w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio  Iowa) – Iowa State Fair C-E-O Jeremy Parsons says there will be a dairy cattle show at next month’s fair, but other activities involving dairy cattle may be changed or cancelled to protect the animals from the spread of bird flu.  “Our job is to showcase all of Iowa agriculture at its peak,” Parsons says, “and so we want to make sure we’re keeping those livestock safe.”

An Iowa Department of Agriculture order that went into effect Monday requires that dairy cattle be tested for bird flu within seven days of moving the cattle from the farm to a fair for a dairy show. Parsons says state fair officials are consulting with the state ag department about what’s best when it comes to how the dairy industry is showcased outside of the show ring.

“There will still be a dairy show at this year’s Iowa State Fair,” Parsons says. “Some of the other features, however, like the milking parlor and the Boulevard of Breeds might look a little bit different.” There are traditionally 70 different breeds of livestock featured in the State Fair’s Avenue of Breeds, including dairy cattle. There’s also a milking parlor on the fairgrounds that showcases the kind of mechanical equipment used in modern dairy operations, along with tutoring sessions for kids, who get to milk a cow themselves if they wish.

Keeping dairy cattle on the fairgrounds for the 11-day run of the State Fair could be an issue, however, during this year’s outbreak of avian influenza in some dairy herds. “We at the State Fair are evaluating our programming right now and we’ll soon be making some announcements,” Parsons says. The Iowa State Fair starts Thursday, August 8th and runs through the Sunday the 18th.

Parsons made his comments during taping of the “Iowa Press” program that will air Friday night on Iowa P-B-S.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa dairy producers who’ve been impacted by bird flu can now apply for federal emergency funding. The USDA expanded its Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm Raised Fish Program to help cover lost profits from the virus. Dairy farmers are required to discard milk from sick cows to prevent the spread of pathogens.

Matt Russell, executive director of USDA-Iowa Farm Service Agency, says expanding the program supports dairy farmers and creates an incentive to get tested. Russell says, “Because if you are seeing some cows be sick and they happen to have H5N1, then this program kicks in and will provide some support for that loss of production.”

To be eligible for recovery assistance, Russell says producers need a positive test result from the National Veterinary Services Laboratories. “This is a support for farmers that are having decreased production because of H5N1,” he says, “but because it provides that support, it also creates that incentive for farmers to get tested.”

USDA photo

Russell says farmers with a positive test should contact their local FSA office to file a Notice of Loss. Payments are based on milk production averages for specific months.

(Radio Iowa) – Ag equipment maker John Deere is announcing plans to eliminate some 800 jobs at plants in Iowa and Illinois over the coming weeks. It follows word last month the company would shift production of its skid steer loaders and compact track loaders from Dubuque to Mexico by the end of 2026. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig is reacting to the news. “Anytime that you’re hearing about roll backs, layoffs, moving things outside of the state of Iowa or the United States,” Naig says, “you’re concerned about those things, you want to understand them.”

In a statement, the company cited rising manufacturing costs as a key factor, while lower crop prices have also caused a slowdown in new ag equipment sales. Some forecasters predict a 25-percent drop in farm income this year over last. Naig says the agricultural economy in general is experiencing what he called “softness” due to a number of factors. “The announcements that you’ve heard made of late are indicators of very much some softness in the ag economy,” Naig says. “Given the effects of inflation, high input prices, the cost of capital interest rates remaining where they are, all those things are contributing in the ag space to delaying decisions if you can — let’s just go sideways for a little bit.”

Deere is eliminating more than 200 jobs at its Davenport plant and another 99 in Dubuque at the end of August, and more than 500 in East Moline, Illinois at the end of September. Deere announced earlier this year it’s cutting more than 800 jobs at facilities in Waterloo, Ottumwa and the Des Moines metro. Naig says the souring economic effects aren’t just limited to the ag equipment sector. “That’s also playing out now in some of these announcements that you’re hearing made about even meat processing or manufacturing,” he says. “So, you try to take all that in and look at it holistically, but I do think that it’s certainly sending some signals about a softening in the economy or at least a lack of confidence in the economy, and those are things what we need to be addressing as a country.”

