(Red Oak, Iowa) – The 2024 Montgomery County Fair is underway now (Monday, July 15) through Saturday (July 20), in Red Oak. Preparations for the Fair began last Friday, with a Pre-Fair Supper, and 4-H/FFA Clover Kid Pool Party. View the full schedule HERE.

Monday’s (Today’s) scheduled activities: 4-H/FFA Horse Show; Wardrobe judging; 4-H Table Setting display & judging; Educational presentations, and Extemporaneous Speaking & Working Exhibits

Tuesday will feature entry and judging of 4-H Ag and Natural Resources; The official Fair Welcome will be held Tuesday night, followed by a Religious Rally, and Montgomery County Youth Council Gaga Ball Tournament.

Photo from the Montgomery County (IA) Fair Facebook page

Among the other activities this week, is: the Montgomery County Farm Bureau Breakfast for exhibitors and families, Thursday morning; Amusement inflatables starting Thursday at Noon and each day thereafter, until 10-p.m.; An ATV race Thursday evening; Senior Citizens Day Bingo on Friday, from 1-until 4-p.m.; Mechanical Bull Riding Friday evening at 7, and the Free Bull Ride event at 8-p.m., Friday, followed by a free concert from Tyler Folkerts; Free ice cream and pie Saturday afternoon, following the Baked Apple Pie Contest; A livestock auction Saturday afternoon, a band concert from 7-to 10-p.m., and a Demolition Derby, beginning at 7-p.m., Saturday.

Since 1956, the Montgomery County Fair has been a celebration of family values and ethical standards. Located in Red Oak, it is the home to countless attractions and events in Southwest Iowa.

(Iowa News Service) – An Iowa nonprofit group helps ag-related businesses grow to serve more farmers and get more cover crops planted in the state. Cover crops like rye and wheat are typically planted to protect the soil in winter months – and in and between row crops like corn and soybeans to control weeds in the growing season.

Practical Farmers of Iowa is making up to $10,000 available to farmers who want to commercialize their cover crop practice through the Cover Crop Business Accelerator Program. PFI’s Senior Field Crops Viability Manager Lydia English said while cover crops are good for weed control and soil health, most farmers who use them have another goal.

“Ninety percent of the time, it’s to combat erosion, either wind or water,” said English. “So, I think seeing that soil loss is really real – and that’s a lot of value that we’re washing down the drain, literally, that we don’t need to, with a practice like cover crops.” English said PFI wants to plant 12 million of Iowa’s 30 million acres of farmland with cover crops and thinks the accelerator program will encourage farmers to help reach that goal.

Iowa corn and soybean Farmer Dan Bahe owns a business that plants cover crops for its clients on about 7,000 acres.
He and his brother were already experienced farmers who have used cover crops for more than a decade, but Bahe said they used PFI’s accelerator program to scale up their operation – especially by taking advantage of a personalized business coaching program. “Helping us put a business plan together,” said Bahe. “Ideas on creating a legal entity, marketing, branding. Because we were already established, but we really didn’t have a game plan. We were just taking orders, going out and seeding cover crops.”

The 2022 Census of Agriculture reported nearly 1.3 million acres of cover crops in Iowa. That’s a 32% increase since 2017.
PFI’s accelerator program is in its fifth year.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says U-S-D-A scientists have collected data from Iowa and are working to understand how bird flu has moved to infect dairy cows as well as other animals. “I ordered in an epidemiological strike team from USDA, appreciate they sent that team,” Naig says. “…(They) went farm-by-farm…really trying to understand how high path moves through a herd or possible ways it’s moving off the farm or onto the farm.”

No other state is doing testing of dairy operations within a 12 mile radius of any poultry flock that has to be euthanized after avian influenza is confirmed in the birds — and Naig says wildlife in those zones are being screened for bird flu as well. “I think what we’re going to get when we get to the end of this maybe in weeks or even months is that we’re going to actually have specific strategies farmers can use to protect their operations,” Naig says, “but if you’re not testing, you can’t do that kind of work.”

