(Radio Iowa) – A monthly survey of bank C-E-Os in Iowa and nine other Midwestern states shows a dismal outlook. The Creighton University report shows the February score fell to 38 on a zero-to-100 scale, where 50 is growth neutral. Creighton Economics Professor Ernie Goss says the new numbers are reminiscent of the COVID-era, and he cites struggling commodity prices as one of the big reasons for the Midwest economy’s continuing slump. “Agricultural commodity prices, particularly grain, are moving up a bit lately,” Goss says, “but still not as strong as we’d like to see. On the flipside, to give us some good news, livestock is doing somewhat better. When we asked the bankers about looking forward to 2025, they were much more positive about the livestock sector.”

About 71-percent of bankers surveyed expect livestock ranchers to experience positive cash flow or net income in 2025, while nearly half expect grain farmers to experience negative cash flow. Goss says President Trump’s recently-announced tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico have bankers concerned. Only nine-percent of those surveyed expect positive outcomes from Trump’s tariffs, as Canada and Mexico are major trade partners. “Retaliation is really a concern among bankers and economists, as well,” he says. “We’re talking about 47-percent of the exports of agricultural and livestock goods coming from this part of the country, 47-percent go to Mexico. So, if you see retaliation there, that would hit the economy really hard.” Another factor is continuing cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza detected in poultry in Iowa and other parts of the Midwest.

Goss says the main impact is in the survey’s confidence index, which sank to a score of 40 this month, down from January’s 42.3. “We ask each month for the bankers to look forward another six months,” Goss says. “They were pretty darn negative, as you can imagine in Iowa — one of the big producers of eggs and poultry. That’s a big issue, even without any contamination over to livestock.” Goss says the lack of action on a Farm Bill in Congress is also creating uncertainly among survey respondents across the region. “There’s so much uncertainty in agriculture and farming,” he said. “We don’t have much positive input from the U.S. federal government. We got a one-year farm bill. We need to see a five-year farm bill and not a one-year farm bill. Each year, we’re getting less and less support from the federal government.”

Goss says farm equipment sales continue to struggle, though February’s mark of 18.2 is actually up from last month’s level of 17.4.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson and Congressman Randy Feenstra say they are working to help producers hit by the bird flu. Hinson, a Republican from Marion says it was the topic of a recent meeting. “Our Ag F-D-A Appropriations Committee had experts from U-S-D-A, APHIS, and animal research A-R-S, to really talk about what we need to be doing to combat avian influenza. This is about protecting those farmers and ranchers from losing their flocks and herds,” she says. Hinson says one topic was using prevention measures. “They’ve got a pilot program that’s designed to help with stopping the critters that get into these facilities that help spread, helping to deter the wild bird blocks that otherwise might bring that disease close to these, these barns and facilities,” Hinson says. They also discussed helping producers with their losses.

“On the indemnity side, we also had a great discussion about the math that they’re using and the system that they’re using to calculate what that indemnity looks like,” she says. Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra of Hull says he recently talk with the new U-S Ag Secretary about the issue. “We just lost 21 million birds over the last several months right here in western Iowa. So we’re looking at vaccines and solutions to try to mitigate this issue. We just heard that. You know, bird flu is now in rats and mice, so we’ve got to figure out a solution to this epidemic,” Feenstra says. Feenstra says he also learned some frozen U-S-D-A funds have been released. “There’s 20 million of grants that got released as of the 20th of February. So I’m so excited that happened,” Feenstra says. “We had a lot of discussions with the administration, and this is what happens. We have a new administration, and some things get hooked up, but I tell you what, we got this resolved.”

Feenstra spoke at an event in Sioux City and Hinson made her comments on her weekly conference call with reporters.

(Radio Iowa) – The Environmental Protection Agency has announced it will let a higher blend of ethanol be sold this summer in Iowa and seven other Midwestern states. The sale of fuel with a 15 percent blend of ethanol has been prohibited nationwide in the summer due to concerns it could worsen smog levels. Bills have been introduced in congress to make the year-round sale of E-15 a permanent federal policy.

E-P-A Administrator Lee Zeldin says in the absence of congressional action, the agency is considering emergency waivers. He announced late Friday that E-15 may be sold in the Midwest this summer. Iowa elected officials, farm groups and the ethanol industry praised the decision.

(Iowa News Service) – An agriculture program in Iowa is helping new and up and coming farmers learn from more experienced ones – and its organizers have uncovered another outcome they weren’t expecting. Steve Riggins and his wife moved to their Cambridge, Iowa, farm ten years ago. It’s been in the family since 1855, but hadn’t been worked in decades.

