CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Iowa Agribusiness Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Iowa Agribusiness Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
Officials with ISU Extension and Outreach acknowledge this past winter and early spring have been challenging to crop producers and those in the Ag Industry. The Extension has, therefore, published several crop news articles that are timely to producers. The latest articles include: Equipment Considerations for Anhydrous Ammonia Application; Effects of Unharvested, Shattered, or Hailed-out Soybean Fields on Nutrient Supply for Corn; and, Spring Burndown Treatments for Winter Annual Weeds.
Click on this link to read those articles and more, as you prepare for the planting season: https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/cropnews
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Farmer Jeff Jorgenson looks out over 750 acres of cropland submerged beneath the swollen Missouri River, and he knows he probably won’t plant this year. But that’s not his biggest worry. He and other farmers have worked until midnight for days to move grain, equipment and fuel barrels away from the floodwaters fed by heavy rain and snowmelt.
The rising water that has damaged hundreds of homes and been blamed for three deaths has also taken a heavy toll on agriculture, inundating thousands of acres, threatening stockpiled grain and killing livestock.
In Fremont County alone, Jorgenson estimates that more than a million bushels of corn and nearly half a million bushels of soybeans have been lost after water overwhelmed grain bins before they could be emptied of last year’s crop. His calculation using local grain prices puts the financial loss at more than $7 million in grain alone. That’s for about 28 farmers in his immediate area, he said.
Once it’s deposited in bins, grain is not insured, so it’s just lost money. This year farmers have stored much more grain than normal because of a large crop last year and fewer markets in which to sell soybeans because of a trade dispute with China.
“The economy in agriculture is not very good right now. It will end some of these folks farming, family legacies, family farms,” he said. “There will be farmers that will be dealing with so much of a negative they won’t be able to tolerate it.”
Jorgenson, 43, who has farmed since 1998, reached out to friends Saturday, and they helped him move his grain out of bins to an elevator. Had they not acted, he would have lost $135,000.
The flooding is expected to continue throughout the week in several states as high water flows down the Missouri River. Swollen rivers have already breached more than a dozen levees in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. The flooding, which started after a massive late-winter storm last week, has also put some hog farms in southwest Iowa underwater. The dead animals inside must be disposed of, Reynolds said.
The water rose so quickly that farmers in many areas had no time to get animals out, said Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University. “Places that haven’t seen animal loss have seen a lot of animal stress. That means they’re not gaining weight and won’t be marketed in as timely a manner, which results in additional cost,” he said.
(Radio Iowa) — The wet conditions in the State have caused issues with the handling of human and animal waste. D-N-R Environmental Specialist, Doyle McKeever, says they got an anonymous report last week of manure runoff reaching Storm Lake. “We went down and investigated and we found runoff running to the lake on the south side. And it appeared it was coming from a field application to the south of the lake that was flowing towards Storm Lake,” McKeever says.
McKeever says they traced runoff to manure application on fields at Don Jackson’s Pike Farms cattle feedlot. He says Pike had been spreading manure for three days. “They’re going to stop applying and we did field tests to determine if there was ammonia present or not,” McKeever says. “…and we have to send in lab samples in to verify the field testing that was done.” McKeever says Pike is going to stockpile the manure until the conditions are better for applying it to the land. Ice covering the lake prevented them from knowing if there were any dead fish. He says producers have had issues with finding the right time to apply manure without it getting into waterways. “It’s kind of been a whole cycle since last year. With wet, rainy conditions, it’s hard to get out there and land apply,” he says.
McKeever says they are asking livestock producers to be aware of the conditions. “Look at the forecast and see what’s coming. If it’s going to rain or warm up quickly — obviously you are going to have runoff. You want to deter from land applying at that point,” McKeever says. McKeever says the rain has filled up some holding lagoons and the large amount of snow has added to the issue of trying to find dry ground to apply manure. “It creates a difficult situation for everybody,” McKeever says.
The D-N-R also had to address high levels of water in two earthen manure storage basins located about 20 miles east of Council Bluffs. D-N-R staff observed diluted manure-laden water into two different unnamed streams from Cyclone Cattle owned by Russell Keast. The D-N-R required Keast to stop both discharges. The investigation is ongoing and no dead fish were found. McKeever says livestock producers should contact their local D-N-R field office if they have questions about manure spreading.
The Iowa D-N-R reported earlier in the week that there were “several” wastewater discharges from city treatment plants. A spokesman in the Des Moines field office says rapid snow melt and rainfall overwhelmed city treatment plants causing several communities in northwest, western and southern Iowa to report wastewater discharges.
CARSON – Iowa DNR field office staff have been working with an animal feeding operation to address high levels of water in two earthen manure storage basins located about 20 miles east of Council Bluffs. On March 11th, DNR staff observed effluent flowing over the top of one basin when visiting Russell Keast, owner of Cyclone Cattle, located at 36488 Beechnut Road, near Carson. Keast confirmed he had stopped the discharge by March 12th.
However, upon follow-up on March 15th, DNR staff discovered both on-site basins overflowing with effluent, or diluted manure-laden water, flowing into two different unnamed streams. Iowa DNR is requiring Keast to stop both discharges. The investigation is ongoing.
No dead fish were observed. DNR staff collected water samples for analysis. The Iowa DNR will continue to monitor the situation and consider appropriate enforcement action.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed into law a bill designed to prosecute people who get hired at a farm in order to work undercover to report on animal living conditions.
The bill was approved by the Senate and House on Tuesday and signed into law by Reynolds on Thursday. It creates a trespass charge for undercover investigators. An animal welfare group that successfully sued the state for a previous ag-gag law says it will sue again to challenge the new law’s constitutionality.
Matthew Liebman, director of litigation for The Animal Legal Defense Fund, says that like its predecessor the new law violates the free speech rights of investigative journalists and undercover investigators.
The measure comes just two months after a federal judge struck down an Iowa law passed in 2012 that the court concluded violated free-speech rights. That ruling is on appeal.
The 2012 law was approved following high-profile undercover investigations by animal welfare groups who videotaped practices they claimed were abusive toward animals and then publicized the images.
The current flooding impacting parts of Iowa is also causing some closures at state parks and recreational areas throughout the state.
The rapidly rising flood waters have caused full or partial closings at the following state parks:
The safety of park visitors is the number one priority for DNR. Some parks could be closed for several days to allow the water to recede and cleanup efforts to take place before any visitors will be allowed back into the impacted areas.
For the latest list of closures and any updates affecting state parks and recreational areas, visit: https://www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Parks/Alerts-and-Closures.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A new report says Iowa farmland values fell 2.7 percent over the past year, in part because of trade disputes. The Iowa Chapter of the Realtors Land Institute says the decline occurred despite federal government’s trade bailout program, limited land and higher yields in some parts of Iowa. The Des Moines Register reports the statewide average was nearly $6,800 an acre. The institute says trade wars with Canada, China, Mexico and other countries tugged on farmland values, especially last fall, as did tightening cash for operations and higher interest rates.
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