EDDYVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Cargill Inc. has agreed to pay more than $187,000 to settle allegations that it violated the Clean Water Act at large oil storage facilities in Iowa and Nebraska. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 7 says the privately held multinational corporation lacked a response plan at two facilities that outlined procedures for addressing serious oil discharges.

The facilities are located in Blair, Nebraska, and Eddyville, Iowa. Each facility produces and stores more than one million gallons of oil. The EPA identified the issue during site visits in 2013. The Minnesota-based company submitted response plans in June 2014.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A U.S. Department of Agriculture report indicates Iowa’s corn and soybean crops are looking good. The USDA says Monday that 76 percent of the corn crop was in good to excellent condition, and 75 percent of the soybean crop was in good to excellent condition.

Topsoil moisture also was in good shape in most areas, with 71 percent of Iowa farmland rated as adequate, 23 percent short and 3 percent very short. The remaining 3 percent had surplus moisture.

Recent rains soaked some areas of Iowa while leaving others relatively dry. That’s reflected in the survey showing some areas had only three days suitable for field work while other had more than six days during the week ending Aug. 10

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman was in Iowa over the weekend. He stopped at the Iowa State Fair to talk trade with cattle producers. Ambassador Froman says he’s cautiously optimistic about the T-P-P or Trans-Pacific Partnership, and about getting Japan to drop its tariffs to zero, although he is unsure about a specific timeline. “We’re deeply engaged with them on an ongoing basis,” Froman says. “We have reached an agreement with them that there would be no product area exclusions, so everything’s on the table, all product areas are to be covered and that’s a big deal.”

The T-P-P is a proposed regional free trade agreement being negotiated by the U-S, Canada and Mexico with several nations in the Asia-Pacific region, including: Australia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. Iowa Cattlemen’s Association president Ed Greiman, of Garner, says they pushed the ambassador on further opening the market for beef in southeast Asia. “One of the biggest things we talked to him about was TPP, the Asian trade,” Greiman says. “We’ve got to get rid of those tariffs and the ban. The other thing I really pushed on him was China. We know if we ever opened up that door, I’d hate to speculate what the cattle market would do. I asked him if that was possible and he said it actually is.”

Froman also talked about the Russian ban of all U-S ag products and says the market impact is negligible.  “It’s unfortunate that they decided to go down this path,” Froman says. “It further isolates them internationally. It won’t affect us that much. It affects, we think, less than one-half of one-percent of our ag exports, but it’s already having an effect on prices in Russia. Prices are going up there. It’s going to damage the purchasing power of their own people.” He believes Russia is using the ban as an excuse as the U.S. has had ongoing issues with that nation, including the recent unrest in Ukraine.

(Radio Iowa)

The Adair County Board of Supervisors, on Tuesday, will officially receive correspondence from the Iowa DNR, with regard to the expansion of two swine facilities near Orient. According to the Board’s agenda, the DNR intends to issue construction permits for the “Circle G” and Geidel Pork sites.

In their meeting last month, the Supervisors had recommended the DNR not approve expansion plans by the Geidel family of their hog confinement operations, based on scoring of the Master Matrix. The Geidel brothers each want to double their hog operations from 2,500 head to 5,000.

In other business, the Board will hear from County Engineer Nick Kauffman, with regard to various road projects and related contracts.

The meeting begins at 9-a.m. at the courthouse, in Greenfield.

SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa (AP) — Iowa officials say two northwest Iowa lakes have been found to be safe for swimming and boating after fish kills were discovered there earlier this week. The Sioux City Journal reports that dead freshwater drum, a species of fish, washed up on the northwest shore of East Lake Okoboji on Thursday. Fisheries biologist Mike Hawkins with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says thousands of small fish also washed up on a one-mile portion of Big Spirit Lake the same day.

Hawkins says the kills are not connected. He says the drum were most likely killed by disease spread through overpopulation. He says the small fish died from a pocket of low oxygen on Big Spirit Lake.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says there will be deer hunts this fall at DeSoto and Boyer Chute national wildlife refuges. There will be two hunts at DeSoto: Oct. 18-19 and Dec. 20-21. Both hunts are muzzleloader and antlerless deer only.

All hunters must possess a DeSoto access permit for the hunts. These are free and can be obtained on the DeSoto’s website, http://www.fws.gov/refuge/desoto/, at the visitor center or by contacting Mindy Sheets at mindy_sheets@fws.gov or 712-388-4802.

The Boyer Chute hunt will run Dec. 13-21. This hunt also will be antlerless and muzzleloader only. DeSoto and Boyer Chute national wildlife refuges sit north of Omaha, Nebraska, along U.S. Highway 30 between Missouri Valley, Iowa, and along U.S. Highway 75 near Fort Calhoun, Nebraska.

