(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is predicting an extension of the 2018 Farm Bill will be in the temporary spending bill congress is likely to pass in the next few weeks to keep the government operating.  “I think we’d be better off having a five-year Farm Bill,” Grassley says, “but that isn’t going to happen.” Congress voted last November to extend the policies of the 2018 Farm Bill, which had expired on September 30th. So far this year, the House Agriculture Committee has voted for a new version of the Farm Bill, but the measure hasn’t been brought up for a vote in the full House and negotiations in the Senate haven’t produced a bill yet either.

Grassley, a Republican who serves on the Senate Ag Committee, says the new Farm Bill needs to include higher price supports for commodities like corn and soybeans. “We say it this way in the United States Senate: ‘We need more farm in the Farm Bill,'” Grassley says. “Presently it’s 85% food stamps and 15% agriculture and we think the reflection of the inflation to put more farm in the Farm Bill.” Congress has a September 30th deadline to pass budget bills, but 1997 was the last time that happened.

Lawmakers instead pass a measure that funds all government agencies. Grassley says that move should happen well before September 30th. “When you get close to shutting down the government, like let’s say the week before, there’s a lot of taxpayers’ money spent just getting ready to shut down the government,” Grassley says, “so we ought to bring some consistency to it and it should not be a controversial thing.”

After the House and Senate passed a short term spending plan last September, a handful of Republicans successfully removed Kevin McCarthy from his role as House Speaker.

(Iowa News Service) – Practical Farmers of Iowa is looking for landowners who want to help restore natural habitat on their property, and get help doing it. It’s part of a larger effort to help farmers become more environmentally friendly.
PFI’s Habitat Incentive program offers farmers a financial incentive to plant prairie strips on their land, for example.

PFI’s Senior Habitat Viability Coordinator Grace Yi said those strips restore habitat for native species while at the same time reducing soil erosion. “All of these practices are going to have multiple benefits,” said Yi. “So they are going to be good for soil health, good for water-quality improvement, and also provide habitat for wildlife. ”

In addition to the prairie strip portion of the Habitat Incentive Program, PFI is also making incentives available to do precision conservation analysis on their land – which helps farmers make use of unproductive acres. Yi said the end goal of the program is different for most of the farmers who apply.

Rolling Farm Fields, North of Dubuque, Iowa

For some it might be reducing soil erosion and runoff into nearby waterways. For others it night be finding a productive way to use other acres. “For some farmers it might be that corner of the farm is low yielding,” said Yi, “it’s difficult to farm with because it’s steep in slope or it has weird turnarounds, so they can’t easily round out the field. ”

In order to be eligible for the program, at least 50% of the area the farmer plans to change has to be unprofitable. The incentive, funded by federal and state sources, is capped at $10,000.

(Radio Iowa) – Ninety-two restored barns will be featured on this month’s statewide tour organized by the Iowa Barn Foundation. The group raises money to preserve the state’s dwindling number of barns. Wayne Frost, a spokesman for the foundation, says all 92 barns on the tour have received Iowa Barn Foundation grants.  “A sprinkling of the barns we have helped across the state,” Frost says. Twenty of the barns have never been featured before on one of the group’s tours.

“I would tell anybody who’s gone out on a barn tour before, come back again because we’ve got a lot of new barns,” Frost says, “and every barn has its own story to tell.” The tour is unique because people can go inside the barns rather than just drive by. Frost says some are working barns. “There’s hay in the hayloft (and) straw; there’s cattle, hogs, sheep, horses — so it’s a mix,” Frost says. “Some of them have spiffied them up.”

This is the Iowa Barn Foundation’s 24th fall tour, scheduled for the weekend of September 14th and 15th.  “The value of the tour is raising the awareness of the impact our barns have,” Frost says. “One of our board members, Dwight Hughes, likes to use the phrase that, ‘Our barns are really the castles on the prairie,’ and if you think of the landscape as you drive across the state of Iowa, all the barns that you see — it’s just amazing, but they’re disappearing.”

