(Radio Iowa) — From sunsets reflecting off shimmering lakes to gleaming skyscrapers against a night sky, Iowans who love to take pictures of our state’s many stunning sights are being called to action. Entries in the 9th annual Keep Iowa Beautiful photography contest are now being accepted. Bill Jackson, a spokesman for Keep Iowa Beautiful, says the competition is open to all. “It’s an opportunity for amateur and experienced photographers to show Iowa’s rural and urban beauty,” Jackson says. “It’s a fun way to show what you, as a photographer or part-time photographer, really enjoy about Iowa.”

Jackson says Iowans can submit their photos now showcasing the land between two rivers. He says the judges tend to see a lot of entry’s depicting rural landscapes.”We like to have urban experiences,” Jackson says. “I know in past years we’ve had some river scenes going through communities, we’ve had pictures of the state capitol. It’s whatever you in your area enjoy most about Iowa.”

The first prize winner gets $50, second prize wins $40 and the third-place finisher gets $30. “And also, each one of those will win a one-year subscription to ‘Our Iowa’ magazine,” Jackson says. “It’s written by Iowans for Iowans and has a lot of great photography and great, fun stories about Iowa.”

Each photographer can enter up to 10 photos at a cost of $5 per entry. The entry deadline is December 14th. Learn more at www.keepiowabeautiful.com.

(Radio Iowa) –Propane prices are creeping slightly higher in Iowa as farmers prepare for the harvest and drying their grain. Paul Ovrum, an ag marketing specialist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture, says the corn harvest will likely begin earlier in parts of southern Iowa this fall due to continued drought. He says those early birds could impact propane prices for the good. “As they start harvesting earlier, that may relieve some of the pressure that happens typically later in the fall when everybody’s harvesting at once,” Ovrum says. “If it’s spread out a little more, that may lessen demand on supplies in Iowa.”

Lesser demand typically means lower prices. Still, foreign markets are helping to drive up propane costs, according to Ovrum. “We have seen, since late 2016, a steady increase in demand for propane overseas from U.S. supplies,” Ovrum says. “So, as the U.S. manufactures propane, a lot of that, more and more, is going overseas and that has increased prices here.”  Propane is averaging $1.26 a gallon in Iowa, up about 13-cents a gallon from a year ago. It’s estimated 67-percent of Iowans use natural gas to heat their homes, 15-percent use electricity and 14-percent use liquid propane.

ROCKWELL, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a Mason City man died has died after falling into a grain bin at Five Star Co-op in Rockwell. The Globe Gazette reports that the incident happened Friday morning. The Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man as 56-year-old Jeffrey Alan Sprague.

Investigators say employees discovered Sprague was missing sometime after 7:30 a.m. Friday. Authorities searched the property. Official say the grain was removed from the bin, uncovering Sprague’s body.

Officials say the investigation will continue through the state Medical Examiner’s Office.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study predicts that a warmer world likely means more and hungrier insects chomping on crops and less food on dinner plates. Insects now consume about 10 percent of the globe’s food, but the researchers say that will increase to 15 to 20 percent by the end of the century if climate change isn’t stopped. The study looked at the damage bugs could do as temperatures rise. It found that many of them will increase in number at key times for crops. The hotter weather will also speed up their metabolism so they’ll eat more. The study is in Thursday’s journal Science.

(Radio Iowa) — A rural sociologist with Iowa State University is studying the potential impact the new Prestage Farms pork processing plant will have on the nearby town of Eagle Grove when it opens in a few months. I-S-U’s David Peters did surveys in the Wright County community and the surrounding area as the massive 240-million dollar facility is nearing completion. “Demographically speaking, obviously, it’s going to increase the population,” Peters says. “The town of Eagle Grove is likely to become a minority-majority community where roughly half of the population will be Hispanic or of a non-white race, and there will be a lot more children.”

The plant is expected to open, at least in a limited form, before the end of the year or in early 2019. Plans call for hiring nearly one-thousand workers initially, with the potential for a second shift to be added later, which could mean hiring 500 more people. “It will be an economic plus for the community,” Peters says. “It’ll particularly help the poorer residents in Eagle Grove, provide more job opportunities. It’ll increase housing values and increase housing occupancy.” There are ups and downs in every situation but overall, Peters says, the quality of life in Eagle Grove won’t change when the plant opens. “There’s going to be much better quality jobs in Eagle Grove,” Peters says. “Local government services will improve and child care services will improve. On the other hand, local schools will probably become a little bit worse compared to what they (are) now.”

Peters recently presented his report to Eagle Grove residents. He says he heard a lot of comments and concerns from those who attended the meeting, worries about things like population growth and crime. “The majority of questions from the community were really looking at, proactively, what they can do to capitalize on this employment jump and to help newcomers feel more integrated into the community,” he says. Initially, the plant will slaughter 10,000 hogs per day, with half of those hogs coming from Prestage’s own barns.

The Cass County Conservation Board has several events scheduled over the next couple of days. On Friday, Aug. 31st, the Board will host the “Mysterious Monarchs” program at Lake Anita State Park’s campground loop, beginning at 4:30-p.m. The event will also be held Saturday, Sept. 1st, at the Cold Springs State Park campground shelter, beginning at 4:30-p.m. And, the Cass County Conservation Board is holding a “Movie in the Park” campground program this Friday (Aug. 31st), in the campground shelter at Cold Springs State Park, in Lewis. The movie is “Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature,” which begins at 9:30-p.m.

