MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Minnesota company plans to break ground Wednesday on a northern Iowa facility for growing tomatoes. The North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corporation says the $35 million Bushel Boy Farms facility in Mason City will bring about 50 jobs to northern Iowa. The first harvest from the 50-acre operation is expected in December 2020.
Bushel Boy is based on Owatonna, Minnesota.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa’s game bird populations have seen a bit of resurgence in recent years — but a drop in the number of hunters has kept the harvest numbers moving back to past levels. Iowa Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz, says some of the hunters were lost during the bird population drop. “Some just don’t go out — others move to other things like deer, turkey or waterfowl — they’re more abundant. I think some do go out of state where things sound better. They’ll go to Kansas for quail or South Dakota for pheasants,” Bogenschutz says.

He says another reason for a drop in hunters is the core group is getting older.  “That baby boom generation is tailing off, a lot of the upland hunters are hitting the 60-ish range and aren’t as avid as they used to be. And so we are on that side of that curve,” according to Bogenschutz. “We’ve got all the millennials here — but they are not quite as outdoor oriented as maybe the previous generations.” He says the D-N-R is trying to get younger people to give hunting a try. “Trying to engage them in the outdoors instead of just looking at smartphones and computer screens, ” he says.

Bogenschutz says they follow the three R’s when it comes to hunting — retention of the current hunters; reactivating hunters who haven’t been out in awhile; and recruitment of new hunters into the fold. Trap shooting has become a more popular sport in high schools and he says it is something that can get kids to move into hunting. “Certainly yeah, I think are data shows the we do have some transition there. The archery in the schools program and trap shooting is probably the highest we’ve ever seen it as far as schools go,” Bogenschutz says. “What we’re finding in some of the surveys and stuff — if you don’t come from a hunting family, even if you are exposed to that kind of stuff — you don’t just go do it. They kind of need friend to take them or family member.”

Bogenschutz says they are trying to respond to that survey information by offering more mentor-type programs. “Taking those first time people hunting two or three times in a season, four times. And then they get some comfort level with it and then they’re willing go out on their own or invite a friend,” Bogenschutz says. “So those are showing a lot more.When you give them that kind of environment they are much more likely the next year to buy a license and go out hunting.”

He says there have been plenty of birds out there to support more hunters, and they just need to continue working on increasing the hunter base.

(Radio Iowa) — A western Iowa conservation group started a four-day bike ride yesterday (Thursday), to raise awareness of the Loess Hills region. The Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development group’s Lance Brisbois says it’s important to show off the area. “The more people we have come visit and realize what we have, the more they’ll want to protect it. One of the projects that Golden Hills coordinates is the Loess Hills scenic byway and most people probably have no idea that we have a national byway in Iowa,” Brisbois says.

The tour is billed as a parks and peaks bicycle tour. It follows the Missouri River Valley from Lewis and Clark State Park in Monona County to Waubonsie State Park in southwest Iowa. The Loess Hills’ bluffs and ridges were formed by wind-deposited silt. It’s a landform unique to western Iowa and China and home to over half of Iowa’s remaining tallgrass prairie.  “A lot of people in Iowa don’t even realize they exist or don’t understand what they are, so we really want people to come and visit and explore and see what we have,” he says.

Participants will pedal a little more than 150 miles during the ride.

This weekend, September 7th & 8th, smoke, steam, straw and family fun will fill the air at the Carstens 1880 Farmstead, during the 37th Annual Carstens Farm Days show.  Farm Days is an event that aims to preserve and celebrate Iowa’s Farm History through live demonstrations of antique farm equipment and a blend of unique exhibits and crafts.  It’s a tractor and threshing show and so much more.  The two-day show is held on the historic Carstens 1880 Farmstead just south of I-80 Exit 34, Shelby, Iowa.  The hours are 6:30 am – 7:00 pm both days. A parade of classic cars, implements, tractors and trucks will take place both days at 2 pm.

Farm Days Weekend is fun for all ages.  Over 250 vintage tractors and implements will be on display for visitors to enjoy.  A variety of steam engines, gas “hit and miss” engines and one-of-a-kind implements will be in operations across the farm grounds.  Joining the power equipment will be many antique/classic cars and trucks. Minneapolis-Moline tractors, engines and implements will be featured at this year’s show.  Over 100 carefully restored Minneapolis-Moline tractors will be on display.  Anyone who would like to add his or her Minneapolis Moline to the exhibit is welcome.  Register at the registration building near the front gate when you arrive.

1919 Russell

Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc. President Mel Hursey says “People are invited to come here and re-live old memories and make some new memories with their family. Farm Days will not only showcase the progress of agriculture, it will also showcase the progress our community has made here on this farm.” Traditional demonstrations will be on-going throughout the weekend.  Visitors can expect to see threshing machines in action, antique tractor plowing, corn picking, straw baling, blacksmithing, corn binding, and a working sawmill.  Admission to Farm Days also allows visitors to wander through the four-acre corn maze which contains nearly two miles of pathways.  There will be a number of musical acts under the shade trees.  On the main stage near the Carstens’s family home, colorful and talented cloggers will kick up their heels to entertain the crowd.

