DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say an investigation into animal treatment at an Iowa state lawmaker’s hog farm found no evidence that animals were being abused despite video that a group posted that appeared to show otherwise. Two people with California-based Direct Action Everywhere entered a hog farm last spring owned by Republican Iowa state Sen. Ken Rozenboom.

Mahaska County Sheriff Russell Van Renterghem says an investigation didn’t find any abuse. Rozenboom said he decided in December to lease the hog building to a different farmer. He has said veterinary records show the herd was being treated for a respiratory infection that contributed to the problems Direct Action Everywhere documented.

(Atlantic FFA Reporter submittal) – On Wednesday, February 12th, 2020, 21 members of the Atlantic FFA chapter competed in the Sub District Career Development Events with four advancing to District FFA Convention.

Extempt Speaker Carli Henderson

FFA member Carli Henderson competed in the Extemporaneous Speaking category placing 1st earning a Gold and advancing to Districts.  Craig Alan Becker competed in Ag Sales earning a Gold placing 2nd and advancing to Districts. Andrew Engler competed in the Ag Broadcasting CDE placing 3rd earning a Gold and advancing to Districts.  Gunner Kirchhoff competed in the Ag Welding contest placing 1st earning a gold and advancing to Districts.

Ag Broadcasting Andrew Engler

Ag Sales Craig Becker

Ag Welding Gunner Kirchhoff

Taylor McCreedy competed in the Public Speaking CDE placing 4th earning a Silver and will be the alternate to Districts. The Conduct of Meetings team of Aspen Niklasen, Malena Woodward, Wyatt Redinbaugh Sofia Mendez, Dan Freund, Dylan Comes, and Jackson McLaren placed 4th earning a Silver and will be the alternate to Districts.  The Chapter Program team of Cooper Jipsen, Bryan York and Logan Eilts placed 4th earning a Silver and will be the alternate to Districts.  Tate DenBeste competed in Job interview earning Silver placing 5th.

In the Farm Business Management Test Atlantic FFA had 3 members compete, Drey Newell, Hannah Carlson and Caroline Pellett. Newell placed 1st, Carlson was 2nd and Pellett was 3rd. In the FFA Freshman Greenhand Quiz, Atlantic FFA had 4 members participate. Dylan Comes placed 6th, Sofia Mendez placed 7th, Jackson McLaren placed 8th and Dan Freund placed 22nd.

FFA advisor Eric Miller commented, “I was proud of all the hard work members put into preparing for their event.”

w/Max Dirks.

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(Radio Iowa) — A northern Iowa farmer who’s been in the legislature nearly 12 years is proposing a new “corn state” license plate design. Senator Tim Kapucian, of Keystone, has drafted a bill that would carry out his vision. “It’ll say at the top of the plate: ‘The Corn State’ and then it’ll be a white plate with black letters,” Kapucian says, “and then behind the lettering there’ll be some type of an ear of corn.” Kapucian says when he saw how popular the state’s new “black out” specialty license plates have been, he decided to ask his fellow legislators to embrace this idea.

Kapucian expects plenty of farmers to be interested in getting one of these plates for their pick-ups. “I know I’m going to be in line to get one of these if we get it done,” Kapucian says. His neighbor has a license plate collection. It includes a mid-1950s black-and-white plate that has “THE CORN STATE” in capital letters at the bottom of the plate. “Every state has something on their license plate that makes them stand out and we used to have that…If people recognize an ear of corn, they’ll think: ‘Iowa!” he says. “You know you see the bucking bronc with the cowboy, we know that’s Wyoming.”

Kapucian’s plate plan has cleared a Senate subcommittee. His bill would have to pass through at least five other steps in the legislative process before it could be sent to the governor for review.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa D-N-R reports a drop in the number of deer taken by hunters this year. D-N-R Wildlife Biologist, Tyler Harms, says the drop coincides with a drop in the number of hunters. “We saw about a three percent drop in license sales and about a 14 percent drop in the deer harvest statewide this year,” Harms says. The deer taken dropped to 94-thousand — compared to nearly 108-thousand the year before. Harms says an outbreak of disease is likely behind the drop in license sales. “We had a significant outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease across the state. And that could’ve resulted in lower numbers of deer out on the landscape — and ultimately resulting in lower harvest,” Harms says. “We do know after an outbreak that we had in 2012 and 2013 we had similar trends in terms of license sales and harvest. So in other words — when we see these big E-H-D outbreaks statewide — we would expect to see a slight drop in both license sales and harvest.”

Harms says some hunters want to help the deer recover from such outbreaks. “Our hunters are conservationists, and so when they perceive that there’s a threat to the deer population, if they are seeing fewer deer, they are going to make decisions to not harvest deer. To not put additional pressure on the deer population,” Harms says. He expects future deer season will return to harvests of 100-thousand or more. Harms says the disease outbreaks cause some concern, but they monitor the deer population closely. “Both at local scales and also statewide. And we would anticipate, given what we know about the deer population status in Iowa currently, that the deer population would recover back to goal levels,” Harms says.

The state also reported the most positive tests for Chronic Wasting Disease this season since it started the testing. Harms says that is also a concern. “What we’re trying to do is gather more information on where the disease is and what the prevalence of the disease is in certain areas,” Harms says. “And then that helps us make a decision on how we are going monitor and manage the deer population moving forward to try and reduce disease spread and disease prevalence.” Harms says hunters have been very helpful in trying to manage the spread of C-W-D. He says they can continue to do that by following some simple steps. “Like refraining from putting mineral licks or bait piles out for deer — because that artificially congregates the deer with contributes to the spread. And then also minimizing carcass transport,” Harms says.

