DES MOINES, Iowa (Jan 12, 2023) – The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship today announced that the November 10 order cancelling all live bird exhibitions at fairs and other gatherings of birds due to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been lifted. The order also prohibited live birds from being sold or transferred at livestock auction markets, swap meets, and exotic sales.

It has been 30 days since the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed a new infection of HPAI in domestic poultry in Iowa. The last confirmed case of HPAI in Iowa was announced on December 12.

“Commercial poultry producers and those with backyard birds should continue to be vigilant with their biosecurity because this destructive disease still poses a serious ongoing risk,” said Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “We are continually monitoring highly pathogenic avian influenza case counts worldwide and we remain ready to quickly respond should spring migration bring us another enhanced level of threat.”

Commercial and backyard flock owners should prevent contact between their birds and wild birds. Sick birds or unusual deaths among birds should be immediately reported to state or federal officials. Biosecurity resources and best practices are available on the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship website. If producers suspect signs of HPAI in their flocks, they should contact their veterinarian immediately. Possible cases must also be reported to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship at (515) 281-5305.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the recent HPAI detections in birds do not present a public health concern. It remains safe to eat poultry products. As a reminder, consumers should always utilize the proper handling and cooking of eggs and poultry products. An internal temperature of 165˚F kills bacteria and viruses.

For additional information on HPAI, please visit the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s website.

(Radio Iowa) – The four Iowa Republicans serving in the U.S. House have voted to create a new committee focused on China. Second district Congresswoman Ashley Hinson of Marion notes it passed with the support of all Republicans and nearly 70 percent of the Democrats in the House.  “The beginning of our efforts to hold China accountable for their wide range of malicious activity and, of course, to protect our national security,” Hinson says. “These are efforts that I believe will continue to be bipartisan this congress.”

Hinson says the House Select Committee on China should move to forbid Chinese citizens and companies from buying American farmland. Iowa law forbids foreign ownership of agricultural land, but according to the U-S-D-A, China owns about 190-thousand acres of farm ground in the United States. “China poses the largest threat our national and global security,” Hinson says, “from posturing against Taiwan to buying up U.S. farmland at alarming rates.”

The governor of North Dakota has asked federal officials to review a Chinese food company’s recent purchase of 300 acres of land in his state. The property is about 12 miles from the Grand Forks U.S. Air Force Base. Hinson says the federal government needs to track the purchase of land around U.S. military installations and other key infrastructure. “We don’t want to completely block international land ownership. That’s not what we want to see happen,” Hinson says. “We have a lot of international investment in Iowa, in our district, but we need to be very clear that the Chinese Communist Party is the greatest threat to this country and we cannot allow them to buy another acre.”

Hinson made her comments this (Thursday) morning during a telephone news conference with Iowa reporters. She expressed reservations about G-O-P colleague George Santos, the New York congressman who admits he has lied about his past, including where he’s worked and his family background. “I am very troubled by the allegations against Mr. Santos,” Hinson said. “I do think we need to let the ethics investigation play out.”

Two Democratic congressmen from New York filed an ethics complaint against Santos this week, questioning whether he lied on the financial disclosures he filed with the House.

(Radio Iowa) – Cow manure from local dairy farms will be run through digesters to generate natural gas that will run through a pipeline to the northwest Iowa town of Sioux Center. Aaron Maassen owns one of the three dairy farms involved in the project. He says it will not only expand the town’s capacity for natural gas, it will also capture methane emissions from livestock waste. “Capturing value out of it that would have been lost as a greenhouse gas,” Maassen says. “So, it allows us to capture that without changing the value of the resource that we have for our own operation, and add value to just our local community.”

Maassen says the greenhouse gas emissions eliminated will be equivalent to around 88-hundred cars. Sioux Center utilities assistant manager Adam Fedders says the community needs more natural gas capacity. “For a growing community, like Sioux Center, taking advantage of opportunities to receive additional capacity and other locations is something that’s advantageous,” Fedders says, “and then to find an opportunity right in your backyard is even greater.”

The farm digesters are expected to bring in around 350 M-M-B-T-Us a day, or around a third of the natural gas typically used in Sioux Center on a summer day. Construction on the pipeline is expected to begin as early as April.

(reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Massena, Iowa) – If you’ve ever wanted to explore the sport of ice fishing, but don’t have the knowledge or skills to give it a try, now’s your chance. The Cass County Conservation Board (CCCB) is hosting an “Intro to Ice Fishing” program, this weekend. Cass County Conservation Director Micah Lee says the program will be held beginning 10-a.m. Saturday (Jan. 14, 2023), at the CCCB’s Outdoor Classroom near Massena (76977 Tucson Road).

