(RADIO IOWA [updated]) – Developers of the Heartland Greenway carbon pipeline have cancelled the project. The Navigator C-O-2 pipeline was one of three projects proposed to ship carbon from ethanol plants to underground storage. Navigator’s 810 mile route through Iowa would have sent the liquid carbon to storage in central Illinois. Last month, South Dakota regulators denied the company’s pipeline route application for that state. Last week, Navigator asked the Iowa Utilities Board to put its Iowa application on hold.

Navigator’s C-E-O says as good stewards of capital and responsible managers of people, the company has made the difficult decision to cancel the project.

Map of proposed, but now cancelled Navigator CO2 carbon pipeline route

The Iowa Utility Board’s hearing on the application from a different developer — Summit Carbon Solutions — is scheduled to resume next month. Summit executives recently pushed back the estimated start date for moving carbon through their pipeline by more than a year after permit setbacks in both North and South Dakota.

Monte Shaw of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association says Navigator’s decision was not a surprise after some of its permit applications were pulled, but Shaw says it doesn’t change the reality for the ethanol industry. “I know there are listeners out there that probably think lowering your carbon footprint is a good idea. I know you have listeners that will think that’s just silly and some made up government program,'” Shaw says. “The bottom line is our customers are saying: ‘We want lower carbon biofuels.’ Our ethanol plants have to respond to that if they’re going to stay in business. The number one thing we can do to lower our carbon footprint is carbon sequestration.”

Shaw says the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association respects Navigator’s decision and continues to support other pipeline projects. “We think that carbon capture and sequestration is absolutely vital to the future of ethanol and corn growers’ prosperity and all of that,” Shaw says. “There are other projects out there and we’re going to continue to work with them and, ultimately, I do think we will be successful.” Shaw expects some of the ethanol producers that had signed agreements with Navigator to seek another partner to capture carbon and ship it out of their plants.

“I think the two largest ethanol producers in the United States were part of (Navigator’s) system in Poet and Valero. They’re not going to sit idly by. Now I can’t tell you what they will do, which system they may go to, maybe they look at another option that I haven’t even heard of,” Shaw says, “but I would be shocked if they weren’t looking at other options.” Andrew Johnson is one of the landowners who opposed Navigator’s project. Johnson says the pipeline would have run through his Lee County farm.”We have about 200 acres of row crop and timber area right outside of West Point,” he says. “It would have cut diagonally through all 200 acres.” Johnson says he’ll never again take his property rights for granted.

“We never had an opportunity to discuss with Navigator as far as plotting where it should go. They basically just said: ‘This is where it’s going to go and if you don’t like it, we’ll use eminent domain as a resource to obtain your property,'” Johnson said. “…I didn’t realize that there was an opportunity where a company could come into this state and literally take my land away…I thought it was ours and we bought it and that was the end of it, but we’re going to be relentless in our pursuit to change laws in legislation so this will never happen again. It should never have happened to begin with.”

Matthew Ung — chairman of the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors — says he’s heard from landowners in his northwest Iowa county who were concerned that Navigator would improperly seek eminent domain authority to seize their land for the pipeline. “These are fundamentally private projects that I think everyone exept the governor’s office seems to realize are not real public utilities and so that’s why there’s been such opposition,” Ung says. “It’s not necessarily on the means or the fact that it’s being done, just the fact that it’s being portrayed as something that it’s not.”

Ung, who is a Republican, has been a Woodbury County Supervisor for nearly nine years.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Farm Credit Administration (FCA) Board Member Glen Smith, of Atlantic, visited with KJAN Friday morning (Oct. 20), about the recently passed Young, Beginning and Small (YBF) Farmers and Ranchers program. Smith, who flew-in from his post at Washington, D-C last weekend, said the program is designed to assist young farmers in securing seed money to get into the business. Smith explained the FCA is the Federal financial regulator for the Farm Credit System.

The FCA has offices in every state in the country. There are 62 institutions and thousands of branch banks around the country, as well. Smith says Oct. 12th was National Farmer’s Day, which brought the average age of farmers nationally, is estimated to be 59.5-years. The next Ag Census in 2024 is expected to show that age is now closer to 60 or beyond. That’s become a real national concern for Ag Policy makers.

A Bipartisan effort led to funding for the YBF program, but it didn’t come quickly.

Glen R. Smith

Glen Smith says the final result was a strengthening of controls, and a review of the current programs.

The YBF program, he says, is designed to be customizable to the diverse agricultural industries across the country.

Lending for the program is made through local financial institutions, including branch offices in Harlan, Red Oak, Creston and Perry. The Federal Land Office in Atlantic was eliminated several years ago. The FCS system, he says is best poised to meet with young farmers and ranchers, help them deal with some of the challenges they face and in answering their questions.

The goal Smith says, is to make getting seed money for farm operations less intimidating, and foster better cooperation with the FSA and USDA. For more information contact your local Farm Credit institution.

(NWS/Des Moines, Iowa) – The latest U-S Drought Monitor report from the National Weather Service in Des Moines, shows drought conditions improved in portions of northern and eastern Iowa during the past week. The report, issued Thursday, Oct. 19th, showed none of Iowa’s 99 counties are in an Exceptional Drought (D4). Portions of eastern Iowa are in an Extreme Drought (D3). Severe Drought (D2) conditions are found outside those counties in an Extreme Drought, and extends across much of southern and west central Iowa, to include the extreme northern, western and southwestern portions of Cass County, all of Pottawattamie, Harrison and Shelby Counties, and portions of Audubon, Guthrie, Adair, Mills, Montgomery and Adams Counties.

