In his report to the Atlantic City Council Wednesday night, Councilman Chris Jimerson announced the Atlantic Police Department has the necessary forms and information available for an upcoming Deer Depredation hunt, designed to reduce the deer herd within the City limits. Jimerson said persons interested in bow hunting the deer will need to attend  qualifications tryouts to be held at 10-a.m. Sat., August 18th, or 6-p.m.  August 22nd at Sunnyside Park near the old school house.

Councilman Steve Livengood clarified this is NOT an organized hunt arranged by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. He said bow hunters will need to have a license, tags, permission to hunt on private property and Atlantic Police Chief Steve Green, to hunt within the City limits. Prospective hunters must also be able to prove their competency to handle their archery equipment responsibly. The City received permission from the Iowa DNR to hold the special antlerless deer hunt, to reduce the deer population, which has grown substantially since the last study was conducted a couple of years ago. An Urban Deer Control Ordinance was approved by the Council in June.

In other business, Councilman Dana Halder reminded residents about the need to remove your posted signs about garage sales. Halder said there is an ordinance prohibiting such signs on Public property. At the very least, he implored residents to “Have the courtesy to go pick up your garage sale sign…“  Some of the signs he says, are still posted, more than two-weeks after the sale was held.

Atlantic Police Chief said there is a $250 fine for posting signs on City property, such as light and telephone poles, school property and on private property, where permission was not received to post those signs.

 NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) – Central Nebraska authorities have found themselves the unintended caretakers of more than 100 hogs from Iowa that had been bound for California.  North Platte television station KNOP-TV reports that North Platte animal control officers struggled Tuesday to hose down the hogs that were stranded in a broken-down semitrailer for more than 13 hours. The truck broke down along U.S. Interstate 80 in North Platte around 9 a.m. Tuesday. Police say the driver’s log books were out of date. He was cited for several violations, including suspicion of animal cruelty. Chief Deputy Jim Agler says the hogs are now his department’s responsibility. Authorities planned to get the hogs fed and checked by a veterinarian and will try to recover the cost of caring for the hogs from their out-of-state owners.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa state climatologist says the 2012 drought is even worse than the 1988 event and the worst since 1936. Climatologist Harry Hillaker told The Gazette that the heat and dry July has pushed this year’s drought above ’88 drought for breadth and severity. Hillaker says the 1936 drought in Iowa also was fueled by a torrid July, the hottest and second-driest in 140 years.
 
Climatologist Brian Fuchs at the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb., says “heat makes droughts drier, and droughts make heat hotter.” Fuchs says a high-pressure system that has kept many storms from watering the nation’s grain belt has strengthened and could remain as a rain barrier for two more months. The center reported last week that the drought covers two-thirds of the continental U.S.

w/ Kate Olson

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – The ongoing drought – combined with the global economic turmoil – is hurting business in nine Midwest and Plains states and increasing worries about the possibility of another recession.  A report released today (Wednesday) says July’s Mid-America Business Conditions Index plunged below growth neutral for the first time since 2008. The index hit 48.7, compared with 57.2 in June. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says the drought will hurt farm income and the strengthening dollar hurts exports.
 
The survey of business leaders and supply managers uses a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Any score above 50 suggests growth while a score below 50 suggests decline for that factor. The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

The 2012 Cass County Fair Grand Champion Beef Selection Show was held Monday night at 7:00pm at the Livestock Show Ring at the Cass County Fair.

In the 4-H Heifers the Grand Champion was shown by Drew Ticknor of the C&M Champions.  The Reserve Champion was shown by Duke Zellmer of the Pymosa 4-H Club.

In the 4-H Purchased Steers the Grand Champion selection belonged to Morgan McDermott of The Bear Grove Blazers.  Reserve Champion was shown by Macy Ticknor of the C&M Champions.

The FFA Heifer Grand Champion was shown by Walker Mundorf of Griswold FFA.

Also the FFA Steer Grand Champion was shown by Brady Runyan of the CAM FFA.  Reserve Champion was shown by Tanner Potter of the Griswold FFA.

The Cass County Conservation Board is sponsoring a “Breakfast with the Birds” Program. Officials say the program will be held at Sunnyside Park, Camblin Addition Shelter in Atlantic, on August 11^th 2012, beginning at 9 am. Free will donations will be accepted.

The event serves as a sort of  kick-off to the Atlanticfest celebration on that same day(www.atlanticiowa.com) , by learning about birds of prey. Christina Roelofs, Shelby/Audubon County Naturalist will lead the presentation of birds. Christina will show and discuss several of her permanently injured education birds, and offer you an opportunity to  check the birds out, close-up.