It’s been a couple of weeks since bird flu has been confirmed in cattle or poultry in an Iowa operation. Since March, six farm workers in Texas, Michigan and Colorado have tested positive for bird flu. Employees at Iowa facilities where the virus has been confirmed among birds or cattle have been tested, but Naig says there have been no human cases of bird flu in Iowa.

“By the way, there’s no evidence of human-to-human spread, which is very good news for all of us,” Naig said, “and why is important that we manage these things as animal health issues, try to deal with them on the farm so they don’t become human health or food safety issues.”

Naig made his comments this weekend during an appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is offering a program to teach skills needed to trap furbearers to people with little to no trapping experience. The workshop will feature knowledge and skill building sessions with instructors that will teach the basics of trapping in Iowa. Jamie Cook, Iowa DNR Program Coordinator, says “For those interested in the tradition of trapping as a means of sourcing fur, this program provides the opportunity to gain the skills and the knowledge it takes to do it all yourself.”

Participants will learn basic strategies for trapping such as proper equipment, trap placement, trapping regulations and steps for preparing hides for trade. Participants are expected to dress appropriately for the weather as a significant portion of the class will be held outdoors. The workshops will take place on various dates and locations across the state. The course is designed for participants of all ages.  Space is limited so be sure to register right away.

For more information and to begin the registration process, visit the link below and search by Trapper Education Class event type:

https://license.gooutdoorsiowa.com/Event/EventsHome.aspx

The program is provided through a partnership with the Iowa DNR and Iowa Trappers Association. It is part of a national effort to recruit, retain and reactivate hunters, anglers and trappers due to the overall decline in hunting and outdoor recreation.

(Radio Iowa) – Tourism is down in the Iowa Great Lakes after heavy rains and high water forced the implementation of issue boating restrictions. The Executive Director of Vacation Okoboji , Kylie Zankowski, says summer business is important to the area.

Zankowski estimates flooding has decreased tourism by 40 to 60 percent.

Zankowski says some hotel occupancy was cut in half during the Independence Day holiday. Juli Redig has been coming to the Iowa Great Lakes from Minnesota since she was the age of her grandchildren. And they saw very few boats on the water during a visit to Arnolds Park due to a five mile and hour speed limit put in place to preserve the shoreline.

Redig says she’s still making the most of her family’s vacation. They brought their pontoon boat to enjoy the water slowly. Zankowski she says there’s hope as water levels and quality continue to improve. She says the Arnolds Park amusement area and other attractions, along with the food, and entertainment give tourists other options.

(story contributed by Sheila Brummer, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University researchers say a sugar molecule they’ve found in the mammary glands of cattle is the so-called receptor that transmits highly pathogenic avian influenza. Professor Todd Bell, in I-S-U’s veterinary pathology lab, says their study could lead to measures that prevent the spread of bird flu, which has infected more than a dozen large herds of dairy cattle in northwest Iowa in recent weeks. “Our team across the street in the vet diagnostic lab kind of figured out the ‘what’ which is we have influenza in the mammary tissue of dairy cattle,” Bell says, “and now here in pathology, we’re trying to understand the ‘why’ and look at mammary tissue to understand why this virus is getting in.”

Researchers in Ames are working under the hypothesis that milking machines may be involved in spreading the virus from cow to cow.  “There’s multiple different routes that influenza can infect different species, but we want to look at that as a potential route,” Bell says. “What we’re trying to do is not only understand maybe how externally the virus is getting to the mammary gland, but more specifically, we’re trying to understand how and why this virus can infect mammary tissue, which prior to this, had been unreported in mammary glands of cattle.”

If they can track the transmission of the virus to milking machines, Bell notes one possible solution to stop the spread is quite elementary. “If a virus is present on milking machines and then is getting into mammary tissue as you attach those milking machines,” Bell says, “one way to potentially stop that would be to disinfect or clean those milking machines prior to milking.” Milk sold in grocery stores and by other retailers is pasteurized, and the F-D-A and dairy industry are stressing that there’s no threat to the milk supply because the pasteurization process neutralizes viruses. Bell agrees. “Everything that we’ve seen so far from a research perspective does say that,” Bell says, “that pasteurized milk is very safe, that heating to that extent renders the virus inactive.”

