Iowa cattle producers are putting in extra work to make sure their animals are well taken care of in this extreme cold. David Trowbridge, president of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, says the breeds of cattle raised in Iowa are “built” for cold weather environments. But, they still need plenty of attention to survive sub-zero conditions. “They’re adequately able to handle the weather as long as you can keep fresh feed, fresh water and bedding…a comfortable place for them to lay down,” Trowbridge says.

Another challenge is helping cattle maintain their footing by keeping their pens free of frozen material or chunks. “Probably the most important thing in the wintertime is keeping the lots smooth enough that the ground isn’t rough,” Trowbridge says. “That might involve muck scrapers to scrape the pens…so they have smooth access to feed and water.”

Trowbridge oversees a 7,000 head cattle lot near Tabor in southwest Iowa’s Fremont County. According to the Iowa Beef Industry Council, there are more than 3.8 million cows on farms across the state. Iowa is ranked 9th in the country in terms of beef cow production and 12th in dairy cows.

(Radio Iowa)

If you haven’t already done so, you’ll probably be joining other Iowans in switching off your Christmas lights for the season, leaving folks with little to look at outside that has any color or interest. If your snow-covered landscape looks too barren, you can’t do much now, but horticulturist Bob Hendrickson suggests -next- autumn, you leave your perennial plants in place, especially things like tall ornamental grasses. “Folks often ask, ‘When is a good time to cut those down? Can I cut them down in the fall or in the spring?’ and we always say you want to keep them up all winter long for interest, something to look at rather than a blank slate,” Hendrickson says. “Not all plants are created equal. Some look more interesting than others.”

Hendrickson says many of us are tempted to hack down those grasses when the growing season ends, but he says to resist the urge and let them stay. “They’re adaptable, they’re tough, they add a lot of movement to the landscape, backlighting and all of this cool stuff with grasses,” he says, “but, they really stick out and shine in the wintertime.” They may not add a lot of color, but leaving those perennials in place over the winter will serve an important purpose, as they’re a good habitat for certain pollinators.  “A lot of our native bees are solitary and they overwinter in the hollow stems of plants,” Hendrickson says. “People have actually observed these bee balm stems, which are hollow, cutting them back and seeing bees emerge out of the stems in the spring.”

He also suggests leaving plants with interesting seed pods in place, just to make the landscape more visually appealing during the dead of winter.

(Radio Iowa, w/Thanks to Karla James in Omaha)

While the temperatures have dropped to below freezing across the state, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is warning those who enjoy ice fishing to be extra careful during the next few days. D-N-R Fisheries Chief Joe Larscheid says the cold snap likely froze most bodies of water solid — but you should still test it before venturing out. “We need a good solid four to six inches of clear ice, hard ice in order to be safe,” he says. Larscheid says even with that said — ice is never 100 percent safe. “In that lake that is mostly safe there could be weak points that you don’t even know about,” Larscheid says, “there’s upwelling there’s currents in the lake, so you’ve always got to be careful when you’re ice fishing.”

Larscheid suggests you go to a place where there are other anglers. That’s often where the fish are and if you happen to fall in, there’s someone there to help. He suggests that you fish with someone else so you have help if you would fall in. And don’t delay if the worst happens. “Call 9-1-1 immediately and then hopefully you have rope or somebody has rope and you can toss that rope to them, and hopefully they get ahold of that rope and you can pull them out,” Larscheid says. “But I would immediately call 9-1-1 because time is very significant in those situations.”

Larscheid says heavy winter clothing often makes it harder to swim or stay afloat if you fall into the water. He says to not panic, as most people are able to use their fingers, arms and legs for several minutes before hypothermia sets in.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES – The Iowa DNR suggests you and your family spend New Year’s Day by taking a “First Day Hike” in one of 27 participating Iowa state parks! Hikers can expect to be surrounded by the quiet beauty of nature in winter, and experience spectacular views, beautiful settings and the cultural treasures offered by Iowa’s state parks.  All 50 states are hosting hikes as part of America’s First Day Hikes initiative. In its seventh year, the national event encourages everyone to celebrate the New Year with a guided outdoor exploration. Last year, more than 1,200 people began the year in an Iowa state park, hiking more than 1,100 total miles.

In the listening area, First Day Hikes will take place at the following parks:

• Lewis and Clark State Park
• Prairie Rose State Park
• Springbrook State Park
• Green Valley State Park
• Lake Anita State Park
• Viking Lake State Park
• Waubonsie State Park
• Wilson Island State Recreation Area

Staff and volunteers will lead free, guided First Day Hikes in Iowa’s 27 participating state parks. Some hikes will include wildlife viewing and hot beverages. Hikes will average one to two miles or longer depending on the location. Details about the hikes can be found at www.iowadnr.gov/firstdayhikes. To see a comprehensive national map of First Day Hikes, visit www.stateparks.org  Participants are encouraged to share their adventures on social media with #FirstDayHikes or #iowastateparks.

w/Kate Olson.

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The value of Iowa farmland went up slightly in this year’s Iowa State University Extension survey, but the source of land sales hasn’t changed much. Economist Wendong Zhang conducts the annual survey of sales and who is selling. He says they’ve been asking the question for two years and have found that more than 50 percent of the sales are from estates and 20 percent are retired farmers.

Zhang says the sales data may not tell the whole story about land ownership. Zhang says you often don’t see land going on market as the land in estates often transfers within the family. He is now working on a farm ownership and tenure survey.

