The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, handed a one-point-two ($1.2) million dollar budget cut earlier this year, is putting out a call for volunteers to help spruce up Iowa’s state parks as the summer camping season winds down. Todd Coffelt, chief of the DNR’s State Parks Bureau, is organizing Iowa’s first State Park Volunteer Day tomorrow (Saturday).

The volunteer activities will take place in nearly three dozen of Iowa’s state parks.

Volunteers could also be removing invasive plants, making building repairs, and painting picnic tables. Iowans who want to help may need to bring tools and supplies.

Iowa’s State Park Volunteer Day is held in conjunction with National Public Lands Day – the nation’s largest one-day volunteer effort for public lands. For more information and to view a list of parks looking for volunteers, go to: www.iowadnr.gov/volunteerday.

Radio Iowa

MADISON, Wis., Sept. 27, 2017 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) Acting Administrator Steven J. Peterson today announced that physical loss loans are available for three counties in Wisconsin. Farm operators who have suffered major physical losses caused by heavy rains, flooding and high winds that occurred from July 19 through July 21, 2017, may be eligible for emergency loans.

This Administrator’s Physical Loss Notification has been issued for Crawford, Iowa and Sauk counties as the primary damaged area.

Producers in Allamakee and Clayton counties in Iowa are also eligible because they are contiguous counties.

FSA’s low interest emergency loans may be made available to any applicant with a qualifying loss in the counties named above. Approval is limited to applicants who suffered severe physical losses only.

Physical loss loans may be made to eligible farmers and ranchers to repair or replace damaged or destroyed physical property essential to the success of the agriculture operation, including livestock losses. Examples of property commonly affected include essential farm buildings, fixtures to real estate, equipment, livestock, perennial crops, fruit and nut bearing trees, and harvested or stored crops and hay.

Producers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans for physical losses.

Please contact FSA for more information on loan eligibility and the application process. FSA office information is available at http://offices.usda.gov. Additional FSA disaster assistance program information is available at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov.

In an update to our earlier report, officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said Wednesday afternoon (at around 2:20-p.m.), that repairs were made Wednesday to the Shenandoah Wastewater Treatment Plant, which had a system failure earlier that same morning.

The DNR still recommends persons should avoid contact with the East Nishnabotna River at County Road J32 (190th Street) west of Shenandoah for the next 24 to 48 hours after the discharge ends. Farmers downstream should find alternative sources of drinking water for livestock.

The DNR will continue to monitor the situation and provide technical assistance, and consider enforcement action if appropriate.

• KJAN, Atlantic  .72″
• 7 Miles NNE of Atlantic  .69″
• Massena  .83″
• Elk Horn  .92″
• Missouri Valley  .64″
• Glenwood  .73″
• Carroll  .5″
• Manning  .93″
• Logan  1.04″

JOHNSTON, Iowa –  September 25, 2017 – This month, Duane Aistrope, a Fremont County farmer, assumed the role as Iowa Corn Promotion Board President (ICPB).  Iowa corn farmers elect their peers to the ICPB in overseeing the investments of the Iowa corn checkoff. The Board’s primary activities include domestic and foreign market development, research into new and value-added corn uses, and education on the corn industry and helping to tell the story of Iowa’s farm families.

“The Promotion Board works year-round to continuously create opportunities for long-term corn grower profitability,” explained Aistrope. “Our efforts are focused on new uses, expanding ethanol usage domestically as well as internationally, and trade for corn in all forms.”

Aistrope, a graduate of Iowa Western Community College, has been farming for 37 years. In his current operation, he raises corn and soybeans, and operates a cow/calf operation. He and his wife, Roberta, have three children. Duane has served as Chair of the Exports and Grain Trade Committee and currently serves as the Innovation and sustainability leader for the US Grains Council Action Team.

“The Iowa Corn Promotion Board identified market development as one of its top priorities,” he stated. “As corn farmers continue to get more efficient at producing a bountiful crop, we need to have markets for all those piles of corn. We understand that to advance this industry we need to expand markets and persistently promote corn in all forms.”

