Jim field visits with Iowa Soybean Association President Bill Shipley of Nodaway as he attends the United Soybean Board and American Soybean Association meetings in St. Louis.

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The biodiesel tax incentive was left out of the latest Congressional tax reform bills, but senators are working separate legislation to extend the credit. Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and John Thune of South Dakota are leading the effort. Grant Kimberley, executive director of the Iowa Biodiesel Board, says he hopes they’ll offer the bill before 2018 arrives.

“Senators were given assurances there would be tax extenders added to some of the end-of-the-year budget bills that have to go through by the end of the year or the early part of next year,” Kimberley says. “That’s what we’re working on and hopefully that will happen.”

He says it’s disappointing Congress keeps waiting until the end of the year to make decisions on much-needed tax incentives like the biodiesel credit. “We’ve had a lot of growth and we’ve had success but it’s been difficult because there have been years where the credit is on again, off again,” Kimberley says. “It’s been six out of the last nine years we’ve had it expire and then be reinstated. It’s hard to make business investments when you have this on again, off again incentive.”

Kimberley says the measure the senators are putting together would make the biodiesel incentive a credit for producers rather than blenders. “The reason being is that we’ve seen significant volumes of imported biodiesel coming into the country,” he says. “It just makes good policy sense to make sure these kinds of credits really go toward domestic production.”

Kimberley says the senators believe trying to move the biodiesel tax incentive in a separate measure is better than holding it up in amendments that could have been stripped from the overall tax reform legislation.

(Radio Iowa)

w/Max Dirks.

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WILLEY, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources received a report from manure applicator Neese Inc. late Tuesday of a manure tanker tipped over near a ditch near Willey, Iowa in Carroll County.

DNR staff investigated the incident late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Upon investigation, it was observed that manure spilled on the road. Some manure reached the Willey Branch. ​Berms were quickly ​constructed to stop the flow in the ditch and equipment was used to clean up the remaining manure on the road. The amount of manure spilled is unknown. Water samples were collected and submitted for analysis.

The manure was being hauled from the Matt Gehling confinement and land applied by Neese, Inc.

The investigation is ongoing and further enforcement may be considered. ​​

The Cass County Extension office is again hosting continuing instructional courses (CICs) for local commercial pesticide applicators, but wants to remind anyone who has yet to attend the training that all CIC training must be completed by the end of December. To avoid conflicts with year-end scheduling, Cass County Extension is requiring that all training dates be scheduled by Friday, December 15th.

“We know year end is a busy time for all, and we don’t want anyone to miss the opportunity to attend their annual required training, as time to meet those annual requirements is getting short,” shared Kate Olson, Extension Program Coordinator in Cass County. “We do offer trainings on a first-come, first-served basis, and our hours will be slightly different during the holidays, so we’d like to remind folks to call and get their classes scheduled before our year-end calendar fills up!”

According to Olson, reshow dates can occur after December 15th, but they must be on the calendar before then to be honored. To ensure a spot on the training schedule, applicators needing to complete CIC for the year are asked to call prior to December 15th. Applicators calling after this date will NOT be placed on the training schedule. Training dates can be scheduled locally by calling the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or by emailing Office Assistant Lori Anderson at lander@iastate.edu. For more information on the Commercial Pesticide Applicator program or the CIC classes, please visit www.extension.iastate.edu/psep/ComAp.html.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is continueing to collect deer tissue samples from willing hunters as part of its effort to monitor for and track the presence of chronic wasting disease. The agency reports their wildlife staff has a goal of collecting 5,465 samples. The bulk of Iowa’s deer harvest occurs during the two shotgun seasons which provide an opportunity to collect a significant number of tissue samples. Most samples are obtained by wildlife staff, checking with hunters in the field or at home processing points. Terry Haindfield, wildlife biologist with the Iowa DNR leading the CWD collection effort. says “We’ve had really good cooperation from our hunters so our focus now is collecting samples from some pretty specific areas within our target counties in order to reach our quotas.”

He said the DNR is looking for samples from deer harvested from each county along the Missouri River. “Hunters willing to provide a sample should call their local wildlife biologist to see if the county or area where the deer was taken has filled its quota or is still in need of a sample,” he said. The DNR lists the cell phone numbers for its wildlife biologists on p. 45 of the hunting regulations. Hunters from the targeted areas needing additional help making contact to provide a sample can call Haindfield at 563-380-3422.

Additional testing is been conducted in Pottawattamie County, following positive tests from captive facilities.  The disease has been found in every state around Iowa. Since testing began in 2002, more than 62,500 tissue samples have been collected and tested looking for the presence of CWD in Iowa’s wild deer herd.

CWD is a neurological disease belonging to the family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases.  It attacks the brain of infected deer and elk causing the animals to lose weight, display abnormal behavior, lose body functions and die. It is always fatal to the infected animal. The disease first appeared in Iowa’s wild deer herd in 2013 and each year since, the DNR has placed extra emphasis to find the extent to which disease is in the area, and to help slow the spread by removing additional adult deer from the local population.

