Several thousand hunters will take to the woods with a bow looking to bring home a deer in the next several weeks. D-N-R wildlife biologist Jim Coffey says the bow season has become more and more popular because of what it offers to hunters. “Probably the most unique thing about archery season is the hunting experience itself and the fact that a lot of people will hunt individually. It’s not quite as social as the shotgun season with the party system. And this gives people a chance to get that one-on-one relationship with nature,” Coffey says.

The season opened Sunday (Oct 1) and some 62-thousand hunters are expected to take part. He says on a slow deer day, there’s still plenty to see. “If there’s not deer then you are observing the squirrels and you’re observing the woodpeckers and all of the other parts of nature. It’s just a very solace type of feeling that connects you back to nature,” according to Coffey. ” A lot of bowhunters are hunting from tree stands, and that puts you right up there in intimately in the habitat itself.”

The deer movement is a little different this time of year too, as they are still in their summer pattern, moving from their bedding areas to food sources.  “We’re still fairly green,but we’re turning into an early fall mixture. The leaves will be falling, we’re looking at corn be coming out which changes the habitat evaluation — so it just makes for a different experience,” Coffey says. “A lot of times the deer hunter’s going to be looking at the bedding areas and feeding areas and not so much worried about the ruts or the physical activity of the deer that are based the deer social behaviors, they are looking at the actual day-to-day movement of deer.”

Using a bow takes hunters back to the very early days of hunting. Though Coffey says the modern bows used today are the top of the line in technology. “And that’s good, but ultimately you still have to have good woodsmanship skills — you still have got to understand your weapon — just because it’s an expensive or a better weapon doesn’t mean that you know how to operate it,” Coffey says. “You’ve got to be practicing, you’ve got to understand your abilities and distance and judging. You need to practice from shooting from that elevated position because your angles change, which means it’s not the same as shooting at a target in the back yard.”

Coffey says practicing is important to avoid accidents with your bow and he says you need to check all of your equipment to be sure you are safe. “The number one hunting-related accident in Iowa is falling from a bow stand,” Coffey says. “So checking out those bolts and screws and straps on those stands…those are the most important critical things you can do.” He says the great experience of the hunt can be ruined because a piece of equipment wasn’t checked and failed. “Going into the woods and coming out of the woods is the greatest thing you can do — not harvesting a deer,” he says.

Coffey says you should at least get a chance to see a deer. He says deer numbers are about what they were last year and he expects the total harvest from ALL the seasons should be around 100-thousand deer. Bow hunters took nearly 13-thousand of those deer last year. The archery season will close on December 1st for the shotgun seasons, then reopens on December 18th until closing on January 10th.

(Radio Iowa)

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A stagnant farm economy and its ripple effects on other industries are creating budget problems for Nebraska and Iowa, both of which posted the nation’s weakest income growth in a recent federal report.

Key lawmakers from both states say they’re concerned the agricultural downturn will persist, ripping through other sectors and putting additional strain on their budgets.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis says declining farm income was the leading cause of the slowdown in many states, including Iowa and Nebraska. The bureau reports that incomes in both states increased just 0.1 percent in the last quarter, the lowest growth nationwide.

Officials say the sluggishness also hurt agricultural manufacturing, lending, land-rental income and other industries tied to farming.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, handed a one-point-two ($1.2) million dollar budget cut earlier this year, is putting out a call for volunteers to help spruce up Iowa’s state parks as the summer camping season winds down. Todd Coffelt, chief of the DNR’s State Parks Bureau, is organizing Iowa’s first State Park Volunteer Day tomorrow (Saturday).

The volunteer activities will take place in nearly three dozen of Iowa’s state parks.

Volunteers could also be removing invasive plants, making building repairs, and painting picnic tables. Iowans who want to help may need to bring tools and supplies.

Iowa’s State Park Volunteer Day is held in conjunction with National Public Lands Day – the nation’s largest one-day volunteer effort for public lands. For more information and to view a list of parks looking for volunteers, go to: www.iowadnr.gov/volunteerday.

