Get ready to welcome spring by attending the 20th Anniversary of the Cass County Master Gardeners’ Spring Garden Seminar. The event is celebrating a milestone in 2018 with a new format, new location and a prominent keynote presenter. This year’s seminar, “GROW-Weaving Plants Throughout Your Life” is truly a celebration with lots of exciting changes.  Even if you are not a gardener, this seminar will get you excited for spring and help you to learn how flowers can brighten your home and your life. The event will feature J. Schwanke, a true flower celebrity, author, award winning speaker, and the most trusted voice in the flower industry.  J.Schwanke is a 4th generation florist, host and creator of “Fun with Flowers and J”, and a frequent guest on P.Allen Smith’s Garden Home.  The seminar will also welcome local celebrity baker and owner of Miss Nini’s Fine Desserts, Janine Knop.  Miss Nini will share a demonstration of a dessert created especially for this year’s garden seminar.

A new addition this year will be 80 minutes of “lightning learning” where attendees will have the opportunity to rotate between five minute demonstrations on topics such as herb candles, preserving dried flowers, pollinator plantings, Glenwood’s Giving Garden, unusual container gardens, seed bombs and garden tapes. J will also be offering copies of his award-winning books for sale throughout the event, and will be on hand during the lightning learning sessions to sign them and visit with attendees.

“GROW-Weaving Plants Throughout Your Life” will be held on Saturday, March 17th at the Cass County Community Center. Registration begins at 8:30 AM and the seminar opens at 9 AM with the keynote “How to Create Your Own Life in Bloom” by J Schwanke.  The keynote will be followed by lightening learning sessions. A catered luncheon will be served while conference-goers enjoy a dessert demonstration by Janine Knop, attendees will enjoy one of the featured desserts with their meal. A second presentation by J Schwanke entitled “Fun with Flowers” will complete the day by 3 PM.

Cost for the day, including continental breakfast, lunch and all sessions, is $35. A schedule and registration form are available at the Cass County Extension office, or online at www.extension.iastate.edu/cass.  Cass County Master Gardeners are encouraging those interested to register early, as space is limited. For more information, call the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or email xcass@iastate.edu. Register now and plan to join the Cass County Master Gardeners for the 20th Annual Spring Garden Seminar- GROW!

Bonus Event! Want to hear more of J? Join the Cass County Libraries for a fun and enjoyable evening event with J Schwanke, Saturday evening March 17th following the Garden Seminar. A separate event from the Garden Seminar; doors will re-open to the public at 6:30 PM, and J will present at 7 PM. He will entertain with helpful tips and stories while creating beautiful floral displays. A few lucky attendees will even take an arrangement home! Event admission is a free will donation; proceeds will be used for the purchase of online resources for all Cass County Libraries. Contact your local library for more information or view a flier on the Cass County Extension website. Cass County Master Gardeners are pleased to partner with the Cass County Library Association to help them raise funds to expand their services to the local community. Master Gardeners will be on hand during the evening event for book sales and signing as well.

w.Kate Olson.

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A day after resigning as Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey took the oath of office for a federal job. Northey is now an Undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue flew to Iowa to conduct the ceremony last (Tuesday) night at a previously-scheduled ag leadership banquet on the state fairgrounds. After the event, Perdue told reporters Northey will be in charge of organizing and consolidating some agencies within the U-S-D-A — that includes the Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Risk Management Agency. “So we can have a one-stop shop for farmers where they can come in and get answers. Their databases need to coincide and work together, get our IT working and there are a lot of challenges out there and we’re going to do it,” Perdue said. “We’re both sooner-rather-than-later kind of people.”  Northey delivered a “I couldn’t be more excited to be able to work for all of you at USDA,” Northey said, “…and to serve in a way that certainly magnifies or is an example of the support that you all have shown me through the years and certainly in the last four months.”

In early September, President Trump nominated Northey to be Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services. A committee in the U.S. Senate endorsed his nomination in October, but Texas Senator Ted Cruz held up a senate vote on Northey as leverage for changes in the federal ethanol production mandate. Perdue told the crowd Northey had “finally been “liberated from the U.S. Senate” last week. “In case you have any questions about it, Bill Northey, Sonny Perdue and Donald J. Trump stand for the RFS, unequivocally,” Perdue said.

The crowd gave that statement a standing ovation. Perdue calls Northey an “evangelist” about what’s working in Iowa agriculture and someone who has the “moxie to get things done” in the U.S.D.A. “I frankly have been congratulated so much tonight over Bill Northey, I feel like I’m getting married,” Perdue quipped and the crowd laughed. This was Perdue’s fourth visit to Iowa since HE was sworn in as U.S. ag secretary last April. It’s his first since President Trump announced tariffs on steel imports and tweeted about winning a trade war. Perdue was asked how Iowa farmers who may be spooked by those developments should react.
“Pray,” Perdue said, laughing. “…President Trump is a unique negotiator and sometimes he keeps people off balance, even his own staff sometimes…He certainly did that this last week…He believes solely in his heart ‘America first’ and the American people first and that includes American agriculture.”

Perdue says he and others are working “feverishly” with the president on trade issues. Perdue suggested Trump’s unconventional comments may have positioned the U.S. for a breakthrough in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Senate wants to require Iowa grocers in a supplemental food program to offer conventional eggs if they sell eggs from chickens housed in cage-free, free-range or enriched colony cage environments. The Des Moines Register reports that senators passed the measure Monday and sent it to the governor.

