DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Deere & Co. plans to lay off more than 110 workers at its plant in Davenport by Nov. 18. The company also said Tuesday that it would lay off about 50 workers later this month from its Harvester Works plant in East Moline, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from Davenport. Deere public relations director Ken Golden says Deere has lowered its expectations for sales and net income because of decreased customer demand. He says the layoffs are a result of the market conditions.

He says no other Deere plant is included in the layoffs. The company makes equipment for construction, agriculture and landscaping.

w/Kate Olson.

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RED OAK, Iowa – Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Montgomery County office will host an Aquatic, Forest and Right-of-Way Continuing Instruction Course (CIC) for commercial pesticide applicators on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. The program provided by the ISU Extension and Outreach Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) can be seen at office locations across Iowa.

The local attendance site for the Oct. 16 CIC is the Montgomery County Extension Office. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. followed by sessions from 9 to 11:30 a.m. The registration fee is $35 on or before Oct. 8 and $45 after Oct. 9. To register or to obtain additional information about the CIC, contact Katie Hart at the ISU Extension and Outreach Montgomery County office at (712) 623-2592.

The course will provide continuing instruction credits for commercial and public pesticide applicators certified in categories 2 (Forest Pest Control), 5 (Aquatic Pest Control), 6 (Right-of-Way Pest Control), and 10 (Research and Demonstration). Topics to be covered are: recognition of sensitive areas, including groundwater and other non-target sites and organisms (pollinators) as potentially impacted by pesticide applications, drift and runoff; pesticide labels; restricted entry intervals and preharvest intervals; aquatic weed management; bur oak blight treatment; and roadside weed management. Additional information and registration forms for this and other courses offered through the PSEP Program can be accessed at www.extension.iastate.edu/PSEP.
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The Cass County Conservation Board is asking you…When do you think the first Trumpeter Swan will arrive at the Schildberg Quarry (in Atlantic)? You can call in your prediction (by November 11th) to the Conservation Board at 712-769-2372, leave a message and return phone number if their staff are not in. Duplicate dates will not be allowed. For example, if a caller predicts November 25th, no one else will be allowed to predict that arrival date.

One prediction per family, please. The sponsors of this contest will determine the official arrival of more than 6 trumpeter swans to Lake 4. The winner will receive a Trumpeter Swan 8×10 print from the Cass County Conservation Board. This contest is only for residents of Cass County.

Trumpeter Swans have visited the Schildberg Quarry for, at least, Twenty out of the last twenty-one winters. Arrival and departure dates of the swans have been as follows:

1997/1998 December 18 – January 2

1998/1999 Nothing on record

1999/2000 December 25 – February 15

2000/2001 November 23 – March 6

2001/2002 December 25 – February 24

2002/2003 November 23 – March 15

2003/2004 November 26 – March 21

2004/2005 November 25 – March 18

2005/2006 November 17 – March 5

2006/2007 October 30 – March 9

2007/2008 November 22- February 14

2008/2009 November 18- March 12

2009-2010 November 19 – January 5

2010-2011 November 5 – February 10

2011/2012 November 17 – February 21

2012/2013 November 24– March 4

2013/2014 November 12- April 7

2014/2015 November 11- April 6

2015/2016 November 22- March 24

2016/2017 November 19- March 9

2017/2018 November 9- March 20

2018/2019 November 11- January 23

2019/2020 November?

(Radio Iowa) — The wet weather that delayed the planting season has returned to hinder the harvest. The U-S-D-A crop report out Monday shows there were only about three days suitable for fieldwork last week because of poor weather. Thirty-six percent of the crop reached maturity — which 18 days behind last year and two weeks behind average. Two percent of that corn has been harvested — which lags 11 days behind average. Corn condition rated 65 percent good to excellent. The report shows that three percent of soybeans have been harvested — which is eight days behind average. Soybean condition rated 63 percent good to excellent.

DES MOINES– Today (Monday), Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation allowing the transportation of oversize and overweight loads of grain for 60 days during the harvest season.  The proclamation allows vehicles transporting corn, soybeans, hay, straw, silage and stover to be overweight (not exceeding 90,000 pounds gross weight) without a permit, for the duration of this proclamation.

