to serve YBS Farmers, but the average age of American Farmers has continued to rise.” He said also, “USDA reported in 2017 that the average age of U.S. Farm producers was 57.5, up 1.2 years from 2012. There obviously is work to be done in continuing to improve and advance the System’s YBS programs. It makes sense from a business development standpoint. It makes sense for the security of American agriculture.”

The symposium in Lincoln, NE, featured a series of in-depth panel discussions, with those in attendance having heard from farmers who are getting started in both traditional and nontraditional operations. Attendees also learned about financial and risk management resources available to farmers to grow their operations.

(Radio Iowa) – The U-S-D-A is scheduled to release an updated estimate of the 2021 corn crop. Iowa State University economist Chad Hart says the mid-October prediction was a 15 billion bushel corn harvest — the largest ever.  “So we are talking about a massive crop,” Hart says. “Basically the same story on the soybean side as we’re looking out there, a very large soybean crop as well.”

Iowa is the nation’s top corn producing state. Justin Glisan, the state climatologist, says it’s been a rollercoaster year for weather, as Iowa has been in a structural drought since the spring of 2020.  “But those timely rainfalls during the drought, during the growing season, really held the crop on,” Glisan says. “…The yields look great.”

Hart says farmers had the option of choosing seed varieties that can withstand dry weather. “The idea is what we have done over the last 40, 50, 60 years with these hybrids is we’ve developed hybrids that are more tolerant of a wider range of weather conditions,” Hart says, “and those changes are definitely paying off as we look out there.”

Hart and Glisan made their comments during a weekend appearance on Iowa P-B-S. The latest U-S-D-A crop and weather report for IOWA shows the state’s corn harvest was 84 percent complete by Sunday. Ninety-five percent of Iowa’s soybean crop was harvested by the end of the weekend. Most of the soybeans fields still to be harvested are in southwest and south central Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – A series of classes are underway in northeast Iowa that focus on Chronic Wasting Disease in deer. Iowa State University wildlife specialist, Adam Janke is leading the program called C-W-D Ambassadors  “What we hope with C-W-D Ambassadors is that we will train up some people who are connected in their communities as hunters or landowners or community leaders to sort of understand the complex science of chronic wasting disease,” he says. Janke says the ambassadors can share their knowledge once they finish the program. He says they can help wildlife biologists with the D-N-R and I-S-U Extension to spread the word of how they are managing the disease and some of the key behaviors to keep it from spreading.

C-W-D is always fatal to deer and has been found in ten of Iowa’s 99 counties. Janke says they hope to keep the spread limited. “By doing things like avoiding conditions that concentrate deer. Like mineral supplements or artificial feeding that concentrate deer in certain places, and that creates conditions favorable for spreading chronic wasting disease,” Janke explained.  He says they will also learn the importance of identifying deer who might be infected. “Many deer with chronic wasting disease could be asymptomatic. And so it isn’t necessarily that we are looking for sick deer,” Janke says. “And if we do see sick deer on the landscape — we want to report those to conservation officers, or wildlife biologists.”

Several border states around Iowa have seen more C-W-D cases in more of their counties. “I don’t know that it necessarily has spread faster in some of those border states. But what we see there is it has actually been in that landscape longer,” he says. Janke the outbreaks in other states have helped Iowa do a better job of managing the disease. “Because we get to learn frankly from some of the mistakes that were made in some of those other states. And we know a lot more about this disease now — and we think we can be a little more proactive and precise in our management practices,” Janke says.

The C-W-D Ambassador training is starting in northeast Iowa because those are the counties where the state has seen the positive C-W-D cases. The classes are taking place in Waukon throughout this month.

(Article by Atlantic FFA Reporter  Aspen Niklasen) – Each year, the Southwest District and Iowa FFA officers plan and facilitate Greenhand Fire Up Conferences for FFA members in the Southwest District. The workshops were leadership focused with an emphasis on the experiences that occur in the lives of beginning high school students These workshops are geared toward engaging members into FFA as the year kicks up. Atlantic welcomed 29 FFA chapters and 247 from all over the Southwest District on Wednesday, October 13th.

Atlantic FFA member Dylan Comes and Atlantic FFA Alumni member Tyler Comes helped facilitate the event. Dylan, the Southwest State Treasurer for the Iowa FFA Association, helped with other officers prepare and facilitated workshops of: authenticity, balancing priorities, communication, and FFA opportunities – in order to provide the first-year FFA members with skills they would use both within and outside of FFA. Comes said “It was great to see all of the younger members interacting with each other from a facilitators point of view.”

Front Row left to right: Mackenzie Brown, Charli Goff, Rylie Vandevanter, Aubrey Graham, Claire Schoder, Lilly Johnson, Mia, Kloewer, Lola Comes
Back Row left to right
Hudson Goff, DJ Shepperd, Daniel Freund, Parker Brock, Jace Mcintryre, Wyatt Simons, Keegan Kemp, Josie Handlos. (Photo submitted)

The goal was to engage FFA members in learning about the tools that would allow them to be successful in anything they are part of through high school and beyond. The goal was to engage FFA members in learning about the tools that would allow them to be successful in anything they are part of through high school and beyond. Rylie Vandvanter, a member from the Atlantic chapter that attended the event, said that “I had a lot of fun and met several new people.” Lola Comes said, “The Greenhand Fireup Camp gave me the opportunity to meet new people from other chapters, learn leadership skills, and increase my knowledge about FFA. This camp helped push me out of my comfort zone.”

