(Radio Iowa) – New details show a Cedar Rapids man rescued from a grain bin last week was lucky to get out — and the first fireman on the scene was working his last full day on the job. Darrell Benish, of Cedar Rapids, was rescued by members of the Cedar Rapids and Swisher Fire departments. Benish tells K-C-R-G T-V he was trying to push the auger in with his foot, and it slipped.

“The suction sucked me in there, and in the meantime, nobody saw what was happening,” Benish explains. Benish was stuck for about two hours with freezing grain covering his body up to his shoulders. Firefighters attempted to insert a barrier to keep more corn from completely covering him. He says he couldn’t breathe. “Because even when they took the corn out — it was still kind of rolling down all the time. It was probably the most pain I’ve ever had in my life,” Benish says.

Cedar Rapids fire captain Brian Hall was the first on the scene, and tells K-C-R-G T-V they were lucky. “To have a situation like this where we can make a rescue and the person survives, very rare,” Hall says. First responders cut four holes in the side of the bin to release as much corn as possible. Hall says Benish’s position in the bin was a factor in the corn trapping him. “He was probably six feet inside the door,” Hall says, “which also I think accounted for some of the crushing factors. He was not in the center and everything coming at him from all directions.”

It was Hall’s first-grain bin rescue in his 33-year career — and also his last full shift — before he retired Sunday. He says the rescue made him think about his work in those years. “Kind of reflected back to a lot of those type of scenarios where we’ve truly made a difference in people’s lives,” Hall says. “Not just in his life, but his family’s lives and all of us.” Hall says his retirement plan at this point is to not have a retirement plan.

(Radio Iowa) – The season for one of the most unusual fish in Iowa waters opens Tuesday on the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers. The D-N-R’s Chris Larson says the paddlefish season was reinstated in 2014. “It started off with a bang when we first opened it up and then it has kind of settled down to about 300 licenses sold per year,” he says. “The folks who are getting our from the survey results we get back –they are about 25 to 35 percent successful depending on the year.”

Paddlefish have a long snout which gives them their unusual appearance. “They almost look like they belong in the ocean with that big snout sticking out there. There’s really no other freshwater species in the United States that looks like that. They’ve been around for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years,” Larson says. Larson is the Western Iowa and Missouri River Regional Fisheries Supervisor and says the weather could impact the start of the season. “I think the biggest thing is ice floes. when it gets really cold like this, there are some pretty big chunks of ice that come floating down the river. And obviously, you are not going to want to be out in a John boat or any kind of boat when those big chunks of ice come floating through,” Larson says.

Paddlefish-DNR photo

Paddlefish feed on plankton, so you have to catch them by snagging them on the bottom of the river.  “Behind the wing dikes, that rock structure that sticks our to deflect the river away from the bank, right behind those you’ll find anywhere from 30 to 500 feet deep holes — and in the wintertime, that’s where those fish are hanging out,” he explains. He says you need to follow the regulations when fishing. He says there is a size limit — and any paddlefish between 35 and 45 inches have to be released to protect the brood females to keep the population in the river.

The paddlefish season was started back up after studies showed their populations were doing well, and Larson says the signs continue to be good.”From everything we’ve seen they’re a pretty stable population,” according to Larson. “They travel from Gavins Point Dam (South Dakota) dam all the way down –we’ve had a number of our Iowa tagged fish captured down in the Tennessee part of the Mississippi River. They travel hundreds and hundreds of miles and fish that they tag we find up here and fish we tag they find down there. So, they are a pretty mobile population.” He says if you do catch a paddlefish with numbered band tag in the lower jaw you should call the phone number on the tag and report the tag number, date of capture, capture location, and eye-to-fork length.

For more information about Iowa’s special paddlefish season regulations, visit the D-N-R website at www.iowadnr.gov/paddlefish.

Checks mail the last week of January to farmers and ranchers in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming

(News Release) OMAHA, NEBRASKA – January 27, 2022 – Farm Credit Services of America (FCSAmerica) is returning more than $296.5 million of its 2021 net income to farmers and ranchers in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. Cash-back dividend checks were mailed January 27, 2022, and will be in the hands of the customer-owners shortly. For 18 consecutive years, the financial cooperative has shared its success in the form of cash-back dividends. Since 2004, FCSAmerica has returned more than $2.6 billion to eligible customer-owners.