Riggins turned to Practical Farmers of Iowa’s “Labor for Learning” program, which recruits farmers who’ve been around a while to teach those, like Riggins, where to start. “They taught me everything from cutting hay, raking hay, working on machinery, moving cows, working in the dairy,” said Riggins. ‘They taught me a million different things I never would have had a chance to learn. And it was 10 times better than going through YouTube.”

The program teaches beginning farmers practical, hands-on skills and helps them understand ag management practices and financial strategies. It also gives those more experienced farmers some extra hands on their land. Research shows roughly 10% of the nation’s farmland will transition to the next generation in just five years.

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Martha McFarland, farmland viability coordinator with Practical Farmers of Iowa, said while the Labor for Learning program is good for teaching the next generation, organizers were surprised to discover that the more experienced farmers are also potentially recruiting people they will pass their farm on to – as rural America undergoes a huge generational shift in land ownership.

“It’s really awkward to have a match between a retiring farmer and someone who might come in and take over the land and just say ‘OK, now take over,'” said McFarland. “There has to be some kind of an interim getting to know you period. And so, to be able to help retiring farmers find that, in that context, is really helpful.”

She said the more experienced farmers go through a training program with PFI before they take on the new ones.

(Ankeny, Iowa) —A major agriculture equipment manufacturer says it will lay off more than 100 workers due to reduced demand and a weakened farm economy. KCCI reports John Deere says it informed 119 employees at John Deere Des Moines Works in Ankeny that they will be let go as part of three groups of layoffs. The company provided a statement to KCCI, saying customer orders are down and forecasts from the United States Department of Agriculture indicate a decrease in major row-crop cash receipts from 2024.

John Deere says it employs nearly 1,500 workers at the impacted location. This is not the only recent round of layoffs by the company. Nearly 600 workers were let go last year at three midwest factories, including two in Iowa that laid off more than 300 employees. In total, Deere has cut more than 4,500 jobs in the last decade.

(Radio Iowa) – The sweeping federal layoffs in recent days included caretakers for thousands of poultry and herd animals at the USDA National Centers for Animal Health in Ames. The facility is at the forefront of foreign disease diagnostics and livestock vaccine research, including developing a bird flu vaccine for dairy cows. A scientist at the facility, who is identified only as “A” over concerns about their job, says 55 people were escorted off the campus last Friday. “People were pulled from every department, but especially the animal caretakers,” “A” says. “They were disproportionately affected, and they are a small team to begin with.”

The scientist says employees are trying to fill in the gaps with their own unpaid work, but there are discussions about culling animals if they cannot be cared for humanely. “A” says dozens of people have lost their jobs even though many had glowing performance reviews. “I’ve had so many sleepless nights. I mean, that’s all of us,” “A” says. “I can’t stress that enough how hard this has been on everyone mentally.”

The Ames lab also works on vaccine regulations, and does testing on milk samples for bird flu and screening of vaccines companies develop for cats and dogs. “A lot of people don’t realize just how much happens in this one facility,” “A” says.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said, in a press release, says she welcomes the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce federal spending and that the USDA is aggressively “eliminating positions that are no longer necessary.”

(Radio Iowa) – The University of Iowa is reviewing its lease on the MacBride Nature Recreation Area to determine whether it makes sense to keep the nature area for economic and educational purposes. Connie Mutel, a retired UI hydro science and engineering professor, says the area is valuable to thousands of K-through-12 students who participate in the university’s Wildlife Instruction and Leadership Development Program.

“We can use it in the future. We have that possibility,” Mutel says. “If we get rid of it now, all of those possibilities are moot. They’re gone, and that’s especially bad when our natural world is being degraded by climate change and by loss of biodiversity.”

The Army Corps of Engineers has leased the land to the UI since the 1960s. Mutel says the area is important for a host of environmental research. “To throw away the sites where we can study that, do research on it, expose people, students to the integrity of the natural world,” Mutel says, “why are we getting rid of the one place on campus where they can do that?”

A ten-member committee started its review in September and is examining the area’s usage and maintenance. Campus members can provide input until March 14th. The review is to be complete by May 1st.

