DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The wet start to the corn planting season may reduce the amount each acre produces this year, but farmers are planting so much corn they’re still likely to bring in a record crop. In a report released today (Friday), the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated farmers would bring in 14.1 billion bushels of corn this year, a billion bushels more than the previous record set in 2009.

The USDA expects farmers to grow an average of 158 bushels per acre, a 3.4 percent reduction from the 163.6 bushels predicted in February. The downward adjustment is due to delayed planting caused by a cold, wet spring.  Farmers are planting more than 97 million acres of corn, the most since 1936. That’s why even an average yield would result in a record crop.

The Trustee in the bankruptcy case of G & R Feed and Grain Co., Inc., in Portsmouth, has provided an update on the proceedings. Deborah L. Petersen says the Court has approved Del Peterson & Associates to auction the real estate, fixtures, machinery and equipment. The public online auction will be held on June 11, 2013. The online auction will open the week of May 13, 2013 and bidding will be available immediately. Details and information at www.delpeterson.com They can be contacted by phone at 800-492-9090.

A meeting to explain the bidding procedure will be held soon. The feed inventory and soybean meal has been sold as approved by the Court and all has been delivered. Petersen says as Trustee, she will be receiving $ 264,900.00 from the USDA for grain receipts from the sale of grain on hand at the time of filing. The Iowa Department of Ag is in the process of issuing their last few checks and amending their claim in the bankruptcy case.

Petersen says she is in the final stages of collecting accounts receivable that were due to G & R and will begin collection action for those remaining unpaid. She has filed an adversary proceeding against Cargill for the proceeds for the grain delivered in December. And, Petersen has started reviewing claims and still anticipates an interim distribution to creditors in late summer/early fall, again subject to the Court’s approval. The analysis of pre-petition preference claims and postpetition transfers will be done after the claims are reviewed.

The deadline for filing claims in the Bankruptcy is May 20, 2013. If you have a claim for a deferred price contract, or any other amount due you, you should take action to timely file a claim with the Bankruptcy Court. The Trustee has a recorded message that will be updated regularly. You can hear the message at 712-328-8808, option 8. If you have legal questions, including how to file a claim, the Trustee advises that you should contact an attorney of your choice.

(12-p.m News)

John R. Whitaker, State Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Iowa, announced that FSA will conduct several Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) informational meetings across the state.  Iowa currently has 1,535,586 acres enrolled in CRP with an estimated 183,399 acres expiring September 30, 2013.  A General CRP signup is scheduled to begin May 20, 2013 and end June 14, 2013.

Landowners with expiring CRP land or land that is not currently enrolled in CRP are encouraged to attend an informational meeting.
If you are unable to attend, consider a free webinar hosted by Women, Food, and Agriculture Network (WFAN). This informational webinar is scheduled for Thursday, May 23, from 10 – 11:30 a.m. CDT.  Register at:  https://womenfoodagnet.wufoo.com/forms/z7p7m5/

(Information on the meetings listed below and other programs administered by FSA can be found at www.fsa.usda.gov/ia)

Local meeting sites: (County/Date/Time/Location)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A wet spring continues to soak soil across much of the Midwest, causing the prolonged drought to retreat ever so slowly westward.  Sections of central Iowa, southeast Minnesota and western parts of Wisconsin and Missouri have seen notable improvement in drought conditions. The weekly drought monitor measures conditions up to 7 a.m. Tuesday. The report is released on Thursdays by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

It shows the drought has subsided for nearly two-thirds of Iowa, most of Missouri and Arkansas.  West of those states drought remains. A smaller portion of western Nebraska is in extreme or exceptional drought and southwestern Nebraska improved slightly.  The soil moisture is good news for corn growers who are now dodging rain storms to get seed in the ground.

A newly-drafted bill on the fast track in the Iowa House would provide new liability protection to Iowa farmers. It’s in response to a February Iowa Supreme Court ruling that said a woman injured during a northeast Iowa farm tour had the right to sue the farm host. Representative Kevin Koester, a Republican from Ankeny, says farmers are now reluctant to allow anyone on their property for any activity.  “Something should happen in the legislature this month on that so that we relieve the concern that many folks who hunt, fish and do other recreational purposes have access to private land without it being a liability headache for the landowner,” Koester says. A state law passed in 1967 granted private property owners liability protection if they allowed recreational activities like hunting and fishing.

“There’s concern about whether or not it’s safe regarding the liability of allowing people to do what they’ve always done,” Koester says. The bill will be considered in the House Government Oversight Committee next week and is the result of discussions among legislative leaders. Koester is co-chair of that committee. A bid to address this farmer liability issue was rejected by Senate Democrats in late April. Senator Rob Hogg, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids who is a lawyer, told his colleagues not to “buy into the hysteria” about the recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling.

(Radio Iowa)

Work is set to begin on a new farm bill in both chambers of Congress next week. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee, says they’ll take up the legislation on Tuesday. Harkin got his first copy of the committee bill last night (Wednesday) and has looked it over. “It’s basically the same kind of bill that we passed in the Senate last year,” Harkin says. “We passed it with a strong bipartisan vote, so it’s basically the same bill that we had last fall.” Farm and food bills have typically been renewed by Congress every five years and the last one passed in 2008.

“I’m very happy about the conservation provisions in it, the conservation compliance provisions, the fresh fruit and vegetable program that we have in there, so I think our bill looks pretty good,” Harkin says. “I hope we can get it through.” The full Senate passed its version of the farm bill last year and another version passed the House Ag Committee, but it never went before the full House. Congress chose to extend the current farm bill into September of this year. Harkin, a Democrat, is not highly optimistic about a resolution, given Republican Paul Ryan is still chair of the House Budget Committee.

“The Ryan budget in the House that’s going to be controlling over (their version of the farm bill),” Harkin says, chuckling, “It would just be abysmal for agriculture. I’ll have more to say about that later.” One sticking point last year was the House version of the farm bill cut the food stamp program by billions more dollars than the Senate version.

(Radio Iowa)

Info from the Atlantic Animal Shelter.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.2MB)

Subscribe: RSS

w/ Dr. Keith Leonard

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.2MB)

Subscribe: RSS

w/ Max Dirks

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A recreational trail to nowhere could finally be connected to somewhere.  The Sioux City Journal reports that for four years, the three-mile Floyd River Trail hasn’t had a north trailhead. It ends abruptly, and the only way to reach it from the north is to walk through a muddy area, up a slope, across a railway bed, then down an embankment.

Because it doesn’t connect to another path, avid bicyclist Garrett Soldati, of Sioux City, says few people use the path.  That could change under a plan being studied by the Siouxland Interstate Metropolitan Planning Council to build a trail from Le Mars along state Highway 75 to Sioux City. It would connect to the Floyd River Trail.