This year’s cash-back dividend is equal to 100 basis points – or a return of 1% of a customer’s eligible daily 2021 balance with FCSAmerica. In Iowa, this equates to a 2021 payout of $114.5 million. This puts the total net income returned to Iowa farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses in the past 18 years at $1 billion.

The share of the 2021 cash-back dividend going to Nebraska customer-owners is $98.2 for an 18-year total of $792.8 million. South Dakota and Wyoming customer-owners have been mailed $54.39 million and $5.8 million, respectively, in 2021 cash-back dividends. Since 2004, FCSAmerica has returned a total of $505 million to South Dakota and $61.3 million to Wyoming.

“FCSAmerica strives every day to add value to our customer-owners’ operations through expertise, products and services,” said Mark Jensen, president and CEO of FCSAmerica. “Our patronage program is one more way we add value. We are sharing our success in a way that directly benefits our customer-owners, their operations, families and communities.”

The Board of Directors for FCSAmerica also has approved a cash-back dividend to be paid from the cooperative’s 2022 net earnings, the amount of which will be determined in December.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Agricultural producers and landowners can sign up soon for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a cornerstone conservation program offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and a key tool in the Biden-Harris Administration effort to address climate change and achieve other natural resource benefits. The General CRP signup will run from Jan. 31 to March 11, and the Grassland CRP signup will run from April 4 to May 13.

“We highly encourage farmers, ranchers and private landowners to consider the enrollment options available through CRP,” said Iowa Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Director Matt Russell. “Last year, we rolled out a better, bolder program, and we highly encourage you to consider its higher payment rates and other incentives. CRP is another way that we’re putting producers and landowners at the center of climate-smart solutions that generate revenue and benefit our planet.”

Producers and landowners enrolled 4.6 million acres into CRP signups in 2021, including 2.5 million acres in the largest Grassland CRP signup in history. There are currently 22.1 million acres enrolled, and FSA is aiming to reach the 25.5-million-acre cap statutorily set for fiscal year 2022.

CRP Signups: General CRP helps producers and landowners establish long-term, resource-conserving plant species, such as approved grasses or trees, to control soil erosion, improve water quality and enhance wildlife habitat on cropland.  Meanwhile, Grassland CRP is a working lands program, helping landowners and operators protect grassland, including rangeland and pastureland and certain other lands, while maintaining the areas as working grazing lands. Protecting grasslands contributes positively to the economy of many regions, provides biodiversity of plant and animal populations and provides important carbon sequestration benefits to deliver lasting climate outcomes.

Alongside these programs, producers and landowners can enroll acres in Continuous CRP under the ongoing sign up, which includes projects available through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE).

Climate Benefits: Last year, FSA enacted a Climate-Smart Practice Incentive for CRP General and Continuous signups, to better target CRP on addressing climate change. This incentive aims to increase carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CRP’s climate-smart practices include establishment of trees and permanent grasses, development of wildlife habitat and wetland restoration. The Climate-Smart Practice Incentive is annual, and the amount is based on the benefits of each practice type.

Additionally, in order to better target the program toward climate outcomes, USDA invested $10 million last year in the CRP Monitoring, Assessment and Evaluation (MAE) program to measure and monitor the soil carbon and climate resilience impacts of conservation practices over the life of new CRP contracts. This will enable the agency to further refine the program and practices to provide producers tools for increased climate resilience.

More Information on CRP : Landowners and producers interested in CRP should contact their local USDA Service Center to learn more or to apply for the program — for General CRP before the March 11 deadline, and for Grassland CRP before the May 13 deadline. Service Center staff continue to work with agricultural producers via phone, email, and other digital tools. Due to the pandemic, some USDA Service Centers are open to limited visitors. Additionally, fact sheets and other resources are available at fsa.usda.gov/crp.

(Radio Iowa) – The sponsor of a bill to set statewide rules for which roads all-terrain vehicles may travel on, says he’s changing his plan. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, of Wilton, says city officials would retain authority over where A-T-Vs can travel within city limits, but he still plans to seek statewide rules for roads where county boards of supervisors have jurisdiction.  “Local control does not work when boards of supervisors ignore tens of thousands of signatures and refuse to even so much grant a meeting,” Kaufmann says. “When local control is not working, then it is our job to step in.”