Bird flu isn’t usually deadly for cows, but it’s often fatal for birds. Since the start of the outbreak, the U-S-D-A says more than 97-million birds have been affected, while commercial poultry flocks where the virus is found are typically euthanized. The study was published in the July edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s peer-reviewed journal. Thirteen of its 14 co-authors are from I-S-U, including researchers and faculty from across the College of Veterinary Medicine.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Natural Resources Commission gave final approval Thursday to antlerless deer quotas that include a drop in the number of does that can be taken in western Iowa. The D-N-R held hearings on the issue and commissioner K.R. Buck of Denison says there was support for the cutback at the hearing he attended. “I think there was 35 or 36 at our meeting. I think if everybody was asked to raise their hand they were willing to give up a doe season through the paid season and archery for two years,” he says. “They see the devastation that our deer population has taken in western Iowa.”

Buck says the lack of deer in the area is concerning. “Our deer population last two years has been wiped out. I mean it’s amazing,” Buck says. The D-N-R’s Tyler Harms oversees the state deer populations and told the commission one of the reasons for the big drop in western Iowa’s deer herd is overhunting. “It’s very obvious that overharvest over an extended period of time from really the mid 2000s to the early 2010s contributed to the population decline,” he says. Harms says disease outbreaks in the deer herd are also an issue. -H-D outbreaks in western Iowa starting in 2012,” Harms says. “Since then there’s been at least five severe outbreaks statewide, which certainly hasn’t helped the situation over in that part of the state.”

The antlerless deer licenses will be cut from 200 to 0 in Cass County, from 250 to 0 in Harrison, Monona, and Pottawattamie counties, from 150 to 0 in Page County, from 200 to 150 in Montgomery County. Some western Iowa counties, including Woodbury and Worth, already had no antlerless deer tags available.

The D-N-R has some new meetings about deer management underway now which they say will help shape how they manage the deer population in western Iowa through the next five years.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Late-night TV icons with Iowa ties will be immortalized in butter at next month’s Iowa State Fair. Johnny Carson, who was born in Corning, and Des Moines native Steve Higgins will be in the Agriculture Building’s cooler next to the wildly popular butter cow and another special guest — “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon. State Fair butter sculptor Sarah Pratt and her team will also make a butter version of the sky glider to celebrate its 50th year.

Fallon, known for his on-air impressions, will get his own impression in butter at the 2024 Iowa State Fair. Fallon will be sculpted alongside the Tonight Show’s announcer, producer and Des Moines, Iowa, native Steve Higgins in celebration of 10 years with Jimmy Fallon as the host of the show.

Another Iowa native will also be featured in butter – longtime Tonight Show host Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson lived in Corning, Avoca and Red Oak as a child. Carson took over the Tonight Show in 1962 for a run that lasted three decades.

The butter cow, along with butter versions of Higgins, Carson and Fallon, will be featured alongside an iconic sky glider chair as the main Sky Glider celebrates 50 years in 2024. All of the sculptures will be on display in the John Deere Agriculture Building 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., during the Fair, August 8-18.

The butter cow has been an annual attraction at the State Fair since 1911. Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines was named the fair’s fifth butter sculptor in 2006 after 15 years as an apprentice to Duffy Lyon. Companion sculptures of the butter cow have been a tradition since at least 1996 when Grant Wood’s famous “American Gothic” painting was immortalized. Last year’s fair featured iconic Iowa athletes Jack Trice, Kurt Warner and Caitlin Clark.

The 2024 Iowa State Fair annual parade kicks things off Aug. 7 in downtown Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa) – The latest Drought Monitor report for Iowa is dramatically different than it was one year ago. One year ago 100 percent of Iowa was either in drought or abnormally dry conditions. The latest Drought Monitor map shows just Scott County and a small part of Clinton County now show abnormally dry conditions. That amounts to less than one percent of the state.

State Climatologist Justin Glisan says the last time Iowa had no abnormally dry areas was in early May of 2020. The state has been free of actual drought conditions since late May of this year – which stopped four-years of drought conditions.