The City of Atlantic’s Parks and Recreation Board will meet 5:15-p.m. Monday in the City Council’s Chambers, at City Hall. On their agenda is discussion and/or action with regard to:

1. The Schildberg Campground
2. Schildberg Bathhouse (Snyder & Associates, related)
3. A Schildberg Development Project Update
4. Bull Creek Property Line Assessment
5. Bull Creek/Schildberg/Sunnyside erosion
6. Mollett Park – Community Gardens.
7. The hiring of a Parks Foreman
8. Flood repair update.

In his report to the Board, Parks & Rec Director Bryant Rasmussen will talk about efforts to mow while many parks are still saturated, the AMU Well Fields – with regard to seed collecting, and Parks Are Locally Special, or, “PALS.”

The 25th biannual Halloween Hike, will be held on Saturday, October 26th, in Atlantic. As you follow a trail, you will hear “Squeaks, Squawks and Screeches” along the way. The hike begins at at 7:00 p.m., with small groups departing from the Camblin Addition of Sunnyside Park every ten minutes. Kids twelve and under are encouraged to arrive early to get their faces painted! The last group will depart at 8:20 p.m. and all hikers are welcome to enjoy free tasty treats and warm drinks after their hike.

Cass County Naturalist Lora Kanning says “It is not our intent to scare or frighten anyone, but to educate and entertain people of all ages!” Pre-registration is required for this FREE event. Please call 712-769-2372 or email lkanning@casscoia.us to make your reservations. If you leave a message please leave name, phone number, how many is in your group and what time you wish to depart on the hike! This hike is sponsored by the Cass County Conservation Board.

(Radio Iowa) — It may be harvest season, but Iowa’s chestnut trees don’t have much to offer as a year of wet weather decimated the crop. Tom Wahl of Red Fern Farm in Louisa County has about a thousand chestnut trees which usually produce a lucrative crop on his diverse farm. This year, his chestnut trees produced nothing and a few of his trees, in the wettest soil, died. Wahl is confident things will average out next year. Wahl says, “Typically what chestnuts do when a weather event prevents them from producing a crop one year, they produce a double-crop the following year.”

That won’t quite make his business whole, but it will go a long way. Statewide, the Iowa State University Extension estimates a chestnut harvest of less than one-third normal. Weather events over the past 12 months caused havoc on many of Iowa’s tree crops. Heavy fall rains, an abrupt November freeze, another hard frost after an early thaw and then spring flooding threatened apple, peach and chestnut trees over and over again. Wahl grows dozens of different fruit and nut trees. “We have no chestnut harvest this year,” Wahl says. “We had one, out of approximately 1,000 bearing trees, we had one single tree that had what looked like more-or-less a normal crop on it.”

Wahl says another 15 trees had a few nuts, but most had none. A small number of peach trees in the state also lost almost everything, according to the I-S-U Extension, though many varieties of apples did okay.

(Thanks to Amy Mayer, Iowa Public Radio)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Farmers and biofuel industry officials are reacting angrily to a rule released by the Environmental Protection Agency that they say doesn’t uphold a promise President Donald Trump made to fulfill the intent of an ethanol law passed by Congress.

The Trump administration announced Oct. 4 plans to implement a rule requiring oil refineries to replace the ethanol gallons lost through exemptions the EPA has granted to small oil refineries.

The deal farmers say Trump agreed to would add about 1.3 billion gallons (2.5 billion imperial gallons) of waived ethanol back into the fuel supply next year. On Tuesday, the EPA released the proposed rule that would use a different calculation biofuels groups say would replace only 770 million gallons (641 million imperial gallons).

An EPA spokesman says the rule reflects the negotiated agreement.

