(Radio Iowa) – The Department of Natural Resources is investigating two manure spills in northern Iowa that have killed fish and the spill of a food product that’s described as a pollutant once it reaches a stream. D-N-R staff estimate several hundred thousand gallons of liquid manure from the Rock Bottom Dairy spilled into Mud Creek northwest of Rock Rapids in Lyon County. The manure laden-water is moving slowly downstream, according to the D-N-R, and the agency is warning farmers in the area who use the creek to water their livestock that conditions may not improve for the next few days. The D-N-R also is investigating a manure spill in Kossuth County, near West Bend. It was caused when a hose used by company that applies liquid manure on land came loose, flopped into Lotts Creek, and spilled about 10-thousand gallons of manure. Investigators say it’s impractical to pump the manure back out of the creek. The manure is flowing toward the East Fork of the Des Moines River, but according to the D-N-R it is not expected to impact drinking water supplies.

State officials have ordered a McDonald’s distribution center in Mason City to remove milk-colored water from a stream that’s near a popular biking and hiking trail in Mason City. Employees of the company told investigators a milk shake ingredient had spilled and they used hoses to direct it into a storm water intake on Monday morning. The D-N-R says the milky water isn’t likely to pose a danger to humans or pets who come into contact with it.

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(Radio Iowa) – The environmental group American Rivers lists two waterways that either border Iowa or flow through the state on its annual list of the nation’s ten most endangered rivers. Olivia Dorothy, director of the group’s Upper Mississippi River Basin, says the 2019 flooding on the Lower Missouri River brought massive levee breaches. It’s concerning, she says, because the river is too constricted and there’s not enough room for water that comes downriver during floods. “We need to take strategic action to set back levees,” Dorothy says, “to give the river a little bit more room to flood so that we know the water is going to basically go into areas of the flood plain where people and critical infrastructure aren’t located.”

This is the second year in a row the Lower Missouri River has made the group’s most-endangered list. “We are again calling on Congress and the states along the Lower Missouri River to work together to set up a framework to prioritize areas where levees can be set back and where we can do critical habitat restoration which is much needed for a lot of species, including the pallid sturgeon,” she says. That fish is threatened, she says, in part due to a lack of access to quality habitat. The Raccoon River is on this year’s most-endangered list for the first time. Its three forks run for 226 miles across western and central Iowa.

Dorothy says the Raccoon is most threatened by pollution due to agricultural runoff, which she attributes to “industrial agriculture.” “In the Raccoon watershed, we have a lot of confined feeding operations, we have a lot of confined factory farms,” Dorothy says. “They spread manure in excess across the watershed on farms for fertilizer. A lot of times, that fertilizer is running off and getting into our drinking water.” It’s forced cities like Des Moines to install expensive nitrate removal equipment, while she says it’s continuing to threaten the drinking water in rural areas, especially for people who use wells. Dorothy says nitrogen is particularly toxic to children, infants and pregnant women.

“We are calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to step in in Iowa and step up their enforcement actions,” she says, “and really start regulating these factory farms that we know are being installed in excess throughout the state of Iowa but especially in the Raccoon watershed.” The full report is online at AmericanRivers.org. Dorothy encourages Iowans to log on and learn more, and find links so they can contact federal agencies and officials to demand action to protect our rivers — and people.

(Radio Iowa) – A plan emerging from the Iowa House would provide 750-thousand dollars in grants to help small meat lockers with fewer than 50 employees expand. In addition to the money, a bill that’s passed the House would set up a task force to study creation of an artisanal butchery program at a community college or Iowa State University. Representative Phil Thompson of Jefferson says the pandemic highlighted the need for small-scale, local meat processing.

“Many of us remember walking into our grocery stores, only to find empty meat cases,” Thompson says. “…We saw outbreaks and closures of some of our larger meatpacking plants and a supply chain that struggled to keep up with demand.” The proposed state grants could be used to buy more space or equipment, like refrigerators and freezers, for meat lockers. The money is included in a separate bill for the Iowa Economic Development Authority — the state agency that would hand out the grants.

