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(Atlantic, Iowa) – “Corn 4 a Cause” is hosting a community sweet corn picking day this Saturday, August 5, 2023 from 8-until 10-a.m. Area residents are invited to the farm north of Atlantic to pick a dozen ears of free sweet corn to take home to their household, and welcomed to pick extra sweet corn to share with neighbors in need.
Corn 4 a Cause is an Atlantic-area non-profit that donates as much corn as they sell because they want all Iowans to be able to enjoy sweet corn. Teens and adults with all ranges of sweet corn picking experience are welcome at this Saturday’s event. Closely-monitored children are also welcome. Corn 4 a Cause will provide breakfast snacks and orange juice. All pickers are encouraged to bring a bottle of water, and wear clothes and shoes that can get dirty. Light long sleeves, pants, close-toed shoes, gardening gloves, and safety glasses are recommended for premium safety.
Community sweet corn picking day with Corn for a Cause (Photo courtesy Ciara Hoegh)
Please RSVP to Ciara Hoegh at corn4acause@gmail.com or 712-249-5870 for exact field location.
Corn 4 a Cause shares sweet corn and popcorn through Cass County food pantries, Grow Another Row, and other organizations. More information on Corn 4 a Cause can be found at
https://corn4acause.org/.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Small non-farm businesses in 20 Iowa counties and neighboring counties in Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and South Dakota are now eligible to apply for low interest federal disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Director Tanya N. Garfield with the SBA’s Disaster Field Operations Center-West, says the loans offset economic losses because of reduced revenues caused by drought in the following primary counties that began June 6th
Primary Iowa counties: Cass, Lee, Lyon and Montgomery;
Neighboring Iowa counties: Adair, Adams, Audubon, Des Moines, Fremont, Guthrie, Henry, Mills, O’Brien, Osceola, Page, Pottawattamie, Shelby, Sioux, Taylor and Van Buren;
“SBA eligibility covers both the economic impacts on businesses dependent on farmers and ranchers that have suffered agricultural production losses caused by the disaster and businesses directly impacted by the disaster,” Garfield said. Small non-farm businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and most private nonprofit organizations of any size may qualify for Economic Injury Disaster Loans of up to $2 million to help meet financial obligations and operating expenses which could have been met had the disaster not occurred.
“Eligibility for these loans is based on the financial impact of the disaster only and not on any actual property damage. These loans have an interest rate of 4 percent for businesses and 2.375 percent for private nonprofit organizations, a maximum term of 30 years and are available to small businesses and most private nonprofits without the financial ability to offset the adverse impact without hardship,” Garfield said. By law, SBA makes Economic Injury Disaster Loans available when the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture designates an agricultural disaster. The Secretary declared this disaster on July 31.
Businesses primarily engaged in farming or ranching are not eligible for SBA disaster assistance. Agricultural enterprises should contact the Farm Services Agency about the U.S. Department of Agriculture assistance made available by the Secretary’s declaration. However, nurseries are eligible for SBA disaster assistance in drought disasters. Applicants may apply online, receive additional disaster assistance information and download applications at https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/.
Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information on SBA disaster assistance. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services. Completed applications should be mailed to U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155.
The deadline to apply for economic injury is April 1, 2024.
(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R says a sample from a road-kill deer in Marshal County has tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). D-N-R biometrician, Tyler Harms, says it’s the first detection there and the 16th county overall in the state with the disease. Harms says the D-N-R will increase surveillance efforts in Marshall County to try and determine how widespread the disease might be by getting more samples from hunters.
The next step for counties that have a new case of C-W-D are informational meetings to makes residents aware of what this disease is. They also talk about ways to manage this disease like proper carcass disposal, and not doing things to artificially congregate deer like bait piles or mineral blocks.
The D-N-R has scheduled two meetings to update the public on chronic wasting disease surveillance and management efforts in Jasper, Marshall, and Grundy counties. They are scheduled for 7 p-m on August 29th at the Baxter Public Library, and October 10th at 7 p-m at the Wellsburg Memorial Building.
The 2023 Cass County Fair held it’s Grand Champion Beef selection on Monday night at the outdoor show ring. Morgan Will came away with the Overall Market Champion with her 1,487 pound purchased market steer. Morgan is a member of the Benton Franklin 4-H Club.