Bring a blanket or chair to the show, and dress for the weather. If it rains, the movie will be rescheduled to Sunday, Sept. 2nd, at 9-p.m. You do not have to be a registered camper to attend the show. For more information on those, and other Cass County Conservation Board events, call Cass County Naturalist Lora Kanning, at 712-769-2372.

STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) — Officials have confirmed that invasive zebra mussels have been found in northwest Iowa’s Storm Lake. The Iowa Natural Resources Department says juvenile and adult zebra mussels inhabit several lake locations. Officials say the mussels probably arrived on or in a boat that had been in an infested water body, such as the Spirit/Okoboji chain of lakes or the Missouri River.

The small, black and white mussels are native to eastern Europe and voracious eaters that gobble up plankton many native freshwater fish need to survive. The mussels can attach themselves to boat motors, bait buckets and dam mechanisms and cause damage to motors and facilities.

Boaters are urged to clean, drain and dry watercraft to prevent the spread.

(Radio Iowa) — U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue is in Iowa, holding events with Republican office-holders and assuring the state’s farm community that international trade disputes “will work out fine.” “I’m really proud of our agricultural community,” Perdue says. “They’ve stood with the president. It’s been painful. They’ve seen the prices drop on hogs and soybeans and other crops, but they understood he’s doing it for the right reason. China has cheated and farmers don’t like cheating.”

Perdue visited the Farm Progress Show in Boone yesterday (Wednesday), then headed to a farm near Melbourne for a town hall meeting with Republican Congressman Rod Blum and a few dozen Iowa farmers. “Secretary Perdue understands what you’re saying,” Blum said. “He knows that we’re nervous out here about trade and tariffs, right? And he understands ethanol. He understands that we need E15.” Perdue told the crowd the president is an ethanol backer and the ag secretary indicated there is “momentum” for trade deals with Mexico, Canada and Japan. “The president has gotten the leverage. He’s gotten their attention and, like a lot of people here in the United States, they’re not quite sure what he’s going to do next,” Perdue said, “so to some degree we’re using that leverage in negotiation to get that done and then I’m hoping we can move on with the EU and then I think China will finally recognize that they need to come along in that way.”

Perdue acknowledged farmers are uneasy, but likened the trade situation to a weight loss program that’s “kind of painful when you’re going through it, but at the end you’re healthier.” Representatives of pork producers and dairy farmers raised concerns about how the U-S-D-A has calculated the federal payments meant to off-set losses due to the trade war. Perdue says his agency calculated “tariff damage” in a way that could be defended if the payments are challenged to the World Trade Organization. “Everybody would want more. I understand that, but the program’s pretty well set,” Perdue said.

Perdue later told reporters he is optimistic the trade impasse with Canada can be resolved yet this week, so a re-negotiated trade deal with Mexico AND Canada can be presented to congress soon. This (Thursday) morning, the U-S ag secrerary will join Republican Governor Kim Reynolds and Republican Mike Naig — the STATE ag secretary — for an event with farmers at an Ames co-op, then Perdue will travel to rural Panora to tour conservation sites with Republican Congressman David Young. He’ll also be in Atlantic from 2:45-to 3:45-p.m. along with David Young.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue will travel to Atlantic, Thursday, for a Town Hall meeting on Trade. He’ll be joined by 3rd District Republican Congressman David Young. The meeting takes place from 2:45-to 3:45p.m. Thursday, at the Cass County Community Center.  According to a press release, the focus of the meeting is to bring together farmers and rural Iowans to discuss the importance of trade, conservation, commodity markets and more.  The meeting is open to the public.

(Radio Iowa) — The state’s pheasant population is expected to be up when hunters take to the fields, despite up and down spring weather this year. Iowa Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says the results from the roadside survey show an uptick in numbers. He says he put the numbers into the weather model he uses and that showed stable to increasing numbers — so it was a “pleasant surprise” to see the numbers up.

Bogenschutz says most regions of the state had more birds out and about when the survey took place. “Last year they came out about 15 a route and this year were 21 — so about a 39 percent increase,” Bogenschutz says. “You know we had a fair bit of snow in northwest and north-central and the counts didn’t change up there, they are basically the same. The rest of the state saw some pretty nice increase, anywhere from 30 to 100 percent.”

The birds are counted in the morning when the dew is on the grass and they come to the side of the road to dry off. Bogenschutz says the lack of dew through off their count last year and they had to adjust it. “Counting conditions were much better this year, so that could be part of the increase…I think there’s probably a few more birds than what we counted last year. But, even if I tried to account for that as best I can, I think our counts still went up this year, even if I tried to kind of fix last year,” according to Bogenschutz.

The bird counts lead to an estimation that hunters could take 250 to 300-thousand roosters this fall. “You know it’s our second best count in the last 10 years,” he says. “It was 2015 when we were a little bit higher than we are this year. And that was our best harvest in about the last 10 years — best harvest and most hunters. So, I think we should probably see an uptick in both hunters and harvest this fall.”
The pheasant season opens October 27th and runs until January 10th.