(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Wild deer with chronic wasting disease have been detected in 25 counties, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which is seeking help from Iowans to spot the disease and limit its spread. The DNR is hosting a public meeting this Thursday, Dec. 5th on statewide management and surveillance efforts. Chronic wasting disease was first detected in Iowa in 2013 and is fatal to infected deer, though it has not been shown to infect humans. The DNR has tested more than 100,000 deer for the disease to monitor its spread through the state. Rachel Ruden, state wildlife veterinarian with the DNR, said it will be a “generational challenge.”

Iowans can register for the virtual webinar on this LINK. The public meeting, which will be held virtually, will allow Iowans to ask questions and learn about the role they play in managing the spread of the disease. Chronic wasting disease affects the animal’s brain, but is present in all tissues. It causes deer to lose weight, act abnormally and is “always fatal,” according to the DNR. The public information meeting takes place just before the start of gun season for deer, which the DNR said roughly 100,000 people participate in each year.

The DNR is partnering with deer hunters to test for chronic wasting disease and has county-specific sample collection goals, depending on the presence of CWD. Interested hunters are asked to contact their local wildlife staff, who can be found on the department’s website. DNR aims to collect samples from each county, and reach 5,000 samples statewide, according to a press release. CWD is tested via a sample from a lymph node found behind a deer’s jaw.

And while humans have yet to be infected by the disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges hunters to “avoid” eating meat from an animal with CWD, to wear gloves while field dressing the animals and to “minimize” contact with brain or spinal cord tissues. Even if a hunter’s particular county has reached its testing quota, or the deer doesn’t qualify for the collection, hunters are encouraged to submit samples to the DNR for testing, especially if they plan to eat the meat.

According to the DNR, most deer that test positive for CWD don’t have visible symptoms, which is why testing is important. Hunters can seek assistance from their local wildlife staff, and from an instructional video, on how to remove the lymph node and send it in for testing.  Tyler Harms, a wildlife biologist with the Iowa DNR, urges Iowans to help stop the spread of chronic wasting disease and avoid putting out grain or mineral blocks that will cause the deer to gather. Hunters should also refrain from transporting carcasses across counties, as this can also spread the disease.

DNR is also offering some additional tags and licenses for hunters in deer management and incentive zones.

Sioux City, Iowa (KTIV) – Another cleaning company has been fined thousands of dollars by the U.S. Department of Labor for employing children to clean Sioux City’s Seaboard Triumph Foods pork processing plant. Qvest LLC of Oklahoma was the cleaning contractor for the plant between September of 2019 and September of 2023.

The Labor Department says the first company fined for hiring minors, Fayette Janitorial Services of Tennessee, took over the contract from Qvest, and hired some of the same children Qvest had employed to clean the plant.

Court documents filed in the Northern District of Iowa show that Qvest will pay $171,919 in child labor civil money penalties, hire a third party to review and implement company policies to prevent the employment of children, and set up a process to report possible child labor law violations.

The Labor Department’s investigation found 11 children had been cleaning equipment in the packing plant, including saws used to cut the pork. Federal law prohibits children under age 18 from working in dangerous jobs like meat processing facilities.

In a statement released to KJAN on Dec. 3rd, 2024, Seaboard Triumph Foods Communications Manager Riley Kohn said:

“The legal filings against Qvest Sanitation by the Department of Labor (DOL) do not include any claims against Seaboard Triumph Foods (STF). STF did not employ any of the alleged individuals and has no evidence that any underage individuals accessed the plant. In addition, this vendor, who had express contractual requirements to follow all labor laws, has not been
present at the STF facility for more than a year, as the company’s sanitation needs are currently supported through an ongoing partnership with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).

“This situation underscores the problems facing employers throughout the country: individuals, including minors, obtaining jobs through their use of fraudulent identification documents, which are sophisticated enough to fool even the federal government’s E-Verify system. Businesses are victimized by this fraud,” notes Paul DeCamp, the former head of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, and counsel for STF.

“Safety, ethical practices, and compliance with regulations and industry standards are of paramount importance to STF. We expect the same from our vendors and partners, and we will not tolerate any vendor’s use of underage labor within our facility, and will also take measures to prevent fraud against our company.”

(Radio Iowa) – A tax credit for biodiesel production expires at the end of this year and Senator Chuck Grassley says congress is unlikely to address the issue in December.

