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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) — Iowa State University researchers say the largest population of monarch butterflies in more than a decade could be headed to Iowa and the Midwest later this spring, prompting a good news-bad news scenario. Steve Bradbury, an I-S-U professor of natural resource ecology, says some 225-million adult monarchs may arrive in the next month or so and they’ll need more milkweeds on which to breed. “If these numbers coming up are as high as we think they might be, we could be overwhelming the amount of milkweed we have in the upper Midwest and Iowa,” Bradbury says. “What we want to do is build our habitat bank, if you will, in Iowa, up to the point that we can maintain those high numbers of monarchs.”
Iowans in rural and urban areas are encouraged to create milkweed habitats, as that’s the only place the important crop pollinators will lay their eggs. “It’s very helpful if folks in Des Moines and Sioux City in their gardens are getting habitat patches started and county parks and city parks, Iowa renewable fuel facilities, getting their patches in,” Bradbury says. “It all combines and is important.”
If the state wants to maintain higher numbers of monarchs, it will need to add a half-million to a million acres of habitat over the next ten to 20 years. Habitat loss and pesticide use have caused monarch populations to drop over the past decade. In recent years, Iowa’s cities, farmers and individual Iowans have joined to create or preserve habitat that’s vital to monarchs, including the cultivation of nectar plant gardens. “Getting new habitat in the ground is picking up the pace,” he says, “and people being really careful about the habitat that’s already on the landscape and protecting it.”
Bradbury says expanding monarch habitat in Iowa will play a major role in the recovery of the species.
(Thanks to Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)
(Radio Iowa) — A western Iowa wildlife area reopened this week after being forced to close due to flooding two months ago. DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge usually sees visitors year-round, but it closed in mid-March as Missouri River levels rose. Park Ranger Peter Rea says a maintenance team from DeSoto and other nearby refuges repaired two sections of paved road that the floodwaters washed out.
“A lot of fill had to be hauled in to fill that and right now, instead of being repaved, they’ve just been covered with gravel,” Rea says. “They’re kind of gravel patches as a temporary Band-Aid before we can get it completely fixed.” Rea says the flooding has brought some animals to parts of the refuge where they normally wouldn’t venture.
“There’s a lot of birds feeding in those flooded areas because it’s shallow water and there’s a lot of fish that are trapped,” Rae says, “so it’s kind of easy picking as far as feeding goes.” They even had a couple of unusual sightings, including a blue heron, which is typically found in the Southeastern U-S. Though the refuge is open to the public, the boat ramps are closed and some hiking trails are still partly flooded.
(Thanks to Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A monthly survey of rural bankers in parts of 10 Plains and Western states shows they’re rapidly losing confidence in the region’s farm economy. The Rural Mainstreet survey for May, released Thursday, shows the survey’s overall index dropping from 50 in April to 48.5 this month. Any score above 50 suggests a growing economy, while a score below 50 indicates a shrinking economy.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the survey, blames trade tensions and tariffs, saying they’re contributing to losses suffered by grain farmers — although livestock producers are faring better. Still, Goss says, bankers believe “the negatives far outweighed the positives.”
The survey’s confidence index, which gauges bankers’ expectations for the economy six months out, plummeted from 50 to 38.2 — its lowest level in almost two years.
Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.
SIOUX FALLS, Iowa (AP) — Arkansas-based meat processor Tyson Foods is suing a federal agency for $2.4 million, saying it had to destroy 8,000 carcasses because a federal meat inspector lied about checking hogs at a plant in Iowa. Tyson Foods says Yolanda Thompson, who works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service, signed certificates suggesting she checked slaughtered hogs at the Storm Lake plant in March 2018. It says video footage indicates Thompson never entered the plant and actually approved inspections while sitting in her automobile.
The Sioux City Journal reports that the meat processor filed suit Tuesday in Sioux City’s U.S. District Court alleging the agencies knew of Thompson’s inadequate inspection practices and physical difficulties walking around the plant. USDA and Tyson officials declined to comment.
(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is issuing a warning about the dangers of an escalating trade war with China. “As I like to tell the president when he says he likes tariffs, I try to remind him that Smoot-Hawley brought about the Great Depression, brought about Adolph Hitler, brought about World War II, brought about 60 million people losing their lives as a result of it,” Grassley says.
The Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 raised tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. by 20 percent and sparked retaliatory tariffs from other countries on U.S. goods. According to Grassley, half the world lived in poverty after World War II, but reducing tariffs and promoting international trade have led nearly 50 percent of the world’s population to be classified as “middle class” today. “I like to tell the president that globalism has helped everybody, freeing up trade has helped everybody and let’s move on,” Grassley says.
Grassley, a Republican, made his remarks to the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Fellow Republican Joni Ernst, Iowa’s other U.S. Senator, says Iowa farmers will suffer “permanent damage” if they lose access to the Chinese market. “We need free trade. We need fair trade and we are not seeing that from China right now,” Ernst says. “So I would say: ‘China, quit hemming and hawing. Let’s get back to the (negotiating) table. Let’s finish this deal.’ It will be good for China. It’ll be great for Americans.”
President Trump began imposing tariffs last year and is threatening to impose a 25 percent tariff on another 325-billion-dollars in Chinese goods next month if there’s no deal. Trump also has promised 15 billion dollars in federal aid to farmers to compensate for trade-related losses.
WEST UNION, Iowa (AP) — Thousands of chickens were killed when a truck crashed in northeast Iowa. KCRG-TV reports the crashed happened early Tuesday when a truck hauling about 5,000 chickens crashed on Highway 18, about a mile west of West Union. The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office says the 44-year-old driver was heading west when he crashed into a ditch. He and a child passenger were treated for minor injuries.
About half the chickens were killed. The others were loaded onto another truck. The driver was cited for failure to maintain control of his vehicle.
Red Oak, IA— The Montgomery County Extension Council and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach have announced the hiring of Meghan Gray as Montgomery County’s Youth Coordinator. Gray began work on May 6th. As the County Youth Coordinator, her primary duties are to strengthen youth development through research-based education and interactive learning opportunities. Gray will coordinate the planning and implementation of 4-H youth outreach and development programs. Examples of said youth outreach are 4-H summer day camps, workshops or clinics, or afterschool groups. As an integral part of the 4-H program, she will focus on positive youth development by establishing various community partnerships, not only supporting the 4-H youth- but the adult volunteers, County Youth Council, and other necessary project committees.
Gray is originally from Mills County, where she was a member of the Loess Hills Trailblazers 4-H Club. She participated in Mills County Council, Region 17 Council, and State Council. She also was a recipient of a State 4-H Leadership Project award. She is a Fall 2018 graduate of Iowa State University where she received her Bachelors of Science degree in Wildlife Ecology and Forestry-with an emphasis in Conservation and Restoration of resources. Gray is enthusiastic about the 4-H program and brings in various experiences which will help her create sustainable programs for the county and youth.
Gray will work closely with Montgomery County’s 4-H program and coworkers, Lori Mitchell, Program Coordinator and office assistant Katie Hart, as well as other Field Specialists serving Montgomery County. Please stop by the Montgomery County Extension Office and welcome Meghan to her new position! Feel free to contact her at mcgray@iastate.edu or 712-623-2592 regarding any questions you may have about Montgomery County’s 4-H program and other resources available through Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in Montgomery County. Extension resources are always available at www.extension.iastate.edu/montgomery. Be sure to “Like” Montgomery County-IA Extension on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
(Radio Iowa) — A safety expert says as Iowa boaters plan to make their first voyage on the water this season, they should check the boat’s life jackets. Susan Stocker, the boating law administrator and education coordinator in the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says “Make sure that there aren’t any rips or tears in it.” The major concern is to ensure the life jacket fits whomever may be wearing it on the boat. “Every life jacket has a label on it that tells the weight and the size for the intended wearer,” Stocker says.
There are more than 230-thousand registered boats in Iowa. Stocker says all boaters should use the buddy system — and give a “float plan” to someone who is NOT out on the water. “Where you’re going to go, when you’re going to be back and potentially even what ramp you’re going to be putting in at,” Stocker says. “With any high water, we may have some snags or debris that’s in the rivers and streams and being able that if you don’t show up back at home at 6:30 in the evening, that somebody starts looking for you.”
Flood conditions in some areas of the state may make boating impossible. Stocker says boaters must realize in high water, submerged trees and other objects can wreck the boat. “The other thing is when you are in a paddle-craft, whether it’s a canoe or a kayak, you’d better expect to be dumped and put in the water because that’s just the nature of those,” Stocker says, “and unfortunately I can say that we just had our third boating accident and it was a paddler.”
It happened within the last few days in southeast Iowa. Stocker says the paddler tipped over and “almost died from hypothermia.”
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