The program will focus on ice fishing basics, such as what’s needed to get out on the ice and enjoy the outdoors. Ice safety will be the first topic of discussion.

Basic equipment, clothing and shelter will also be part of the discussion.

The CCCB will have ice rods, bait and augers available for those who don’t have them. The forecast for this weekend is calling for temperatures near 50. If the conditions allow, those attending the program will get a chance to fish on the nearly two on and-half acre pond at the Outdoor Classroom, when the program concludes. There will also be a drawing for prizes, thanks to Cappel’s Ace Hardware, in Atlantic. Micah says the program is open to everyone.

For more information, call Conservation Director Micah Lee at 712-769-2372.

Landowners/tenants with land registered with the Iowa DNR in one of the 21 counties open to the January antlerless season are eligible to participate on the farm unit in the open county. The January antlerless season is Jan. 11- 22. Licenses will be available beginning Jan. 11, from license vendors in the open counties.

The January antlerless season is open in Adair, Adams, Allamakee, Appanoose, Clarke, Clayton, Dallas, Davis, Decatur, Fayette, Jefferson, Lee, Lucas, Madison, Monroe, Taylor, Union, Van Buren, Wapello, Wayne and Winneshiek counties. Landowner/tenant licenses are not subject to county quotas.

Due to the compressed timeline, these licenses will not be available online. Only antlerless deer may be taken during this season. Only centerfire rifles .223 caliber to .500 caliber with a published or calculated muzzle energy of 500-foot pounds or higher are allowed in the excess tag January antlerless season. The excess tag January antlerless season was approved by the Iowa Legislature during the 2022 session.

(Radio Iowa) – The American Farm Bureau has reached an agreement with John Deere that will allow farmers to repair their own equipment, or take it to independent repair shops. The director of the Drake University Agricultural Law Center, Jennifer Zwagerman, says it is a good solution for both sides. Zwagerman says Deere needs to protect the investment it has made in developing high tech systems to run tractors and other equipment. “If you can limit who can repair your products, you maintain not just the market, but you also ensure more privacy and more secrecy,” She says. “What we’re really I think seeing companies most concerned about are trade secrets.”

She says the computerized systems, programming or technology that’s used in the equipment is more important than the equipment itself. “From a legal standpoint, the more you allow people to have access to information, you’re starting to limit your ability to protect those trade secrets,” Zwagerman says. “And so I think that’s something that is very valid, that they wanted to maintain access and control over, but at the same time, was not fully recognizing or meeting the needs of their customers.” The agreement voluntarily makes available manuals or parts to vehicles or equipment.

“And that’s something that’s important to remember as well that they have voluntarily agreed to do it. And so there’s a big question about what this is actually going to look like, moving forward? Who’s going to enforce it? What sort of limitations will they put on it,?” she says. Farmers had been able to do their own repairs or have them done without concern before tractors and other equipment started to involve much more technology. “And so that’s definitely something that farmers are really pushing for — and have been very, very loudly. I think it says a lot that Deere listened,” Zwagerman says.

Zwagerman says John Deere has a long history in agriculture and working with farmers and the company wants to maintain that relationship into the future. Zwagerman says there are still some outside factors that could impact the agreement. “Either party can withdraw from this agreement at any time, particularly if any state or federal legislation tied to this is either introduced or enacted. And so it really in some ways is an effort to try and keep it voluntary like this,” she says.

Zwagerman says there have been a lot of states and the federal government looking at this type of right to repair legislation — and this agreement would keep it out of the government’s hands and out of that type of regulation. She says the Deere agreement will extend beyond that company’s products — as the memorandum of agreement says the Farm Bureau is looking to enter into these types of agreements with other companies as well.

(Iowa DNR News) – Elk seem to be visiting Iowa more frequently each fall, and thanks to social media, their visits are now shared at the speed of downloads among tens of thousands of people among the various social networks. Most of these sightings are in western Iowa due to the proximity of the larger wild elk herd found in the Black Hills of South Dakota and in central and western Nebraska. These visitors tend to be young males conceivably searching for new territory. And this fall was no different. “I had reports coming in weekly to my office all fall,” said Josh Gansen, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Saylorville Wildlife Unit covering nine counties in central and west central Iowa.

The number of individual elk visiting the state is likely very low, state experts say, and the frequency of reports in the fall are based on these elk covering a lot of distance and appearing on different trail cameras. “It’s to the point that it’s no longer uncommon,” Gansen said. The elk rut (breeding season) out west is in September and October, which is around the same time as the juvenile elk have been showing up in Iowa. The Iowa DNR is collecting scat and muscle tissue for DNA analysis to learn more about these animals, including where they are coming from, said Doug Chafa, wildlife biologist with the Iowa DNR’s Missouri River Wildlife Unit in western Iowa.

Elk were native to Iowa, but left as the state was settled. While there isn’t a population in Iowa, they, along with moose, are protected in Iowa Code, which includes a $1,000 fine if illegally killed. That does not exclude the right of a person from dispatching an elk that is causing property damage or from causing physical harm. “Three or four years ago, we had an elk that was trying to get into a penned livestock area damaging the fence in northwest Iowa, and it had to be dispatched,” Chafa said. However, most elk wander in and out of Iowa with no issues. But not all. This fall, an elk was hit and killed on I-80 and another was found dead within sight of Hwy. 20, east of Sioux City. The Woodbury County elk was a 1 to 1-1/2-year-old adolescent animal weighing approximately 450-500 pounds which is significantly larger than a white-tailed deer.

“An adult elk can weigh between 750-800 pounds with hooves as large as your hand,” Chafa said. As a comparison, a five-year-old buck white tailed deer can weigh up to 250 pounds at its heaviest. Large wildlife always catches peoples attention and Chafa said if you encounter an elk, give them plenty of room and don’t approach it. “Take a moment to enjoy seeing a wild elk in Iowa,” he said. “As long as these animals are not causing any problems, our position is we are going to leave them be.”

(Radio Iowa) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is announcing more than nine-million dollars in grants and loans for projects to bolster independent meat processing, with direct impact on two ag projects in Iowa. U-S Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says these investments are a way to give more marketing opportunities to small and mid-size farming operations. Vilsack says, “That will create hopefully more income for farmers, more choice for consumers, and more jobs in rural areas.”

A meat locker being built in the northwest Iowa town Marcus is receiving an 800-thousand dollar loan for new construction, while a cattle operation in the southwest Iowa town of Tabor gets a 210-thousand-dollar grant to expand production. Vilsack says the loan to Jordan’s Meat Market in Marcus will fund new construction and bring new jobs. “Creating an opportunity for not only additional opportunities for farmers to market their products,” he says, “but also this is a new business that expects and anticipates it will be able to employ six additional workers.”

The two Iowa projects are among 25 across 15 states.

(reporting by Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)

Chris Parks and Cass/Adair County Conservation Officer Grant Gelly talk about all things outdoors. This week they discuss the end of deer season, antlerless extra season in other counties, license renewal time, ice fishing reminders, and Christmas Bird Count Recap.

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(Atlantic, Iowa) – You’re invited to check-out an event taking place this weekend in western Iowa, where the graceful, large-winged Trumpeter Swans have gathered. It’s called “Sorie with the swans.” Cass County Conservation Department Naturalist Lora Kanning reports the birds number from 75-to 100 on any given day. They like to congregate at Lake Number 4 in Atlantic’s Schildberg Recreation Area. Kanning says the Trumpeter Swan population has been growing in the Midwest.

Trumpeter Swans, with their seven-foot wing spans, are not banded for tracking, since efforts to restore the population has been successful, but ISU has a program whereby a couple of the birds have GPS collars.

She says they’ve seen success in the last five-years, not only of the increased nesting activity, but also of them finding other, wintering sites.

She says it’s interesting to see how the Swans make their way around the State when it gets cold outside. Atlantic is celebrating 23 winters of the Trumpeter Swans wintering in the community. Conservation Staff will provide ten-minute sessions about Trumpeter Swans every half-hour beginning at 11:00 a.m. Saturday (Jan. 7th), with the last one being presented at 2:00 p.m. There will also be time to view the swans through spotting scopes and witness random swan feeding sessions. Hot chocolate, cookies, and other snacks will be provided free of charge with donations being accepted (for swan care).

The Schildberg Recreation Area is located on the northwest edge of Atlantic, Lake 4 is on the north side of Highway 83. IF THE WEATHER IS “BAD” OR THE SWANS ARE NOT AT THE PARK…the program will be at the Atlantic Public Library from 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. with hot chocolate, cookies, and other snacks available. This event is being sponsored by the Cass County Conservation Board, Atlantic Parks and Recreation, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.