November 1:

• Lynn Dorsey of Anita (winner)

November 2:

• Jane Schwartz of Atlantic (winner)

November 3:

• Mark Foss of Atlantic (winner)
• Cathie Grover of Audubon

November 4:

• Kathy Bradfield of Lewis (winner)

November 5:

• Ryan Evans of Griswold (winner)
• Bart Feltner of Exira
• Jim Behrens of Atlantic
• Jeff Strand of Atlantic
• Teagen Williams of Atlantic

November 6:

• Mary Gochanour of Atlantic (winner)
• Laura Bacon of Audubon

November 7:

• Ava Lee of Griswold (winner)
• Carol Lea Rasmussen of Exira
• Joyce Jorgensen of Exira
• Barbara Fischer of Marner
• Yvonne Wittrock of Hamlin

November 8:

• Shelly Davis of Exira (winner)
• Thad Planck of Atlantic
• Michael Myers of Atlantic

November 9:

• Isla Jean Nelson of Audubon (winner)
• Scarlett Toft of Audubon
• Tom Benton of Exira
• Deb Field of Atlantic

November 10:

• Tristen Petersen of Exira (winner)
• Bob Behrens of Atlantic
• Elizabeth Ann Lillard of Anita
• Tom Christoffersen of Hamlin

November 11:

• Cathy Stockwell of Elk Horn (winner)
• Mahala Kemp of Atlantic

November 12:

• Tom Williams of Lewis (winner)
• AJ Barber of Wiota
• Rosemary Mally of Atlantiuc
• Shari Clemsen of Brayton

November 13:

• Tedd Thomas of Atlantic (winner)

November 14:

• Sherry Kluever of Atlantic (winner)
• Kathy Jo Brockman of Atlantic
• Becky Akers of Exira

November 15:

• Robert Schmidt of Harlan (winner)

November 16:

• Roberta Roddy of Audubon (winner)
• Brad Wolfe of Exira

November 17:

• NO BIRTHDAYS SUBMITTED

November 18:

• Jayce Fiebelkorn of Exira (winner)
• Grace Martins 0f Atlantic
• Olivia Erickson of Gallup, NM
• Lisa Hoffman Whalert of Anita
• Kelly Knight of Atlantic
• Cindy Koontz of Lewis

November 19:

• Jessie Evans of Griswold (winner)
• Mike Brown of Exira

November 20:

• Greg Zellmer of Atlantic (winner)
• Cindy Cuerdet of Oakland
• Gloria Hansen of Exira

November 21:

• Hosea Ehrman of Anita (winner)
• Ryan Brown of Fontanelle
• Arnie Bintner of Exira

November 22:

• Cooper Lamp of Atlantic (winner)

November 23:

• Drew Barber of Wiota (winner)
• Heather Erickson of Gallup, NM
• Amber Knudsen of Marne
• Brennan Williams of Atlantic

November 24:

• Yvonne Camblin of Atlantic (winner)
• Garry Martens of Anita

November 25:

• No Birthdays Submitted

November 26:

• Gloria Hackwell of Exira (winner)

November 27:

• Debbie Crawford of Atlantic (Winner)
• Angie Madsen of Harlan
• Maury Sutton of Audubon

November 28:

• No Birthdays Submitted

November 29:

• Jedd Jensen of Exira (winner)
• Duane Christensen of Audubon

November 30:

• Sophie Johnson of Lewis (winner)
• Nancy Templeman of Atlantic
• Patrick Roddy of Audubon
• Raymond Coglin of Exira

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) – Experts in the Iowa Department of Natural Resources are asking Iowans — including trappers — for help in research that may explain why there are a dwindling number of gray fox in Iowa. Vince Evelsizer — a furbearer biologist for the D-N-R — says gray fox are pretty secretive, not very vocal and live primarily in wooded areas of eastern and southern Iowa.

“For the past 25 years or so their population trend has been downward, however we don’t know a whole lot about the gray fox. We know much more about the red fox than we do the gray fox,” Evelsizer says. “…Our ‘guess-timate’ is that there would be 10-20% of the gray fox out there that there used to be and that might be a generous estimate.”