(By Craig Alan Becker/Atlantic FFA Reporter) — The Atlantic High School welcomed Tyler Comes, Southwest State Vice President, and Carter Wagner, Southwest District Vice President, to a chapter visit on October 4th, 2019. While at the high school, Comes and Wagner lead interactive workshops for the agriculture education classes. Topics included the FFA brand, opportunities, leadership, and decision-making. The officers also talked with the agricultural education instructor, Mr. Miller, about what the future of Atlantic FFA looks like.

During a year of service to the organization, Iowa FFA officers serve as ambassadors for agriculture and the FFA. They travel to FFA chapters throughout the state to connect with members and talk about the many opportunities available to students enrolled in agricultural education. Brett Dreager said, I had a lot of fun. It was fun learning new communication strategies.”

Agricultural education incorporates three aspects of learning. These aspects include the classroom, FFA, and SAE. The classroom provides basic knowledge. FFA develops leadership and personal skills. A Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) provides hands-on learning while working on the job or in an agricultural business. DJ Shepperd, “ I like the workshops. You have to learn to slow down and explain things to people better. We all do not learn the same way. I had a lot of fun”

The Iowa FFA Association is comprised of 242 local chapters, preparing over 15,600 students for future career opportunities. FFA activities and award programs complement instruction in agricultural education by giving students practical experience in the application of agricultural skills and knowledge gained in classes. FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

(By Craig Alan Becker, Atlantic FFA Reporter) —  On Thursday October 2, 2019, Atlantic FFA members attended numerous fall contests at Northwest Missouri State University. This year, the chapter had five members compete in the Livestock Evaluation contest, placing 33rd out of 60 teams. In this contest, members had the opportunity to display their agricultural knowledge of various livestock breeds. Those who competed had to place breeding and market classes of beef, swine, and sheep, while also doing three classes of oral reasons. Individually, Malena Woodward placed 40th, Wyatt Redinbaugh placed 94th, Sofia Mendez placed 141st, Kaitlin Jensen placed 182nd, and Kate Oettchen placed 200th out of the 223 contestants from Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. Sofia Mendez said, “I like judging livestock but I didn’t like giving reasons”. Kate Oettechen said “I thought it was really fun. That was a cool experience.”

Taylor MeCreedy and Hannah Carlson competed in the Horse Evaluation contest. The event gave students the opportunity to learn agricultural knowledge and skills in the area of equine science. Competing FFA members evaluated halter and performance equine classes. Taylor placed 5th and Hannah 40th placed out of 90 contestants.

Northwest Soils Team: Kate Oettchen, Sofia Mendez, Malena Woodward, Wyatt Redinbaugh, Kaitlin Jensen

Northwest Horse Team: Taylor McCreedy and Hannah Carlson

Northwest Derby Greenhand test: Alyssa Derby

Northwest Dairy Cattle Team: Jackson McLaren, Dylan Comes, Daniel Freund, Logan Eilts

Northwest Ag Business team (All photos in this series were submitted by the Atlantic FFA)

In the Dairy Cattle Evaluation contest, the chapter placed 1st out of the Iowa teams and 8th overall. The purpose of the District Dairy Cattle CDE is to enable students to develop skills in dairy animal selection and dairy herd management. They evaluated and ranked dairy animals based on visual factors of selection. Daniel Freund placed 11th, Dylan Comes placed 24th, Jackson McLaren placed 40th and Logan Eilts placed 70th out of 100 individuals. Jackson Mclaren said, “I thought it was fun. My favorite part was just trying new things”.

At the Farm Business contest the Atlantic team of Tate Den Beste, Drey Newell, Adriana Mendez, and Gunner Kirchoff placed 1st out of the Iowa teams and 5th overall. Individually Drey was 15th, Tate placed 17th, Gunner placed 18th, and Adriana placed 44th. The contest is designed to stimulate instruction of economic and agricultural business management principles in the secondary agriculture curriculum. These principles include the following: the ability to apply the economic principles and concepts listed in analyzing the farm business and making farm business management decisions, the ability to analyze and select the most appropriate type of farm business organization for a given farm situation, the ability to develop the ability to use records and manage resources for optimum returns to resources.

