(Radio Iowa) – The recently released Iowa State University Land Value Survey found a modest one-point-seven percent statewide increase in the value of farmland. Survey leader Wendong Zhang says one of the factors in the increase is the lack of available land.  He says when you look at ownership — half of the land is owned by the same owner for more than 20 years. “So, it stays in the family for a fairly long time,” Zhang says.

He says land that is sold often is bought by someone who lives nearby. “Even when it comes to transfer, it tends to be sold to local existing farmers, if it ever goes to the market. Another channel would be a will or gift or sale within the family,” he says.

That average price of an acre of ground in the survey this year was seven-thousand-559 dollars ($7,559).

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) – Two-thirds of Iowa counties are considered to be abnormally dry or in some stage of drought, with far northwest Iowa the driest of all. State Climatologist Justin Glisan says that makes this month’s snowfall particularly welcome. “We had precipitation deficits starting to stack up in western Iowa, especially west central Iowa, going back last fall and then drying creeping into much of western Iowa moving into April, May and especially June, where we saw drought conditions expand across western Iowa,” Glisan says.

The lack of adequate subsoil moisture is a remarkable turn-around after recording flooding just a couple of years ago in several areas. “2018 was the second-wettest year on record. 2019 was the 12th wettest year on record,” Glisan says. “You put those two years together — the wettest two-year stretch for the state of Iowa going back 148 years.” Having snow drifts stick around for a while would be a good thing, according to Glisan, because it may help replenish moisture levels. “But of course drier soils freeze faster and they’ll freeze deeper,” Glisan says, “so we don’t want a really deep freeze in the subsoil because that will act like a concrete layer, no water infiltration getting into that deeper soil.”

The National Weather Service forecasts indicate more than half a foot of snow may fall in some areas of the state today (Tuesday).

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — One of the Tyson Foods managers fired for betting on how many workers would contract COVID-19 at their Iowa pork plant says the office pool was spontaneous and intended to boost morale. Don Merschbrock, former night manager at the plant in Waterloo, Iowa, said he was speaking out in an attempt to show that the seven fired supervisors are “not the evil people” that Tyson has portrayed.

Tyson announced the terminations of the Waterloo managers on Dec. 16, weeks after the betting allegation surfaced in wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of four workers who died of COVID-19.

(Radio Iowa) – Researchers are making progress in trying to combat what’s known as white-nose syndrome, which has killed many thousands of bats in Iowa and millions across the continent. Jeremy Coleman, the national white-nose syndrome coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says scientists are working to create an aerosol spray to genetically silence the fungus that causes the disease without hurting the bats. “We would use what’s called RNA interference to silence genes within the fungal pathogen and reduce the severity of the disease on bats,” Coleman says. “Any tool that would come from that is pretty far off, at this point. This is just the initial stab at getting a look at that technology.”

Some native bat species are being pushed the brink of extinction by the disease and Coleman says bats are very important to agriculture, as they eat tons of insects that harm crops. He says researchers are also working on a vaccine that would put a halt to white-nose syndrome in bats. “They wouldn’t have to be injected. What we’re looking at is an oral vaccine,” Coleman says. “They could consume the vaccine and share it within a site. The benefit of that is, we don’t have to treat them while they’re in hibernation. We would treat them when they’re still in the maternity colonies and then they would take the vaccine, ingest it and take the benefits of that back into hibernation with them.”

White-nose syndrome, which was first discovered in the U-S in 2007, is killing up to 90-percent of the bats in some colonies. Bats are critical pest controllers and in the U-S alone, Coleman says bats save farmers at least $3.7 billion per year in pest control services, a figure he says is conservative. “They are the primary consumer of night-flying insects and there are a number of crop pests and human pests that bats consume nightly,” Coleman says. “With the disease spreading, that’s resulting in tons of insects that are now not being consumed and that have to be addressed with pesticide.”

Due to the drastic reduction in native bat populations, he says millions of insects are feeding on trees and crops, which can impact forestry, agriculture and human health. White-nose syndrome is caused by a fungus which can look like white fuzz on bats’ muzzles and wings. The fungus thrives in cold, damp places and infects bats during hibernation. It’s confirmed in Iowa and 34 other states as well as seven Canadian provinces.

(Radio Iowa) – Even though the pandemic has forced the cancellation of in-person visits, the Insect Zoo at Iowa State University is still hosting hundreds of curious kids — and adults — through the wonders of the internet. Ginny Mitchell, the zoo’s education program coordinator, says they’re offering virtual “Live with Bugs” programs via Zoom, Google Classroom and other online platforms.

