DES MOINES, Iowa [WHO-TV] — The Iowa State Fair is cancelling two attractions amid concerns over Avian Influenza infections in dairy cows. The Milking Parlor and the I Milked a Cow Experience will not be a part of the fair this year to prevent the spread of avian flu. So far this year there have been at least ten confirmed cases of bird flu in Iowa dairy herds.

Jeremy Parsons, CEO of the Iowa State Fair, said safety is the fair’s first concern. “I think for the average fairgoer you’re still going to see dairy cattle at the Iowa State Fair,” Parsons said. “The dairy industry is important in Iowa agriculture so we’re still showcasing that, just showcasing it a little different in terms of no milking parlor and no hands-on experience of I Milked a Cow that many fairgoers have done over the years, so just a chance to still walk through the barns, see the cattle, honestly just trying to keep the livestock safe quite frankly as we showcase Iowa agriculture.”

To learn more about the Iowa State Fair visit the fair website.

(Ames, Iowa)  – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the City of Audubon has agreed to pay an $8,000 fine for repeatedly expelling too much ammonia nitrogen in its wastewater that flows to the East Nishnabotna River. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports, according to a recent DNR order, Audubon violated its ammonia limits in nearly every month of 2021 and 2022 and in several months of 2023.

Elevated levels of ammonia can be toxic to fish and other aquatic life and can deplete oxygen in water. The city has said its pollution woes were the result of large amounts of contaminants from a truck stop that pipes its wastewater to the city’s treatment facility. Waspy’s Truck Stop opened about six years ago and has a truck wash that is used to clean the insides of animal trailers. That debris was believed to be the source of the excessive ammonia levels in Audubon’s treated wastewater. The DNR also fined Waspy’s $8,000 this year and said it had violated its pollutant limits — for ammonia nitrogen, waste solids, oil and grease — more than 500 times.

The truck stop has installed barriers to collect the manure and help prevent it from being discharged to the treatment facility. Audubon’s public works director was not immediately available to comment for this article, but he has said the situation was improving. The DNR order noted that Audubon was warned multiple times that it was exceeding its contaminant limits but that it failed to expeditiously remedy the problem.

Wastewater from Audubon flows into a creek that goes to the East Nishnabotna River. (Photo by Jared Strong/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Treated wastewater from the city flows through a creek to the East Nishnabotna, which was polluted downstream in March by a large fertilizer spill near Red Oak. The spill killed nearly all the fish and other aquatic life in about 60 miles of the East Nishnabotna and Nishnabotna rivers.

• Cass County: Corn $3.90 Beans $11.11
• Adair County: Corn $3.87 Beans $11.14
• Adams County: Corn $3.87 Beans $11.10
• Audubon County: Corn $3.89 Beans $11.13
• East Pottawattamie County: Corn $3.94 Beans $11.11
• Guthrie County: Corn $3.93 Beans $11.15
• Montgomery County: Corn $3.93 Beans $11.13
• Shelby County: Corn $3.94 Beans $11.11

Oats: $2.93 (same in all counties)

(Radio Iowa) – It’s been almost four years since a powerful derecho blasted across Iowa, causing some 11-billion dollars damage, and the rebuilding of our landscapes is still far from complete. The storm’s winds of up to 140-miles an hour wiped out millions of trees and a grant program is offering funds to help communities recover and replant. Ellie Jones is the Iowa D-N-R’s community disaster recovery coordinator, and she’s partnering with Trees Forever. “We lost a lot more trees than we can replace within a couple of years,” Jones says. “Between urban and non-urban areas, we lost over seven-million trees. We’ve had this grant program going on pretty much since the year after the derecho happened, but unfortunately, with the amount of funds that we have available and the sheer amount of recovery that needs to be done, it’s probably going to – hopefully – continue for the next 10 years as well.”

The Community Forestry Grant Program offers grants of between 500 and 10-thousand dollars to purchase and plant trees suitable to Iowa. “This is a grant that’s for public landowners,” Jones says. “Unfortunately, we’re not able to work with private landowners, especially with this grant, but if you are a public entity or work on behalf of a city, you can apply and you have to be in one of the 27 counties that were in the governor’s proclamation of disaster.” Unlike with previous grants, she says matching funds are -not- required from communities with this effort. Cedar Rapids was one of the worst-hit communities, losing more than half of its tree canopy to the derecho’s winds on August 10th of 2020. Jones says trees help to purify our waterways, and they filter out carbon and other harmful pollutants from the air. Trees also help to offset what’s known as the urban heat island effect.