However, early next year Republicans in congress are hoping to extend a package of tax cuts approved in 2017 and Grassley says it’s possible the biodiesel production tax credit could be inserted in that bill.

Iowa is the largest U-S producer of biodiesel. The state’s nine biodiesel plants produced about 350 million gallons of the soybean-based fuel last year. The biodiesel tax credit was established in 2005 and has been extended several times. Grassley says the U-S Treasury Department and Environmental Protection Agency rulings on the scope of other tax breaks for renewable fuels should have been made long ago.

In February, the E-P-A approved the sale of a 15 percent ethanol blend at gas pumps in Iowa and seven other Midwest states year round, but the higher blend of ethanol still cannot be sold in other states during the summer months. The agency has long cited concerns that E-15 can cause smog during hotter weather.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa law changed in 2023 to allow for a continuous open season on raccoons after concerns about an increase in their numbers and reports of them being a nuisance. Iowa furbearer biologist Vince Evelsizer says he doesn’t know yet how the law has impacted the animals.

The extended season allows people to use two kinds of raccoon traps.

The law change also simplified the process for nuisance animals.

You can find more about the rules regarding raccoons and other animals on the D-N-R’s website.

(Iowa DNR News) – Pheasant hunting has been as much a part of the Thanksgiving holiday for generations of Iowans, as cranberries and stuffing. And with a weather forecast that will likely put birds in cover, this would be a good year to continue that tradition and get back to the fields. Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), says “It’s a good opportunity for hunters to get out with less competition. Would also be a good time to invite someone new along and pass along that tradition.”

The Iowa DNR offers an apprentice license that allows someone to give hunting a try under the supervision of an adult mentor without completing hunter education. This license may be purchased twice in a lifetime before the individual is required to complete a hunter education course. Iowa’s pheasant population is down slightly from last year when hunters bagged the highest number of roosters since 2007. According to the August roadside survey, the regions with higher pheasant counts are north of Interstate 80. “The harvest is following what the roadside counts showed – better hunting in northern Iowa with lots of young birds out there,” Bogenschutz said. Last year, more than 83,000 hunters harvested over 590,000 roosters, providing an estimated economic impact of $180 million in Iowa.

Photo courtesy of the Iowa DNR.

The Iowa DNR and Pheasants Forever are celebrating 100 years of pheasant hunting in the Hawkeye State. The first season was held Oct. 20-22, 1925, when 13 counties in north central Iowa were opened to pheasant hunting. Hunters were allowed a three-rooster limit, for a half-day of hunting. An estimated 75,000 hunters participated.

Information on places to hunt, the August roadside survey results and more is available online by clicking the 100 Years of Pheasant Hunting graphic at www.iowadnr.gov/pheasantsurvey.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds pardoned two turkeys from a farm in Manson today (Tuesday) named Caitlin and Clark. The turkeys strolled quietly on the grass at the Terrace Hill Governor’s mansion as the governor read the proclamation. “Now therefore I Kim Reynolds, governor of the state of Iowa, do hereby proclaim Caitlin and Clark as symbols of Iowa’s great turkey industry, they are free to roam this Thanksgiving Day, and they’ve got a lot of ground to do it on,” she says. Governor Reynolds talked about the importance of the holiday.

“I always look forward to this time of the year. It’s not only is it a time for us to really recognize our farmers and producers and all that they do to feed the world, but it’s kind of a kick off to the holiday season,” she says. She says the first recognition of turkey producers came from then Governor Robert Ray back in 1976. “Now, at that point, they didn’t pardon the turkeys. They sent them back to the farm, so I can’t say, what happens after that,” Reynolds says. “But we didn’t start pardoning the turkeys until 1989.”

Turkeys Caitlin and Clark roam the grounds of Terrace Hill. (RI photo)

The two birds came from Golden Prairie Turkeys for the second year in a row. The farm is owned by Brad and Kelly Moline. Brad is the president of the Iowa turkey producers and his daughter Ava was on hand to help with the birds. “It’s just fun because it’s a tradition that goes on for years and years, and it’s just something that we get to do for the turkeys,” she says. Ava wants to become a veterinarian, and is an Iowa State fan, but she is okay with naming the birds after the Hawkeye great. “She’s a great athlete, and I would like to be a great athlete like her. And turkeys are great for protein for athletes. So I think it was just fitting,” Moline says.

