(Radio Iowa) – The number of state beach advisories for E. coli hit a record this year as the D-N-R continues a project to learn more about it. Dan Kendall manages the D-N-R’s summer beach monitoring program. “I have crews out, usually about 15 weeks out of the year, sampling beaches in an effort to be protective of public health.” Those samples include testing for E. coli, a large family of bacteria. Most strains are harmless. They live in the guts of warm-blooded animals, including people, geese and cattle. But some escape into the environment through feces and make people sick with stomach cramps and diarrhea. Kendall says high concentrations of E. coli in water also indicate other harmful microbes may be present.  “So, as the numbers go up, the risk of getting a gastrointestinal-type illness at the beach goes up,” Kendall says.

The D-N-R issued 151 “Swimming Not Recommended” advisories this for state beaches because of E. coli. D-N-R natural resource biologist Jason Palmer was out recently trying to find out why long-term data shows some state beaches test high for E. coli time and time again.  “We’re doing some sand sampling and some water sampling, kind of at the same time so that we can see what’s happening both in the terrestrial portion of the beach, as well as what’s occurring in the swimming water where people often times are recreating,” he says. Data at lakes around Iowa show beaches tend to be E. coli hot spots – specifically within five to six feet from the water’s edge. Farther out, E. coli levels drop off. New research also shows some E. coli strains can do pretty well outside an animal gut.

“E. coli bacteria can actually persist in the environment for very long periods of time, and in some cases, have been shown to replicate in the right conditions,” he says. Palmer says E. coli can thrive in wet sand right below the surface. It gives the bacteria a moist structure to grow on and a stable temperature with protection from direct sunlight. Another piece of this project uses pumps that put lake water through a series of medical-grade filters trying to figure out if there are viruses and other pathogens at the beach. Palmer’s team will ship these filters and some sand samples to a federal lab in Wisconsin. There, scientists will look for the genetic material of harmful microbes and clues to where they came from. “Canadian geese, dog, tracers to look for human waste and also tracers to look for things that might occur in the agricultural environment, like swine or cattle or poultry,” Palmer says.

Palmer and field technicians have collected data from Big Creek, Backbone, Clear Lake and MacBride since 2023. And he’s hoping that results will be available to share next year. By understanding the dynamics of E. coli at state beaches, Palmer says the D-N-R can better communicate risks to the public and find solutions.

(Radio Iowa) – A monthly survey of bank C-E-Os in rural areas of Iowa and other Midwest states indicates the region’s economy has dipped to its lowest level since May of 2020. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss conducts the survey and issues a Mid-America Mainstreet Index each month. “It was not good news for the month of October and certainly looking ahead, the outlook is also negative for these bank CEOs in looking at the farm economy,” Goss said. Goss says a firm majority of the bankers indicated President Trump’s approach to trade with China is about right, but nearly 85 percent of the bankers surveyed support emergency federal payments to farmers due to the financial hit of trade losses.

“Some of the bankers said, ‘Well, we’d like to see higher grain prices, for example, than getting that support,’ but nonetheless there was support for that, but again that’s not going to make up for the downturn in what we’re seeing in lower grain prices througout the region,” Goss said. “…We’re seeing below break even income, cash flow for farmers that depend heavily on grain, that is.” Goss says there may be one bright spot in the survey, about farm loans.

“Delinquency rates are very low right now especially given the weakness in farm income. In other words, the farmers have been judicious about borrowing and the lenders have been judicious about lending,” Goss said, “…On the flip side of that farm equipment sales have really been suffering in the region.” Goss says farm equipment sales have dropped for 26 straight months. That’s a hit to Iowa where Deere and Company has been laying off workers and scaling back production. Goss says due to rising costs for fertilizer and other expenses, there’s been an increase in the amount farmers are borrowing. “I expect that to continue to move higher and, of course raising the risk out there,” Goss said, “and we’ve seen a lot of volatility in the farm outlook and obviously that’s a real issue going forward.”

Goss says the value of farmland is holding up much better than farm income. The rural bankers surveyed expect farmland prices to decline by three to four percent in the next 12 months, according to Goss.

(Radio Iowa) – A spokesman for the trade group called Fur Commission U-S-A reports someone illegally entered a mink farm in southwest Iowa near Woodbine Monday night. Spokesman Challis Hobbs says a farmer, his son and grandson raise more than one-thousand mink and found the perimeter fence torn down.  )”That’s what they woke up to, and they woke up to a lot of the pens had been opened and like the housing, so like the nest box like where it’s warm and stuff where the mink stay, the people who came in, they destroyed those,” he says. Hobbs says around half of the mink stayed around and they’ve been working to find the others as they are domesticated and don’t do well in the wild.