Reserve Market Champion went to Haidyn Suhr with her 1,368 pound purchased market steer. Suhr is a member of the Grant Guys and Gals 4-H Club.
Other big winners from the beef show were:
FFA Grand Champion Market Heifer: Graham Hagen
FFA Reserve Champion Market Heifer: Miraylie Stuart
FFA Grand Champion Market Steer: Brookelyn Steffen
FFA Reserve Champion Market Steer: Graham Hagen
4-H Grand Champion Market Heifer: Jake Wailes
4-H Reserve Champion Market Heifer: Holden DeVore
4-H Grand Champion Market Steer: Morgan Will
4-H Reserve Champion Market Steer: Haidyn Suhr
4-H Carcass Winners: Purple- Claire Pellett. Lavender-Callee Pellett
FFA Carcass Winners: Purple- Miraylie Stuart. Reserve: Natalie Boose
Watch the replay of the Grand Champion selection here:
(Radio Iowa) – The Nestle Purina Plant in Clinton is running at increased capacity after a 156 million dollar expansion of its production lines that upped its capacity for dog and cat food by roughly 80-thousand tons. Plant manager, Justin Wilkinson says another key addition was a technical training center for employees. “As we continue to grow, and we continue to bring in newer associates, new members to our team, we needed to do a better job of teaching them how do we make pet food,” Wilkinson says. He says the nearly 575 employees are able to go to the center and use an ipad to call up a video to learn new information.
“They watch the video on how to how to do a certain set of tasks and so that area is blocked off and left open 24/7 for that, self learning time,” he says. Wilkinson the plant isn’t like the old days where workers stand shoulder to shoulder on an assembly line, as technology is a big part of the process. “Every operator has an iPad and they use that iPad to show how well we’re running, they’ve got a dashboard and so we can see hey, we’re running well or not running well,” he explains. “There’s still some manual pieces where we have to set things up, there’s still some manual pieces where we have to adjust things,but the extruder itself is very much you type in the settings and the control valves change if you want to put the right amount of water or different amount of steam or however, those things automatically do it.”
He says they do use some robots to stack the material on pallets as it is prepared for shipping. Wilkinson says some of the employees have been around long enough to remember when the process involved more manual labor. “They tell stories about having to hand stack 55 pounds of bags of dog Chow, onto a rail car, packing it to the roof, and we don’t do that anymore. And the robots we do have are to help stack those into pallets and get those to where we can automatically put those away,” he says. Wilkinson says they have used some Cobots that work closely with people in a few different areas — and that is one area they are interested in as they look at continuing to evolve and improve. The pet industry itself has evolved to where they also produce a lot of nutrition products for pets.
“An example of that is a product called Live Clear. We produce that here in Clinton, one of our specialties and the only spot we make it,” Wilkinson says. “So if you have an allergy to a cat, there is a product that you can feed the cat which helps reduce the dander which helps reduce your allergies.” He says it’s part of the changing way we look at pets. They were once animals that stayed outside, but are now welcomed into our homes.
“We have the culture that is rightfully, and it’s great to watch, treat them as a family member that is in the house and in the bed. And…we still have those products for those that have the farm dogs and throw the bag on the ground in the barn,” he says. The Clinton plant produces animal treats along with the dry food. Nestle Purina has another dry food factory in Davenport, and a plant that makes wet food in Fort Dodge.
DES MOINES, Iowa, July 31, 2023 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director Matt Russell, today (Monday) announced that 46 Iowa Counties are now authorized for emergency haying or grazing use of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres for fiscal year 2023. The 26 counties approved for emergency haying or grazing include: Allamakee, Audubon, Benton, Buena Vista, Carroll, Cedar, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton, Crawford, Decatur, Des Moines, Fremont, Henry, Humboldt, Ida, Jones, Louisa, Marion, Muscatine, Page, Pocahontas, Sac, Shelby, and Washington.