Governor Reynolds says she bought a 23-pound turkey from the farm that she will cook for her family along with a ham and all the sides for Thanksgiving.

(Ag News) –  Thanksgiving remains one of the most widely celebrated holidays in the United States, with over 90% of Americans observing the tradition each year. For many, it ranks as a favorite holiday, bringing together family and friends around a meal that often centers on one iconic dish: roast turkey. Yet, few people consider the agricultural effort behind this holiday staple. Each year, an estimated 46 million turkeys are consumed on Thanksgiving alone, with production largely concentrated in a handful of states. More than 85% of U.S. turkey production takes place in just 13 states, with North Carolina and Minnesota leading as the top producers. Together, these two states contribute more than 30% of the nation’s total turkey output.

Outside of North Carolina and Minnesota, Indiana is a major producer, contributing 11.9% of U.S. turkey production by weight, followed by Arkansas at 7.8% and Iowa at 7.3%. In general, turkey production is largely concentrated along or east of the Mississippi River, although California stands out as a notable exception. To determine the top turkey producers, researchers ranked states based on 2023 total turkey production, measured in pounds. Some national and Iowa statistics:

• The rise and fall of turkey production in the U.S.: Since 1960, per capita turkey production rose sharply and peaked in 1996 at 26.8 pounds per person. However, in 2022, annual production had dropped to just 20 pounds per person—a decline of approximately 25%.
• Rising prices and shifting consumer demand: Health concerns and changing dietary preferences play a significant role, with more Americans choosing plant-based diets and reducing meat consumption. Rising turkey prices, which increased from $0.80 per pound in 2018 to $1.40 per pound in 2023, also impact consumption.
  
• Larger birds soften the decline: The average size of turkeys raised in the U.S. has nearly doubled since the 1960s—averaging 32 pounds per bird compared to around 18 pounds in the 1960s. This trend has helped maintain relatively high production levels even as the total number of turkeys raised has declined (a peak of approximately 303 million birds annually in 1996, but an estimated 218 million birds in 2023).
• Iowa produces 7.3% of America’s turkey by weight: In 2023, Iowa raised 11.5 million turkeys, with an average weight of 44.2 pounds per bird. In total, Iowa produced over 500 million pounds of turkey last year—the 5th most in the nation.

Here is a summary of the data for Iowa:

• Turkey production (pounds): 508,300,000
• Turkey production value (dollars): $477,802,000
• Turkeys raised: 11,500,000
• Average turkey size (pounds): 44.2
• Share of U.S. turkey production: 7.3%
• Share of U.S. turkeys raised: 5.3%

The analysis was conducted by Trace One—a company specializing in regulatory compliance for the food and beverage industry—using data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University researchers say an earlier planting date for soybeans in the spring takes better advantage of nitrogen left behind from corn production. I-S-U agronomy professor Michael Castellano says it would help reduce nitrous oxide emissions.

“Forty percent of the emissions from a two-year sequence — or rotation we might call it — of corn and soybeans comes during the soybean part of the crop rotation that doesn’t receive nitrogen fertilizer,” Castellano says. “…This was a big surprise and really required rethinking of approaches to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from crop production.” Crop rotation – planting corn in a field one year and soybeans the following year — already reduces emissions by 50 percent.

Castellano says most research has focused on reducing the amount of nitrogen applied to help corn grow, which also reduces farm chemical costs. Castellano says this new research finds that once nitrogen for corn production is reduced to the optimum level, the main way to cut nitrous oxide emissions is to move up the planting date of soybeans.

“It takes better advantage of the nitrogen being produced by the microbes in the soil, so the plants use it and less of it is lost to the atmosphere as nitrous oxide,” Castellano says. “Simple, practical, scalable solutions to help reduce nitrous oxide emissions from crop production that we may not often hear about.” Nitrous oxide is the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions from crop production. Nitrous oxide is the byproduct of microbial activity in soil that is essential for growing grain.

Castellano says farmers tend to focus on getting corn in the ground early because it’s a more expensive crop to grow, but moving up the soybean planting date is likely to result in higher soybean yields because the plants have a longer growing season. “Springs are getting warmer in Iowa and another real challenge, though, is that the spring are getting wetter, too,” Castellano says, “and so it’s going to require farmers to think about opportunities to manage their soil and their cropping systems.” Castello and another I-S-U researcher worked on this project, which dramatically increased the amount of time plants are growing on farmland.

