The warm weather last week allowed farmers to get in a lot of combine time as the corn harvest moved ahead by 10 percent and the soybean effort by 29 percent. State Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey says after worries about a late start and drought, farmers have been seeing some good things. “For the most part yields have been good. Most of the folks have been happy,” Northey says.

He says some farmers are seeing better yields than they figured to have a few months ago. “Even those area that had a real dry part of the summer…their yields are definitely down from last year. But they may be better than what they thought they would be going into harvest,” Northey says. “Our yields have been good in northwest Iowa as well, harvest has been moving along. Thank goodness we had a dry week last week.”

The U-S-D-A crop report Monday showed that 23 percent of the corn crop has been harvested — which is the smallest percentage by this date since 2009 and more than two weeks behind average. The bean harvest moved to 61 percent — but is also the smallest percentage harvested by this date since 2009. Northey says cooler weather doesn’t help with drying the crop — and as we head into the last full week of October — the urgency increases for farmers with crops still in the fields.

)”We all look around the corner, we know November is coming. We all remember that a couple of decades ago there was a Halloween storm that buried a lot of crops out in the field, and folks have that in their mind, and the clock is ticking,” Northey says. “So, there are folks who will spend a lot of hours (in the field) when it finally gets fit.” When the harvest conditions are right you can see combines crisscrossing the fields day and night.”

“We hope that they’re all safe and certainly everybody out on the gravel roads and the highways needs to watch for that farm equipment,” according to Northey. “They’re working hard and sometimes it’s hard to be able to see some of the other traffic that is on the road as well.” Northey farms near Spirit Lake and says he’s gotten all his beans harvested, but not the corn.

(Radio Iowa)

Twenty-five years of an environmental and community partnership will be celebrated with the planting of a symbolic tree on Wednesday, October 25th at 1 p.m.. in Atlantic City Park. The public is invited to the celebration. The Atlantic 25th Anniversary Planting recognizes the community’s 25 years of working with Alliant Energy and Trees Forever’s Branching Out partnership.

Dolly Bergmann, president of Atlantic Trees Forever, said in that time, 2,640 trees have been planted in Atlantic through the program, with 24 planted recently throughout the community as part of the celebration. The 25th tree in this recent group will be planted in City Park on October 25 to mark the 25-year partnership. Bergmann said also, “We’ve been all over town.” She said of the sites that have benefited from trees through the years, including parks, schools, the YMCA, courthouse, hospital and Chamber office. She said “People here understand the benefit of trees, including shade and clean air.”

According to Doug Kopp, President of Alliant Energy’s Iowa Utility  “When you plant a tree, you’re starting to leave behind a legacy. Fifteen years from now you can come back and see what you’ve done and it is impressive. These trees provide a benefit to the community in terms of energy efficiency and carbon reduction for years to come and we’re proud to be a part of it.” Shannon Ramsay, Trees Forever Founding President and CEO, says “Trees Forever is very excited to mark the 25th anniversary in Atlantic. Through our partnership with Alliant Energy and the help of volunteers, we’ve been providing a long-lasting benefit to the community.”

An estimated 50,000 blaze orange clad hunters will dot Iowa’s countryside at 8 a.m. this Saturday, Oct. 28, for the opening of Iowa’s 2017 pheasant hunting season. The annual event melds generations of Iowans who reconnect with their hunting heritage. While most hunters will generally only spend the first week or two in the field, those who venture out later will likely be rewarded with success. Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife research biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says “Hunters can expect to find similar bird numbers to last year, but the October rain has our harvest running behind schedule so opening weekend may not be as successful as years past. However, a late harvest could lead to success later in the season.”

Results from the statewide August roadside survey indicate higher pheasant numbers were found in a line of counties stretching from northwest to southeast, but birds are available everywhere quality habitat is found. Bogenschutz said he expects almost a repeat of 2016 pheasant season, where hunters harvested about 250,000 roosters.

Quail season opens Oct. 28, too. Iowa’s quail population is at a 30 year high and landowners report seeing quail in areas that they had not seen them in years but the bulk of the quail population is in the southern three tiers of counties. Iowa’s partridge season opened Oct. 14. Partridge hunting primarily takes place in the north-central counties.

The Iowa DNR’s online hunting atlas lists nearly 700,000 acres of public hunting land, including more than 20,000 acres of land enrolled in the popular Iowa Habitat for Access Program (IHAP) allowing hunter access to private land. Each area on the atlas includes a link to a map with property boundaries, the size of the area, habitat type, species of wildlife likely found, if nontoxic shot is required and more. The map is available as a downloadable pdf that can be printed or saved to a smartphone. To view the atlas, go to www.iowadnr.gov/hunting and click on Places to Hunt and Shoot in the left column.

There are no new regulations this year. Shooting hours are 8-4:30 daily. Hunters are required to wear one piece of blaze orange of which at least 50 percent must be solid color.  Hunters may harvest three rooster pheasants each day with a possession limit of 12.  Hunters may harvest eight quail of either sex each day with a possession limit of 16. When transporting pheasants, either a fully feathered head, fully feathered wing or foot must remain attached for identification purposes.