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CLIVE, IOWA – Pork producers across Iowa donated more than $43,000 worth of pork to local food pantries during the past few months. It was done in conjunction with the Pork in the Pantry program, organized by the Iowa Pork Producers Association (IPPA). Now in its second year, Pork in the Pantry provides funding of up to $1,000 to each county pork producer organization that participates. Counties are responsible for purchasing the pork and donating it, and IPPA reimburses them. This year, 38 county producer organizations participated in Pork in the Pantry. IPPA President Matt Gent says “Food insecurity remains a major issue in Iowa and these donations to local food pantries will help. Pork producers care a lot about their communities, and this is one of the many ways we show it.”
Along with donating much-needed protein to local food pantries, many county producer organizations purchased the pork from local vendors. So not only is Pork in the Pantry helping those in need, the program is also supporting local businesses. Food pantries are frequently short of meat products, so this is a great way to get nutritious protein into the diets of food-insecure Iowans. Iowa Food Bank Association Executive Director Linda Gorkow says “Hunger is rising in Iowa,” and “This Pork in the Pantry program is an incredible opportunity to ensure greatly needed protein is provided to families, individuals and seniors who don’t have enough food to eat. Protein is one of the highest requested items at food banks and pantries across the state so every ounce of the pork donated to the pantries serving Iowans will make an incredible impact.” 
The $43,000 worth of pork will provide an estimated 55,000 servings of protein for Iowans who are facing food insecurity. Last year’s Pork in the Pantry program resulted in more than $40,000 worth of pork being donated to local food pantries.
Among the county pork producer organizations that participated in Pork in the Pantry in 2024, were those in Adair, Adams, Madison, Page, Ringgold and Taylor Counties.
(Radio Iowa) – Planting progress was slowed again last week by wet conditions. The U-S-D-A crop report says there just two days suitable for field work due to the rain. The amount of corn planted went from 47 to 57 percent — which is now one week behind last year — after being just two days back the week before. Soybean planting moved from 30 to 39 percent complete, and is now also one week behind last year’s pace.
While the rain has slowed planting, it has helped continue to push back the drought conditions. D-N-R Hydrologist Tim Hall says the timing of the rain has been important. “We haven’t gotten you know a month’s worth of rain in one day. We’ve had several significant rainfall events that have been spaced out far enough so that moisture has time to get into the system,” Hall says. He says there has been some flooding, but the lack of soil moisture has kept that down. “The fact that the soil has been very dry has really taken the hard edge off some of the flooding,” he says.
The U-S-D-A weekly report shows 92 percent of topsoil moisture is now adequate or at a surplus — compared to 73 percent that showed adequate or surplus moisture one week ago.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson is predicting the U-S House Ag Committee will approve a Farm Bill with a provision that ensures Iowa hog confinement operators can sell their pork nationwide. Voters in Massachusetts and California have approved regulations that require pork sold in their state to come from the offspring of sows that have at least 24 square feet of space in their pen. Iowa pork producers say it will cost millions to expand hog confinements to meet those space requirements.
The U-S Supreme Court has upheld California’s animal welfare law and other federal courts have issued rulings on the Massachusetts regulation. Hinson expects a solution to be attached to the Farm Bill that overrides both states’ laws.
Hinson has twice introduced a bill in the U-S House that would prohibit states from imposing standards on the production of food sold over state lines. The Pennsylvania Republican who’s chairman of House Ag Committee has said a fix is needed to address California’s Proposition 12, which took effect January 1st.
(Midwest) – Prices for farmland in Iowa and surrounding States during the first three-months of 2024 approached nearly $30,000 per acre. That’s according to a report by Successful Farming, which shows on average, prices ranged from a low of $7,000 to $16,250 per acre. The highest price in Iowa was $29,600 per acre near Orange City, in northwest Iowa’s Sioux County.