(Atlantic FFA News) –  Atlantic FFA member Bryan York presented a paper virtually to the Global Youth Institute on Tuesday, October 18th. York’s paper was on sustainable Agriculture in Tanzania and provided several options to help solve this issue that affects 60 million Tanzanians every year. Bryan’s solutions included additional education for school-age students with an emphasis on soil health practices instead of repetitive usage of chemicals.

York said, “I enjoyed connecting with other students and experts from around the world. I thought it was interesting hearing how similar our solutions were, and how we could build off of one another. In addition to this experience, Bryan earned 2 scholarships for Iowa State University. The first was for $1,000 for participating in the Iowa Youth Institute in April and the second was for $2,500 for participating in the Global Youth Institute this week.

Bryan York

Bryan had 7 other students in her roundtable discussion from 4 different states and 1 student from Canada. Each of these individuals provided a presentation on various other issues ranging from corrupt governments, weather patterns, climatology, conflict, and renewable energy.

Not only did Bryan present to a group of students, but he also spoke to and was given feedback from 3 disgusted experts in a variety of different fields. Nicollette Caste, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, Emma Casavecchia, a program manager with the World Food Prize, and Hailey Hampton a researcher on Plant Sciences at the University of Idaho.

York was also able to listen to many world leaders and hunger fighters talk about the problems they are facing and how these issues need to be addressed. Some of these individuals include: Jeffrey Giauque, U.S. Department of State, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy, Tom Vilsack, the United States Secretary of Agriculture, and Jocelyn Brown Hall, Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

ABOUT THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE: The World Food Prize is the foremost international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. The Prize was founded in 1986 by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, the World Food Prize has honored 50 outstanding individuals who have made vital contributions throughout the world. The World Food Prize annually hosts the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium and a variety of youth education programs to help further the discussion on cutting-edge global food security issues and inspire the next generation to end hunger.

(Article courtesy Atlantic FFA Advisor Eric Miller)

INDIANAPOLIS (National FFA Organization) – Each year, the National FFA Organization honors FFA members who show the utmost dedication to the organization through their desire to develop their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

The American FFA Degree is bestowed upon a select group of students in recognition of their years of academic and professional excellence. This year 3,863 American Degrees were be awarded. Tate Den Beste, a member of the Atlantic FFA chapter was awarded the American FFA Degree at the 94th National FFA Convention & Expo Oct. 27-30. Den Beste said, “It was an honor to be able to walk across stage and receive this award. It is something that I will remember and I am very grateful for everyone who helped me along the way”.

Tate D. American Degree

To be eligible, FFA members must have earned and productively invested $10,000 through a supervised agricultural experience (SAE) program in which they own their own business or hold a professional position as an employee. Recipients must also complete 50 hours community service and demonstrate outstanding leadership abilities and civic involvement through completion of a long list of FFA and community activities. Less than one percent of FFA members achieve the American FFA Degree.

Tate began with 2 SAE Projects that included working at Atlantic Golf and Country Club to pick up range balls and Sunny Side Putt Um Up where Tate would work the counter and helping to manage the goat herd. As Tate progressed through high school he began to work at Gavin Lynn Farms where he would manage and feed the cattle herd, as well as help with harvest.

Mr Eric Miller, the Atlantic FFA Advisor said, “Tate might have grown more than any student I have ever had. To begin as a shy freshman in the back of the classroom to running for District and State FFA Office and then reaching the highest award an FFA member can achieve. Tate has shown all of our FFA members that anything is possible and they should reach for the stars”.

Each recipient of the American FFA Degree receives a gold American FFA Degree key and certificate after being recognized at the national convention. The National FFA Organization is a school-based national youth leadership development organization of more than 760,000 student members as part of 8,700 local FFA chapters in all 50 states Puerto Rico.

(Article submitted by Atlantic FFA Advisor Eric Miller)

(By Atlantic FFA reporter Aspen Niklasen) – The Atlantic FFA chapter competed in the Southwest Iowa District Soils Judging Contest at the Armstrong Research Farm in Lewis on Monday September 27th. Atlantic FFA had 7 individuals compete in 2 teams. Team 1 which consisted of Bryan York, Cooper Jipsen, DJ Shepperd and Malena Woodward, got 6th place overall and earned a gold rating and were selected as the Alternate for the Iowa FFA State Soils CDE. There were 139 FFA members from 25 schools at the Contest. Bryan York placed 24th, Malena Woodward 26th,DJ Shepperd 30th and Cooper Jipsen placed 44th overall. “I met a lot of new people and learned alot about competing and soils judging,” said team member DJ Shepperd.

Team 2 placed 12th with team members Charli Goff placing 31st, Daniel Freund placing 49th and Brett Dreager placing 79th. Brett Dreager said, “Soils judging was a lot of fun. I learned it is more than just looking at dirt. There are a lot of factors that go into soil quality.“

Team members from left to right are:
Charli Goff, Malena Woodward, Bryan York, Cooper Jipsen, DJ Shepperd, Brett Dreager, Daniel Freund.

The Soils Judging Career Development Event is designed towards motivating students to gain knowledge on surface features, the soil profile, land capability and productivity, evaluation of land use and management practices, and suitability of soils for nonagricultural uses. Students also develop the ability to observe selected soil properties, and use these observations to interpret and evaluate these properties for recommendations for land use. Bryan York said, “With the information I learned by participating in this contest, I was able to make new connections to the soil health measures I was using inside my garden. I would recommend this contest to any new members who are looking to get involved or anyone interested in learning more about how the quality of soil affects your crops.”

After the contest took place, Mr. Miller, the Atlantic FFA advisor, felt good about the day’s competition. “I was impressed with the way our students performed. They made a lot of improvement in a very short amount of time.”