The D-N-R is offering 400 dollars to trappers who catch a gray fox in a cage and turn the live animal over for the D-N-R’s research project so it can be fitted with a neck collar that has a tracking device. Evelsizer says Iowans who are certain they know where gray fox may be in their area can call the agency, because he and another staffer who’re working on the project might be able to catch the fox and put a G-P-S collar on it.

“Also if they find a fresh dead gray fox this fall and winter, we’d even like to have that for study as well. We can look at the health of that dead gray fox as far as what kind of shape was it in, what was the reason it died,” Evelsizer says, “so live foxes and dead foxes are helpful for our study.” The D-N-R conducted a survey between 2018 to 2021 and found next to zero gray fox were being trapped in Iowa, so it’s unlikely the population decline is because they’re being captured for their fur.

“What we think the likely causes are for their population decline are other things such as disease, changes to habitat and competition with other predators such as coyotes and bobcats,” Evelsizer says, “and even domestic dogs, too.”The state of Indiana has a similar project to track gray fox there. Evelsizer says the gray fox population is declining steadily in Midwestern states.

“However, in the southeastern U.S., the gray fox population is doing fine and then, also of interest, the gray fox are doing pretty well in the northern half of Minnesota,” Evelsizer says. “Why are they not doing well in the Midwest? We have some ideas, but we’d like to figure it out and get the answers through research so that we have a science based approach to it…knowing whether or not there are any kind of solutions we can implement.”

Gray fox are native to Iowa. An adult gray fox typically weighs between 10 and 12 pounds.

(Radio Iowa) – State and federal officials have confirmed bird flu has hit a third commercial turkey operation in northwest Iowa. The facility is in Buena Vista County and had about 30-thousand turkeys on site. Another turkey production facility in Buena Vista County was hit by bird flu two weeks ago.

On October 23rd, officials announced birds in a commercial turkey operation in neighboring Pocahontas County were being euthanized after bird flu had been detected there. From April through September of this year, there were NO cases of bird flu reported in the state.

According to the Iowa Department of Agriculture, though, there were two outbreaks of bird flu at the beginning of the year — one in late January at a Buena Vista County turkey production facility and another in mid-March in a backyard flock in Chickasaw County.

(Atlantic, Iowa; October 30, 2023) – Harvest Market 2023 will be held at the Cass County Community Center on Monday, November 20 from 3-6 pm. Produce in the Park is now seeking vendors for Harvest Market, and additional holiday markets planned for winter 2023-2024. Vendor applications can be found online at www.ProduceInTheParkAtlanticIowa.com; printed copies of the application are available at the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce (102 Chestnut St., Atlantic, IA 50022).

Harvest Market is held the Monday before Thanksgiving, so shoppers can pick up premium local produce, local meats, delicious baked goods, and other local foods to enjoy at holiday celebrations, along with seasonal candles, decorations, and gifts. Produce in the Park seeks vendors selling handmade or homegrown products, including local foods such as produce, meats, baked goods, eggs, jams, and jellies, as well as beauty products, candles, crafts, art, and decorations.

Harvest Market 2023 is sponsored by Cass County Farm Bureau, Cass Health, Gregg Young of Atlantic, 1st Whitney Bank & Trust, Nishna Valley Family YMCA, and the City of Atlantic.

For the latest information on Harvest Market, and all Produce in the Park markets, follow Produce in the Park on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ProduceInThePark) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/produceintheparkatlanticia/).

(Radio Iowa) – A county official in northeast Iowa says the announcement that the proposed Navigator pipeline project has been cancelled is great news, but Delaware County Supervisor Shirley Helmrichs says she’s talking with other board members about updating the county’s ordinance regulating how close for-profit pipelines may be built to homes and buildings. “I’m going to pull out all the ordinances I have from other counties and go through setbacks and we’re going to make them large enough setbacks. It’s not going to be like a 50 foot setback,” Helmrichs says. “…We’re going to look at putting things in place rather quickly.”

