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!
DORCHESTER, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a man died when a farm machine ran over him in northeast Iowa’s Allamakee County. The Allamakee County Sheriff’s Office says first responders were called Tuesday to a farm field northwest of Dorchester. The sheriff’s office says a combine had backed up over the man when it was being maneuvered to unload corn. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities are withholding his name until his relatives have been notified about his death. He lived in Minnesota.
Farmers made a lot of progress in the harvest with a rare dry week to work in. The U-S-D-A crop report says farmers had nearly six good days for field work last week — which is the most dry days they’ve had in weeks. That allowed for a lot of combine time and the corn harvest is now 49 percent complete. That’s 20 percent more than last week — and corn is now three days ahead of last year and only three days behind the five-year average. The report shows 71 percent of the soybeans are now out of the fields — which is 34 percent more than last week. Things are still behind for beans, as this is the smallest percentage of the soybean crop harvested by October 28 since 2009.
(Radio Iowa) — Iowa is a highly agricultural state, so it’s little surprise Iowa’s among the top five states for the number of farmers who have applied for trade mitigation aid from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Iowa Farmers Union President Aaron Lehman says he expects even more farmers across the country to be seeking government help as the trade war with China persists. “It’s very true that farmers would rather be earning those dollars through the marketplace, but we do think it’s important that farmers make decisions that are right for their farm,” Lehman says. “I think we’re going to see a lot of farmers take advantage of the opportunity to try and recoup some of what they’re losing through the tariff war that we’re in.”
Lehman says there needs to be a solid and clear plan to resolve the differences that are hurting America’s farmers and ranchers. “We know there are some very serious issues with China that we’ve been asking to be addressed for many years,” Lehman says. “We’re glad the administration wants to address some of those issues. We just don’t see a coherent approach yet to get to where we need to be and unfortunately, we’re really feeling the pain because of that.”
While hoping recent trade agreements like the U-S-M-C-A (United States Mexico Canada Agreement) will spark China to come to the table to help end the trade war, Lehman says the continued situation is damaging U-S agriculture. “It’s just a terrible amount of uncertainty,” he says. “The short-term aid, I would encourage people to get whatever help they can to get through it but it does not address the longer-term issue that’s causing our problems.”
The top five states for farmers seeking trade mitigation aid are: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Wisconsin.
(Radio Iowa) — State environmental officials plan to monitor sport fish in the Missouri River despite closing Iowa’s only monitoring station on the river earlier this month. Iowa fisheries staff will work with Nebraska scientists to monitor paddlefish and catfish. Chris Larson, with Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources, says there’s been an influx of species like blue catfish north of Omaha and scientists want to know why. “We want to continue to monitor those populations to see if they stay,” Larson says. “If their number stay up above Omaha or do they go back down and decrease and can we tie that to some kind of river operations and-or habitat changes on the river.”
Larson says catfish populations have not changed significantly over the last 13 years, so this recent trend is surprising. “This blue catfish influx a little bit further north than what we’ve seen in the past is interesting on the surface,” Larson says, “and obviously a great opportunity for anglers to get out and catch some of these large individuals that make very good table fare.”
The monitoring station was shut down due to a lack of funding and a need to move staff to areas of higher urgency. The state used the station to monitor Army Corps of Engineers habitat projects, but it’s been two years since that kind of work has been done on the river. Larson says the decision to track these fish with Nebraska scientists combines limited staff resources in two states to better understand population trends.
(with thanks to Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)
The Cass County Conservation Board is holding a Bird Feeder Workshop. The workshop will be held at Outdoor Educational Classroom in Massena, on Saturday November 10th, at 1PM. FREE, All ages welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Learn all about feeding the birds also make and take a bird feeder!
Please pre-register by November 6th by calling 712-769-2372 or email lkanning@casscoia.us
Montgomery County will offer the Commercial Ag Weed, Insect and Plant Disease Management Continuing Instruction Course (CIC) for commercial pesticide applicators Wednesday, November 14, 2018. The program will be shown at locations across Iowa through the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP). The local attendance site is the Montgomery County Extension Office located at 400 Bridge Street Suite #2 in Red Oak. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., and the course runs from 9 to 11:30 a.m. The registration fee is $35 on or before Nov. 7 and $45 after Nov. 7. To register or to obtain additional information about the CIC, contact Katie Hart at the ISU Extension and Outreach office in Montgomery County by phoning (712) 623-2592.
