(IA DNR) – The inaugural season for the Iowa Deer Exchange has attracted 350 Iowans who indicated they were interested in receiving venison and 60 hunters willing to provide it.  The deer exchange, along with the Help us Stop Hunger (HUSH) program, allows hunters an opportunity to provide high quality lean protein to their neighbors, while continuing to do what they enjoy – hunting deer. Officials say they are pleased with the participation we’ve seen thus far, and the large number of registered recipients shows there’s an audience who wants venison. They’re encouraging hunters who are making their plans now to consider picking up another doe tag and registering to donate venison.

To sign up for the Iowa Deer Exchange, go to www.iowadnr.gov/deer then scroll down to Iowa’s Deer Exchange Program link and fill out the required fields. The database creates a map and table with information deer donors and deer recipients can use to get connected. There is no cost to participate. It is illegal to sell wild fish and game in Iowa.

Hunter who prefer to use the HUSH program are encouraged to contact a participating locker before they harvest a deer to see if the locker has any additional drop off instructions. The list of participating lockers is available at www.iowadnr.gov/deer the scroll down to the Help Us Stop Hunger link. The HUSH program is a partnership between the Iowa DNR, the Food Bank of Iowa and participating meat lockers.

(Radio Iowa) – Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says this year’s increase in farm income is leading to an increase in farmland prices. “Farmers are out there and they’re feeling better about the economy, but unfortunately we’re not seeing it in the businesses on what we call ‘Rural Mainstreet,'” Goss says. Every month, Goss surveys rural bankers for a Rural Mainstreet Index. His latest survey indicates the economy in Iowa and nine other states in the Great Plains and Mountain West will dip in the current 4th quarter.

“It looks like we’re hitting a hiccup in the global economy and a hiccup in the US economy and, for that matter, in the regional economy,” Goss says. “Growth is just slowing down and potentially moving what was a V shaped recovery into a W shaped recovery — in other words, back down into the recession.” But Goss says farmland and commodity prices have beem climbing fairly dramatically this fall, leading to optimism in the ag sector. About a third of U.S. farm income this year will have come, though, from the Trump Administration’s payments to make up for trade losses and Goss says those are likely to end with the Trump presidency.

“On the flip side, we’re likely to see the Biden Administration be a little more positive on trade,” Goss says. “…You’ve got some positives and some negatives. I expect 2021 – at least as we sit here now — to be pretty good for the agricultural sector given the expansion on trade.” And Goss says rising global oil prices are generally good news for the state’s ethanol industry as well.

(Radio Iowa) – Most of us won’t likely remember 2020 fondly but as we enter the year’s home stretch, Iowans are urged to find something beautiful and capture an image of it. Kevin Techau, executive director of Keep Iowa Beautiful, says the organization’s 20th annual photography contest is now accepting entries. “We have five categories: Iowa Landscape, Iowa Water, Iowa Cities, Iowans in Action and Iowa Wildlife,” Techau says. “Contestants can enter as many times as they’d like in any of these categories to capture the beauty of Iowa and we do have prizes to award the best photography.”

Keep Iowa Beautiful was co-founded by former Governor Robert Ray in 2000 as a way to help communities make the state a better place to live, work and raise a family. Photography was one of Ray’s favorite hobbies, so the photo contest has been an annual staple ever since. A panel is being assembled to narrow down the best entries. “We’re going to have a round of judges that will pick winners from each of the five and those will go into the Robert D. Ray Best of Show Award,” Techau says. “In fact, Governor Ray’s eldest daughter, Randi Ray, will be one of the judges who helps make that decision.”

The contest was expanded this year in honor of the 20th anniversary. “The first prize winner in each of the categories, the prizes are $100, $75 for second and $50 for third place, and then in the Best of Show, first place will be $500, second place $250 and third place $100, and then we’ll have a public award where the public can vote for their favorites and we’ll have $100 prize for the winners in that category.”

There’s a $5 fee for each photo entered with a deadline of December 18th. The rules and entry forms can be found at the website: www.keepiowabeautiful.com.

(Radio Iowa) – Many of us will enjoy a Thanksgiving meal today (Thursday) prepared at home — while some have purchased a prepared meal and will have it delivered. The Iowa Farm Bureau’s director of agriculture analytics and research, Sam Funk, says it is important as we move past the holiday to continue supporting local restaurants and other businesses. “I think there is a lot of that food service sector right now who are depending on people being able to use carry out and bringing those cash flows into your local community,” he says. Funk says it helps those businesses — and it also helps those ag producers who supply food to them. “We depend on all segments of our food service industry in order to make for a strong and thriving community. And frankly, to strengthen the opportunities that we have to be able to market products all throughout that supply chain,” according to Funk.

Funk says the U-S has one of the lowest costs of food in the world — but there are still people struggling — and that is important to remember. “I’m hopeful that we will all remember those that might not be as fortunate as even we are. And at the same time, if we have a warm place to be able to lay our heads at night and a roof over our families, hopefully, we will be able to think about those who are having a tougher time right now,” Funk says. He says the pandemic has forced us to become isolated from others and limited the opportunities to go out and volunteer. But he says that doesn’t mean we still can’t help out by donating to food banks and to organizations that help others. “There’s still opportunities that we have to be able to give. And if there is an opportunity that we have to be able to volunteer again — I think that’s an important aspect to carry forward,” Funk says.