About 200-thousand barns were built in Iowa. Experts estimate only 60-thousand are still standing. Frost restored a barn near Waterloo that was built in the 1870s and it was included in the Barn Foundation’s spring tour.

(Radio Iowa) – Labor Day marks the end of summer when kids are back in school and farmers are making plans to harvest. State Ag Secretary Mike Naig says the end of the drought has expectations high. “All indications are, is that we’re looking at a sizable corn and soybean crop this year,” he says. Naig says there’s never 100 percent perfect conditions across the state, and that’s evident again this year. “There are places that that certainly because of severe weather flooding, northwest Iowa in particular, some parts of southern Iowa that actually, believe it or not, got dry again and and so you’re going to have some variability in in some places across the state,” Naig says. He says those areas seeing weather impact don’t bring down the lofty harvest projections.

“By and large, we’re hearing about a really good crop. In fact, we may be looking at some record yields in places, and possibly even near or record corn and soybean crops in the state of Iowa,” he says. Naig says there’s some hope that the growing season will extend later into the fall.

“You know, it was a bit delayed at spring planting. So I think there’s plenty of folks that are saying, we sure could use a long fall. But then again, there’s gonna be some folks that go right on schedule,” Naig says. “So I would say the word that you’ve got to use for the crop this year’s is variability.” Naig says there’s moisture in the ground and the conditions are good right now for the corn and soybeans to mature.

(Radio Iowa) – The Labor Day weekend was expected to be a busy one on the state rivers and lakes. D-N-R boating law coordinator, Susan Stocker, says it has been a safe summer for boating, in part because high water kept some of the boats at the dock. “It was Fourth of July, before or after, before the Mississippi River or areas were able to support boating. So it’s been from a safety aspect, it’s it’s been a safer season,” she says.

Stocker hopes everyone makes sure the end of the season is safe as well by not drinking and driving a boat and following all the rules. “Make sure you’re always have a wearable life jacket for each person. And of course, it’s a fabulous idea if you’re going to wear it,” she says, “because similar to seat belts, you know, we never know when you’re going to get into a boating accident on the water or and so wearing a life jacket is very, very important. And reminder for all of the young people that are under the age of 13, they have to actually wear the life jacket.”

DNR Water Patrol boat

Those who take a canoe or kayak out one last time will also want to scout their route. “We have an interactive paddlers map on our D-N-R web page, under things to do, canoeing, kayaking, where to paddle,” Stocker says. “And so we’ve got updated interactive map that’ll tell you where you’ve got some construction, where you’ve got some conditions that are dangerous.”

Stocker says high water has left debris in some areas and there’s also erosion on shores. So be sure to check things out whether you are boating or on the water in a kayak or canoe.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa business that makes trailers for hauling livestock and grain will be laying off dozens of employees this fall. Sioux City’s Wilson Trailer Company has notified the State of Iowa it will be laying off 58 workers on September 30th. By law, businesses that have more than 100 employees are required to provide 60 days advance notice of layoffs. Employees were notified Thursday.

The company, in a written statement, cited slowing trailer sales in the agricultural market as the reason for the layoffs. Wilson Trailer Company, founded in 1890, is a family-owned business with headquarters in Sioux City. It operates five production plants, including two in Sioux City. The rest are in Moberly, Missouri, Yankton, South Dakota, and Lennox, South Dakota.

In addition to trailers to haul grain and livestock, the company makes flatbed and gooseneck trailers.

(Radio Iowa)  – Hundreds of Iowa hunters will hit the fields this holiday weekend for the start of the rabbit and squirrel seasons. Nate Carr, an Iowa D-N-R conservation officer for Hamilton and Hardin counties, says the weather should be ideal.
“Rabbit and squirrel season are going to open up this Saturday,” Carr says. “The two things you’re going to need for that is pretty basic, your typical hunting license, and habitat fee are what’s required for those. For rabbit, shooting hours are sunrise to sunset, you can take up to 10 per day, and then for squirrel, your daily bag limit is six.”

