w/Kate Olson.

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An environmental policy advisor with the Iowa Farm Bureau says a recent Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) report shows the number of “impaired waterbodies” in the state is leveling off. Rick Robinson says the report’s two percent increase in impaired waters indicates long-term progress is taking place. And Robinson says it showed other positive trends as well.

“Nitrate levels are trending steady to lower at 18 of 22 sites across the state for the last decade,” Robinson says. “Total nitrogen was lower at 19 of 22 sites the last decade. And phosphorus levels trended steady to lower at 23 of 25 sites over the last decade.”

Robinson credits record conservation practices and collaborative water quality work for the progress. He points to a 2016 Iowa State University poll of farmers in the state. “They found that farmers had invested 2.2 billion dollars in conservation the last 10 years. They found that there were modest to major increases in adopting precision ag, building conservation structure and fine-tuning nutrient management practices,” he says. “So all the things they’re doing are paying off in the long-run and trending the right direction.”

Robinson says it’s also worth noting that 75 percent of untreated water in Iowa streams meets or exceeds the EPA’s nitrate safety standard.

(Radio Iowa, w/reporting by Ken Anderson, Brownfield Ag News)

Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer is touting its new product lines, which include an S-700 combine series. Randy Sergesketter, a senior vice president at Quad Cities-based John Deere, says the 2018 combines will help farmers “harvest smarter” as they’re designed to make it easier to set up and run the machines to get the best yield.

“Many customers I visit express their challenges in hiring combine operators who can capably adjust the combine during the harvest day, minimizing grain loss and maximizing grain quality,” Sergesketter says. “Our team has listened carefully and developed a new solution that will enable combine operators to optimize and automate and maintain machine settings and performance.”

Deere introduced a universal command center display and control arm in the cabs of combines, tractors and other machines. The goal is to minimize training time by giving operators the same, portable software and display to use in each different piece of equipment. Doug Roberts is Deere’s director of the Global Combine and Front End Equipment Product Line.

“Every time we move into a new model year such as model year 18, we make some changes to the assembly line and tooling but we’re heavily focused right now on improving quality and the safety of our employees,” Roberts says, “and then some moderate changes to the assembly lines due to the new products we’re manufacturing here, mostly related to the corn heads and the drapers.”

Deere also unveiled other 2018 products and services. For example, new front end equipment will be available, such as a more durable corn header and draper. Drapers are used to harvest smaller grains, like canola and wheat, which may require wind rows.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa DNR say some area State Parks have one or more cabins available to rent for this coming weekend. In the KJAN listening area, that includes:

• Lake of Three Fires State Park near Bedford (712-523-2700)
• Waubonsie State Park near Hamburg (712-382-2786)

The cabins, which normally rent for one-week minimums, are now available for two-night minimum stays, however they must be reserved through the individual park’s office.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) invite you to attend the 33rd Annual Lewis and Clark Festival, where you can see what life was like in the time of buckskinners and exploration. The celebration takes place Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 9th through 11th, at Lewis and Clark State Park outside of Onawa.

The buckskinners’ rendezvous recreates the time period when explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled the Missouri River on their expedition west. The park, named for the explorers, is site of their August 10th, 1804 encampment. The festival, hosted by the Friends of Lewis and Clark State Park, features buckskinners in frontier dress, historic demonstrations and activities, music and food.

The full-sized reproduction of Lewis and Clark’s keelboat, Discovery, constructed by local volunteers and park staff, will be on display. Keelboat rides will be given twice on Saturday, on a first-come first-served basis at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m., depending on weather.

The park’s visitors center, with its historical displays and replica boats, will be open to the public throughout the weekend. The Lewis and Clark festival is open to the public and activities are free. Food is available to purchase throughout the weekend, including a pancake feed on Sunday morning from 7:30-10:00 a.m.

For a full schedule of events and more information visit http://www.onawachamber.com/lewis–clark-festival.html

A dedication ceremony will be held at the Loess Hills State Forest Visitors’ Center this Thursday, June 8th, from 3-until 5-p.m. The center will be officially named the Brent S. Olson Memorial Visitor Center in recognition of Olson, forester for the area who died last December following a long battle with cancer.

The center is the gateway to the Loess Hills State Forest which was managed by Olson since 1991. Under Olson’s leadership, the forest area doubled in size to 11,600 acres. Paul Tauke, state forester for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says
“Brent took great pride in his work and loved this unique Loess Hills area. The success he had in growing the state forest is directly related not just to his dedication to the resource but also his involvement with our forestry partners and the western Iowa community.”

Olson served on both the state and national boards of the National Society of American Foresters and received the President’s Award Outstanding Field Forester in 2012. Olson also served on the West Harrison School Board for many years, most recently as the board president.

The visitors’ center is located at 206 Polk St. in Pisgah. The dedication ceremony is open to the public.