In the FFA Knowledge test, Atlantic member Alyssa Derby placed 6th out of 132 individuals. The contest consisted of a 100 question written examination covering general FFA knowledge. After the contest, Atlantic FFA Advisor Eric Miller commented, “I was very happy with the results. Each team placed in the top 3 for the Iowa teams. Most of our students use this contest as a way to see if they will be interested in trying this at the State Level for the Iowa FFA Association. ”

(Radio Iowa) — The weather was drier — but the latest U-S-D-A crop report doesn’t show a lot of progress with the harvest. The report says field conditions remained wet and that limited farmers to around three working days last week. Seven percent of the corn crop has been harvested — compared to three percent the week before. It’s still two weeks behind the average harvest. The soybean harvest advanced a little faster — with 17 percent now harvested — compared to five percent last week. That’s still 11 days behind the average.

(Radio Iowa) — Members of Iowa agriculture sector are finding hope in the tentative trade deal announced between the United States and China. President Donald Trump says China has agreed to buy between 40 and 50 billion dollars in U-S agriculture products, if the deal goes through. Iowa State University economics professor Wendong Zhang says that’s significantly more than any single-year of U-S exports to the Asian giant. But it’s not clear whether the new number reflects an annual promise. “The Chinese probably left more wiggle room-there’s a really big number but there’s no time frame tied to it,” he says.

Zhang says tariffs that could have been imposed this week will not go into effect. That’s some relief, but now farmers and others will wait to see whether the threat of December tariffs is also lifted. Zhang welcomes what he calls important first steps as the two sides each still angle to come out ahead. “The trade war has been elevated so much, I think in the end both countries need to find a way, that, in some respects, both leaders need to go back and say we won the trade war, somehow,” Zhang says.

Zhang says a shallow agreement on big issues like technology transfer and intellectual property protections is likely. But significant increases in Chinese imports of U-S corn, ethanol and beef could also be part of the deal.

(Radio Iowa) — More federal land is being opened up for fishing and hunting in Iowa as part of the Trump administration’s move to make public land more accessible. Margaret Everson, of the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service, says one-point-four million acres were added to open areas this year, including at Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge east of Des Moines.

Everson says, “We’ve expanded 300 acres here for new opportunities for white tail deer for example, for pheasants, being able to, again, open new areas that have not been open before.” The Department of the Interior will also allow more big game hunting at De Soto Bend in western Iowa. Ducks Unlimited C-E-O Adam Putnam says making that land accessible to the public promotes outdoor recreation and conservation.

Putnam says, “Without that connection to the land, we’re not going to have a strong base of support for protecting the environment going forward.” Federal officials say they’re also trying to match state and federal regulations to encourage more hunting and fishing.

(Thanks to Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)

The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association has been dedicated to improving market conditions for Iowa’s independent cattle producers since long before the Holcomb, Kansas Tyson plant fire. However, recent market conditions have added more urgency to the situation, and ICA’s volunteer leaders are actively searching for new solutions to the market problems faced in the upper midwest.

The ICA Feedlot Council has been working on specific policy proposals and invites cattle producers to attend one of the upcoming cattle marketing listening sessions.

Each meeting will include a history of ICA’s policy initiatives related to cattle marketing and an open forum to discuss new ideas with staff, Feedlot Council members and board members. Members who are unable to attend one of the five meetings will be given an opportunity to voice their opinion through other avenues.

Meeting dates and locations:

Oct. 15, 7 pm, Ames; Iowa Cattlemen’s Association
Oct. 17, 7 pm, Atlantic; Cass County Community Center
Oct. 23, 10 am, Maquoketa; Johnson Family Farms, 101 300th Ave
Oct. 23, 7 pm, Osage; Knights of Columbus Hall
Oct. 28, 7 pm, Sioux Center; Kooima, Kooima and Varilek office