Two-thirds of Iowa counties DO have local ordinances that spell out which roads and local highways A-T-Vs may use. Kaufmann says he’s considering other ideas, like requiring licenses for A-T-Vs that operate on roads with other vehicles. Those proposals will be reviewed if and when the bill is debated by the full House.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans are spotting vast numbers of bald eagles this winter, but time’s running out to admire the big birds. More than 400 eagles were counted recently along one mile of the Iowa River in Johnson County, but D-N-R wildlife biologist Stephanie Shepherd says nesting season is almost here, and that means it’ll be much harder to find eagles. “They can begin as early as February and sort of the peak of them initiating nesting is in March, so they’re actually going to be breaking up here pretty soon, probably in the next three weeks or so to start getting back to their nest sites and initiating that nesting cycle,” Shepherd says. “I think we’re probably going to see numbers dwindling a little bit over the next few weeks.”

While many of the eagles we’re seeing are migrating here from states like Wisconsin and Minnesota, Shepherd says Iowa has many hundreds of resident eagles. “We probably have at least 500 active nests in the state but of course they’re not as gathered together or congregated around open water sites,” Shepherd says. “There’s still a lot of eagles here, it’s just they’re spread out across the countryside, hanging out in their nest and being busy and not congregated around open water.”

The Mississippi River has traditionally hosted Iowa’s highest eagle numbers — both resident and wintering — but in recent years, the Iowa and Des Moines rivers have hosted even more.

(Radio Iowa) – The governor’s revised plan to boost sales of E-15 has been approved by a House subcommittee. The Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard Governor Kim Reynolds presented last year stalled in the legislature. Reynolds says her new proposal is designed to expand consumer access to gasoline that contains more ethanol and to diesel that has a higher percentage of a soybean-based additive.

“Under the bill, any newly-installed or upgraded fuel infrastructure must be E85 or B20 compatible and all retailers with compatible infrastructure must offer E15 by 2026,” Reynolds says. Reynolds reviewed her NEW plan at Tuesday’s Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit in Des Moines and urged the industry to lobby Iowa lawmakers.

“Let’s together remind them how important it is that we finally send a message that DC can’t ignore,” Reynolds says. “America’s energy is growing right here in Iowa’s fields.” The plan includes grant money to install new fuel systems. Sara Allen, a lobbyist for the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, spoke at a statehouse hearing on the bill.

“We think it gives consumers the ability to purchase E15 more freely across the state,” she said, “because that’s not happening right now.” The bill sets up a waiver process for stations with equipment that’s incompatible with fuel that has higher blends of ethanol. Casey’s General Stores, which has 535 stores in Iowa, opposes the bill as it’s currently written. Tom Cope, the company’s lobbyist, says there’s no guarantee a station would get a waiver — and the grants cover a fraction of what it costs to upgrade underground fuel systems.

“We’re really, really concerned that it could have a negative impact on stores that are, especially, located in small town Iowa,” Cope says. Marc Beltrame is a lobbyist for Fuel Iowa, which represents the retailers that sell fuel. He says the industry is willing to do its part to help ethanol and biodiesel producers, but the bill as written penalizes a lot of small stores which are primarily in rural Iowa.

“We’ve worked very hard to come to yes,” Beltrame said. “There’s still some sticky points.” Kevin Kuhl, a lobbyist for the Iowa Farm Bureau, says his organization supports the bill because Iowa still lags other states in sales of ethanol and biodiesel. “We’ve states have implemented policies that promote the sale and consumption of biofuels,” Kuhle says. Fewer than one out of four Iowa gas stations sell E-15 and the bill seeks to push beyond that blend. Starting in 2023, any new fuel systems installed at Iowa gas stations would have to compatible with E-85.

Drew Klein is state director for Americans for Prosperity, a group that opposed the governor’s Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard in 2021 and opposes this 2022 rewrite. “This is, inevitably, going to impose new costs on small businesses in Iowa,” Klein says. The bill was introduced in the House Monday and a three-member subcommittee signed off on it Tuesday. The bill is now scheduled for debate in the full House Ways and Means Committee late this (Wednesday) afternoon.

(Radio Iowa) – An ag economist from Iowa State University suggests farmers look seriously at selling their crop before it’s planted. Chad Hart says farmers are seeing good prices for their commodities, mainly due to strong exports, and they should consider forward contracting, though he notes, there are signs the export trade may weaken during the year ahead.  Hart says, “The price series that we’ve got right now in front of us does lead to some opportunities, not only in marketing the corn and soybeans that are sitting in the bin right now, but also taking a look at those new crop opportunities for the 2022 crop, and even for those who are fairly aggressive, they could be looking out there to 2023 as well.” Hart says the futures trade today shows profitable levels extending for both corn and soybeans for the next couple of years, and he says farmers should take advantage.

