(Radio Iowa) – Most of us won’t likely remember 2020 fondly but as we enter the year’s home stretch, Iowans are urged to find something beautiful and capture an image of it. Kevin Techau, executive director of Keep Iowa Beautiful, says the organization’s 20th annual photography contest is now accepting entries. “We have five categories: Iowa Landscape, Iowa Water, Iowa Cities, Iowans in Action and Iowa Wildlife,” Techau says. “Contestants can enter as many times as they’d like in any of these categories to capture the beauty of Iowa and we do have prizes to award the best photography.”

Keep Iowa Beautiful was co-founded by former Governor Robert Ray in 2000 as a way to help communities make the state a better place to live, work and raise a family. Photography was one of Ray’s favorite hobbies, so the photo contest has been an annual staple ever since. A panel is being assembled to narrow down the best entries. “We’re going to have a round of judges that will pick winners from each of the five and those will go into the Robert D. Ray Best of Show Award,” Techau says. “In fact, Governor Ray’s eldest daughter, Randi Ray, will be one of the judges who helps make that decision.”

The contest was expanded this year in honor of the 20th anniversary. “The first prize winner in each of the categories, the prizes are $100, $75 for second and $50 for third place, and then in the Best of Show, first place will be $500, second place $250 and third place $100, and then we’ll have a public award where the public can vote for their favorites and we’ll have $100 prize for the winners in that category.”

There’s a $5 fee for each photo entered with a deadline of December 18th. The rules and entry forms can be found at the website: www.keepiowabeautiful.com.

(Radio Iowa) – Many of us will enjoy a Thanksgiving meal today (Thursday) prepared at home — while some have purchased a prepared meal and will have it delivered. The Iowa Farm Bureau’s director of agriculture analytics and research, Sam Funk, says it is important as we move past the holiday to continue supporting local restaurants and other businesses. “I think there is a lot of that food service sector right now who are depending on people being able to use carry out and bringing those cash flows into your local community,” he says. Funk says it helps those businesses — and it also helps those ag producers who supply food to them. “We depend on all segments of our food service industry in order to make for a strong and thriving community. And frankly, to strengthen the opportunities that we have to be able to market products all throughout that supply chain,” according to Funk.

Funk says the U-S has one of the lowest costs of food in the world — but there are still people struggling — and that is important to remember. “I’m hopeful that we will all remember those that might not be as fortunate as even we are. And at the same time, if we have a warm place to be able to lay our heads at night and a roof over our families, hopefully, we will be able to think about those who are having a tougher time right now,” Funk says. He says the pandemic has forced us to become isolated from others and limited the opportunities to go out and volunteer. But he says that doesn’t mean we still can’t help out by donating to food banks and to organizations that help others. “There’s still opportunities that we have to be able to give. And if there is an opportunity that we have to be able to volunteer again — I think that’s an important aspect to carry forward,” Funk says.

Funk says he is confident Iowans will continue meeting the challenges we are facing and will continue helping others as well.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska is creating the nation’s largest tribal national park on a forested bluff overlooking the Missouri River and a historic site of its people. The tribe says the 444-acre park will allow it to tell the story of the Ioway people and provide a rustic getaway where people can hike, camp and bird-watch.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that the Ioway Tribal National Park will overlook a historic trading village once used by the Ioway people to barter for buffalo hides and pipestones with other tribes. That site includes three burial mounds that date back 3,000 years.

Atlantic High School Agriculture Instructor and FFA Advisor Eric Miller reports the Atlantic FFA Chapter placed 4th in the annual Iowa FFA Farm Management Career Development Event virtually on November 12th. Members of the first place team included: Drey Newell, Caroline Pellett, Gunner Kirchhoff, and Garrett Reynolds.

Drey Newell, Caroline Pellett, Garrett Reynolds, Gunner Kirchhoff

FFA teams from 26 chapters participated in this year’s Career Development Event designed to provide the student an opportunity to display their agricultural knowledge and skills in the area of Farm Management. The 95 individuals who participated in the event each completed an objective test which had three sections: economic principles, records and analysis, and risk management. All team members worked together to solve a problem related to break even analysis.

The Iowa FFA Farm Business Management Career Development Event was made possible with support from the Iowa Farm Business Association through the Iowa FFA Foundation. Dr. Ron Deiter, Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, was the Career Development Event coordinator and prepared the test.

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The Iowa FFA Association is a youth organization of over 16,100 student members as part of 246 local FFA chapters across Iowa. The FFA mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. The Iowa FFA Association was organized by delegates from 23 schools at Iowa State College on May 17, 1929 and is an integral part of public instruction in agriculture. The Iowa Department of Education provides leadership and helps set direction for FFA as a service to local agricultural education programs. For more, visit the Iowa FFA Association online at IowaFFA.com, on Facebook, and Twitter.

(Radio Iowa)n – The pheasant season opened on October 31st with a lot of optimism about bird numbers and the prospects for a good season. Iowa D-N-R wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says a lack of phone calls to his office tells him things are looking good. “I haven’t gotten hardly any calls at all –so that means it’s going well,” Bogenschutz says. “Because, if it’s going bad I get the complaints.”

