(Radio Iowa) – The state’s first-ever Iowa Black Farmers Conference is planned to be held in Des Moines later this month. Conference co-founder Todd Western the Third says his family has owned a farm in near Waterloo for more than 150 years. Western says growing up, he only knew of one other black farmer in the state. He says it’s important for black farmers to know they’re not alone.

“This is significant because it’s bringing together farmers of color who are scattered across the state to foster a sense of belonging and community,” Western says. “It’s also supposed to be information sharing. This platform will provide access to crucial information from agriculture industry officials that might not typically come to smaller or more remote farm communities. And lastly, celebrating our contributions.” After attending an event in North Carolina focused on black farmers, Western says he wanted to bring black farmers together in Iowa.

Western says, “Because I know how important it was for my son, who’s going to eventually — along with my nieces and nephews — take over the farm at some point, it’s important for them not to have the same experience that I had, thinking that we were the only ones.”

The conference is scheduled for December 16th. U.S.D.A. data from 2017 shows black farmers make up less than one-percent of the farmers in Iowa. Western says he hopes the Iowa Black Farmers Conference becomes an annual event and that it helps establish a network of black farmers that people can turn to in the future.

(Radio Iowa) – Congressman Zach Nunn, who represents Iowa’s third district, is inviting the top two Republicans in the U-S House to Iowa. “The Farm Bill right now needs direct leadership support,” Nunn says. “…As a member of the Ag Committee, I want to make sure that the leadership team knows what a priority this is not just for Iowa, but for the entire country.” The 2018 Farm Bill expired September 30th and last month congress voted to extend it to September of 2024.

“It is foundational to the future of America’s national security and our growers. We need to the speaker to have the opportunity to come here and get a good deep dive on this,” Nunn says. “Let’s not forget, the speaker has gotten to be on the job for just about a month and there is a steep learning curve here. Let’s be one of the first ones to give him a tutorial on the advantages of what a Farm Bill can do not just for Iowa, but for the whole world.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson AND House Republican Leader Steve Scalise are both from Louisiana, where the main crops are sugar cane, rice and cotton. “While I salute my Cajun brothers from Louisiana, I want to make sure they get to spend a little bit of time in the heartland, talking with the men and women who are actually feeding the bulk of the country, who are fueling a third of the country,” Nunn says.

The 2018 Farm Bill has provided about eight BILLION dollars in federal subsidies for crop insurance every year. The insurance covers revenue and yield losses in more than 100 crops, but the main ones are corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who like watching the barges and tugs make their way on the Mississippi River will soon start seeing less traffic. The shipping season officially ends today (Monday) on the Upper Mississippi, and winter maintenance begins on four locks and dams between Hastings, Minnesota, and Guttenberg, Iowa. Liz Stoeckmann, with the U-S Army Corps of Engineers, says these lock and dam closures end the 2023 navigation season. “We’re really just protecting the longevity of these locks and dams,” Stoeckmann says, “so that we can continue our operations for safe, reliable economy of our barges going up and down the river.”

Stoeckmann says they’re not shutting down boat traffic because of ice or cold weather. “This is standard winter maintenance for our locks and dams,” she says, “so that it doesn’t affect the navigational season as far as barges and traffic going up and down the Mississippi River.”

Crews will be making repairs on several locks and dams in Minnesota, including Number-2 at Hastings, Number-3 in Welch, Number-4 near Alma, Wisconsin, and Number-7 near La Crescent. Last year’s shipping season ended on November 29th.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass County 4-H is hosting a Family Find Out Night for the community and current 4-H or Clover Kid members, to learn more about what the 4-H program does. This (Monday) evening (12/4), from 5:30-until 7-p.m., you can come and go as you please through the Cass County Community Building at 805 W 10th Street in Atlantic, and learn more about 4-H.

The event is free, and you don’t need to make a reservation. A short 10-minute overview of the program will be presented at 5:45- and 6:45-p.m., with questions to follow. Throughout the event you will be able to stop at different tables to learn more and ask questions.

Extension staff will have information on why 4-H is free in Cass County, the basics of what 4-H is, including what it stands for and the motto, project areas to get involved with, along with various programs, record books, and livestock identification and more. Officials say this is a no-pressure event for youth K-12 in the community to learn about opportunities they can get involved in.

Get all of your questions answered about 4-H and Clover Kids in Cass County and find a club that best suits you! For more information about 4-H visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass, or call 712-243-1132.

STANTON, Iowa – Montgomery County Emergency Management, today (Friday), reported a fertilizer spreader in the Tarkio River at 10:30 a.m. today, following a bridge collapse on a private drive. The collapse caused a fertilizer spreader to enter the waterway, resulting in an unknown amount of mono ammonium phosphate (MAP), sulfur, and potash being spilled into the Tarkio River approximately one mile north of Stanton. The collapse also ruptured a fuel tank, spilling roughly 100 gallons of diesel into the creek.

