It’s that time of year for the Cass County Conservation Board to once again ask you…”When do you think the first Trumpeter Swan will arrive at the Schildberg Quarry?” Call in your prediction (by November 11^th) to the Conservation Board, at 712-769-2372, leave a message and return phone number if their staff are not in.

A Trumpeter Swan (file photo)

Duplicate dates will not be allowed. For example, if a caller predicts November 25th, no one else will be allowed to predict that arrival date. So, call anytime until November 11th to make your prediction! One prediction per family, please.

The sponsors of this contest will determine the official arrival of more than 6 trumpeter swans to Lake 4. The winner will receive a Trumpeter Swan 8×10 print from the Cass County Conservation Board. Sorry, this contest is only for residents of Cass County.

Trumpeter Swans have visited the Schildberg Quarry for, at least, Twenty-one out of the last twenty-two winters. Arrival and departure dates of the swans have been as follows:

• 1997/1998 December 18 – January 2
• 1998/1999 Nothing on record
• 1999/2000 December 25 – February 15
• 2000/2001 November 23 – March 6
• 2001/2002 December 25 – February 24
• 2002/2003 November 23 – March 15
• 2003/2004 November 26 – March 21
• 2004/2005 November 25 – March 18
• 2005/2006 November 17 – March 5
• 2006/2007 October 30 – March 9
• 2007/2008 November 22- February 14
• 2008/2009 November 18- March 12
• 2009-2010 November 19 – January 5
• 2010-2011 November 5 – February 10
• 2011/2012 November 17 – February 21
• 2012/2013 November 24– March 4
• 2013/2014 November 12- April 7
• 2014/2015 November 11- April 6
• 2015/2016 November 22- March 24
• 2016/2017 November 19- March 9
• 2017/2018 November 9- March 20
• 2018/2019 November 11- January 23
• 2019/2020 November 8- March 3

Cass County Conservation is hosting their 6th Biennial Lighted Halloween Campground, Saturday October 24th at Cold Springs Park in Lewis, from 7-9 PM. The event is designed to be non-scary, Family Friendly, and FREE to drive into the night! Prizes will be for the top 3 voted sites, and for some special categories. Prizes are donated by event sponsor Cappel’s Ace Hardware. The event will be cancelled if there is inclement weather.

(Radio Iowa) – Construction is underway in Mason City on what will be the world’s largest freestanding grain bin. Sukup Manufacturing of Sheffield has designed the bin, with a peak height of 155 feet and a capacity of 2.2 million bushels, for the Golden Grain Energy ethanol production plant.

Sukup rendering of the grain world’s largest grain bin.

The new bin would beat the two, 2-million bushel Sukup bins built in Atlantic for the Elite Octane LLC Ethanol plant, which went into operation in July, 2018. The two Sukup corn storage bins in Atlantic are each 156 feet in diameter and 150-feet tall. They hold 2,000,000 bushels each, for a total corn storage capacity of 4,000,000 bushels. They are capable of encasing a Boeing 757 jet.

Sukup president and CEO Steve Sukup says the 165-foot diameter bin in Sheffield will be large enough to hold a Boeing 767 jet.

Golden Grain C-E-O Chad Kuhlers says the bigger grain bin will increase the company’s total storage capacity from about 1.275 million bushels to almost 3.5 million bushels.

Kuhlers says the increased storage capacity can help with production around holidays and other times when corn can’t be delivered. He notes Christmas and New Year’s are both on Fridays this year, and a lot of people don’t want to deliver corn that week in between the two holidays.

Construction on the bin is scheduled to be completed in May or June of next year.