(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R will hold a series of listening session across the state starting Monday. The D-N-R’s Pete Hildreth says they want to get input on proposed changes in hunting and fishing regulations.

(as said)”These sessions offer a direct opportunity to provide feedback to our staff before formal proposals are submitted to the Natural Resource Commission,” Hildreth explains.

He says input from the from past meetings has led to significant regulation changes.

(as said)“Including adjustments to Canada goose seasons, raccoon hunting dates, and antlerless deer quotas. We encourage all the public to attend, ask questions, and share their perspective on the topics,” he says.

Hildreth says the sessions are also a way for people to discuss the highlights of the recent seasons.

(as said)” For example, folks that are interested in understanding or hearing how the 25-26 deer season went, that’s an opportunity for people to hear that,” he says.

Hildreth says the complete schedule of meetings is available on the D-N-R’s website. In southwest Iowa, meetings will be held in:

• Creston, March 3, 6 p.m., Performing Arts Building multi-purpose room (124), 1201 West Townline Street
• Council Bluffs, March 5, 5:30 p.m., Bass Pro Shops, 2901 Bass Pro Drive

Cass County: Corn $4.05 Beans $10.88
Adair County: Corn $4.02 Beans $10.91
Adams County: Corn $4.02 Beans $10.87
Audubon County: Corn $4.04 Beans $10.90
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.08 Beans $10.88
Guthrie County: Corn $4.076 Beans $10.92
Montgomery County: Corn $4.07 Beans $10.90
Shelby County: Corn $4.08 Beans $10.88

Oats: $2.92 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

(Radio Iowa) – Fourth District Congressman Randy Feenstra says there will be a vote to end the E-P-A smog rule that keeps E-15 gasoline from being sold nationwide in the summer. The U-S House deadline for the bill passed Wednesday, and Feenstra says there were reasons the vote didn’t happen. “We had a couple discussions with the speaker. We have to understand, so there was a February 25th date. We had a snowstorm that hit D-C on Monday, and then we had the State of Union on Tuesday, and we’re done on Wednesday,” he says. Feenstra says the missed deadline doesn’t kill the issue.

“This is going to pass. It’s just a matter of if it’s this coming week, and we’re just making sure that when we take this vote, all right, whether it be this week or next week or this coming week, is that it gets passed, and then it moves on to the Senate,” Feenstra says. “I mean, we’ve been at this for ten some years now, and we’ve got to finally get it passed. It’s energy independence, it’s domestic energy. And, you know, it helps our commodity prices.” Feenstra leads the House Rural Domestic Energy Council and has been negotiating with lawmakers who represent states with oil refineries in trying to find a compromise on E-15.

“It’s a civil war within the oil refineries right now on E-15. The large refineries, small refineries, one of them refineries are sort of struggling. It’s not a win for everybody. We’re trying to get everybody to the table and say, hey, let’s get to neutral,” Feenstra says. The need for a new bill came after House G-O-P leaders removed a mandate for year-round E-15 sales from a budget bill that passed in January. The president of the Renewable Fuels Association says he is not terribly optimistic that we’re going to see the E-15 legislation passed before summer.

(IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – Lawsuits claiming that greenhouse gas emissions from an agricultural operation impacted the climate would be prohibited under a bill passed Thursday by the Iowa House.  Supporters of the bill, which passed with a vote of 66-24, said the bill protects against “frivolous” climate lawsuits, while opponents of the bill worried the language was too broad and would limit Iowans’ abilities to seek damages.  House File 2527 would limit farmers’ and ranchers’ liability in cases alleging an “actual or potential” effect on the climate caused “wholly or partly” by greenhouse gas emissions.

