(Radio Iowa) – Fertilizer prices have skyrocketed over the last year and Iowa’s Attorney General says he is looking into the reasons behind the 200 and 300 percent increases. Fertilizer companies blame natural gas cost spikes and production shutdowns because of Hurricane Ida. But Attorney General Tom Miller says he wants to know if these justify the jump in prices. “We’re taking a look at why this increase, what happened? What’s the relationship to supply and demand? And ask them for their side of the story,” Miller says.

Miller has written letters to the C-E-O’s of the top fertilizer companies — but he emphasizes that it’s not an investigation. “It’s sort of the initial look to see why this happened. And afterward we can make decisions,” he says.

Miller says he’s talked with attorneys general in eight other states — primarily in the Midwest — about fertilizer prices. But he wouldn’t share which states have shown interest. Miller says he’s also asked economists to study the issue — and he hopes to have some findings in a few months.

(Radio Iowa) – Backers of a proposed beef processing plant near Council Bluffs are holding investor meetings in Iowa and around the region. Cattlemen’s Heritage is planning to construct a 450-million-dollar plant that would slaughter about 15-hundred head of cattle per day. Frank Maher, with Jennings Kallen Advisors, says they’ll be taking in cattle from across a wide area. “The cattle is coming from a 180-mile radius of Council Bluffs,” Maher says, “so that includes southeast South Dakota, north Missouri, and then as far west as Grand Island (Nebraska) and as far east as Fort Dodge.”

Maher says it’s a chance for livestock producers in the region to invest in themselves and get a fair return.  “It’s an opportunity for the producers to get back control,” Maher says. “We’re in a marketplace where packer pricing is increasing and the amount of money that the producers are getting is falling and that’s been happening since the beginning of 2014 and there’s no end in sight because the packers are getting more and the producers are getting less.”

Cattle producers are being asked for a minimum investment of 100-thousand dollars which would get them priority for shackle space at the plant. Maher says they want to make physical progress soon at the site near the Mills/Pottawattamie county line. “The timeline is, we’re looking at putting the first shovels in the ground in May of 2022 and wrapping it up in December 2023,” he says.

The plant will employ about 750 people in a single shift and will offer onsite childcare and health services. Nearby subsidized housing will also be an option. Cattlemen’s Heritage officials claim the plant will have a $1.1 billion annual impact on the state of Iowa with the goal of not being bought up by one of the nation’s four major meatpackers.