Duane wants to promote the increased usage of corn-ethanol in Iowa and help to identify additional uses for our corn such as exports, bio plastics, and DDGS.

He currently is a member of the Fremont County Corn and Soybean Growers and Farm Bureau. He has been on the FSA County Committee for 27 years, a township trustee for 20 years and a 4-H leader for 21 years. Aistrope has served leadership positions in the Fremont County Farm Bureau including President and Vice-President. He has also served on the Fremont County Fair Board.

For more information about the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, its programs or the farmer-leaders who serve on its board, go to www.iowacorn.org.

Unseasonably warm weather has held off the cool fall days in Iowa and that’s impacting the transition of some trees to their fall leaf colors. State Forester Jeff Goerndt says dry weather has also had an impact on the changing of leaf colors. “I think the dryness has affected us a great deal — the warm weather sets it back,” Goerndt says. He says the cool fall days are important to the process. “Usually the colors are best when you have just warm, balmy days and then cool, crisp, clear nights,” according to Goerndt.

Goerndt says it is early for central and southern Iowa and the colors should improve as we move deeper into fall. “In the next couple of weeks it’s going to start getting a little better,” Goerndt says. “I just can’t tell right now how brilliant it is going to be. I’ve got a couple of hard maples in my yard that are usually quite brilliant — but they haven’t done anything yet. I think you’re going to see a lot more oranges and browns and yellows this year.”

He lives in Chariton in the south-central part of the state and says northeast Iowa has a larger variety of trees and usually has some of the best leaf color in the state. And northeast Iowa has had more rain this year too, which should help the color. He says the Loess Hills corridor had some good leaf color. Goerndt says the drought conditions in the southern part of the state could have a longer term impact on trees beyond impacting leaf color. “They’ll be a little deficient. The thing about drought is you can’t really predict what it’s going to do as far as long term affects, because it can affect a tree for several years afterwards,” Goerndt says.

The D-N-R provides a weekly fall color report each Monday afternoon. Updates are available by calling the D-N-R fall color hotline at 515-233-4110 and online at www.iowadnr.gov/fallcolor.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will take a more concentrated look at the deer who roam along the state’s western border with Nebraska this fall to screen for Chronic Wasting Disease. The move comes after five deer harvested in southeast Nebraska in 2016 tested positive for the disease. The C-W-D coordinator for the D-N-R, Terry Haindfield, says the effort will be similar to what they’ve done when C-W-D has been detected in other border states. “We’ve been obviously watching the eastern border along Wisconsin and Illinois and also Minnesota and Missouri. But now we are watching our some of our border to the west along the Missouri River due to some positives in southeast Nebraska,” Haindfield.

The effort starts with meetings Monday and Tuesday. He says they are going to talk to the public about the increase surveillance from Woodbury down to Fremont counties. Haindfield says they normally take 15 samples in every county.  But he says they increase the number of samples in those border counties of states where C-W-D has been found and that’s what’s going to happen now on the western side of the state.  “We’re doing anywhere from 100 to 150 samples from hunter-collected deer in those areas — that’s our goal anyway for this fall,” Haindfield explained.

The western counties have the “Big Muddy” between them and the infected deer in Nebraska, but Haindfield says it’s not an impenetrable border. “Those border rivers are not immune to crossing from deer — they can obviously swim those — but they still are physical barriers. So that does give us somewhat of a nice hope that they might not have crossed that yet.”  While it hasn’t been conclusively proven, it’s believed the infected deer in eastern Iowa may’ve come across the river there based on their location. “We’ve had 18 positives total, 17 being in Allamakee and one new one in Clayton County northwest of Elkader this last fall,” Haindfield says.

Haindfield says he’s been impressed with the way the people in northeast Iowa have stepped up to help collect samples and track the deer there. He says the support has been “tremendous” after their meetings there and he says that’s why it is important for people in western Iowa to attend the meetings and find out what is going on. “Hunters and landowners have stepped up greatly in helping us get those samples, and also to help stop the spread of chronic wasting disease,” according to Haindfield.

