(Radio Iowa & Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The U-S-D-A crop report says warm weather helped crops mature and the early harvest is running ahead of last year. The report says 15 percent of the corn is harvested statewide — four days ahead of last year and three ahead of five-year average. The southeast district leads with 32 percent of the corn harvested, followed by 23 in the southwest and 21 in the central district. The northeast and west-central districts are the only ones not in double digits. The statewide soybean harvest is at 17 percent, three days ahead of last year and two ahead of average. The northwest district has the most beans in the bin at 25 percent, with the central and west central next at 19. All districts are in double digit percentages for beans.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said farmers should continue “making harvest headway” this week with nice weather in the forecast, though “conditions may be a bit dusty.”  “Combines are rolling all across Iowa,” Naig said in a statement. Temperatures for the reporting period were 8.1 degrees above the climatological normal, which according to the report, “quickly advanced crop maturity.”

Despite a below-normal weekly precipitation average of just 0.41 inch, soil moisture conditions remain mostly adequate. Sixty-five percent of topsoil moisture and 70% of subsoil moisture conditions were adequate for the reporting period. Southern regions of the state were slightly drier than the state average, while central and northern regions were slightly wetter.  In southeast Iowa, according to the report, just 33% of topsoil had adequate moisture, while the majority, 66% of topsoil was short or very short of moisture.

According to the seven-day precipitation forecast posted Monday by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa is projected to receive less than half an inch of rain for the week.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa D-N-R veterinarian Rachel Ruden is studying the impact of a viral fungal pathogen on the state’s rattlesnake population. “It affects snakes kind of broadly and the vipers, so things that include rattlesnakes specifically,” she says. “So they have seemingly worse outcomes than other types of snakes.” Ruden has been doing some testing of rattlesnakes. “So we’re doing these skin swabs to kind of understand how much of the fungus we have on the landscape. You know, in that population and kind of what it’s doing to that population over time,” Ruden says. Ruden says Iowa doesn’t have the number of rattlesnakes seen in other states.

“They are fragmented across the state already, so we don’t have big contiguous, connected populations. In places locally, they’re doing well,” Ruden says. “Overall, we’ve lost a lot of our habitat and you know our numbers really for the different rattlesnake species. But some are doing better than others and it kind of depends on the place.”

Ruden has been working in southeast Iowa, but isn’t disclosing the exact location to protect the rattlesnakes.

Cass County: Corn $3.81 Beans $9.44
Adair County: Corn $3.78 Beans $9.47
Adams County: Corn $3.78 Beans $9.43
Audubon County: Corn $3.80 Beans $9.46
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $3.84 Beans $9.44
Guthrie County: Corn $3.83 Beans $9.48
Montgomery County: Corn $3.83 Beans $9.46
Shelby County: Corn $3.84 Beans $9.44

Oats: $2.65 (same in all counties)

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

ATLANTIC, IOWA (story by Atlantic FFA reporter Maddy Anderson) —FFA members from across Southwest Iowa gathered at the Cass County Fairgrounds on Wednesday, September 17th, to build leadership and critical thinking through hands-on experiences at the first annual Southwest District Career Development Day.

Livestock Judging

Foodstand Help (650 meals in 1.5-hours)

Six hundred and fifty high school students from 36 FFA chapters throughout Southwest Iowa attended the event. Throughout the day, students had the opportunity to compete in seven different contest areas. These areas included livestock judging, horse judging, farm business management, agronomy, meats judging, and floriculture. The Atlantic FFA chapter competed in five of the seven contests.

Atlantic had two agronomy teams. The first team received 5th out of 12 teams. Individual scores for team 1 were: Grant Christensen, 220 points (5th overall), Jackstin Lucas, 145 points, Grayson Mulgaard, 130 points, and Cedric Victor, 175 points. The second team placed 4th out of 12 teams. Individual scores from team 2 were: Dayton Thomas, 130 points, Walter Freund, 230 points (4th overall), Monty Smith, 185 points, and Hade DeVore, 105 points.

The Farm Business Management team placed 5th out of 12 teams. Lily Johnson scored 24 points for 7th place overall. Claire Schroeder and Grant Petty both scored 19 points.

The Floriculture team placed 11th out of 45 teams. Rylan Martin scored 128 points, Paislee Klever scored 95 points, and Jena Jensen scored 93 points.

Natalie Smith competed in the Milk Quality Judging contest, and she earned 5th place overall.

Two teams from Atlantic participated in the livestock judging competition. Team one placed 30th overall. Individual scores from team 1 were: Chloe Sonntag, 40th place, Mirayle Stuart, 107th place, Aly Dreager, 142nd place, and Tenley Cappel, 136th place. Team 2 placed 27th overall. Individual scores from team 2 were: Jovie Richter, 75th place, Maddy Anderson, 80th place, Addison Masker, 96th place, and Dylen Dreager, 150th place.

This Career Development Event (CDE) was a great way for students to connect the information they are learning in the classroom to future career opportunities.

The Atlantic FFA chapter would like to extend a special thanks to the following: Cass County Fairboard, Cass County Grounds Committee, Jeff Anderson and Darrin Petty with Stine Seed for grilling lunch, Atlantic Bottling for donating 30 cases of water, Hy-Vee for donating the food for lunch, Rolling Hills Bank for the tables, David Clausen from Hy-Vee Floral and Ann Johnk from Farmhouse Flowers for being Floriculture judges, John Johnson from Hiland Milk and Hy-Vee for providing milk for the milk quality judging, TJ and Jess Barber and Zak and Emily Kennedy for the use of their horses, as well as Chris and Jodi Scholl for providing the goats, Jeff and Tarah Anderson for providing sheep and Euken Pigs for providing the pigs for the livestock judging competition.

(Radio Iowa) – Senator Chuck Grassley is calling on the U-S-D-A to issue a report that evaluates the impact of concentration in the fertilizer industry, “To shine a light on the market factors driving high the cost of fertilizer.” Grassley and Iowa’s other Republican Senator, Joni Ernst, are co-sponsoring a bill on the topic with Democratic senators from Wisconsin and Georgia.

“This bipartisan legislation will give farmers more transparency and certainty so they can better navigate production costs,” Grassley said. The bill would require the U-S-D-A to produce a report within a year and review all the factors that are influencing price spikes in fertilizer costs. Phosphate prices in August were 36 percent higher than in January and the price of potash, a key component in fertilizer, is rising as well. Trade disputes are influencing fertilizer costs as well. China quit exporting phosphate fertilizers in late 2021.

“President Trump campaigned on using tariffs to get better deals for the United States,” Grassley says. “…I’m a free trader. I’ve said it all along. I hope the president can successfully strike better trade deals as a result of trade negotiations. He’s proven time and again that he can.” Grassley cites deals that led to U.S. beef exports to Australia and rice exports to South Korea.

Senator Ernst, in a written statement, said the U-S-D-A report that’s called for in the bill would lead to a better understanding of the fertilizer industry and give farmers clarity as they plan to buy fertilizer. Many farmers apply nitrogen to fields after the fall harvest. This year, 36 percent of the operating costs for a traditional row-crop farm will be spent buying fertilizer according to U-S-D-A projections.