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CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Iowa Agribusiness Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — The Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors added its voice to those calling for a moratorium on new livestock feeding operations.
The board voted unanimously Tuesday for a resolution that asks Gov. Kim Reynolds and state legislators to bar construction of new concentrated animal feeding operations until Iowa’s water quality improves. The resolution wants no permits issued by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources until the state’s number of impaired waterways has dropped to fewer than 100 from about 750.
“I think it’s really a crisis situation,” said Supervisor Chris Schwartz. “If we’re going to get ahead of it we need to put the brakes on now until we’ve got better things in place.”
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported that supervisors in 25 more of the state’s 99 counties have passed similar measures. “It’s not the family farms that we all know and love,” Schwartz said. “It’s these big, kind of corporate operations putting thousands and thousands of animals in small spaces.”
Groups such as the Sierra Club and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement have said the operations are detrimental to human health and that failed manure management plans harm the state’s streams, rivers and lakes. Environmental groups have said the spills and animal manure used as fertilizer drain down creeks and other tributaries into the Missouri and Mississippi rivers have contributed to the growth of a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, a zone where oxygen levels are so low that marine life can no longer survive.
State Sen. Eric Giddens, who works as program manager for the University of Northern Iowa’s Center for Energy and Environmental Education, on Tuesday spoke in favor of the moratorium and read from a January 2018 Iowa Policy Project report that said Iowa has four times more of the big feeding operations than it had in 2001. Groups such as the Sierra Club and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement say the operations are detrimental to human health and that failed manure management plans harm the state’s streams, rivers and lakes.
The Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund has donated $500 to the Friends of Lake Anita, for their annual Kids Fishing Day which will be held on Saturday, June 1st at Lake Anita State Park. Registration begins at 9:30 followed by a short program before the fishing begins. Trevor’s mom and fund spokesperson Melanie Petty said “We look forward to sponsoring this event every year. Fishing is a sport that can be enjoyed all through life and there isn’t anything better than enjoying the outdoors. The Friends of Lake Anita along with representatives from the DNR will be available to help anyone with questions.”
The 11th annual TFred Memorial Golf Tournament will be held on Saturday, August 10th at Nishna Hills Golf Club. It’s the only fundraising event the group holds. If you are interested in entering a team please call or text Melanie Petty at 712-249-3696. Petty says “We look forward to another great day of golfing and friendship. If you aren’t a golfer stop out and bid on several silent auction items that are available for viewing in the clubhouse all day. Another way of helping is to be become a hole sponsor with a $100 donation.”
The Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund is a 501c(3) non profit organization. All monies raised are donated back to things that were important to Trevor.
(Radio Iowa) — The U-S-D-A reports farmers made planting progress in some areas last week despite continued weather issues. The report says 70 percent of the expected corn crop is now in the ground — which is still five days behind last year and nine days behind the five-year average. It is the smallest percent of corn planted by May 19 since 1995 when just 53 percent of the expected crop was done. Farmers in the northern districts and east-central Iowa managed to dodge the rain to plant one quarter of their expected corn this past week. That includes 43 percent of the crop planted in northeast Iowa. Twenty percent of the corn has emerged — which is one week behind last year and five-year average. Twenty-seven percent of the expected soybean crop is in the ground. That’s eight days behind last year and nine days behind average. Three percent of the beans planted have emerged — which is six days behind the average.
The Cass County Local Food Policy Council voted this week to provide $1,300 in funding to Cass County farmers’ markets, to encourage residents to visit local farmers markets and eat locally-grown produce. Most of the money will provide coupons which can be redeemed throughout the 2019 season for produce sold at farmers’ markets in the county, including Produce in the Park and the Atlantic and Anita farmers’ markets. These coupons will be widely distributed with the goal of making fresh and healthful local produce affordable for more county residents. The coupons will be distributed at Head Start and county food pantries, in addition to other channels.
A portion of the funding will also be used to purchase local produce to provide free taste tests for children visiting Produce in the Park. This effort will help children explore a variety of fresh produce items they can try at no cost to their parents. The final piece of the funding will be used by guest chefs at Produce in the Park to purchase locally grown ingredients. Then, when market visitors try a sample from the guest chef, they’re also getting a chance to try local-grown foods they can purchase right at the market.
The Cass County Local Food Policy Council encourages you to visit one of the three Cass County Farmers’ Markets during the summer of 2019:
· Produce in the Park is held in the Atlantic City Park on Thursday evenings from 4:30-6:30 PM June 6th through September 26th. For more information contact ProduceInTheParkAtlanticIowa@gmail.com or follow Produce in the Park on Facebook.
· The Atlantic Farmers Market is held in the Orscheln’s Farm and Home parking lot on Saturdays from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM starting June 1st and on Tuesdays from 5:00-7:00 PM starting June 4th. The markets will conclude on Sept.24th and Sept. 28th.