Secretary Naig says it’s imperative for the state to do everything it can to help agriculture and manufacturing continue to thrive, as they are key economic drivers in the state. His comments came Monday as he was in Davis County to tour a local parts fabrication business.

Jim Field visits with Greg & Char Bintner, who have been parade announcers for many years and are the grand marshals for the Exira July 4th parade this year.  They help to preview the celebration.

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• KJAN, Atlantic  1.95
• 7 miles NNE of Atlantic  1.32″
• Massena  3.25″
• Elk Horn  .98″
• 1 mile west of Lewis  3.13″
• Anita  1.86″
• Avoca  1.6″
• Oakland  2.25″
• Neola  1.85″
• Earling  .95″
• Audubon  .66″
• Corning  .44″
• Villisca  .61″
• Bridgewater  3.7″
• Missouri Valley  1.32″
• Glenwood  4.5″

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Food System Coalition representatives, Monday, announced a new plan for Iowa agriculture seeks to increase the state’s production of food rather than ethanol and animal feed. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports he plan, known as Setting the Table for All Iowans, outlines the coalition’s policy goals which include producing more locally grown food, getting more young people to become farmers and providing more financial assistance to farmers. Chris Schwartz, executive director of the coalition, said the plan is an opportunity to positively impact farmers, the economy and the local community.

From left to right, Chris Schwartz, Giselle Bruskewitz, Tommy Hexter and Aaron Lehman speak July 1, 2024 outside the Iowa Capitol about a coalition called Setting the Table for All Iowans. (Photo by Jack O’Connor/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Director of Grinnell Farm to Table food hub Tommy Hexter said many commodity farmers are struggling because most of the profits are going toward the middlemen like seed, equipment and marketing companies. However, Hexter said selling produce locally cuts out most middlemen and leads to more money going into farmers’ pockets. “Setting the Table for All Iowans provides an opportunity to build that system where Iowa’s farmers and small business owners can truly thrive,” Hexter said in the press conference.

The plan also focuses on how to retain and attract farming talent to Iowa through investments in obtaining refrigerated trucks, increasing the number of rural grocery stores and providing needed equipment to small businesses. President of the Iowa Farmers Union Aaron Lehman, a fifth-generation family farmer, said investments like those are vital for the Iowa agriculture industry where there are more farmers above the age of 65 than below the age of 35.

Over the past two years, the Iowa Food System Coalition has organized a Food and Farm Day at the Iowa Capitol and invited legislators and state agencies to a food policy summit. One of the next steps for the coalition is to educate legislators about the plan so it can be used as a guide to create state policies, Schwartz said.

(Radio Iowa) – Smithfield Foods announced it is closing its Altoona ham boning facility to consolidate production volume at other locations in Illinois, South Dakota and Nebraska to improve the company’s efficiency. The Altoona plant has 314 employees and the company says it will meet with them to provide additional details about the transition plan, severance pay, and potential employment opportunities with Smithfield. Smithfield employs nearly four-thousand people in Iowa at its farms and its food-processing facilities in Carroll, Denison, Des Moines, Mason City, Orange City, Sioux Center and Sioux City.

The company that recently gained approval from state regulators for its carbon dioxide pipeline system in Iowa wants to proceed with expansion requests for that system starting in late August. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Summit Carbon Solutions has proposed new public informational meeting dates for 23 counties that would span about four weeks, according to documents recently filed with the Iowa Utilities Commission, formerly known as the Iowa Utilities Board. The first meeting would be Aug. 26 in Adams County.

The company must hold the meetings in affected counties before it can negotiate with landowners for easements and file petitions for permits to build the extensions.

The 14 proposed offshoots to additional ethanol plants from Summit’s initial proposal would increase the size of the system in Iowa by about 341 miles — or about 50%. The IUC indicated last week it would grant Summit a permit for the company’s initial proposal, which has about 690 miles of pipe.