Radio Iowa

MADISON, Wis., Sept. 27, 2017 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) Acting Administrator Steven J. Peterson today announced that physical loss loans are available for three counties in Wisconsin. Farm operators who have suffered major physical losses caused by heavy rains, flooding and high winds that occurred from July 19 through July 21, 2017, may be eligible for emergency loans.

This Administrator’s Physical Loss Notification has been issued for Crawford, Iowa and Sauk counties as the primary damaged area.

Producers in Allamakee and Clayton counties in Iowa are also eligible because they are contiguous counties.

FSA’s low interest emergency loans may be made available to any applicant with a qualifying loss in the counties named above. Approval is limited to applicants who suffered severe physical losses only.

Physical loss loans may be made to eligible farmers and ranchers to repair or replace damaged or destroyed physical property essential to the success of the agriculture operation, including livestock losses. Examples of property commonly affected include essential farm buildings, fixtures to real estate, equipment, livestock, perennial crops, fruit and nut bearing trees, and harvested or stored crops and hay.

Producers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans for physical losses.

Please contact FSA for more information on loan eligibility and the application process. FSA office information is available at http://offices.usda.gov. Additional FSA disaster assistance program information is available at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov.

In an update to our earlier report, officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said Wednesday afternoon (at around 2:20-p.m.), that repairs were made Wednesday to the Shenandoah Wastewater Treatment Plant, which had a system failure earlier that same morning.

The DNR still recommends persons should avoid contact with the East Nishnabotna River at County Road J32 (190th Street) west of Shenandoah for the next 24 to 48 hours after the discharge ends. Farmers downstream should find alternative sources of drinking water for livestock.

The DNR will continue to monitor the situation and provide technical assistance, and consider enforcement action if appropriate.

• KJAN, Atlantic  .72″
• 7 Miles NNE of Atlantic  .69″
• Massena  .83″
• Elk Horn  .92″
• Missouri Valley  .64″
• Glenwood  .73″
• Carroll  .5″
• Manning  .93″
• Logan  1.04″

JOHNSTON, Iowa –  September 25, 2017 – This month, Duane Aistrope, a Fremont County farmer, assumed the role as Iowa Corn Promotion Board President (ICPB).  Iowa corn farmers elect their peers to the ICPB in overseeing the investments of the Iowa corn checkoff. The Board’s primary activities include domestic and foreign market development, research into new and value-added corn uses, and education on the corn industry and helping to tell the story of Iowa’s farm families.

“The Promotion Board works year-round to continuously create opportunities for long-term corn grower profitability,” explained Aistrope. “Our efforts are focused on new uses, expanding ethanol usage domestically as well as internationally, and trade for corn in all forms.”

Aistrope, a graduate of Iowa Western Community College, has been farming for 37 years. In his current operation, he raises corn and soybeans, and operates a cow/calf operation. He and his wife, Roberta, have three children. Duane has served as Chair of the Exports and Grain Trade Committee and currently serves as the Innovation and sustainability leader for the US Grains Council Action Team.

“The Iowa Corn Promotion Board identified market development as one of its top priorities,” he stated. “As corn farmers continue to get more efficient at producing a bountiful crop, we need to have markets for all those piles of corn. We understand that to advance this industry we need to expand markets and persistently promote corn in all forms.”

Duane wants to promote the increased usage of corn-ethanol in Iowa and help to identify additional uses for our corn such as exports, bio plastics, and DDGS.

He currently is a member of the Fremont County Corn and Soybean Growers and Farm Bureau. He has been on the FSA County Committee for 27 years, a township trustee for 20 years and a 4-H leader for 21 years. Aistrope has served leadership positions in the Fremont County Farm Bureau including President and Vice-President. He has also served on the Fremont County Fair Board.

For more information about the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, its programs or the farmer-leaders who serve on its board, go to www.iowacorn.org.

Unseasonably warm weather has held off the cool fall days in Iowa and that’s impacting the transition of some trees to their fall leaf colors. State Forester Jeff Goerndt says dry weather has also had an impact on the changing of leaf colors. “I think the dryness has affected us a great deal — the warm weather sets it back,” Goerndt says. He says the cool fall days are important to the process. “Usually the colors are best when you have just warm, balmy days and then cool, crisp, clear nights,” according to Goerndt.