A giant pig, raised by a group of Iowa State University graduates in honor of a fallen friend, is the winner of the Iowa State Fair’s Big Boar contest. “Peabody” weighed in at 1,273 pounds. Peabody was also the nickname for Brad Peyton, who recently died of pancreatic cancer. He was 57. His friend, David Schaefer, said Peyton grew up showing pigs at the State Fair and longed to win the Big Boar contest.

“Peabody”

“Two years ago, we had another boar that was presented and finished second to a boar from Indiana,” Schaefer said. Peyton’s pig in 2012 was named “Fred Hoiboar” and was presented by Iowa State men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg. The team that raised Peabody sold T-shirts, raising $3,000 for the Shining City Foundation, a nonprofit organization that Peyton helped found that builds medical clinics and other projects in remote, underserved areas of China, Africa, and other countries.

“He was an incredible guy,” Schaefer said of Peyton.”He had a lot of passion for people who don’t have a lot.” Peabody will be on display for the remainder of the Iowa State Fair, which ends on August 17. The five-year-old boar beat out “Big Mac” who weighed in at 1,142 pounds. This year’s winner of the State Fair’s “Super Bull” contest (that’s B-U-L-L) is “Big Daddy.”

The bull, raised on Stalcup Farms in Prescott, tipped the scales at 3,012 pounds.

(Radio Iowa)

“Big Daddy”

Anyone interested in attending 40 hours of training to become a Master Gardener is encouraged to contact the Cass County Extension Office for information on classes forming this fall. The registration deadline for fall Master Gardener classes is Wednesday, September 3. The regular fee for the classes is $195; after September 3 a $50 late fee will be assessed. Currently 29 sites across Iowa are planning to offer training this fall, including a site in Cass County. This will be the only training class for the 2014-2015 academic year.

Fall trainees will receive the newly revised Resource Guide for Iowa Master Gardeners with hundreds of new photos to enhance the text. Adobe Connect sessions begin Sept. 16 and run through Nov. 5. Class-on-campus dates will be October 18 and October 25. Let your local coordinator know if you need to make up the class-on-campus session so that you can be assigned to attend on one of those dates.

For more information on the Summer Garden Webinar Series, to sign up for the 2014 Master Gardener Classes, or for other resources and information on gardening, call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132, email keolson@iastate.edu, or stop by the Extension Office at 805 W. 10th St in Atlantic.

The Iowa Master Gardener program is once again offering a series of summer webinars free to all local residents with an interest in gardening. The theme for the 2014 Summer Webinar Series is “Totally Trees.” As the Emerald Ash Borer marches across the state, homeowners need to be prepared to recognize signs of damage, know what control options are available, and consider alternatives for replacement trees. All sessions will be held from 6:30-8:00 p.m. The Cass County Extension Office is a local host site.

On Thursday August 14th, ISU Extension Entomologist, Mark Shour, will speak on Tree Pests, with a focus on recent pests of trees such as the Emerald Ash Borer and the impact of these pests on the Iowa landscape. On Thursday September 4th, Jeff Iles, Extension Nursery and Landscape Specialist, will speak on Ash Alternatives, providing ideas of other species of trees to consider planting in the home landscape.

Local participants will watch the presentation live from campus, projected onto a large screen, and have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the topic live with the presenter. There is no charge to attend the classes, and no requirements to attend previous sessions. Anyone with an interest in the topic is welcome to attend and learn.

A new study shows significant soil erosion in Iowa this year. Craig Cox, with the Environmental Working Group, says soil erosion is a major problem for water quality, and it also hurts farm production while damaging the environment. “From this spring through June, about 15-million tons of Iowa soil was eroded from farm fields,” Cox says. “That estimate doesn’t include the amount of soil from these ephemeral gullies which is what our study looked at.” The study found almost one-third of that lost soil came from just four counties: Adair, Cass, Clayton and Pottawattamie.

The report surveyed 63-million acres of cropland and found about 35-million acres had a moderate-to-high need for more conservation measures. Cox, the E-W-G’s senior vice president of ag and natural resources, says the study found evidence of farming conservation practices that have helped recently, but he says more needs to be done to reduce soil erosion.

“There were additional conservation measures taken and in four of the five cases there were new grassed waterways or there were grassed waterways that were fixed,” Cox says. “In one case, there was a cover crop and it worked, those practices worked incredibly well and they really solved these problems.” Cox says it’s unfortunate that federal policymakers have cut back on funding for conservation and the Conservation Reserve Program has faded to only 25-million acres nationwide, including about one-and-a-half million acres in Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)