(Radio Iowa) – Bird flu is confirmed at a third dairy in northwest Iowa as state and federal officials are trying to find out how the virus spreads between farms and livestock. On Wednesday, Iowa’s ag department confirmed avian influenza at a dairy farm with 17-hundred cows in Sioux County. State veterinarian Jeff Kaisand says most cows recover within a few weeks, unlike infected poultry, which are euthanized.

“We do have a USDA epi strike team that’s on the ground in Iowa right now that we requested,” Kaisand says. “They’re trying to help us understand some of those connections between farms to try and reveal some of those connections as best we can.” It’s the second case in Sioux County and the third in the state after the virus was first found in an Iowa dairy in O’Brien County last week. Kaisand says one priority is trying to figure out how avian influenza spreads between farms and livestock.

“We don’t know how it moves through the whole herd,” he says. “Does it go through all at once, or are there pockets that it doesn’t go through? And also trying to understand how it goes through a dairy herd or a poultry herd or vice versa.”

The Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship recently started testing dairies within a 12-mile radius of infected poultry farms.

(Radio Iowa) – Blaming partisan politics and a packed legislative calendar, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s no longer optimistic a Farm Bill will pass Congress this session. “I may often be the first to say that we probably won’t be getting a Farm Bill this year, but I’m also the first to say that farmers need the Farm Bill this year,” Grassley says, “because they need the certainty that comes with a five-year Farm Bill instead of a one-year extension.” The legislation is typically reviewed and renewed every five years, but it had to be extended last year into this fall, and Grassley fears another repeat is looming.

“Farmers today are operating off of the 2018 Farm Bill,” Grassley says, “a five-year Farm Bill which is now a six-year Farm Bill and I think soon-to-become a seven-year Farm Bill.” Grassley, a Republican, suggests the Farm Bill won’t pass this year because of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the Democrat who’s created the framework for this session. “That’s my feeling. It’s not on the list of 17 bills that Schumer wanted to get done this year,” Grassley says, “and also, there’s just such few legislating days left before the 2018 Farm Bill sunsets, September 30th.” Grassley says there needs to be “more farm in the Farm Bill,” noting that 85-percent of the U-S-D-A’s spending outline is for food stamps. He says farmers in Iowa and nationwide will have a difficult 2025 if Congress -again- fails to update the important legislation.

“It’s not adequate from the standpoint that a one-year extension will still use 2018 prices,” Grassley says, “So it doesn’t reflect the inflation we’ve had in diesel, seed, fertilizer, chemicals and interest, and those are all things that should be added to the safety net for farmers.” He says the Farm Bill being drafted by Senate Republicans includes a 15-percent increase in commodities supports, stronger crop insurance, a doubling of funds for foreign market assistance — or exports, along with a healthy boost in spending on ag research.