A Burn Ban which had been in effect for Guthrie and Adair Counties, is being rescinded at Noon today (Wednesday). That’s according to Adair-Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Kempf. The ban had been in effect since last week, and is being cancelled because conditions are such that having a controlled/open burn is no longer dangerous to life or property. The decision comes after Kempf consulted with the fire chiefs in each respective county.

(Radio Iowa) – An ethanol plant in northwest Iowa designed to make the fuel from corn cobs and stalks rather than kernels has closed. The Des Moines Register was first to report the “Project Liberty” plant in Emmetsburg had closed. Iowa State University agronomist Emily Heaton says corn stover can easily be converted into cellulosic ethanol, the hard part is competing with the price of petroleum. “It’s the same story of the plant in Nevada that DuPont closed and now unfortunately POET’s Project Liberty is closing and that is a real loss for Iowa,” she says. “Those were two, ground-breaking, first-in-the-nation cellulosic ethanol plants that simply couldn’t compete with the low price of oil that we’ve had for the last few years.”

DuPont closed its cellulosic ethanol plant in Nevada in 2017. POET shut down production at the Emmetsburg plant about a year ago and took steps to lay off its remaining employees this summer. The ethanol plants still operating in Iowa use corn kernels to make the fuel. Heaton’s research at Iowa State focuses on using perennial crops. “The idea was that we would get started to using corn stover to make cellulosic ethanol,” she says, “but then switch to using these high-yielding perennial crops, like switchgrass, to make ethanol.”

Heaton says switchgrass and other perennials that can used to produce ethanol have the side benefit of holding valuable Iowa soil in place and improving water quality. “Really the opportunities that cellulosic ethanol presents for Iowa are huge,” Heaton says, “which is why the loss of these first generation corn stover plants is so real for the state.”

More than two-thousand people — including the King of the Netherlands — attended the grand opening of the ethanol plant in Emmetsburg in 2014. The plant was a joint venture of a Dutch company and POET, an ethanol company based in South Dakota. The State of Iowa provided 20 million dollars for job training and construction costs. The U.S. Department of Energy provided 100 million dollars worth of grants to build the plant.

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) – Most of the Wilson Island State Recreation Area along the Missouri River has reopened to the public after being closed for 19 months due to flooding — but the campgrounds won’t reopen until mid-April. Michelle Reinig, a supervisor in the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says the number of campsites will be reduced — to eliminate the most flood-prone camping areas.  “We hope we can live with the river and still provide access to the resource and the public recreation, being good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Reinig says.

Most of the 544 acre recreation area is now open for hunting, hiking and bird watching as well as fishing in the Missouri River. Reinig says the river levels fluctuated during the NINE MONTHS that floodwaters remained in the area. “Everytime the flood waters come up and then they recede, it cuts back into the bank and it deposits new sand and silt elsewhere, so it creates new fishing holes along the riverfront there,” Reinig says. “…Let’s face it, it’s along the Missouri River and people are drawn there because of the river attraction, but then we don’t control the river and Mother Nature, so the river’s going to continue to be the ‘Mighty Mo’ and it’s going to flood again.”

There’s no fee to use the ramp in the recreation area that gives boats access to the river. Wilson Island, which is near the town of Missouri Valley, was originally a sand bar that developed around 1900. It’s named after George Wilson, a former Iowa governor and U.S. Senator. Some accounts indicate the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped in the area in 1804.

Atlantic FFA Advisor Eric Miller reports club FFA member Malena Woodward presented a paper virtually to the Global Youth Institute on Tuesday, October 13th. Woodward’s paper was on malnutrition in Puerto Rico and provided several options to help solve this issue that affects 1.5 million Puerto Rican’s every year. Malena’s solutions included additional education for school age students with an emphasis on growing food on the island. Puerto Rico imports 85% of the food they need every year.

Malena Woodward (Photo submitted)

Malena said, “I really enjoyed the presentations, I thought it was interesting hearing the ideas of other students and experts trying to solve world hunger as well as hearing their input and giving me more ideas about my topic “. In addition to this experience Malena earned 2 scholarships for Iowa State University. The first was for $500 for participating in the Iowa Youth Institute in April and the second was for $2,000 for participating in the Global Youth Institute this week.

Malena had 8 other students in her roundtable discussion from 5 different states and 1 student from China. Each of these individuals had presentations on Water & Sanitation issues in Ireland, Infectious Disease in Burundi, Sustainable Agriculture in Guatemala, the Education Gap in El Salvador, Climate Volatility in Bangladesh, War and Conflict in Yemen, Policy and Governmental Conflict in Zimbabwe and Water Scarcity in Uganda.

Not only did Malena present to a group of students, she spoke to and was given feedback from 3 distinguished experts in a variety of different fields. Dr. Ruth MacDonald Iowa State University Professor and Chair, Food Science and Human Nutrition. Dr. Glenn Gregorio Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA)Director and Mr. Stan Carlson Former Canadian diplomat and United Nations Official.

On Friday the Global Youth Institute wrapped up with a keynote address by His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein of Jordan and a round table discussion with all of the student participants and more than a dozen government officials CEO’s of nonprofit organizations and Fortune 500 business leaders from all over the world.

ABOUT THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE: The World Food Prize is the foremost international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. The Prize was founded in 1986 by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, the World Food Prize has honored 50 outstanding individuals who have made vital contributions throughout the world. The World Food Prize annually hosts the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium and a variety of youth education programs to help further the discussion on cutting-edge global food security issues and inspire the next generation to end hunger.

