GALVA, Iowa (AP) — Quad County Corn Processors in northwest Iowa’s Ida County, has launched a construction project to build onto its existing ethanol plant a facility that can make additional ethanol from corn kernel fiber. The $8.5 million project uses newly developed cellulosic ethanol science to convert additional parts of corn into ethanol at the company’s Galva plant. The project will add about 6 percent more ethanol from the same amount of corn. The plant currently makes 35 million gallons of ethanol a year.

General Manager Delayne Johnson says the process also will add several jobs. It also improves the protein content of the animal feed byproduct the plant sells to livestock farmers by about 40 percent. Construction is expected to be completed by next April.

Iowa has 41 ethanol refineries.

A meeting and workshop for landowners, tenants and other agri-business professionals is scheduled to take place this Thursday evening (August 1st), in Guthrie Center. The Farmland Leasing Meeting will be held from 6-to 9-pm at the Farm Bureau Hall. The workshop will assist interested persons with current issues related to farmland ownership, management, and leasing agreements.

Each workshop attendee will receive a set of beneficial materials regarding farm leasing arrangements and farmland ownership. Topics to be covered include Iowa Cash Rental Rate Survey and Land Values Survey, comparison of different types of leases, lease termination, impacts of yields and prices, and more.

The meeting is being facilitated by ISU Farm Management Specialist Shane Ellis. The cost is $20 per person or $35 per couple. Pre-registration is preferred, and can be made by calling 641-747-2276.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa motorists who buy gasoline without ethanol could soon see a price jump at the pump.  The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa’s largest pipeline operator, Magellan Midstream Partners, will no longer ship “clear” 87 octane regular gasoline to its Iowa terminals. Instead, the pipeline operator will start shipping 84 octane fuel, which can be blended with more expensive 91 octane fuel to produce the regular 87 octane product. Iowa requires a minimum 87 octane fuel at gas pumps.

The change means that both the new 87 octane and 91 octane fuels without ethanol will likely cost more at the pump. Magellan spokesman Bruce Heine says the change is driven by pipeline customers, including refiners, petroleum traders and petroleum marketers.

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the ag industry will suffer if congress fails to enact some sort of immigration reforms. “If you know what I know about the impact of the immigrant workforce on agriculture, you recognize that this is something that needs to get done,” Vilsack says. “We have had crops not harvested, crops not raised and crops actually leaving the United States and being grown elsewhere because we have a broken immigration system.”

America’s agricultural industry has been able to keep food prices low, in part, with cheap immigrant labor. In 2006, 77 percent of all agricultural workers in the United States were born in another country. Vilsack cites a recent study in the state of Georgia. “They’ve determined that their state has suffered $320 million annually of economic loss and roughly 3200 jobs that otherwise would have been filled weren’t being filled,” Vilsack says. “So if you start multiplying that by a lot of agricultural states around the country, you can see this lack of a comprehensive immigration bill is having an impact on the agricultural economy.”

Georgia enacted a state law in 2010 that made it harder for employers to hire illegal immigrants and directed police in Georgia to be more aggressive in checking for undocumented residents. A University of Georgia study found farmers in Georgia were 40 percent short of the fieldhands they needed to harvest crops in 2012. The immigration reform plan that recently cleared the U.S. Senate would grant legal resident status to current farm workers who entered the country illegally. Advocates say a separate guest worker program outlined in the bill will increase the flow of temporary farm workers into the U.S.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Fair continues its 6-day run here in Atlantic, today. The Swine show kicked-off activities early this morning, at 7:30. The Commercial Exhibits building opens at 10-a.m. The Thrashing and Antique Equipment Show is slated to run from 11-a.m. until 3-p.m..

Other events include the Decorator’s Showcase from Noon until 4-p.m., where young people have an opportunity to decorate one room in their own style. Participants select coordinating textures and colors, consider a formal, informal or semi-formal look, then put those selections into a display. Each member is allowed one-hour for the contest. Local businesses have donated and loaned samples of wallpaper or fabric as a starter for 4-H’ers to use.

The Poultry and Dog show, and Skid Loader Rodeo events begin at 2-p.m., the Texaco Country Showdown for new music talent gets underway at 3-p.m., “Share the Fun” at 5-p.m., with Cass County 4-H’ers showing-off their talent, and the Horse Fun Show is at 6-p.m., along with the Tractor Pull.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Many Midwest farmers are beginning to worry that last year’s drought could return. The concern is inching closer to reality for a large part of the corn growing region as many states have experienced only spotty rain, with some areas far too dry.

The National Drought Monitor released Thursday says abnormally dry conditions have spread eastward farther into southern Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Portions of Nebraska including the southeast that had May rain are now drying out again.

