(Radio Iowa) — Friends and neighbors are pitching in to harvest the crops of a northwest Iowa farmer who was killed in a plane crash last Friday night.  Four people lost their lives when the plane went down in Guthrie County, after the pilot suffered a heart attack. One of them was 36-year-old Patrick Kellen. Del Kellen farms in Plymouth County and is the father of Patrick Kellen. A harvesting bee has been organized for today, consisting of at least six combines, six grain carts and 16 semi trucks and trailers.

They will converge on a cornfield in the southeast area of Plymouth County helping the Kellen family harvest the remaining 600 acres of corn left in the fields. A friend of the family says they hope to finish the harvest before the wake service scheduled for Thursday and the funeral which is scheduled for Friday.

(Radio Iowa) — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says U.S. drivers WILL have access to E15 gasoline next summer. Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is trying to alleviate concerns about the timeline his agency has proposed for moving to year-round sales of E15. “We will be able to go to year-round E15 by next summer. This is a commitment by President Trump,” Wheeler said.

The published agenda by the EPA shows E15 rule making will begin in February. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and other ethanol supporters say that timeline would make it difficult to deliver E15 for the 2019 summer driving season. Wheeler insists the normal rulemaking process will be completed in time. “So, that does take a little bit of time but our people are already working on it and we’ll be putting out the proposal and getting those comments and then finalizing it before the driving season,” Wheeler said.

The Renewable Fuels Association has said the EPA should expedite the rulemaking process so drivers and the industry have the assurance of next summer’s E15 availability. According to Wheeler, all deadlines will be met for it to be available.

JASPER COUNTY, Iowa – The Iowa DNR says a man setting up hunting blinds for a Veteran’s Deer Hunt, was run over by a UTV Saturday afternoon, in rural Jasper County. 58-year old James Whitson, was run over at around 1:30-p.m. by a Polaris Ranger at the Reichelt Unit Area.

Authorities say the incident happened, as 72-year old David Drew was backing the Polaris Ranger up to a trailer. Whitson was located between the trailer and the Ranger when Drew pushed the accelerator instead of the brake.

Whitson was transported to Methodist Medical Center by helicopter and the extent of his injuries are unknown. The investigation is on-going by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officers.

TAYLOR COUNTY, Iowa — Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources report four men from outside of Iowa have plead guilty in court, to the illegal taking of deer and other charges, associated with a hunt in Taylor County. On Wednesday, November 7th, Iowa DNR Conservation Officers Andrea Bevington and Adam Arnold were checking hunters in deer camps in Taylor County when they observed one group of hunters with an untagged deer.  After interviewing the hunters, the conservation officers uncovered numerous hunting violations including falsifying residency and hunting with Missouri deer licenses in Iowa.

Authorities say 39-year old Davis Dunlap, of Willow Spring, North Carolina pled guilty to one count of no non-resident any-sex deer bow license and one count of no non-resident antlerless deer bow license with fines totaling over $1,250; 29-year old Nathan Granger, of DeQuincy, Louisiana pled guilty to one count of illegal take of an antlerless deer and one count of no non-resident antlerless deer bow license.  Fines and liquidated damages totaled over $2,090 plus condemnation of a bow and other hunting equipment.; 52-year old Ralph Thompson, of Dry Creek, Louisiana pled guilty to two counts of illegal take of an antlerless deer, one count of false claim of resident deer license and one (1) count of no non-resident any-sex deer bow license.  Fines and liquidated damages totaled over $4,400 plus condemnation of a bow and other hunting equipment.

27-year old Clint Bushnell, of Dry Creek, Louisiana pled guilty to one count of illegal take of an antlered deer (over 150 pts), one count of illegal take of an antlerless deer and one count of no non-resident any-sex deer license.  Fines and liquidated damages totaled over $11,200 plus condemnation of a bow and other hunting equipment.

Total fines, liquidated damages and equipment condemned exceeded $23,600.   Four deer were donated to the DNR HUSH program.

(Radio Iowa) — The federal government is considering moving at least two divisions of the U-S-D-A out of Washington D-C and Iowa is pushing to be the new headquarters, but some oppose the move. Jonathan Hladik, policy director for the Center for Rural Affairs, says the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture should stay put in the nation’s capital. “Over the past few years, this office has taken a hit,” Hladik says. “We’ve seen across the board within federal government employees, a lot of people retiring, a lot of people leaving. So, there are a lot of very good career employees who are employed by these agencies now and if the agency moves to a different city or moves across the country, we’re going to lose a lot of that top talent.”