“In cities, because there’s so little green space, they tend to be a lot hotter. Since we have these really high temperatures in our cities,” Jones says, “people are more prone to heat-borne illnesses and things of that nature. When we lost a lot of these trees in our urban areas, you’re making that problem worse and we’re not getting the benefits that those trees provided.” The deadline to apply is August 26th.

To apply, visit www.iowadnr.gov/urbanforestry

(Des Moines, Iowa) – State regulators have taken action against three men they say share responsibility for illegal fires that torched 10 large chicken confinement buildings last year near Villisca. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports one of the men, Tyson Means of Villisca, has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine, according to a recent Iowa Department of Natural Resources order. Two others, Shawn Gohlinghorst and Darrel Schipansky, were issued violation notices, but no orders regarding them have been publicly released.

State law generally prohibits the deliberate burning of buildings and requires their debris be taken to a landfill, but there are exceptions for agricultural buildings. In this case, Villisca had annexed the property, and burning the buildings had additional requirements, such as gaining approval from the local fire chief. That didn’t happen, according to the DNR. The building fires were ignited simultaneously about 3 p.m. on June 29, and they burned for hours. Each building was 50 feet wide and 728 feet long. Iowa DNR Senior environmental Specialist Kristi Burg said “There’s no way you would have had enough fire departments and water nearby if it got out of control.” The Villisca fire chief became aware of the fires about seven hours after they began and decided “it was too big to be put out,” the DNR order said.

Fires burned 10 former chicken confinement buildings near Villisca in June 2023. (Photo by Brian Hamman/courtesy of Iowa DNR)

Several rural homes are located nearby, along with a site for storing and distributing liquid fertilizer. The property lies about a mile west of residences and businesses in town. Montgomery County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Hamman said the smoke and glow from the fire was visible for miles, and residents in four different counties made emergency calls to report it. Hamman said the men burned the buildings after recent rainfall, and that the fires did not stray. “From my point of view, there was nothing dangerous,” he said.

Schipansky owned the property, and Gohlinghorst and Means later bought it on contract. They razed the site with the intention of growing crops on the land. The men had also neglected to inspect the site for asbestos. The DNR tested samples of the debris and found no asbestos, but “a thorough asbestos sampling could not have been conducted since the buildings had been completely burned,” the department’s order said.

Gohlinghorst and Means rid the property of the remaining building debris in September and October 2023 and disposed of it at a landfill, the order said.

Debris from the confinement buildings were later taken to a landfill. (Photo by Brian Hamman/courtesy of Iowa DNR)

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources surveyed the burn site the day after the fires were ignited. (Photo by Brian Hamman/courtesy of Iowa DNR)

(Des Moines, Iowa) – You’ll have no shortage of food – favorites and new additions – to pig out on, during the 2o24 Iowa State Fair. Officials today (Tuesday), announced 84 new food selections for you to indulge in, including some out-of-the-box Iowa eats such as a BLT on a stick and bacon cheeseburger egg roll. The 2024 fair begins Aug. 8th.

The full list is available HERE. A food judging contest is scheduled for 1 p.m. July 16. Last year’s “Best new food” contest winner was What’s Your Cheez – Deep-Fried Bacon Brisket Mac-n-Cheese Grilled Cheese.

What’s Your Cheez – Deep-Fried Bacon Brisket Mac-n-Cheese Grilled Cheese

(Des Moines, Iowa/Iowa Capital Dispatch) – State utility regulators have approved a public meeting schedule starting in late August, in which Summit Carbon Solutions will present its significant proposed expansion for its carbon dioxide pipeline system. The company’s initial network of pipe in the state — which runs a total of about 690 miles — was recently approved by the Iowa Utilities Commission, although Summit is barred from starting construction until it has permission to build the system in North and South Dakota. The system might capture carbon dioxide at ethanol plants in five states and transport it to North Dakota for underground storage.

The expansion in Iowa includes about 340 miles of pipe to connect to more ethanol plants. It is the result of Summit inking new agreements with more ethanol producers after another company, Navigator CO2, abandoned its plans for a similar project. Summit has said it has agreements with 30 of the state’s 42 ethanol plants.