Rep. Derek Wulf, R-Hudson, introduced the bill and said on the floor that the “ag friendly bill” allows farmers to “continue to do what they do best, and that’s farm and ranch.” Rep. J.D. Scholten, D-Sioux City, introduced an amendment to the bill to exempt lawsuits related to nuisances or weather-related damages that could be tied to climate change. Scholten said the amendment clarified some of the “broad language” of the bill. He argued that without the amendment, a neighbor “suffering real tangible harm” like a farmer with damaged drainage, decreased property value or a polluted well, could be unable to seek damages in an Iowa court.

Scholten also took issue with the section of the bill that protects from lawsuits that are “wholly or partly” attributed to greenhouse gas emissions. This language, he argued, could be applied more broadly and allow a defendant to “escape liability entirely” for something like a “straightforward” weather damage claim, especially, as he argued it’s not uncommon for severe weather events to be partly attributed to climate change. Wulf said the bill’s intent was not to affect nuisance claims, nor to protect bad actors.

The House voted in favor of the bill and also adopted an amendment from Wulf that added “petroleum source” to the list of greenhouse gas emissions described in the bill. The House also passed, unanimously, House File 2596 to update language for Iowa’s grain indemnity program, which was revamped in 2025, and helps farmers get paid for sold grain when their buyers go bankrupt. The inclusion of credit-sale contracts – when a seller has sold and delivered the grain but will receive payment at a later date – was a source of conflict among lawmakers as they updated the grain indemnity program. Credit-sale contracts were included in the final version of the bill signed by the governor.

Both bills were sent to the Senate.

(Radio Iowa) – An ethanol industry leader says he doubts congress will pass a bill anytime soon that would allow the year-round sale of fuel blended with 15 percent ethanol. Yesterday (Wednesday) was the deadline for a vote in the U-S House on a bill to end the E-P-A’s anti-smog rule that bars E-15 from being sold in the summer months. Geoff Cooper is president of the Renewable Fuels Association. “I am not terribly optimistic that we’re going to see legislation before summer on year-round E15,” Cooper says. “I hope I’m wrong about that. I hope this council produces legislative text that has a path to passage out of both the House and Senate.”

The House Rural Domestic Energy Council, led by Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra, has been negotiating with lawmakers who represent states with oil refineries to try to find a compromise on E-15 after House G-O-P leaders removed a mandate for year-round E-15 sales from a budget bill that passed in January. Cooper spoke with reporters during the National Ethanol Conference that’s underway in Orlando, Florida. “The trick with E-15 is obviously we have to find a path,” Cooper says. “We have to find a way to thread the needle and get legislation through congress and to the president’s desk…That is not an easy thing to do.”

Cooper is skeptical of Feenstra’s effort to craft a bill on E-15 that includes new guidelines for the E-P-A waivers oil refineries may seek to avoid the ethanol-blending mandate.) “We need to see the path to get that done,” Cooper said, “because I’m not sure I see it from where I sit today.” On Tuesday, Feenstra told the Des Moines Register the snowstorm that hit Washington, D.C., delayed the arrival of lawmakers who were part of E-15 negotiations and a deal may be introduced in the House next week. Iowa advocates for ethanol are expressing frustration.

This (Thursday) morning, the Iowa Corn Growers posted a message on social media saying corn prices are falling, rural economies feel the pressure and it’s time for congress to finish the job on E-15.

(IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has detected two cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza in flocks in Keokuk and Van Buren counties. IDALS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture categorize these flocks as multi-species backyard flocks. A spokesperson with IDALS said the Keokuk County flock had about 85 birds and the Van Buren County flock had about 45 birds. These are the third and fourth HPAI outbreaks in Iowa in 2026. The previous two outbreaks were both in Kossuth County, one in a flock of chickens and game bird pheasants and the other at a mixed species game bird hatchery.

Iowa has not seen an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu in a commercial bird flock since the beginning of December 2025, when it was detected in a Hamilton County commercial turkey flock of nearly 18,000 birds.  According to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, the ongoing outbreak of the virus has impacted more than 195 million birds since the outbreak began in February 2022.

