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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!
It may not feel like boating season yet, but the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), along with boating safety advocates nationwide, are urging boaters to KeepYourEdge by enrolling in a boating education course this spring. “Education is the key to having a safe and enjoyable day on the water, and spring is the perfect time to take a course before the summer boating season begins,” said Susan Stocker, boating law administrator and education coordinator for the Iowa DNR. Traditional and online courses are available. Courses are made to fit every schedule and lifestyle. The Iowa DNR has boater education information online at https://www.iowadnr.gov/things-to-do/boating/boater-education.
“A boating safety course provides critical boating knowledge and better prepares you for the risks you may face while boating,” Stocker said.
Benefits to taking a boater education course:
Iowa boating statistics
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says crews released between 1,000 to 2,000 rainbow trout at four community trout ponds as part of its cool weather trout program that brings trout to areas that cannot support them during the summer. The following locations are ready for anglers to catch trout: Banner Lake South (Indianola), Big Lake (Council Bluffs), Moorland Pond (Fort Dodge) and Terra Lake (Johnston). All spring community trout stockings will be unannounced this year and family fishing events will not be held to help reduce the crowd size at stocking locations and minimize the spread of COVID-19.
Check the DNR website at www.iowadnr.gov/trout and watch for future press releases to find out when the remaining community trout locations have been stocked. The spring community trout stockings are a great place to take kids to catch their first fish. A small hook with a nightcrawler or corn under a small bobber or small simple spinners such as a panther martin or mepps is all you need to get in on the fun. Bringing trout to cities and towns offers a “close to home” option for Iowans who might not travel to the coldwater streams in northeast Iowa to discover trout fishing.
The popular program is supported by the sales of the trout fee. Anglers need a valid fishing license and pay the trout fee to fish for or possess trout. The daily limit is five trout per licensed angler with a possession limit of 10. Children age 15 or younger can fish for trout with a properly licensed adult, but they must limit their catch to one daily limit. The child can purchase a trout fee which will allow them to catch their own limit.
Find more information about trout fishing in Iowa on the DNR trout fishing webpage.
(Radio Iowa) – This week is National Agriculture Week and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says the pandemic shined a light on the important job ag producers have. I am hopeful that maybe that’s one of those silver linings that come out of what we’ve experienced the last 12 months. Is that there is an appreciation for the fact that, that food just doesn’t magically appear on the grocery store shelf,” according to Naig. He says we realize that agriculture touches us all. “We had restaurants shut down and people stopped traveling. All the meetings that we would go to and conferences where you would have food served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Really that whole foodservice supply chain just shut down,” Naig says.
And the impact also became evident in grocery stores. “We had some situations where some of the food products we normally expect to find — and I think often times take for granted — weren’t available or weren’t available as readily as much as we normally would purchase,” Naig says. There were also shutdowns at meat processing plants brought on by the pandemic. Naig says food security remains a concern for many families who have had to visit their local food pantries and food banks for the first time during the pandemic. He says, fortunately, many Iowans, including farm and commodity organizations, food companies, and others stepped up to donate much-needed food supplies.
“That’s been one of the things I have been very proud of as I watched the agriculture community respond. And even though there’ve been challenging times and uncertain markets — they’ve stepped up to help their neighbors in need,” he says. Naig says we all need to continue to tell the story of agriculture.
(Radio Iowa) The Iowa House has voted to establish new penalties for those found guilty of trespassing to set up electronic surveillance equipment on someone else’s property to secretly capture images or video. For nearly a decade, Iowa legislators have been trying to enhance trespassing laws in response to undercover operations in large scale livestock operations. Republican Representative Jarad Klein of Keota has worked on this latest version.
“Trying to address somebody that has ill intentions, that’s just trying to get access to somewhere where they’ve not been asked to be, they don’t have a reason to be there and then trying to get a video, trying to get a picture that they can then reproduce and use in a negative or hurtful way.” The bill also establishes a new criminal charge for “unauthorized sampling” — for collecting skin or blood samples from farm animals or samples from the soil, air and water on private properties.
The bill passed on a 72-to-24 vote. Critics say the bill could be used to shield those who are mistreating animals or it could prevent reporting of unsafe working conditions in Iowa meatpacking plants. Klein says employees who have a right to be on the property could still be whistleblowers. “All we are saying is that your private property is your property, if somebody comes on without your permission to take pictures and then put it back on the internet, it’s an aggravated misdemeanor up to Class D felony because we value private property rights,” Klein says.
A 2012 state law designed to block undercover investigations of livestock confinements and other farm operations was ruled unconstitutional. In 2019, the Iowa legislature made it a crime to use undercover videos to inflict financial harm on a farming operation, but a lawsuit has prevented that law from taking effect.
New Opportunities in Guthrie County, and Guthrie County ISU Extension & Outreach, are partnering with the USDA to bring Farmers to Families Food Boxes to Guthrie County on Thursday, April 15th, 2021. As part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program announced in 2020, the USDA is exercising authority under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to purchase and distribute agricultural products to those in need. These are 33-pound boxes full of fresh produce, protein, dairy, and milk and are available to anyone, no sign up required. Organizers intend to reach each town in Guthrie County to distribute boxes, distribution will begin at 2:30 pm and until supplies runs out.
Locations include:
For questions, please contact Rhonda Huggins with New Opportunities at 641.747.3845 or Krista Downing with Guthrie County ISU Extension at 641.747.2276.
The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department is looking for Groundskeepers from May to August. All duties and requirements in the job description have been determined by the employer to be essential job functions. They may not reflect the only duties actually performed. Employees in this class will be required to perform other job-related duties when it can be reasonably implied that such duties do not fundamentally change the basic requirements, purpose, character or intent of the job.
To view the full job description and apply please visit https://atlanticia.seamlessdocs.com/f/groundskeeper or contact the Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department at (712) 243-3542 or City Hall at (712) 243-4810.
(Radio Iowa) – New climate outlooks being issued show a warm and dry trend for Iowa and for much of the country this spring and well into summer. Climatologist Pat Guinan, who moderated the monthly North Central Region climate update for the National Weather Service, says the warming pattern will start in April. “It does look like above-normal temperatures are anticipated across all of the NWS central region,” Guinan says, “and below-normal precip is in the cards, at least according to the forecasters.”
Guinan says the next 90 days shows warm conditions spreading. “We see a lot of the country covered in above-normal temperatures for the April-May-June period,” Guinan says, “We see below-normal precipitation indicated, not good, when you consider much of the western half of the country is still experiencing some form of drought.” The latest map from the U-S Drought Monitor shows much of northern and western Iowa is abnormally dry, with some areas ranging from moderate to severe to extreme drought.
As the La Nina pattern fades, Guinan says the summer forecast indicates continued warm, dry weather. “All of the Corn Belt, we’re forecasting a slight enhanced likelihood of above-normal temperatures this summer,” Guinan says. “That dryness has shifted a little bit toward the north and northeast for the summer, for below-normal precipitation with the highest likelihood extending through the Dakotas, western Minnesota, northwest Iowa, all of Nebraska and northern Kansas.”
In the short term, Guinan says the expectation is for moderate to heavy rain much of this week across Iowa and into the central U-S.
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