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CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Iowa Agribusiness Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa business that makes trailers for hauling livestock and grain will be laying off dozens of employees this fall. Sioux City’s Wilson Trailer Company has notified the State of Iowa it will be laying off 58 workers on September 30th. By law, businesses that have more than 100 employees are required to provide 60 days advance notice of layoffs. Employees were notified Thursday.
The company, in a written statement, cited slowing trailer sales in the agricultural market as the reason for the layoffs. Wilson Trailer Company, founded in 1890, is a family-owned business with headquarters in Sioux City. It operates five production plants, including two in Sioux City. The rest are in Moberly, Missouri, Yankton, South Dakota, and Lennox, South Dakota.
In addition to trailers to haul grain and livestock, the company makes flatbed and gooseneck trailers.
(Radio Iowa) – Hundreds of Iowa hunters will hit the fields this holiday weekend for the start of the rabbit and squirrel seasons. Nate Carr, an Iowa D-N-R conservation officer for Hamilton and Hardin counties, says the weather should be ideal.
“Rabbit and squirrel season are going to open up this Saturday,” Carr says. “The two things you’re going to need for that is pretty basic, your typical hunting license, and habitat fee are what’s required for those. For rabbit, shooting hours are sunrise to sunset, you can take up to 10 per day, and then for squirrel, your daily bag limit is six.”
Iowa’s rabbit season runs through February 28th, while the squirrel season will end on January 25th. Carr says this Sunday will also kick off the hunting season for mourning doves.”That’ll run from September 1st all the way through November 29th. Your daily limit for doves is going to be 15 birds,” Carr says. “Just like rabbit and squirrel, make sure you have your hunting license and habitat fee, but also, like any migratory bird, you’re going to need to be registered through HIP or have your HIP registration.”
HIP is the Harvest Information Program, for which you can sign up at IowaDNR-dot-gov. Sunday also marks the start of the teal hunting season, which runs through September 16th.
ALTOONA, Iowa — [KCCI] – Friday (Today) is the last day of production at the Smithfield meat processing facility in Altoona. The company announced this summer that the ham boning facility at 612 Adventureland Drive NE, would close and 314 workers would be laid off. According to Iowa WARN, a state-run log of notices of layoffs, 319 employees will be affected.
Smithfield’s Altoona production is expected to be consolidated at locations in Monmouth, Illinois; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Crete, Nebraska. The company said the move will help improve the efficiency of manufacturing. A news release from Smithfield said the company would provide transition assistance to the Altoona employees, “including severance, financial incentives to assure business continuity and potential employment opportunities with Smithfield.”
UFCW photo
Iowa Workforce also provided help to the workers, including a job fair in July.
Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack isn’t ruling out another stint as U-S Agriculture Secretary if Kamala Harris wins and asks him to continue in the role. “I’ve dedicated my life to try to figure out ways in which I can help farmers and small towns because of the important role they play in the country,” Vilsack said. “Regardless of where I might be or what I might be doing, I hope that I’m able to continue to contribute in that vein because that’s what I’ve done for the last 40 years and that’s what I hope to be able to continue to do until I take my last breath.”
Vilsack served eight years as U-S Ag Secretary during the Obama Administration and has been President Biden’s Secretary of Agriculture since 2021. The nation’s longest serving Ag Secretary was from Iowa. “Tama Jim” Wilson, a farmer from Traer who served in the Iowa legislature and the U-S congress, was ag secretary for 16 years, during the administrations of Presidents McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Taft. Vilsack, who is 74, was elected mayor of Mount Pleasant in 1987, then served in the state senate before he was elected to two terms as Iowa’s governor.
Vilsack spoke with reporters yesterday (Thursday) at the Farm Progress Show in Boone. Vilsack indicated he would not comment on Governor Reynolds’ request for a waiver from a U-S-D-A program, so she can provide state-purchased food to needy families with kids next summer. The U-S-D-A program provides electronic benefits cards to families during the summer months if a child in the household qualifies for a free or reduced price lunch during the school year. “I want the state to have the opportunity to have their waiver request examined,” Vilsack said, “so I don’t want to make a comment about it while it’s being considered.”
The governors of 43 states have signed up for the U-S-D-A program for the summer of 2025. He says research shows it’s the most successful way to make sure youngsters have appropriate nutrition in the summer months. “It was not something that we just cooked up in the back room. It was something that is based on 10 years of research and that research basically indicated when you provide the resources to the families, those resources will be used by the families in the most appropriate way,” Vilsack said, “and that they will be used to actually purchase nutritious offerings to their children.”
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says the state will be able to provide more food, by making bulk purchases of nutritious food.
Oats: $2.70 (same in all counties)
(Radio Iowa) – The new Farm Bill that has been delayed multiple times is one of the key topics of discussion at the Iowa Farm Progress Show that’s going on in Boone.
U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says he still feels it can get done yet this year. “Here’s what I’m optimistic about. I’m optimistic about the people who are involved in this process understanding the importance of it, of getting it done, certainly before the end of the year,” Vilsack says. “That’s important, because if it doesn’t get done before the end of the year, or if there’s not an extension before the end of the year, then there’s some ramifications that are pretty dire.”
The former Iowa Governor says both sides have to take the same approach. “To get it done, I think everyone in the process needs to be practical. And by that, I mean you have to take a look at what actual resources are indeed available for any new programs or expansions of existing programs, and try to fit whatever you’re proposing within the real cost,” he says.
