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Officials with the Guthrie County Extension Office say a Farmland Leasing meeting will be held at the Guthrie County Extension Office on Tuesday, August 13th, beginning at 6:00 pm. Topics will include current cash rental rate and land values survey results, methods for determining fair rents for 2020, legal aspects of farmland leases, including strategies for writing and terminating a farm lease, tenant/landlord communications, and ISU Extension web-based and other resources. Workshops are 2 1/2 hours, with a 100-page leasing arrangements book provided, One per registrant/couple.
Registration is $20 per person or $30 per couple. A $5 late registration fee will be added after August 10th. To register contact the Guthrie County Extension Office at 641-747-2276.
(Radio Iowa) — Corn continues to mature across Iowa and while it may be beneficial to farmers, those fields of green can be a danger for drivers traveling on rural roads. Floyd County Deputy Sheriff Travis Bartz says tall corn can tower into a motorist’s line of sight, reducing visibility at uncontrolled intersections. “Whether you can see gravel dust or not, or if the roads are wet, you’re not going to see gravel dust, assume that there is another vehicle, an ATV or somebody walking at an intersection,” Bartz says. “By the time you get into that intersection, it’s too late.”
While that gravel dust can help drivers identify other traffic, it can also create a complication. “If you cannot see the road in front of you clearly, you don’t know — because of the gravel dust — if somebody is pulling out, if somebody is running across the road, wildlife or anything like that,” Bartz says. “Let the dust settle before you continue. Increase the distance between you and whatever is causing the dust.”
According to Bartz, the majority of accidents he’s responded to are with drivers who are unfamiliar with the terrain. Floyd County alone is a home to over 400 intersections — with 300 of them uncontrolled — increasing the risk for a collision. Bartz says frost boils in the gravel, caused by the freeze/thaw cycle, are making this driving season even more challenging. “Driving your vehicle down the road, if you get in one of those ruts, it is going to jerk your car to the left or the right without you being able to control it,” he says. “If you are driving too fast, it’s going to cause you to go into the ditch, you’re going to bottom out your car, or it’s going to be harder to stop.”
Bartz says the best thing for drivers to do is go back to the basics. “Every accident has a large degree of human error,” he says. “Stay attentive. Make sure you’re looking both left and right and forward and check your mirrors for vehicles coming up behind you and stay off your cell phone.” He adds, property owners can trim back weeds and grass along the road to improve visibility.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new report says a July survey of business supply managers suggests economic growth will slow over the next three to six months in nine Midwest and Plains states.
The report issued Thursday says the Mid-America Business Conditions index dropped to 52.0 in July from 55.4 in June. It’s the lowest figure in more than three years. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he blamed the slowdown on weak farm income, produced in part by tariffs and flooding.
The survey results are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests growth. A score below that suggests decline. The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is warning paddlers to use caution on the Raccoon River in Des Moines and Upper Iowa River in Winneshiek County as there could be obstructions caused by falling trees and logs. The D-N-R’s Todd Robertson says people in kayaks and canoes have flipped when a strong current took them into the obstructions. Robertson teaches paddling courses and says it’s something everyone should look into — especially rookies. “Whether it’s canoe, kayak or paddle board, you should know four or five basic strokes. If you know those strokes and know how to navigate your vessel — your’re going to be much, much safer out on the water,” according to Robertson. “But when you end up going to a corner store and just buying the first kayak you see and then head straight to the river, that’s when things can happen.
Seeking formal instruction, knowing safety, knowing rules and regulations is very important for first-time paddlers.” Robertson teaches paddling classes through the D-N-R and says there are other opportunities for lessons. “There’s padlding clubs around with seasoned paddlers that you can find on Facebook. Granted, they may not be certified instructors, but you can learn some basic strokes. A lot of these bigger retails stores that you go into, some of them offer a free hour or two-hour paddling class,” he says. Robertson has been seeing more people get into paddle boards. “It’s so easy to get into paddle boarding because unlike a canoe or kayak — it doesn’t fill up with water. So, if you dump into the water you are able to get back on your board real quick, plus it’s just real fun,” Robertson says. “I think for the last four or five years it’s been the fastest growing outdoor vessel as far as activity goes.”
Paddle boards can be used on the same waterways that are used for kayaks and canoes. “You can definitely run them on a river — but it’s not advised until you have a lot experience — because it is a whole different ballgame. The storkes are basically the same, but you are up against moving water rather then just flat unmoving water,” Robertson says. Robertson says the lifejacket rules apply the same to paddle boards as the other vessels. “Just like canoes and kayaks — you’ve got to have a lifejacket on that board,” Robertson says.
Robertson, is the D-N-R River Programs Outreach Coordinator, and says it’s natural for rivers to have the hazards from trees and logs. A section of the Raccoon River from Walnut Woods State Park to Waterworks Park in Des Moines has caused a lot of problems for paddlers recently. A large log jam that formed upstream of Chimney Rock Park on a river left outside bend of the Upper Iowa River in Winneshiek County near Decorah has also been causing problems. You can see a real time look at issues on the water through the D-N-R’s interactive paddling map at iowadnr.gov/paddlingmap.
(Radio Iowa) — A northwest Iowa ethanol plant suspended production this week “until further notice.” Plymouth Energy in Merrill is one of at least 10 ethanol plants in the country to temporarily shut down. Three others have closed. Monte Shaw is executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. “A lot of the experts say we’ve got about a 10% overage of production and until that production comes off line, the economics aren’t going to improve,” Shaw says.