(Radio Iowa) – New requirements for the company that has a permit to build a carbon pipeline and for the state regulators that granted the permit have cleared initial review in the Iowa House. One bill would require Summit Carbon Solutions to show it has enough insurance to cover all damages from a pipeline rupture. Cynthia Hansen’s family owns land in Shelby County that’s in the pipeline’s path. “We already have our letter from our insurance company saying that we cannot get liability insurance on this piece of ground if this pipeline goes through because (liquified carbon) is considered a pollutant, so that puts us at great risk if the pipeline would rupture,” Hansen said. “I mean, we would go bankrupt.”

Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, says the cost and liability if there’s a rupture would hit property owners as well as local governments who’d have to respond to the disaster. “It is the local county supervisors, law enforcement, EMT personnel, fire fighters that will be responsible for the safety of their citizens,” Holt said, “and it also appears that counties will be left holding the bag, (along with) landowners, should something go wrong.” A spokesperson for Summit Carbon Solutions says in order to secure its pipeline permit, the company was required to have at least a 100 MILLION dollar insurance policy and the ability to compensate landowners for damages from construction. The other bill would require members of the Iowa Utilities Commission to attend the commission’s hearings and informational meetings.

Holt says House Speaker Pat Grassley attended a public meeting scheduled by the agency, but no one from the commission was there to hear comments from the public. “This was confirmed for me when we had an informational meeting in Holstein, in Ida County. I was there. No commissioners were there,” Holt says. “Unfortunately, this seems to fit the pattern of arrogance toward property owners that has been on display throughout this entire process by the Iowa Utilities Commission when the leadership changed.” Governor Kim Reynolds replaced the commission’s chairman and appointed another new member to the panel in April of 2023.

Jessica Mazour is conservation program manager for the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter. She says the new commissioners have been disrespectful toward property owners who object to having the pipeline on their land. “Not showing up to meetings, not listening — I mean we’re talking about people who put their lives on hold for four years to protect their property from a company that’s coming in to take their land, endanger their families,” Mazour said, “and they don’t even have the ability or the care to show up and listen to them.” Peg Rasmussen owns land in Montgomery County where Summit Carbon Solutions plans to extend its pipeline during phase two of the project. She says one commission member was at the informational meeting she attended. “I’m sure that there was bias in terms of how they interpreted the meeting,” Rasmussen said, “so having multiple ears there hearing could related to better understand what the public really was saying.”

Similar bills have been filed in the Iowa Senate, but no subcommittee hearings on either senate bill have been scheduled.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – A bill that would shield pesticide companies from label-related lawsuits, provided the company adhered to federal label regulations, advanced from the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday. According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Senate Study Bill 1051 passed 11-7, with opposing senators arguing the bill protects companies rather than Iowans.  Sen. Mike Bousselot, who chaired the bill’s subcommittee, said the bill was a “common sense” piece of legislation.

“It is the simple premise that someone should not be allowed to sue someone else … for failing any duty to warn, when that manufacturer followed every federal rule and regulation required to warn,” Bousselot said. Similar legislation has cropped up in states across the country, and is pushed by the Modern Ag Alliance, a grouping of agriculture groups and Bayer, a biotech company and manufacturer of the common pesticide, RoundUp.

Iowans protest a Senate bill on Feb. 10, 2024, that would shield pesticide companies from certain lawsuits. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Bayer has spent more $10 billion on lawsuits, across the county, with plaintiffs claiming the product failed to warn them that the chemical glyphosate was a carcinogen. Bayer and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates pesticides, hold that glyphosate is not cancer causing.

The bill advances to the Senate floor. Sens. Bisignano, Quirmbach, Mark Lofgren, Janet Petersen, Jeff Taylor, Cherielynn Westrich and Janice Weiner voted no.

(Radio Iowa) – A proposed constitutional amendment would do away with a voter-approved fund for conservation and outdoor recreation projects — and direct part of any future sales tax increase to property tax relief. Sixty-three percent of Iowa voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2010 that created the fund, but it has no money because it’s only to be filled if the state sales tax is raised. Mike Shannon, a biologist with Ducks Unlimited, opposes elimination of the fund.

“The Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund is not about water quality,” he said. “I mean, it’s about quality of life for Iowans.” Brett Hayes, a farmer from Mills County, supports the proposed amendment because it shifts the focus on property taxes. “Property taxes for farmers are a cost of doing business that keeps going up even when the farm economy’s struggling,” he said.

The proposed constitutional amendment is co-sponsored by 17 of the 34 Republicans in the Iowa Senate. It would have to be approved by the Senate and the House by 2026, and then again sometime in 2027 or 2028 before it could go before voters in 2028.