Moderate Drought (D1) or Abnormally Dry (D-O) conditions exist in areas of the State not already covered by the D2, D3 or D4 Drought conditions. Officials say the 30-day precipitation totals are now above normal for much of northwest Iowa and eastern portions of the State. The largest deficits are across southern Iowa. The seven-day precipitation forecast call for dry conditions this weekend, with an increasing threat of rainfall into next week.

The eight-to 14-day outlook indicates a better chance of below normal temperatures across Iowa, with near normal precipitation during that time frame. The bottom line: Drought conditions are expected to persist across Iowa through the end of this month. (Click on the graphics to enlarge)

(Shenandoah, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is partnering with Optimal Aquafeed and Page County Conservation Board to stock rainbow trout at 9 a.m. this Saturday, October 21 in RAPP Park, outside Shenandoah. Approximately 750 rainbow trout ranging from 0.75 lbs to 4.0 lbs. from Optimal Aquafeed will be stocked by Iowa DNR staff in a small borrow pit on the RAPP Park property. A second stocking of approximately 500 rainbow trout is planned for November.

Anglers must have a valid fishing license and pay the trout fee to fish for or possess trout.  The daily limit is five trout per licensed angler with a possession limit of 10. Children age 15 or younger can fish for trout with a properly licensed adult, but they must limit their catch to one daily limit.  The child can buy a trout fee which will allow them to catch their own limit of five trout.

Rainbow Trout (DNR Photo)

This is the third year of this successful partnership that provides a unique fishing opportunity to southwest Iowa anglers.

(Radio Iowa) – Alpaca farmers from all across the Midwest will be bringing their animals to central Iowa this weekend for a large convention, show and competition. The president of the National Alpaca Owners Association, Jennifer Hack, says the Fall Alpaca Spectacular will be the first-ever “mega” alpaca show in North America, as it’s combining five competitions into one.

There will be some 350 alpacas shown at the Iowa venue, which is free and open to the general public. Unlike most other livestock, alpacas aren’t raised for meat, but rather for their fleece, which Hack says is truly unlike that of any other creature.

The event runs today (Friday) through Sunday at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University and Alliant Energy dedicated a solar farm on the south side of Ames Thursday. The Dean of the I-S-U College of Agriculture, Daniel Robison says it’s an agrivoltaic project that combines agricultural use with the production of voltage or electricity. The solar panels are up higher and can rotate to allow for the planting of fruits and vegetables around them.

ISU Solar farm (ISU photo)

Robison says I-S-U received a two-point-two million dollar grant from the U-S Department of Energy to study how the crops do in a solar field. He says that type of research isn’t very abundant in the Midwest. They also have planted pollinator plants like prairie grasses around the solar farm and will have beehives as well so they can harvest honey along with the electricity produced by the solar panels.

(Radio Iowa) – An 80-million dollar U-S-D-A grant will provide new incentives to farmers in Iowa and Missouri who switch from planting corn and soybeans on marginal cropland — and grow native grasses and prairie plants to harvest instead. Roeslein Alternative Energy of St. Louis, Missouri, secured the grant with help from Iowa State University and the Iowa Soybean Association. Roeslein spokesman Brandon Butler says the company, which started in 2012, has been capturing energy from livestock waste.

“We’re able to tarp over those lagoons, capture all those gases, bring them to a centralized (location) and then we separate those molecules,” he says. “We upgrade the methane into…renewable natural gas — called RNG — and we directly inject that into the natural gas grid.” The new initiative plans to make renewable natural gas from the plant material harvested from local fields.

“The biogas is really, really important to rural America and agricultural communities,” Butler says. “This is reallly our chance to interact with this extreme push towards a more sustainable future.” Butler says this new project also fits with the company’s mission.

“We want to create processes that are good economically, they’re good environmentally and they’re good for wildlife,” he says, ‘because when it’s good for wildlife, it’s good for us as well.” The five-year pilot project will compensate farmers for growing restored grasses and prairie plants, which have deep roots that store carbon in the soil. The harvested biomass will be combined with manure in facilities that ultimately produce renewable natural gas.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Agriculture is trying a new approach called “batch and build” to address runoff that impacts water quality. Ag Secretary Mike Naig says it involves doing several water quality projects together. “It’s an innovative approach to really grouping together and installing practices more efficiently,” he says. Naig says it brings more people in to get more done. “Historically, we might have built one or two at a time and worked with individual landowners or farmers to do that,” Naig says. “What we’re doing is working with counties and other partners to group those together, you might do 20, 30,40 or 50 at one time.” He says there is more efficiency in the work.

“Contract with one land improvement contractor, you pay the bills, once it’s very efficient, you can group them together and get them built. And so this is all part of our effort to scale up and really accelerate the adoption of practices like bio reactors and saturated buffers in the state of Iowa,” Naig says. “And really an innovative program that’s not really being done anywhere else. We’ve created it here in the state of Iowa, very proud of that, and really proud of the partners who are working together on that.”

The bioreactors and buffers at the edge of fields help remove nitrates from the water that comes off tile lines. The Ag Department is working with the Wright County Soil and Water Conservation District on the first phase of the Boone River watershed project with a goal of installing more than 25 edge of field conservation projects. Other similar projects are in Calhoun, Jasper and Boone County.