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DES MOINES, Iowa, May 17, 2023 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will cover up to 75% of the costs associated with organic certification, up to $750 per category, through the Organic Certification Cost Share Program (OCCSP). Iowa Farm Service Agency (FSA) encourages organic agricultural producers and handlers to apply for OCCSP by Oct. 31, 2023, for expenses incurred from Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2023. As part of USDA’s broader effort to support organic producers and in response to stakeholder feedback, this year FSA increased the cost share to the maximum amount allowed by statute.
“We’re taking steps to better support Iowa organic producers,” said Matt Russell, State Executive Director for FSA in Iowa. “We’ve heard about this program’s value in helping Iowa organic producers and handlers obtain or renew their certifications under the National Organic Program, and I’m pleased that we’re able to increase and restore the cost share to the statutory limit this year. Organic certification costs have long been identified as a barrier to certification, and this assistance, at its full levels, will help Iowa organic producers participate in new markets while supporting and growing our local and regional food systems.”
Cost Share for 2023: The cost share provides financial assistance for organic certification, and producers and handlers are eligible to receive 75% of the costs, up to $750, for crops, wild crops, livestock, processing/handling and state organic program fees (California only). Iowa producers have until Oct. 31, 2023, to file applications, and FSA will make payments as applications are received.
How to Apply: To apply, Iowa producers and handlers should contact their local FSA office USDA Service Center. As part of completing the OCCSP application, producers and handlers will need to provide documentation of their organic certification and eligible expenses. Organic producers and handlers may also apply for OCCSP through participating state departments of agriculture. Additional details can be found on the OCCSP webpage.
Opportunity for State Departments of Agriculture
FSA is also accepting applications from state departments of agriculture to administer OCCSP. FSA will post a synopsis of the funding opportunity on grants.gov and will electronically mail the notice of funding opportunity to all eligible state departments of agriculture. If a state department of agriculture chooses to participate in OCCSP, both the state department of agriculture and FSA County Offices in that state will accept OCCSP applications and make payments to eligible certified operations. However, the producer or handler may only receive OCCSP assistance from either FSA or the participating state department of agriculture.
Other USDA Organic Assistance
On May 10 USDA AMS announced the availability of approximately $75 million in grant funding for the Organic Market Development Grant (OMDG) program. OMDG will fund businesses transitioning to organic or initiating new organic production or processing and support new, improved and expanded markets for domestically produced organic products with a focus on processing capacity, market access, and product development.
DES MOINES, IA – Over the next several weeks, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will conduct two major mid-year surveys, the June Agricultural Survey and the June Area Survey. The agency will contact nearly 4,700 producers across Iowa to determine crop acreage and stock levels as of June 1, 2023.
“The June Agricultural Survey and the June Area Survey are two of the most important and well-known surveys NASS conducts,” explained Greg Thessen, Director of the NASS Upper Midwest Regional Field Office. “When producers respond to these surveys, they provide essential information that helps determine the expected acreage and supply of major commodities in the United States for the 2023 crop year. The results are used by farmers and ranchers, USDA, exporters, researchers, economists, policymakers, and others to inform a wide range of decisions.”
Producers can respond to the June Agricultural Survey online at agcounts.usda.gov, by phone, or mail. They will be asked to provide information on planted and harvested acreage, including acreage for biotech crops and grain stocks. For the June Area Survey, agency representatives will interview farm and ranch operators in randomly selected segments of land over the phone or in person. Producers will be asked to provide information on crop acreage, grain stocks, livestock inventory, land values, and value of sales.
“NASS safeguards the privacy of all respondents, by keeping all individual information confidential and publishing the data in aggregate form only to ensure that no operation or producer can be identified,” said Thessen. “We recognize that this is a hectic time for farmers, but the information they provide helps U.S. agriculture remain viable and capable. I urge them to respond to these surveys and thank them for their participation.” 
NASS will publish the data in a series of USDA reports, including the annual Acreage and quarterly Grain Stocks reports June 30, 2023. These data also contribute to NASS’s monthly and annual Crop Production reports, the annual Small Grains Summary, annual Farms and Land in Farms and Land Values reports, various livestock reports, including Cattle, Sheep
and Goats, and Hogs and Pigs, and USDA’s monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates.
These and all NASS reports are available at nass.usda.gov/Publications/. For more information, call the NASS Upper Midwest Regional Field Office at (800) 772-0825.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who happened to be up for sunrise today (Wednesday) got a rare treat. Smoke from wildfires in Alberta, Canada, is filtering high over Iowa and it’s making the sun appear as a golden-reddish-orange ball. Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff, at the National Weather Service, says the phenomenon should be visible at sunset tonight, too, and for that matter, the sun and sky may look unusual all day, perhaps longer. “It’s really making kind of that reddish look to the sky. It’s gonna look pretty hazy most of the day,” Hagenhoff says. “Right now, it looks like that hazy sky’s going to hang on at least through tomorrow. We do have a cold front coming through on Thursday with some thunderstorms that may help to push some of it out as we get into the end of the week.”