The legislation would apply to grocers that participate as vendors in the federal program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC. The measure would allow state officials to seek a federal waiver if necessary. Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, says the bill amounts to “direct interference in the marketplace,” but Sen. Dan Zumbach, R-Ryan, praises the legislation for ensuring that a lower-cost choice for protein is available to people in the program. Cage-free chicken eggs typically are more expensive than conventional eggs from large operations.

Iowa’s Republican governor and the state ag secretary who just resigned to join the Trump Administration both say there’s concern in “farm country” about changes in U.S. trade policies. On Monday, President Trump tweeted that the only way Canada and Mexico get exempted from new tariffs on steel and aluminum will be if the North American Free Trade Agreement is renegotiated. Governor Kim Reynolds says she’s made it clear to members of Trump’s cabinet that “instability” in trade relationships will have a negative impact on Iowa’s farmers. “I’ve made it pretty clear where we stand on that,” Reynolds says. “….Especially, the fragile economy that we’ve had with the farm economy. With commodity prices under input costs, this is something that we monitor very, very closely.”

Reynolds, a Republican who became governor last May, says she is “o.k with” renegotiating trade deals, but since Canada and Mexico are Iowa’s two leading trade partners, she opposes abandoning NAFTA.”The impact that would have on our state and Midwestern states and, really, states all across the country — but I’m focused on Iowa, would be devastating,” Reynolds says. She says when she and the governors of Michigan, Tennessee and Arkansas met with Trump Administration officials in October, they suggested ways the president could “win” at trade. Reynolds also is warning any economic growth from the federal tax cuts would be erased if NAFTA is dissolved. President Trump often mentioned the federal trade deficit as he campaigned for the White House and he’s recently tweeted that a “trade war” would be easy for the U.S. to win. According to the governor, comments like that create “uncertainty” in the economy and Reynolds says she has “tremendous concern” about a trade war. “Our farmers are the first target…and we know that’s where the unintended consequences will fall…on our farmers and our manufacturers,” Reynolds says.

Bill Northey resigned as state ag secretary yesterday (Monday) and will be sworn in this (Tuesday) evening as an undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Northey told reporters yesterday President Trump’s tweets won’t be in his “field of vision.” Instead, Northey indicated he’ll be taking direction from U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue.  “Certainly you’ve heard the secretary continue to say, and the president as well, that trade is important,” Northey says. “We need to improve trade. We need to increase trade. We need to do it in a fair way. There (are) concerns…when you have uncertainties, about where everything’s going in the future.”

And Northey says everyone “in farm country” understands the importance of trade — and the threat posed if other countries retaliate with tariffs on raw commodities like soybeans and on made-in-Iowa products like grain bins and tractors.

(Radio Iowa)

The Shelby County Emergency Management Agency, in conjunction with Fire Chiefs in Shelby County, has begun to issue their bi-weekly, local outdoor fire danger updates. The updates will continue until ground conditions improve. As of Monday, the Fire Danger in Shelby County was “Low.”  The next update will be on Thursday.

Atlantic Fire Chief Mark McNees, today (Friday), said in a statement, “Due to the forecast of increasingly high winds in the next few days, we are advising NO BURNING of any type in and around Atlantic, or for that matter, in Cass County. Fire danger conditions will worsen as winds dry out vegetation. Even though it may appear conditions are favorable due to recent precipitation, it will quickly become a greater hazard. Winds will make any type of wildland fire difficult to control and will spread quickly to many areas that are virtually inaccessible due to the wet soil conditions, hampering firefighters gaining access.”

McNees said also, “Burning of trash in burn barrels will also be a risk and is not advised. As always, anyone wishing to burn at anytime is asked to contact their local fire chief for consultation. Several departments are trained to conduct controlled prescribed burns should landowners need to do mid management burns, or simply wish to clear areas of their land.”

PRIMGHAR, Iowa (AP) — A man felled by toxic gas inside a northwest Iowa hog confinement barn has won nearly $1.2 million for his injuries. An O’Brien County jury hearing the lawsuit trial found property owner Patrick Probst negligent for the 2014 incident and Tuesday awarded Thomas Mook the money.

Probst had been pumping manure from a pit under the barn Mook was power washing Oct. 16, 2014. The pumping caused hydrogen sulfide to be released. Mook contended the barn had not been adequately ventilated before he arrived the next morning to continue the work.

Mook was overcome when he entered the barn office. He subsequently was hospitalized and underwent two years of physical therapy. His attorney says Mook suffered two strokes resulting in brain damage that left him with partial short-term memory loss.

The Cass County Conservation Board will hold a “Native Landscaping” program, next week. Naturalist Lora Kanning says the program will be held at the Atlantic Public Library Community Room in Atlantic, on March 10th, beginning at Noon. The program is FREE, and all ages welcome. Conservation staff we discuss different Native plants, and how to incorporate them into your yard. Discover how to use native plants in your yard, by attending the meeting at Noon, on March 10th.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds has named Iowa’s Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig as the state’s new agriculture secretary. Reynolds made the announcement Thursday. Naig will replace Bill Northey, who was confirmed on Tuesday by the U.S. Senate to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services within the U.S. Agriculture Department.

Naig, who has been deputy agriculture secretary since 2013, will serve the remainder of Northey’s term, which runs through January. Reynolds says Naig has the “experience, knowledge and staff connections necessary” for the post.

Naig says he plans to build “on the momentum that has been created on water quality and accelerating our adoption of conservation practices.”