“What we see time and time again is like within 24 to 48 hours, if the farmer can’t recover them, the majority of them die. The ones that don’t, they kind of get loose and they’re desperate and they’re carnivorous. So they’re killing anything and everything they can to eat,” he says. Hobbs says they might survive for awhile eating any birds or chickens they can find, but they often die or are hit on the roadway and killed. Hobbs says there have been some recent attacks on fur farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and they are not just vandals. “Everyone who’s been caught doing this has been activists. It’s very organized, it’s organized crime really is,” Hobbs says. “Like for example the ones in Pennsylvania, they showed up and they had. They had a whole a whole pamphlet of like what to do, not to get caught. Like turn off your cell phone and what to do if you get caught. What to say and don’t turn on your other basically activist friends, extremist activist friends who are doing the same thing.”

He says local law enforcement and the F-B-I are investigating the Woodbine case. “These crimes do fall under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Because the government does see this as domestic terrorism because they’re intentionally going on these farms and trying to basically shut them down and put these put these farming families out of business,” Hobbs says.

Hobbs says two people were caught in the Pennsylvania and they face multiple charges. Hobbs says the animals cost around 45 dollars each, but it can cost the farmer much more in losing animals for breeding.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Officials with the Red Oak Fire Department report a little before 1-p.m., today (Tuesday), the Montgomery County 911 center was notified by Pottawattamie County 911, about a combine fire in the area of 490th x Pioneer Trail in rural southeast Pott County, within the Elliott Fire District.

Red Oak FD and Elliott FD were paged and while enroute, Griswold Fire & Rescue was requested for mutual aid due to smoke being visible from Red Oak of the fire. Additional support was requested from area farmers with tractors and discs due to high winds and an apparent ongoing fast-moving fire. (Red Oak FD Facebook photos)

Fire crews arrived on scene and found approximately 4-5 acres on fire, spreading moderately to the east with the wind into a waterway containing two large brush piles that were now on fire. Additional mutual aid was requested from Macedonia Volunteer Fire Department and Carson Fire and Rescue for water tankers due to the size of brush piles actively on fire. The field fire was quickly contained with on scene units as well as the use of tractors and discs who helped contain the fire as well as contain spot fires that flared up due to the wind. Stanton Fire and Rescue Department was requested for tanker support but cancelled as additional units arrived on scene.

The landowner was working with a contractor to bury and place soil on top of the brush piles and will continue to monitor the area until complete. No injuries reported. It is believed that a hot ember or spark ignited dry vegetation while the combine was in operation. Crews were on scene for roughly 2 hours.

MCEMA Drone Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0kTe2kzOBc&feature=youtu.be

Assisting agencies:

Montgomery County 911
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office – Red Oak, Iowa
Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency
Elliott Volunteer Fire Department
Griswold Fire & Rescue
Macedonia Volunteer Fire Department
Carson Fire and Rescue
Stanton Fire and Rescue Department

(Radio Iowa) – The archery season for deer continues and will run right up to the first shotgun season on December 6th. Iowa D-N-R deer biologist, Jace Elliott says western Iowa’s deer populations continues to struggle. “We’re still going through a sustained population decline as far as harvest and population trends show, and that’s been going on for 10 or 15 years. We’re working proactively with regulations to try to reverse that trend,” he says. Elliott says central Iowa is trying to rebound from recent hemorrhagic disease outbreaks.

“In some cases, very severe impact on local deer numbers in the 2023 and 2024 season, so it’s possible that numbers are going to be a bit lower this year than they were over the last decade or so in central Iowa,” Elliott says. “But then in eastern Iowa, in many cases we have very strong deer numbers… in some cases we have the strongest deer harvest that we’ve had in in 20 years.” Elliott says the hemorrhagic disease outbreaks have eased off. “This year shows to be exceptionally mild. We’ve only just had one off cases reported across the state, very few of them compared to the last couple of years, so that should offer some relief in populations that were impacted recently,” Elliott says. Elliott says the wet weather before things started getting dry in September has given deer plenty to eat.

“During the growing season, that’s a really nutrient expensive time for deer, whether we’re talking about bucks that are growing antlers, that takes a tremendous amount of resources and minerals and nutrients in order to grow antlers,” he says. “And whether we’re talking about does, they’re lactating, and that’s also. Its own nutrient demand, so it’s important to have a lot of vegetation on the landscape.” Hunters have taken around eight thousand deer in the ongoing bow season and the now completed early muzzleloader season.

(Radio Iowa) – President Donald Trump says the U-S may buy beef from Argentina to bring beef prices down for consumers. Bill Bullard is C-E-O of R-CALF USA, the largest trade group for cattle producers. He says the president’s attention is welcome because the U-S cattle market has been broken for decades. “The share of the consumer’s beef dollar flowing back to the producers has been reduced,” Bullard said, “while at the same time the share captured by the packers and retailers in this highly concentrated industry have been increasing.”

Bullard says importing more beef in the U.S. absolutely the wrong thing to do. “It has been imports that have displaced our domestic cow herd over the last several decades, bringing us to the brink of having the lowest, smallest herd size in the history of our industry,” Bullard said. Bullard says the Trump Administration needs to focus on concentration in the meat packing industry.