Iowa’s rabbit season runs through February 28th, while the squirrel season will end on January 25th. Carr says this Sunday will also kick off the hunting season for mourning doves.”That’ll run from September 1st all the way through November 29th. Your daily limit for doves is going to be 15 birds,” Carr says. “Just like rabbit and squirrel, make sure you have your hunting license and habitat fee, but also, like any migratory bird, you’re going to need to be registered through HIP or have your HIP registration.”

HIP is the Harvest Information Program, for which you can sign up at IowaDNR-dot-gov. Sunday also marks the start of the teal hunting season, which runs through September 16th.

ALTOONA, Iowa — [KCCI] – Friday (Today) is the last day of production at the Smithfield meat processing facility in Altoona. The company announced this summer that the ham boning facility at 612 Adventureland Drive NE, would close and 314 workers would be laid off. According to Iowa WARN, a state-run log of notices of layoffs, 319 employees will be affected.

Smithfield’s Altoona production is expected to be consolidated at locations in Monmouth, Illinois; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Crete, Nebraska. The company said the move will help improve the efficiency of manufacturing. A news release from Smithfield said the company would provide transition assistance to the Altoona employees, “including severance, financial incentives to assure business continuity and potential employment opportunities with Smithfield.”

UFCW photo

Iowa Workforce also provided help to the workers, including a job fair in July.

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack isn’t ruling out another stint as U-S Agriculture Secretary if Kamala Harris wins and asks him to continue in the role. “I’ve dedicated my life to try to figure out ways in which I can help farmers and small towns because of the important role they play in the country,” Vilsack said. “Regardless of where I might be or what I might be doing, I hope that I’m able to continue to contribute in that vein because that’s what I’ve done for the last 40 years and that’s what I hope to be able to continue to do until I take my last breath.”

Vilsack served eight years as U-S Ag Secretary during the Obama Administration and has been President Biden’s Secretary of Agriculture since 2021. The nation’s longest serving Ag Secretary was from Iowa. “Tama Jim” Wilson, a farmer from Traer who served in the Iowa legislature and the U-S congress, was ag secretary for 16 years, during the administrations of Presidents McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Taft. Vilsack, who is 74, was elected mayor of Mount Pleasant in 1987, then served in the state senate before he was elected to two terms as Iowa’s governor.

Vilsack spoke with reporters yesterday (Thursday) at the Farm Progress Show in Boone. Vilsack indicated he would not comment on Governor Reynolds’ request for a waiver from a U-S-D-A program, so she can provide state-purchased food to needy families with kids next summer. The U-S-D-A program provides electronic benefits cards to families during the summer months if a child in the household qualifies for a free or reduced price lunch during the school year. “I want the state to have the opportunity to have their waiver request examined,” Vilsack said, “so I don’t want to make a comment about it while it’s being considered.”

The governors of 43 states have signed up for the U-S-D-A program for the summer of 2025. He says research shows it’s the most successful way to make sure youngsters have appropriate nutrition in the summer months. “It was not something that we just cooked up in the back room. It was something that is based on 10 years of research and that research basically indicated when you provide the resources to the families, those resources will be used by the families in the most appropriate way,” Vilsack said, “and that they will be used to actually purchase nutritious offerings to their children.”

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says the state will be able to provide more food, by making bulk purchases of nutritious food.

• KJAN, Atlantic  1.25″
• 7 miles NNE of Atlantic  .98″
• Massena  2.18″
• Anita, 1.5”
• Villisca  1.11″
• Corning, 1.05
• Elk Horn  1.04″
• Greenfield and Marne, 1.0”
• Carroll, .90”
• Neola  .8″
• Cumberland, Guthrie Center & Harlan, .75”
• Adair and Creston, .70”
• Shenandoah, .65”
• Emerson, .55”
• Clarinda-.45”
• Glenwood, Griswold & Oakland, .35”