“We started it by doing it for Girl Scout troops and we have reached people in New York, California, Texas, all over the country,” Mitchell says. “It’s really been an opportunity for the Insect Zoo to expand outside of our Iowa borders.” The hour-long programs are entertaining and educational, she says, and they include very close-up views of all kinds of creepy-crawling critters, including scorpions, tarantulas and even hissing cockroaches.

Dynastes hercules beetle (ISU photo)

“We talk about millipedes, which are important decomposers, and of course, have hundreds of legs,” Mitchell says. “We watch them walk and we talk about their defense mechanisms — they secrete a liquid that makes them smell and taste bad — and then we talk about the difference between a millipede and a centipede.” The zoo’s long list of residents even includes seven species of walking sticks, along with a host of other insects, spiders and arthropods. Mitchell says the virtual classes are versatile, allowing students in a classroom or those on laptops or tablets at home to enjoy the tour.

“We encourage the kids to get outside. That is one of the main points of the Insect Zoo, to get outside and to look for bugs yourself,” she says. “I always issue a challenge to the kids to go outside and find some bugs that are like the ones that we looked at — and to send me a picture of it.” With advance planning, the ISU Insect Zoo can even send a selection of live bugs to the classroom to provide actual hands-on learning.

https://www.ent.iastate.edu/insectzoo/

(Radio Iowa) – Congressman-elect Randy Feenstra says it’s time for the U.S. Department of Justice to address allegations of price fixing in the livestock industry. “The packers, they’re making all kinds of profits, so we’ve got change it,” Feenstra says. “We’ve got to break up the monopoly.” Four companies — J-B-S, Smithfield, Cargill, and Tyson — control more than 80 percent of the beef packing industry. And while beef consumption and consumer prices soared during the early months of the pandemic, profits did not trickle down to producers. The prices for cattle sold at market fell.

Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, says his in-laws raise livestock, so the financial reality hits close to home. “It’s just painful to see, especially when live cattle is at $1.50, if you can get that now,” Feenstra says, “and then you have boxed beef at a high of $227 or somewhere thereabouts.” Boxed beef is the wholesale price of cuts of meat. Feenstra, who hopes to become a member of the U.S. House Ag Committee when he’s sworn into office on January 3rd, says it’s time for congress to examine the Packers and Stockyards Act. The law was drafted to assure fair competition and fair trade practices in the livestock industry.

“That act has been on the books for decades and we don’t use it and there is a problem,” Feenstra says. “There is a massive concern.” The law was originally passed in 1921. A major update in 1976 gave the U-S-D-A authority to issue fines for anti-competitive practices in the meat packing industry.

Feenstra made his comments during a recent appearance on the Iowa Press program on Iowa P-B-S.

(Radio Iowa) Licenses are now on sale for one of the more unique fish you can catch in Iowa. You can buy a license for paddlefish on the Missouri and Big Sioux River for the season that opens in February. Regional Fisheries Supervisor, Chris Larson, says interest in the paddlefish season has been up and down since the first year. “Nine-hundred-and-50 licenses are available to residents and 50 to nonresidents. We sold around 740 resident and 50 non-resident licenses in 2015. And then it dropped to about 400 per year…and then in 2020 it really kind of fell off so only 215 licenses were sold,” Larson says.

He says the high water on the river could be the reason for the drop off last year. He hopes the increase in the sale of other D-N-R licenses during the pandemic will carry over to paddlefish. “I hope so, you know water levels are down with the drought we’ve been in for about a half a year now. So, river levels are down and that’ll concentrate those paddlefish behind those wing dikes where they like to hang out in the wintertime even more,” Larson says. “Barring any big snowstorms and a lot of winter runoff — we should have a pretty good year.”

While the number of licenses purchased last year were down — he says those who did get a license had success. Larson says they send out a survey and more than 50 percent of those who responded said they got a fish. He says there are a lot of reasons to try catching a paddlefish.

“Paddlefish meat is very, very good, people consider it a delicacy, so they are very tasty,” according to Larson. “It is also an opportunity to harvest a very large fish. The state record paddlefish is over 100 pounds. We do see quite a few fish that come in over the slot length limit that you can’t keep kind of to protect that breeding population. So if it is less than 35 inches you can keep it and if it is over 45 inches you can keep it — so anything from 35 to 45 to have to release.”

The paddlefishing method is also something different as it involves snagging the fish. “It’s an active type of fishing — you are not just sitting there waiting for something to bite — you are actually physically pulling up on a pretty large pole with some pretty good weight on it,” Larson says. The licenses are sold through January 7th. A resident license sells for 25-50 and you must also have a valid Iowa fishing license. For more information, go to the DNR website.