Four companies are buying 85 percent of the cattle that are slaughtered in the U-S, plus the Food Industry Association says meat sales in mega-retailers like Walmart are growing, while the amount of meat sold in local grocery stores is falling. “We have a handful of packers, a handful of retailers that are interfering with competitive market forces and they are exploiting producers on end of the food supply chain and consumers on the other,” Bullard said.

Bullard says Trump could help cattle producers by placing a quota on imported beef and impose higher tariffs on beef imports once that quota is reached.

(Radio Iowa) – World Food Prize events are underway in Des Moines as several thousand government officials, researchers and food producers from around the globe gather for panel discussions and recognition of this year’s World Food Prize winner. Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack is C-E-O of the World Food Prize Foundation. “We are welcoming the world to Iowa and we are lifting up issues involving food, agriculture, and the serious challenge we face in terms of food insecurity here at home and around the world,” Vilsack said. Vilsack says the annual event is meant to showcase innovation and research that allows farmers to be more productive.

“An opportunity to have some really substantive conversation about food and food security,” Vilsack said. Tomorrow’s (Tuesday’s) schedule includes a discussion of hunger hotspots and a panel of people from the American Soybean Association. Vilsack says there’s a chance tariffs will be discussed. “But I think the focus is going to be, as it needs to be, on innovation and on science and on the extraordinary work that’s being done by researchers,” Vilsack said. “As Dr. Borlaug often said tell the farmer, give it to the farmer, give the tools the farmer and the farmer will respond by being extraordinarily productive. You know, we want to make sure that we’re true to that legacy.”

Cresco, Iowa, native Norman Borlaug won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work improving wheat yields. He founded the World Food Prize in 1986 to recognize breakthroughs in improving the quality or quantity of food. The concluding event this week will honor this year’s World Food Prize laureate. “Dr. (Mariangela) Hungria has done extraordinary research that has led to ways in which soybeans can basically create this sort of self-fertilizing if you will so that you don’t have to have as much synthetic fertilizer, which is good for the environment,” Vilsack said, “and certainly good for the bottom line for farmers.”

A researcher was awarded the 1993 Nobel Price in physics and medicine for genetic research is scheduled to speak tomorrow (Tuesday). Sir Richard Roberts — knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2008 — is currently the chief science officer at New England Biolabs.

(Winfield, Iowa) — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is investigating a hog manure spill into a Louisa County creek near Winfield, following a pumping incident. According to a DNR news release, a crew from the manure application business Catnip Ridge was applying manure to a field Thursday when a break in a line caused an unknown amount of manure to spill into a tributary of Roff Creek.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources is investigating a hog manure spill into an unnamed tributary in Louisa County. (Photo courtesy of Iowa DNR)

DNR said the applicator team took “immediate action” to stop pumping and to clamp the line once the tear, which DNR later discovered was from friction against an iron fence post hidden in some vegetation, was discovered. The spill occurred in a road ditch northeast of Winfield at the intersection of Q Avenue and 65th Street. The Catnip Ridge crew placed dams in several areas along the tributary and plugged a nearby culvert to keep the manure from entering the creek, DNR reported.

Fresh water was added to the spilled area to help the crew flush the tributary and pump out the spilled manure. When DNR staff assessed the scene Thursday, initial water monitoring tests showed elevated levels of  ammonia, but staff did not observe any dead fish.

According to the release, when staff returned Friday morning to the site, “a small number of dead fish were observed” in the tributary, but the plugged culvert had prevented further downstream migration of the manure. The DNR said it will continue to monitor the cleanup efforts and investigate the incident to determine if further enforcement action is necessary.

It was the second manure spill reported the DNR reported last week, the first was also contained to an unnamed tributary in Carroll County.

(Radio Iowa) – Congressman Randy Feenstra — a Republican who’s planning to launch a campaign for governor soon — supports the federal tax credits that could go to the developer of a proposed carbon pipeline, but Feenstra opposes the Iowa Utilities Commission’s decision to give Summit Carbon Solutions authority to seize land from unwilling property owners along the pipeline route.

Republicans have been divided on the issue since Summit announced in early 2021 that it planned to build a pipeline to capture carbon from ethanol plants in Iowa and other Midwestern states. This spring, a dozen Republicans joined Democrats in the state senate and passed a pipeline-related bill. Governor Reynolds wound up vetoing that bill, which would have limited the use of eminent domain for construction of carbon pipelines. Feenstra hasn’t indicated whether he would have done the same.

That’s the same eminent domain position taken by the three Republicans who’ve already launched campaigns for governor this year. Feenstra has long argued that homegrown Iowa ethanol will help make the U.S. energy independent and that carbon capture would enhance Iowa’s ethanol industry and support Iowa’s corn growers.

The proposed pipeline was an issue in Feenstra’s 2024 re-election campaign when a G-O-P challenger got the votes of nearly a third of the Republicans who voted in the fourth congressional district primary.