Shaw says this supply-demand imbalance is caused by waivers federal officials are granting big oil companies — so refiners don’t have to blend as much ethanol into gasoline. “If you look at the demand destruction from these waivers that the Trump Administration has done, for the first time in 21 years, in 2018 the U.S. used less ethanol than the prior year,” Shaw says. “In other words, for 20 straight years we always used more ethanol each and every year than we did the year before here domestically, not talking exports. In 2018, we actually took a step backwards.”
Shaw says the past 18 months have been a very rough on the industry. “A certain portion of the industry has made a little bit of money, barely; some have been just struggling to break even and then there’s a portion of our industry which has been losing real money on a cash basis and you can only do that for so long. Eventually your cash reserves run out and you can’t buy corn and so we did see that come home to roost, even in Iowa.”
The board of Plymouth Energy issued a statement, saying all existing corn contracts will be honored and they hope to resume production “in the not too distant future.” A coalition of groups representing ag and biofuels interests today (Wednesday) asked a federal court to allow a 2018 lawsuit challenging the E-P-A’s management of renewable fuels policy to proceed. Shaw says if E-P-A policy doesn’t change over the next few months, more ethanol plant managers may consider temporarily shutting down production. “This is not good for our economy,” Shaw says. “This is not good for corn prices and things like that, but it’s really tough on the employees whose jobs are in question right now.”
Shaw says if the E-P-A were to adhere to the rules outlined by the Renewable Fuels Standard, there would be an “immediate impact” on corn prices and ethanol production would quickly rebound.
MONDAMIN, Iowa (AP) — Authorities in Harrison County have recovered the body of a farmer who died after his tractor flipped over atop him when it ran off a riverbank edge into the Missouri River. The tractor was spotted by people searching for the man Tuesday evening a little more than 2 miles northwest of Mondamin. The Harrison County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as 82-year-old Malvern Wallis, who lived in Mondamin. He had been working along the riverbank since 8 a.m., getting the land ready for cattle. It’s unclear when the accident occurred.
(Radio Iowa) — A delegation of Iowa soybean growers is in Asia, meeting with agricultural leaders in the key trading nations of China and Japan. Iowa Soybean Association C-E-O Kirk Leeds says the visit comes at a time when trade between the U-S and China is at a near stand-still and it’s had a dramatic impact on Iowa soybean growers. The Iowans visited three cities in China in recent days. “We were there with a small group of soybean farmers to touch base with some of our customers, at least our previous customers, to remind them that we still have plenty of soybeans to sell and these are high quality soybeans,” Leeds says. “We look forward to an opportunity to resume our exports of soybeans on a significant scale in the hopefully not-to-distant future.”
Leeds says he’s hopeful something positive can come out of the upcoming talks between the U.S. and China. “Farmers in Iowa and across the country have been on a kind of yo-yo here the last several months where we think we’re making progress and may be on the verge of some kind of agreement and then things seem to fall apart,” Leeds says. “Hopefully, this is a sign we’re back at the negotiation table and that we’ll see some positive movement.” Before the trade troubles began, Iowa’s top agricultural export was soybeans and soybean products, worth more than $3.3 billion a year. Nearly one-quarter of all Iowa soybeans were shipped to China. The Iowa delegation is now in Japan, which remains one of the state’s top trading partners. “Japan is a very mature market for the United States, at least on soybeans. We’ve been there for almost 60 years,” Leeds says. “The population of Japan is falling rapidly and the economy has been stagnant for about a decade but it’s still an important market for us.”
There is promise Japan may further open its markets to take in more U-S products, including pork, poultry and beef. Leeds says the Iowa delegation will spend the next few days in Japan touring ag facilities and farms, returning to Iowa on Friday.
Cass County ISU Extension in Atlantic is offering a hands-on workshop for making and taking homemade jam. Learn how to “Preserve the Taste of Summer!” during a hands-on canning workshop presented by ISU Extension Nutrition and Wellness Specialist Barb Fuller. The workshop is based on USDA-approved food preservation recommendations, so that the food you preserve is not only delicious but safe to store for up to a year. Everyone who attends the workshop goes home with a jar of food and a complete collection of ISU Extension home preservation publications. Cost of the workshop is $35, and pre-registration is required by Thursday August 1st.
Jam Making and Dehydration, will be held from 9-a.m. until 1-p.m. Saturday, August 3rd, at the Cass County Fair Food Stand in Atlantic. Get ready to enjoy the taste of fresh fruit year round with this workshop on making and canning blueberry spice jam. This workshop will prepare you for preserving any type of fresh fruit through hot-water-bath canning or dehydration. All supplies will be provided, including jars, lids, screw rings, and berries.
Register online at http://bit.ly/ptts13409, or stop by the Cass County Extension office to sign up today! All registrations are due by August 1 to ensure supplies are available. Call 712-243-1132 for more information and to register for the class, or visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass to register online.
In addition, ISU Extension offers a library of publications with recipes and instructions for preserving a wide variety of foods, from fruits and vegetables to pickles and meats. These publications are available as free downloads on the ISU Extension Store at https://store.extension.iastate.edu/, or can be picked up at your local ISU Extension Office.
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