Two tracts of land amounting to slightly more than 117.4-acres, sold on Feb. 27th for a total price of approximately $3.5 million. Both tracts had easements with Summit Carbon Solutions, a carbon pipeline company. Five tracts located near Sioux Center, Iowa, were sold at public auction on March 7th, for a total of about $7-million.
Feb. 23rd, on farmland located 7 miles southwest of Sheldon, Iowa, 80 acres were sold at public auction for $20,300 per acre, for a total of roughly $1.6 million.
DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says many times, environmental improvement comes as a result of an enforcement action. That takes place when people choose to circumvent the law or do not understand the full impact of their actions on the environment. To that end, the DNR on Thursday (May 9th), said a consent order was issued against Waspy’s Truck Wash, LLC., in Audubon. A consent order is issued as an alternative to issuing an administrative order. A consent order indicates that the DNR has voluntarily entered into a legally enforceable agreement with the other party. The Order was issued to Waspy’s, to address discharges of wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works in volumes or quantities in excess of its treatment agreement. (View the Consent Order here: 6385075121705664052024WW03)
Officials say Waspy’s must “Comply with the treatment agreement effective April 7, 2016 or a new treatment agreement if one is accepted by the DNR; submit a plan of action to the DNR for approval that details a compliance plan to meet the treatment agreement’s limits; and pay a $8,000 administrative penalty.”
The DNR is charged with ensuring compliance with State of Iowa environmental laws and rules. Officials say the compliance portion of the DNR improves the environment through educating citizens and promoting awareness of the environmental impacts of our actions and awareness of applicable law. DNR staff work with individuals, businesses and communities to help them protect our natural resources by complying with state and federal laws.
In the few cases where compliance cannot be achieved, the DNR issues enforcement actions. You can find the entire, original orders on DNR’s website at www.iowadnr.gov/EnforcementActions
(Radio Iowa) – The latest U-S Drought Monitor map of Iowa shows no red areas indicating extreme drought.
DNR Hydrologist Tim Hall says we’ve been seeing red for a long time. “The first time in almost two years that we’ve not had extreme drought somewhere in the state of Iowa,” Hall says. It is a big turnaround, but not all the color has washed out of the drought map. “We still have half the state are so impacted by drought conditions, but that area is shrinking all the time as we get these good rains,” he says.
Hall has continually said we need weekly rains every month to turn things around, and that’s the pattern we’re now in. “We’ve now had five out of the last seven months have had above normal precipitation and that’s exactly the recipe we wanted,” he says, “where you get month over month just above normal precipitation, and that’s what’s really helping us to get out of the drought,” Hall says.
He says depth of the drought is evident in the lack of any major flood issues. “Go back to this winter when we had all that snow in January that melted very quickly and we had no flooding. And we’ve now had a couple of above normal precipitation months, and yes, we got some flooding, but nothing even approaching a widespread or catastrophic flooding,” Hall Says. “So that really points to a couple of things, how dry the soil was, and the fact that the rain we have received has been fairly well spaced out.”
Half of the state’s annual rainfall usually comes in May through August, and Hall says if we are above normal in any of those months, we could go a long way toward pushing all the drought colors off the map.
(Radio Iowa) – Two scientists who played key roles in creating a world seed vault are the winners of the 2024 World Food Prize. World Food Prize Foundation president, Terry Branstad, Thursday, announced Geoffrey Hawtin of Great Britain and Cary Fowler of the United States as the winners.
“They focused their careers on preserving and protecting the world’s heritage of crop diversity and mobilizing this critical resource to defend against threats of global food security,” Branstad says. During the ceremony at the U-S State Department, Branstad says they conserved more than six-thousand varieties of crops and culturally important plants. “Sustaining storehouses of seeds that we need to breed tomorrow’s crops for more nutritious, and climate smart crops,” Branstad says. “They then went on to work to establish the famous Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.”
