(Radio Iowa) – Fourth District Congressman Randy Feenstra says he’s focusing part of the new Farm Bill on the cost of crop insurance.

Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, says the expense of crop insurance is a major barrier to young farmers who are just getting started in production agriculture.
“There’s this big push where China and other countries are buying our farmland and the reason that’s happening is because that next generation cannot afford or cannot buy that land from their parents,” Feenstra says. “One of the big problems is the input costs.”

Feenstra says he and the other members of the House Agriculture Committee are considering discounts on crop insurance for those farmers who are just starting off. “A new beginning farmer for the first five years, you get up to a 15% discount on their crop insurance to lower that input, so we can keep that farmland in Iowa and with the Iowa farmer,” Feenstra says, “and then it slowly ratchets down after five years, four years, three years, it goes from 15% down to 10%.”

Crop insurance is one of the biggest input costs farmers pay each year and he says some may choose 85% coverage, or even as low as 70%.
“Because of the costs, a lot of farmers are going down to that lower amount and that’s where operational loans from the bank, they get a little concerned,” Feenstra says. “You have a big hail out or a catastrophic event, then all of the sudden, you put yourself in peril because you only have X-percent of coverage for that crop.”

Feenstra says the largest part of the Farm Bill is food programs, including SNAP. He says farm state members of the committee want to make the program more efficient as SNAP payments have exploded in recent years.

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(Radio Iowa) – The new map from the U-S Drought monitor show some slight improvement following rains across the state.  All of the state still has some sort of drought rating, but the area that was in extreme drought dropped below four percent in the last week. The severe drought areas dropped from nearly 39 percent to less than 14 percent. With those percentages dropping, nearly 60 percent of the state is now in moderate drought, and around 22 percent is abnormally dry. The worst drought conditions remain in northwest and southeast sections of the state.

(Radio Iowa) – The severe drought in eastern Iowa has had an impact on the Christmas tree crop that will likely show up several years down the road. Mark Banowetz started the Cedar’s Edge Evergreen Market in Ely seven years ago, and told K-C-R-G T-V he is looking forward to the first season of sale. “These trees that we put in that were a foot or 16 inches, they’ve grown to 9 feet or so,” Banowetz says. He says the drought isn’t impacting the bigger trees, but the 500 seedlings he planted this year that have struggled.

“We’re losing a lot of seedlings,” he says. Iowa Christmas Tree Association President Bob Moulds, says Banowetz isn’t alone. He said a lot of newer farmers were also struggling, and there isn’t crop insurance for Christmas trees. “If they die, they die,” he said. “There’s no insurance, there’s nothing.” Moulds is the owner of the Wapsie Pines Tree Farm in Fairbank, and says he started changing his ways after the 2013 drought. He tells K-C-R-G- T-V he started watering and mulching each of the four-thousand trees he planted this year.

“If we had not mulched all these trees and individually watered them three times while it was dry, a large percent of them would not have made it,” said Moulds. As the Association’s new President, Moulds said he wanted to show other new farmers like Banowetz, what he learned over the years. So, they too can make it through droughts like the one we’re seeing right now.

KCRG-TV photo

Moulds says when tree farmers have bad drought years they can usually plant twice the number of seedlings the following year to make up for the ones they lost. But he said that can also be a risk if there’s another drought the next year.

DES MOINES, IA – Iowa’s 2023 daily traffic fatality count is over 20% higher than the 5-year average: an alarming trend. The Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau is teaming up with law enforcement to keep drivers and passengers safe by raising awareness about the dangers of speeding and urging drivers to obey speed limits.

On July 26, Iowa will join Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas for a Speed Awareness Campaign. Law enforcement in your community will be on heightened alert for speeding vehicles and motorcycles.

Much like impaired driving, speeding is a selfish choice with deadly consequences for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. Speeding reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around another vehicle, a hazardous object, or an unexpected curve. Even the safest cars with the newest technologies are limited in how much they can help reduce the odds of a crash.

Tragically, Iowa experienced a dramatic 25% increase in speeding-related fatalities from 2020-2021. In 2021, speeding-related crashes killed 84 people on our roads, accounting for almost one-quarter of all crash fatalities.

“We are asking drivers to please slow down,” said GTSB Bureau Chief Brett Tjepkes. “Our goal is to save lives, and we’re putting all drivers on alert — the posted speed limit is the law. No excuses. On July 26 drivers will notice extra law enforcement on Iowa’s roads. If drivers choose to exceed the posted limit, they can expect a citation.”

The Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau works with city, county, state, and local organizations to develop and implement strategies to reduce deaths and injuries on Iowa’s roadways using federally funded grants.

(Radio Iowa) – A food bank serving nine eastern Iowa counties hopes to raise the equivalent of 50-thousand meals September. The Hawkeye Area Community Action Program has already raised 27-thousand meals. With schools out of session and cafeterias empty, many children and their families turn to food pantries for assistance, but that increased demand coincides with a lull in donations.