· The Anita Farmers Market is held in the Anita Bandshell Park on Main Street on Mondays from 4:30-6:30 PM June 3rd through August 26th. For more information on the Atlantic and Anita markets, contact Donna Brahms at (402) 677-2460.
The City of Atlantic’s Parks and Recreation Dept. Board will meet 5:15-p.m. Monday, in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall. Action items/New Business/Updates on their agenda includes:
Other discussion/Old Business will cover Commercial bids to spray the City park in preparation for RAGBRAI. In his report to the board, Interim Parks Director Bryant Rasmussen will talk about:
He’s also expected to mention the Sunnyside Pool is filled now, and that there is a Community build set for the Schildberg playground June 21st-22nd. He’s expected to note also, that the 4th Annual Block Party will take place at Sunnyside Park June 1st, from 4-until 6-p.m., and Little League Opening Day was held May 13th.
MADRID, Iowa (AP) — Iowa farmer Tim Bardole survived years of low crop prices and rising costs by cutting back on fertilizer and herbicides and fixing broken-down equipment rather than buying new. When President Donald Trump’s trade war with China made a miserable situation worse, Bardole used up any equity his operation had and started investing in hogs in hopes they’ll do better than crops. A year later, the dispute is still raging and soybeans hit a 10-year-low. But Bardole says he supports his president more today than he did when he cast a ballot for Trump in 2016, skeptical he would follow through on his promises. “He does really seem to be fighting for us,” Bardole says, “even if it feels like the two sides are throwing punches and we’re in the middle, taking most of the hits.”
Trump won the presidency by winning rural America, in part by pledging to use his business savvy and tough negotiating skills to take on China and put an end to trade practices that have hurt farmers for years. While the prolonged fight has been devastating to an already-struggling agriculture industry, there’s little indication Trump is paying a political price. But there’s a big potential upside if he can get a better deal — and little downside if he continues to get credit for trying for the farmers caught in the middle. It’s a calculation Trump recognizes heading into a reelection bid where he needs to hold on to farm states like Iowa and Wisconsin and is looking to flip others, like Minnesota.
A March CNN/Des Moines Register poll of registered Republicans in Iowa found 81% approved of how Trump is handling his job, and 82% had a favorable view of the president, an increase of 5 points since December. About two-thirds said they’d definitely vote to re-elect him. The poll had a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points. A February poll by the same organizations found 46% of Iowans approved of the job Trump was doing — his highest approval rating since taking office — while 50% said they disapprove. The margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.
Many farmers are lifelong Republicans who like other things Trump has done, such as reining in the EPA and tackling illegal immigration, and believe he’s better for their interests than most Democrats even on his worst day. They give him credit for doing something previous presidents of both parties mostly talked about. And now that they’ve struggled for this long, they want to see him finish the job — and soon. When the trade war started last summer, China targeted its first round of tariffs on producers in agricultural and manufacturing states that were crucial to Trump’s 2016 victory, such as Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Particularly hard hit were producers of soybeans, the country’s largest farm export.
The most recent round of trade talks between the Trump administration and China broke up earlier this month without an agreement, after Trump accused China of backing out on agreed-to parts of a deal and hiked tariffs on $200 billion of imports from China. China imposed retaliatory tariff hikes on $60 billion of American goods, and in the U.S. the price of soybeans fell to a 10-year low on fears of a protracted trade war. U.S. officials then listed $300 billion more of Chinese goods for possible tariff hikes. As China vowed to “fight to the finish,” Trump used Twitter to rally the farming community. Trump has promised an aid package, some $15 billion for farmers and ranchers, following $11 billion in relief payments last year.
It’s been six years since farmers did better than break even on corn, and five years since they made money off soybeans. U.S. net farm income, a commonly used measure of profits, has plunged 45 percent since a high of $123.4 billion in 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reflecting American farmers’ struggle to return to the profitability seen earlier in the decade. Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings for farm operations in the upper Midwest have doubled since June 2014, when commodity prices began to drop.
Patty Judge, a Democratic former Iowa lieutenant governor and state agriculture secretary, agreed people in Iowa haven’t rushed to move away from Trump. But she thinks voters will be ready for a change in 2020 — and a president who better understands the country’s role in international trade. “It’s very important to us and to have gone into a trade war without a plan, without an exit strategy, is dangerous and wrong and I think Iowans are going to understand that before the next election,” she said.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Historic flooding has left parts of the Mississippi River closed for business. The river is a main conduit of shipping everything from agriculture products and construction material to petroleum and coal. Flooding also has affected shipping on the Missouri River and other waterways that feed into the Mississippi.
The shipping woes come at a time when farmers would normally be sending soybeans, corn and other grain from more than a dozen states in the Mississippi River basin down the river. And fertilizer shipments that normally travels up the river to communities from St. Louis to St. Paul, Minnesota, still haven’t made it through.
The interruption is hitting an agriculture industry that’s already suffering, including from trade disputes that have helped drive down commodity prices.
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