World Food Prize Foundation President Terry Branstad. (photo from World Food Prize Foundaiton)
The Norway facility is often referred to as the “Doomsday Vault,” and holds one-point-two-five million seed samples in an underground facility in the Arctic Circle. More than anyone else these laureates have together shaped the global system we now have for protecting, sharing, and utilizing crop diversity for the benefit of humanity,” Branstad says.
Hawtin is the founding director and executive board member at the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Fowler is currently the U-S Special Envoy for Global Food Security. The World Food Prize was created by Cresco, Iowa native Norman Borlaug, who received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work that contributed to increases in agricultural outputs which was termed the Green Revolution.
The two will receive the World Food Prize at an event at the Iowa State Capitol building in October.
(Corning, Iowa) – Officials with ISU Extension in southwest Iowa say an online course is being offered to teens who are seeking employment, and must be certified to drive or operate, tractors or farm machinery for hire. AgSafety4u is designed for youth, 14 and 15 years of age. It includes required 24 hours of training, and a written and driving test in order for participants to be certified. The online program can be used for the classroom portion of the Hazardous Occupations Order for Agriculture (HOOA) safety certification program. The training is required by law for any 14 or 15 year olds who want to safely operate a tractor over 20 HP and other machinery on a farm, acreage or any other business. Youth aged 13 must be turning 14 during the summer of 2024 in order to be eligible for the certificate.
Extension Offices in Adair, Adams, Cass, Montgomery, Page, Ringgold, Taylor and Union County are partnering with the Southwest Valley Agricultural Education Program to provide the additional hands-on training and test-out that is required for issuing a US DOL certificate. This hands-on training will be Saturday, June 1 at Agrivision Equipment, 74235 Richland Road in Massena. The training and test-out will run from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM, and participants should plan to stay for the entire time to complete education and testing requirements. Participants MUST complete the training online, and pre-register for the in-person training prior to attending the driving and testing event on June 1. The online certificate course costs $10/person, and must be paid online before completing the course. There is no additional cost to attend the drive/test date. 
To complete the online training, visit https://ag-safety.extension.org/ and scroll down and find the “Online Safety Course” option. Youth will receive a certificate upon completion of the course that they are required to bring with them to participate in the driving and testing day. To pre-register for the driving day, please scan the QR code on the event flier or visit https://form.jotform.com/240924783634059. Registrations must be received by Friday, May 24 for the June 1 driving day. Due to scheduling, no late registrations or walk-in registration will be allowed. With questions regarding the training, contact class coordinator Chandler Arnold at Adams County Extension: 641-322-3184 or ckarnold@iastate.edu, or one of the other partnering Extension Offices listed above.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says prospects for congressional approval of a new Farm Bill are fading. “So what we call the five-year Farm Bill of 2018 last year became a six-year Farm Bill,” Grassley says, “and it could become a seven year Farm Bill.” The Democrat who’s chairwoman of the Senate Ag Committee released a framework for negotiations last week, but Grassley, a Republican, says the most likely outcome is that congress will vote to extend current Farm Bill policies for another year.”The certainty of a five-year Farm Bill is what we really need,” Grassley says. Disagreements over farm subsidies are holding up negotiations.
“It may sound like rhetoric when you say: ‘We want more farm in the farm bill,’ but remember only 15% of the Farm Bill goes to the Agriculture Department,” Grassley says, “and then just a small percentage of that 15% may wind up in farmers’ pockets.” The rest of the Farm Bill is mainly for food stamps and other government nutrition programs. Grassley says Senate Democrats have proposed a five percent increase to potential subsidies to cover rice, cotton and peanut farmers’ losses. However, the so-called reference prices for corn and soybeans that trigger federal subsidies to cover losses would remain the same. “That doesn’t reflect this inflation of seed, fertilizer, chemicals, diesel and higher interest rates,” Grassley says. “We want the new five-year Farm Bill to reflect that inflation.”
The one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill expires at the end of September.
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