“Corn prices right now, all the way out to 2024, are all above $5 a bushel. Soybean prices, all the way out to 2024, are all above $12 per bushel,” Hart says. “That’s an amazing pricing plateau to take advantage of right now and it’s something we see very rarely.” China remains a good trading partner with the U-S, but Hart says the Chinese are beginning to cut back on their buying spree.  “They’re the ones that are backing off the most as we look at these higher prices,” Hart says. “They remain a very strong market for us. As you look at our top markets, they’re still our biggest buyer on the soybean side, they’re our second biggest buyer on corn and pork.” China’s also the third biggest buyer of beef, however, in the commodities of corn, soybeans and pork, Hart says orders to that nation have been dropping year-over-year.

Hart will appear in Le Mars tomorrow (Wednesday) for the I-S-U Extension and Outreach “Crop Advantage” seminar.

(Radio Iowa) – The voting delegates of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, representing all of the state’s 99 county pork organizations, will be in Des Moines tomorrow (Tuesday) for the annual meeting to vote on policies. Association spokeswoman Dal Grooms explains what will be discussed.

“There’s been a Visioning Task Force that’s been going on between the National Pork Producers Council and the National Pork Board,” Grooms says. “They are ready to give a report. They’re going to be sharing that with the delegates and having delegates respond to that and then talk about accountability, as to who should managing which portion.” Under the pork check-off program, producers pay 45-cents per 100-dollars of pork value.

Membership dues are used for lobbying, while the check-off funds can only be used for promotion, education, research, market development and exports.  “They’re also going to be talking about rates for both the checkoff and then also for the rate that we have for special interest programs,” Grooms says. “People have been kicking that around for a year or two as well.”

The industry trade show and seminars as part of the annual Iowa Pork Congress will be held Wednesday and Thursday at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines.

AMES, Iowa [ISU Press Release] – ISU Extension specialists are teaming up with ISU Ag and Biosystems Engineering specialists to bring planter equipment expertise across Iowa on February 10, 2022. The workshop is an opportunity for farmers, agricultural service providers, equipment and precision ag dealers, and others to gain insight into how both traditional and high-speed planters function, optimize settings for individual seed, field, and equipment needs, and improve understanding of planter wear and calibration. “Planter University will go far beyond a typical planter clinic, offering attendees direct access to specialists with expertise in planter technology and settings,” said Aaron Saeugling, field agronomist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, “We are excited to offer this opportunity.”

Specialists from the ISU Digital Ag group will lead each workshop and focus on small-group, hands-on learning with row units representing a variety of technologies currently available for planters. “We are going to help attendees better understand the physics behind traditional and high-speed planters and how to evaluate planting performance,” said Levi Powell, ISU Ag and Biosystems Engineering Program Specialist. “Every planter, operator, and operation is different; one setting doesn’t work for everyone, this event will focus on how to dial in the right settings for you and your operation,” added Ryan Bergman, ISU Ag and Biosystems Engineering Program Specialist.

The ISU Digital Ag group is a renowned group known for their key industry partnerships and unique expertise in equipment and precision agriculture. Meetings will also offer continuing education credits for Certified Crop Advisers (CCA). Join us at one of the five locations we will be offering this training. Attendance will be limited to maintain small group sizes and allow for hands-on activities. Registration for each location is $75 and closes 7 days ahead of each meeting. Register online at https://www.aep.iastate.edu/planter/. Registration includes lunch, refreshments, materials, and CCA credits. Each workshop will begin with check-in and refreshments at 9:00 a.m. and adjourn at approximately 2:30 p.m.

February 7 – Northwest Research and Demonstration Farm, Sutherland

February 8 – Northeast Research Farm – Borlaug Learning Center, Nashua

February 9 – Iowa National Guard Armory, Washington

February 10 – Barkley Farms, Lyman

February 11 – CNH Industrial Ag Information Center, Nevada

For questions, contact ANR Program Services at 515-294-6429, or anr@iastate.edu, or contact your regional Iowa State University Extension and Outreach field agronomist.

Related links:

https://www.aep.iastate.edu/planter/

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/ag/field-agronomists

https://www.extension.iastate.edu/digitalag/digital-ag-isu