Crowd in Fort Dodge for Summit’s hearing before the Iowa Utilities Board (now known as the Iowa Utilities Commission). (RI photo)

The public meetings for the expansions are set to be held in 23 counties, after which Summit can negotiate for land easements and petition for pipeline permits. In southwest Iowa, pipeline expansion meetings will be held :

— Aug. 26th at 6 p.m. in Adams County: Corning Opera House Cultural Center, 800 Davis Ave., Corning
— Aug. 27th at noon in Montgomery County: Red Coach Inn, 1200 Senate Ave., Red Oak
— Aug. 27th at 6 p.m. in Guthrie County: Guthrie County Activity Center, 209 State St., Guthrie Center

Proposed pipeline expansion routes:

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Food System Coalition wants to make locally-produced food the norm, not the exception, and is releasing a 250-page plan to get there in the next decade. One priority in the plan is to make it easier to get food from the farm to the table. That means supporting more local and regional infrastructure, like small-scale processing for specialty crops, grains, dairy and livestock. Coalition executive director Chris Schwartz says more than 40 partners across Iowa helped shape the plan.

“Which details all the things that we think we need to do in the state of Iowa to have a food system that is more local, that is more nutritious, that is more environmentally sustainable, and is more just for people doing the work.” Strategies include improving farmers’ access to land and expanding incentives to adopt practices that protect Iowa’s soil, water and air. Giselle Bruskewitz is the senior program director at Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development.

“We’re talking about small grain processing, rural grocery stores getting the infrastructure that they need,” Bruskewitz says, “vegetables that can be processed at scale so that schools and other institutions can buy them.” She says the coalition also wants to invest in more refrigerated trucks and food hubs, which aggregate and distribute local products.

Iowa’s network of food hubs serves nearly 70% of the state’s counties.

(Radio Iowa) – Thirteen businesses, including one here in Cass County (IA), will get state money this year from a fund designed to help small-scale meat processors. Iowa Economic Development Authority spokesperson Kanan Kappleman says the grants total more than 970-thousand dollars.”Eligible projects under the Butchery and Revitalization Fund would include expanding or refurbishing an existing facility or establishing a new business,” she says. Kappleman says the money is often used for buying equipment.”Refrigeration facilities, freezer facilities, or equipment that is necessary to expand the processing capacity of a facility,” Kappelman says. Kappelman says the fund was created after the need was revealed for these type of processors when the large-scale meat processors were shut down during the pandemic. She says there are just a few requirements to get the grants.

“Number one they would be authorized to do business in Iowa. The second is that they employ less than 75 individuals,” she says. There also some limits on the amount of the grants. “The maximum award amount for any one company was 100-thousand dollars and no more than 50 percent of the eligible project expenses can be made with these grant funds,” Kappelman says.

There were five projects that requested grants that didn’t win awards this year. Locally, Bailey Beef Processing in Anita received a grant for $41,500 toward their total project cost of $83,000. As KJAN News reported in May,The Cass County Board of Supervisors received a request for County participation in helping the Anita Locker receive an economic development grant. Supervisor’s Board Chair Steve Baier said he wrote “a general letter of support” for the grant, because other projects that have flourished under similar grants.

Scot and Cheryl Bailey, along with their son Jackson, own the Anita Locker. Scot and Cheryl appeared before the Board to explain the need for funds to update their facility, especially in light of business coming from the Minden Locker, which had to close due to damage from the April 26^th tornado.

Cheryl Bailey said they applied for a matching grant from the IEDA (Iowa Economic Development Authority) because of the need to improve their freezer capacity.

She said they had also applied for a CIS (Cooperative Interstate Shipping) license, which allows participating state-inspected meat and poultry establishments to ship products across state lines. To qualify for the CIS program, a meat processor must have fewer than 25 full-time employees and comply with all federal food safety, sanitation and facility regulations. Anita Locker has six employees, including two full-time and two part-time, and if the locker can update it’s compressor, that would bring in more business and allow them to hire three-to-four more people.

Here is a list of the rest of the grant recipients with the amount of the project and amount of the grant awarded:
Amana Farms Beef Homestead project cost $16,640; grant awarded: $8,320
Cooks Meat Locker LLC Parnell project cost $200,000; grant awarded: $100,000
Double Dutch Meat Processing, Inc. Pella project cost $200,000; grant awarded: $100,000
Edgewood Locker INC project cost $200,000; grant awarded: $100,000
Friedrichsen Meat Company LLC Sutherland project cost $200,000; grant awarded: $100,000
Grimm Family Farm LLC Williamsburg project cost $176,503; grant awarded: $88,251
Jakes Meat Market Sibley project cost $60,418; grant awarded: $30,209
LDL Investsments Brighton project cost $99,210; grant awarded: $49,605
Northcote Meats Inc. Melcher project cost $200,000, grant awarded: $100,000
Regenerative Food Processing Stacyville project cost $105,350; grant awarded: $52,675
Skoglund Meats & Locker Inc West Bend project cost $200,000; grant awarded: $100,000
The Good Butcher LLC Des Moines project cost $200,000; grant awarded: $100,000