Nearly 100 vendors are expected to be selling a wide range of crafts, tools, toys and novelty items.  A colorful display of quilts, wall hangings, wearable art and other types of quilting projects will be featured in the special event building at the farm.  Many talented quilters from around the area will allow their works of art to be displayed for all to enjoy.  Raffle tickets for the beautiful hand-stitched quilt, which will be raffled during Farm Days will be available during the quilt show.

This (Friday) evening, a pulled pork sandwich dinner will be hosted by the Friends of the Shelby Stone Arch Trail Committee.  Proceeds of the Friday evening dinner will go to the trail committee.  The dinner will be served from 5:30 – 7:30 pm.  All good days begin with a good breakfast and to start Farm Days off right, a pancake breakfast is planned at 6:30 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday.  Snacks and lunch options will also be available.  Various non-profit local groups will be offering refreshments and delicious desserts all weekend.  On Saturday beginning at 5:30 p.m. enjoy Staley’s Chicken for a delicious dinner at the farm.  Proceeds from the dinner will go toward on-going maintenance at Carstens 1880 Farmstead. Admission to Farm Days remains one of the best values for any show of its kind.  Admission is $5 per day for everyone nine years and older.

Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc., a non-profit group of local volunteers, oversees an 80-acre working farm museum exhibit located between Minden and Shelby, Iowa in Pottawattamie County.  The farmstead is the home of Carstens Farm Days, which is held the first weekend after Labor Day each September.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  For more information visit the web site: www.carstensfarm.com

(Iowa News Service – DES MOINES) For generations, Iowa’s predictable weather has allowed farmers to specialize in two crops – corn and soybeans. But climate change has many farmers exploring alternative crops, including chestnuts and other nut-producing trees. Mark Rasmussen, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, says the Chinese chestnut tree, which only takes three to five years of growth to produce a yield, is an emerging tree crop in the Midwest.

“It’s an alternative crop, which is something we like to promote, plus it’s got other benefits in terms of putting land in something that’s more perennial than an annual crop, like corn or soybeans,” he states. The traditional American chestnut tree once dominated the Eastern U.S. before a fungus took hold in 1904 and ultimately erased 4 billion trees from the landscape in less than 50 years. It’s estimated that a mature chestnut orchard can gross between $5,000 and $10,000 a year per acre.

Jeff Jensen, president of the Iowa Nut Growers Association, says the Chinese chestnut is well adapted to the Midwest, with its well-drained, slightly acidic soil and the nut’s hardiness for cold weather. He notes that Iowa growers have increased sales through social media direct marketing, and online sites that let folks know where they can pick their own produce. “So, this has been the real game changer in the last five to seven years,” Jensen states. “A lot of operations are able to go to ‘U-Pick,’ where folks will come to the farm and do all the harvesting themselves, and the farm owner is more akin to an Airbnb host – providing nice restrooms, picnic areas, shade, water.”

At the Leopold Center, Rasmussen says some of the best stories he hears about deciding to grow chestnuts are told by retired people. “That have other income sources and then they live on an acreage, so this isn’t a primary income source for them, but they can stand the three or four years it takes before the chestnuts start to produce,” he explains. Rasmussen adds edible nut crops such as chestnuts were once a significant contributor to the rural economy, when hogs and cattle were fattened for market by allowing them to forage on acres of fallen chestnuts.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Congresswoman Cindy Axne says the U.S. Mexico Canada Trade Agreement “is in a good place” and key lawmakers from both parties are working on the final language that will be voted upon in the U.S. House. “I am thrilled with where we’re at from an agriculture perspective, also from a manufacturing perspective,” Axne says. “We’ve got a couple of other pieces we’re trying to work out.” Republicans have accused Democrats, including Axne, of foot-dragging, since President Trump and leaders in Canada and Mexico struck the agreement last fall. Axne says the Trump Administration first shared preliminary documents with House Democrats this summer.  “This has not been something that’s been up for a vote for months at all,” Axne says. “It actually was brought to the Democratic majority working task group in the House at the beginning of July, then they, of course, started working with Republicans, so both sides working on finalizing the agreement and it’s moving along really well.”

Axne says Democrats have questions about some details surrounding the patents for certain prescription medications. And Axne says Democrats want to ensure the new trade deal enforces fair labor standards in Mexico — in order to protect American workers. “If we don’t have that regulatory oversight…they will continue to undercut us with pricing, they will continue to undercut us with the ability to provide cheap labor in their own country and not in America,” Axne says, “and that means we’ll end up contributing to outsource more jobs out of this country.”

Axne says she’s been assured by the top Democrat in the House that a vote to ratify the deal will be taken this fall. “Apparently the talks are going well,” Axne says. “Both sides are coming together. They understand how important this is.” The U.S. House is scheduled to go back in session in a week. Mexico’s government has already ratified the new trade deal.

