PERRY, Iowa (KCCI) – A company is in negotiations with Tyson Foods to purchase the pork plant according to Perry City officials, KCCI reported. The negotiations were discussed during a meeting earlier this week by Mayor Kirk Cavanaugh. As of now, not much is known about the potential sale.

Perry City leaders have not said who the potential buyer is.

Before the pork plant shut down at the end of June, Tyson Foods was Perry’s largest employer. Over 1,000 people lost their jobs when the plant shut down.

(Ames, Iowa) – An Iowa State University researcher has received national support to take a deeper dive into a gene that helps plants thrive and survive in the face of environmental threats, with the goal of creating more resilient crops to feed the world. According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Michelle Guo, an assistant professor of genetics, development and cell biology at ISU, has spent almost 20 years researching a gene found in plants called Feronia, which impacts many different plant functions and processes. Now, with an almost $2 million grant, Guo and her fellow researchers are looking at the gene in different cell types to try and shut down certain functions while keeping others.

The gene has a hand in ensuring plants both grow well and can protect themselves from stress, Guo said. For example, removing or disrupting the gene creates what she called a “dwarf plant,” and the plant would also become more sensitive to things like salt, which would impact its growth.

Guo received a five-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in order to support her research. The grant, called Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award for Early Stage Investigators (MIRA), doesn’t fund a specific project or area of study, but rather funds Guo directly, so she can utilize the award however she needs.

Feronia has “been in the public eye” for about 20 years and Guo been researching it for nearly that long alongside other groups. Gua said she hopes other researchers are approaching the work from different angles so they could eventually inform other people’s research.

Iowa State University professor and researcher Michelle Guo is researching a specific plant gene in order to try and make plants more resilient under stress. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

With the effects of climate change becoming more and more apparent, Guo said it’s more important than ever that crops become able to produce large yields even when they’re in less-than-ideal conditions. Creating a more food-secure world is the ultimate goal behind this research, along with helping young scientists further their careers by completing and publishing their work on this important subject.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced Friday it had “depopulated” birds from Pure Prairie Poultry, Inc., which had previously informed the department it was unable to purchase feed for its broiler chickens and closed its processing plant in Charles City.

The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports, fearing animal welfare concerns, the department intervened Oct. 2  and took over the care, custody and control of the 1.3 million birds, located across 13 Iowa farms. The same day, Pure Prairie Poultry Inc. shuttered its Charles City processing plant and laid off its employees.

Pure Prairie Poultry received $45.6 million from U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2022 to expand the Charles City processing plant. Iowa’s USDA Rural Development office celebrated the expansion with a ribbon cutting in July 2024, just two months before it filed for bankruptcy.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig commented on the situation in a statement Friday, saying:

“This is an incredibly unfortunate situation and raises serious questions about USDA’s oversight of taxpayer dollars. Congress should exercise its oversight authority to ensure that something like this does not happen again and that those responsible are held accountable.”

A press release said the closure of the plant sent the department searching for a buyer and processor, which was difficult, “due to the structure of the broiler industry.”

According to court filings in the Third Judicial District Court of Iowa located in Sioux County, IDALS reached an agreement with Tyson Foods. It stipulated that IDALS would cover care costs for the chicken until they reached market weight, then Tyson would handle catching, loading and transportation of the birds to a processing plant. The filings state Tyson would have purchased the birds for 50 cents per bird, which was half of the company’s original offer.

Some of the growers contracted by Pure Prairie Poultry indicated they would argue their lien rights on the birds, which the court filings said, “caused Tyson to reconsider the agreement for fear of future litigation” and eventually rescinded its offer.

With mounting costs of caring for the 1.3 million birds, IDALS asked the court to authorize the department to pursue depopulation, or culling the birds. Culling of the birds began Oct. 17 by licensed veterinarians employed by the department and concluded Oct. 25th.  The department has spent over $1 million in dealing with the birds so far, but Don McDowell, IDALS communications director, said the anticipated figure is over $2 million, as many of the expenses have yet to be paid. These costs include feed, farmer contracts, depopulation, disposal, personnel expenses, and mileage.

(Radio Iowa) – The chairman of the Emmet County Board of Supervisors says there will be revisions in a proposed ordinance to restrict where wind turbines may be placed. The board held a public hearing Thursday night on the initial proposal from Emmet County’s Planning and Zoning Commission. Tim Busch, director of the Aviation Program at Iowa Lakes Community College, says he’s not opposed to wind turbines, but he asked the board to be cautious about allowing towers in areas that could impede take offs and landings.

