Jim Field visits with Atlantic FFA student leaders Colton Rudy, Lola Kommes, Lily Johnson and Charli Goff about National FFA Week.

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w/Kate Olson.

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(DES MOINES, Iowa) – As the 2024 crop production season begins, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will contact producers nationwide to determine their plans for the upcoming growing season. “Each year, the agriculture industry anticipates USDA’s Prospective Plantings report, which provides initial survey-based estimates of U.S. farmers’ planting intentions for the year,” said Greg Thessen, Director of the NASS Upper Midwest Regional Field Office. “The March Agricultural Survey provides the data that underpin projections, making it one of the most important surveys we conduct each year.”

NASS will mail the survey to approximately 2,300 Iowa producers on Feb. 19 asking producers to provide information about the types of crops they intend to plant in 2024, how many acres they intend to plant, and the amounts of grain and oilseed they store on their farms. Producers can respond online at agcounts.usda.gov or by mail. Those who do not respond by Feb. 27 may be emailed a reminder or contacted for an interview.

In accordance with federal law, NASS keeps responses confidential and publishes data in aggregate form only, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified.

The data will be published in the Prospective Plantings and quarterly Grain Stocks reports on Mar. 28, 2024. These and all NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov/Publications. For more information, call the NASS Upper Midwest Regional Office at 800-772-0825.

(Radio Iowa) – As we move toward spring, a program providing discounted trees is once again available for some state residents. The D-N-R’s Pete Hildreth says it’s designed to help plant more trees in the state. He says the D-N-R and Alliant Energy are partnering to offer landscaped-size trees to private residents at a discount. Hildreth says trees provide a variety of benefits to homeowners.

“Including and reduced home heating and cooling costs, decreased stormwater, shade for outdoor activities, higher home values, and enhance beauty,” Hildreth says. “Alliant Energy customers can place their orders on the D-N-R residential tree distribution program page found on our D-N-R website.” There are a variety of species available, and once you order the trees they will be deliver in several cities.

Here are the tree pick up locations:
Thursday, April 25, 4:30-6:30 p.m., Awaysis Park (1409 E Lakeshore Dr, Storm Lake)
Tuesday, April 30, 4:00-6:00 p.m., Greene County Extension Office (104 W. Washington St, Jefferson)
Thursday, May 2, 4:30-6:30 p.m., Grimes Farm and Conservation Center (2349 233rd St, Marshalltown)
Tuesday, May 27, 4:30-6:30 p.m., Burlington Depot (300 S Main St, Burlington)
Saturday, May 11, 9:00-11:00 a.m., Swiss Valley Park (13069 Swiss Valley Rd, Peosta)

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Here’s a reminder: The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is hosting a series of town hall-style meetings where local staff will provide updates on recently completed hunting and trapping seasons, discuss possible changes to hunting and trapping rules and regulations, and address other topics as requested. “We want people to come out to these meetings, listen to the seasons reviews, ask questions and hear directly from our staff,” said Todd Bishop, chief of the Iowa DNR’s Wildlife Bureau. “Part of the meeting will be devoted to discussing potential rule changes and collecting feedback as we work through the rules process.”

The meetings are open to the public. Comments collected from these public meetings will be considered along with other related comments received by the Iowa DNR prior to proposing changes to hunting rules and regulations. Proposed rules will be presented to the Natural Resource Commission during a regular public meeting for consideration and additional public comment.

Meeting date, time and location

• Algona, Feb. 20, 7 p.m., Waters Edge Nature Center, 1010 250th Street
• Bloomfield, Feb. 20, 6 p.m., Wapello County Conservation Board Pioneer Ridge Nature Center, 1339 Hwy. 63
• Boone, Feb. 20, 6:30 p.m., Boone Wildlife Research Station, 1436 255^th Street
• Council Bluffs, Feb. 20, 6 p.m., Bass Pro Shops, Green Room, 2901 Bass Pro Drive
• Des Moines, Feb. 20, 6:45 p.m., Des Moines Izaak Walton League, 4343 George Flagg Parkway
• Maquoketa, Feb. 20, 7 p.m., Hurstville Interpretive Center, 18670 63^rd Street
• Okoboji, Feb. 20, 6:30 p.m., Maser Monarch Lodge, 22785 Nature Center Road
• Wapello, Feb. 20, 6 p.m., Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge Office, 10728 County Road X61
• Chariton, Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m., Chariton Community Center, 502 North Main Street
• Creston, Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m., PAC 124 Multi-Purpose Room, Southern Prairie Family Fitness Center, 1201 West Townline Street
• Iowa City, Feb. 21, 7 p.m., Johnson County ISU Extension Office, 3109 Old Hwy. 218 South
• Lake View, Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m., Speaker Park Shelter House, 418 North Blossom Street
• Perry, Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m., Forest Park Museum, Dallas County Conservation Board, 14581 K Avenue
• Toledo, Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m., Tama County Nature Center, 2283 Park Road
• Waverly, Feb. 21, 6 p.m., Waverly Civic Center/City Hall, 200 1st Street NE
• Decorah, Feb. 22, 7 p.m., Franklin W. Olin Building, Room 102, Luther College, 700 College Drive, next to the Prues Library
• Onawa, Feb. 22, 5 p.m., Onawa Public Library, 707 Iowa Avenue
• Ventura, Feb. 22, 7 p.m., Iowa DNR Wildlife Office, 15326 Balsam Avenue

Any person attending the public meeting that has special requirements, such as those related to mobility or hearing impairments, should contact the Iowa DNR or ADA Coordinator at 515-725-8200, Relay Iowa TTY Service 800-735-7942, or Webmaster@dnr.iowa.gov, and advise of specific needs.

