The extent of impact that a cold and snowy late winter and heavy rains and flooding in April and May had on pheasant nesting success will likely be seen when the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducts its annual pheasant counts. The statewide survey takes place Aug. 1-15. The survey is conducted by Iowa DNR staff who drive 218, 30 mile routes on gravel roads at dawn on mornings with heavy dew. Hen pheasants will move their broods to the edge of the gravel road to dry off before they begin feeding, which makes them easier to count.

Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife research biologist for the Iowa DNR says “Conditions for the survey are important as the accuracy of the counts depend on the dew conditions when the routes are run.” What staff see when they drive the routes is anybody’s guess. Winter began mild but ended under heavy snow and bitter cold temps. Spring wasn’t much better – below normal temperature and heavy rain across much of the state. Not exactly a recipe for growing a pheasant and quail population.

Bogenschutz says “We started receiving reports of staff seeing pheasant broods in late May and hearing quail calls through the spring and summer which are both positive signs,” he said. “It will be interesting to see the survey results.” The August roadside survey has been conducted over the same routes since 1962. In addition to pheasants and quail, the survey collects data on partridge, cottontails and jackrabbits.  Results will be posted online at www.iowadnr.gov/pheasantsurvey by Sept. 10.  Iowa’s pheasant season begins Oct. 26.

The 2019 Cass County Fair Livestock shows culminated with the Grand Champion Beef Selection at the outdoor show ring Monday night. Hannah Carlson took the Overall Supreme Market Animal honor.

Carlson is a member of the Pymosa 4-H Club and her Grand Champion 4-H Market Steer weighed in at 1,373 pounds. With the Overall championship she will advance to the Best of the West District Show in Denison.

Hannah is the daughter of Mike and Pat Carlson.

Jace Thomsen showed the Overall Reserve Supreme Market Animal with his market steer. He will also advance to the Best of the West District Show.

Thomsen is the son of Jeff and Rana Thomsen.

The 2019 Governor’s Charity Steer Show will mark the 37th consecutive year the beef industry has raised funds to help families who utilize the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Iowa. This year, the show ring competition takes place Saturday, Aug. 10, at 4:00 p.m., in the Pioneer Livestock Pavilion at the Iowa State Fair. Celebrities will lead 25 steers around the ring, vying for the championship designation, showmanship honors, and the People’s Choice award. Immediately following the competition, the steers will be sold at auction with proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Iowa. Both the show ring event and the auction are open to the general public.

Since the Iowa Beef Industry Council and the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association began the Governor’s Charity Steer Show in 1983, the effort has raised more than $3.5 million for the Des Moines, Iowa City and Sioux City Ronald McDonald House Charities. The houses provide a “home away from home” for families of seriously ill children being treated in area hospitals and have served nearly 47,000 families.

Each of the 25 steers are owned by Iowa youth who have cared for the animals and participated in other shows with them. The youth prepare the animals for the show and assist a celebrity in the show ring. Sponsors reimburse the youth for the cost of the animal and choose the celebrity. Youth participating in the 2019 Governor’s Charity Steer Show will also learn additional information about the beef industry on Thursday, and volunteer some time with the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Des Moines on Friday, Aug. 9th.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is looking for help with its annual turkey population estimates in July and August.  Participation is easy – just note the date and county in which the turkey was seen, if it was an adult female or adult male – males have beards on their breast – and whether there were young poults (baby turkeys). There is a link to an online survey and survey card at http://www.iowadnr.gov/Hunting/Turkey-Hunting for those willing to help.

The DNR has mailed survey cards to select turkey hunters who are asked to provide the date and county in which the turkey was seen. If you did not receive a survey card, you are still encouraged to report turkey sightings using the Iowa DNR webpage link. An excellent video of hen turkeys with poults can be viewed on the Iowa DNR’s Facebook page.

Annual population surveys conducted by the DNR are an important component of the species management plans, which includes providing hunting opportunities. All participation is appreciated.

(Radio Iowa) — Farmers who are being financially hurt by international trade disputes will be able to apply for a second round of payments from the federal government starting Monday. Unlike last year, row-crop farmers will get payments based on their county, not the specific crop they planted. Former Iowa ag secretary, now an undersecretary with the U-S-D-A, Bill Northey says checks will start going out next month. “Payments we expect to start mid- to late-August and will be made to three groups of folks,” Northey says. “We have the non-specialty crops, that county payment rate, specialty crops, and then to our dairy and hog producers.”