Iowans who have certain health issues and difficulty breathing should -not- feel any ill affects from the smoke, as it’s far up in the atmosphere, perhaps 20-thousand feet up. Plus, she says, it doesn’t even smell like smoke outside. “In the afternoon, sometimes this time of year, whenever it’s warm, you can get some deeper mixing as the ground kind of warms up. That could start to pull some of it down, but again, just how much is kind of an unknown,” Hagenhoff says. “So just something to use caution. Of course, there are air quality products out there so anyone with concerns would want to check to see what those levels may be.”
Image from NASA Earth Observatory
There are at least 90 wildfires now burning in Canada with more than 20 of them out of control. More than 20-thousand Canadians have been evacuated from their homes because of the fires, and cities like Calgary are under alerts due to poor air quality. Hagenhoff doesn’t anticipate anything similar here and the smoke is so high aloft, it doesn’t even appear on radar over Iowa. The odd-looking sky could persist, though. “Because it’s such a small-scale thing with the fires in Canada, and how that’s going to interact with our systems, and how it gets drug down,” she says, “it’s a little tough to kind of figure out exactly where we’ll be with any kind of length into the future past a couple days.”
The federal government runs a website called simply, AirNow, and it’s focused on fires and smoke. The site includes a color-coded map through which you can zoom in on individual Iowa counties to check on air quality.
More at https://fire.airnow.gov/
(Iowa DNR News, 5/17/23) – Despite a rainy cold closing weekend across much of state, Iowa’s wild turkey hunters reported harvesting more than 14,800 birds through the mandatory registration system, an increase of nearly 3,000 versus the 2022 harvest. Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources report Iowa’s spring turkey seasons began April 7 with the youth season and ended on May 14. Hunters purchased nearly 54,500 spring turkey tags, an increase of 2,000 licenses from 2022.
Turkey production has been good across most of the state the past two years and these two-year-old birds were likely a good portion of the harvest, said Jim Coffey, forest wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “The two-year-old birds are the most likely to gobble and the most likely to move,” he said. “When we combine birds willing to move, pretty good weather during the season and the great passion our turkey hunters have for the resource, we get a harvest for the record books.”
While the hunting season may be done for 2023, Iowans can help the DNR with its annual turkey production estimates by reporting all the turkeys seen during the months of July and August. This annual survey is designed to predict the overall production of wild turkeys that will be available for the 2024 season. The DNR will have a link to the survey on its website before it begins on July 1, where Iowans seeing wild turkeys are asked to provide the date and county in which the turkey(s) was seen, if it was an adult female or adult male (males have beards on their breast), and whether there are young poults (baby turkeys) present.
Photo courtesy of the Iowa DNR.
Annual production surveys conducted by the DNR are an important component of the species management plans, which includes providing hunting opportunities. Anyone seeing turkeys is encouraged to participate in this online survey.
(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Conservation Dept. is hosting its first kayak fishing session in a little
over three-weeks. The event takes place Saturday, June 3rd from 8 AM to 10 AM, at Prairie Rose State Park. The group will meet on the east side of County Road M47. Women and families are highly encouraged to participate! This session will be limited to 15 people and there is a $5 fee. Pre-registration is required, please sign-up here: https://conta.cc/3ob9RYO
Kayaks and fishing poles will be provided, but feel free to bring your own equipment. If you are signed up for the hook and paddle program through the DNR, you will get extra points for attending this event. This is a free fishing weekend, so fishing licenses are encouraged, but not required.
(Radio Iowa) – Researchers at Iowa State University are developing an advanced type of sensor which farmers can place in their fields to keep constant tabs on nutrient levels and soil moisture. Jonathan Claussen, a mechanical engineering professor at I-S-U, says the sensors are about the size of a tent stake and they’re designed to stay in the ground all growing season, about four months, through any temperature swings or rain events. “They monitor total nitrogen, so both nitrates and ammonia, and they can tell the farmer when and where in that field fertilizer needs to be applied,” Claussen says. “Fertilizer can be up to a third of their farming costs, so it’s potentially a big cost savings if we can reduce even a portion of that.”
The device needs to be both rugged and easy to use, Claussen says, as he notes farmers don’t want to read a 20-page instruction manual. It also needs to be inexpensive, so farmers can place a wide network of sensors. “This really gives the farmer an opportunity to practice precision agriculture,” Claussen says. “This way, they can do kind of a spoon feeding of the fertilizer throughout the growing season so they only apply when and where they need it.”
Ideally, farmers could purchase dozens of the sensors to monitor the soil’s nutrient levels in real time, as they’ve worked to keep the price at less than one-dollar per sensor. “This allows them to do continuous soil sampling without that expense of having to ship it off to the lab but they can get results immediately,” Claussen says. “They can monitor so they can still have their maximum yields. But at the same time, we can show them, you can get those great maximum yields but still use less fertilizer and have less agricultural inputs.”
The I-S-U team has worked to develop an array of sensors for other purposes, for things like food safety and even testing for COVID-19.