Navigator’s proposed pipeline would have stretched through about 25 miles of Delaware County. Helmrichs says the cancellation has relieved a lot of stress among affected landowners. “It was like a breath of fresh air and a load of a lot of the landowners their backs,” Helmrichs says. “…They were so fearful somebody was going to take their property and not be able to make it functional and the fear of what would happen with that being so close to their homes.”

Helmrichs says she intends to have serious conversations with local legislators and urge them to forbid private, for-profit companies from using eminent domain to acquire land from unwilling property owners.

Jim Field visits with Fred Larson about the 25th Malvern Country Music Festival coming up Friday and Saturday at the Liberty Memorial Building in Malvern.

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(Radio Iowa) – The dry weather has created some yield loss in soybean and cornfields in north-central Iowa. I-S-U Extension Field Agronomist Angie Rieck-Hinz says some soybean pods were shattering in the fields before a combine would enter, or the pods shattered as the cutter bar of the combine hit them. The beans fall out of the shattered pods and can’t be harvested. “A lot of fields that are green with beans seed that fell on the ground and as germinated and some cornfields too and not a lot we can do when that crop dries down too fast,” she says. Rieck-Hines says the crops turned so quickly that it made it tough to respond.

“They kind of went from wet to dry like literally overnight,” she says.”Most people will tell you we went from green stems which was hard to combine, to dry pods and beans, and that made for some harvest losses.” She says many producers are making bales out of corn and soybean stover, but that can lead to a loss of important materials in the process. “Give some thought to how many nutrients in particular I’m talking about phosphorus and potassium were removed. How do we replace those nutrients with fertilizer or manure sources?,” Riek-Hinz says. “We can optimize our soil test levels for next year to optimize our crop production we sometimes forget we do remove a lot of potassium in corn stock bales, but we remove a lot more potassium if we’re bailing up soybean stubble.”

Rieck-Hinz says corn yields in her territory have been averaging 210-220 bushels an acre, soybeans have been averaging about 62 bushels an acre.

Asa Lucas, Chris Parks, Jim Field, and Matt Mullenix take a look at 8 area high school football games each week throughout the season. We try to provide some insight into the match-ups while competing for top prognosticator and the Whosman Trophy.

Who’s Gonna Win? is brought to you again in 2023 by Rush CPA & Associates and Fareway.

Last Week:

Matt Mullenix 7-1

Asa Lucas 7-1

Jim Field 8-0

Chris Parks 8-0

Overall 2023 Standings:

Matt Mullenix 57-15

Asa Lucas 59-13

Jim Field 53-19

Chris Parks 61-11

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(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s pheasant hunting season opens tomorrow morning and state officials say there could be 50- to 60-thousand hunters in the fields. Todd Bogenshutz, a biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the state’s pheasant numbers appear to be rising. “Our roadside counts showed populations were a little bit higher than they were a year ago from a statewide perspective,” Bogenshutz says. “Looking at the crop reports this week, it looks like over 75% of the soybeans have been harvested and we’re going to be over 50% of the corn out, certainly by this coming weekend.”

Fields that are clear of crops mean less cover and better hunting. The forecast calls for cooler weather on opening day, with highs only in the 30s and 40s. Bogenshutz says lower temperatures may also mean better hunting. “A lot of times, our openers can be warm and that can be pretty hard on the hunters and dogs,” Bogenschutz says. “It’s basically the first time out for a lot of hunters and dogs, and so when we’re warm, 70s and 80s, usually that can cause some stress.” There are no significant changes in the hunting rules from last year, he says, and one of the most frequent questions he hears is about the wearing of blaze orange.

Pheasant hunters. (DNR photo)

“Our upland bird hunters are required to wear at least one article that’s at least 50% blaze orange, whether that’s a hat or a jacket or a vest. We just want everybody to be safe,” Bogenschutz says. “If you’re hunting with a group, and doing drive hunts or whatever, just have a game plan, know where everybody is, where safe shooting zones are.”

Non-toxic shot is required in some areas, including wetlands, and he says to always get permission before hunting on private property. The season runs through January 10th. Find more information at www.iowadnr.gov.