Iowa Fourth District Congressman Randy Feenstra says increasing prices paid under crop insurance is a key reason to get the bill done this year. “You’ve got corn at three-dollars and 60 cents, you got soybeans at nine dollars and 40 or 50 cents, whatever it might be. I mean, it’s the killer,” he says. “We’ve got to increase those revenue prices, and we got to make sure that crop insurance is there and available, because we know it’s going to be used this year.”
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack (photo from Ag Secretary’s office)
House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson of Pennsylvania also discussed the Farm Bill in Boone. “I think it’s urgent that we do that this year. I to me, I have an urgency. I want to do it before the election. I think would that that’s really important. It’s important for our farm families,” Thompson says. He says the bill is being held up in the Senate. “Well, part of it is, you know, the Senate just has 90 pages of ideas. Some of them are great ideas, and they dovetail nicely with what we pass. Some of them are not so good ideas,” Thompson says. He says with only ideas, the lead senator is unsure if there are 60 votes to bring the bill forward.
(Thanks to Brent Barnett of the Brownfield Network.)
(Des Moines, Iowa via the Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Iowa Utilities Commission, Wednesday, issued a construction permit for Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed hazardous liquid pipeline across Iowa. The commission’s decision was not unexpected, given a June 25 order in which the panel issued a final decision approving the project while requiring Summit Carbon to submit numerous filings demonstrating compliance with regulatory requirements before a construction permit would be issued.
The commission also required the company to secure and maintain a $100 million insurance policy, and agree to compensate landowners for any damages that result from the pipeline’s construction. On August 5, Summit Carbon submitted the required compliance filings, clearing the way for the permit to be issued.
The commission issued the permit without modifying the previously imposed conditions Summit Carbon must meet in order to begin construction – the most significant of which is that the project must be approved by regulators in North Dakota and South Dakota. The company hopes to begin construction next year with the goal of making the pipeline operational in 2026. The pipeline, which would be the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, would carry liquefied carbon dioxide from ethanol plants in Iowa and surrounding states to a site in North Dakota, where the company still hopes for approval of a previously denied permit.
Summit Carbon Solutions wants to sequester the carbon dioxide of more than 50 ethanol producers in five states. (Courtesy of Summit Carbon Solutions)
The pipeline would cross more than 2,000 miles across five states, including nearly 700 miles in Iowa. In planning the pipeline, Summit has partnered with 57 ethanol plants and the company says it has signed voluntary easement agreements with 75% of the Iowa route’s landowners. In giving its approval to the project, the Iowa Utilities Commission has stated that Summit will be able to use eminent domain in Iowa to force the sale of land from property owners who are opposed to the use of the property for the project.
The Iowa House approved legislation the past two sessions that would have given landowners more leverage over pipeline negotiations. In 2023, the House passed a bill requiring pipeline companies to obtain voluntary easements for 90% of their routes before they could use eminent domain for the rest.
This year, the House voted to allow landowners who are subject to eminent domain requests by carbon dioxide pipeline companies to challenge the legitimacy of those requests in court earlier in the permit proceedings. Neither bill advanced in the Senate.
The proposed pipeline has been the focus of intense public debate over the past 30 months, with farmers, environmentalists and pipeline safety advocates voicing their opposition. In August 2023, Summit was denied permits in North Dakota, and one month later it was denied permits in South Dakota.
In the two and half years since the Iowa Utilities Commission first began weighing Summit’s permit application, the panel has filed tens of thousands of pages of testimony and exhibits, heard testimony from more than 200 witnesses, and considered 4,180 comments, objections, and letters of support for the project.
(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with Landus, an Iowa-based agriculture solutions company, Wednesday, announced the purchase of Wickman Chemical in Atlantic, an independent Iowa-based agricultural chemicals provider, to expand its chemical products and services offerings. A press release said Landus’ acquisition of the company represents its continued commitment to delivering innovation to the farm and empowering our farmers with the tools they need to succeed.
Wickman Chemical, founded by Erich and Tammy Wickman in 1998 grew into one of the region’s prominent agricultural chemical suppliers. Landis and Conduit President and CEO Matt Carstens said “Our purchase of Wickman Chemical reinforces our business strategy to bring the tools and innovation farmer-owners need to thrive.” He complimented the Wickman’s on the growth of their operation and dedications to their farmer customers. Carstens added, “We welcome both their team and customers from across Iowa and Kansas to Landus and look forward to building upon the great reputation of service Erich and Tammy established.”
The purchase agreement is in effect as of October 1, 2024, with Erich Wickman remaining with the company as a Chemical Marketing Specialist. Tammy Wickman will exit to focus on family and the farm. Wickman Chemical employees will remain in their roles to continue providing premium service to farmers, only now as Landus employees. The company will experience no major operational changes other than Wickman Chemical customers having access to all services provided by Landus.
(Sioux City, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in one northwest Iowa county are looking to the future when it comes to the proposed carbon capture pipeline potentially going through the county. KTIV-TV in Sioux City reports during their meeting Tuesday evening, Woodbury County Supervisors Jeremy Taylor and Mark Nelson proposed the county create a decommission plan requirement for the pipelines proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions. The plan would require Summit Carbon Solutions to prepare a decommissioning plan to restore the thousands of acres of land affected by its pipeline, once the pipelines are no longer in use.
The county board is still against the idea of carbon pipelines coming in at all, but Tuesday night they voted unanimously to require Summit Carbon Solutions to have a plan in place before they break ground. The county’s planning and zoning commission, along with the board of adjustment, will now begin work to draft an ordinance to put that plan into action.
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