He says the one complaint he’s gotten is a lack of birds in eastern Iowa near Davenport. Bogenschutz says that’s due to a lack of habitat there. He says everything heading into the opener pointed to the potential for success. “We kind of expected that things would be pretty decent. It was a little hard with the roadside counts and the drought, because that does impact the birds that we count. Generally in those regions where the counts weren’t as good, people are pretty pleasantly surprised,”Bogenschutz says. “The weather has been pretty challenging. We’ve had a lot of windy days, some dry days, warm days at least in the first part of the season that make hunting challenging.”

He says calm winds make it easier for dogs to smell the birds and keeps them from moving. “A little bit of snow and the lack of wind is generally ideal. The birds tend to hold better when its calmer and scenting conditions are a better when we’ve got a little moisture,” he says. Bogenschutz says they will have some exact numbers when they get the survey information in after the season ends.

Area Emergency Responders, firefighters, EMT’s, law enforcement and EMA personnel are being informed Due to current circumstances and social distancing the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) will be offering 4-hour long Ethanol Safety Webinars. The FREE webinars are instructed by a nationally accredited and professional instructor with an extensive background in emergency management/firefighting/hazardous materials response. The goal of these seminars is for attendees to gain a full ethanol and ethanol-blended fuel emergency response training experience that can be put to use immediately in the field.

The training program will include the following elements: Ethanol and Ethanol-Blended Fuels, Chemical and Physical Characteristics of Ethanol and Hydrocarbon Fuels, Transportation and Transfer, Storage and Dispensing Locations, Fire Fighting Foam Principles, General Health and Safety Considerations, and Storage and Pre-planning Considerations. Certificates of Participation will be awarded to all registered attendees once the webinar has been completed.

The RFA has conducted nearly 300 in person Ethanol Safety Seminars across the country.

Registration: https://www.transcaer.com/training/training-events/ethanol-emergency-response-webinars/10065

Sessions:

Tue, 12/08/2020 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Wed, 12/09/2020 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 01/27/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 01/28/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 02/24/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 02/25/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 03/24/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 03/25/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 04/21/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 04/22/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT

RFA also offers Ethanol Emergency Response – Train the Trainer webinars which is a pay-it-forward type of program. A single webinar can train a group of individuals who can then turn around and pass that information forward, equipping entire communities with the knowledge necessary to respond to any potential ethanol-related emergency.  The Train the Trainer courses are intended to develop instructors to lead operations level training. The instructors are responders who have an awareness level of hazardous material storage, handing, and emergency response. The learning objectives established are relevant objectives that the instructors must understand. The webinars are open to all professional individuals above the technical level of training who are interested in learning how to teach ethanol emergency response. However, the instruction is tailored toward ethanol production facility employees, ethanol safety professionals, railroad safety professionals, emergency responders, firefighters, police officers, emergency management professionals, etc. Certificates of Participation will be awarded to all registered attendees once the webinar has been completed.

Registration: https://www.transcaer.com/training/training-events/train-trainer-ethanol-emergency-response-webinar/10071

Sessions:

Wed, 12/02/2020 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST
Tue, 03/09/2021 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST
Thu, 06/17/2021 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST
Tue, 08/24/2021 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST

• KJAN, Atlantic  .13″
• 7 miles NNE of Atlantic  .12″
• Massena  .25″
• Anita  .05″
• Audubon  .07″
• Corning  .49″
• Neola  .5″
• Red Oak  .22″
• Clarinda  .57″
• Shenandoah  .45″

w/Kate Olson.

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(Des Moines) – With many holiday gatherings put on hold due to the pandemic, pheasant hunting is one way to keep an annual holiday tradition alive, while staying apart. “Pheasant hunting is a big part of Thanksgiving for many families but with health experts advising against gatherings, this tradition won’t look the same as in year’s past, but it can still be part of the holiday,” said Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  He said hunters who do not live in the same house are encouraged to drive separately to the hunting spot and when they arrive, to space out and not congregate while in the field.

What they’ll find in the field is a pheasant season that’s off to a good start. “I’m hearing really good reports, good pheasant numbers from all parts of the state despite the state experiencing an unusual number of days with gale-force winds and temperatures in the 70s,” said Bogenschutz. “Everybody that’s hunting in good cover is finding and getting birds.” That’s good news heading in to the Thanksgiving holiday and might be just enough incentive to delay the trip to the couch until the afternoon hunt is completed.

Iowa’s pheasant season closes Jan. 10, 2021.

Places to Hunt

The Iowa DNR’s online hunting atlas lists nearly 700,000 acres of public hunting land, including 22,000 acres of land enrolled in the popular Iowa Habitat and Access Program (IHAP) allowing hunter access to private land.

Each area on the atlas includes a link to a map with property boundaries, the size of the area, habitat type, species of wildlife likely found, if nontoxic shot is required and more. The map is available as a downloadable pdf that can be printed or saved to a smartphone.

To view the atlas, go to www.iowadnr.gov/hunting and click on Places to Hunt and Shoot in the left column.

(Radio Iowa) – Farmers took advantage of good weather last week to wrap up some of the remaining harvest work. The U-S-D-A crop report out Monday shows only scattered cornfields remain to be harvested across the state — amounting to about two percent of the crop. Some of the derecho damaged cornfields still have to be disked down — and the report says some farmers are doing extra tillage in areas where corn was knocked down with the worry that the downed corn will come up as volunteer corn in the spring. The harvest finished up three weeks ahead of last year.