CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Iowa Agribusiness Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Iowa Agribusiness Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
(Radio Iowa) — Despite international trade tariffs and a series of other challenges, Iowa livestock producers are seeing hog prices rise in recent weeks, which comes as a welcome surprise to many. Lee Schultz, an ag economist with the Iowa State University Extension, explains the rollercoastering of pork prices on the commodities market. “I think what was driving the lower prices in the early part of 2019 was impacts of retaliatory tariffs and impacts on the trade that we expected,” Schultz says. “And then really, through late March and April, we really saw the impact of the ASF situation in China.”
That’s African Swine Fever which has reportedly spread to every region of China and several surrounding countries, dropping the hog population in China by nearly 40-million head compared to last year. Shultz says U-S pork producers are also seeing the potential for significant growth in global protein demand. “Recently, I think it has been the markets, the supply situation weighing on it a bit as well as the new news of the delay in the trade negotiations talks,” he says, “I think it’s all been working on the market and why we’ve seen such volatility lately.”
Now that we’re well into spring and the warmer weather will soon bring us to summer grilling season, Schultz says we are entering a key period of demand for pork, which should keep prices higher.”We have three big holidays in front of us with Mother’s Day, Memorial Day and Father’s Day,” he says. “While a lot of purchases have already been made for Mother’s Day, we’re looking still at several holidays in front of us and demand is very strong.”
Schultz says profitability levels are higher for the pork producer than what has been seen for the last few years and he remains optimistic for the remaining months of 2019 and into 2020.
LENOX – During a routine inspection Tuesday morning, DNR inspectors noted a manure spill approximately three miles southwest of Lenox. The owner, Steve Kerns, said the spill occurred Monday morning after a malfunctioning plug caused manure to overflow from shallow below-building pits. An unknown quantity of manure flowed to the barns and then overland to an unnamed tributary of the East Fork of the One Hundred and Two River.
Field tests showed elevated ammonia levels in the tributary. The DNR inspector did not see signs of a fish kill. Water samples are being sent to a laboratory for analysis.
DNR will follow up with the Steve Kerns West Finishing site to ensure manure is cleaned up, an outdoor storage pit is pumped down and any future spills are reported within six hours.
The DNR will consider appropriate enforcement action.
(Radio Iowa) — While the bald eagle is making a comeback in Iowa and across the country, an expert says there are still some challenges facing the national symbol The executive director Saving Our Avian Resources (SOAR) Kay Newman from Carroll, operates a rehabilitation program for eagles. “Half of all the eagles who come to rehabilitators in Iowa have ingested lead, and are impaired or lead poisoned,” Newman says, “and that’s a huge percentage.”
She says the huge number of lead issues is a concern. “We expect to see sort of a random assortment of injuries coming in. A poke in the eye, a broken wing, a broken leg, hit by car, just a random assortment of accidental injuries,” Newman says. “Poisoning is in sort of a different category — where it concerns us.” Newman spoke in Le Mars this past weekend and says eagles will prey on other animals that may have been shot by lead-based ammunition, and that is how they get the lead poisoning. “This type of poisoning is completely preventable. So, anyone who hunts — it doesn’t matter what they hunt — there’s a non-lead version of the ammunition out there,” according toe Newman.
Newman says the same thing happens with fishing, when anglers use lead sinkers, or lead based lures.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Rainy weather is delaying Iowa farmers from planting crops this spring. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Monday that 36% of Iowa’s expected corn crop had been planted as of Sunday. That’s five days behind the five-year average.
About 8% of the expected soybean crop has been planted. That’s two days behind the five-year average. Last week, rain allowed for only 2.8 days of fieldwork. Chilly temperatures also slowed the emergence of crops that have been planted.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa outdoor enthusiasts will soon have an option to place an organ donor sticker on their hunting and fishing licenses under a new law signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds. It’s called Logan’s Law after Logan Luft, of Charles City, who died at age 15 in 2017 after an all-terrain vehicle crash. Luft, who enjoyed hunting and fishing, had decided to be an organ donor and his family says that decision saved the lives of five people who received his organs. His father Leonard Luft and other relatives sought the bill in his memory after seeing organ donor stickers on hunting and fishing licenses in Minnesota.
The bill passed unanimously. It requires the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to include organ donor information in hunting safety courses and to provide the designation of organ donor on hunting and fishing license applications. Anyone at least age 14 may check an organ donor box with a parent’s signature. Reynolds signed the bill Monday at Charles City Middle School.
(Radio Iowa) — A wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is encouraging landowners to plant some food plots this spring to help out pheasants and other bird. Todd Bogenschutz says the severe winter weather this year showed a need for more food plots. “A lot of people were seeing birds — they were obviously out trying to find food with the ice layer kept them from digging through to get what was on the ground. And so they were just traveling far and wide to try and find food that was above the ice,” Bogenschutz says.
He says the size of the food plot you plant depends on what you want to accomplish. “You kind of have to think about your objectives, if you’ve got good cover around for the birds in a bad winter — then your plot can be a small one,” Bogenschutz says. “If you are trying to make the food plot the cover itself — then you kind of have to make them bigger. Generally you can get by without about an acre or two plot if there is good cover nearby.” He says the goal is to make it so the birds can move right out of cover and eat and then go back without exposing themselves to long. He says if the habitat is marginal that gets filled in with snow pretty easily in winter, you might want to plant a larger food plot of five to ten acres that can include a mixture of sorgham and corn that provides good cover and food at the same time.
Bogenschutz says the pheasant population had bounced back after some mild winters — but with a statewide average of around 39 inches of snow this year — he expects that to impact bird numbers. “I don’t think our pheasant counts have ever increased when we’ve had 31 or more. So I am expecting our counts for both pheasants and quail to be down for this coming year,” according to Bogenschutz. There are parts of the state that may not be hit as hard as others. “Southeast Iowa seemed to get off maybe the best as far as the winter, I think everybody had snow and ice, but I think north-central and north-west had a pretty severe winter ,” Bogenschutz says.
The D-N-R will conduct its annual roadside survey of pheasants in August.
(Radio Iowa) — Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says there’s a “major crisis” in rural America and the federal government must break up monopolies in the ag sector that treat farmers like “modern-day indentured servants.” “Farmers know this,” Sanders said. “I want the people in urban America to understand this as well.” Sanders, in his second bid for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, used a Sunday speech in Osage to outline his prescriptions for economic revival in rural areas. “What the American people, what you want and what I want are more family farms in America, not more factory farms,” Sanders said, to applause and cheers.
Sanders says it’s time for federal oversight of the environmental impact of large-scale poultry and livestock confinements, just as other industries are regulated. “More and more of the state’s agriculture is being dominated by just a handful of large corporations who is seems to me from a distance own the Iowa state legislature,” Sanders said. In addition, Sanders would get rid of federal subsidies for crop insurance and, again, link federal payments to targeted prices for commodities.
Sanders says American farmers should be guaranteed federal support to cover production costs, “plus living expenses.” “Farmers deserve a fair price for the very, very hard work that they do,” Sanders said. Sanders would cap federal farm payments, too, to limit payments to large farm operations. Sanders made stops in Spencer and Sioux City on Sunday as well.
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