Royalty at the 2014 Potttawattamie County Fair were crowned Thursday evening, at the fairgrounds in Avoca. Officials say 17-year old Kyra Martens, of Oakland, won the title “2014 Pottawattamie County Fair Queen.” The teen, who will be a senior this fall at Riverside High School, is the daughter of Mark and Mischa Martins.

Runner-up for the Fair Queen title was Delaney Carroll, of Avoca. Jessica Wise, of Avoca, received the title of “2014 Miss Congeniality.”

Also at the Pott. County Fair, Thursday, Olivia Kock was honored with the title of “Junior Fair Queen.” She was competing against Lydia Wede, of Treynor.

A young lady from Stuart was crowned Queen of the 2014 Adair County Fair in Greenfield, Wednesday. Adair County Fair Board Secretary Brenda Meisenheimer reports the honor went to 16-year old Hailey Gross, the daughter of Cindy and H.A. Gross, of Stuart.

Hailey Gross, 2014 Adair County Fair Queen.

16-year old Shelly Soper, the daughter of Clint and Mindy Douglas, of Adair, was named Runner-up.

Also at the Adair County Fair: The title of “Little Miss Adair County” went to Ellie Brewer, daughter of Jeremy & Kim Brewer of Fontanelle. Runner Up – MaKinley Edwards,daughter of Tyson & Megan Edwards of Fontanelle.

Jorja Holliday, daughter of Doug and Jodie Holliday, of Greenfield, was named “Little Miss Congeniality”; “Little Mister” honors went to Camden Reynolds, son of Angela & Josh Reynolds, of Greenfield. Runner-up was Charles Rudolph, son of Scott and Danielle Steele, of Casey; and the title of “Little Mister Personality” went to Colt Douglas, son of Clint and Mindy Douglas, of Adair.

For a full list of activities at the Fair, go to www.adaircountyfair.org. The Adair County Fair continues through Sunday, in Greenfield.

w/ Denny Heflin

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The Adair County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday) voted against recommending approval to the DNR, plans by two farms near Orient to expand their hog confinement operations. Adair County Auditor Mindy Schaefer told KJAN News their decision was based on scoring of the Master Matrix. She said the Board didn’t agree with the points taken on the Master Matrix application, and since there needs to be 440 points and 425 were allowed, it falls under the amount required for recommended approval.

The Geidel family wants to double each of two of their farming operations from 2,500 head to 5,000. Schaefer says failure to approve the Master Matrix application doesn’t mean the matter is decided. She says the Board of Supervisors don’t have all that much control over the matter. All they can do is to recommend the DNR approve or reject the application. The DNR can either affirm the Board’s recommendation and deny the expansion plans, or they can reject some or all of the points removed by the Board.

If the final number of points meets the requirement, the expansion plans can proceed.

w/ Kate Olson

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Iowa is enjoying a near “normal” growing season this year and crop conditions are conducive to a bountiful crop. Before this year’s crop is even out of the field many farmland owners and tenants will be discussing next year’s rental rate and leasing agreements. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach works to bring unbiased information to both land owners and renters to help both parties make successful management decisions.

The land valuation and leasing meetings discuss current land values, rental rates, trends and projections of how values and rents might change in the coming years. Other topics will include: how to calculate a rental rate based on county specific information, the variety of leasing arrangements that land owners and tenants may use, and the expected cost of crop production in the coming year.

There will be a leasing meeting held on July 29th at 9:00 am in Harlan, Iowa, at the Shelby County Extension Office, located at 906 Sixth Street. The cost is $20/person pre-registered, or $25/person without pre-registration. Attendees will receive a land leasing handbook with reference and resource materials. The workshop will last approximately 2 ½ hours.

Shane Ellis, ISU farm management specialist for the west central region of the state will be presenting. To register, please call the Shelby County Extension office at 712-755-3104.

The U-S-D-A crop report issued Monday showed drier conditions allowed farmers to get more work done in the fields last week. The report says there were four-point-two (4.2) days suitable for fieldwork — the first time since mid-June that farmers have had over three suitable days across the whole state to work in the field. Some of that field work included replanting drowned out crops, or adding nitrogen to areas that saw it washed out. Parts of northwest Iowa had more than 20 inches of rain in recent weeks. Iowa State University Agronomist, Paul Kassel, says that continues to create water problems.

“The big issue is there’s some corn that has moisture stress from having way too much moisture and our drainage systems are overtaxed,” Kassle says. He says the water doesn’t drain away and that impacts the corn. “We have some corn that just looks terrible, it’s maybe knee-high, it’s very yellow. The question is how do we manage that, what do we do about that,” Kassle says. He says in some cases farmers are trying to rescue some of their nitrogen-starved corn crop.

“Some of that corn we think is probably worth it — maybe it’s only one stage behind the kind of normal corn,” Kassell says “Some people are side-dressing extra nitrogen on that with high-clearance rigs. Some of that is going on with airplanes with aerial application.” Kassel says the worst areas in northwest Iowa are in Buena Vista, Clay, Palo Alto and Pocahontas Counties.