Funk says he is confident Iowans will continue meeting the challenges we are facing and will continue helping others as well.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska is creating the nation’s largest tribal national park on a forested bluff overlooking the Missouri River and a historic site of its people. The tribe says the 444-acre park will allow it to tell the story of the Ioway people and provide a rustic getaway where people can hike, camp and bird-watch.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that the Ioway Tribal National Park will overlook a historic trading village once used by the Ioway people to barter for buffalo hides and pipestones with other tribes. That site includes three burial mounds that date back 3,000 years.

Atlantic High School Agriculture Instructor and FFA Advisor Eric Miller reports the Atlantic FFA Chapter placed 4th in the annual Iowa FFA Farm Management Career Development Event virtually on November 12th. Members of the first place team included: Drey Newell, Caroline Pellett, Gunner Kirchhoff, and Garrett Reynolds.

Drey Newell, Caroline Pellett, Garrett Reynolds, Gunner Kirchhoff

FFA teams from 26 chapters participated in this year’s Career Development Event designed to provide the student an opportunity to display their agricultural knowledge and skills in the area of Farm Management. The 95 individuals who participated in the event each completed an objective test which had three sections: economic principles, records and analysis, and risk management. All team members worked together to solve a problem related to break even analysis.

The Iowa FFA Farm Business Management Career Development Event was made possible with support from the Iowa Farm Business Association through the Iowa FFA Foundation. Dr. Ron Deiter, Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, was the Career Development Event coordinator and prepared the test.

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The Iowa FFA Association is a youth organization of over 16,100 student members as part of 246 local FFA chapters across Iowa. The FFA mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. The Iowa FFA Association was organized by delegates from 23 schools at Iowa State College on May 17, 1929 and is an integral part of public instruction in agriculture. The Iowa Department of Education provides leadership and helps set direction for FFA as a service to local agricultural education programs. For more, visit the Iowa FFA Association online at IowaFFA.com, on Facebook, and Twitter.

(Radio Iowa)n – The pheasant season opened on October 31st with a lot of optimism about bird numbers and the prospects for a good season. Iowa D-N-R wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says a lack of phone calls to his office tells him things are looking good. “I haven’t gotten hardly any calls at all –so that means it’s going well,” Bogenschutz says. “Because, if it’s going bad I get the complaints.”

He says the one complaint he’s gotten is a lack of birds in eastern Iowa near Davenport. Bogenschutz says that’s due to a lack of habitat there. He says everything heading into the opener pointed to the potential for success. “We kind of expected that things would be pretty decent. It was a little hard with the roadside counts and the drought, because that does impact the birds that we count. Generally in those regions where the counts weren’t as good, people are pretty pleasantly surprised,”Bogenschutz says. “The weather has been pretty challenging. We’ve had a lot of windy days, some dry days, warm days at least in the first part of the season that make hunting challenging.”

He says calm winds make it easier for dogs to smell the birds and keeps them from moving. “A little bit of snow and the lack of wind is generally ideal. The birds tend to hold better when its calmer and scenting conditions are a better when we’ve got a little moisture,” he says. Bogenschutz says they will have some exact numbers when they get the survey information in after the season ends.

Area Emergency Responders, firefighters, EMT’s, law enforcement and EMA personnel are being informed Due to current circumstances and social distancing the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) will be offering 4-hour long Ethanol Safety Webinars. The FREE webinars are instructed by a nationally accredited and professional instructor with an extensive background in emergency management/firefighting/hazardous materials response. The goal of these seminars is for attendees to gain a full ethanol and ethanol-blended fuel emergency response training experience that can be put to use immediately in the field.

The training program will include the following elements: Ethanol and Ethanol-Blended Fuels, Chemical and Physical Characteristics of Ethanol and Hydrocarbon Fuels, Transportation and Transfer, Storage and Dispensing Locations, Fire Fighting Foam Principles, General Health and Safety Considerations, and Storage and Pre-planning Considerations. Certificates of Participation will be awarded to all registered attendees once the webinar has been completed.

The RFA has conducted nearly 300 in person Ethanol Safety Seminars across the country.

Registration: https://www.transcaer.com/training/training-events/ethanol-emergency-response-webinars/10065

Sessions:

Tue, 12/08/2020 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Wed, 12/09/2020 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 01/27/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 01/28/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 02/24/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 02/25/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 03/24/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 03/25/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 04/21/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 04/22/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT

RFA also offers Ethanol Emergency Response – Train the Trainer webinars which is a pay-it-forward type of program. A single webinar can train a group of individuals who can then turn around and pass that information forward, equipping entire communities with the knowledge necessary to respond to any potential ethanol-related emergency.  The Train the Trainer courses are intended to develop instructors to lead operations level training. The instructors are responders who have an awareness level of hazardous material storage, handing, and emergency response. The learning objectives established are relevant objectives that the instructors must understand. The webinars are open to all professional individuals above the technical level of training who are interested in learning how to teach ethanol emergency response. However, the instruction is tailored toward ethanol production facility employees, ethanol safety professionals, railroad safety professionals, emergency responders, firefighters, police officers, emergency management professionals, etc. Certificates of Participation will be awarded to all registered attendees once the webinar has been completed.

Registration: https://www.transcaer.com/training/training-events/train-trainer-ethanol-emergency-response-webinar/10071

Sessions:

Wed, 12/02/2020 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST
Tue, 03/09/2021 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST
Thu, 06/17/2021 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST
Tue, 08/24/2021 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST

• KJAN, Atlantic  .13″
• 7 miles NNE of Atlantic  .12″
• Massena  .25″
• Anita  .05″
• Audubon  .07″
• Corning  .49″
• Neola  .5″
• Red Oak  .22″
• Clarinda  .57″
• Shenandoah  .45″

w/Kate Olson.

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