County rates reflect how much money the U-S-D-A calculated an area lost due to reduced exports and range from 15 to 150 dollars per acre. U-S Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says the payments are meant to help, but won’t make anyone whole.  Perdue says, “President Trump understands that these are the people who are producing and they are the disproportionate bearers of the trade disruption.”

Pork and dairy farmers, and producers of specialty crops like fruits and nuts, will be paid separately. The U-S-D-A raised the amount a farmer can get from the payouts to 500-thousand dollars, if they’re eligible for payments in two or three categories. Perdue says it’s all in keeping with President Trump’s promise.”His administration’s not going to stand by while our productive farmers are treated unfairly by countries acting in bad faith,” Perdue says. “These are the men and women, year after year, who put their equity on the line, assume the financial risk, and every time, they plant a new crop and keep going.”

Iowa State University ag economist Chad Hart says the change from the 2018 payment program will eliminate complaints that soybeans got a much bigger payout than corn. “It’s still targeted by crop even though the crop does not directly factor into the mix of how big your payment is,” Hart says. Overall, the government plans to distribute more than 14-billion dollars in aid to farmers and ranchers through the Market Facilitation Program, or M-F-P. Sign-ups will be taken through December 6th.

More at farmers.gov/mfp
(Thanks to Amy Mayer at Iowa Public Radio, and Gina Cerrentano, KICD, Spencer)

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — An agricultural economist says the Trump administration’s decision to base new handouts to farmers hit by the trade war with China on how many acres they’ve planted might be a fairer way to distribute the cash than the previous per bushel payments.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Thursday that it will pay another $16 billion in aid to farmers affected by the president’s trade war with China. It comes after an $11 billion bailout Trump gave farmers last year.

The new aid shifts from paying farmers a per-bushel rate for affected crops to paying them by how many acres they’ve planted and their location.

Scott Irwin, a University of Illinois agricultural economist says the previous program heavily weighted toward payments to soybean growers and based on bushels, “didn’t make any sense.”

Front row: Little Miss Cassidy Kennedy and Little Mister Grayson Smith. Back row left to right: 2019 Princess Shelby Stephenson, 2019 Queen Haley Becker, 2019 King Nathan Behrends, 2019 Prince Mitchell Williamson.

The 2019 Cass County Fair King and Queen Contest was held on Thursday night at the Atlantic Middle School Auditorium. The festivities were moved indoors due to some lingering rainfall Thursday night but a large crowd still packed in to the auditorium for the event.

The night started with the Little Miss and Little Mister contest were area youngsters got a chance to be interviewed on stage and a winner for each title was drawn out of a bowl. The 2019 Little Miss is Cassidy Kennedy and the 2019 Little Mister is Grayson Smith.

The King and Queen candidates were then brought out along with past royalty for interviews and final questions. Four finalists were brought up for King and Queen for those final judging questions. The four finalists for Queen were Haley Becker, Jocelyn Amos, Carli Henderson, and Shelby Stephenson. The four King finalists were Mitchell Williamson, Tate Den Beste, Nathan Behrends, and Teaguen Sothman. Following those final questions the judges left to make their final decisions.

The 2019 Cass County 4-H Hall of Fame Inductee was Duane Weirich. Duane was thanked for his numerous projects to benefit the Cass County Fairgrounds and for working with area 4-H’ers on their welding projects and starting the Bucket of Junk Contest in Cass County.

The 4-H Banner Club of the Year was Grant Guys and Gals. They were awarded the big banner on stage for the year and the club will get priority seating at the bull ride on Friday night.

Senior recognition was next on the schedule as a large number of Senior 4-H members were honored for their dedication and work with 4-H. The 2018 Iowa State Fair Queen Hailey Swan was also in attendance for the night and talked about her experience with the crowd.

Then it was time to crown the Cass County Fair Royalty. The 2019 Mr. Congenialty award went to Garrett Reynolds, the son of Bob and Nancy Reynolds. The 2019 Cass County Fair Prince is Mitchell Williamson, the son of Dave and Julie Williamson. The 2019 Cass County Fair King went to Nathan Behrends, the son of Curt and Michelle Behrends. Miss Congeniality was awarded to Katie York, the daughter of Dave and Kristy York. 2019 Cass County Fair Princess is Shelby Stephenson, the daughter of Corey and Tammy Stephenson. The 2019 Cass County Fair Queen is Haley Becker, the daughter of Chad and Melissa Becker.