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) — Researchers are finding up to 30-percent of Midwestern farmers are suffering from an allergic disease that’s linked to their agricultural lifestyle — and rural residents who don’t farm may also be at risk. Jill Poole, a professor of allergy and immunology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, says rural areas have unique allergens, especially in parts of Iowa where there’s been heavy flooding. “Not all farmers have allergies but that doesn’t mean they don’t have symptoms,” Poole says. “There’s a lot of nasal symptoms, sinus symptoms, and respiratory problems like coughing, wheezing and chest tightness and that has also been on the rise. There’s lots of exposures in the rural environment that you don’t see in the urban environments.”

There’s organic dust in grain elevators and in animal confinement facilities, whether it’s poultry, dairy or swine, and Poole says hardly anyone wears a mask. “We know that the respiratory protective devices, the masks, are not used,” Poole says. “Less than 10% — probably less than 5% — wear a mask. Some will even consider a bandana or a handkerchief as a respiratory protective device, which clearly it is not.”

Exposure to pesticides can also trigger symptoms and there are other hazards, like with what’s known as grain smut or grain rot from significant rain or flooding.”Farmer’s lung is that exposure that can cause chronic and even debilitating lung disease if the exposure persists,” Poole says. “If it’s caught early and you remove yourself from the exposure, there are things like steroids and medications that can be used to treat. Catching it too late, there’s less we can do for this disease.”

Poole says vitamin D supplements may help to reduce inflammation from being exposed to some bacteria on the farm. Other things that can help include omega 3 fatty acids and fish oils. Overall, Poole says there’s been a steep rise in allergies over the last 20-to-30 years, now with prevalence in up to 50-percent of all Americans.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa apple growers are benefiting from a resurgence in an old-time beverage made from their crop. Wilson’s Orchard near Iowa City makes sweet and hard cider — which owner Paul Rasch (Rash) says gives their products a wider audience. “We sell our hard ciders both packaged and on draft pretty much across Iowa under the Wilson’s Orchard brand,” Rasch says. “And we sell our sweet ciders just for a limited time — starting in September and going through December — in supermarkets and at our farm market here.”

He says hard cider was once the favorite adult beverage. “Hard cider used to be the alcohol of choice for Americans almost right up until prohibition. Prohibition kind of put the kibosh on hard cider and beer kind of took over,” according to Rasch. Hard cider is finding its way back as a choice for alcohol drinkers. “There has been a real resurgence in the interest in cider. It’s gluten free, it’s just not as heavy as beer. And it’s sort of a pallet that you can lay a lot of different flavors onto,” Rasch explained.

He has tried to focus more on growing apples dedicated to cider to take advantage of the expanding interest.”The hard cider market is not only expanding, but it’s developing in very interesting ways,” Rasch says. “So like for us, we’ve got five acres of orchard now committed just to varieties for making cider. There’s specific cider apple varieties that make a higher tannin cider higher quality.” He says the hard cider is product where you can make it from the crop you grow right here. “You know you can make great beers — Iowa is making great craft beers — but you can’t grow barely here. You can make wines — but it is hard to grow the really premiere wine varieties here. But you can grow great apples,” he says.

Rasch grew up in Michigan where they grow a lot of apples. He says Washington state is known for growing apples, but he believes in the product grown here benefit from the climate. “I’d put the flavor of our apples up against any other growing area in the United States. These tough growing conditions we have this year is a good example of them, hot, cold, wet, dry, you name it,” Rasch says. “I just think it builds character. It builds flavor in apples.”

A search online shows at least seven hard cider producers in Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa’s quail population took the biggest hit of any of the game birds from the tough winter conditions. The annual roadside survey found their populations were down 36 percent from last year. D-N-R wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says impact was greatest on quail because their range is only across the southern three tiers of counties.

“The got that kind of transition — the got freezing rain, they go sleet, ice several times — and that’s just brutal on quail. Because they are not big enough to get through it and they don’t venture as far as pheasants,” according to Bogenschtuz. “We kind of fully expected that they would take a hit. I was hoping maybe not as much as they did.” He says the number of quail taken last year increased by 45 percent from the previous year. Bogenschutz says the harvest would have been much higher if more hunters had been out.

“We had about 10-thousand quail hunters last year and they shot about 50-thousand quail — which was the highest we’d seen in more than a decade,” Bogenschutz says. “So quail numbers have been good the last four or five years just like pheasants — the highest we’ve seen since the late 90s.” Bogenschutz projects the take would have been as high as a quarter million quail if the hunter numbers had been comparable to the 90’s.

He says there were around 20-thousand quail hunters back then, so there weren’t as many hunters chasing quail last year. Bogenschutz says hunter numbers for pheasant and quail had dropped off during the period when bad weather hurt their populations. And he says they are working to get younger hunters more involved in all types of hunting.