(Radio Iowa) – Due to recent good weather, harvest activity in Iowa is progressing at a pace that’s a few weeks ahead of normal. Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig says despite all the obstacles of the pandemic, this has turned out to be a good growing season for most Iowa farmers.  “We’re ahead of schedule on harvest and, you know, we’re hearing some OK yields, all things considered,” Naig says. “Certainly western Iowa got started first and now you are seeing it really work across into eastern Iowa.”

Naig says the exception to the positive harvest news would be areas impacted by the August 10th’ derecho that flattened many fields in the central third of the state.  “It’s bad,” Naig says. “There’s millions of acres that were significantly damaged and folks are having to go out and it’s hard work to get that crop picked up. A lot of those acres were declared a total loss and they’ve settled with crop insurance. A challenging year no doubt, one that a lot of us want to put in the rear view mirror from the harvest standpoint.”

Naig says a USDA risk management agency administrator will be in Iowa today (Thursday) to take an up-close look at the derecho-damaged areas. The U-S-D-A’s weekly crop report issued Monday showed one quarter of Iowa’s corn crop had been harvested. That’s more than three weeks ahead of last year and 12 days ahead of the five-year average. The report found 55 percent of soybeans have been harvested — only the second time in the last 15 years that at least half of the Iowa soybean crop was harvested by the first Monday of October.

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) – The archery deer season is underway and D-N-R deer program leader Tyler Harms says while there are not as many deer taken — they still are looking for samples to help track a disease that is deadly to the animals. “ChronicWasting Disease or C-W-D is what it is referred to — is something that we’re continuing to test for on an annual basis. And we certainly do that statewide during the archery season,” Harms says.

He says hunters can play a key role in the monitoring program. “If they are willing to help us out with that effort in tracking where the disease is in the state, just submit a sample. And they can do that by contacting their local wildlife biologist,” Harms says.

There have been a total of 89 positive C-W-D tests in the wild deer population since testing began in 2013. A majority of the cases have been found in the northeast corner of the state.

(Radio Iowa)  – The number of complaints from Iowa farmers about a powerful herbicide floating from one field to another and causing damage has reached record levels this year. Agronomists across the state report 329 pesticide misuse complaints involving so-called dicamba drift. Iowa State University Extension weed specialist Bob Hartzler says a variety of factors are involved. “Some of it is the volatility that with the use in soybeans, you’re applying it later in the year and so you have warmer temperatures,” Hartzler says. “This year, we saw a lot more movement out of corn fields than typical, so the dicamba use in corn has increased with the spread of herbicide-resistant weeds.”

He says lowering the volatility might be the best course of action. “For other dicamba products that are used in row crops, I think we ought to look at requiring all of those products to be lower volatility,” he says, “because it’s not just volatility out of soybeans that’s causing problems.” Farmers are doing their best to follow directions when applying dicamba, but drifting continues to cause damage. “It’s frustrating when they do everything right and they still have issues,” Hartzler says. “The number-one criteria to preventing problems is to evaluate individual fields to determine the risk of off-target movement.”

Some states, including Missouri and Minnesota, imposed restrictions on dicamba applications, while Iowa launched special training sessions on the use of the herbicide in 2018.

(Radio Iowa/Missouri Net) – Farmers across western Iowa who planned to move their commodities by barge along the Missouri River this fall could be facing a slowdown. Colonel Bill Hannan, the Kansas City district commander for the U-S Army Corps of Engineers, says barge season may be threatened as work is still underway to repair damage to the navigation channel after three years of high water and widespread flooding.

“The river levels have returned to normal,” Hannan says. “They’re not low, they’re just normal service levels that we would see, but because of all that damage to navigation structures, it’s creating shallow spots in the navigation channel on the river.” Last year’s floods damaged up to 75-percent of the seven-thousand river training structures on the lower Missouri River. Repairs could cost 200-million dollars but the Corps of Engineers only allocated 20-million.

Hannan says he understands the importance of barge traffic with harvest season already underway. “We are doing absolutely everything we can to not let the barge traffic stop,” Hannan says, “because we know the agricultural community is really dependent to move their goods in the fall harvest here.”

Hannan says crews from the Corps and from private contractors are making repairs and guiding barges away from trouble spots. He says the Corps is working hard to find more money to restore the river’s navigation channel.

(Radio Iowa) – The dry conditions in parts of Iowa this year have been a mixed blessing for wineries. Iowa Wine Growers Association, marketing director, Nicole Eilers says the drought has led to some loss in production — but it also has a positive.

The derecho on August 10th also made an impact on the grape crop in parts of the state.

Another impact of the drought has been an increase in problems with birds looking to grapes as a meal.

Eilers says the birds can eat up a crop quickly.

