Officials with the Cass County Conservation Board say a grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ REAP Conservation Education Project, will allow a Rain Barrel Workshop will be held in Atlantic next month. The workshop is being held as a partnership between the West Pottawattamie Coil & Water Conservation District (SWCD), Iowa Western Community College (IWCC) and the Cass County Conservation Board.

“The Rainscaping Loess Soils” Rain Barrel Workshop will be held from 9:30-a.m. until Noon Saturday, April 14th, at IWCC, in Atlantic.The workshop will include a program about rainwater harvesting, and will include a chane to build a rain barrel that you can take home. The barrels work best, when connected to a downspout.

The cost to build a rain barrel is $40 for supplies. For other class dates and times, and to register for the free classes, go to www.iwcc.edu/ce/classes/GoGreen.asp . Or, for more informaton, call your local USDA-NRCS Office. Locally, information can be obtained from Cass County Naturalist Lora Schwendinger, at 712-769-2372.

w/ Kate Olsen

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Vendors from all around the area will be in Harlan this weekend, for the 26^th annual “Home, Garden and Living Show.” In fact, over 40 vendors are expected to bring their wares for your garden, home, and lifestyle. The theme for this year’s event, is “Red, White and Blue.” The show at the Veteran’s Auditorium in Harlan is sponsored by The Harlan Newspapers. The papers’ Al Hazelton says one thing that’s changed over the years is how much technology is coming to the show.

 He says there’ll be communications and energy saving exhibits, computers and related peripherals, and more. Other vendors will have appliances, health, beauty and landscaping products on display. Anyone attending the event will register for great prizes including a TV, outdoor grill and a giant tool cabinet. Hazelton says if you are thinking the Home, Garden and Living show is for adults only, think again. He says the show appeals to all ages. The newspaper is giving away prizes for kids, and most of the exhibitors have drawings for their own giveaways. 

The Home, Garden and Living show begins Saturday evening. Hazelton says admission to the show is free. The hours are from 5-to 8:30-p.m. Saturday, and from Noon- to 4-pm Sunday.

(Joel McCall/KNOD – Harlan)

w/ Denny Heflin.

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) says he and a bipartisan group of senators will seek to cap federal farm payments to large farming operations. Nelson said Wednesday that the group plans to introduce a measure to limit payments to so-called mega-farms. Nelson says that with farm income booming and the national deficit soaring, “the time has come to rein in these payments.” Nelson, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is sponsoring the proposal with Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin, of Iowa; Tim Johnson, of South Dakota; Sherrod Brown, of Ohio; and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; and Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, and Mike Enzi, of Wyoming, Nelson says he hopes the measure will be included in the federal farm bill being crafted by Congress.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach is thanking partners across the state and promoting its educational programs during a statewide celebration this month. ISU Extension and Outreach Week, March 25-31, will include activities on the Iowa State campus, across the state and in Guthrie County. Terry Torneten, Regional Extension Education Director says “The weeklong celebration is just one way we can say ‘thank you’ to the many volunteers, community leaders, organizations, agencies and other partners who support Extension and Outreach work in Guthrie County.” 

Governor Terry Branstad will officially sign a proclamation on March 27^th, declaring the dates as Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Week. Guthrie County ISU Extension and Outreach Office will celebrate Extension week on Friday, March 30th, with an open house from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at the Guthrie County Extension and Outreach Office, located at 212 State Street, Guthrie Center.  Everyone is welcome to come and meet the new staff and see what services they have to offer.  Refreshments and door prizes will also be offered. 

Iowa State University Extension provides researched-based information and education for communities, families, business and industry, agriculture and natural resources, and 4-H youth development as well as continuing education through off-campus courses, degree programs, service learning programs, noncredit conferences and seminars and educational materials.

w/ Kate Olsen

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U-S-D-A officials are warning farmers in Iowa and several other states about fraudulent faxes being sent to individual farmers and businesses in the region. Mike Sanders, chief administrative officer for the Farm Service Agency in Nebraska, says farmers everywhere should be on guard and certainly should not to respond to the letters. In what he calls a “filching” attempt, Sanders says, “A person or entity (was) representing himself as USDA and they were sending out fax messages to various producers in a four-state area, trying to obtain financial information from the producers.” Sanders encourages farmers anywhere who got similar suspicious faxes to report them to their nearest F-S-A office. He’s seen one, in person.

“A producer did receive a fax message and they brought it in to our office,” he says. “From a cursory view, it appeared to be a fictitious memo and a request for information. We are forwarding those requests that we receive to our office of general counsel and the office of inspector general for follow-up.” The letters bear the USDA logo and seal and are signed by an individual identified as “Frank Rutenberg” using a title of Senior Procurement Officer. Sanders says the letter is an effort to rip off farmers.

“There’s a cover memo titled, Authorization to Release Financial Information,” Sanders says. “Basically, it’s a blank form where the producer is to record their business name and what they’re doing business as. They’re asking for bank names, branches, account numbers and tax IDs.” The faxes were received so far in: Nebraska, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. As yet, none were reported in Iowa but producers nationwide are being put on alert.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

Iowa’s only hunting preserve with wild boars would be shut down under a bill passed by the Iowa House, Tuesday. Critics say wild boar present hazards to the state’s pork industry. The bill, however, would allow domestic hogs to be hunted on the preserve. Representative Lance Horbach, of Tama says the Tama County farmer who operates the only wild boar hunting preserve in Iowa would have 90 days to get rid of his wild boar if the bill becomes law. “This allows this Iowa hunting preserve to have hog hunting,” Horbach says. “But it would be domestic swine.”

Some legislators like Representative Mary Wolfe of Clinton questioned the whole concept of hunting hogs.  “We’re going to pass a bill that lets us people hunt these big fat, lazy pigs that apparently don’t provide a whole lot of sport for hunters,” Wolfe said. Representative Dan Muhlbauer, of Manilla, wasn’t sold on the sport of hog hunting either. “We’re going to go out and turn ’em loose in a 360 acre pasture and shoot ’em,” Muhlbauer said. “…Where’s the logic in this?” Wild boar or “feral swine” have attacked domestic swine herds in other states and wild boar hunting was banned in Iowa in 2007. A third-generation Tama County farm has kept up its wild boar hunting preserve since then, through extensions which are about to expire.

The bill to let that farm offer hunters a chance to shoot at hogs raised in the U.S. now goes to the Senate.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)