The Iowa DNR has more information about CWD and other infectious disease online at www.iowadnr.gov/cwd.

BARNUM, Iowa (AP) — A malfunctioning switching mechanism apparently caused six tankers filled with ethanol to derail in northern Iowa. The Fort Dodge Messenger reports the tankers were hauling the fuel from Valero Renewables-Fort Dodge on Tuesday night when they derailed. Lt. Tom Ubben, of the Fort Dodge Fire Department, says the cars were backing up when the switching mechanism caused them to leave the tracks. The tracks, located in the small community of Barnum, are owned by the Canadian National Railway.

Railway spokesman Patrick Waldron says no one was injured and no ethanol spilled. Ubben says crews from Waterloo and Omaha, Nebraska, were called to the derailment Tuesday night and were using heavy machinery to move the cars off the rail line and transfer the ethanol to other containers.

Bird lovers are in for a treat this winter as Iowa is seeing a huge increase in snowy owl sightings across the state. The birds are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty act and generally live in the frigid climates found in the Arctic. Carroll County Naturalist, Matt Wetrich, says the creatures usually appear in Iowa during the colder months, just not in such large numbers. “Through an entire winter we might see a handful of snowy owls in Iowa, that’s an average winter, 10 or less, maybe even five,” Wetrich says. “In the last month we have had at least 40 individual birds across the state.”

He says the increase, while exciting, is not that uncommon. The primary food source for snowy owls is lemmings. These small rodents see massive population spikes about once every five to 10 years, and that increase in food is reflected in snowy owl populations. Wetrich says the new birds when they migrate south, and they end up traveling farther than usual. He says the new owls get bumped out of the winter hunting grounds and they get pushed south. Wetrich says they are ending up in Iowa and other states in the U-S.

Snowy owls are almost entirely white and quite popular among birdwatchers. Wetrich says it is okay to appreciate their beauty — but says give them some distance. “If you are close enough where the owl is turning looking at you, you are close enough, and that means back away,” Wetrich explains. “You don’t want to approach them and cause them to fly — because what happen is then they are burning very valuable calories. And you are contributing to them struggling to find food.”

Wetrich is collecting data on sighting across the state for the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union to use for research on these population eruptions. He asks anybody who sees a snowy owl report the sighting to the Swan Lake Conservation Center by phone at 712-792-4614 or through the Carroll County Conservation Facebook page.

(Radio Iowa)

U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Republican Chairman Pat Roberts, of Kansas, and Ranking Democrat Member Debbie Stabenow, of Michigan, Tuesday, said they were “Pleased to announce that the nomination of Glen R. Smith to be a member of the Farm Credit Administration Board was approved by the U.S. Senate.” Smith, who is from Atlantic, was the subject of a Senate Ag Committee hearing on Nov. 9th, at which time he was favorably reported out of Committee with a bipartisan vote.

In a statement, Roberts and Stabenow said “Once again, we’re pleased to report full Senate confirmation of another qualified nominee. As an active farmer and agribusiness professional, Mr. Smith has the skillset and background needed to serve rural America in this role. As with all previous nominees, the Senate Agriculture Committee worked in a bipartisan fashion to get Mr. Smith to work at the Farm Credit Administration.”

Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst, from Red Oak, introduced Mr. Smith ahead of his testimony before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry last month. In a statement released from Ernst after the most recent Senate vote, Ernst, who is a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, said: “I’m so pleased to see Iowa’s own Glen Smith confirmed today by the Senate to serve as a member of the Farm Credit Administration Board. Glen has an impressive resume as a small business owner and farmer. He has worked for decades to enhance and promote our agricultural economy in Iowa, and I have no doubt he will do the same for our country in his new role.”

In 1982, Smith founded Smith Land Service, a company specializing in farmland appraisal and farmland brokerage services working in 30 of Iowa’s 99 counties. He also owns and serves as President of Smith Generation Farm’s Inc. a family farm operation that encompasses around 2,000 acres in the southwest Iowa.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — One of the nation’s largest rifle makers is accused of marketing a muzzleloader that occasionally explodes and can severely injure hunters. Savage Arms has faced several lawsuits over its 10ML-II stainless steel rifle, which was once favored by thousands of big game hunters in the U.S. and Canada.

The Westfield, Massachusetts company has received dozens of complaints from customers dating to 2004 reporting that the gun’s barrel exploded, burst, split or cracked after firing. Hunters say they have suffered serious hand, face and ear injuries. Savage Arms has argued that the gun is safe and any explosions must have been caused by errors such as loading two bullets or the wrong gunpowder. But it’s also paid confidential settlements to resolve at least three recent lawsuits in Canada, Michigan and Indiana.