(Shelby, Iowa) – The Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc. will hold its annual meeting on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at the Shelby Community Hall in Shelby at 7:00 pm.  Carstens’ Board President Charlie Leaders, of Minden, says “Everyone is invited to come to the meeting and hear about what’s happening at the farm.”

Members of Carstens Farm will be voting for three positions on the board of directors. The following board members’ terms are ending as of the date of the meeting:  David Dittmer of Minden, Doug Martin of Shelby and Dale Schroder of Avoca will be up for re-election for another term.  All are running for another term.  Continuing board members are Ben Ausdemore, Charlie Leaders and Gerald McCool of Minden, Bill Johnson and Stan Kern of Shelby, Harvey Ferris of Missouri Valley, Rick Newland of Persia and Terry Torneten of Harlan.  Results of the election will be announced following the meeting. Leaders says “We will take ideas for projects in 2024. We’ve got several projects planned that we’ll talk about. Building upkeep and repair are always projects we work on. Reports will be given on the 2023 Carstens Farm Days show. I hope to see many members as well as the general public at the meeting because we want to continue to grow our membership.”

Via carstensfarm.com

Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc. members as well as members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend.  Those attending will have the opportunity to renew their memberships or to purchase new memberships. Memberships from the public are important for sustaining the farm’s operations. New or renewing members should note that membership rates remain the same as last year: $25 for family; $15 for an individual. Visit the farm’s website for membership information.

Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc., a non-profit group of local volunteers, oversees the working farmstead museum exhibit located south of Shelby, Iowa.  The farmstead hosts several thousand people annually during Carstens Farm Days which is held the first weekend after Labor Day.  For more information visit www.carstensfarm.com

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) – An eastern Iowa program works to connect immigrant farmers with plots of land to farm. Emmaly Renshaw is executive director of Feed Iowa First, which was launched in Linn County. The three-year community farming program aims to remove barriers to farmers who are growing what are considered culturally-relevant foods.  “They’re individuals who want to produce for food access for both their families and their communities,” Renshaw says, “but they’re not necessarily looking at making their farming like a main income again.” Renshaw says in Iowa, crops like yuka, casava and hot peppers can be in low supply, or priced as luxury foods.

By sourcing immigrants from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with land, Feed Iowa First aims to make these crops more readily available. Renshaw says the program’s farmers are barely meeting demand.  “We were able to move about a thousand pounds of habanero in about three days,” she says, “and so for us that just helps us begin to understand how big these food gaps are.”

Even if immigrants come to Iowa with agricultural skills and experience, with farmland prices are a premium, she says it’s very difficult for them to get back into the field.

(Radio Iowa) – A University of Iowa engineering professor says extreme drought poses concerns about water quality as well as the water supply. David Cwiertny is a professor of civil and environmental engineering. “Lots of communities are looking at how they can augment their existing supply or have alternative supplies,” he says, “which is why we really need to take good care of the resources that we have or have impaired supplies that can’t work.” Cwiertny is director of the University of Iowa’s Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination. The center was established in 1987 by the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act.

Des Moines Water Works CEO Ted Corrogan, left, and UI civil and environmental engineering professor David Cwiertny on the Iowa Press set. (Photo courtesy of Iowa PBS.)

“When we have a drought…we still have the same types/amounts of chemicals that we’re putting into that water, but less water there leads to higher concentrations and sometimes greater need for treatment,” Cwiertny says, “which also stresses how water systems need to provide for their communities.” Cwiertny says beyond regional water systems that serve communities and rural residents, 300-thousand Iowans rely solely on a private well for their water.

“Many of those are shallow inside, say, the alluvial plains near rivers and creeks. As those start to dry up, then you have homeowners on their own because those fall outside of most state and federal oversight –needing secure water supplies,” Cwiertny says. “We hear anecdotal tales of residents in northwest Iowa who’ve had their wells run dry and we’re just beginning to think about what that means for the quality and the reliability of well water for private well consumers.”

Cwiertney made his comments during a recent appearance on Iowa Press on Iowa P-B-S.

(Radio Iowa) – Pottawattamie County officials have hired a private firm to inspect areas where the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline would pass through eastern parts of the county. The contract calls for the county-hired inspectors to make sure land is restored to its prior condition and drainage tile systems are repaired and maintained. Supervisor Susan Miller of Carson voted to approve the contract, but suggests it may not go far enough.

Pottawattamie County’s planning and development director says there’s nothing the county can do after recent court decisions blocked other counties’ pipeline ordinances. County Engineer John Rasmussen says he can’t make an estimate on how much wear and tear county roads may sustain during pipeline construction.

Summit has applied for a state permit to build and operate the pipeline, but the Iowa Utilities Board has not indicated when it may decide on the application. The board hosted a public hearing about the project this summer. The hearing started in August and ended in November.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa state parks and forests invite you to enjoy the outdoors and take a hike on January 1, 2024! Visit state parks on your own, or join a guided hike at several parks and forests.  Hikers can expect to be surrounded by the quiet beauty of nature in winter, and experience spectacular views, beautiful settings and the cultural treasures offered by Iowa’s state parks.  Find a First Day Hike near you!

Get 20% off your stay with Promo Code Cabin2024 when you book now for the months of January or February 2024. Enjoy the pristine beauty and outdoor fun of winter in an Iowa state park.