IDALS, in a news release about the recent detections, urged producers to continue practicing heightened biosecurity measures like reducing exposure to wild animals and limiting the number of people visiting a facility, to help prevent the spread of the virus.  Producers should also seek veterinarian care if they notice sudden bird deaths, lethargy, swollen heads, decreased or thin-shelled egg production or any other symptoms of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to rate the public health risk of HPAI as low as there is no known person-to-person spread.

Cass County: Corn $4.04 Beans $10.86
Adair County: Corn $4.01 Beans $10.89
Adams County: Corn $4.01 Beans $10.85
Audubon County: Corn $4.03 Beans $10.88
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.07 Beans $10.86
Guthrie County: Corn $4.06 Beans $10.90
Montgomery County: Corn $4.06 Beans $10.88
Shelby County: Corn $4.07 Beans $10.86

Oats: $3.00 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

Cass County: Corn $4.02 Beans $10.84
Adair County: Corn $3.99 Beans $10.87
Adams County: Corn $3.99 Beans $10.83
Audubon County: Corn $4.01 Beans $10.86
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.05 Beans $10.84
Guthrie County: Corn $4.04 Beans $10.88
Montgomery County: Corn $4.04 Beans $10.86
Shelby County: Corn $4.05 Beans $10.84

Oats: $3.05 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

LEWIS, Iowa – The Wallace Foundation will hold an educational event for the public, followed by its annual business meeting, on March 6 at the Armstrong Memorial Research and Demonstration Farm in Lewis. Registration will begin at 9:30 a.m., followed by a welcome address from Mark Bentley, president of the Wallace Foundation. From 10 a.m. to noon, attendees will hear updates from two Iowa State University experts in nitrogen management and usage in Iowa.

Matt Helmers, professor and director of the Iowa Nutrient Research Center (INRC) at ISU, will discuss what the center has observed regarding nitrates. Melissa Miller, project director of the INRC at ISU, will follow and share how to best manage nitrogen applications for maximum return, as well as new research on nitrogen management in Iowa from field trials conducted over the past several years.

The Wallace Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on research specific to farmers in Southwest Iowa and is actively looking for new members to set the direction of research to benefit farmers in the area. The annual business meeting of the Wallace Foundation will be held at 1 p.m.

The event is offered at no cost to attend and includes lunch by Downtowner Cafe and Catering. Attendees are asked to pre-register by March 2 to help with facility and meal planning. To register, email farm superintendent Matt Groves at mjgroves@iastate.edu or call him at 712-769-2402. The meeting will be held at the Wallace Foundation Learning and Outreach Center, located at 53020 Hitchcock Avenue, Lewis, Iowa 51544.

For more information, contact Aaron Saeugling at 712-254-0082 or clonz5@iastate.edu.

(Radio Iowa) – More than 20-thousand-500 F-F-A members in Iowa are marking the accomplishments of ag education as part of National F-F-A Week. Webster City High School student Megan Van Deer says she loves working with animals. “I want to go to school for veterinary,” Van Deer says, “and so just being part of the FFA program kind of helped me get more interested and stay along with it.”

Bridge Berninghaus joined the same Webster City F-F-A chapter for a host of reasons. “I think it’s a great program to get involved in,” Berninghaus says. “You get to meet new people, help others in the community, build more leadership, and have a great time.” Alyson McCarty is a vocational agriculture instructor at Webster City High School. In her native Connecticut, the F-F-A program varies from the one in Iowa, with much less emphasis on corn, soybeans, hogs and cattle.

“We have kids that are growing fish in their high school classrooms or looking at forestry, pine trees, cut flowers in greenhouses,” McCarty says. “It looks a little bit different, but they’re still learning the same: leadership, communication, all those skills.”

There are over one-million F-F-A members nationwide. The organization was started in 1928 to introduce youth to agriculture in the classroom. Members, in their blue jackets, are involved from grapefruit sales during the holidays, participating at county fairs, and driving tractors and farm machinery from their farm homes to their classrooms.