(Atlantic, Iowa) – Produce in the Park is a weekly farmers market and community gathering held every Thursday evening from 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM in the Atlantic City Park, through October 12th. This week (Sept. 28th), local musician Sarah Selders will be providing live music and Hungry Spartan Pizza food truck will be on site from 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM. Numerous vendors will be in attendance offering a variety of products including baked goods, produce, sweet treats and crafts.

You can also look forward to the following specialty items with numerous other vendors and community organizations in attendance:

Aubrey’s Bows: assortment of bows including new fall bow collections
Bridgewater Farms: wide assortment of produce including sweet potatoes
Brun Ko Farms: honey, radishes, peppers, sweet snacking peppers, 5, 10 & 20 lb boxes of heirloom slicing tomatoes, onions, garlic & jalapenos and leeks
CK3 Farms: wide assortment of produce including watermelon
Harrisdale Farmstead: assortment of produce including grapes
Imagine Garden Gifts: unique garden gifts including antique, vintage, and repurposed planters.
Kringleman: assorted Danish pastries
Neighborhood Bakehouse: sourdough, baguettes, sandwich bread & pumpkin spice sourdough
Noble Provisions: homegrown ribeyes, beef snacks (jerky, summer sausage, beef sticks), beef brats, patties, pork brats, Italian sausage, & ground pork

Thursday’s featured kids activity will be bounce houses and yard games. Zion Recovery, our September sponsor, will have numerous agencies at the park as well as activities for kids to enjoy.

All vendors accept cash, with many accepting credit cards and Venmo. All qualifying food vendors accept SNAP/EBT (also known as food stamps) with all fresh produce vendors accepting Double Up Food Bucks–coupons given for SNAP/EBT purchases of fresh produce.

For updates and information on Produce in the Park or how to sign up to participate, visit www.produceintheparkatlanticiowa.com. ‘Like’ or ‘follow’ Produce in the Park on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ProduceInThePark) or Instagram (www.instagram.com/produceintheparkatlanticia/).

Produce in the Park is sponsored by: First Whitney Bank & Trust, Cass Health, Nishna Valley Family YMCA, Gregg Young of Atlantic, Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce and the City of Atlantic.

(Radio Iowa) – A grain that millions of people in Asia and India eat every day is almost unheard-of in Iowa, but a researcher at Iowa State University says it has the potential to make Midwestern agriculture more resilient, more profitable and more earth-friendly. Pat Schnable, director of I-S-U’s Plant Sciences Institute, says proso (PRO-so) millet is an ideal alternative crop to corn and soybeans, especially as water becomes more scarce, both in drought-stricken Iowa and globally. “Proso millet is extremely water efficient,” Schnable says. “We did some research and discovered that it is probably the most water efficient grain on the planet. It uses about half as much water per bushel of grain compared to corn or wheat. It’s even more water efficient than sorghum.”

Calling proso millet the crop of the future, Schnable says the cereal grain is extremely versatile as it’s eaten by vast populations of humans in products from porridge to bread, and it’s also an excellent livestock feed. Plus, he says, millet is already growing well in plots of Iowa soil, thanks to one big advantage. “Farmers can grow millet without any application of nitrogen fertilizer,” he says. “So even though the yields are 70 to 80 bushels an acre, here in Iowa, by not having to add nitrogen fertilizer, that can make it competitive with corn and beans.” By comparison, corn is now grown on some 90-million acres nationwide, while millet is grown on perhaps 700-thousand acres. Schnable would like to see that figure grow tenfold in the years to come.

“It’s a very easy crop to grow in Iowa and uses exactly the same equipment that you’ve got for corn and beans, so same planters, same combine,” he says. “You do need to get a canola plate for the planter but that’s a pretty trivial expense, just because it’s smaller seeded than corn and beans.” The grain is gluten-free, so it’s being used domestically in various types of 12-grain breads — and it’s even used in those big mixed bags of bird seed. Yet another advantage, Schnable says proso millet can be substituted for corn in the ethanol-making process.

