Agricultural experts say starting Friday morning, there will be great conditions to get grain cooled down from this falls harvest. With the average daily temps predicted to be in the mid 30s to low 40s for Friday well into next week, this will be a perfect time to get recently harvested corn and soybeans cooled to a temperature close to what is desired for winter storage. Allowable storage time for grain roughly doubles for every 10 degree drop in temperature. So, getting grain cooled down soon after harvest will significantly improve chances of keeping it in good condition while in storage

In order to determine how long it will take to cool a bin of grain, first determine how much fan horsepower you have per 1000 bushels. For example, if you have a 5 horsepower fan on a 20,000 bushel bin, you have one-quarter horsepower per 1,000 bushels. Divide that number into 15 and you get an estimate of the hours it will take to cool the full bin. In this case example, 15 / 0.25 = 60 hours.

Experts urge producers to get that great crop cooled down for the best storage this winter!

A Ceremonial Tree Planting was held in Atlantic, Wednesday, in honor of the City’s 25^th year of working with Alliant Energy and Trees Forever’s “Branching Out” partnership. Dolly Bergmann, President of the local Trees Forever organization, and Brad Riphagen, Field Coordinator for Trees Forever in Marion, were on-hand for the event. Riphagen said his role is to help communities determine what species of trees are needed, and how to go about planting them. He said the local Trees Forever group is well acquainted with much of that information, having been here for 25-years, so he also helps them with guidance on being involved on a State-wide basis, and additional expertise.

Riphagen has been involved with the organization for over 25-years, and has seen many changes in how the program operates. That includes newer practices in methods of planting trees. Each community, he says, have different needs and wants with regard to what types of trees will be beneficial not only aesthetically, but in terms of saving energy for homes and businesses. He says Alliant Energy and AMU – Atlantic Municipal Utilities – both encourage trees to be planted in residential yards because of the multiple benefits they provide when fully grown. Other communities focus on larger projects, such as newly created green space and how trees fill the void.

He said the value of trees increases throughout the years by providing shade and energy savings. Dolly Bergmann says the local Trees Forever organization has works with many other organizations, government and civic, as well as volunteers, to plant trees at dozens of locations through the community. That includes trees planted in each of the City’s Parks.

Tree number 25, a Little Leaf Linden, was planted Wednesday in the downtown Atlantic City Park.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled dairy farmers near Wesley in Kossuth County showed “sufficient evidence” their operation was harmed by nearby power lines.The Burdick family sued Interstate Power and Light in October of 2013. The family argued their dairy cows produced less milk and had breeding problems because of stray voltage. After an eight-day trial in December of 2015, a jury awarded the Burdicks half a million dollars in damages. Lawyers for Interstate Power and Light appealed, arguing the verdict bore no relationship to the evidence presented by the Burdicks. A district court judge ruled the jury made an “uneducated guess” on lost profits and dismissed jury’s damage award. The judge also ordered a new trial. The Burdicks appealed that ruling. The Iowa Court of Appeals agrees with the Burdicks that there “was sufficient evidence of damages” and the appeals court has ordered the utility to pay the family what the jury decided.

Earlier this year, a jury awarded a Wisconsin dairy farmer about four-and-a-half million dollars in a stray voltage case. The judgment might triple to 13-and-a-half million, though, if a judge rules Xcel Energy willfully violated the law.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources report staff from the DNR’s Atlantic field office were in the field Wednesday checking for the sources of a spill in Fremont County and a manure spill that reached a tributary of East Tarkio Creek in Page County.

In Fremont County west of Hamburg, DNR staff investigated the report of a whitish liquid running into a ditch near Draper Bottoms Wildlife Management Area. Staff identified the liquid as an unknown amount of a wheat gluten and water mix land applied by Ben Shinn Trucking for Manildra Milling company.

DNR staff collected water samples for laboratory analysis, but have not found any dead fish. The investigation continues.

In Page County, staff responded to a Wednesday morning report of a manure spill that occurred the previous evening when a stuck pump valve caused manure to pool at the Lee Brooke confinement northwest of Clarinda. DNR staff found manure pooled at the site, and in roadside and drainage ditches that flow into an unnamed tributary of the East Tarkio Creek.

An estimated 7,000 gallons of manure was released during manure pumping by commercial manure applicator Jason Sickles. Sickles immediately limed the ditch and placed hay bales to keep manure from moving downstream. DNR is requiring him to build a temporary dam in the ditch and excavate soil to prevent more manure from reaching the stream. Staff found no dead fish, but the investigation is ongoing.

