A forum next week will focus on the intersection between faith, climate change and agriculture. Reverend Susan Guy, executive director of Iowa Interfaith Power & Light, says the panelists will talk about how climate change is altering the face of farming, why the issue is important to them and how their faith calls them to respond. “We know that there are a lot of people in rural communities who are very dependent on agriculture to make a living,” Reverend Guy says. “We know that extreme weather events are really having an impact on them. We feel this is part of our mission to reach out to those who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.”

Members of the panel include Fred Kirschenmann, a farmer and former director of the Leopold Center at Iowa State University and Chris Anderson, assistant director of the I-S-U’s Climate Science Program. “Farmers are doing a lot of great things and they’re aware of the impacts of climate change in terms of their planting seasons and extreme weather events,” Guy says. “We want to normalize the conversation about climate change and agriculture and talk about how farmers and rural communities are adapting and mitigating and helping to find solutions.”

Those solutions include using more renewable fuels and working to make farming operations more energy efficient, in addition to locating wind turbines on their properties to help offset costs. Still, Guy says, climate change continues to present significant challenges to growers. “We’re having extreme weather events and a lot of flooding, so it’s keeping farmers out of their fields or it’s destroying crops that are already in the ground,” Guy says. “We’ve had seasons where we’ve had both flooding and drought in the same year, so we’re going from lots and lots of water to no water which is also having a negative impact on crops.”

The forum is open to anyone and will start at 6:30 PM Wednesday (June 15) at the Christy 4-H Hall in Nevada. Guy says Iowa Interfaith Power & Light is a non-profit group dedicated to inspiring and equipping people of faith to become leaders finding solutions to climate change.

(Radio Iowa)

Despite the wet spring across much of the Midwest, there’s still the potential for drought. Doug Kluck, a climatologist with NOAA in Kansas City, says most of the Missouri River Basin is far from drought, though some potential dry spots are starting to emerge in the upper basin. Kluck says western Iowa shouldn’t have anything to worry about, at least not yet.

“It’s not surprising this time of year, droughts can happen really fast,” Kluck says. “Sometimes, they call them flash droughts, if it gets really hot and winds pick up. Those are usually agriculturally-based impacts.” Kluck says the El Nino effect on the weather has passed now with a La Nina pattern likely, meaning, it will be hotter and wetter than normal over much of the region in the months to come.

“As far as predictions, right now we’re slipping into what we call a Neutral Tropical Pacific with La Nina likely developing a little later this summer,” Kluck says. “Really, the impacts from that La Nina tend not to be felt until late fall.” Barges should be running all summer on the Missouri, according to U-S Army Corps of Engineers hydraulic engineer Joel Knofcynski. He says the upper Missouri River reservoirs -do- have enough capacity to handle the heavy rainfall this spring and the current heavy snow melt.

“The service level for the remainder of the navigation season and the navigation season length are based on the July 1st system storage check,” Knofcynski says. “Under all three simulations, flow support for navigaton would be full service and a full eight-month navigation season would be provided.” Water levels are high on the upper Missouri River reservoirs, but enough capacity remains to reduce flooding while maintaining barge traffic. He notes, there could be some minor-to-moderate flooding along the Missouri River, but nothing that poses a serious threat to property.

(Radio Iowa)

The number of quail taken by hunters in 2015 increased by 165 percent to 28-thousand-400. Iowa Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says quail have seen the benefit of better weather just like other game birds.”Quail numbers have been bouncing back up just like pheasants. Of course, our quail are mostly in the southern third of Iowa along the Missouri border there,” Bogenschutz says,” they just had some really good winters, that’s kind of a key for them. We don’t see a lot of quail if we have a bad winter.” Bogenschutz says there are a lot of signs that the quail population is going to get even better.

He says he’s heard from a lot of people who have heard quail calling everywhere which he says is a good sign for the spring nesting. “Our quail counts last year on the roadside were some of the best we’ve seen in 20 years, so I think the quail counts this year could be the best we’ve seen in 30 years,” Bogenschutz says. He says they saw more hunters take to the field this year for quail.

Bogenschutz says the number of quail hunters had dropped off as the bird numbers dropped and they should come back as the bird numbers increase. Quail are like other games birds and have trouble when there are heavy snows followed by wet springs. “The fluctuations we see from one year to the next are almost always by weather. Mother Nature really frowned on us for about five years there, but now it seems like she’s decided to smile on us, so that’s a good thing,” Bogenschutz says. He says they will know more about the quail population when they do their annual survey in August.

(Radio Iowa)

w/Max Dirks.

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More than a year after the avian influenza outbreak in Iowa, poultry producers have rebuilt their flocks, but they’re still feeling the lingering economic impact. Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey says there were no cases of bird flu in the state this spring, and with the warmer weather now, it should not reappear. “We didn’t have any high-path avian influenza in the Midwest or the country this year,” Northey says. “We had that one outbreak in Indiana in January. That got settled very quickly. They say they learned a lot by what the process was a year ago. They did a great job of shutting that down and we had no more.”

Bill Northey, IA Sec. of Agriculture

Despite that, Northey says there are some longer-term market impacts from the bird flu outbreak. Northey says, “There were some customers of eggs that were buying eggs before high-path avian influenza and once eggs got very expensive or they had trouble getting eggs, they took eggs out of the recipe for the consumer products they were producing and since, have not put eggs back in.” As a result, he says poultry operations in Iowa and elsewhere are dealing with egg prices that are down significantly.