The course will provide continuing instruction credit for commercial pesticide applicators certified in categories 1A, 1B, 1C, and 10. Topics covered will include information on equipment calibration and safe application techniques, pesticide drift reduction, phytotoxicity, pesticide stewardship, and pest management. Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) Continuing Education Units (CEUs) in Integrated Pest Management will be offered at this program. Interested participants should bring their CCA number. Additional information and registration forms for this and other courses offered by the PSEP program can be accessed at www.extension.iastate.edu/PSEP/ComAp.html
Iowa 3rd District Congressman David Young and IA Ag Secretary Mike Naig were in Atlantic, Friday afternoon for a tour of the new Elite Octane Ethanol Plant, as part of their “Harvest Tour” across southwest Iowa. They started at Landess Co-Op in Yale and proceeded to a cattle feedlot near Fontanelle, before their stop in Atlantic. Prior to his visit, Naig spoke with KJAN News. He said they’re “Working their way through the supply chain and checking on folks as they’re progressing through the Fall, and the harvest is well underway. Naig spoke of the challenges farmers have been facing.
Naig said also, there’s a lot of work that gets done after the crop is in the bin. Livestock producers have a lot of work ahead of them as well.
The prices crop producers get for their product and the market for those products have been a top concern for people Naig has spoken with, especially he says, with regard to the impact of trade embargoes and the stalled Farm Bill.
Naig said it’s certain no action will be taken on the Farm Bill until after the election on Nov. 6th, but there’s still hope.
As far as the election is concerned, Naig said he’s tried to get out and convey a positive vision to the voters, as opposed to his opponents’ negative campaign ads.
His Democrat opponent is Tim Gannon. Libertarian Party candidate Rick Stewart is also in the running to Iowa’s next Secretary of Agriculture, but Naig didn’t mention him in his time speaking with KJAN News.
Sheriff’s officials in Union County say a Creston man reported Thursday, that sometime after 10-p.m. Wednesday, someone unbolted the front weights off a John Deere 4055 tractor and took them while the tractor was parked in a field. The weights were valued at $1,400.
(Radio Iowa) — The D-N-R wildlife biologist who tracks pheasant numbers says the late harvest is likely to hurt the success of some hunters as the season gets underway Saturday. Todd Bogenschutz says standing crops give the birds places to hide. “If you’ve got a C-R-P field and it’s got standing crops around it, you know it’s still worth hunting. I think when the birds flush they are going to go into the crops and it’s going to be king of done. Where the crops are out they are going to stay maybe more where you can hunt them,” he says. “I think just for success the areas where the crops have been harvest are going to be a little bit better — but I think you can get birds in both areas.”
Boggenschutz says it really depends on where you are in the state. He says some areas have as much as 70 percent of the crops out, where others only have 10 percent. He says you might want to do a little scouting before the hunt. The D-N-R survey recorded the second highest population count ever — and that had Bogenschutz thinking hunters were going to do well. “Some places were up almost 100 percent and northwest Iowa we had a little more winter last year and some rain and the numbers were pretty much status quo — but I mean they were some of our best bird numbers in the state last year — so they’re still fairly decent even though they didn’t go up at all,” according to Boggenschutz.
Boggenschutz says it appears right now that those who put on the blaze orange and head out to hunt are going to see some good weather. Boggenschutz says they are worried on some openers, especially when it’s warm, as that can take a toll on dogs. But he doesn’t think that is going to be a big issue for this opening day. Boggenschutz has this prediction for the final tally. “I think we are going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 60-thousand hunters and the harvest is probably going to be about 250 to 300-thousand birds,” Boggenschutz says.
Poor weather brought bird numbers down and that also led to a decline in hunters. He says there is potential to have much bigger bird numbers. “I think the birds are out there to shoot four or 500-thousand roosters. Based on the roadside counts I think that potential is there,” Boggenschutz says. “But we’d need 80 to 90 to 100-thousand hunters to do it and I don’t think we’ll see that many hunters. I’d be happy if we break 60 (thousand) — I think we’ll see around 58 (thousand). I think the birds are there to have a way higher harvest — we’ve just got to get more hunters out.”
An estimated 55-thousand hunters harvested 22-thousand roosters last year. That was two-thousand fewer hunters than in 2016. Boggenschutz says hunters will hopefully have success this year and the word will get out and bring more people back. The pheasant season opens Saturday ( Oct. 27) and runs through January 10th. Shooting hours are 8 a-m. to 4:30 p-m. The daily bag limit is three rooster pheasants with a possession limit of 12. Hunters must have a valid hunting license and habitat fee.
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
RSS