Representative Chris Hall of Sioux City says there’s a definite need, since many Iowa meat lockers aren’t taking orders until 2022 or 2023. “Past that, I think that it speaks to a greater interest in our state and many other places the where people are looking to find a connection to local agriculture,” Hall says, “and to know where their food comes from.” Representative Chad Ingels, a farmer from Randalia, is the bill’s sponsor.

“It came from a lot of discussions with farmers that wanted more opportunities to sell directly to consumers and consumers that wanted more opportunities to buy directly from farmers,” Ingels says. “These conversations were happening before 2020. Last year just kind of brought it all to a head.”

Nebraska’s legislature is considering a different route to expanding consumer access to local protein. Nebraska’s bill would let consumers buy shares in live animals, the livestock would be slaughtered and processed by a custom butcher and the meat would not be subject to federal inspection.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst is co-sponsoring legislation designed to foster more disclosure of the prices paid for cattle, as well as a bill to block federal agencies from promoting a “meatless” diet among employees. Ernst, a Republican who grew up on a farm near Red Oak, says these issues are important to her since her family raised hogs. “Here in Iowa, folks, we are all about the meat,” Ernst says. “Farming and ranching is not only critical to our jobs, our economy, our culture and our way of life here in Iowa, it’s also in our DNA.”

Ernst is co-sponsoring a bill that would give independent cattle producers more data about what meatpackers are paying for cattle. Since packers often buy directly from feedlots, cattle prices aren’t well represented in public sales. The bill would set up a system already used to help track hog prices. Ernst warns getting the bill through the Senate will be difficult. “What we’ll see is a little bit of pushback coming from different areas of the United States,” she says. “…You see those beef producers maybe in Texas or Oklahoma that have a different thought on how it should be handled.”

Ernst and a Kansas senator are co-sponsoring a bill that would ban federal agencies from excluding meat from the menu in government cafeterias and dining halls. “When I hear calls from the liberal left, everyone from out-of-touch politicians to Hollywood elite encouraging people to ban meat and the quality agriculture products we produce here in Iowa it makes me sizzle,” Ernst says.

Ernst is calling this bill the TASTEE Act, which stands for Telling Agencies to Stop Tweaking What Employees Eat Act. Ernst says it’s one way supporters of animal agriculture can start pushing back against the so-called Green New Deal and prevent another episode like the U-S-D-A newsletter reference to “meatless Mondays” that was retracted in 2012.

Atlantic Trees Forever has announced spring tree vouchers are now available. Spokesperson Dolly Bergmann said tree vouchers are a great way to help with the cost of a tree to plant.  The vouchers are worth $30 off the cost of a tree, and can be obtained at Pymosa Farms, north of Atlantic. Bergmann adds, there are a limited number of vouchers available.  Those at Pymosa Farms can help you determine what kind of tree would work best in the location you would like to plant a tree.

Pymosa Farms is located at 50979 Buck Creek Road, Atlantic, but Bergmann suggests calling owner Tim Reavis, at 402-659-1213 before driving out to the farm to ensure someone is available to help you.

DES MOINES, Iowa (April 12, 2021) – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig today (Monday) commented on the Iowa Crop Progress and Conditions report released by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. The report is released weekly from April through November. “With spring weather now upon us, farmers across Iowa are looking to get planters into the field,” said Secretary Naig. “Rainfall over the last week has been beneficial for the drier parts of the state, though farmers should keep an eye on the forecast, as freezing temperatures are possible over the next few days.”

The weekly report is also available on the USDA’s website at nass.usda.gov.

Crop Report:

Measurable rainfall fell across the State which allowed Iowa farmers only 3.1 days suitable for fieldwork during the week ending April 11, 2021, according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service. Fieldwork activities included applying anhydrous and fertilizer, spreading manure, spring tillage and planting oats. There were also scattered reports of corn being planted.