Iowa livestock farmers who’ve seen their pastures dry up and their hay supply dwindle may be able to find another source to feed their animals. Corn stalks can be chopped up and turned into silage. Daniel Loy, a livestock specialist with Iowa State University’s Extension Service, says the corn stalks must have about 60 to 70 percent moisture and stalks that look dry often have that much moisture inside. “The key to quality harvest of silage is to exclude the oxygen…cover it with plastic or other material so that they can exclude as much oxygen as possible, and then it goes through a fermentation process which is almost exactly like pickling,” Loy says. That pickling process takes about three or four weeks.

“It will develop enough acidity and drop the pH to a level that actually will fight off the microorganisms that might cause it to deteriorate,” Loy says. “It becomes stable at that point and that’s why, if you’ve ever smelled corn silage, it has that sweet/sour aroma which is very much similar to what you would find in your pickle jar.” You can’t just go out in a field and start chopping with a mower, however. It takes special equipment to cut silage. “There are custom operators that will bag silage and put it into a big plastic bag which is kind of a silo-on-the-spot and there are also custom operators that will do the chopping and delivery,” Loy says, “so if producers aren’t really set up to harvest and store silage, there are opportunities for custom operators to help them do that.” But not every corn field that’s judged a total loss for the farmer who wanted to harvest the corn in bushels can be sold as tons of silage.

Some crop insurance policies bar farmers from chopping the corn plants for resale as silage. In other fields the nitrogen content of the corn stalks may be too high to be fed to livestock. But Loy says that four-week process of converting the chopped corn into pickled silage cuts the nitrogen levels. “That can reduce the nitrates that (are) in the plant material by 30 to 80 percent, depending on the quality of the fermentation,” Loy says. “So between diluting with other feed stuffs, between the reduction in nitrate that occurs during the ensiling process, the risk can be decreased quite substantially.” Loy advises farmers to visit with an expert if they’ve never chopped silage before and to check with an advisor before feeding silage to their livestock for the first time. Go to www.radioiowa.com to find a link to I-S-U Extension resources about silage.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The condition of Iowa’s crops continues to decline as the drought persists. Even with some rain last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says 46 percent of the corn crop is now in poor or very poor condition. Last week, it was 40 percent.  The USDA says in Monday’s report that 34 percent of Iowa’s soybeans are in poor to very poor condition. Last week, it was 30 percent.
 
Thunderstorms hit on Wednesday and over the weekend, with a statewide average of .70 inches. But Audubon hasn’t had any measurable rain in 36 days. In Atlantic, the last measurable rain was on June 28th, when we received just two one-hundredths (.02) of an inch.

The high temperature for the week was 107 degrees in Donnellson, Fairfield and Keokuk.  Iowa State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says July could be the third hottest and fifth driest July among 140 years of state records.

The state’s top agricultural official predicts the 2012 corn harvest will begin in August, far earlier than normal, due to the drought. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey says the corn harvest normally begins in mid-September.  “I do believe harvest will be early. We are seeing maturities move along a lot faster, in part because it was short of water, in part because it was short of heat,” Northey says. “We did get in the fields early this last spring, but we’re likely to see some harvesting start, I believe, in August.” Although there’s a day left in the month, this is likely to be the fifth driest July since officials began keeping weather records 136 years ago. Just an inch-and-12-hundredths of rain has fallen, on average, in the state this month. That’s more than three inches below normal. This is also going to be the third hottest July in Iowa as well. “The combination of those creates real, real stress on our crops out there, our corn and soybean crops as well as our pasture land, as well as water demand that you see in our urban and rural areas,” Northey says.

The state’s largest urban water system — the Des Moines Water Works — has asked customers to conserve — and quit watering lawns. Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management director Mark Schouten has met with the directors of Iowa’s 19 rural water systems. “Although those systems are being taxed and they’re producing record amounts of water, they continuing to meet demand,” Schouten says. “Some of them are looking to drill new wells. They’re looking forward, sensing their water levels are dropping, so they’re working with DNR to increase their ability to generate water.” 

State officials are reviewing the rules and regulations for well-drilling, to see if there’s any way to speed up the permitting process. Schouten and Northey spoke this morning (Monday) at the governor’s weekly news conference. Governor Branstad last week lifted weight restrictions for hauling hay and the D-O-T started granting permits to farmers who want to mow ditches and bale the forage for their livestock.

(Radio Iowa)