This promo applies to the year-round cabins at:

• Backbone State Park (16 cabins, max occupancy from 4 to 9)
• Black Hawk State Park (1 cabin, max occupancy 11)
• Lake Darling State Park (6 cabins, max occupancy 6)
• Lake Wapello State Park (2 cabins, max occupancy from 6 to 10)
• Pine Lake State Park (4 cabins, max occupancy from 4 to 6)
• Springbrook State Park (1 cabin, max occupancy 14)
• Union Grove State Park (2 cabins, max occupancy 4 )
• Waubonsie State Park (2 cabins, max occupancy from 6 to 12)

Promo code only can be applied for online reservations for January 1 through February 29, 2024. Note that January 1, 2024 is not an allowed arrival date; reservations may have an arrival date before or after that day. Promo code is good only for the state parks listed. Two-night minimum. Last day to make a reservations is February 21, 2024. Rules and fees apply.

(Radio Iowa) – Senate G-O-P Leader Jack Whitver says there’s no consensus among Senate Republicans when it comes to regulating carbon pipelines. “We have some people that believe they need to happen. We have some people that really want to get a bill done to restrict them,” Whitver says. “It’s just really split.”

This past March, the Iowa House passed a bill that would have forced developers to get voluntary access to 90 percent of a carbon pipeline route before the Iowa Utilities Board could trigger eminent domain authority to acquire the rest. That proposal was never considered in the Senate. House Speaker Pat Grassley says prospects in 2024 haven’t changed much.

“I know we are having members that are having conversations with one another, but until we see a shift within this building it’s going to be really hard to move anything forward,” Grassley says. The pipelines have become an issue in the Republican presidential campaign and some state lawmakers have become outspoken critics of the use of eminent domain for the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline.

Representative Ken Carlson, a Republican from Onawa, is a retired farmer. “I am one who benefited from ethanol plants, there’s no two ways about it, but I can’t handle the eminent domain thing,” Carlson says. “I just can’t handle that.”

This fall the Iowa Utilities Board held a public hearing on the proposed Summit pipeline that would transport liquefied carbon dioxide through 29 Iowa counties. The board has not indicated when it may decide on Summit’s construction permit. Developers of a pipeline that would take carbon from ethanol plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton to storage in Illinois have said they intend to get voluntary easements for the proposed Wolf pipeline. Navigator cited regulatory hurdles when it announced cancellation of its proposed carbon pipeline.

(Radio Iowa) – The updated Iowa Drought Monitor shows 97 percent of the state is in drought or near-drought conditions. Much of the state is in severe or extreme drought. The area of extreme drought in eastern Iowa goes from the border with Minnesota to the Missouri border. It includes the northeast Iowa cities of Cresco, Waterloo and Cedar Rapids and the areas around Mount Pleasant, Bloomfield and Ottumwa in southeast Iowa. The area of exceptional drought also sweeps through central Iowa and over to Aububon and Cass Counties in western Iowa.

Iowa Drought Monitor map issued on 12/28/23 (Image courtesy of NOAA/NCEI)

There are only three areas of the state that aren’t in some level of drought or exceptionally dry conditions. One area is in the eastern edges of Jackson, Clinton and Scott Counties that abut the Mississippi River. The others are in northwest Iowa in the parts of Plymouth and Woodbury Counties that border the Missouri River as well as where the four corners of Cherokee, O’Brien, Clay and Buena Vista Counties meet.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa is third in the country among states for raising and milking goats. Extension Dairy specialist Fred Hall calls goats a gateway livestock enterprise, similar to chickens.  “People have chickens in a little barn on the back side of the property because they can,” he says, “they can afford to buy the hatch eggs and take care of them and they have table eggs and maybe sell it dozens of the neighbors. That’s a gateway to doing something else. Goats are the same thing.”
He says it allows people to get into the milk business at a much lower cost than buying cows.

“You can afford to get started. You can learn sanitation, you can have a healthy quality product. You can make cheese, you can drink the milk, you can make yogurt,” Hall says. Hall says he’s seen the goat gateway lead to bigger things. “I’ve seen several different families start out you know, Dad maybe was a carpenter or whatever. And now they’re milking ten does and you know, it’s a lifestyle for them,” he says.He says goats have another advantage over cows.

“Goat milk has a higher yield. If you are going to use it for cheese, make the cheese from goats’ milk, you’ll have more cheese from goats,” he says. Hall and I-S-U Extension recently held some information sessions for those interested in getting into goat milking.

(Lewis, Iowa) – You’re invited to join the Southwest Iowa Soil Health (SWISH) group for the second meeting of their winter meeting series. The meeting in Atlantic on Jan. 3, 2024 will feature T.J. Kartes with Saddle Butte Ag. T.J. will be talking about how cover crops can fit into every operation. He will discuss how to get started, how to move forward, and when and how to adapt the plan. Come prepared with all your cover crop questions. The event takes place at the Wallace Learning Center at the Armstrong Research and Demonstration Farm near Lewis (53020 Hitchcock Ave.), from 10-a.m. until Noon on Jan. 3rd.

The meeting is free and open to everyone, so feel free to bring guests. Reservations are not required to attend (note that lunch is not provided but light snacks may be available). If you have questions about the SWISH group, please reach out to Aaron Saeugling, ISU Extension and Outreach Field Agronomist for Southwest Iowa, at 712-243-1132 (or e-mail clonz5@iastate.edu) .