The program’s Chris Ackman says people remember to donate during the year-end holidays but donations often drop off during the summer. He says the food is essential for the 150 food sites across the region. The facility covers Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Johnson, Jones, Linn, and Washington counties.

Feeding America estimates that one in 13 people in the service area struggles with food insecurity. Last year, H-A-C-A-P distributed 9.2 million pounds of food.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A teen from Red Oak was cited for a turning at an intersection violation. Red Oak Police say 16-year-old Cameron Durbin was driving a 2004 Ford F-150 pickup southbound on N. Broadway Street and had attempted to turn east onto W. Coolbaugh Street, from the incorrect lane. A 2019 Ford Escape SUV driven by 68-year-ol Patricia Long, of Red Oak, who was also turning southbound onto Broadway.

Police said Long was in the appropriate left turning lane, turning east onto Coolbaugh. The driver’s side rear tire and box of the pickupmade contact with the front passenger side of the SUV, causing $1,500 damage to each vehicle. The accident happened at around 1:17-p.m., Wednesday.

No injuries were reported.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s unemployment rate held steady in June at two-point-seven percent. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson, Jesse Dougherty, says that’s encouraging news. “But even more notable was the fact that our labor force participation rate has continued to rise throughout this year. It’s the fourth month in a row, and we’re now at 67-point-eight percent, which is actually one of the highest numbers in the country,” Dougherty says.

The labor participation rate dropped during the pandemic, but has been coming back up. “The labor force participation rate is key, because it gives us a picture of that active labor pool, not only the Iowans who are employed, but also those who are actively looking for work,” he says. “And when we’re seeing that pool continue to grow, that’s something encouraging, not just for those job seekers, but also for the overall health of our economy.”

Doughtery says they do have some information from surveys of those entering the workforce. “What was notable in June is that nearly every one of the Iowans who entered the labor force did so by finding a job. And so we typically see a little bit more of a gap in terms of the time period of entering the labor pool versus finding a job. But last month, things moved very quickly,” he says. He says the impacts of the summer showed in the jobs gains. “A couple areas, one being leisure and hospitality. And that is covering the areas of arts, entertainment and recreation, a lot of the industries that you would see within the summer months, and so that was a positive sign,” Dougherty says. “But we also saw education, healthcare add a thousand jobs, generally driven by healthcare and social assistance jobs.”

Some areas lost jobs, most notably construction losing 71-hundred. “We see that as a general cooling of the industry. So there have been some losses there in the last two months. Construction, though in Iowa hit an all time high for employment in January. So we think part of that is just some general cooling from some employers that you know, that we’re ramping up there,” He says. “So that a little bit is expected something that we’re continuing to watch, but we don’t see too much of a major concern there.”

It was the second straight month that the unemployment rate was unchanged.

(Radio Iowa) – Four tickets purchased in Iowa came close to snagging a portion of the one BILLION dollar Powerball jackpot. One winning ticket was purchased in California and the Iowa Lottery reports four tickets bought here were just one number away from claiming a portion of the prize. Two of those tickets were purchased in Council Bluffs and Manson — and are each worth 100-thousand dollars. The other two were purchased in Polk City and Des Moines and are worth 50-thousand.

The Iowa Lottery reports players here bought more than two-point-seven million dollars in Powerball tickets — including nearly two million dollars worth on the day of the drawing Wednesday.

(Radio Iowa) – A new book by an Iowa author implores people to preserve the waterways that sustain our crops — and our lives — by tackling tough issues from climate change to nitrate pollution. Professor Neil Hamilton, who recently retired after 36 years directing the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University, uses the river as a narrator in his book, “The River Knows.” He says the book is designed as a wake-up call to make people stop and think about our waterways and how we can best protect them. It’s the sequel to Hamilton’s 2022 book, “The Land Remains,” where Iowa’s fertile, underappreciated soil told its own story.

The book is available at many Iowa bookstores and through the publisher, Ice Cube Press.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University is being named Entrepreneurial University of the Year for the Americas, following an international competition held in Barcelona, Spain. Judi Eyles is the director for the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship on the Ames campus. Eyles says, “We were excited to first be a finalist, and then to actually receive the award was unexpected but very, very awesome.”

The award was presented by the Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities, which is based in Germany. It’s honored universities in Europe, Asia and Africa in the past. “This is the first time they’ve ever done in Americas Division, so we applied for this honor which recognizes an institution that has embedded entrepreneurship across its campus,” Eyles says. “We ended up being a top five finalist in our category and ended up getting the first place prize. So it was great!”

Callan Randall gives her pitch at the Student Innovation Center. (ISU photo)

She says there’s a wide range of entrepreneurial opportunities at Iowa State, from undergraduates to grad students to PhDs. “And then for anybody who has an idea that needs help, we have a whole group of people that can help people move that idea along, build teams, gain funding, figure out how to market, connect with mentors,” Eyles says. “So it’s really from the classroom to the boardroom.”

Iowa State ranks number-four in the Midwest and 11th nationally in the Princeton Review’s annual survey of undergraduate schools for entrepreneurship studies.