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)

Twenty-five years of an environmental and community partnership will be celebrated with the planting of a symbolic tree on Wednesday, October 25th at 1 p.m.. in Atlantic City Park. The public is invited to the celebration. The Atlantic 25th Anniversary Planting recognizes the community’s 25 years of working with Alliant Energy and Trees Forever’s Branching Out partnership.

Dolly Bergmann, president of Atlantic Trees Forever, said in that time, 2,640 trees have been planted in Atlantic through the program, with 24 planted recently throughout the community as part of the celebration. The 25th tree in this recent group will be planted in City Park on October 25 to mark the 25-year partnership. Bergmann said also, “We’ve been all over town.” She said of the sites that have benefited from trees through the years, including parks, schools, the YMCA, courthouse, hospital and Chamber office. She said “People here understand the benefit of trees, including shade and clean air.”

According to Doug Kopp, President of Alliant Energy’s Iowa Utility  “When you plant a tree, you’re starting to leave behind a legacy. Fifteen years from now you can come back and see what you’ve done and it is impressive. These trees provide a benefit to the community in terms of energy efficiency and carbon reduction for years to come and we’re proud to be a part of it.” Shannon Ramsay, Trees Forever Founding President and CEO, says “Trees Forever is very excited to mark the 25th anniversary in Atlantic. Through our partnership with Alliant Energy and the help of volunteers, we’ve been providing a long-lasting benefit to the community.”

An estimated 50,000 blaze orange clad hunters will dot Iowa’s countryside at 8 a.m. this Saturday, Oct. 28, for the opening of Iowa’s 2017 pheasant hunting season. The annual event melds generations of Iowans who reconnect with their hunting heritage. While most hunters will generally only spend the first week or two in the field, those who venture out later will likely be rewarded with success. Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife research biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says “Hunters can expect to find similar bird numbers to last year, but the October rain has our harvest running behind schedule so opening weekend may not be as successful as years past. However, a late harvest could lead to success later in the season.”

Results from the statewide August roadside survey indicate higher pheasant numbers were found in a line of counties stretching from northwest to southeast, but birds are available everywhere quality habitat is found. Bogenschutz said he expects almost a repeat of 2016 pheasant season, where hunters harvested about 250,000 roosters.

Quail season opens Oct. 28, too. Iowa’s quail population is at a 30 year high and landowners report seeing quail in areas that they had not seen them in years but the bulk of the quail population is in the southern three tiers of counties. Iowa’s partridge season opened Oct. 14. Partridge hunting primarily takes place in the north-central counties.

The Iowa DNR’s online hunting atlas lists nearly 700,000 acres of public hunting land, including more than 20,000 acres of land enrolled in the popular Iowa Habitat for Access Program (IHAP) allowing hunter access to private land. Each area on the atlas includes a link to a map with property boundaries, the size of the area, habitat type, species of wildlife likely found, if nontoxic shot is required and more. The map is available as a downloadable pdf that can be printed or saved to a smartphone. To view the atlas, go to www.iowadnr.gov/hunting and click on Places to Hunt and Shoot in the left column.

There are no new regulations this year. Shooting hours are 8-4:30 daily. Hunters are required to wear one piece of blaze orange of which at least 50 percent must be solid color.  Hunters may harvest three rooster pheasants each day with a possession limit of 12.  Hunters may harvest eight quail of either sex each day with a possession limit of 16. When transporting pheasants, either a fully feathered head, fully feathered wing or foot must remain attached for identification purposes.

Iowa Congressman David Young is scheduled to be joined by Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey for the annual “Bringing in the Harvest” tour, this Friday (Oct. 27th. They will tour family farms, cooperatives, and  agribusinesses to learn more about issues affecting Iowa’s farmers and agriculture economy.  Congressman Young will hear from Iowa’s farmers about this year’s harvest, the importance of trade for Iowa’s agriculture economy, and concerns they have which Congressman Young can take to Washington.

Among the places Young will visit on the tour, is Rose Acre Farms, near Guthrie Center, the Henry A. Wallace Country Center in Orient, Milk Unlimited in Atlantic, The POET Biorefinery in Corning, a Water Quality Demo Project near Sharpsburg, and a listening session with Ringgold County FSA, Soil and Water Conservation Boards.

Acting Iowa Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg paid a visit Monday afternoon to the Elite Octane, LLC Ethanol Plant, in Atlantic. Gregg met with Project Developer Ron Fagen, Plant President and CEO Nick Bowdish, Plant Manager Mike Messing, Republican Senator Tom Shipley and others, about what it took to make the plant a reality since 2006, when several attempts for various reasons each resulted in a failure to get off the ground. The site sat empty, except for one office building, and a concrete pad, until 2015.

Bowdish told Gregg “We’re back at it. We’ve had dozens of hurdles to see this thing come together, but one of the key ones was at that time, Governor Branstad [and current Governor Reynolds] took a meeting. We sat down and laid out ‘If this was gonna be competitive, we had to get the sale tax exemption done with Iowa Economic Development Authority, and that wasn’t just a rubber stamp.”

Bowdish said they just sent in the paperwork this week for their first sales tax redemption. He said they’ve estimated it at a $4.25-million dollars sales tax redemption through the Iowa Economic Development Authority. “Without that [he said] the capital costs would have been over what we could have justified.”

Bowdish asked Gregg to share with Governor Reynolds, thanks for her efforts to get keep the RFS in place and to strengthen it, if possible. Gregg said he was proud to see his boss in action, speaking with President Trump last week. He said “It was surreal… to watch Gov. Reynolds in her moment….advocate [for RFS].” He said it’s not every day that you’re in the room when the President is on the phone.”

Trump directed the EPA to table proposals to weaken the RFS, but Reynolds has said she’ll keep pressing to make sure that doesn’t happen. Gregg said their faith was validated last Thursday, when EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt put his assurances in writing as Reynolds asked. Gregg said Gov. Reynolds will be meeting with Tuesday in Washington, D.C. with Administrator Pruitt and Vice President Pence. The topic of discussion will be Fair Trade.

Left to right: Pat McCurdy; Ryan Pellett; Sen. Tom Shipley; IA Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg; Nick Bowdish; Mike Messing; Ron Fagen, Inc.; Russell Joyce/CADCO.

Bowdish told the Lt. Governor they’re looking at a May 2018 start-up for the Atlantic Elite Octane Ethanol Plant. At first, he said, there will be about 50 people, and although they haven’t advertised yet, all the positions are posted on the company’s website. They already have more than 200 applicants.

Bids were placed last week for some of the needed corn. They’ve already purchased one-half million bushels. They will process 50-million bushels and ultimately produce more than 120-million gallons of ethanol per year, when fully operational.

Fagen, Inc. Chairman Ron Fagen (Left) speaks with Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg