Skyscan Forecast for Saturday, November 30, 2019  from Dan Hicks:

Saturday:  Partly cloudy to cloudy with light rain and drizzle in the morning, SSE winds switching to the north at 10-20 mph, high 50.

Saturday night:  Partly cloudy to cloudy with light rain changing to light snow, north wind 10-20 mph, low 32.

Sunday:  Partly cloudy to cloudy and windy with light flurries, winds from the north at 20-35 mph, high 34.

Monday:  Partly cloudy with a high of 42.

Tuesday:  Partly cloudy with a high of 48.

Friday’s high was 38 while this morning’s low was 32.  In the 24 hour period ending Saturday at 7:00 am we had received .13″ of rain.

EXIRA, Iowa — Iowa DNR field office staff responded Tuesday to a report of an overturned combine in a creek northeast of Exira. Authorities say it appears the combine released approximately 30-50 gallons of diesel fuel and an unknown amount of hydraulic fluid into an unnamed tributary, which flows northwest into David’s Creek.

According to the Iowa State Patrol, the accident happened at around 8:36-p.m. Monday on 240^th Street, near Pheasant Avenue. Thirty-year-old Brent Chambers of Hamlin told authorities he was westbound on 240^th in a 2019 John Deere S780 combine with the corn head attached to the front and he was pulling the corn head trailer behind. He came upon a one-lane bridge without railings or markers and was beginning to cross when Chambers says he felt the floor begin to give way. As he attempted to lower the corn head, the south side of the structure collapsed and the combine overturned into the creek bed below, coming to rest on the driver’s side. The combine was empty and there were no load limit signs posted for the bridge. There was no report of injuries or estimate of damages to the combine or bridge. The combine is owned and was operated by Chambers Farms.

All photos courtesy Greg Richter, with Richter & Son Towing, in Atlantic.

The DNR said Wednesday an environmental contractor was handling clean-up efforts in the unnamed tributary and no sheen or fish kill was observed in David’s Creek.

MONONA COUNTY, Iowa — Officials with the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources report DNR Conservation Officer Gary Sisco and DNR Park Ranger Katie Hoeppner responded Tuesday evening to a stranded boat with duck hunters on West Blue Lake, a marsh off of Blue Lake in Monona County.

Three duck hunters were stranded in their boat after they sheared the cotter pin on the prop shaft and were without any propulsion. The officer and ranger towed the boat and hunters to safety at the boat ramp during the snowstorm. The snowstorm made the nighttime rescue difficult due to the heavy snowfall, high winds, blowing snow, cold temperatures and blustery wind chills.

(Radio Iowa) — John Deere is reporting a five percent increase in worldwide SALES — but the company’s INCOME in the last quarter dropped by 63 million dollars. John Deere’s fourth quarter ended October 28th. John May, the company’s C-E-O, says lingering trade tensions and a challenging growing season are causing uncertainty in the ag economy — and many farmers have become cautious about making major investments in new equipment.

Outside of the ag sector, general economic conditions are favorable, according to John Deere’s chief executive. Demand for smaller John Deere equipment, especially for construction and the forestry business, led to a record year for sales.

DES MOINES – Today (Tuesday), Gov. Kim Reynolds extended two proclamations relating to the transportation of grain and the hours of service for the delivery of propane. The governor signed a proclamation extending her Sept. 30, 2019, proclamation that allowed vehicles transporting corn, soybeans, hay, straw, silage and stover to be overweight (not exceeding 90,000 pounds gross weight) without a permit, for the duration of this proclamation.

The proclamation applies to loads transported on all highways within Iowa (excluding the interstate system) and those which do not exceed a maximum of 90,000 pounds gross weight, do not exceed the maximum axle weight limit determined under the non-primary highway maximum gross weight table in Iowa Code, by more than 12.5 percent, do not exceed the legal maximum axle weight limit of 20,000 pounds, and comply with posted limits on roads and bridges.

The proclamation extends the suspension of provisions relating to the transport of grain to 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 13, 2019. The governor also signed a proclamation extending her Oct. 31, 2019, proclamation that temporarily suspended certain regulatory provisions pertaining to hours of service for the delivery of propane. Early winter weather conditions, late harvest, and high demand for petroleum products throughout the Midwest have resulted in low supplies of propane. The proclamation temporarily suspends provisions of Iowa Code § 321.449 pertaining to hours of service for crews and drivers delivering propane.

The proclamation extends the suspension of provisions relating to hours of service for propane delivery to 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 14, 2019.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa farmers are set to receive the most government payments to offset damage from the U.S.’s ongoing trade war with China. The Des Moines Register reports Iowa farmers will receive $767 million in payments from President Donald Trump’s $16 billion trade assistance program this year. The Agriculture Department announced a second round of payments under the program earlier this month.

The USDA shows that the other states getting the most federal assistance in this year’s program are Illinois, at $707 million; Minnesota, at $519 million; Texas, at $497 million; and Kansas, at $474 million. Iowa Soybean Association board president Tim Bardole says the additional payments will be helpful, but they won’t cure all the problems farmers are having this year.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach is partnering with the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) to conduct Farm Bill: ARC/PLC & Farm Financial Decisions meetings statewide this fall. Oakland is one of the meeting sites where producers and landlords can learn about the program election/enrollment process regarding the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and/or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) commodity crop programs.

The meeting will take place in Oakland on Wednesday, December 4th beginning at 1 p.m. at The Community Building, 614 Dr Van Zee Road.Doors open 30 minutes prior to the meeting and is open to the public. Topics and presenters include:

• ARC/PLC Programs Rules & Regulations: USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) County Director
• ARC/PLC Decisions, Using the ISU Payment Analyzer & Farm Financial Issues: Patrick Hatting, ISU Extension Farm Management Specialist
• Farm Stress Management and Related Resources: ISU Extension Family Life Specialist

The meeting will last approximately two and one-half hours. No pre-registration or registration fee is required. More than 50 similar meetings will be held statewide in November and December. For more information, please contact the E. PottawattamieCounty Extension office at (712) 482-6449.

(Radio Iowa) — Tens of thousands of Iowans will sit down to traditional turkey dinners on Thursday, and the odds are good the big birds were raised nearby — and likely within the state’s borders. Gretta Irwin, executive director of the Iowa Turkey Federation, says the state’s seen an increase in turkey producers in recent years. Iowa now has about 130 turkey farms with the majority of them comprised of second- and third-generation turkey farmers. “We have been in the top ten for many years and we have been number-eight for a lot of years but we are now number-seven in turkey production in the U.S.” Irwin says. “That change has happened because we’re adding family farms to our business. We’re seeing a lot more families raising turkeys, especially in northwest Iowa.”

The southeast and central regions of Iowa are also big on turkey production. In addition, Iowa is a national leader in turkey processing, now ranking fifth in the country. “Processors in Iowa are busy all year long making further processed turkey products,” Irwin says. “If you go into a Subway, if you go to a Jimmy John’s and order a turkey sandwich, that’s Iowa turkey. You go into a grocery store and buy a lot of the turkey sausage and those convenient products, those are likely to come from Iowa as well.”

While most of us will be thinking about big turkey dinners over the next few days in particular, Irwin says turkey is big business 365 days a year. “All year long, it’s busy in Iowa raising and processing turkeys and really adding value to our local communities,” Irwin says, “taking the bushel of corn and third of a bushel of soybeans and feeding it to the turkeys and having a great, healthy protein for us to enjoy at Thanksgiving and all year long.”

Iowa’s turkey farms raise about 12-million birds every year. She adds, turkeys are indigenous to the continent. Fossils have proven wild turkeys have lived in North America for more than ten-million years. (On the web at iowaturkey.org)

(Radio Iowa) — State Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig says the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has announced an alternative dispute resolution process with propane distributors. Naig says that could help ease the shipping issues created by the late harvest and cold weather. “They will start dispute resolution next week — which gets the shippers and the pipelines together. And we hope that will yield some increased supply as we head into the next week and into the following week,” according to Naig.

He says the late October the demand for propane in Iowa was three times higher than it normally is, and the demand hasn’t eased a lot. “Anything that we can do to put more propane in these pipelines will absolutely help resolve that,” Naig says. “We are very hopeful. It won’t be an immediate solution — but we are heading in the right direction and we appreciate the work that our governor and our senators and FERC to bring some resolution to this.”

The nationwide supply of propane has been good — but Naig and others say the issue has been getting enough shipped to Iowa as the demand dramatically increased.