Eilers says the dry conditions combined with the coronavirus pandemic have hit the industry hard and she expects some wineries will not be able to survive into next year.

The Washington G.E.M. 4H Club in Cass County met on Sunday, October 4th, for their regular meeting and installation of officers.  Due to COVID the club was unable to celebrate their 100th Anniversary last year so plans are again in the works to celebrate this coming year.  This week also starts 4H week so members of the club decorated the window at Bonnesen’s in downtown Atlantic and also the display case at the Atlantic Public Library with memorabilia of the clubs last 100 years.  Club members also displayed posters in the schools and at Oathoudt Farm Supply explaining what 4H is about and how to join!

A member who did their presentation on drones and the use of them in farming applications was able to take a great photo of the club celebrating 100!

Information & photos submitted by Melanie Petty.

For more information on 4H please contact the Cass County Extension Office at 243-1132.

Red Oak, Iowa – Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Montgomery County office will host fall showings of commercial pesticide trainings beginning with an Aquatic, Forest and Right-of-Way Continuing Instruction Course (CIC) for commercial pesticide applicators on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. All programs provided by the ISU Extension and Outreach Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) can be seen at office locations across Iowa. The local attendance site is the Montgomery County Extension Office. Due to social distancing requirements preregistration is required. Walk-ins on the day of the program will not be permitted. Space for each showing is limited, and reshows will be scheduled as needed. Participants will be required to wear masks while inside the extension office.

All courses run from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. unless otherwise scheduled. The registration fee for all courses and re-shows except Pest Control Operators will be $35 on or before December 4th, and $45 from December 7th-17th. Fees for the Pest Control Operators will be $60, or $70 after December 4th. No reshows will be scheduled after December 17th. To register or to obtain additional information about these courses, contact Katie Hart at the ISU Extension and Outreach Montgomery County office at (712) 623-2592.

Courses can be scheduled in the Red Oak office on or after:

• October 21: Roadside, Forest, and Aquatic Pest Management (Categories 2, 5, 6, 10)
• October 28: Mosquito and Public Health Pest Management (Categories 7D, 8, 10)
• November 4: Ornamental and Turf Applicators (Categories 3O, 3T, 3OT, 10)
• November 17: Fumigation (Categories 7C, 10)
• November 18: Commercial Ag Weed, Insect, and Plant Disease Management (1A, 1B, 1C, 10)
• December 2: Pest Control Operators (Categories 7A, 7B, 8, 10)

Additional information and registration forms for this and other courses offered through the PSEP Program can be accessed at www.extension.iastate.edu/PSEP.

(Radio Iowa) – China is working to rebuild its grain stockpiles after the pandemic and Iowa farmers will be helping to fill the order. Dermot Hayes, an ag economics professor at Iowa State University says China’s demand for corn is surging well beyond the norm. “They had been running at a deficit for several years by consuming way more corn than they produced and they did that by getting into their stocks,” Hayes says. “Then COVID has convinced them to rebuild those stocks rather than to deplete them and so that has created a scarcity there and an opportunity for us.”

China is willing to buy huge quantities of American commodities, Hayes says, because Iowa corn is cheap compared to grain produced in China. “It’s good news for corn and soybean producers,” Hayes says. “Their domestic prices are about $8.50 and ours are probably closer to $3 in central Iowa, so there’s a big incentive for them to buy our corn rather than their own.”  China has a storage quota of seven-point-two million tons of corn, but Hayes predicts they’ll go far beyond that figure. While last month’s derecho heavily damaged millions of acres of Iowa fields, it won’t prevent Iowa producers from making a big sale in China, since other nations are cutting back their purchases.

“We were going to have big carry-out stocks with or without the derecho, so where China’s going to get that corn is from product that we would’ve otherwise stored into next year,” Hayes says. “Hogs, corn and beans have been on a tear and it’s all China-related. So many other markets we’re having difficulty with because the world economy is slowing down. Countries are going to have to go into austerity because of the money they’re spending right now.”

The most recent data says China will now import 21-billion dollars in agricultural products from the U-S in the first year of the Phase One deal, an increase of almost three-billion from the first prediction in May.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa sheriff asked farmers to temporarily halt the harvest, fearing high winds would carry sparks from combines and set off fires. Several grass and field fires were reported Tuesday afternoon in Sioux County while under a ‘red flag’ warning that was issued from the National Weather Services. County resources were stretched thin fighting the fires as they spread quickly in the dry and windy conditions. As a result, county authorities issued a request, asking farmers to refrain from harvesting until conditions improved. The same is expected today as the National Weather Service has issued another red flag warning for portions of northwest Iowa from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m.

A corn field fire was reported late this (Wednesday) morning north of Massena, but dispatch reports indicated there were no structures nearby that were in danger of being consumed by the flames.