The first meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p-m Monday (Sept. 25), in the Lewis and Clark State Park Visitor Center, three miles west of Onawa. The second is set for 6:30 p-m Tuesday (Sept. 26) at the public library in Missouri Valley.

(Radio Iowa)

Atlantic Police Chief Dave Erickson reports anyone interested in bow hunting within the Atlantic City limits for the 2017-18 hunting year, may receive a permit application from the Atlantic Police Department during their regular business hours (8-a.m. to 4-p.m., M-F). The permit will allow you to harvest antlerless deer, and once you have reported the harvest to the Atlantic Police Dept., you will be allowed to harvest a buck.

Bow hunters who qualified last year with the P-D do not need to do so this year, but you still need to pick up the permit application, fill it out and return it to the Police Department. New Hunters will have to contact the A-PD and set up a time with Chief Erickson, in order to qualify. Land owners who wish to allow bow hunters to hunt on their land, should contact the Police Department at 712-243-3512 during regular business hours, in order to sign-up.

Erickson said the number of deer causing damage to plants and vegetation inside the Atlantic City limits have been down in recent years, due to the success of the Urban Deer Control program.

The Wellmark Foundation has awarded 12 Iowa organizations Matching Assets to Community Health (MATCH) grants. Organizations were able to request up to $100,000 in grant funding. To ensure community support for the grant project, communities were challenged to match this grant amount dollar-for-dollar. Each of the grant recipients submitted projects that can help individuals, families and communities achieve better health through safe and healthy environments that encourage physical activity and access to and consumption of nutritious foods.

“The Wellmark Foundation is proud to award a cumulative total of $1,020,000 to these grant recipients,” said Becky Wampler, The Wellmark Foundation executive director. “These organizations are focused on sustainable initiatives that will improve the well-being of citizens in the communities they serve for years to come.”

Among the 12 Iowa organizations that were able to successfully raise matching funds and were awarded grants, was the Dallas County Conservation Foundation, which received $90,000 for Phase 1 of the Raccoon River Valley Trail to High Trestle Trail Connector. Officials say the trail project is a significant link between two major statewide trails: the Raccoon River Valley Trail and the High Trestle Trail. The connector, which is nine miles overall, starts in Perry and follows a former railroad right-of-way to the east until it connects to 130th Street.

This is National Farm Safety Week. It is designed to call attention to the dangers of farming, especially during harvest season. Iowa State University Extension Agricultural Engineer and Safety Specialist Chuck Schwab says agriculture ranks as one of the most dangerous and deadliest. He says agriculture has roughly two-point-two deaths for every 100-thousand workers, which is a highest rate in the U-S, surpassing mining, construction, manufacturing and transportation. He puts the issue in perspective. “It really means that a lot of people leave for the day to go to work and got out there in the fields and do something, and don’t come home,”Schwab says.

Schwab says the most common accidents involving agriculture include: tractor roll-overs, A-T-V roll-overs, roadway collisions with farm equipment, grain suffocation, electrocution, and machine entanglement. He says one reason for the high rate of agriculture injuries and deaths is the wide age demographic of the people involved with agriculture, from the young to the old. “Agriculture doesn’t have that cap where you get to 65 and you stop farming,” Schwab says, “and so we see a lot of older farmers out there. And what happens with older farmers — you tend to have different reaction times, you have balance issues, hearing issues, sight, and so all these issues play a role in how you make good safe decisions.”

The Iowa State University Safety Specialist says the same is true with the younger generation, those 18 and younger. He says they should be given more supervision until they gain experience. Schwab says farmers need to be in shape for the physical demands of the business, and he says the best thing you can do is to take a break from the action and have a moment of rest. He says it’s important to be in top condition, and taking the break allows you to get away from the operation and make sure your mind is thinking clearly.

Schwab says it’s similar to athletes who keep themselves in shape, stay hydrated, and then rest when needed so they stay sharp and focused. Schwab says that helps prevent mistakes on the playing field and can do the same in the farm fields too.

(Radio Iowa)