No injuries were reported to the drivers of two vehicles that struck cattle on the road in Union County, late Wednesday night. The Sheriff’s Office says at around 11:35-p.m., a 2002 Chevy pickup driven by 64-year old Dwight Ingram, of Winterset, hit a cow on N. Cherry Street (Union County Road P-33), causing $1,500 damage to the vehicle. The cow, owned by Richard Downing, of Creston, was valued at $3,000.

About 10-minutes later, a van driven by 21-year old Jonathan Zollman, of Bedford, was traveling on the same road at about the same location, when it struck three black angus cattle on the road. Damage to the 2002 Dodge Caravan was estimated at $3,500..or, a total loss. The cow and two calves were valued at $3,000.

An avian influenza support prayer supper was held in northwest Iowa’s Buena Vista County last night (Wednesday). Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey was among the attendees, sharing in a picnic of pulled pork sandwiches and salads in support of impacted poultry producers. Northey told the group of about 175 people that it’s vital for a community to pull together during difficult times like these.

Of the 77 confirmed cases of bird flu in Iowa poultry operations, 14 of them were in Buena Vista County. More than 31-million chickens and turkeys have been euthanized in Iowa in recent months due to the bird flu epidemic. The USDA provides an indemnity for euthanized birds and will cover some costs of disposal, but the federal government doesn’t give aid for loss of income. Some called the 2014-2015 Avian Flu Outbreak the biggest animal health emergency in U.S. history.

While attending the grand opening of an agronomy center in Buena Vista County on Wednesday, Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey discussed the ongoing lawsuit between Des Moines Water Works and three counties in northwest Iowa. The water utility says Calhoun, Buena Vista and Sac counties aren’t proactive enough in preventing agricultural runoff. Des Moines Water Works says it’s causing an excessive financial burden on the city to remove nitrates from the water supply. Northey says while he doubts a lawsuit is the answer, he also says the agricultural community needs to find a long-term solution.

“Society is going to demand that of us,” Northey says. “We want those nutrients to stay there. We’re motivated by it. We’re going to learn things that are going to make us better producers as we learn how that nitrogen mineralizes in the soil.” According to the Des Moines Water Work’s petition, in the summer of 2013, fall of 2014 and winter of 2015, nitrate levels in the Raccoon River reached record peaks.

Bill Stowe, CEO and general manager of Des Moines Water Works, alleges the drainage districts in the three northwest Iowa counties are violating the federal Clean Water Act. Stowe says the system to remove the nitrates costs $7,000 per day to operate.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The former bookkeeper of a western Iowa farming cooperative is admitting she embezzled roughly $1.4 million over six years. Kathy Joan Cullen, who worked 27 years for the 21st Century Cooperative in Cass County, pleaded guilty Wednesday to filing a false tax return.

Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, she admitted that she wrote nearly $1.4 million in checks to herself from 2008 to 2013 and deposited the funds in her personal bank account. The plea agreement says the state and federal government lost $553,000 in tax revenues as a result. In 2009 alone, she embezzled $300,000 from the cooperative, which she didn’t report as income.

The agreement calls for her to pay restitution to the cooperative. Cullen was released after Wednesday’s hearing in Des Moines. Sentencing is Oct. 1st.  Filing a false tax return carries a maximum term of three years imprisonment, up to a $100,000 fine, and up to one year of supervised release.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, and the Cass County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.