Tax reform and how it will affect the bottom line were topics addressed at Wednesday’s John Deere annual meeting in the Quad Cities. Sam Allen, chair and C-E-O of Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, was asked about the 900-million dollar hit Deere reported in its first quarter earnings due to tax reform. Deere spokesman Ken Golden says in the long run, the drop in federal taxes will be good for the company, for Deere dealers and for farmers. “Each year until the new tax reform law went into effect, depreciation was an annual decision,” Golden says. “We saw customers waiting to make their decision on buying equipment based on what was going to happen to the law. The permanence is really what Mr. Allen was talking about in smoothing out this kind of impact that depreciation has on large equipment purchases.”

Deere opened the shareholders meeting with a video celebrating the 100th anniversary of entering the tractor business. Tony Knobbe is one of the organizers of this year’s Gathering of the Green. He invited Allen and the audience to next month’s convention for John Deere tractor collectors. Knobbe is very proud of the theme the group selected — “Legend, Made Legacy.” “If you look in their annual report, on the second page you’ll read, ‘The Hundred Year Legacy of the John Deere Tractor’,” Knobbe says. “And down here, it says ‘The Legend Runs On’. I know we didn’t steal it from them because this wasn’t produced when we produced our theme.”

During the meeting, Sam Allen quoted an old letter from a Deere board member. It was written before the company bought the Waterloo Gas Engine Company in 1918, and said, “The tractor will never replace the mule.”

(Radio Iowa)

Adair County ISU Extension has rescheduled their ‘On-Farm Research Coffee & Conversation’ event, for Monday, March 5th at the Warren Cultural Center’s Green Room on the east side of the town square in Greenfield. The program will begin at 10:00-a.m. Aaron Saeugling, ISU Extension’s Field Agronomist, along with Jim Rogers, ISU Research Farm Specialists will be speaking about current agronomy practices and demonstration trials across Iowa. The is a free event and open to the public. It’s sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers Association. For more information contact Adair County ISU Extension at 641-743-8412.

An Iowa-based ag business is getting a new name next year. DuPont Pioneer will unify with DuPont Crop Protection and Dow Agrosciences to become Corteva Agriscience. Jim Collins will be the division’s chief operating officer. “It’s an opportunity to unify three great businesses under one new name and establish a new brand in the industry,” Collins said.  Corteva is expected to become a standalone company in June 2019. “What that means is 100 percent of our 22,000 employees will wake up every day thinking about production agriculture and all of our resources, as a standalone pure agriculture company, will be focused on helping growers improve their productivity around the world,” Collins said.

Seed giant DuPont Pioneer is based in Johnston and currently employs about 2,600 Iowans. According to Collins, the name Corteva means “heart” and “nature” and represents what the new company will try to create. “One that puts growers productivity at the absolute center of what we’re doing, but also focuses on consumers and the sustainability of agriculture going forward,” Collins said.

The merger was introduced two years ago and “closed” this past September. The new company will be headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.

(Radio Iowa, w/Thanks to Amie Sites, Brownfield Ag News)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge has denied the state’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a 2012 law that made it illegal to get a job at a livestock farm through misrepresentation to conduct an animal cruelty undercover investigation. The ruling was filed Tuesday. A coalition of public interest groups challenging the law called the ruling a big win.

The groups say Iowa’s law violates their constitutional free speech and equal protection rights. The lawsuit names the governor and the attorney general. Eric Tabor, Iowa’s chief deputy attorney general, told The Des Moines Register that it’s early in the case’s litigation and declined to comment further.

w/Kate Olson.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says talks will continue on a dispute over the future of the renewable fuel standard, which has pitted lawmakers from corn-producing states against those representing refineries.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says President Donald Trump had a productive meeting Tuesday with four Republican senators: Ted Cruz of Texas, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa.

