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COUNCIL BLUFFS – Officials with the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources report the trout stocking and family trout fishing event scheduled for this Saturday, Jan. 19, at Big Lake in Council Bluffs, has been postponed due to unsafe ice conditions. The stocking will be rescheduled as soon as there is safe ice or open water this spring.

(Radio Iowa) — Cattle producers from across Iowa will be attending today’s (Tuesday) Feedlot Forum in Sioux Center. Beth Doran, the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Beef Specialist for Northwest Iowa, says the event will address some of the many changes being seen within the cattle industry. “We know that consumer trends have changed, both at retail in terms of supermarkets but also in restaurants,” Doran says, “We also know that there’s been trade tariffs and those are still going on and wondering how those are going to effect our ag commodities, and we have record meat supplies.”

The program will include speakers and an industry trade show featuring a range of topics from animal health and nutrition, to buildings, financial services and record keeping. Doran says the keynote speaker is Jessica Dunker, president of the Iowa Restaurant Association. “She has an interesting topic that we need to listen to,” Doran says. “She’ll talk about restaurant and culinary trends and will explain to us how patron palates and tastes are evolving and our menus need to follow suit, so it will effect the kind of beef products we’re going to be marketing.”

Doran says ag economists from I-S-U recently completed a study on the impact of trade tariffs and how they’re affecting Iowa commodities and there will be a discussion on that. The Feedlot Forum is being held at the Terrace View Event Center in Sioux Center.

BOYDEN—Monday morning, DNR investigators traced a blue-colored sheen in a northwest Iowa creek running through Boyden, to the local coop. About 10 a.m. Jan. 14, someone reported an oily sheen on the creek, saying it extended downstream into the West Branch of the Floyd River.

DNR staff traced the sheen to a tanker truck at the Farmers Co-op Society. The coop manager estimates about 1,100 gallons of white mineral oil has leaked from the tank sometime over the last two weeks. The oil has traveled about 6 miles downstream. DNR staff have seen no dead fish in the water.

The coop will scrape up contaminated soil, and place booms and absorbent pads across the river about 5 miles southwest of town to collect as much remaining oil as possible. DNR will consider appropriate enforcement action and monitor the cleanup.

(Radio Iowa) — The public policy director for the Iowa Pork Producers Association says they’re evaluating a possible appeal of a federal court ruling that overturned the state’s so-called “ag gag” law. Drew Mogler says it’s hard to know how much impact the measure really had in discouraging undercover investigations of livestock facilities, although there have been fewer of them since it was signed into law by former Governor Terry Branstad in 2012. “So, you could give credit to this legislation for that,” Mogler said.

But Mogler also believes producers have also become more vigilant when it comes to hiring employees on their farms. “Making sure that the folks they’ve got providing care and comfort for the animals are there with the best intentions, want to be working with animals, and working productively on their farm,” Mogler said.

A federal court last week ruled Iowa’s “ag gag” law unconstitutional. The law set up a penalty for people who get a job on a farm or in a livestock confinement in order to go undercover to release details of the operation or free the animals. Federal courts have struck down similar laws in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.

(Radio Iowa) — The partial federal government shutdown has cut services at wildlife preserves, but it’s not stopping bird watchers and other wildlife enthusiasts from exploring. At Desoto National Wildlife Refuge in western Iowa, the visitors center and most of the trails are closed, but John Calhoun from Papillion, Nebraska, says he still had a productive day taking pictures of birds. “I’ve seen some eagles, some hawks,” Calhoun says, “and that’s pretty much about it — and a lot of cars.”

Staff numbers at DeSoto have been reduced by the shutdown, but Chuck Traxler, with the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service, says the limited trail access is not related to what’s going on in Washington. Traxler says, “There are areas that may be closed at certain times of the year, not as a result of federal funding, but in order to protect wildlife or unique ecological habitats.” Fish and Wildlife is not charging entrance fees at refuges during the partial shutdown, which is in its third week. Iowa has seven National Wildlife Refuges. Traxler encourages people to get out and visit them, even while the government is shut down.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) report DNR staff were on site four miles west of Winterset responding to a spill at a hog confinement, Wednesday. The site owners, Waldo Farms of Nebraska, reported a release due to a plugged pipeline. That spill has stopped and did not reach a creek.

During the investigation, DNR field staff discovered a second, ongoing manure spill from a closed hog confinement. Manure storage at the closed facility was full, causing a small amount of manure-laden waters to overflow into a Cedar Creek tributary.

The DNR’s field tests showed elevated ammonia levels in the tributary, but normal levels downstream in Cedar Creek. The agency is requiring the owner to stop the release. Officials say the DNR will continue to monitor the cleanup and consider appropriate enforcement action.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge has struck down a 2012 Iowa law that made it illegal to get a job at a livestock farm to conduct an animal cruelty undercover investigation. Judge James Gritzner in an order filed Wednesday sided with opponents of a law intended to stop organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals from doing animal abuse investigations at farms and puppy mills. The judge found the law violates the First Amendment’s right to free speech.

Several groups filed a lawsuit in October 2017 in U.S. District Court in Des Moines. Federal courts have struck down similar laws in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Litigation is ongoing in North Carolina.
A spokesman for the Iowa attorney general’s office, which represented the state, says an appeal is under consideration.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Farmers already reeling from low prices and uncertainty amid the nation’s trade dispute with China are welcoming a decision to extend a deadline for federal aid because of the partial government shutdown. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Tuesday announced the Agriculture Department would extend a Jan. 15 deadline for farmers to apply for payments to offset losses they had incurred due to the trade dispute, which led to new tariffs that lessened demand and lowered crop prices. About $9.5 billion in direct payments have been set aside for growers of soybeans, corn, wheat and other commodities.

Many farmers already have received the first of two payments to offset some of their losses, but others haven’t been able to apply for aid because snow and rain delayed their harvest. Farmers can’t apply for federal payments until they can specify the size of their crop. It’s unclear how much of the federal money has been spent. Farmers can apply online for the aid, but Perdue noted they couldn’t complete the application because the USDA’s Farm Service Agency has been closed since Dec. 28.

Under Perdue’s new order, the application deadline will be extended by an equal number of days to the business days the government was partially closed. The shutdown also meant growers who had questions about the process couldn’t reach out to USDA employees. Perdue’s announcement was welcomed by Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a farmer who earlier had said he’d seek the federal aid.

The government shutdown comes as farmers were already enduring a fifth year of low prices even as the cost of land, fertilizer, chemicals and seed have remained high, leading to a drop in net income. As they make plans for this year’s crop, farmers have been left guessing about the market and other issues because the shutdown has forced the USDA to delay the release of crop reports providing key information about global demand.

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