An act establishing Iowa’s state park system became law 100 years ago. An associate professor of landscape architecture at Iowa State, Heidi Hohmann, is studying the history of the parks.  “I think parks have a social meaning and a cultural meaning beyond their scientific value as preserves,” Hohmann says.

The 100th anniversary comes as state budget cuts threaten upkeep of the state parks.

Contract: IA
Park: 610150

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is NOT hiring the typical amount of seasonal workers to maintain them this summer. Hohmann says the parks remain as critical to preserving natural beauty today as they were in 1917. “They’re incredibly important for their resource values, for the species of animals and plants they protect, and they’re also important for citizens in terms of recreational opportunities,” Hohmann said.

Hohmann is hoping to celebrate the centennial of the state parks by visiting more than 50 of them this year.

(Radio Iowa w/Reporting by Rob Dillard, Iowa Public Radio)

Opening statements were given Monday in the defamation lawsuit filed by Beef Products Incorporated against A-B-C Broadcasting and reporter Jim Avila for news reports that referred to B-P-I’s lean, finely textured beef as “pink slime.” B-P-I attorney Dan Webb told the jury that those reports led to B-P-I losing 75 percent of its business, forcing the company to close three plants. One of the closed plants was in Waterloo. Webb says the evidence will show A-B-C’s reports were false and based on misinformation and that the company’s product is safe and nutritious.

“They published that L-F-T-B was pink slime. They published that L-F-T-B would fill you up, but it was not going to do you any good. They stated L-F-T-B was a filler in ground beef. They published that it was more like gelatin than beef. They stated that L-F-T-B’s protein comes mostly from connective tissue, and they published that L-F-T-B was made from waste trimmings,” Webb says. A-B-C’s attorney, Dane Butswinkus, countered that the production of B-P-I’s beef product was shrouded in secrecy, that the U-S-D-A ignored studies raising concerns about the product, and that stories by the New York Times and other outlets criticized the L-F-T-B before A-B-C ever aired a report in 2012.

“What you’ll see is, the cat started to come out of the bag. The air started to come out of the balloon, the secret started to slip away,” Butswinkus says. “And when did that happen? It started in 2009 — long before the first A-B-C report. He also says the company’s three largest clients, McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell, stopped using L-F-T-B before A-B-C aired the reports in March and April of 2012. The trial is being held in Union County District Court in Elk Point, South Dakota.

(Radio Iowa)

Last week was the driest week for the state of Iowa since mid-February and farmers took advantage of it to complete spring planting. Ninety-percent of the state’s corn crop has emerged, just one day behind the five-year average, according to the USDA’s Crop Report issued Monday. It shows 77-percent of the corn crop is in good to excellent condition. Soybean planting is 91-percent done.

State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says over half of the state recorded no rain at all last week. Temperatures dipped as low as 39 degrees Wednesday morning at Chariton and Grinnell. Then, a heat wave arrived for the weekend. “Sioux City got up to 95 degrees on Friday afternoon, which was just two degrees shy of a daily record high for that location,” Hillaker said. Creston reported the most rain for the week with 1.28 inches.

(Radio Iowa)

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa – June 5, 2017—Iowa Farm Bureau’s Renew Rural Iowa (RRIA) Leader Award recipient, Puck Custom Enterprises, will be featured on Iowa Public Television’s (IPTV) Iowa Entrepreneur, a 13-part series highlighting success stories of self-starting Iowans.

Iowa Farm Bureau has reinvested more than $125 million in the last year back into rural parts of the state through the Renew Rural Iowa program which brings together business experts, educational seminars and various resources to help Iowans like Ben Puck of Manning take a problem-solving idea and make it a reality through RRIA’s five pillars of education, mentoring, connecting, recognition and financing.

Puck Custom Enterprises, which straddles the Audubon and Carroll county line, is a custom manure operation. Puck and his brother’s business had simple beginnings; they provided liquid manure for Iowa corn farmers. Before long, their business grew to a 60-employee operation offering manure equipment servicing and a parts shop. Always an innovator, Puck also has five patents under his belt, creating equipment to make manure application a safe, efficient process.

“Renew Rural Iowa, now in its tenth year of service, is proud to have relationships with innovators and business-minded people in Iowa like the Pucks,” says Sandy Ehrig, Iowa Farm Bureau economic development administrator. “We are glad to see IPTV dedicating a series to the work they do and the value they bring to their local communities.”

Iowa Entrepreneur will showcase the Pucks’ story on June 9 at 6:30 p.m. and again on June 11 at 10:30 a.m.

Other businesses affiliated with Iowa Farm Bureau’s RRIA program in the IPTV series include Sukup Manufacturing, Milkhouse Candles and Peace Tree Brewery. For more information about the next RRIA Business Success Seminar, “The Journey to Your Vision,” offered in October and November, visit http://programs.iowafarmbureau.com/RRI/.