In both cases, the DNR will consider appropriate enforcement action.

Officials with the Iowa DNR late Wednesday afternoon, received a report from the city of Council Bluffs that untreated wastewater had discharged into Indian Creek and then into the Missouri River near Gifford Road in Council Bluffs.

City staff estimate about 360,000 gallons of wastewater discharged during maintenance work on a force main. City workers quickly stopped the release, made repairs and collected water samples in the creek and in the Missouri River.

The DNR recommends keeping children and pets away from the area for the next 24 to 48 hours. The city reports no fish were killed. City staff will follow up at the site this (Thursday) morning.

he Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday), received an update from two local men with regard to the use of Utility Terrain Vehicles (UTV’s) on County roads. Dennis Murphy from Nishna Valley Cycle had appeared before the Board in May, 11, 2016, and at that time, asked the board to consider moving forward with enacting an ordinance to allow any licensed driver to operate registered (with the county recorder) and insured all-terrain and off-road utility vehicles on Cass County secondary roadways for recreational use. The ordinance would not restrict eligible ‘farm’ use. Goal is to make it legal for said vehicles to be driven on county roadways. The Board had taken the request under advisement, and asked for more research.

During today’s meeting, Murphy, and Rob Thornton, also from NVC, came back with Ordinance samples from various counties, including Carroll, Crawford, Buchanon and Iowa Counties, in northwest Iowa. He said some county ordinances specify which roads UTV can be ridden on, others are more simple. They cannot be ridden on Highways. Murphy said some counties require a current DNR registration sticker on the vehicle, some have minimum age limits, and some require insurance, etc. Those annual stickers, he said, cost $75. Cass County Engineer Charles Bechtold told the Board the same subject was covered at a recent ISAC (Iowa State Association of Counties) meeting in accordance with many different agencies.

He said as far as his office is concerned, safety is an issue, and that “politically,” he’s opposed to the use of UTV’s on county roads, but personally, he’s open to it, primarily because the machines are already being used on those roads. He likes the idea that operators of the machines have insurance, so that if there’s a collision between a County vehicle and a UTV, it’s covered and dependent upon who’s at fault.

UTV operators would have to obey the rules of the road, just like motorists. To that end, the Supervisors and Murphy agreed that the machines should have certain safety features if not already equipped, such as headlights, taillights. They could also require them to be outfitted with marker flags, turn signals, mirrors, etc. The main thing Murphy would like to see, is that the ordinance specify the machines be registered and have clearly visible tags for identification in the event they are operating illegally or irresponsibly.

Auditor Dale Sunderman says Delaware County has an ordinance that passed in May, 2016, which is thorough and a good place from where to start Cass County’s Ordinance. Dennis Murphy said he and Thornton would come back in a couple of weeks or so with a draft ordinance, incorporating some of the better ideas in the ordinances mentioned during today’s (Wednesday’s) discussion.

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey’s nomination to a position in the U-S-D-A cleared the committee level in the U-S Senate last week, but he isn’t sure when the final step will take place. “I’ve kind of given up making predictions, we are a step closer but still need that full Senate approval. So we’ll see when that happens — it could happen in the short term or it certainly could be awhile yet,” Northey says. Northey says he continues to work at his current job and is doing what he can to prepare when the final approval comes. “As we think about getting folks ready — whoever that next secretary is — we make sure that we have all the documents that help that next secretary learn what the department is doing to make that transition really easy,” Northey says. “We have great folks at the department. I am very blessed to have folks who know what they are doing, do a great job.”

Northey was nominated on September 1st to become the U-S-D-A Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation. He’s been waiting for the process to take its course since then. “It does seem like it is getting closer. It’s getting a little more real now as a possibility — but again — I don’t know if that’s months away are days away,” according to Northey.

Northey became Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture in 2007.

(Radio Iowa)

Every successful business has a business cycle, and eventually that business will need to transition to a new business cycle or begin to decline. A farm or ag based business with an effective plan for the future can have a positive start in the next business cycle. To help women involved in agriculture plan for a future farm transition Shelby County Extension is offering Managing for Today and Tomorrow beginning November 2 in Harlan, Iowa. The course will be held on Thursday nights November 2, 9, 16, 30 and Dec 7, from 6-9pm at the Shelby County Extension office at 906 6th Street, Harlan, Iowa.