Rain also seems to have missed southeastern Indiana, which is now listed as abnormally dry after the state had been lifted out of drought. Corn is in the pollination stage, which determines how much grain it will produce, and needs moisture now to fully develop

Focusing on the host of financial challenges facing farmers, the Iowa Farm Bureau wrapped up its second annual economic summit this week. Bureau president Craig Hill, of Milo, says the state’s farmers and ranchers face a lot of economic pressures and identifying those is the first step in dealing with them and, hopefully, surviving. “There’s so much risk involved, a producer really has to look at their balance sheet and their cash flow and insulate themselves from shocks,” Hill says. “That can come from Mother Nature, it can come from a global event that may occur overnight, situations in the marketplace.”

Hill says his group wants to help producers deal with those market forces. He wants Iowa farmers to have the best possible information available so they can make good decisions. “It’s such a dynamic industry and things are changing so fast that if you don’t keep updated and you don’t understand the potential risks that you have, you can’t address them,” Hill says.

Producers need to be able to put numbers to those risks and identify them so they can protect themselves, he says. Hill adds, they also need to be prepared to deal with the recent upward commodity price cycle and land value boom which eventually will end.

(Radio Iowa)

A destructive pest that was first confirmed in Iowa last year has spread to at least 40 states. U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers are trying to learn how they can minimize damage the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) can do to various crops. Don Weber is a USDA entomologist. “It attacks various vegetable, fruit and field crops, so apples, pears and peaches it’s definitely on, especially as they’re maturing,” Weber says. “A lot of times that damage is hidden until you cut open the fruit, which is very unfortunate. It can affect soybeans as well…and tomatoes and peppers.”

The stink bug can also known to attack a popular summertime favorite in Iowa — sweet corn. Weber, working at a USDA facility near Washington D.C., is trapping stink bugs to study their attractants or pheromones. “We could use this as a management tool to monitor, to make sure we know where the pest is, and how high the numbers are, so we know what we might do about it, but also potentially to use it to trap it out of the crop or near houses where we don’t want it to be,” Weber says.

The brown marmorated stink bug came to the U.S. about 15 years ago from Asia, so Weber says researchers are looking THERE for natural predators. “And they’re mainly these tiny wasps, egg parasitoids, they’re harmless, they don’t sting. Their main objective in life is to find stink bug eggs and to make sure it doesn’t end up a stink bug, it ends up a wasp,” Weber says. In addition to their destructive behavior, the stink bug – as you might expect – has a foul odor. Weber, however, doesn’t find it all that offensive.

“The stink of the stink bug is fairly similar to cilantro,” Weber says. “That doesn’t mean necessarily you’d want to eat it and I’m sure that’s repulsive to the predators that it’s trying to repel.” The first breeding infestations of brown marmorated stink bugs were confirmed in October 2012 in Scott County. Stink bugs have been an especially big problem in mid-Atlantic states — causing $52 million worth of damage last year to peach and apple crops there.

(Radio Iowa)

Some Iowa corn growers who planted a genetically-modified variety called B-T corn are finding their plants no longer resist corn rootworms — and some crops are being badly damaged. Darwin Bettin, who farms in northwest Iowa’s Sac County, says he’s used B-T corn for a decade and it’s always kept away the pests, until now.  “I could see corn laying down in my field and none of my neighbors fields,” Bettin says. “I was old enough, I told my wife, if I didn’t know better, that looks like rootworm damage.”

Since the corn was bred by Monsanto to resist rootworms, farmers didn’t have to use pesticides. Now, some are resorting back to chemicals as the insect has developed a resistence to the B-T corn. While the trend is a setback for farmers, it’s a boon for farm chemical makers like Philadelphia-based F-M-C, where spokesman Aaron Locker says profits are up. Locker says, “FMC reported a 9% increase in first quarter sales in its agriculture solutions business and 20% increase in fourth 4th quarter sales.” That’s due in part to the resistance in corn rootworms.

Bettin lost half his crop to rootworm damage and says his local seed dealer refunded some of his money, but not Monsanto. Bettin says, “As much money as those companies have made off of us selling us those traits over the years, I think they’d be willing to step up to the plate when their trait doesn’t work.” A spokesman for B-T maker Monsanto says the company is investing millions of dollars in research to bring new products to market. The federal E-P-A says it could restrict the future use of B-T seed, but Monsanto is working to introduce new varieties while encouraging farmers to rotate crops.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An environmental group is cautioning Iowans to be aware of algae blooms in the state’s lakes and ponds this summer. The issue is a concern because of high levels of nitrogen and phosphates from farmland runoff and sunny hot conditions.

The Iowa Environmental Council says to avoid water with a bright blue or green colored tint, thick scum that look like spilled paint, or areas that smell bad. These conditions could produce toxins that can make people and animals sick.  Exposure can occur through swimming, drinking, or breathing airborne toxins. Symptoms include breathing difficulties and skin rash.

Advisories have been issued at five state-managed beaches including Brushy Creek Beach, Crandall’s Beach at Big Spirit Lake, Green Valley Beach, Lake of Three Fires Beach, and Viking Lake Beach.