w/ Max Dirks

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Small, non-farm businesses in 43 Iowa counties and neighboring counties in Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin are now eligible to apply for low interest federal disaster loans from the U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Alfred E. Judd, Director of SBA’s Disaster Field Operations Center-West said Wednesday, that the loans offset economic losses because of the frosts and freezes that occurred in the following primary Iowa counties from April 6th through the 30th. Businesses primarily engaged in farming or ranching are not eligible for SBA disaster assistance.

The Primary Iowa counties in this area include: Audubon and Harrison.  Neighboring Iowa counties: Adair, Carroll, Cass, Crawford, Dallas, Guthrie, Monona, Pottawattamie, and Shelby.

Agricultural enterprises should contact the Farm Services Agency (FSA) about the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) assistance made available by the Secretary’s declaration. Applicants may apply online using the Electronic Loan Application (ELA) via SBA’s secure Web site at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela. Disaster loan information and application forms are also available from SBA’s Customer Service Center by calling SBA toll-free at (800) 659-2955, emailing disastercustomerservice@sba.gov, or visiting SBA’s Web site at www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance.

Small, nonfarm businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and most private, nonprofit organizations of any size may qualify for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) of up to $2 million to help meet financial obligations and operating expenses which could have been met had the disaster not occurred. The deadline to apply for the loans is March 11th, 2013. By law, SBA makes EIDLs available when the U. S. Secretary of Agriculture designates an agricultural disaster. Secretary Tom Vilsack declared this disaster at the request of Governor Terry Branstad.

w/ Kate Olson

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The hot, dry weather that’s plaguing much of the nation’s Corn Belt is leading the U-S-D-A to reduce its estimated corn yield for the season. The agency’s chief economist Joe Glabuer (GLAU-bur) says the yield estimate was cut by about 12-percent, taking it down to 146-bushels per acre nationwide.

Glabuer says, “I don’t think that anyone is going to be surprised at the estimate in and of itself just because we saw from June 1st, about 13-percent in drought conditions and now 60-percent of the crop in drought.” Iowa corn growers pulled in an average of 172 bushels per acre last year, but the new estimates show it’ll be closer to 160 bushels per acre this year. The head of the U-S-D-A says worries are growing as crop conditions in the Midwest worsen due to the hot, dry weather. U-S Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says a bad crop year would mean reversing course on an ag economy that’s done very well in recent years.

Vilsack says they’re always concerned with the momentum slowing down after seeing agriculture, as well as ag machinery and ag manufacturing doing so well. Vilsack says the country continues to export at a very rapid rate, so the world wants what we produce. He says one out of 12 jobs in the economy is connected to agriculture and he wants to keep that going. Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, says if farmers didn’t buy crop insurance, they won’t be able to rely on a disaster program this year.

He says the reality is, there’s no disaster programs and he hopes farmers have crop insurance. Vilsack says the crop insurance won’t cover everything, but at least it will be something. He says there will be low-interest loans through the USDA, but their capacity to help is very limited absent a “food, farm and jobs” bill being passed in Congress. This week’s U-S-D-A report showed only 46-percent of Iowa’s corn crop rated as good to excellent, a drop from 62-percent last week. The soybean crop is also suffering, falling from 59 to 48-percent good to excellent.

w/ Kate Olson talking about Sweet Corn

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The House Agriculture Committee is could vote today (Wednesday) on a farm bill package. Western Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron, is a member of the committee.

He says they’ve been putting it together on the House side for a long time, with hearings starting back in April. He says they will “mark up” a farm bill on July 11th. King says one of the areas of the ag bill he wants to bring under control is the spending on the program formerly known as food stamps.

He says just a few years ago, there were 19 million Americans on food stamps, and now there’s 44-point-seven (44.7) million. “We have the U-S Department of Agriculture spending millions of dollars advertising to get more people to sign up on food stamps. Now I’d rather spend that money on food than advertisement, if people are hungry then they are going to find a way to get fed. So that’s what we’re missing here, the philosophy of the U-S-D-A,” King says. “Neither do I buy the line that for every dollar worth of food stamps you hand out you get a dollar-four of economic activity. That’s not the way to grow the economy.” King says the way to grow the economy is to create more jobs. The U-S Ag Secretary is former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and the husband of King’s Democratic opponent, Christie Vilsack. King says he hopes the full House can pass a bill before the month.