Topsoil moisture levels rated 4% very short, 17% short, 69% adequate and 10% surplus. Subsoil moisture levels rated 12% very short, 28% short, 56% adequate and 4% surplus. Thirty-seven percent of the expected oat crop has been planted, 4 days ahead of last year and 5 days ahead of the 5-year average. Statewide, 3% of the oat crop has emerged.

Pasture condition rated 3% very poor, 11% poor, 42% fair, 40% good and 4% excellent. Pastures are greening up and starting to grow. Muddy feedlots were reported in the southern part of the state. The statewide weekly average precipitation was 1.45 inches while the normal is 0.64 inch.

Multiple western Iowa stations reported the week’s high temperature of 86 degrees on the 4th and 5th; on average 29 degrees above normal. Several northwestern Iowa stations reported the week’s low temperature of 28 degrees on the 11th, on average six degrees below normal. Four-inch soil temperatures were in the upper 40s east to low 50s west as of Sunday.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Natural Resources Commission is amending its rules to allow hammocks to be used in state parks and camping areas. State Parks Bureau Chief, Todd Coffelt, says some people use hammocks for sleeping instead of a tent or camper. “You still have to rent a site — but if there are trees mature enough that can be used for banding your hammock to it — then we want to provide that. It’s just that there’s care in doing that, getting it tied up there so that the tree isn’t harmed,” Coffelt says.

The proposed rules lay out how the hammocks are held up with straps and bands. You can hammer nails or screws into trees to hold up your hammock. He says the use of hammocks depends on where you are. “Not every park has the right height of tree to hold up a person like me, that I would be comfortable sleeping in,” he says. “But it is different for everybody.” Coffelt says they also want to avoid having too many hammocks in one tree. “If you can find two trees that are the right distance apart — you’re going to put a hammock up. Then you are going to start what I call the ladder effect where you have a hammock above a hammock, above a hammock. And we have to address that, because part of what we do is protecting the resource,” according to Coffelt.

He says they are going to allow only two hammocks, or camping units together. “You can’t stack them six high. Nature just isn’t built for everything we want it to do sometimes. We want to work with people and accommodate that as much as we can,” Coffelt says.

Any interested person may submit comments concerning this proposed rulemaking. The D-N-R is taking comments on the proposed rule change. You should send comments no later than 4:30 p-m on June 2nd. Comments should be directed to: Sherry.Arntzen@dnr.iowa.gov. There will be a conference call public hearing at 10 a-m June 2nd.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s temperatures this spring are rollercoastering, warming into the 80s one day and spiraling into the 30s the next, making it a challenge for farmers to launch into their spring planting. Iowa State University Extension field agronomist Meaghan Anderson says the optimum planting window for Iowa corn has been April 11th to May 18th, but growers need to pay attention to the weather before — and after — planting.

“The date on the calendar, at least in Iowa, is not right quite yet,” Anderson says. “To totally eliminate any risk as far as maybe a frost issue, or just cool temperature effects on our crops after they’ve been put in the ground, so there’s always that risk.” Although having a soil temperature of at least 50 degrees at planting is important, Anderson says that soil temp should remain at 50 degrees or higher — after — planting to prevent injury to the seed.

“We want the soil temps to be about 50 degrees and then we want to make sure the forecast would allow it to be trending warmer after we’re planting,” Anderson says. “That allows some stability in temperature to make sure the crop’s not going to be exposed to any especially cold temperatures.” For those who decide to plant early, she says to keep in mind that crop insurance will not cover a replant until April 11th.

“If a farmer would be relying on the crop insurance to help us replant crops,” she says, “they’ll want to make sure they’re waiting until that replant has kicked in with the crop insurance before they’re planting the first time.” Early planting for soybeans is anytime between April 11th and April 25th. Anderson says growers wanting soil temperature information can access the Iowa Environmental Mesonet at: https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/