Cover crops were planted after the beans were harvested. “And also got reductions in nitrous oxide as well as nitrate leaching,” he says, “so water quality benefits as well.”

The study was published in the November issue of a scientific journal called “Nature Sustainability.”

ATLANTIC, IA (November 23, 2024) – Produce in the Park’s Harvest Market is this Monday, November 25 from 3-6 PM at the Cass County Community Center, 805 W. 10th Street in Atlantic. Local shoppers are invited to pick up food and  decorations for their thanksgiving celebrations and get a head start on holiday gift shopping when they browse the wide variety of locally grown and home-made items.

This year, everyone 18 and older who attends Harvest Market can enter a free drawing for a $100 gift card to spend at the upcoming Christmas Market in December. Produce in the Park Board President Bailey Smith explained the drawing is designed to encourage people to visit Harvest Market and bring awareness to Christmas Market. “We’re hoping that the chance for a $100 gift card encourages more people to check out our amazing Harvest Market. Additionally, folks love Christmas in Atlantic, and we want everyone to remember that the Christmas Market is part of that.” Produce in the Park’s Christmas Market will be held on Saturday, December 21 from noon to 3:00 PM at the Nishna Valley Family YMCA in Atlantic.

Harvest Market is always held the Monday before Thanksgiving so shoppers celebrate with local foods, gifts, and decorations. This year’s Harvest Market is expected to offer a plethora of local vegetables including greens, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and squash, along with local meats, desserts, pastries, baked goods, honey, eggs, jams, jellies, syrups, popcorn, and more.

In addition to local foods, Harvest Market offers an opportunity to purchase local and handmade holiday decor and gifts. Shoppers can expect to find evergreen decorations, candles, soaps, crocheted toys, earrings, artwork, lavender products, wood crafts, seasonal hand towels, and more.

This year’s Harvest Market also includes a soup supper for those wanting a warm bite to eat before or after shopping. Imagine Gifts and Greenhouse will be selling Chicken Noodle, Vegetable Beef, and Loaded Baked Potato soups by the cup or bowl for dine-in or carry-out. Lastly, as is common for Produce in the Park farmers markets, local organizations will be in
attendance providing information and resources to the public. Visitors to Harvest Market can expect to find information on Cass County Tourism, Healthy Cass County, and the Cass County Grow Another Row program.

Harvest Market 2024 is sponsored by Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce, Cass County Tourism, Cass Health, City of Atlantic, First Whitney Bank & Trust and Nishna Valley Family YMCA. For the latest information on Harvest Market, and all Produce in the Park markets, follow Produce in the Park on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ProduceInThePark) or Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/produceintheparkatlanticia/).

Produce in the Park continues to accept vendor applications for Christmas Market, and additional holiday markets planned for winter 2024-2025. Vendor applications can be found online at www.ProduceInTheParkAtlanticIowa.com; printed copies of the application are available at the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce (102 Chestnut St., Atlantic, IA 50022). Produce in the Park seeks vendors selling handmade or homegrown products, including local foods, as well as beauty products, candles, crafts, art, and decorations.

Re-Shows must be scheduled by December 18 in Cass County

The Cass County Extension office is again hosting continuing instructional courses (CICs) for local commercial pesticide applicators, but wants to remind anyone who has yet to attend the training that all CIC training must be completed by the end of December to keep a license current. To avoid conflicts with year-end scheduling, Cass County Extension is requiring that all training dates be scheduled by Wednesday, December 18^th.

‘Year end is a busy time for all, but we don’t want anyone to miss the opportunity to attend their annual required training, as time to meet those annual requirements is getting short,” according to Kate Olson, Cass County Extension Director. “We do offer trainings on a first-come, first-serve basis, and our hours will be slightly different during the holidays, so we’d like to remind folks to call and get their classes scheduled before our year-end calendar fills up.”

According to Olson, reshow dates can occur after December 18^th, as scheduling allows, but they must be on the calendar before then to be honored. To ensure a spot on the training schedule, applicators needing to complete CIC for the year are asked to call as soon as possible if they have a preferred training date, but no later than Wednesday, December 18^th at 4:30 PM. Applicators calling after this date will NOT be placed on the training schedule. Training dates can be scheduled locally by calling the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or by emailing Office Manager Lori Anderson at lander@iastate.edu. For more information on the Commercial Pesticide Applicator program or the CIC classes, please visit www.extension.iastate.edu/psep/.