With 20 Iowa Counties restricted under Emergency Haying Criteria Based on Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) authorization: Appanoose, Cass, Davis, Harrison, Jefferson, Keokuk, Lee, Lucas, Lyon, Mahaska, Mills, Monona, Monroe, Montgomery, Plymouth, Pottawattamie, Van Buren, Wapello, Wayne, Woodbury.
Counties are automatically approved for CRP emergency haying and grazing when they reach the D2 (severe drought) level on the U.S. Drought Monitor and are outside of the primary nesting season (May 15th through August 1st). Additionally, the 2018 farm bill also authorized counties with a documented 40-percent loss of forage production to be eligible for emergency haying and grazing. Local FSA County Committees can review forge loss data and make a recommendation to the Iowa FSA State Committee to authorize emergency haying and grazing.
A CRP participant must receive approval for emergency haying from their county FSA Office before any action is taken. The emergency haying authorizations end on August 31, 2023. The emergency grazing period for these counties will end Sept. 30, 2023. CRP participants are eligible to seek approval for either emergency haying or emergency grazing but cannot do both on the same acres.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is updated every Thursday and new counties may become eligible for emergency haying and grazing. Participants in newly approved counties will need to sign up at their local FSA offices and get approval prior to completing any haying or grazing activity. USDA Director Matt Russell says “Eligible producers who are interested in emergency haying and grazing of CRP must request approval before haying and grazing eligible acreage and must obtain a modified conservation plan from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that includes haying and grazing provisions.”
There will be no CRP annual rental payment reduction for 2023 emergency haying and grazing authorizations. CRP participants in counties not eligible for Emergency Haying and Grazing are eligible for Non-Emergency Haying and Grazing starting August 2nd. CRP participants should check with their local FSA office to determine their eligibility and specifics. They need to sign up and get approval from their local FSA office before any haying or grazing is started.
For more information and to request approval for emergency haying or grazing use of CRP acres, contact your local USDA Service Center.
(Atlantic, Iowa) – The final, full day of fun at the 2023 Cass County Fair, on Monday, July 31st, features the Beef show at 8-a.m. One-hour after conclusion of morning beef show, there will be Beef Fitting Contest. At 9-a.m., the Best of Iowa contest begins.
All contestants for the Best of Iowa must select a recipe using an Iowa product or products as the main ingredient in this unique competition. The dish is prepared in front of a judge within a twenty-minute time restriction. Participants are assessed on the food preparation, the abundance of and application of Iowa product(s), and the finished product’s quality in a conversation-based judging once they have completed the dish.
In this 2023 contest lineup, there are sixteen contestants entered in three different categories depending on their 4-H grade they just completed. To round off the competition, three Senior 4-H members will compete by preparing a Family Favorite recipe that uses one or more homegrown Iowa product(s) to make the recipe healthier.
Again, this year, Clover Kids members will have a chance to participate in their own unique Best of Iowa exhibit! Sixteen members who have completed kindergarten through third grades will have the opportunity to demonstrate how to make a simple after-school snack utilizing Iowa ingredients. Clover Kids will have a Senior level 4-H member to assist and help with safety and kitchen skills.
Superintendent Tracy Marshall encourages the public to attend and support the 4-H’ers as they get imaginative with their Iowa-grown foods. Chairs will be set up to provide an audience area where the public can view the contestants as they cook and engage with judges. All finished products will be arranged on a tasting table, so the public can sample the 4-H member’s masterpieces after the judging is concluded.
Awards will be presented Monday afternoon, along with awards for several other contests, beginning at 4:00pm in the Cass County Community Center. Here’s the rest of Monday’s schedule at the Cass County Fair, and a look at what’s in-store for Tuesday:
11:00 A.M……………………………………..Rotary Watermelon Feed
9:00 A.M-12:00PM……………………………Cass County Cattlemen’s Kids Play Area
2:00 P.M………………………………………Dairy Cattle Show
4:00 P.M………………………………..……..Building Awards
5:45 P.M………………………….……………Parade of Champions/Bucket of Junk/Fundraising Auction
6:30 P.M………………………………………………….Grand Champion Beef Selection
7:45 P.M……..………………………………………Livestock Released
8:00 P.M. -9:00 PM……………………………Static Exhibits Released
TUESDAY, August 1
8:00 A.M……………………………………….Livestock Sale
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