“We’re seeing some of the lowest prices for eggs that we’ve ever seen because we have production back but we don’t have demand back,” Northey says. “The egg producers are struggling right now with very low prices.” Northey says the break-even level for many Iowa egg producers is about 50-cents a dozen, but they’re getting about half that. Iowa had 75 confirmed bird flu sites in 18 counties last year and some 32-million birds had to be destroyed. It’s estimated the avian flu outbreak cost the state one-point-two BILLION dollars.

(Radio Iowa)

Summer officially starts June 21st, and with it comes the need for lawn care. Officials with the Guthrie County Extension Service, say when mowing your lawn, mow at a height of 3-3 ½ inches during summer months and 2 ½-3 inches in the spring and fall.

There are two options when deciding to water your lawn.  You can do nothing and allow the grass to go dormant or you can water during dry weather to maintain a green, actively growing lawn.  If you decide to water, 5 am to 9 am is the best time to water so it soaks deeply into the soil.

To control white grubs, there are 3 approaches.  You can apply a preventive insecticide to the lawn annually, apply a curative insecticide only when damage symptoms appear, or do nothing and repair your damaged lawn when grub damage occurs.  Mid-June to late July is the best time to apply preventive insecticide.

w/Kate Olson.

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Governor Terry Branstad is in California today (Tuesday), at the BIO International Convention. He’s touting a new state tax credit for companies that develop new uses for the byproducts left behind when ethanol and biodiesel are made. “I went to Montreal last year to tell them that we were proposing it. It passed the House,” Branstad says. “This year it passed both the House and the Senate. It’s now law, or I guess January 1st it takes effect, but we’ve already got a number of companies that are looking at it.”

Starches, sugars and oils are the left-overs from “biofuel” production. Iowa’s new “biochemical tax credit” will provide up to 10-million dollars a year to companies that develop new products from those left-overs. “I just think this is the next generation of quality jobs that are going to be able to be created because we have this biochemical tax credit,” Branstad says. “I want the world to know it and this is a great forum to be able to talk about that.”

More than 15-thousand executives from companies in the world’s biotech and pharmaceutical industries are gathered in San Francisco for the week-long “BIO” convention Branstad’s attending. As Branstad meets with executives considering Iowa because of his new biochemical tax credit, he will pitch the idea of setting up operations on or near existing biofuels plants.

“You know, already you’ve got the complex at Eddyville where they’re making all kinds of products,” Branstad says. Experts say about 30 chemicals left over from biofuel production hold the greatest potential for development.Branstad will be in California ’til Thursday. Branstad will visit the San Francisco headquarters of McKesson while he’s there. Last year, McKesson picked Clear Lake as the site for a new warehouse in its pharmaceutical distribution network. Branstad also plans to make “prospecting” calls on California-based businesses that are considering expansion plans in Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)

Almost 50 nations will be represented at the World Pork Expo which opens this week at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. Sheila Warrick is general manager for the 28th annual event, which she says will be much larger this year. “We’re actually up to almost 900 exhibit spaces this year all throughout the fairgrounds,” Warrick says. “We’re completely sold out in the Varied Industries Building, in the Agriculture Building, we’re around the Swine Barn and throughout a lot of outdoor space this year. You’ll definitely almost need two days to get through everything.”

The three-day expo features a series of seminars and workshops, including some which might not be associated with raising hogs. “We added a topic this year on cyber security,” Warrick says. “People might not think that’s applicable to a pork operation, but it is. As everything goes to more of a database management and you’re putting all of your operations online, that information is obviously important to producers so it doesn’t get lost or interrupted.”

Last year, 23-thousand visitors attended the expo, which opens on Wednesday.  www.worldpork.org

(Radio Iowa)

U-S Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and his Cuban counterpart Gustavo Rodriguez Rollero toured a central Iowa corn and soybean farm Friday, and talked about water, soil, and energy. Vilsack — with an interpreter behind him — says he wants the ban on exports to the country lifted.  “I sincerely hope that at some point in time in the near future Congress sees the wisdom of ending the embargo — allowing us to have an even closer relationship,” Vilsack says. “In the meantime, U-S-D-A has authorized the used of commodity checkoff resources for education and training, and we will be continuing to encourage more collaboration. We have a lot to learn from each other.”

Speaking on the farm near Polk City, Vilsack says dropping the embargo would allow Iowa and the rest of U-S agriculture to send more goods to Cuba. “They in turn have a tremendous  opportunity to import into the U-S organic production. High-value added opportunity. That is why we are on this farm,  to show that there is a commitment to organic, but a need for more,” Vilsack says.

Rollero spoke with an interpreter. “We believe that there are many areas of agriculture that we have common views, and what is left to be done is to deepen our collaboration,” Rollero says.

The two signed agreement to work together on a list of agricultural issues. “And I am certain that this will allow both parties to know each other better, to strengthen our cooperation,  and in the end this will be to the benefit of agricultural development,” according to  Rollero.

The agreement covers seven areas. “First and most important is the issue of seeds and phytogenetic resources,” Rollero says. “This is the basis for the development of agriculture. There won’t ever be a farmer who can improve his production if he doesn’t improve his seeds.”

Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, says Cuba is also an ally for the United States on some hot-button international agriculture issues, such as food safety and animal health regulations.

(Radio Iowa)