DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa agriculture officials are no longer requiring that milk received in the state be tested for a poison-producing fungus. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship says milk will not be screened or tested for aflatoxin beginning today (Friday).

Aflatoxins are a group of chemicals produced by certain mold fungi. They occur more frequently in hot, dry summer conditions. The milk began being tested at the end of August. Since then, four loads of milk tested positive for aflatoxin. The last load tested positive in November.

The agency has been monitoring the prevalence of aflatoxin through a corn sampling program. It also blends aflatoxin with some corn for animal feed.

A new federal food forecast contains foul news for Iowa cattle producers, but encouragement for those who raise pork and poultry. The U-S-D-A predicts Americans will eat much less meat in 2013 due to skyrocketing costs. Shale Shagam, an agency livestock analyst, says the average person will eat just over 200 pounds of red meat and poultry in the year ahead.  “We look at beef to be the big decline, down about 1.3 pounds to about 56.1 pounds per capita,” Shagam says. “Pork will be up about 0.3 of a pound to about 46.1 pounds, while broilers will be up about a half a pound to about 80.9 pounds per capita during 2013.” That’s the lowest expected meat consumption rate since 1991.

The extended drought in Iowa and across much of the country last year is now translating to much higher prices in grocery store meat cases. Shagam says, “We can expect to see records in terms of our retail prices for choice beef, again, a record for our broiler price and probably about a similar price on the pork side.” The federal report predicts a boost in beef imports this year, while about 11-percent less U-S beef will be exported.

“We expect imports to increase about 16% to 2.6 billion pounds,” Shagam says. “A lot of that is tied to the strong demand for processing grade beef in the United States.” Iowa is the nation’s number-one pork producer. The state’s top commodity is corn, followed by pork, soybeans and cattle.

(Radio Iowa)

Info from the Atlantic Animal Shelter.

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A report from the Center for Rural Affairs finds those giant wind turbines that dot the farmland skyline are helping power distant cities, not rural homes. Johnathan Hladik, the center’s energy policy advocate, says major power lines are -not- connected to the areas where the wind power is generated. Hladik says, “We’re finding that all of the important, big transmission lines that can move a lot of capacity, the kind of capacity we need, are far away from the rural areas that are home to all of our wind turbines.”

Iowa ranks third in the nation for wind energy production, behind Texas and California. Under the old model of generation, power plants were located close to the population areas they serve. Now, utilities are finding it difficult to locate new plants in heavily-populated areas. Hladik says the study found only a few miles of the modern, major power lines are located close to the wind turbines. “Only 6% of the lines 400 kilovolts and above are located in the top ten states for wind energy potential and most of those states are in the upper Midwest and the Great Plains areas,” Hladik says. “But even more importantly, less than 1% of the lines over 600 kilovolts are located in these areas. That’s only nine miles.”

Hladik says making a more efficient use of infrastructure now in place is a critical first step, and to make major improvements, it will take some creative partnerships. “It’s not only the job of individual utilities and public utility commissions in each state to recognize the problem and to recognize what we need to do to tap our wind resources, but the onus also falls on states working together, on regional collaboratives,” he says. The utilities need to come up with plans to move more power over a more efficient energy grid, he says, to insure a clean energy future and more jobs. The Center for Rural Affairs is based in Lyons, Nebraska. Learn more about the report at: www.cfra.org

(Radio Iowa)

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The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says it will host public meetings over the Iowa Communications Network on March 7th from 6- to 9- p.m., to listen to the public’s thoughts on the hunting and trapping regulations for this fall. The meetings are part of the new process instituted for making rules in state government. Dr. Dale Garner, chief of the wildlife bureau, says “Any rule changes must be discussed with Iowa’s citizens who might be impacted by the changes before the rule changes are proposed. The new process helps ensure that rule changes serve the public’s wishes and do not impact Iowa’s economy.”

At each meeting DNR staff will facilitate a discussion about what went well last fall, what didn’t, and what changes hunters and trappers would like to see for this fall. The discussions along with the data that the wildlife bureau collects on harvest and population numbers will be used to develop recommendations for any rule changes this fall. Any changes must be approved by the Natural Resource Commission and then go back to the public for further comment before taking effect next fall.

Meetings will be held in several communities, including: Council Bluffs, Creston, and Sac City. Complete ICN locations are available online at www.iowadnr.gov/hunting.

A fire at a farm early this (Monday) morning, resulted in the death of several chickens in Montgomery County.

Photo’s courtesy Brian Hamman.

According to Montgomery County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Hamman, the blaze at Sunbest Papetti’s Chicken farm happened shortly after 5:30-a.m.  Firefighters from the Villisca and Stanton Fire Departments responded to the scene, along with the Montgomery County EMA.

Hamman says the blaze was quickly contained by Villisca Firefighter’s to the east end of the south building before it spread throughout the entire structure or endangered other buildings in the complex. No injuries were reported to any firefighters. Crews were on scene for roughly 3 hours. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa (AP) – A Southeast Iowa farmer has come up with a surprising solution to the high cost of cattle feed.   Bob Batey, of Mount Pleasant, says his 50 cows devour the sawdust mixture he feeds them. Batey, who is 85, stumbled upon the idea in the 1970s when he noticed cows eating sawdust that had washed into their pasture from a nearby paper mill.

Experiments on his farm led him to discover a way to treat and cook sawdust that results in a digestible feed cows find tasty. It has a nutritional value equivalent to grass hay.  Veterinarian Tara Wellman-Gerdes of West Point confirms Batey’s cows are healthy.

The drought created a shortage of corn and hay, causing prices to jump for livestock farmers.

Whether the drought continues or not, Iowa farmers will soon be able to check soil moisture levels at a dozen key spots statewide.

ISU Soil monitor.

Elwynn Taylor, an agronomist at the Iowa State University Extension, says moisture levels can vary greatly over short distances, but this new network will offer farmers good ballpark figures. “People that have a sandy place and a place with clay already know they have great differences,” Taylor says, “but still, if we have some idea on a very common soil for the county, if we know what is going on there, it will give an idea of how things are changing and the likely direction it will be moving in.”

I-S-U’s Department of Agronomy is upgrading weather stations at several research and demonstration farms. At least 12 should be fully functional in several weeks when spring arrives. Farmers can always dig a hole themselves to try and gauge the soil moisture, but Taylor says doing so accurately is a hassle. “To really know, you have to get a measure of soil from a certain depth, weigh it, dry it, weigh it again and see how much water the drying removed from it to know how much water was really there in your soil,” Taylor says. “It gets to be a real headache and, of course, people aren’t going to do that on a day by day, week by week, month by month basis.”

At each station, moisture sensors will be placed a foot, two feet and four feet deep in the soil. Readings will be taken every 15 minutes and sent by cellular phone text messages to the network. Each station costs about 12-thousand dollars to buy and install. It’s hoped the network of weather stations can be expanded so there’s one in every county, but for now, a dozen will give a good snapshot of drought conditions to help farmers manage their risks.  “If you see that the weather station received an inch of rain and the soil moisture has moved up to such and such a level from where it was at the moisture station, and you know that at your farm because of the gauge out on your post that you got an inch and a quarter, you probably did a little better,” Taylor says, “or if you got half an inch, you didn’t do as well.”

The new weather stations replace ones that have been monitoring data at the farms for more than 30 years. Taylor said the original units made up the world’s first non-military network of automatic reporting weather stations. The weather stations will also measure rainfall, air and soil temperature, humidity, sunlight, wind speed and direction. A solar collector powers the units.

(Radio Iowa)