Goerndt says it is early for central and southern Iowa and the colors should improve as we move deeper into fall. “In the next couple of weeks it’s going to start getting a little better,” Goerndt says. “I just can’t tell right now how brilliant it is going to be. I’ve got a couple of hard maples in my yard that are usually quite brilliant — but they haven’t done anything yet. I think you’re going to see a lot more oranges and browns and yellows this year.”

He lives in Chariton in the south-central part of the state and says northeast Iowa has a larger variety of trees and usually has some of the best leaf color in the state. And northeast Iowa has had more rain this year too, which should help the color. He says the Loess Hills corridor had some good leaf color. Goerndt says the drought conditions in the southern part of the state could have a longer term impact on trees beyond impacting leaf color. “They’ll be a little deficient. The thing about drought is you can’t really predict what it’s going to do as far as long term affects, because it can affect a tree for several years afterwards,” Goerndt says.

The D-N-R provides a weekly fall color report each Monday afternoon. Updates are available by calling the D-N-R fall color hotline at 515-233-4110 and online at www.iowadnr.gov/fallcolor.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will take a more concentrated look at the deer who roam along the state’s western border with Nebraska this fall to screen for Chronic Wasting Disease. The move comes after five deer harvested in southeast Nebraska in 2016 tested positive for the disease. The C-W-D coordinator for the D-N-R, Terry Haindfield, says the effort will be similar to what they’ve done when C-W-D has been detected in other border states. “We’ve been obviously watching the eastern border along Wisconsin and Illinois and also Minnesota and Missouri. But now we are watching our some of our border to the west along the Missouri River due to some positives in southeast Nebraska,” Haindfield.

The effort starts with meetings Monday and Tuesday. He says they are going to talk to the public about the increase surveillance from Woodbury down to Fremont counties. Haindfield says they normally take 15 samples in every county.  But he says they increase the number of samples in those border counties of states where C-W-D has been found and that’s what’s going to happen now on the western side of the state.  “We’re doing anywhere from 100 to 150 samples from hunter-collected deer in those areas — that’s our goal anyway for this fall,” Haindfield explained.

The western counties have the “Big Muddy” between them and the infected deer in Nebraska, but Haindfield says it’s not an impenetrable border. “Those border rivers are not immune to crossing from deer — they can obviously swim those — but they still are physical barriers. So that does give us somewhat of a nice hope that they might not have crossed that yet.”  While it hasn’t been conclusively proven, it’s believed the infected deer in eastern Iowa may’ve come across the river there based on their location. “We’ve had 18 positives total, 17 being in Allamakee and one new one in Clayton County northwest of Elkader this last fall,” Haindfield says.

Haindfield says he’s been impressed with the way the people in northeast Iowa have stepped up to help collect samples and track the deer there. He says the support has been “tremendous” after their meetings there and he says that’s why it is important for people in western Iowa to attend the meetings and find out what is going on. “Hunters and landowners have stepped up greatly in helping us get those samples, and also to help stop the spread of chronic wasting disease,” according to Haindfield.

The first meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p-m Monday (Sept. 25), in the Lewis and Clark State Park Visitor Center, three miles west of Onawa. The second is set for 6:30 p-m Tuesday (Sept. 26) at the public library in Missouri Valley.

(Radio Iowa)

Atlantic Police Chief Dave Erickson reports anyone interested in bow hunting within the Atlantic City limits for the 2017-18 hunting year, may receive a permit application from the Atlantic Police Department during their regular business hours (8-a.m. to 4-p.m., M-F). The permit will allow you to harvest antlerless deer, and once you have reported the harvest to the Atlantic Police Dept., you will be allowed to harvest a buck.

Bow hunters who qualified last year with the P-D do not need to do so this year, but you still need to pick up the permit application, fill it out and return it to the Police Department. New Hunters will have to contact the A-PD and set up a time with Chief Erickson, in order to qualify. Land owners who wish to allow bow hunters to hunt on their land, should contact the Police Department at 712-243-3512 during regular business hours, in order to sign-up.

Erickson said the number of deer causing damage to plants and vegetation inside the Atlantic City limits have been down in recent years, due to the success of the Urban Deer Control program.