“Because we’re not adding commercial fertilizer, nitrogen fertilizer, it has a low carbon intensity score, which starting in 2025, the federal government is going to start handing out credits to ethanol plants that use low carbon intensity feedstocks, like millet,” Schnable says, “so we see a real growth opportunity there.” Schnable and his son, James — who’s an agronomy professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln — founded an Ames-based company called Dryland Genetics. Its mission is to make proso millet the climate conscious choice of farmers and consumers.

https://www.drylandgenetics.com/

Today: Sunny with a high near 77. West wind 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight: Mostly clear with a low around 54.

Monday: Mostly sunny with a high near 77. West northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Tuesday: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Mostly sunny with a high near 75.

Wednesday: Mostly sunny with a high near 75.

Saturday’s High in Atlantic was 76. Our Low was 55. Rainfall at KJAN from 7-a.m. Saturday to 7-a.m. Sunday amounted to .25″.

Enrollment is open for youngsters to join 4-H for the 2023-24 program year.  Cass County Iowa State University Extension 4-H Youth Coordinator Katie Bateman says 4-H is all about learning.

Cass County enrollment is free due to the money raised through different events, like the annual Fall Fest on October 8th from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the fairgrounds.  Bateman says youngsters can choose a specific club.

She says enrollment is easy.

Cass County 4-H will host a new member information night on December 4th at 5:30 pm at the Cass County Community Building.

Today:  Showers and thunderstorms likely. High near 77. Breezy with a southeast wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 10 to 15 mph5. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. 5

Tonight:  A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 56. South southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Sunday:  Sunny with a high near 76. West wind 5 to 10 mph.

Monday:  Sunny with a high near 77.

Tuesday:  Sunny with a high near 79.

Friday:  Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly this morning. Cloudy with a high near 74. East southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Friday Night:  A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after midnight. Mostly cloudy with a low around 64. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Saturday:  Showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 10am. High near 78. Windy, with a south southeast wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Sunday:  A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 76.

Monday:  A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 75.

As farmers in many parts of Iowa launch into the harvest, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says there’s good news for producers who might need to dry their grains using heaters fueled by tanks of liquid propane. While L-P supplies have been tight in recent years, Naig says that doesn’t appear to be the case this season, as fall arrives on Saturday.

Propane prices are averaging around a dollar-77 a gallon in Iowa, which is down from around two-16 a year ago.

Naig remains optimistic prices will hold steady as we head into the cold weather months.

It’s also a plus for Iowans who heat their homes with L-P. Estimates show about 67% of Iowans use natural gas to heat their homes, 15% use electricity, and 14% use liquid propane.

(Radio Iowa) – John Deere is laying off nearly ten percent of its workforce at the Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois.
K-W-W-L T-V reports the company let employees know at a meeting Wednesday they were being laid off indefinitely. Deere leaders told employees that they had learned of the need for layoffs just one week ago.

They say lagging economic conditions for farmers are the primary reason for laying off employees. Some 225 workers will be laid off on October 16th.

Autumn arrives Saturday but many Iowa farmers are already starting the fall harvest, and motorists in rural areas will need to share the roads with large, slow-moving farm equipment for the next several weeks. Franklin County Sheriff Aaron Dodd says he’s already spotted drivers taking big chances when they shouldn’t, like trying to pass tractors on a hill.

Such risky behavior might result in a collision, or at least a ticket.

Distractions are also causing crashes, and Dodd says people need to put down the number-one distraction — their smartphones — while driving.

From 2017 through June 30th, 2022, the Iowa Department of Transportation reports 30 people died in crashes involving farm equipment in the state. This is National Farm Safety and Health Week.

Today:  Sunny with a high near 79.  East southeast wind 5 to 15 mph.
Tonight:  A slight chance of showers.  Increasing clouds with a low around 59.  East wind around 10 mph.
Friday:  Cloudy, with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 7:00 am and 1:00 pm, then gradually becoming mostly sunny with a high near 77.  East wind 5 to 15 mph with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Saturday:  Showers and possibly a thunderstorm.  High near 79. Breezy with a south southeast wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Sunday:  A 40 percent chance of showers.  Mostly sunny with a high near 75.