The proclamation applies to loads transported on all highways within Iowa (excluding the interstate system) and those which do not exceed a maximum of 90,000 pounds gross weight, do not exceed the maximum axle weight limit determined under the non-primary highway maximum gross weight table in Iowa Code § 321.463 (6) (b), by more than 12.5 percent, do not exceed the legal maximum axle weight limit of 20,000 pounds and comply with posted limits on roads and bridges.

The Iowa Department of Transportation is directed to monitor the operation of this proclamation to ensure the public’s safety and facilitate the movement of the trucks involved in our state’s harvest. The proclamation goes into effect 12:01 a.m. on October 1st, 2019, and will expire at 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2019.

The Iowa Dept. of Public Health reports there have been three cases of West Nile virus identified in Iowa so far in 2019, with additional cases under investigation. Last year, 104 cases were identified in Iowa. West Nile virus remains a risk until the state’s first hard frost.The following steps can reduce the risk of exposure to mosquitoes:

• Use insect repellent with DEET, Picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or IR3535. Always read the repellent label and consult with a health care provider if you have questions when using these types of products for children. For example, oil of lemon eucalyptus should not be used on children under 3 years of age and DEET should not be used on children less than 2 months of age.
• Avoid outdoor activities at dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active.
• Wear long-sleeved shirts, pants, shoes and socks outdoors whenever possible.
• Eliminate standing water around the home because that’s where mosquitoes lay eggs. Empty water from buckets, cans, pool covers and pet water dishes.
• Change water in bird baths every three to four days.

For more information, visit idph.iowa.gov/cade/disease-information/west-nile-virus.

Hunting season is right around the corner, and the Cass County Chapter of Pheasants Forever s sponsoring a mentored hunt. Their annual pheasant hunt for youth will be held 8-a.m. Saturday, Oct. 19th. Participants and organizers will meet at the Atlantic Hy-Vee that day to pair up with mentors and then head to the field. The event is limited to the first 15 participants who sign up. Please contact Becky Draeger at (712) 249-5130 to register.

BLOCK ISLAND, R.I. (AP) — The winds are blowing fair for America’s wind power industry, making it one of the fastest-growing U.S. energy sources. Land-based turbines are rising by the thousands across America, from the remote Texas plains to farm towns of Iowa. And the U.S. wind boom now is expanding offshore, with big corporations planning $70 billion in investment for the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind farms. But there’s an issue. And it’s a big one. President Donald Trump hates wind turbines.

He’s called them “disgusting” and “ugly” and “stupid,” denouncing them in hundreds of anti-wind tweets and public comments dating back more than a decade, when he tried and failed to block a wind farm near his Scottish golf course. And those turbine blades. “They say the noise causes cancer,” Trump told a Republican crowd last spring, in a claim immediately rejected by the American Cancer Society.

Now, wind industry leaders and supporters fear that the federal government, under Trump, may be pulling back from what had been years of encouragement for climate-friendly wind.
The Interior Department surprised and alarmed wind industry supporters in August, when the agency unexpectedly announced it was withholding approval for the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind project, a $2.8 billion complex of 84 giant turbines. Interior Department spokesman Nicholas Goodwin said offshore energy remains “an important component” in the Trump administration’s energy strategy. But the strategy includes “ensuring activities are safe and environmentally responsible,” Goodwin said in a statement.

Wind power now provides a third or more of the electricity generated in some Southwest and Midwest states. And New York, New Jersey and other Eastern states already are joining Massachusetts in planning for wind-generated electricity. On land, the wind boom already is well established. By next year, 9% of the country’s electricity is expected to come from wind power, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The wind industry already claims 114,000 jobs, more than twice the number of jobs remaining in U.S. coal mining, which is losing out in competition against cleaner, cheaper energy sources despite the Trump administration’s backing of coal.

In Iowa, home to nearly 4,700 turbines that provided a third of the state’s electricity last year, wind’s popularity is such that Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley had a drone film him as he sat, grinning, atop one of the country’s biggest wind turbines. Grassley had no patience for Trump’s claim in April that wind turbines like Iowa’s beloved ones could cause cancer.
“Idiotic,” Grassley said then.

• KJAN, Atlantic  .18″
• 7 miles NNE of Atlantic  .19″
• Anita  .29″
• Massena  .51″
• Audubon  .4″
• Manning  .24″
• Corning  1.58″
• Bedford  2.21″
• Red Oak  1.94″
• Creston  .83″
• Clarinda  1.32″