Two students from Griswold had their egg recipes place in the top 5 during the Iowa Egg Council’s “Incredibly Good Eggs” Recipe Contest, held May 4th at Iowa State University, in Ames. Neve Perdue took 1st place in the Student Division, with her Spring Vegetable Egg Drop Soup. Her recipe earned her the top honors and a $500 cash prize. Tina Perdue, placed 5th with her “North African Baked Eggs with Chickpeas and Feta,” recipe.

The top 5 winners in each category, adult and student, were judged by a panel of experts, with the recipes being scores on taste, appearance, originality, and use of eggs in their dish.

Visit iowaegg.org on the web for the recipes created by the Perdues and other contestants.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The lawsuit filed by the Des Moines Water Works in federal court against several upstream agriculture drainage districts has been delayed by nearly a year. Originally scheduled for trial in August, a judge rescheduled the three-week trial for June 26, 2017.

Water Works Board Chairman Graham Gillette says that will give the Iowa Supreme Court time to resolve constitutional questions the federal judge posed to it prior to trying the case. Gillette says a delay also gives state leaders time to reconsider providing money for agriculture practices that would reduce water pollutants.

The water utility for about 500,000 central Iowa customers blames farmland runoff for high levels of nitrate that cost millions of dollars to remove. Water Works officials want farm drainage districts regulated under the federal Clean Water Act.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey today (Thursday) announced that he will be making stops in Pottawattamie, Cass and Adams Counties on Friday, May 13th. Northey will tour the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, have lunch at the Downtowner in Atlantic and then visit Corning Meat Processing Services.

Bill Northey, IA Sec. of Agriculture

The details of the visits are as follows:

Friday, May 13, 2016

Pottawattamie County – 11:15 a.m., visit the Union Pacific Railroad Museum, 605 S. 3^rd St., Council Bluffs

Cass County – 1:15 p.m., have lunch at The Downtowner, 14 E. 4^th St., Atlantic

Adams County – 3:30 p.m., visit Corning Meat Processing Services, 501 Davis Ave., Corning

Northey, a corn and soybean farmer from Spirit Lake, is serving his third term as Secretary of Agriculture. His priorities as Secretary of Agriculture are promoting the use of science and new technologies to better care for our air, soil and water, and reaching out to tell the story of Iowa agriculture.

ISU Extension and Outreach Montgomery County will be hosting three different day camps available to youth in Montgomery County this summer. Registration fee is $20 per camp. The fees for service will be used to offset direct expenses and to support the 4-H Youth Development County Extension Program. Registration includes snacks, supplies and insurance. Youth are responsible for bringing a lunch.

Details about each camp are as follows:

Digging Up Dinosaurs will be held on June 15th from 9 AM to 3 PM at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. This camp is open to all youth who have completed Kindergarten through 3rd grade. Explore the mighty dinosaurs traveling back millions of years ago to the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Discover how dinosaurs lived and how big they were. Enjoy dinosaur crafts and become a paleontologist as you discover fossils.

Planet Energy will be held on June 22nd from 9 AM to 3 PM at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. This camp is open to all youth who have completed 4th through 6th grade. Youth will work with members of a team to design, create, build, and test wind-powered devices. Youth will visit a local farm to explore wind as a potential energy source in their community and how wind turbines power a farming operation.

Farm Adventures will be held on June 29th from 9 AM to 3 PM. Youth will meet at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. This camp is open to all youth who have completed 3rd through 6th grade. Slip on your boots and join us for a fun, educational and hands-on day camp at the VanMeter Farm. Learn about farm safety, livestock and crop production right here in Montgomery County. Youth will explore a local farm operation and discover a variety of interesting facts about cattle, corn, soybeans and farm equipment.

Registration forms are available online at www.extension.iastate.edu/montgomery or at the Extension office. Registration is due by June 3rd to Montgomery County ISU Extension and Outreach, 400 Bridge Street, Suite 2, Red Oak, IA 51566. Upon registration, a completed health form is required for all non 4-H participants. Financial assistance is available.

For more information, contact Chelsea Cousins, County Youth Coordinator at Montgomery County ISU Extension and Outreach, at 712-623-2592 or ccousins@iastate.edu.

What makes a reptile, a reptile? What lives in our lakes? How old is the earth? What is going on in outerspace? Cass County youth will get to answer these and many more questions, when they attend several daycamp experiences this summer. The camps are being sponsored by the Cass County Conservation Board and Cass County Extension.

