(Radio Iowa) — The bobcat comeback in Iowa continues and that’s led the Iowa D-N-R to raise the trapping limit in the area where they are most prevalent in the state. D-N-R wildlife biologist Vince Evelsizer says the limit was raised “Up from one bobcat up to three across the southern three tiers of counties in southern Iowa. While other counties — it’s a one bobcat bag limit.”  Forty-six of Iowa’s 99 counties are still closed to any bobcat trapping — stretching from the counties next to the western border across central Iowa to the eastern side of the state. Evelsizer says some of those close counties are starting to see more animals. “The bobcat population continues to do well — it’s still in expansion mode — so, we are happy to see bobcats still expanding into more areas of Iowa from a south to north direction,” Evelsizer says. “Right now, kind of the front line for that is northeast Iowa. There’s starting to be more bobcats up there.”

Bobcat

The bobcat range has already expanded from southwest Iowa northward along the western border.”Places like Boone County, Webster County they are doing very well up through there, up through the river corridors. And then in western Iowa they now extend all the way up the South Dakota-Minnesota border in western Iowa. We are seeing them fill in in areas of good habitat throughout the state in a south to north direction,” Evelsizer explained.  He says they have taken a conservative approach to the amount of bobcats that can be taken as they’ve made a comeback. “It’s another case of a wildlife success story that they largely did on their own, where they naturally came back to Iowa. They are originally native to Iowa — and they came back over time,” according to Evelsizer. “In this case all we did was protect them from harvest and any other kind of take from the mid 70’s up until 2007 when there was a closed season on them.”

The bobcat comeback has not gone unnoticed among the human residents of the state. There were many unconfirmed reports of bobcat sightings as their population increased — that in some cases were cats or other animals — and some cases were actually bobcats. Evelsizer says there’s still a lot of talk about them. “It’s really mixed. There’s more folks that have seen bobcats than ever. They tend to show up — especially on trail cameras — and sometimes folks will see them in their backyard walking along the edge and that sort of thing,” Evelsizer says. “In general bobcats are secretive. There’s a few places in some towns where bobcats are getting spotted regularly. But in general bobcats they are a secretive animal that’s mostly nocturnal.”

The bobcat season opens Saturday (November 2nd) and runs through January 31st. The counties where the bobcat bag limit has been raised from one to three (locally) include: Adair, Adams, Cass, Fremont, Madison, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Taylor and Union. The counties that stay at a one bobcat limit include: Audubon, Crawford, Dallas, Guthrie, Harrison, Monona, Shelby, Sioux and Woodbury. The overall season limit for bobcats is three.

w/Kate Olson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

(Radio Iowa) — The U-S-D-A unveiled its rules for the production of industrial hemp Tuesday and now the state of Iowa can move forward with its plan. Robin Pruisner is putting together that state plan and says they now have the 161-page federal plan that has sections dictating the state plans. “We need to digest those. We had drafted up some rules that we thought was probably the direction that the U-S-D-A was gonna go,” Pruisner. She says the one key part of the plan is how to test the hemp to be sure it is legal. “What I’ve really been looking for is any protocols they have for sampling and testing. In an ideal world all the states would do it the same — instead of the situation we are in now where the states at times are at times wildly different from one another,” Pruisner says. So I am glad that they did lay down some sort of protocol that will help make the process uniform.”

The testing is one of the final steps in the hemp season. “Before a farmer can harvest the hemp, we need to officially sample it and test it and make sure that it is below that point-three percent T-H-C. And once that happens — the producers then can harvest it and process it,” she says. She says on her first look at the U-S-D-A plan, there don’t appear to be a lot of issues. “I think much of what is in that U-S-D-A document aligns with the stature that the governor signed in May here in Iowa,” according to Pruisner.

Pruisner says the prospect of growing hemp has piqued a lot of interest. “I speak to many people about hemp every day. My new hobby is talking on phone,” Pruisner says, “and I think we have a lot of people out there who are giving really serious thought to this. And then there are other people who have maybe read a short article on this or have seen something online, and they don’t have a lot of information.” She says she tells those considering hemp production one thing. Pruisner says the number one piece of advice is you should not plant hemp until you have a contract to sell it. “This isn’t like corn or soybeans where there is an open market and you can sell it to this grain elevator or that ethanol plan. You need to know what your final buyer wants and grow accordingly,” Pruisner says.

She says the release of information for the U-S-D-A now lets them get the Iowa plan completed. “I would say that we’re over halfway there, but there’s a lot of details in this plan from the U-S-D-A that we have to address,” Pruisner says. She says the U-S-D-A will have 60 days to review the plan and give their approval once they complete and submit it.

(Radio Iowa) — A northwest Iowa ethanol plant that was idled in mid-September has resumed production, due to action in California. Kelly Nieuwenhuis, a farmer from Primghar, is president of farmer-owned Siouxland Energy in Sioux Center. “The State of California is using a significant amount of ethanol to meet its requirements under the low-carbon fuel standard and CARB lowered our plant’s carbon score by roughly 10%, giving us a new market opportunity,” Nieuwenhuis says. “As a result, now we’re back on line and operating at 50% capacity.”

CARB stands for the California Air Resources Board which regulates emissions to reduce pollution that causes smog and other air quality problems. Nieuwenhuis testified at a congressional hearing yesterday (Tuesday) about the Sioux Center plant’s temporary shutdown — and its recent re-start. “This small boost came directly from California, not the EPA,” Nieuwenhuis said. “The regulatory attempts by the EPA give us little confidence that we will see the relief that we need.”