He says the goal is to get a bill done and get it to the conference committee, that way they can work on it during the month of August and have a bill ready to vote on after Labor Day “before the real silly season of politics is upon us.” Overall, the House bill would cut Agriculture Department spending by 35-billion-dollars over 10 years, or 12-billion-dollars more than the Senate. The House bill’s revenue plan would pay growers when revenue is from 15-25 percent below average, while the Senate bill would eliminate traditional subsidies such as target prices and instead compensate growers when revenue from a crop is 11-21 percent below average. In either bill, crop insurance would cover deeper losses.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports Consent Agreements have been reached with two western Iowa entities associated with environmental violations which occurred in 2011. Officials said Thursday that Agriland FS, Incorporated, in Casey, has agreed to pay fish restitution and investigation costs of $6,258, along with a $10,000 penalty, for discharge of pollutants into water. And, the City of Council Bluffs has agreed to develop a written plan to respond to emergencies associated with fueling stations, and pay a $1,000 fine for underground storage tank violations. A consent order is issued in settlement of an administrative order or as an alternative to issuing an administrative order. A consent order indicates that the DNR has voluntarily entered into a legally enforceable agreement with the other party.

(A link to the Consent Orders can be found here:  http://www.iowadnr.gov/InsideDNR/AboutDNR/EnforcementActions.aspx)

Much of Iowa is in the midst of the state’s worst drought in 24 years. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says Iowa’s rainfall totals over the last two months were less than half of normal amounts for May and June. “Probably the worst off area over that relatively short term would be in east-central and parts of northeastern Iowa,” Hillaker says. “Around Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Quad Cities and Dubuque…those areas, in many cases, have maybe received 25-percent of normal rainfall over the past couple of months.”

In addition to the lack of rain, temperatures have been well above normal this spring and summer. The situation is similar to 1988 – the year of Iowa’s last major drought. “1988 is certainly the year that we’ve probably been comparing 2012 with the most often,” Hillaker says. “That particular summer was both unusually hot and unusually dry.” But, Iowa’s received nearly twice as much rain over the first half of this year compared to 1988. A report from the USDA this week found 73 percent of Iowa’s farm acres were either “short or very short” on subsoil moisture — that compares to just two-percent at this time last year. Hillaker says the recent heat wave is stressing crops even more.

“When temperatures are at 100 degrees or so, it basically results in evaporation rates roughly 25 to 30 percent higher than what would be the case if we had more normal temperatures, which at this time of year would be in the mid 80s,” Hillaker said. “It does make quite a bit of difference and dries things out much more rapidly than if we had moderate temperatures.” Monday’s USDA report rated 62-percent of Iowa’s corn as “good to excellent.” That compares to an 82-percent rating in Iowa at this time last year. Scattered showers and storms are in the weekend forecast and more normal temperatures, with highs in the 80s and overnight lows in the 60s, are expected Sunday and Monday.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa State Executive Director for USDA Farm Service Agency, John R Whitaker today (Thursday),  announced that Administrator Bruce Nelson has made physical loss loans available for 21 Counties in Iowa.  Farm operators who have suffered major physical losses caused by hail, excessive rain, high winds, and tornadoes on April 14th, 2012, may be eligible for low-interest emergency loans.  

The Administrator’s Physical Loss Notification has been issued for five counties as the primary damaged area.  Among the primary counties are:  Fremont,  Montgomery, Page, and Union.  Sixteen Iowa counties are contiguous to the designated disaster area, making those producers also potentially eligible for the program based on the designation.  In the KJAN listening area, the contiguous counties include:  Adair, Adams, Cass, Madison, Mills, Pottawattamie, Ringgold and Taylor.  

The Farm Service Agency may make Emergency Loans to eligible family farmers which will enable them to return to their normal operations if they sustained qualifying losses resulting from natural disaster.  Physical loss loans may be made to eligible farmers to enable them to repair or replace damaged or destroyed physical property, including livestock losses, essential to the success of the farming operation.  Examples of property commonly affected include; essential farm buildings, fixtures to real estate, equipment, livestock, perennial crops, fruit and nut bearing trees, and harvested or stored crops.  

The applicant must be unable to obtain credit from other usual sources to qualify for the Farm Service Agency Farm Loan Program assistance.  The interest rate for emergency loans is 3.75%.  Each applicant applying for credit will be given equal consideration without regard to race, creed, color, marital status, or national origin.