That survey is required by the state every five years. He says it will give more ideas about how owners use the land and how they plan to get rid of their land in their estate planning. Zhang says they already know from information that’s available that most land goes to those who want to keep planting crops. “Seventy-two percent of the land is sold to existing farmers — in particular — 72 percent are existing local farmers,” Zhang says.

He says the local farmers are usually pretty close nearby. “Especially when they have a livestock operation as well. They often don’t look beyond 20 to 25 miles,” according to Zhang. He says livestock operators want land that is close by because it gives them somewhere to apply manure from their operations.

Zhang says the farther they have to travel, the more it costs to spread the manure. He says his land ownership survey should be out this spring.

(Radio Iowa)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge visitor center is closing for the Christmas holiday starting on Sunday. Refuge officials say it will remain closed through Monday and reopen for regular business hours from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The visitor center will also close for the New Year’s Day federal holiday on Jan. 1. It will reopen on Jan. 2. The seasonal sections of the refuge tour road and refuge grounds will remain open during those federal holidays.

DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge is located 25 miles north of Omaha on U.S. Highway 30 between Missouri Valley, Iowa, and Blair, Nebraska.

Iowans who might be considering taking up beekeeping in the new year will have plenty of opportunities to learn what all the buzz is about. A record number of 36 courses will be held across Iowa during 2018 for both the beginner and advanced beekeeper. Dustin Vande Hoef, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture, says the courses are very informative. “These are often put on by local extension officers or community colleges and led at the local level but working with our state apiarist,” Vande Hoef says. “We’ve collected them so folks can get a sense of where all the classes are and if they’re interested, I encourage them to look into them and consider signing up.”

Most of the classes charge a fee, from 35 to 100-dollars, though some are free and several are starting in January. “Actually, a lot of them, it’s a series of classes and a number include a site visit where they’ll go out to a place where they’re keeping bees and get an understanding,” Vande Hoef says. “There are some full-day classes where it’s just one day but many it’s a series of hour or two classes at night or on weekends and they’ll go through it in a series of classes.”

There are now about 45-hundred beekeepers in Iowa who manage more than 45-thousand colonies of honey bees. “We continue to see interest both at the hobbyist beekeeper level where they have a hive or a handful of hives that they keep and use the honey and give it to their friends as gifts,” Vande Hoef says, “but we also are seeing growth in the commercial size where they’ll have hundreds or maybe thousands of colonies where they’ll hire those out to go pollinate crops.”

Iowa honey bees produce about four-million pounds of honey every year, valued at over eight-million dollars. Meanwhile, the economic value of honey bees as crop pollinators in Iowa is estimated at $92 million annually. Find details about the classes at the website: http://www.abuzzaboutbees.com

(Radio Iowa)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A man who faked grain contracts so he could obtain farm loans from Farm Credit Services of America has been sent to prison. Prosecutors say 53-year-old Michael Royster, of Clear Lake, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $1.1 million in restitution. He’d pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors say Royster faked the contracts in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015. The documents were aimed a misleading loan officers into thinking cooperatives or other buyers were storing more of his and his son’s corn and soybeans that they actually were.

Commercial manure applicators should plan to attend the Commercial Manure Applicator training program scheduled for Thursday, January 4, 2018, from 9 a.m. to noon. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources will conduct the required three-hour training workshop at that time. There is no fee to attend the workshop, but commercial applicators must register by December 29 by contacting the ISU Extension and Outreach Shelby County office at.712-755-3104. Commercial manure applicators needing to recertify and those wanting to certify for the first time should attend. The workshop will provide the required three hours of annual training and will cover rules for applicators as well as land-application requirements, snow/frozen ground regulations, spill response, compaction, biosecurity, manure application uniformity updates, team communication, manure and hydrogen sulfide safety, and evaluation review.

All currently certified commercial manure applicator licenses will expire on March 1, 2018 Commercial applicators can attend training throughout the year, but if they were previously certified, they should plan to attend training and submit the forms and fees to DNR prior to March 1, 2018, to avoid paying the late fees. Certification fees for commercial manure applicators have not changed for 2018. ISU Extension and Outreach will charge a $10 fee to applicators choosing to view the certification materials on a non-scheduled reshow day at the county office. For this reason, all applicators are encouraged to attend the workshops or to plan to view training materials on the scheduled reshow date at their local county extension office. The fee will not apply to workshops or scheduled reshow dates.

Please contact your county extension offices to determine which days are scheduled for the manure applicator certification programs. Due to scheduling conflicts, many county extension offices will no longer accept walk-in appointments to watch the training videos. If attending the Jan. 4 commercial manure applicator program or watching the three-hour video is not convenient, commercial applicators may contact their local DNR field office to schedule an appointment to take the certification exam. In addition to needing an appointment to take the exam, applicators must bring a pencil and photo i.d., and should plan to bring a calculator.

Applicators have another option, online certification, which an applicator can take their training on-line at DNR MAC eLearning site at https://elearning-dnr.iowa.gov/. The applicator will need to sign-in and get an A&A account. Commercial manure applicators hauling, handling or land-applying primarily dry or solid manure are encouraged to attend the dry manure applicator workshops scheduled for February 2018. Dates and locations can be found in the link below. For more information about the commercial applicator program contact the ISU Extension and Outreach Shelby County office at 712-755-3104 or access a list of the training locations at: http://www.agronext.iastate.edu/immag/certification/macprogrampostcard.pdf