Bridge collapse near Stanton (DNR photo)

Field office staff from the Department of Natural Resources were on-site, collecting both upstream and downstream samples from the Tarkio River. Booms were placed downstream of the incident and samples will be submitted to the State Hygienic Lab for analysis. No dead fish were observed. Cleanup efforts are currently ongoing. The DNR will continue to monitor cleanup efforts and consider appropriate enforcement action.

Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra says any federal regulation that would impact over half of American farmland should be approved by congress. The U-S House has voted to insert Feenstra’s proposal in a budget bill for the Department of the Interior. Feenstra says American farmland belongs to American farmers, not un-elected bureaucrats.

A U-S Supreme Court ruling this past May limited the authority of the E-P-A to regulate wetlands, ruling the agency may only regulate wetlands that have a continuous surface connection to other bodies of water, like streams, rivers or lakes.

(Radio Iowa) – D-N-R State Deer Biologist, Jace Elliott, says the numbers from early hunts show the first firearm deer season that begins this Saturday should be comparable to previous years. “This year where we’re tracking along pretty closely with last year’s harvest to date,” he says. Nearly 30-thousand deer have been taken in the early seasons that include archery and youth hunts. The gun season has expanded from the original shotgun-only, to now include muzzleloaders, handguns ad, most recently, rifles. The gun seasons are always the most popular, with some 100-thousand hunters expected to take part. “These two seasons end up taking of about 50 percent of our deer harvest throughout all of our seasons, just in these two firearm seasons,” Elliott says. “So we definitely expect as long as weather cooperates to have a very successful season.”

He says hunters shouldn’t have trouble finding deer in most of the state. “Statewide, we’re at a stable to slightly increasing level and have been for the past several years. There’s of course areas in the state that we’re actively trying to recover populations, particularly far western, and northwestern Iowa,” Elliott says. “And then of course, there’s also areas where we’re working on reducing deer numbers to some degree, but for the most part, we’re very happy with population levels in Iowa.”

Elliott says there has been some concern about the E-H-D outbreak and the impact on the deer population in Iowa. He says there was a severe E-H-D outbreak, statewide this year, and particularly in the southeast region. “The message to hunters is that this disease can have severe local impacts, we’re talking about the property scale or the section scale,” he says, “but at a county level even though this was one of our more severe outbreaks, it does not seem that any particular county has been affected to the level that would require management intervention.”

Elliott says the counties that are hit hard with E-H-D but have ample deer populations to start with, tend to recover in just a matter of a few years. The first deer gun season starts Saturday (Dec. 2) and runs through Wednesday December 6th. The second deer gun season is December 9th through the 17th.

(Radio Iowa/IDALS) – The Iowa Department of Agriculture says two positive cases Avian Influenza are confirmed in Woodbury County. The cases are both in backyard mixed species flocks. There have now been 17 cases reported in the last two months.

Commercial and backyard flock owners should prevent contact between their birds and wild birds. Sick birds or unusual deaths among birds should be immediately reported to state or federal officials. Biosecurity resources and best practices are available on the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship website. If producers suspect signs of HPAI in their flocks, they should contact their veterinarian immediately. Possible cases must also be reported to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship at (515) 281-5305.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the recent HPAI detections in birds do not present a public health concern. It remains safe to eat poultry products. As a reminder, consumers should always utilize the proper handling and cooking of eggs and poultry products, including cooking to an internal temperature of 165˚F.

About HPAI
HPAI is a highly contagious viral disease affecting bird populations. HPAI can travel in wild birds without those birds appearing sick, but is often fatal to domestic bird populations, including chickens and turkeys. The virus can spread through the droppings or the nasal discharge of an infected bird, both of which can contaminate dust and soil.

w/Kate Olson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University’s Extension Department has grants available for organizations to use to grow vegetables for food banks. Katie Sorrell is the coordinator for the “Growing Together Iowa” grant program. “Communities either start a garden or they convert a previous community garden. And all of the produce grown at these gardens is donated to local food pantries, along with nutrition education materials,” she says. Sorrell says Grow Together was created after they got a grant to educate people on the SNAP program, which used to be known as food stamps.

“Back in 2016, we were brainstorming how can we combine this nutrition education grant we have along with the Master Gardener Program. And that’s where we dreamed up this growing together Iowa program” Sorrell says. “So it’s been going on, this will be our eighth year as we enter into 2024.” The funding from the U-S-D-A provide for grants of up to four-thousand dollars. “The county extension office staff work closely with Master Gardeners and with staff at the local food pantry, and usually they create a new garden, whether that’s with raised garden beds or an in-ground garden, specifically for that donation piece,” she explains. Sorrell says the food grown in the gardens is popular.

“When we asked food pantry clients, what would you most like to see in the food pantry? Like what foods would you most want to have? Fresh fruits and vegetables are almost always at the top of the list because all cultures use fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s not tied with a certain culture,” she says. Sorrell says having the fresh fruits and vegetables at the food pantries gives people a healthy option, and it frees up food dollars they can spend on other items. They had 33 Growing Together Iowa county projects in 2023. “And they donated to 100 pantries. And you won’t believe this, they donated 103-thousand pounds of fresh produce to local pantries,” Sorrell says.

December 18th is the deadline to sign up. You can find the application on the I-S-U Extension website.