w/ Dr. Keith Leonard

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.7MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors welcome new business Renew Ag Supply to 811 Sunnyside Lane in Atlantic. Owner and manager Peggy Beschorner hosted the group and shared her story of 30 plus years in the ag supply industry serving the Atlantic Area.

Pictured are: Lana Westphalen, Carole Schuler, Jolene Roecker, Nedra Perry, Deb Leistad, Sue Muri, Peggy Beschorner, Arlene Drennan, Bil Saluk, Dolly Bergmann & Tessa, Pat McCurdy, Connie Wailes, Donnie Drennan, Gerald Brink, Russell Joyce, Jim Kickland, Chip Hansen, Kathie Hockenberry, Rich Perry, Karl Aldag, JoAnn Runyan, Tammy Waters, Melanie Petty, Diane Harris, Lucas Mosier, Keith Leonard, Josh Dvorak, and Sara Nelson.

Renew Ag Supply offers products for large animals including antibiotics, vaccinations and many other products necessary for farming operations. Beschorner said they hope to expand and fill their new space as the business grows.

The Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources reports the State’s 15-day annual pheasant population survey began with tempered expectations on Aug. 1, after a record setting wet spring, with cool temperatures that followed a snowy winter. Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources , coordinates and collects the data from the 208, 30-mile survey routes.

Bogenschutz says “When our pheasants do best, it’s after mild winters with less than 30 inches of snow followed by a warm, dry spring nesting season where we receive less than eight inches of rain. We had that scenario last year and our birds responded. But that is not the case this year.”

The nesting season is April 1 to May 31 and during that period, the average temperature was 51 degrees and Iowa received 15.4 inches of precipitation, including a significant snowfall during the first weekend in May. In years with similar weather, the pheasant survey found declines ranging from 4 percent to 51 percent. “It’s probably assured that the pheasant count will decline, the only question is by how much,” according to Bogenschutz, who says “We will know soon.”

The 30-mile routes are driven at sunrise on gravel roads preferably on mornings with heavy dew and little wind. The surveyors watch for hens moving their broods to the road edges to dry off before starting to look for insects. Surveyors note the number in the brood, any adult pheasants present and the size of the chicks, which tells Bogenschutz if this was an initial nest or if the nest was washed out and this brood was from a second or even third nest attempt. Each attempt after the first has fewer eggs than the previous attempt. They are the same routes each year.

The survey also collects data on cottontail rabbits, jack rabbits, quail and Hungarian partridge. The information will be available online at www.iowadnr.gov/pheasantsurvey by the middle of September.

Re-live some of the 2013 Cass County Fair on KJAN TV!  CLICK HERE to see the Swine and Beef sales and the Queen/King contest.

w/ Kate Olson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.2MB)

Subscribe: RSS

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Iowa and Nebraska health officials say a prepackaged salad mix is the source of a cyclospora outbreak that sickened more than 178 people in both states. Public health officials from both states announced their findings on Tuesday. Outbreaks of the same illness have been reported elsewhere in the U.S., but it’s not clear if prepackaged salad mix is also linked to those. Cyclospora is a rare parasite that causes a lengthy gastrointestinal illness.

Nebraska officials say the salad mix came through national distribution channels. It included iceberg and romaine lettuce, along with red cabbage and carrots. Local health departments are working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to identify exactly where the contamination originated in the food production chain and where the product was distributed.

Iowa State University Research and Demonstration Farms (ISU Armstrong Research Farm) along with the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research and Development is inviting the public to attend the Research Farm’s annual Crops Field Day at this Thursday, Aug. 1^st, beginning at 5-p.m.

The evening will begin with a light supper compliments of the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research & Development. After supper everyone will load up on people movers and be transferred to four different stations while riding on the movers. The first station will be a demonstration of the new Weather Stations presented by Elwynn Taylor, ISU Agronomy Professor. He’ll discuss the system of the statewide weather stations and how the stations will measure soil moisture at four depths and be accessible by producers.

The second station will be presented by Mark Hanna, ISU Ag & Bio-systems Engineering. Mark will discuss the Farm Energy Project being done at the ISU Armstrong Research Farm. Mark will tell us about the new project monitoring fuel usage with farm equipment and corn drying costs. At station number three Aaron Saeugling, ISU Crops Field Specialist, will be discussing corn development at various corn planting dates. The final station on the tour will be a Cover Crop Study by Ajay Nair, ISU Horticulture Assistant Professor. He will be discussing nine different cover crops to be trialed and discussed.

The ISU Armstrong Research Farm is located 12 miles southwest of Atlantic on Highway 6, half a mile south on 525th Street, and a half mile east on Hitchcock Avenue, or 13 miles east of Oakland on Highway 6, half a mile south on 525th Street, and half a mile east on Hitchcock Avenue. Call 712-769-2600 is you have any questions. The field day is open to the public at no cost.

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.