Eight other speakers expressed concerns about the ordinance and three people spoke in favor of wind energy. Todd Glasnapp, chairman of the Emmet County Board of Supervisors, says requiring greater distances between wind turbines and homes and other dwellings is likely to be the biggest adjustment in the ordinance.

Last week, the board approved a moratorium on any new wind energy applications in Emmet County until January 31st, 2025 — to give the supervisors time to update the county’s wind ordinance.

(Radio Iowa) – Scientists say they’ve developed a first-ever vaccine that’s designed to protect cattle from a potentially-deadly tick-borne disease that’s common in Iowa. Bovine anaplasmosis infects the red blood cells of cattle, and researcher Roman Ganta says the vaccine promises to be a tremendous game-changer. “It will change the way people raise cattle, raise meat, and milk production,” Ganta says, “as well as improve the wellbeing of many cattle farmers, especially in third world countries, besides in the U.S. how the industry is impacted.” Ganta, a professor of veterinary pathobiology at the University of Missouri, says the vaccine is performing exactly as hoped in trials.

“We found out that the animals, all the cattle that we tested, remained healthy,” he says, “whether the infection is coming from a mechanical route, which is the standard way many cattle get it in a cattle ranch, or by tick transmission.” There is no widely-available vaccine for the disease, which is blamed for causing nearly one-billion dollars in losses worldwide every year. Ganta says bovine anaplasmosis, also known as yellow bag or yellow fever, can lead to severe anemia in cattle, and in some cases, death. “We tested close to a thousand animals,” he says. “The infection prevalence is very high, which is about 50% of the cattle. It varied significantly from one cattle ranch to the other, but the fact remains that this disease has remained a high problem.”

Ganta says the vaccine will need to receive U-S-D-A approval before it can be used. He says if the testing and approval process goes well, he’s optimistic it will be available to cattle producers by 2030. The Iowa Beef Industry Council says Iowa’s cattle industry contributed nearly nine-and-a-half BILLION dollars in business activity to the state’s economy in 2023, including accounting for more than 32-thousand jobs.

(Radio Iowa) – A map released this (Thursday) morning by the U-S Drought Monitor shows -all- of Iowa is again experiencing some level of drought. Last week’s map showed about two-and-a-half percent of the state was still in the normal category, but even that’s gone now. The new map indicates about 16-percent of Iowa is abnormally dry, all in south-central Iowa, while almost two-thirds of the state is in moderate drought. That leaves about 19-percent that’s in severe drought, with large patches of that category in northwest, west-central and northeast Iowa. As yet, none of the state’s in the worst two levels of extreme or exceptional drought.
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A steady, soaking rain would be welcome, and not hail or high winds, but parts of Iowa may see all of them later today (Thursday). National Weather Service meteorologist Rod Donavon says the majority of Iowa is quite parched, so the expected downpour will be a refreshing change of pace. “We do have actually a pretty strong system coming into the state by later this afternoon, into this evening,” Donavon says. “We are expecting showers and thunderstorms to develop. It looks like in most areas, that development occurs sometime between 6 PM and midnight, and we may have a few strong storms, and we could have some large hail with those as well.”

While some areas are 50-50 for rainfall, parts of eastern Iowa are closer to a 100-percent chance for rain, though he says the quantities that are expected vary. “As you get up into the Webster City and Fort Dodge area, actually parts to the northwest might actually be our lower areas with the precipitation. They’re generally at around a 10th of an inch or so is the main forecast for there,” Donavon says. “Farther to the southeast, as you get south of Highway 30, basically Ames and Marshalltown, and east of I-35, there actually could be some areas that receive over an inch of rain.”

Dry conditions are expected to return for the weekend with highs in the 60s. The latest 6 to 10-day outlook shows a chance for more precipitation late next week.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Members of the City of Atlantic’s Park Advisory Board, today (Wednesday) approved a request by Frank Saddlemire, on behalf of the Disc Golf Club, to plant 11 trees in the area around the course at Sunnyside Park, plus one very unique tree in an area of the park to be determined.

Saddlemire said last year the group spent $600 and planted several trees. This year, they purchased 12 trees from in a clearance aisle with about 100 trees at the TimberPine Nursery & Greenhouse near Earlham, for $1,000.

He provided the Board with a map where they would like to plant the trees, including in the southeast corner of the Camblin Addition, and an area around a culvert near the fairgrounds, to name a few locations. One of the trees the Disc Golf Club is donating to the park, is the Dawn Redwood, which has its origins in China.  That single tree was in the nursery’s clearance aisle, and it’s no small sapling.

One possible location is near the Camblin Shelter. Another is near Sunnyside Park Bandshell. The Dawn Redwood was thought to have been extinct for at least 20-million years, but according to the Save the Redwoods League, in 1944, a Chinese forester found an enormous dawn redwood shedding its leaves in the Sichuan province of China.

