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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!
(Radio Iowa) — One of the state’s leading advocates for open government says citizens in places like Perry have a right to know when there’s a public health concern at large local employers. Iowa Freedom of Information Council executive director Randy Evans says “The fundamental concern I have is the public ought to be informed so that they now what is going on in their community.”
On Tuesday, state officials announced 730 employees at Tyson Fresh Meats in Perry had tested positive for COVID-19. That’s 58 percent of all the workers who were tested. The company had been refusing to reveal how many workers had COVID-19, citing privacy concerns. Evans applauds the Iowa Department of Public Health Department’s decision to start announcing outbreaks at facilities like meat packing plants. “The public needs to know more rather than knowing less,” Evans says.
But Evans questions the department’s standard for what constitutes an outbreak. State officials will announce there’s a COVID-19 outbreak when at least 10 percent of the employees at a food production plant or other large manufacturing facility are absent or test positive for the virus. “A business that employs 2000 people, 10 percent who are infected, is a large number of people circulating in the community, potentially,” Evans says.
State Auditor Rob Sand says no corporation or public official should ever claim the federal law on individual health care records justifies withholding the big picture from the public. In late April, Sand had called for packing plant outbreak numbers to be made public.
(Radio Iowa) — One of the country’s largest Latino organizations is calling for a boycott of processed meat, due to outbreaks of the coronavirus at meat packing plants. The League of United Latin American Citizens — also known as LULAC (LOO-lack) is calling on consumers to join their “Meatless May” campaign. Joe Henry leads the Des Moines chapter of LULAC.
“This is again the time for people in America to speak up…for safety and health procedures for these workers,” Henry says, “to make sure that we have justice in the workplace.” Henry and other advocates say in addition to COVID-19 testing for all employees at food processing plants, the corporate owners of the plants should provide paid sick leave and slow down production lines so workers can stand farther apart.
State officials announced yesterday (Tuesday) that 16-hundred-53 employees at FOUR meat packing plants in Columbus Junction, Tama, Waterloo and Perry have tested positive for COVID-19. Henry says that means the relatives of those workers are at risk of contracting the virus. “Aunts and uncles in these homes, grandparents are becoming infected and then having to go the hospitals,” Henry says, “and so it’s tragic.”
State officials reported yesterday (Tuesday) that for the first time, more than 400 Iowans were hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19 and about a quarter of those patients were on ventilators.
CRESTON, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources say that at around 5-p.m. on April 28th, a bystander called 911 after noticing a capsized raft with a family of four on Green Valley Lake, near Creston. All four members of the family were wearing Personal Flotation Devices, also known as life jackets, but were struggling outside of the buoys of the beach area. At the time, strong winds gusting to over 35mph, cold water temperatures and inexperience made for an exhausting effort by the family.
The two adults and two children were able to swim to shore. Rescue personnel from the Creston’s Greater Regional Medical Center, the Union County Sheriff’s Office, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources met the family at the shore and provided immediate medical attention. All four family members’ lives were saved in part to their personal flotation devices.
The Iowa DNR stresses the importance of wearing PFD’s, no matter the circumstances and no matter the skill of the person. Iowa law requires all children 13 years or younger to wear an approved PFD while in a vessel on Iowa waters, unless below deck in an enclosed cabin, or on a commercial vessel with 25 or more people. All vessels, including kayaks and canoes, operating on Iowa waterways are required by law to have the same number of approved PFDs on board as passengers present. Jason Hyde, DNR Park Ranger, said “Just as we saw in this incident, the simple act of wearing a Personal Flotation Device could absolutely save your life and the lives of your friends and family members. The appearance or inconvenience are no excuse for risking your life.”
DNR conservation officers and other law enforcement are present on the waterways throughout the state monitoring, educating and enforcing these laws on a regular basis during the spring, summer and fall months.