(Radio Iowa) – The latest “Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll” answers the question of what we should call the men and women who grow the crops and livestock in our state.   J. Arbuckle runs the I-S-U Extension poll and says he noticed that people who work with those in agriculture tend to call them growers or producers. He put a question in the poll and the result was pretty clear, with 75 percent preferring the term “farmer.” Ten percent said they want to be called farm operator, eight percent preferred producer, while rancher and grower each received two percent of the vote. Arbuckle says it’s not surprising, as farmer is an all-encompassing term that indicates more of a lifestyle than a profession. But he says he didn’t anticipate that it would be as big percentage. He says everyone should know what farmers think to be able to communicating effectively with them.

“It’s important for people across the private and public sectors, you know stakeholders who work with farmers, to recognize that and to use the kinds of terminologies that farmers prefer,” Arbuckle says. He says no one seemed to ask the question before. “It’s just very interesting to me that the terminology that we at the university and then some of the private sector firms, and even the public sector, like the conservation agencies and stuff, often times use the term grower or producer,” he says. “And these are actually the least popular terms that the farmers think about when they when they think about terms that they would like to when they think about themselves, I guess.”

You can see more about the Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll on the I-S-U Extension website.

(Radio Iowa) – A series of regional educational conferences for Iowa hog farmers will be held this week at four strategic locations around Iowa. Zoey Dinkla is producer education director for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, which is helping put on the seminars.  Dinkla says, “The Iowa Pork Producers Association, the Pork Industry Center and Iowa State Extension and Outreach partner together to meet our production employees, our veterinarians, and any swine industry stakeholders, bringing them educational material, updates to the industry, and any kind of engagement that we can get with our producers where they are.”

She says there are several nationally-known speakers who will be sharing their knowledge at the conferences, including: “This year, we have Dr. Brett Kaysen with the National Pork Board,” Dinkla says. “He’s the senior vice president of producer and state engagement, so he’ll be discussing program of states that they’ve been working really hard in domestic and international markets, as well as all their success in foreign animal disease preparedness and prevention.”

The meetings are being held today (February 19th) in Orange City, February 20th in Webster City, February 21st in Nashua, and February 22nd in Washington.
iowapork.org

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that’s cleared an Iowa Senate committee targets protein products marketed as meat, but that are made from insects, plants or even stem cell cultures. Selling something labeled as beef, chicken, pork, turkey, goat or lamb that contains even a small percentage of protein that’s not meat would become illegal in Iowa. The fine for the crime would be 855-dollars and the potential for up to 30 days in jail. Senator Dawn Driscoll, a Republican from Williamsburg, is the bill’s sponsor.

“We are trying to promote meat in the state of Iowa,” Driscoll says, “and we are trying to not mislead customers.” Driscoll raises Angus cattle on her family farm in Iowa County. “Our taxpayer dollars should be supporting our agriculture here in Iowa, not some hedge funding fake meat company,” Driscoll says. “…We are also protecting the consumers as far as labeling.” The bill would prohibit the three state universities from conducting research into the production or use of manufactured protein products.

“The Regent universities are not doing it now,” Driscoll says. “We’re setting a precedent in Iowa.” Senator Nate Boulton, a Democrat from Des Moines, says cutting off research is unwise. “We may learn things that are dangerous from cultivated food products. We may learn things that can have potential healing properties that were never thought of before,” Boulton said. “This bill seems to have the effect of knocking the peanut out of George Washington Carver’s hand before he could get started.”

Senator William Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, says the bill pits the livestock industry against farmers who’re raising protein-rich soybeans. “We need to continue to have research on all our products so that we can have value added agriculture in this state,” Dotzler said.

If the bill becomes law all of the state’s school districts, Iowa’s community colleges as well as Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I would be required to have policies preventing the purchase of plant- or insect-based food labeled as meat.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s FFA members will celebrate the group’s 96th anniversary as FFA week starts this Saturday. The group’s advisor in Webster City Kurt Veldhuizen says the national membership is near the one million mark and growing.

“I think that’s huge. I think it’s just a sign of you know how important society is realizing that food and food production is. And then of course the careers are just, agriculture is in such high need to fill careers and I think we see that in our students and finding an interest in this area,” he says. Iowa has 19,200 members involved in many activities. Veldhuizen says the membership is not long strictly from rural areas.

“Urban food production is very important, but beyond that agriculture is such a large industry that the jobs can’t be filled by just those kids coming from rural areas.” He says that in his own town. “I’m proud of that here in Webster City that we have about half and half, Half of our kids live outside of town city limits. Half of our kids do come from in town,” he says. “And that’s important that they’re seeing those things and the skills and the job opportunities that are there too.”

The Iowa FFA Leadership Conference is coming to Ames on April 14-16. You can find out more about FFA at www.iowaffa.com.