Overall, the crop report says 76-percent of the corn crop was reported in good to excellent condition, unchanged from the previous week. Seventy-three percent of the soybean crop was rated in good to excellent condition, unchanged from last week.

(Radio Iowa)

Some Iowa hog producers and lawmakers are raising concerns about the mandatory reporting requirement being announced by U-S-D-A on porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, or P-E-D virus. Iowa Pork Producers Association president Jamie Schmidt of Garner says he’s worried about the confidentiality of those reports. Schmidt says using I-D numbers instead of names in reporting can help keep producer data confidential.

“We feel fairly confident that if we can just use our premise ID numbers, that will help with the confidentiality and that would be a workable solution, but we’ve got to make sure we have something that everybody’s confident in, otherwise the reporting won’t happen like it should,” Schmidt says.

Iowa Congressman Steve King says he worries if confidentiality is breached, animal activists will use that information to hurt pork producers. The disease is widespread and Schmidt says it makes sense to keep close tabs on it, wherever it may appear. “At the present time, our best defense is biosecurity and watching where it goes,” Schmidt says. “The tracking of the disease would be helpful so we can learn how it spreads and we can have a better defense mechanism but we all have to be confident with it.”

The current submission requirements for reporting the P-E-D virus includes the herd’s premise I-D number, the date the sample was collected, the type of farm, the test method used for diagnosis and the diagnostic test results. That applies only if the herd has tested positive for the virus.

(Radio Iowa)

If you’ve always wanted to start a garden, or want to find out about new plants and ideas for your garden, a series of Home Garden Fields Days planned across the state can help you out. Iowa State University extension horticulturist, Cindy Haynes, says the field days this year are focusing on new things. “One of the themes for this year’s gardens are the purple vegetables. So we have a lot of vegetables that you wouldn’t think of as being purple,” Haynes says. “There are purple carrots, purple tomatoes, purple beans. Some of those things that add a different color to it, so kids like it, or everyone wants to try it.” The purple color can in some cases add something to the traditional vegetable. Haynes says in carrots for instance, it adds vitamins.

“It’s not the beta carotene — the orange that you have in a carrot — but there is a carrot out there called purple haze that has a purple outer skin and the orange on the inside, so you can get the advantages of both,” Haynes says. “And it tastes just like a normal carrot, so it really doesn’t taste any different, it’s just a new color to put on your plate.” They will also show off some sun-loving impatiens. “Everyone thinks about impatiens for the shade, but there are some New Guinea hybrid impatiens that will tolerate the sun. And they are resistant to downy mildew — which is a problem we are seeing in some of our shade-loving impatiens,” Haynes says.

Other items on display include compact zinnias and new annual flowers. “We’ll kind of tour them around the different gardens — the same garden at six different locations — and we’ll pull things out of the ground. I’ll pass things around, and some might want to take a few things home. We’ll sample a few things from the garden as well,” Haynes explains. Haynes says more and more people are turning to gardening to grow their own food and the field days offer help to make those efforts a success.

“It’s just about getting people to experience as much of what we have out there as possible,” according to Haynes. “And we talk about the things that did well at all of the gardens, and the things that didn’t do so well so they can write on their little list ‘try this new variety’ or ‘don’t try this’ because it didn’t work out.” Haynes says people are learning you don’t have to live out in the country to have a garden. You can use all different kinds of spaces. “A lot of these things you could put into a small space, you could put into containers. You could even do a square-foot garden. With myself and some of the other I-S-U staff being there, we can answer some of these questions and help you garden better,” Haynes says.

The first demonstration is July 21st at 6:30 at the Armstrong Research and Demonstration Farm near Lewis in southwest Iowa. The remaining field days will be: July 23, 6 p-m at the, Horticulture Research Station three miles north of Ames on Highway 69; August 5th at 6:30 p-m at the Muscatine Island Research and Demonstration Farm, 111 North St, Fruitland; August 6th, 6 p-m at the Northern Research and Demonstration Farm, 310 S. Main Street, Kanawha; August 9th at 4 p-m at the Northeast Research and Demonstration Farm, 3321 290th St near Nashua.

For more information go to the I-S-U Extension Department website.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (AP) — Those with an eye toward healthy living have probably noticed the words “aronia berry” in everything from juices and powdered supplements to baby food. Midwesterners probably know it as chokeberry, the name European settlers centuries ago gave the berry they found tart, astringent and more pretty than palatable.

The native North American plant is in the midst of a transformation, prized for its exceptional health benefits and easy cultivation. The almost black-purple, pea-sized berry gets its more agreeable name from its genus, Aronia melanocarpa.

Now dubbed a “superfood,” research shows the berries packing more antioxidants than blueberries, acai and goji berries. Producers are also taking notice, with thousands of the shrubs being planted by farmers — mostly in Iowa, but also in other upper Midwest states — every year.