(Radio Iowa) — Farmers made some record progress putting crops in the ground last week. Warm, dry weather allowed the wheels to roll on tractors and planters and farmers now have forty-six percent of the beans in the ground. That compares to nine percent of the soybeans planted one week before — and it marks the most soybeans farmers had planted by May 3rd since records began in 1974. Bean planting is now one full month ahead of schedule. Thirty-nine-percent of the expected corn planting got done last week — and it is the first time since 201 that three-quarters of the corn crop was in the ground by May 3rd.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota pork processing plant took its first steps toward reopening after a virus outbreak among workers that was one of the worst in the nation. Smithfield Foods shuttered its Sioux Falls plant for over two weeks because of a coronavirus outbreak that infected over 800 employees. Two departments opened Monday at the plant. Meat processing plants across the country are cautiously reopening after President Donald Trump’s executive order last week classified them as critical infrastructure. Workers, farmers and meat-eaters alike are watching to see if new safety measures will be enough to prevent the types of outbreaks that have torn through the workforce of many plants.
(Radio Iowa) — This spring planting season in Iowa started out much like last year, cold and wet, but conditions have improved significantly in recent weeks. Angie Rieck-Hinz, a field agronomist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, monitors crop conditions in north central Iowa. “It’s such a turnaround from the last couple of springs,” she says. “People are still a little bit in shock about how good planting conditions have been over the course of the last two weeks and how much progress we’ve made planting corn and beans. People are in great shape.”
Rieck-Hinz says farmers were prepared to move quickly this spring — and they’re doing just that. “If conditions are good, say we plant about 13-million acres of corn in Iowa, we can knock out about 1.1- to 1.2-million acres planted statewide on a daily basis,” she says. “Our soil temperatures have stayed pretty steady in the low- to mid-50s, but the big thing that’s helped us is, it’s really kind of dried out.” Rieck-Hinz says the spring weather is much more cooperative this year, but she still recommends growers who planted early check on the progress. “There were people planting corn around April 1st and around April 8th, it was still pretty cool back then and it was kind of wet back then,” she says. “I would go out as soon as that corn starts poking through the ground, and some of it has, do some stand counts and make sure your stand’s where you want it.”
When the new weekly crop report comes out, Rieck-Hinz says she expects to hear nearly all of the corn is in the ground and most of the soybeans.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As the coronavirus pandemic continues to force the closure of meatpacking plants across the country, hog farmers have had to respond quickly to a rapidly growing backlog of animals in their barns by killing and disposing of pigs. Many large-scale hog farmers have little choice once barns reach full capacity. Officials estimate about 700,000 pigs across the nation can’t be processed each week and will be euthanized if plants don’t resume operations.
To help farmers, the USDA has set up a center that can supply the tools needed to euthanize hogs. That includes captive bolt guns and cartridges that can be shot into the heads of larger animals as well as chutes, trailers and personal protective equipment.
(Radio Iowa) – The first weekend in May usually brings many thousands of campers to Iowa’s state parks but this year, with all state campgrounds closed by the pandemic, Iowans again need to change up their routine. Todd Coffelt, chief of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Parks Bureau, suggests instead of camping out this weekend, hold a camp-in.”We are encouraging everybody to take the time to set the tent up in the back yard, use an RV, use a trailer and send a picture in,” Coffelt says. “We want to see folks still taking advantage of the nice weather, spending time together. That’s one of our big things as part of Camping Kickoff Weekend is we’re really promoting the camp-in.”
2020 is the centennial year for Iowa’s state parks. The website, Iowa D-N-R-dot-gov, has all sorts of videos, plans for outdoor adventures like a nature scavenger hunt, and coloring pages of an owl, deer, camping scenes and more. “Because we can’t get everybody to the parks for the celebration, we want to be sure they can take advantage at home,” Coffelt says. “Use some of those worksheets for the scavenger hunt, the bingo, and those pictures, again, help us make those memories and that’s what will keep bringing people back to the park.”
While most state parks remain open, all state park campgrounds are closed due to COVID-19. They’d ordinarily be filled with 20- to 30-thousand campers this weekend. “We have about 4,800 campsites across the state. There’s an average of four to six people per site, so campgrounds really become small cities,” Coffelt says. “People know what they’re doing. They get out of the winter doldrums and they’re able to bring out their excitement and all their gear, especially when we have the nice sunny weather they’re forecasting this weekend.”
If you visit a state park this weekend, he says to take the “Find Peace, Pick Up a Piece” challenge. Bring a trash bag and gloves to help pick up litter, then dispose of it at home in the spirit of “carry in, carry out,” since so many spring clean-up events were cancelled.
Post family photos to social media or to the DNR’s Facebook page with the hashtags: #IowaDNR #IowaStateParks or #IowaStateParks100.
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