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CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Iowa Agribusiness Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
(Radio Iowa) – New bird flu cases have been reported this fall in Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska. The virus hasn’t resurfaced in Iowa since May, but experts are cautioning it could come back as wild birds migrate. “We can expect that as birds, you know, pass through Iowa and head south, that they may still be harboring the virus.” That’s State wildlife veterinarian Rachel Ruden. She says while bird flu hadn’t been making wild bird sick, a more severe form of the virus has been circulating and that strain has hung around. Iowa State University Extension wildlife specialist Adam Janke says another reason for heightened risk is that birds migrate a lot slower this time of year.
“They’re just trying to survive through the fall and winter,” he says, “and then come spring, they start to focus narrowly on reproduction and that means they need to get north really fast.”Janke says November is the peak time for water fowl, like ducks and geese, to migrate through Iowa. State and federal officials have been surveying healthy birds being harvested by hunters. In September, the bird flu virus was detected in three small ducks that were shot in western Iowa.
The hunting season for blue-wing, green-wing and cinnamon-wing teal ducks was in the first half of September.
(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katie Peikes)
(Des Moines, Iowa) – The latest U-S Drought Monitor report shows conditions worsening across Iowa. The report, issued Thursday, said 100% of Iowa is experiencing abnormally dry conditions, marking the first time since August 2013 that all of the state has had some sort of drought designation. 57% of Iowa is experiencing moderate drought, an increase from 52% just a week ago, while 27% of Iowa is dealing with severe drought. 7% of Iowa has extreme drought. Plymouth, Cherokee, Buena Vista and Pocahontas Counties, along with parts of seven other counties in northwest Iowa, are included in the Extreme Drought conditions.
Cass and Adair Counties are in a moderate drought, as is much of Madison County and most of Pottawattamie County. Half of the counties to our south are Moderately or Abnormally Dry. Most of the counties adjacent to Cass and to the north of I-80 are also Abnormally Dry. There were two separate, large field fires Thursday afternoon in southwest/western Iowa.
As was the case in August 2022, much of the Des Moines metro is experiencing moderate drought, while cities like Albia, Centerville, Chariton, Grinnell, Indianola, Newton, Osceola, Oskaloosa and Ottumwa are dealing with severe drought.
Ongoing drought, low relative humidity, and strong winds are contributing to heightened fire danger across the state. The long-term weather pattern does not favor any sort of drought-busting weather, as there are only limited rain chances in the extended forecast. Meaningful rainfall would be beneficial before winter arrives, otherwise much of Iowa will enter spring planting season with significant drought concerns.
New reports are issued by the U.S. Drought Monitor each Thursday. The updates account for any rain that has fallen through the Tuesday prior to each report’s release.
(Radio Iowa) A parcel of farmland in Plymouth County has set the record for the most paid per acre in Iowa. Auctioneer Bruck Brock of Brock Auction Company sold the ground Monday. “We auctioned off 55 acres of farmland — not development land and it didn’t have any wind turbines aren’t under any undue influence — tt was just farmland,” Bock says. “It was between Remsen and Marcus for John Fiscus, and it brought 26-thousand-250 dollars an acre, which to this point is the highest selling piece of farmland at auction in the history of the state of Iowa.” Brock says the new owner of the land farms neighboring ground.
“He and his son are going to farm it and they have a farming operation in that area and are really good to high quality farmers and it’s just a great was a great piece of farmland. It laid just perfectly, and of course right between Remson and Marcus is we call it the gold standard in farming around here. It’s as good as farmland gets,” according to Bock. The veteran auctioneer says there was spirited bidding for the land. “There were three people that bid up to 25-thousand per acre — and then the final two took it up to 26-thousand-250 per acre,” he says. Brock has a good historical perspective on the land in the area.
“We have sold one up here, not too far from that one for 25-thousand an acre. So it’s in an area where the prices are very strong. But you know, the difference that we’ve seen, my grandfather sold the first piece of farm ground in Ida County for our firm in 1919 for 60 dollars an acre, and we’ve seen every price increase all the way up to this one,” Brock says. Brock says the competitive bidding gives everyone a sense of fairness and the farm brought what the market was willing to pay.
(Radio Iowa) – The C-E-O and manager of the Iowa State Fair is retiring. Gary Slater is a Missouri native who served as manager of the Missouri State Fair and the World Pork Expo before taking the top job at the Iowa State Fair 21 years ago. During his tenure, the Fair topped the one million attendance mark, saw multiple upgrades and changes to the buildings on the grounds, and led it through the pandemic cancellation in 2021.
Slater released a statement saying it has been “an honor of a lifetime to lead the Iowa State Fair.” Slater says his retirement comes with the Fair in a good place, having returned to pre-pandemic revenue levels, and he looks forward to spending more time with his family.
Gary Slater near the end of the 2022 Iowa State Fair. (RI photo)
(Radio Iowa) – The corn and bean harvest moved ahead quickly last week. The U-S-D-A report shows the beans in the bin went from 26 percent two weeks to 55 percent last week. The bean harvest had been one day behind the five-year average, but is now nine days ahead of that mark. The amount of corn pulled from the fields more than doubled from 11 percent two weeks ago, to 23 percent this past week.
The corn harvest is three days behind average. The corn condition rose slightly to 63 percent good to excellent.
(Lewis, Iowa) – The Cass County Conservation is hosting their 7th Biennial Lighted Halloween Campground, on October 22nd. The event takes place from 7-until 9-p.m., at Cold Springs Park in Lewis. The Lighted Halloween Campground is meant to be a great. non-scary, Family Friendly and FREE, drive into the night!
Prizes will be for the top three voted sites, and for some special categories. Prizes are donated by event sponsor, Cappel’s Ace Hardware. The LHC event will be cancelled if there is inclement weather. 
(Radio Iowa) – The U.S. Supreme Court has heard more tha two hours of legal arguments over a California law that would impact Iowa farmers raise pigs. A California law approved in 2018 would require that bacon, ham and other pork products sold in that state come from operations that provide at least 24 square feet of space for every pregnant sow. The American Farm Bureau and the National Pork Producers Council sued to block the law. The groups say nearly all sows are kept in pens that do not comply with California’s standard.
Justice Neil Gorsuch asked whether it’s the job of the courts to balance the concerns of Iowa’s farmers against the moral concerns of Californians. Justice Samuel Alito suggested California was bullying other states because of its large population. The Biden Administration’s representative before the court told the justices California’s law is an unreasonable restriction on interstate commerce because it regulates animals that are not in California.
(Radio Iowa) – Tyson CEO Donnie King was in Dakota Dunes this afternoon to address employees at that facility after the company announced they are closing the Dunes corporate headquarters in the next few months.
Workers must decide if they will move to Springdale, Arkansas to work at the company’s main headquarters or leave Tyson. Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott and chamber president Chris McGowan say they were not given access to speak with King about the decision.
Scott said at the end of Monday night’s Sioux City council meeting the move is tough for the Siouxland area.”It’s going to have a terrible impact. To lose 580 employees in this area is really tough to swallow,” he says. 
Scott hopes the tri-state governors will try to intervene in Tyson’s decision. “I would like to think that we have three governors whose communities are going to be terribly, adversely affected by this — that they would get together, and go see the people at Tyson, write letters, do whatever,” Scott said. “But take the lead on this, because they are not going to listen to local communities, and it’s terribly important that we don’t lose those jobs.”
A Tyson statement says that details of what King told the employees at a 1:30 p.m. meeting would not be released. News media were not allowed access to the Tyson CEO during his visit.
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