The company hopes to transport captured carbon dioxide from ethanol producers in five states to North Dakota to be stored underground. The IUC has stipulated that Summit cannot start laying pipe in Iowa until it obtains permits in the Dakotas. It said the company can use eminent domain to force agreements with unwilling landowners to use their properties for the project.

North Dakota regulators are considering Summit’s pipeline route in that state and whether it would be allowed to pump the greenhouse gas into the ground. Summit has said it will reapply for a pipeline permit in South Dakota this month. The company hopes to start construction next year.

The IUC denied requests from pipeline opponents to consider the extensions along with the initial proposal. Those extensions and maps of their routes were unveiled in March while the initial permit process was still pending. Some argued, unsuccessfully, that parts of the system route should be revamped to shorten its overall length.

Instead, each of the extensions from the initial route will be subject to individual permits. Summit had hoped to hold informational meetings for them in April and May, but the commission rejected those dates without providing a reason.

Summit submitted new maps of the extension routes last week that increased their total length by about a half mile. A notable change was in Hardin County, where a proposed route moved slightly closer to Iowa Falls.

The new proposed meeting schedule — which has not yet been approved by the IUC — goes from Aug. 26 to Sept. 20 in the following counties: Adams, Bremer, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Butler, Clay, Fayette, Floyd, Greene, Guthrie, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Ida, Kossuth, Mitchell, Montgomery, O’Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, Sioux, Webster and Worth.

The Iowa Utilities Commission, formerly the Iowa Utilities Board, announced its name change on Monday and said it was the result of a state government reorganization last year that removed the agency from the state Department of Commerce.

July 1:

• Rayden Moore of Exira (winner)
• Emmy Benton of Exira
• Michele Kirchhoff of Lewis
• Mark Knudsen of Atlantic
• Jo Ann Brahms of Griswold
• Bev England

July 2:

• Jacob Thomas of Atlantic (winner)
• Kay Wickman of Atlantic
• Julie Vais of Exira

July 3:

• Cora Zikuda of Lewis (winner)

July 4:

• Brandy Fieblekorn of Exira (winner)
• Justin “Dudley” Freeman of Avoca
• Joyce Jensen of Exira

July 5:

• Chris Wahlert of Exira (winner)
• Greg Waters of North Bay, Australia

July 6:

• Heather Sager of Atlantic (winner)
• Jordan Dailey of Atlantic
• Bev Moffatt of Atlantic

July 7:

• Arnie Lamp of Atlantic (winner)
• Reid Mosier of Atlantic

July 8:

• Chris Williams of Atlantic (winner)
• Sheli Brown of Atlantic

July 9:

• James Klindt of Atlantic (winner)
• Cestra Dodson of Atlantic

July 10:

• Ellie Wahlert of Exira (winner)
• Emery Dean Nelson of Audubon
• Chris Witzman of Atlantic
• Zach Blanchard of Atlantic

July 11:

• Mike Bagshaw of Massena (winner)
• Lynn Andersen of Audubon
• Adelyn Sanderson of Bonesteel, SD

July 12:

• John Johnson of Atlantic (winner)
• Leah Schmidt of Harlan

July 13:

• Annette Andersen of Kimballton (winner)
• Carol Seddon of Atlantic

July 14:

• Olivia Jo Bateman of Atlantic (winner)
• Jole Jens of Atlantic
• Keegen Kemp of Atlantic

July 15:

• No Birthdays Submitted

July 16:

• Bill Michael Stockwell of Elk Horn (winner)
• Braydon Androy of Elk Horn
• Connie Jessen of Exira
• Parker Wedemeyer of Van Meter

July 17:

• Mike Haley, Sr of Exira (winner)
• Bad Dad Brother Mike Waters of Atlantic
• Erin Kelly of Griswold
• John Paul Walker of Exira
• Hayden Landsdown of Atlantic
• Spenser Sothman of Cumberland