The profitability of crop production has been good these past years. With this profitability, more pasture and woodlands have been tilled. As a result, there is a potential for increased soil erosion. Estimating the cost of soil erosion to the landowner will be one topic at the Farm Leasing Arrangements meeting in Atlantic. Cass County Extension will be sponsoring the Farm Leasing Arrangements meeting on August 16 from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at the Cass County Community Center. The Cass County Community Center is at 805 West 10th Street.

Another timely topic is the 2012 Farm Bill. Both the Senate and House Committees of Agriculture have proposed bills that eliminate direct payments. According to Tim Eggers, Iowa State University Extension Field Agricultural Economist, “The elimination will drop farm revenues by about $20 per acre. It is the equivalent of a three-bushel decrease in this year’s crop.” Eggers added, “While not a large decrease, it is still a fundamental change in Farm Bill programs.” Besides the cost of soil erosion and loss of direct payments, Eggers will discuss land values, cash rental rates, and flexible leases. Considerations relevant to current drought impact will also be discussed.

The Farm Leasing Arrangements meeting costs $15 per person, which includes the 100-page Farm Leasing Arrangements booklet. Pre-registration is required by August 14. To pre-register, call the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132.

(ISU Extension Press Release)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The latest U.S. Drought Monitor survey shows an increase in extreme drought conditions in four Plains states but a slight decrease in the overall area of the lower 48 states experiencing some form of drought. The map posted Thursday on the monitor’s website shows that nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states is experiencing some drought. Recent rainfall pushed the percentage down to 62.91, from last week’s 63.86. The report says one-fifth of the U.S. is experiencing extreme drought. That number ticked up nearly 2 percentage points to 22.3 percent, largely because of worsening conditions in parts of Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

Atlantic Police Chief Steve Green says anyone interested in bow hunting within the City limits of Atlantic, for the hunting year 2012-2013, can receive the necessary permit applications at the Police Department during normal business hours (8-a.m. to 4-p.m.). The permit will allow you to harvest antlerless deer only.

Green says permit applications need to be picked up and filled out prior to qualification try outs on August 18th at 10-a.m., or on August 22nd, at 6-p.m., at the Sunnyside Park, by the old school house.

Land owners who would like to allow a bow hunter to hunt on their land should call the Police Department at 712-243-3512 during normal business hours, and sign-up. The hunt is allowed under the City’s Urban Deer Control Ordinance.

An overwhelming number of Iowa corn farmers have voted to increase the “check-off” for corn. For every bushel of corn sold in Iowa, farmers have been paying three-quarters of a cent into a fund that’s managed by the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. It’s called a check-off. The money’s used to finance research, promote the corn industry and find new markets for Iowa corn. The corn “check-off” will go up to a full penny per bushel on September 1st. Iowa farmers voted in a referendum on July 10th and state officials who certified the results say nearly 74 percent of the corn farmers who voted favored the check-off increase.

Iowa farmers voted to establish the check-off in 1977, but it was just one-tenth of a cent per bushel. Farmers have voted three times in the past three decades to raise the per bushel check-off. In addition to promoting corn-based ethanol fuel, one of the check-off campaign’s original aims was to promote the use of high-fructose corn syrup, which is cheaper than traditional sugar. In 1984, both Coke and Pepsi switched from using sugar to using corn syrup in their sodas.

(Radio Iowa)

Here’s something else to blame on the prolonged heat wave — higher gasoline prices. Gail Weinholzer, spokeswoman for Triple-A-Iowa, says the increase has been gradual, but definite, over the past several weeks of the continuing, blistering hot spell. “In Iowa, as an example, the current average is $3.47, a month ago, it was $3.37,” Weinholzer says. “So, Iowa’s seen about a dime increase in the last month.” The price of gas in Iowa ranges from as low as $3.32 a gallon in Sioux City to as high as $3.49 in Des Moines. The national average is $3.52 a gallon. Weinholzer says there are several reasons for the hike. “One, certainly is the higher global oil prices as well as higher demand because of the busy, summer driving season, along with the higher ethanol prices due to the drought that many areas of the country are seeing,” she says.