Topics will include planning for a successful retirement, family and business finances, estate planning terms and methods of transfer. A light meal will be served before the program at 5:45pm. The cost for the course is $75. Pre-registration is required. To register online, visit the event calendar on the Shelby County Extension website. Registration forms are available at the Extension office to register by paper mail. Contact the Shelby County Extension Office with questions by calling 712-755-3104.

Former Iowa Farm Bureau president Craig Lang has filed the paperwork to launch a campaign for state ag secretary. Lang, a Republican, says several months ago he told Governor Kim Reynolds he intended to run if current Ag Secretary Bill Northey resigned. Reynolds will name Northey’s replacement soon after Northey’s wins Senate confirmation for his new federal job.

“I don’t anticipate Governor Reynolds would appoint me, period, so I’ve made the decision,” Lang says. “As soon as Bill is voted affirmatively in the US Senate, I’m going to start my campaign.” That means Lang will likely face a G-O-P primary in 2018 against the governor’s choice for state ag secretary. Lang says he wants to spark a statewide conversation about diversity in agriculture, rather than relying primarily on corn and soybean production.

“We’ve spent so much time trying to develop that infrastructure, and it’s a great infrastructure. There’s none other like it in the world, but it’s not the infrastructure that’s going to support growth of a rural community,” Lang says, “because a rural community needs higher value products directly to the consumer.”

Lang says alternative crops can boost the rural economy and give more young people a reason to live in rural Iowa. Lang, who is 66 years old, farms with his two sons, a brother and his 91-year-old father. “We milk around 650 cows three times a day. We have a small cow-calf operation with about 50 cows and calves and we farm around 1200 acres,” Lang says. “We have corn, soybeans, alfalfa, pasture and cover crops.”

The milk from their farm near Brooklyn is sold to a dairy in Newton where Maytag Blue Cheese is made. Lang’s family plants cover crops on soybean ground and in fields right after corn silage is harvested. Six-hundred thousand acres of Iowa farmland is seeded with cover crops today. Lang says, as state ag secretary, he’d like to set a goal of having cover crops on five MILLION acres.

“We can improve the water quality of the state,” Lang says. “We can retain the nitrogen and the phosphorus because of less erosion.” And Lang says the science now shows soil health improves when cover plants like rye are used and it improves the yields from traditional crops planted on the same ground. Lang was the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s president from 2001 through 2011.

He also served as president of the board that governs the state universities, but Democrats in the Iowa Senate refused to reconfirm Lang to that post after the conflict about the Tom Harkin Institute for Public Policy at Iowa State University. The institute is now located at Drake University.

(Radio Iowa)

The warm weather last week allowed farmers to get in a lot of combine time as the corn harvest moved ahead by 10 percent and the soybean effort by 29 percent. State Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey says after worries about a late start and drought, farmers have been seeing some good things. “For the most part yields have been good. Most of the folks have been happy,” Northey says.

He says some farmers are seeing better yields than they figured to have a few months ago. “Even those area that had a real dry part of the summer…their yields are definitely down from last year. But they may be better than what they thought they would be going into harvest,” Northey says. “Our yields have been good in northwest Iowa as well, harvest has been moving along. Thank goodness we had a dry week last week.”

The U-S-D-A crop report Monday showed that 23 percent of the corn crop has been harvested — which is the smallest percentage by this date since 2009 and more than two weeks behind average. The bean harvest moved to 61 percent — but is also the smallest percentage harvested by this date since 2009. Northey says cooler weather doesn’t help with drying the crop — and as we head into the last full week of October — the urgency increases for farmers with crops still in the fields.

)”We all look around the corner, we know November is coming. We all remember that a couple of decades ago there was a Halloween storm that buried a lot of crops out in the field, and folks have that in their mind, and the clock is ticking,” Northey says. “So, there are folks who will spend a lot of hours (in the field) when it finally gets fit.” When the harvest conditions are right you can see combines crisscrossing the fields day and night.”

“We hope that they’re all safe and certainly everybody out on the gravel roads and the highways needs to watch for that farm equipment,” according to Northey. “They’re working hard and sometimes it’s hard to be able to see some of the other traffic that is on the road as well.” Northey farms near Spirit Lake and says he’s gotten all his beans harvested, but not the corn.

(Radio Iowa)