This past spring, the ethanol industry urged California officials to approve sales of higher ethanol blends, to reduce carbon emissions. Distillation at the Sioux Center ethanol plant started this past Saturday and fermentation started on Monday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — U.S. agriculture officials say a rule that allows farmers to legally grow hemp will be finalized this week. It’s a move that many states have awaited for months so they can begin widespread hemp production. The rule establishes requirements for licensing, maintaining records on the land where hemp will be grown, testing the levels of the ingredient in marijuana that causes a high, and disposal of plants that don’t meet the requirements. The rule also makes hemp producers eligible for U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, including insurance coverage.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Tuesday that the USDA will publish an interim final rule Thursday that formalizes the hemp program approved in the 2018 farm bill. States and Native American tribes can now submit plans for hemp production for USDA approval.

• KJAN, Atlantic  .2″
• Audubon  .6″
• Carroll  .2″
• Underwood  1″
• Denison  .5″
• Corning  1″
• Red Oak  .3″

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa saw a record number of coyotes taken last year and a D-N-R fur-bearer biologist says they remain the hot animal to hunt and trap. Vince Evelsizer says there were more than 18-thousand coyotes taken last year. “Typically it’s been 12 to 13 thousand in recent years, which is higher than recent years before that. Twenty or 30 years ago — that would have been unheard of,”Evelsizer says. The 18-thousand was well above the previous record of 15-thousand-347.

Evelsizer says several things have put the coyote in the spotlight. “In the last few years the fur market for coyotes has remained good — and then at the same time there’s more T-V shows, videos — and the hunting industry has developed gear a little more specifically predator hunting,” Evelsizer says. “And so it’s just kind of caught on. It’s become more popular, all those things have just kind of come together and it’s made coyote hunting and coyote trapping more popular than ever.”

He says coyotes have a key place in the food chain here. “As a whole, coyotes are the largest carnivore and canine that we have in Iowa. Typically an adult will weigh up to 35 pounds or so. A few can get bigger than that — but on average — an adult male coyote is round 30 to 35 pounds,” according to Everlsizer. “So, they are like a medium-sized dog if you are trying to picture what they look like.” He says they start adding some weight in the fall and their fur becomes “prime” or very thick so the animals can make it through winter. There are a variety of other fur-bearing animals hunted in Iowa. “Raccoons are still up there as probably the number two species most targeted. And after that it is probably a mix of mink and muskrat, and red fox, things like that,” Evelsizer says.

He says the majority of the fur-bearers in Iowa are doing very well. “Either their population is currently stable or trending up slightly — it depends on which species. There’s only two species that are a concern, gray fox or muskrat,” Evelsizer says. “Gray fox, the population has declined fairly drastically.” He says they want to do a study to try and determine why the gray fox population is dropping. Evelsizer says the muskrat population has been declining across the Midwest — but has seen an uptick in some states — and is not as big a concern.

The fur-bearer season for most species opens November 2nd. The coyote season is continuous. The D-N-R reports Iowa ranks in the top five states for the number of licensed fur-harvesters per capita, averaging around 14-thousand-500 each year for the last three years.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Missouri farmer who played a role in the largest organic grain fraud scheme in U.S. history has been sentenced to nearly two years in federal prison. John Burton became the 5th farmer to receive prison time in the “Field of Schemes” case on Monday, when he was sentenced by a federal judge in Cedar Rapids to 22 months behind bars.

Prosecutors said that Burton grew grain that he knew was not organic and sold it to Missouri farmer Randy Constant, knowing that Constant was going to market and sell it as organic. Burton also worked for Constant, often spraying his fields with chemicals and fertilizers that are not allowed to be used on organic fields.

Constant is considered the mastermind of the $142 million fraud scheme, which tainted countless products that were marketed as organic. He died by suicide in August, weeks before he was to report to prison to begin serving a 10-year term.

Three Nebraska farmers have also received prison sentences in the case.

Congratulations to Suzette Christensen, the winner of Herman the Hog!

Herman weighed 284 pounds and no one guessed the weight correctly.  Nine people were one pound off on their guesses, four chose 283 pounds and 5 people chose 285 pounds.  Since there is only one winner, those names were tossed together and Suzette won the drawing.

We had great turnout on Friday with lots of guesses at both locations.

Thanks again and enjoy great local pork products as we celebrate Pork Month in October!

(Radio Iowa) — The man who tracks pheasant numbers in the state is expecting a good season when hunters take to the fields for opening day Saturday. D-N-R wildlife biologist Todd Bogenschutz says the roadside survey in August usually gives him a good idea of what to expect. He says the counts were down a little bit statewide but for the most part most were about the same. Bogenschutz says last year saw the best harvest in a decade and that sets things up for a good fall hunt. Not all areas of the state are equal. “South-central and south-east Iowa, the counts were down by 50 percent — so I think hunters in that part of the state are going to see lower bird numbers,” according to Bogenschutz. “But the rest of the state, the counts came in more or less unchanged, or down just slightly.”

There will be a lot of standing corn and beans this weekend and Bogenschutz says that could make it tougher to find birds. He says the crops provide a big hiding place for the pheasants and the more crops the more the birds concentrate. Bogenschutz says the people who get out are going to get some birds. He says the conditions will change as the harvest progresses. “Birds will figure out where the refuges are — but as soon as those fields are harvested — they are going to be available again,” He says.

Bogenschutz suggests you make a second trip into areas where the crops were not out of the fields this weekend. “I’d encourage hunters to go this weekend, it’s the opener, and you’ll shoot a bunch of birds. don’t overlook maybe three or four weeks into the season — because you may find birds that haven’t been been hunted yet once the crops start truly coming out,” Bogenschutz says. Bogenschutz expects hunters to take around 200-thousand pheasants. The August survey is nearly identical to 2008 when Iowa hunters harvested 400-thousand roosters, but Bogenschutz says hunter numbers are lower.