U-S Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says moving the agencies would save the federal government money, but Hladik disagrees. He says cross-country moves will bring a loss of experience and it’ll show up in what’s being produced. “The lower quality of research and lower quality work has cascading effects because this is the research that universities rely on, that associations rely on, that other organizations rely on to do their job,” Hladik says. “I think they take a hit here as well.”

One of the major concerns is not just the geographic move, but Hladik says it’s in shifting the power structure. “We’re moving authority. We’re changing who is going to be in charge of these organizations and the very tenor of this organization,” Hladik says. “This move would fundamentally make it more of a political position.”  An investigation of the proposed move by the USDA’s inspector general could trigger further efforts by Congress to block or restrict the decision. The Center for Rural Affairs is based in Lyons, Nebraska.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — The DowDuPont cellulosic ethanol plant in central Iowa has been bought by a German biofuels company’s U.S. subsidiary. Verbio North America Corp. and DowDuPont announced Thursday that the purchase includes the 30 million-gallon plant in Nevada and a portion of its corn stover inventory. The price was not released. The cellulosic ethanol plant, which opened in 2015, is considered the next generation in renewable fuel production. It uses corncobs, husks and stalks to produce the biofuel. DowDuPont closed the plant last fall, announcing that it was for sale. DowDuPont said the operation no longer fit its strategic plan.

Verbio intends to install equipment for making natural gas made from corn stover and other cellulosic crop residue. Verbio North America Corp. is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is a subsidiary of Verbio Vereinigte BioEnergie AG, which is based in Leipzig, Germany.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture says farmers are expected to harvest the largest soybean crop on record but must deal with a constricted market in which to sell the crop because of President Donald Trump’s tariff battle with China.

In its latest update released Thursday, the USDA places the expected soybean harvest at 4.6 billion bushels, the largest ever.

Illinois leads soybean production with 688 million bushels and Iowa is second.

Selling soybeans to China has nearly halted with the tariff dispute resulting in a growing stockpile and the lowest prices for farmers in more than a decade.

Corn production is estimated at 14.6 billion bushels, the second largest crop on record.

Iowa remains the nation’s leading corn producer with an expected 2.5 billion bushels.

w/Max Dirks.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.2MB)

Subscribe: RSS

(Radio Iowa) — Milk prices have steadily fallen the past few years, forcing the closure of 80 Iowa dairies during 2018. Mitch Schulte, executive director of the Iowa State Dairy Association, says retaliatory tariffs from Mexico in answer to U.S. tariffs on Mexican steel are a major part of the problem. “The dairy industry has been dealing with three years of low milk prices and as we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel and higher prices coming, we got hit with retaliation tariffs,” Schulte says. “That’s played a huge part of what’s going on in the dairy industry right now.”

Recent changes to the dairy margin protection program may offer some help for producers, according to Schulte. “When you look back at the margin protection program, the formula that was in that program was wrong,” Schulte says. “It really just didn’t pay out the way that it should have. With the new changes, what we’re seeing is better payouts and more consistency to that program. It really is helping our dairy producers.”

Schulte says passage of a federal Farm Bill would help the dairy industry, but the major fix lies with the need to lift the steel and aluminum tariffs. He notes, Mexico is the Iowa dairy industry’s number-one trading partner. “We need to do all we can to have that open free trade agreement that we had and not deal with those retaliation tariffs,” Schulte says. “A lot of the language that was in that agreement should, at some point, help our dairy producers but those retaliatory tariffs are still in place until they figure out what they’re going to do with the steel and aluminum.”

Iowa is the nation’s tenth-largest milk producing state. With the loss of 80 dairy farms this year, their number is now down to 1,070 dairies statewide.

(Radio Iowa) — The USDA expects farmers will plant far fewer soybean acres in 2019 compared to this year. In its first statistical guesses for the NEXT growing season, the agency forecasts U.S. corn plantings of 92 million acres and soybeans at 82.5 million. That’s a nearly 3 million acre increase for corn compared to this year, and a decrease in soybeans of more than 6.5 million. Naomi Blohm, a commodity analyst with the Stewart-Peterson Group, says the market has been anticipating a reduction in soybeans because of the U.S.-China trade war. “But to actually have a concrete number, this is the first time that has happened. So is the market paying attention to this? It’s aware of it,” Blohm says. “But it’s not in essence fresh news, so (the market) is not responding to it.”

Blohm suggests any projections for 2019 should be written in pencil at this point. “I would say based on conversations with producers, they don’t totally know yet,” Blohm says. “They haven’t bought their seed yet. They’re not sure if they just want to continue to switch to their regular rotation on things, or what they’re going to do.”  The USDA is also forecasting a more than 3 million acre increase in wheat for next year.