(ISU Extension News) – Iowa State University Extension and Outreach will offer the Iowa Master Conservationist Program in Adair and Cass County as a joint program between the two county Extension Offices this summer and fall. The program will take place at outdoor parks and public areas within the two counties, providing participants with hands-on interaction with the diversity of the state’s natural resources. The program teaches about Iowa’s natural ecosystems and the diversity of conservation challenges and opportunities that exist in the region. Graduates of the course learn to make informed choices for leading and educating others to improve conservation in Iowa.
The program consists of approximately 12 hours of online curriculum and six face-to-face meetings. The online modules will include lessons and resources by Iowa State subject-matter experts to be reviewed at the participants’ own pace at home or at their local County Extension office. Module topics include conservation history and science, understanding Iowa ecosystems, implementing conservation practices in human dominated landscapes and developing skills to help educate others about conservation practices. 
The first meeting will take place on Tuesday May 30th at Lake Anita State Park, beginning at 6 PM. A total of six face-to-face meetings will build on the online lessons and be held at different locations in Adair and Cass County one Tuesday evening per month from June-October of 2023. All meetings will begin at 6 PM and last from 2-3 hours depending on the topic. Each face-to-face meeting will be led by local subject-matter experts to demonstrate how the principles covered in the online curriculum and play out locally.
Registration for the course is $50 per person and is due at the time of registration. To register or with questions, contact the ISU Extension and Outreach office in Adair County at 515-231-2741 or Cass County at 712-243-1132 or visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass or www.extension.iastate.edu/adair for registration forms and details. The deadline to register is Thursday, May 25 to guarantee a space in the course.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley fears the recent U-S Supreme Court ruling on hog confinement sizes will have “a tremendous economic impact” on Iowa’s pork producers and he hopes a legislative solution will help to ease the blow. The ruling upheld what’s known as Proposition 12, a California law that will ban the sale of pork products from sows that come from pens of a certain size. “It’s not only going to make it difficult to market any Iowa products in California, maybe even prohibit it,” Grassley says. “I don’t want to go that far, for sure, but it could.”
Nearly one-third of the nation’s pork is raised in Iowa and while California only raises about one-percent, that state consumes about 15-percent of the pork that’s produced in the U-S. Grassley couldn’t yet offer specifics on any bills in the works. “We need a legislative solution that is bipartisan, and put it in the Farm Bill as an option,” Grassley says. “I think you’re going to see Senator (Roger) Marshall of Kansas lead the way in this direction.”
Grassley says he and fellow Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst co-sponsored Marshall’s bill last year called the EATS Act, or the Exposing Agricultural Trade Suppression Act, which did not win passage. It would have banned state and local governments from interfering with agricultural production in other states. If that bill is reintroduced by Marshall, who’s also a Republican, Grassley is uncertain what level of support may come from the other side of the aisle. “The animal rights organizations of this country are going to be a big voice in this,” Grassley says, “and Democrats tend to listen to their voice more loudly than they should, and that’s a factor that we have to fight here.”
Grassley fears the court ruling could raise pork prices while also forcing some producers to close up shop. An Iowa ag economist says we’re already seeing some of the biggest losses in the pork industry in 25 years and some farmers won’t be able to afford to implement major changes in their operations.
DES MOINES, Iowa (May 15, 2023) – The Iowa Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program (RFIP) Board approved 15 project applications and 11 supplemental grant requests for a total of more than $800,000 during its quarterly board meeting on May 9. Twelve of the fifteen projects are for E15 infrastructure, three are biodiesel terminals, and the eleven previously funded ethanol projects received supplemental grants of $6,000 each. The RFIP helps fuel retailers provide higher blends of lower cost Iowa grown biofuels to consumers by incentivizing the installation, replacement and conversion of ethanol and biodiesel dispensing and storage infrastructure. Incentives to upgrade biodiesel terminal and storage facilities are also available. While the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship manages the program, a board appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Iowa Senate determines grant allocations on a quarterly basis.
“Consumers save money when they can fill their tanks with higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “By helping fuel retailers install this infrastructure, we are continually increasing the number of Iowa fueling stations where consumers can buy cleaner burning and more affordable homegrown biofuels.”
Counties with locations receiving one or more of the 15 project grants include the following: Story, Polk, Dallas, Linn, Sioux, Benton, Buena Vista, Crawford, Dickinson, Dubuque, Clinton, Howard, and Madison. The complete list of locations can be found here. The supplemental grants were awarded to retailers that have added tanks and associated equipment, including dispensers, for dispensing E15 or higher ethanol blends at additional locations. To receive supplemental grants, retailers must be awarded multiple RFIP grants and complete their projects within one year of the original installation. 
To date, $5,755,228 of funding for this fiscal year has been awarded to 119 biofuels infrastructure projects. The program also leverages significant private investment by the participating fuel retailers. The Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Board will consider additional RFIP grant applications during its next quarterly meeting in July, and the deadline for accepting new applications for that meeting will be Friday, June 23 at 4:30pm. The RFIP grant application is available on the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s website.
The breakdown of RFIP funding for this fiscal year, so far, is as follows:
Over the history of the program, the state has invested approximately $60 million while private industry has invested over $200 million. To learn more about the Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program, visit the program’s webpage on the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s website.
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