As corn plants suffer in the fields from the heat, the price of corn is skyrocketing due to the expected lower supply come harvest time. Weinholzer says gas prices should remain mostly flat through Labor Day but will likely begin to fall in September. “If there’s an increase at all, it will be slight and after Labor Day, we’ll start to see prices decline if everything goes as expected,” she says. Market developments that could change the August forecast include: strengthening or worsening of the global economy, U-S employment data, the hurricane season and geopolitical events in the Middle East.

(Radio Iowa)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — More than half of U.S. counties now are classified by the federal government as natural disaster areas mostly because of the drought. The U.S. Agriculture Department on Wednesday added 218 counties in a dozen states as disaster areas. That brings this year’s total to 1,584 in 32 states, including Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Iowa. The latest additions make drought-affected farmers and ranchers eligible for federal aid including emergency loans. The USDA also announced ranchers may access some 3.8 million acres of conservation land for haying and grazing, and crop insurance companies have agreed to provide farmers a penalty-free grace period on insurance premiums in 2012.

In his report to the Atlantic City Council Wednesday night, Councilman Chris Jimerson announced the Atlantic Police Department has the necessary forms and information available for an upcoming Deer Depredation hunt, designed to reduce the deer herd within the City limits. Jimerson said persons interested in bow hunting the deer will need to attend  qualifications tryouts to be held at 10-a.m. Sat., August 18th, or 6-p.m.  August 22nd at Sunnyside Park near the old school house.

Councilman Steve Livengood clarified this is NOT an organized hunt arranged by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. He said bow hunters will need to have a license, tags, permission to hunt on private property and Atlantic Police Chief Steve Green, to hunt within the City limits. Prospective hunters must also be able to prove their competency to handle their archery equipment responsibly. The City received permission from the Iowa DNR to hold the special antlerless deer hunt, to reduce the deer population, which has grown substantially since the last study was conducted a couple of years ago. An Urban Deer Control Ordinance was approved by the Council in June.

In other business, Councilman Dana Halder reminded residents about the need to remove your posted signs about garage sales. Halder said there is an ordinance prohibiting such signs on Public property. At the very least, he implored residents to “Have the courtesy to go pick up your garage sale sign…“  Some of the signs he says, are still posted, more than two-weeks after the sale was held.

Atlantic Police Chief said there is a $250 fine for posting signs on City property, such as light and telephone poles, school property and on private property, where permission was not received to post those signs.

 NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) – Central Nebraska authorities have found themselves the unintended caretakers of more than 100 hogs from Iowa that had been bound for California.  North Platte television station KNOP-TV reports that North Platte animal control officers struggled Tuesday to hose down the hogs that were stranded in a broken-down semitrailer for more than 13 hours. The truck broke down along U.S. Interstate 80 in North Platte around 9 a.m. Tuesday. Police say the driver’s log books were out of date. He was cited for several violations, including suspicion of animal cruelty. Chief Deputy Jim Agler says the hogs are now his department’s responsibility. Authorities planned to get the hogs fed and checked by a veterinarian and will try to recover the cost of caring for the hogs from their out-of-state owners.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa state climatologist says the 2012 drought is even worse than the 1988 event and the worst since 1936. Climatologist Harry Hillaker told The Gazette that the heat and dry July has pushed this year’s drought above ’88 drought for breadth and severity. Hillaker says the 1936 drought in Iowa also was fueled by a torrid July, the hottest and second-driest in 140 years.
 
Climatologist Brian Fuchs at the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb., says “heat makes droughts drier, and droughts make heat hotter.” Fuchs says a high-pressure system that has kept many storms from watering the nation’s grain belt has strengthened and could remain as a rain barrier for two more months. The center reported last week that the drought covers two-thirds of the continental U.S.