(Updated 9-a.m.) OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Tyson Foods says it is planning to open medical clinics at several of its U.S. plants to improve the health of its workers and better protect them from the coronavirus. The Springdale, Arkansas-based company, which processes about 20% of all beef, pork and chicken in the U.S., said Thursday that its plan to open the clinics was in the works before the coronavirus struck this year, but that they will undoubtedly help the company respond to the pandemic.

Tyson says it would initially set up clinics near seven of its plants, including in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Holcomb, Kansas, in a pilot program. Tyson joins a long list of companies that have clinics on or near their worksites.

(Radio Iowa) – California Congresswoman Katie Porter says one of the lessons she learned growing up in southwest Iowa during the Farm Crisis was that Washington politicians weren’t there for Iowans when it really mattered.  “Iowa’s not just a place you visit every four years,” Porter said. “It is a home. It is a place where people are raising families and building an economy, taking care of loved ones.”

Porter was last (Wednesday) night’s keynote speaker for Progress Iowa’s 6th Annual, but first-ever virtual Corn Feed fundraiser. Porter, who was born in Fort Dodge and grew up in Lorimor, talked about the day in 1983 when the bank in Afton failed and was closed. Porter shifted to the 2020 campaign as she concluded, telling Iowa Democrats there’s work to be done at both the national and local level.

“I know that campaigning this year looks a little different,” Porter says, “…It’s more phone calls and less large rallies, but those conversations count just as much.”

Porter is a former consumer protection lawyer and law professor who won a first term in the U.S. House in 2018. She’s garnered the attention of Democratic Party activists for the way she questions witnesses at congressional hearings, including her quizzing of the U.S. Postmaster General last month. She now joins past presidential candidates like 2020 Iowa Caucus winner Pete Buttigieg as having been a keynote speaker at the Progress Iowa Corn Feed.

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) – Planting was ahead of schedule and that along with the drought could push the harvest time up this year. Iowa State University Extension agronomist Joel DeJong says there are several area soybean fields that have begun turning color and showing signs of drying. “Significantly earlier than we would normally expect, but we did plant our soybean crop earlier this year too — and I think that is part of the reason,” DeJong says.  He says the soybeans need more rain to fill out the beans in the pods. He says there are many fields where the beans are shutting down their growth prematurely and he believes that will impact the soybean size pretty dramatically.

DeJong says not all the crops are hurting. He says there will be huge ranges where beans on sandy ground shut down weeks ago without rain and their pods didn’t fill, while there are others that hung on and they are filling the pods a lot better.  DeJong sees a lot of the same thing in cornfields. “Parts of those fields you’ve seen the ears drop – and that’s pretty much an indicator they’ve quit growing,” DeJong says. He says the early shutdown will also impact the final product in corn. He says the kernel size is likely to be a little smaller. DeJong says it could end up with the soybean and corn harvest happening in about the same time.

DeJong says he never had a good rain at his home in Le Mars this growing season. The Iowa State University crops specialist says the only saving grace to this year’s yield is that we began the season with adequate amounts of subsoil moisture.

(Radio Iowa) — Former U-S Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has some advice for current AG Secretary Sonny Perdue, who is scheduled to visit Iowa tomorrow (Thursday). “First and foremost Secretary Perdue obviously needs to visit a farm. He needs to talk to farmers and he also needs to hear the concerns that have been expressed by the biofuels industry about the waivers,” Vilsack says.

The oil industry is seeking exemptions from the Renewable Fuels Standard requirement that ethanol be blended into gasoline. Vilsack says Perdue can carry the message from farm country back to Washington. “He needs to hear the fact that the EPA is sitting on 98 waivers,” Vilsack says, “that they need to be acted on and denied.” Vilsack says four billion fewer gallons of ethanol have been produced over the last several years, pushing corn prices lower.

Perdue is scheduled to take a helicopter tour over fields leveled by last month’s derecho and visit agribusinesses in the Ames area. Perdue also plans to visit a farm where wetlands have been restored.

An open burning ban is in-place for Pottawattamie County, until further notice. The ban went into effect at 5-p.m. Tuesday, September 1st. It prohibits all open and controlled burning in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, including all incorporated city limits within the county.

Pott. County EMA

The current drought conditions throughout the county in combination with unharvested crops present an increased risk for the potential of rapid fire spread. Controlled fires can quickly become uncontrollable.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) program, Pottawattamie County is currently classified in the Severe Drought (D2) classification. More information on current drought conditions can be found at https://www.drought.gov/drought/states/iowa.

Pott. County Emergency Management Director Doug Reed says “Pottawattamie County has seen the devastating effects of fire in extreme conditions and we want to do everything we can to help mitigate incidents like that from occurring.” During these dry conditions, citizens are reminded to not throw out cigarettes from moving vehicles and to discontinue burning yard waste, piled tree debris, grass/agricultural ground and set-asides or other items during the ban.

Small recreational camp fires are permitted only if they are conducted in a fire place of brick, metal or heavy one-inch wire mesh. Any camp fire not in an outdoor fire place is prohibited.

(Radio Iowa) – With millions of acres of Iowa cropland flattened by last month’s derecho, a webinar is planned for tomorrow (Wednesday) targeting Iowa farmers who need to address the challenges of managing those destroyed crops. While officials initially estimated 14-million acres were impacted, field agronomist Meaghan Anderson, at the Iowa State University Extension, says at least three-and-a-half million acres of corn are shot. “There are a lot of acres that we would consider to be not salvageable at this point,” Anderson says, “and a number of them have already been tilled under or the residue has been managed in one way or another because they’ve been deemed to be not mechanically harvestable.”

The August 10th storm, with peak straight-line winds of 140 miles an hour, hit at a point when most of Iowa’s corn crop was at maximum height and all of the roots were fully developed. Anderson says there’s no hope for the corn that was knocked down being able to right itself — and the majority of the ears are worthless. “The corn is very light so it’s very poor quality,” Anderson says. “It’s going to be very hard to dry down and that’s even if we could pick it up off the ground. Some of it is just so flat that there’s not a way that we could physically get it into a combine.”

The derecho left a significant amount of acreage where the corn can’t be harvested, which creates a challenge in fields across the state. “Most people are going to need to attempt to do some kind of residue management with it, at the very least to size the corn stalks,” Anderson says. “Instead of being six-plus-foot long corn stalks, we really need them to be smaller pieces of corn stalk, especially when we think about planting next spring.” Some farmers might be able to allow livestock to graze on the fallen corn, but there are practical difficulties with that option, too. She says some growers are struggling as they look to the 2021 growing season. “Nobody wants to talk about all the corn that’s on the ground,” Anderson says, “but talking about how we can best manage these fields looking toward next year and what we need to be thinking about for next year, those are all important discussion points that we’ll have on Wednesday.”

The webinar will run from 1 to 2 P-M. It’s free but registration is required at www.aep.iastate.edu/corn

(Lewis) – The Cass County Conservation Board is holding a “Movie in the Park” Campground Program, Friday, Sept. 4th, with a showing of “Captain Marvel.” The public program will be held at the Campground Shelter at Cold Springs Park in Lewis, beginning at 9-p.m! There is NO CHARGE. Officials encourage social distancing, with marked spaces for each family, during the movie.

Watch as Captain Marvel becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. Come out for a great movie under the stars! Bring a blanket or chair, snacks, Dress for the weather. The event may be rescheduled to a later date if it rains, and You DO NOT have to be a registered camper to attend the program!

Data chart provided by Aaron Saeugling, ISU Field Agronomist, based in Lewis.