The 11 trees will be planted next Spring. Meanwhile, they will remain in the nursery’s care until then. In other business, Board Chair Kevin Ferguson said the Atlantic Junior Federate Club has all the money needed that’s been pledged, for a new sign at the entrance to the Bull Creek and the placard they would like to attach.  Ferguson said Junior Federated representative Jamie Joyce will submit a rendering of the placard for the Board to review.

Atlantic Parks Board 10-23-24

The Atlantic Parks Advisory Commission will hold a Special Meeting Oct. 30th at 3:30-p.m., to consider ideas for 2025, and discuss matters they spoke about during the Oct. 23rd meeting.

(Radio Iowa) – It wasn’t exactly a downpour but it was better than a sprinkle, as parts of Iowa saw measurable rainfall early this (Tuesday) morning for the first time in a long time. Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff, at the National Weather Service, says some precipitation is better than none, especially with about three-quarters of the state in moderate to extreme drought. “It certainly won’t be a drought buster,” Hagenhoff says, “but any kind of rain that we can see here is certainly a welcome sight.” In most areas of Iowa, the rain came well before dawn and lasted less than a half hour in many locations.

Hagenhoff says, “It looks like things have been light, generally under a 10th of an inch for most of the area, from western into central Iowa.” If you were holding off on washing your car until after the rain, you might want to wait until Friday. “We are looking at another chance of rain coming up on Thursday afternoon, maybe into Thursday night as well,” she says. “The location is a little uncertain at the moment, but it does look like generally central to eastern Iowa will be the big winners on that.”

Far from a ‘drought buster,’ but parts of Iowa see soaking rainfall (RI photo)

The latest U-S Drought Monitor map shows more than 97-percent of the state with at least abnormally dry conditions or some level of drought, and less than two-and-a-half percent in the normal range.

(Radio Iowa) – Farmers could be in their last week for harvesting beans. The U-S-D-A crop report now shows 91 percent of the beans are in the bin, That is a jump ahead of ten percent compared to last week. The west central and east central areas are leading the way with 94 percent or more of their soybeans done. The corn harvest increased by 23 percent last week — so 68 percent is done.

Farmers in south-central Iowa are lagging behind– with just 50 percent of their corn harvested.

(Radio Iowa) – Watching the leaves turn color and carving pumpkins are fall traditions in Iowa and fishing for trout has become one as well. D-N-R Regional Fisheries Supervisor, Mike Siepker says they get a lot of positive feedback. “Anglers love the community trout stocking program. It provides a great close to home fishing opportunity for a lot of Iowans that might not otherwise have a chance to catch trout. They have started stocking trout in 18 community ponds and lakes. “Trout need cold water, and that’s one of the reasons that we wait until late fall to stock those fish, because if the ponds are too warm when we stock them, the fish don’t bite and the anglers are unhappy,” he says “So we wait long enough for the water to cool down, and that way, when we stock the trout, they’re happy and and are ready to bite.”

Siepker says they have a couple of different sizes of trout. “All these ponds and lakes receive catchable size rainbow trout, and those are about ten to 12 inch trout, and those are the same size that we stock in the streams in northeast Iowa,” Siepker says. They also stock some bigger fish. “Those are the trout that we used in the hatchery the last couple years to produce eggs. And then once we’re finished with those trout, and we’re finished spawning those, then we add those to the mix and stock those out so anglers have an opportunity to catch them,” he says. Siepker says they’ll release around one to two-thousand trout in each lake.

You will need a valid fishing license and have to pay the trout fee to keep the trout you catch. Children age 15 or younger can fish for trout with a properly licensed adult, but they must limit their catch to one daily. The child can purchase a trout fee which will allow them to catch their own limit. Trout were stocked Friday in , Moorland Pond Fort Dodge and Sand Lake in Marshalltown.

Here are the remaining stocking dates:
Oct. 24, Ottumwa Park Pond; Prairie Park Fishery, Cedar Rapids; Liberty Centre Pond North Liberty
Oct. 26, Emma Young Pond, Clinton; Industrial Park Pond, Fairfield; Discovery Park Pond, Muscatine,
Oct. 28, Terra Lake , Johnston; Triumph Park East & West , Waukee
Oct. 31, Ada Hayden Heritage Park Lake, Ames; Lake Petocka , Bondurant
Nov. 5, Scharnberg Pond, Spencer; Bacon Creek, Sioux City
Nov. 8, Heritage Pond, Dubuque; North Prairie Lake , Cedar Falls