The Rockin’ Reptiles camp will be held for youth completing kindergarten through 2nd grade. Youth have the opportunity to attend camp at three different locations on different days:
May 31 & June 1 — 9 AM-12 PM @ Lake Anita (Shelter #5), Anita – Registration Deadline May 20
June 6 & 7 — 9 AM-12 PM or 1 PM-4 PM @ Sunnyside Park (Camblin Shelter), Atlantic- Registration Deadline May 31
June 15 & 16 — 9 AM-12 PM @ Cold Springs Park, Lewis – Registration Deadline June 6

At the Rockin Reptiles camp, youth will learn and play as we explore reptiles. Make crafts, friends and play games! To Earth & Beyond, 3rd – 5th grade youth can explore many things outerspace, planets and especially our earth. Explore the solar system through crafts, games and fun! Please bring a sack lunch. This camp will be held at three different locations on three different days,
June 2 — 9 AM-4 PM @ Lake Anita (Shelter #5), Anita – Registration Deadline May 20
June 3 — 9 AM-4 PM @ Cold Springs Park, Lewis – Registration Deadline May 20
June 9 — 9 AM-4 PM @ Sunnyside Park (Camblin Shelter), Atlantic – Registration Deadline June 1

Adventure Camp is open to youth completing grades 6th-8th grade. Youth will learn outdoor skills related to fishing, hiking and Dutch Oven cooking (lunch) over a campfire! This camp is offered Thursday, June 23 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM at
Cold Springs Park, Lewis. Registration Deadline June 17. Busing is available from Cass Co. Community Center. The bus will depart at 8 AM, and return by 5 PM.

Registration forms are available at the Cass County Extension Office or online at www.extension.iastate.edu/cass. There is a $10 registration fee for all camps which includes all camp supplies, and a snack. A medical information form will be
required for all youth. If you have any questions, contact Beth Irlbeck, Cass County Extension, at 243-1132, or Lora Canning, Cass County Naturalist, at 712-769-
2372 with questions, or visit the Cass County Extension website at www.extension.iastate.edu/cass.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Wednesday, said a cattle feedlot owner reported to authorities a leaking runoff holding basin. Lee Schon found the leak Wednesday morning, at the base of the basin’s bank located about six-miles southeast of Carroll. Schon quickly tried to repair the leak, but the DNR says the seepage will likely continue until the soil drys out enough to fix the basin.

The feedlot runoff was flowing about 400-feet across a field into an unnamed tributary of the Middle Raccoon River. A DNR field specialist took samples of the discharge, and is working with Schon to minimize the effects, downstream. Early indications from field test results and high stream flows are that there will likely be little impact to aquatic organisms.

Schon plans to land apply runoff remaining in the basin to a nearby pasture, when soil conditions permit, and the DNR says it will continue to monitor the situation and work with Schon to ensure permanent repairs are completed.

Officials with the AKSARBEN Foundation have announced Ward Umbaugh, of Adair is one of 50 students from seven states (including 16 Iowa students) named as a 2016 winner of AKSARBEN AG Leaders Scholarship. Other scholarship winners from southwest Iowa include Heath Downing, from Creston, and Hayden VanMeter, from Red Oak.

Each scholarship awardee is a 4-H member who has exhibited at the AKSARBEN Stock Show and Rodeo in Omaha, and will receive $2,000 toward their education. They must be a high school senior and 4-H Exhibitor who has participated in the stock show for three or more years. The scholars also plan to attend a two or four year college or university and have expressed interest in pursuing a career related to agriculture or a non-agriculture career within a rural community .

Established in 1895, the AKSARBEN Foundation represents the premier employers in Nebraska and western Iowa.  The Foundation’s mission is to leverage collective business leadership to build a more prosperous Heartland by funding and guiding best practice, needs-based scholarship programs, awarding over $1 million annually; promoting the Heartland’s cultural heritage through top-ranking community celebrations, attended by over 100,000 annually; and honoring community leaders who carry on the Heartland’s tradition of philanthropy and volunteerism.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Farmers are expected to grow a record corn crop this year, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimating the crop at 14.4 billion bushels. That’s 214 million bushels higher than the previous record in the 2014 growing season. The USDA released its initial estimates for the new crop year on Tuesday. The agency says corn farmers are expected to plant 93.6 million acres, or about 5.6 million acres more than last year.

If farmers harvest as much as expected, the nation’s corn stockpile will reach the highest level since the mid-1980s at 2.2 billion bushels. Soybean production is expected at 3.8 billion bushels, down 129 million from last year’s crop. Wheat is projected at nearly 2 billion bushels, down 3 percent from a year ago.

• KJAN, Atlantic  1.32″ (2.72 in the last two days)
• Massena  1.52″
• Elk Horn  .72″
• Avoca  .9″
• Oakland  .8″
• Audubon  2.2″
• Clarinda  .65″
• Missouri Valley  .43″
• 7 Miles NNE of Atlantic  1.63″
• Villisca  .51″
• Schleswig  .85″
• Woodbine  .17″
• Irwin  1.5″
• Logan  .24″
• New Market  .76″
• Creston  .55″
• Persia  .2″
• Hamburg  1.55″
• Sidney  1.62″

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Dry weather last week has allowed Iowa farmers to surge ahead of their normal planting schedule with 80 percent of the corn crop now planted. The USDA says that’s eight days ahead of the five-year average of just 56 percent planted by the first week in May. The crop was planted early enough that 28 percent is already emerged from the ground about five days ahead of the Iowa average.

Location makes a difference, however, with Western Iowa lagging behind because it’s been wetter than the rest of the state. Nebraska farmers are 53 percent planted a little behind their average of 59 percent. Corn farmers also are ahead of schedule in Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Soybeans also are in the ground much earlier in those states.