(Radio Iowa) – The recovery of crops damaged by the derecho in August has been a mixed bag as the harvest nears its end. An estimated three-point-six (3.6) million acres of corn in Iowa got slammed by winds up to 100 miles-an-hour. That left stalks almost flat to the ground and others remained standing with a pronounced tilt. At the Key Cooperative in Kelly, agronomist Ben Hollingshead says some farmers gave up on the damaged crops to focus on preparing fields for next year — but many did attempt to harvest what they could.

“Some of it they might only have got half of it picked up, some of it they did a little better–was it the hybrid, the technique, they kind of got what they got. There’s an infinite number of variables,” according to Hollingshead. He says there’s not any one factor that can be cited with helping a certain field come out better than another. “Whether it regards a choice to do termination or whether it’s a particular hybrid was worse on the wind, I can generally find something to counter that immediately in some other area,” Hollingshead says.

He says most damaged fields were covered by crop insurance, which farmers told him they were grateful to have.

(By Amy Mayer,| Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The soybean harvest is entering the last lap — while the corn harvest is getting closer to being done after a week of good weather. The U-S-D-A report shows just ten percent of the soybeans remain to be plucked from the fields. That is more than three weeks ahead of last year and two weeks ahead of the five-year average. The northwest, north-central and west-central areas have less than five percent of beans still in the field — while farmers in the southern one-third of the state have at least 20 percent remaining to be harvested.

The corn harvest hit the 65 percent complete mark. That’s more than three weeks ahead of last year and just more than two weeks ahead of average. There is still approximately two-thirds of the corn waiting to be picked in the south-central part of the state — while the rest of the state has at least half of their crop in the bin.

Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator Alex Londo reports the Burn Ban which was in-place until further notice in Shelby County, has officially ended, due to a low fire danger. The next update will be provided this Thursday, Oct. 22nd.

(Radio Iowa/IPPA) – A Linn County restaurant is the home of Iowa’s “Best Breaded Pork Tenderloin” for 2020. Iowa Pork Producers Association spokesperson, Dal Grooms, says the winning sandwich is sold at the PrairieMoon On Main in the small town of Prairieburg. “It’s about 30 miles northeast of Cedar Rapids and they’ve been in business a few years and had been thinking about what really is a good tenderloin,”Grooms says. “And they decided that they were going to focus on the flavor and the juiciness of the pork rather than the breading — although it is a breaded tenderloin.”

At PrairieMoon On Main, tenderloins are served with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles.

Grooms says there were plenty of entries from Iowans in this year’s contest. She says they had more than 390 different restaurants entered by some 4,500 people. “that’s really pretty spectacular when you think about the year we’ve been living through,” according to Grooms. “Some establishments had either closed or reduced the number of service hours they had because of all the pandemic related closures.”

Loren and Amy Lacy have owned the restaurant for about a year-and-a-half. PrairieMoon will receive $500, a plaque, and a large banner to display. IPPA judges selected Birdies, Burgers & Brews, located at Hillcrest Golf & Country Club in Graettinger, as the runner-up in the 2020 contest; that establishment will receive $250 and a plaque from IPPA. Rounding out the top five finalists (in no order) are Bents Smokehouse & Pub, Westgate; The Blind Pig, Cedar Rapids; and Sasquatch Jacks Hideaway Barroom & Grill, Waverly. Those restaurants will receive a Top Five plaque to display.

IPPA received 4,501 nominations for 390 different establishments during the spring nomination period. The restaurant and foodservice committee judged the top 40 restaurants in the summer, scoring each on the quality of the pork, taste, physical characteristics, and eating experience. The winners are announced as part of #Porktober20, or October Pork Month, which celebrates the state’s dedicated pig farmers, local restaurants and their hardworking teams, and a famous Midwest favorite—the pork tenderloin sandwich.

The Pub at the Pinicon in New Hampton won the 2019 contest. For a full list of past winners, visit https://www.iowapork.org/best-breaded-pork-tenderloin-contest/.

This was the 18th annual best tenderloin contest to be held each October during Iowa Pork Month.

(Iowa DNR; DES MOINES) –Fall leaves are beautiful – until they pile up in your yard. But don’t send those precious nutrients up in smoke. Instead, put them to good use. Your leaves, branches and other landscape materials can nourish your lawn, garden or community. It’s as easy as 1 – 2 – 3:

1. Compost.
   Composting leaves and food scraps is a great way to turn this waste into nutrients for your garden. It’s also a great way to get kids outside, learning practical hands-on science. They can start by researching the many types and sizes of compost containers. (For tips on low-tech ways to compost, see a DNR tutorial.) Managing the compost pile provides exercise and a learning opportunity. A good compost mix needs both carbon (dead or dry leaves) and nitrogen (green materials like food scraps and grass clippings). Carry the project forward to spring, and use finished compost to enrich the soil and gardens.
2. Mulching.
   Your lawn will love you if you chop up and leave your leaves in place. Leaves are a free and natural fertilizer and they add organic matter to enrich your soil. Use your regular lawn mower. Or use a mulching lawn mower to shred and mix leaves and grass into your yard.
3. Bag it.
   If you have too many leaves or branches to compost, check with your community to see if they collect yard waste or have a drop-off site. Sometimes there’s a fee, but the upside is that anyone can pick up composted materials for their yards or gardens.

Burning leaves seems to capture the smell of autumn. But breathing leaf smoke pulls pollutants such as carbon monoxide, soot and toxic chemicals into your lungs. While it may smell good, smoke is especially harmful to children, the elderly and those with respiratory problems such as asthma. Turning leaves into nutrients is the healthy way to protect your and your neighbor’s lungs.