He says transporting the carcasses of deer that are infected can spread the disease.

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) — The number of wild deer testing positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the season that just ended dramatically increased. D-N-R spokesman, Mick Klemesrud, says they get samples from hunters throughout the season. “Seven-thousand samples were collected and submitted — and form that we had 43 new positives this year — bringing our grand total since we had our first positive to 89,” Klemesrud says.

The first C-W-D positive was confirmed in the 2013-2014 hunting season and the number of confirmed cases were in the single digits until the 2016-2017 year when there were 12. The 43 confirmed cases this year surpasses the previous high of 18 found in the 2018-2019 year. “We’ve confirmed them for the first time in wild deer in four new counties — and that’s Woodbury, Winnekshiek, Fayette and Decatur,” according to Klemesrud. “So, we’ll be reaching out to our local hunters and people who hunt that area and setting up some meeting in early spring and talk about what that means to them, and how we want to go about trying to slow this disease.”

C-W-D attacks the brain of the deer and is always fatal. Klemesrud says it is not the same as Hemorrhagic Disease. “People get Hemorrhagic Disease and Chronic Wasting Disease mixed up. If you think about Hemorrhagic Disease — it’s really fast moving — where the deer if it gets bit by a midge that has the virus it’ll not always die, but if it does die, it’s usually really fast, 36 to 48 hours and it is dead,” Klemesrud says.

“Chronic Wasting Disease is something they can pick up and transmit from deer-to-deer — but it takes 18 months for that to really get going in the deer.” Klemesrud says the D-N-R will continue its effort to slow C-W-D. “It’s in every state around us, we are hoping we see some advances in science to help us battle this. And so we are trying to work with our hunters to maintain in these areas where we have Chronic Wasting Disease, we like to see our numbers towards our lower end of our goal. This is a deer-to-deer transmission issue,” he says.

Klemesrud says it is something they want to try and slow down. “It’s definitely a concern. We’re hoping that if we can go as slow as we can and keep the spread down, hopefully science will catch up and give us some answers here,” Klemesrud says. It is not believed that humans can contract C-W-D by eating venison; however, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends, when hunting in areas with C-W-D that hunters strongly consider having the deer tested they eat the meat. The D-N-R provides a way to check on C-W-D tests on their website.

Council bluffs – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is hosting a series of town hall-style meetings where local staff will provide updates on recently completed hunting and trapping seasons, discuss possible changes to rules and regulations, and address other topics as requested.

Locally, the Iowa DNR will be at the Fish and Game Club, 531 Commanche Street, Council Bluffs, on Feb. 25. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. Todd Bishop, chief of the Iowa DNR’s Wildlife Bureau, says “We want people to come out, listen to the seasons reviews, ask questions and hear directly from our staff. Part of the meeting will be devoted to discussing potential rule changes and collecting feedback as we work through the rules process.”

The meetings are open to the public. Comments collected from these public meetings will be considered along with other related comments received by the Iowa DNR prior to proposing changes to hunting rules and regulations. Proposed rules will be presented to the Natural Resource Commission during a regular public meeting for consideration and additional public comment.

These meetings replace the one night listening session held in late winter over the past 15 years.

Any person attending the public meeting and has special requirements, such as those related to mobility or hearing impairments, should contact the Iowa DNR or ADA Coordinator at 515-725-8200, Relay Iowa TTY Service 800-735-7942, or Webmaster@dnr.iowa.gov, and advise of specific needs.

You’re invited to attend the 29th annual meeting of the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research and Development, scheduled for Wednesday, February 26, 2020, at The Learning Center located at the ISU Armstrong Research Farm near Lewis (Iowa). This year’s program will begin at 9:30 AM Featured speakers are Chad Hart, ISU Associate Professor of Economics Crop Markets Specialist Extension Economist (Topic: History of Revenue Insurance and Market Update), and Julie McMichael, Area Soil Research Scientist, who will discuss Soil Health.

A complimentary lunch will be served at 11:30, followed by the annual business meeting at 12:30.

The Armstrong Research Farm is located 12 miles southwest of Atlantic on Highway 6, half a mile south on 525th Street, and half a mile east on Hitchcock Avenue; or 13 miles east of Oakland on Highway 6, half a mile south on 525th Street, and half a mile east on Hitchcock Avenue.

For more information contact the Wallace Foundation at 712-769-2650 or raelynb@iastate.edu.

Officials with the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources invite you to join Springbrook State Park staff for two events, on Saturday, February 22nd. At 10 a.m., build “make and take” suet bird feeders at Springbrook’s For the Birds event. And, spend the afternoon on a hike using GPS technology to navigate geological and historical sites in the park at CSA 163 Discovering Prehistory, Geology and Fossils with GPS. More details can be found on the Parks 2020 calendar.

And, the Iowa DNR says for campers interested in spending Memorial Day weekend in a state park, the three-month window to reserve a campsite opens Saturday, February 22nd. Memorial Day weekend will be May 22 through May 25. Now is a good time to start planning an overnight stay to a state park this summer. Information on Iowa’s state parks is available online including the link to make reservations. Campers can also log on directly to the reservation site.