Haley Becker will move on to represent Cass County at the Iowa State Fair Queen Contest. The 2019 Iowa State Fair Queen Coronation will be held on Saturday, August 10th at 7:00pm on the Anne and Bill Riley Stage on the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa State University is studying ways to use soybean oil instead of petroleum-based oil as a bonding agent in asphalt for making roads. Rolland Schnell, a soybean farmer from Newton, says it’s a tremendous opportunity for Iowa growers, who already lead the nation in soybean production. “If this is commercialized, and it is going to be, about 1.6-billion pounds of petroleum oil is used as a binder product now in asphalt, and that’s a lot of oil,” Schnell says. “There’s no reason to believe that, as this is accepted, a large portion of that could be soybean oil.”

Schnell says the studies are finding soybean oil beats the petroleum-based oil on multiple levels when it’s used to build roads.  “Using the soybean oil, you have a superior product and a cheaper product,” Schnell says. “When I say a superior product, the asphalt that is made with this is much more flexible, it’s much more temperature-tolerant as far as it’s application, and it’s much more environmentally friendly.”

Schnell says using soybean oil in asphalt domestically and internationally would be a huge win, especially in this time of a trade war with China, as the need for more export markets is growing.

Cass County Extension is hosting an informational meeting on farmland leasing topics on Wednesday evening, August 7th. The meeting is first in a series of nine across Southwest Iowa, offered by new ISU Extension Farm Management Specialist Patrick Hatting. Landowners and tenants can improve their knowledge of current leasing issues during the annual farmland leasing meetings, being held statewide beginning in late July. More than 80 meetings will be held, led by farm management specialists with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Each meeting will take the form of a three-hour workshop designed to assist landowners, tenants and other agribusiness professionals with current issues related to farmland ownership, management and leasing arrangements.

The meeting in Cass County will be held at the Cass County Community Center in Atlantic beginning at 6:30 PM on August 7th. Registration Fee for the meeting is $20/person, or $30 per couple if sharing a leasing resource book. Topics will include trends in land values and rental rates, conservation issues, farm bill topics, and a look at the year ahead. Participants will receive a 100-page workbook with resources such as surveys, example lease agreements and termination forms, and a multitude of other publications that will help answer common questions, and possibly spark new ideas. Pre-registration is required by Monday August 5th to ensure you will get a booklet. You can call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132 or stop in to get registered.

Melissa O’Rourke, farm management specialist in Northern Iowa with ISU Extension and Outreach says “We’ve seen an increasing need for farmland owners and producer-tenants to have more conversation about the cost of crop inputs as well as reasonable expectations on profit margins. ISU Extension has good resources to help people consider how input costs can be considered in setting cash lease rates, and the workshops will show how those can be used.” According to O’Rourke, the volatility of commodity markets has led to increased inquiries regarding both fixed and flexible cash lease methodologies.

One of the challenges that Iowa landowners and tenants continue to face is the knowledge gap that can exist with modern production agriculture. “We have more aging landowners, and landowners who have never farmed themselves – many of these have inherited land from farming parents,” O’Rourke said. “Together with the producers, we try to educate the parties to understand factors to be taken into account on setting rent and farmland management consideration.”

A listing of all ISU Extension offices hosting meetings statewide is available online, with additional information available through the Ag Decision Maker website at www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/info/meetings.html. The Ag Decision Maker leasing section also provides useful materials for negotiating leases, information on various types of leases, lease forms and newly updated Decision Tools. For more information about the workshop, or to register, visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass, stop by the Cass County Extension Office, or call (712) 243-1132.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Midwest wildlife officials gathered Wednesday to discuss how they might better combat chronic wasting disease, which has been spreading among the region’s deer herds. Among those at the two-day conference in Madison were wildlife officials from Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin and two Native American tribes — the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Forest County Potawatomi.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Preston Cole kicked off the meeting by imploring the attendees to collaborate with one another. “We’ve all been working trying to stop it on our own. That has to change,” Cole said. “It is our region that is at stake. We have a great opportunity to show the public at large that we are on it.” He told reporters that the conference is “unprecedented” and that states need to make sure they’re not spending money on the same research.

The agenda calls for group discussions on the state of research on the disease, the creation of a common platform for interstate communication on it and the best management practices.
State conservation officials from Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin were slated to make presentations today (Wednesday). The group is expected to conclude the conference on Thursday by making recommendations on how to improve regional management of the disease, which attacks the brains of deer and causes the animals to grow thin, act abnormally and eventually die. The disease threatens the deer hunting industry throughout the Midwest.

The disease had been found in at least 24 states in the continental U.S. as well as two Canadian provinces as of early June, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s also been reported in reindeer and moose in Norway, Finland and Sweden. The disease was first detected in Wisconsin in 2002. Infections have since been detected in 35 of the state’s 72 counties.