The White House says Trump has made clear his commitment to the RFS and support for farmers and energy workers. The standard requires biofuels from corn and soybeans to be blended into gasoline and diesel. Midwest states have sought to maintain the standards while oil companies have pushed to ease the mandates.
Grassley says in a conference call with reporters that no deal was reached Tuesday.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports Nicholas Slater of Glendale, Ariz. was found guilty following a trial on Feb. 12th, 2018, for charges related to poaching a whitetail deer. The poaching incident occurred at Lake Manawa State Park in Council Bluffs on Nov. 19, 2016.  Slater was found guilty on seven charges, including hunting on a game refuge, not having a valid nonresident hunting license and habitat fee, not having a valid deer tag (either antlerless or antlered/anysex), and illegal taking, transporting and possession of deer.

The total fines for Slater are $7,061.95, which includes court-imposed civil damages for the reimbursement of the deer. In addition, Slater will have his hunting privileges suspended for three years in Iowa and the Interstate Wildlife Violator’s Compact as a result of the conviction. The Iowa DNR was assisted by the Arizona Game and Fish Department with the investigation.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, today (Tuesday), issued the following statement following the U.S. Senate confirming him to serve as the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation.  The timing for Northey’s resignation and swearing-in is still being finalized and will be announced at a later date.

Northey said in a statement: “It is a tremendous honor for me to be confirmed to serve as an Under Secretary of Agriculture.  I want to thank President Trump for nominating me and Secretary Perdue for his support and encouragement throughout the confirmation process. I also want to thank Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst for their strong support and their tireless work on behalf of my nomination. I greatly appreciate Chairman Roberts, Ranking Member Stabenow and the entire Senate Ag Committee for their bipartisan support of my nomination. I look forward to continuing to work closely with them in this new role.”  He said also, that “While this process has taken longer than expected, I remain as excited as ever to work with Secretary Perdue and the staff at USDA to support of our nation’s farmers and ranchers.

Northey added “I want to express my deep appreciation to the people of Iowa for affording me the opportunity to serve in this role for the past eleven years. Working with and learning from the men and women who make Iowa agriculture the dynamic and productive industry that feeds the world has been honor of a lifetime.” Northey was nominated to fill the position in September 2017. His nomination was approved unanimously by the Senate Agriculture Committee.

After a 4-month hold by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Iowa’s agriculture secretary was finally confirmed to fill the USDA position.

The Iowa House has voted to require the state’s grocers to sell “conventional” eggs in addition to eggs marketed as coming from “free-range” or “cage free” operations. The requirement would be in force for stores that accept federal “Women, Infants and Children” or “WIC” food benefits. Representative Bruce Bearinger, a Democrat from Oelwein, backs the bill. “The egg is the most versatile, low-cost source of high-quality protein that we have and it is important that we ensure our most vulnerable citizens continue to have access to the best price and the lowest price they can for this commodity,” he said.

The legislator who introduced the bill said his concern was the pressure retailers are getting to sell only eggs that come from “cage free” operations. The bill as originally written would have simply forced Iowa grocers to always have conventional eggs for sale. It was adjusted, though, to link that requirement with participation in the WIC program. Bill backers say “conventional” eggs are significantly less expensive. Representative Bruce Hunter, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the market should dictate policy for grocers who might find a way to sell specialty eggs at a competitive price.  “And have that opportunity to serve what they think is the best interest of their store and of their customers,” Hunter said.

Hunter’s view was in the minority. The bill passed the House on an 81-to-17 vote. A similar bill is eligible for debate in the Iowa Senate.

(Radio Iowa)

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — The late-winter thawing of an eastern Iowa marina has left anglers and birds with a smelly surprise: thousands of tiny dead shad. Fish in Burlington’s Bluff Harbor Marina slowly ran out of oxygen during two months of freezing temperatures and ice build-up. Harbormaster Jon Billups tells the Hawk Eye that using bubblers to churn air and oxygen into the marina and keep ice down didn’t help this winter.

The ice thawing exposes the silvery fish, not much bigger than minnows, frozen where they were swimming. Billups says fishermen are invited to collect the shad to use as bait. Pelicans, gulls and eagles have already begun to make meals out of the dead fish.

The shad will likely flow into the Mississippi River as currents return to the marina.