Cass County: Corn $4.12 Beans $10.56
Adair County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.59
Adams County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.55
Audubon County: Corn $4.11 Beans $10.58
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.15 Beans $10.56
Guthrie County: Corn $4.14 Beans $10.60
Montgomery County: Corn $4.14 Beans $10.58
Shelby County: Corn $4.15 Beans $10.56

Oats: $2.44 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

(Radio Iowa) – President Trump says the federal government will provide up to 12 BILLION dollars in one-time payments to farmers being pinched by higher production costs and lower commodity prices. “This relief will provide much needed certainty to farmers as they get this year’s harvest to market and look ahead to next year’s crops,” Trump said, “and it’ll help them continue their efforts to lower food prices for American families.”

Trump made the announcement yesterday (Monday) during an event at the White House. Cordt Holub, a 4th generation farmer who raises corn, soybeans and cattle in Tama County, sat next to Trump. “It’s Christmas early for farmers,” Holub said. “…With this bridge payment, we’ll be able to farm another year…It gets in your blood to farm and what you’re doing here in D.C. is working. You have a backbone to stand up to other countries.”

U-S Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says the payments will be based on 2025 acreage reports that eligible farmers file with the U-S-D-A by December 19th. “So as you are going with your lender, as you are working to ensure and understand what you can plant for next year, you will have that number in hand,” Rollins said. The checks should be distributed by the end of February.

Iowa Farm Bureau President Brent Johnson says farmers are facing severe financial stress driven by high input costs and declining crop prices — compounded by a lack of global trade opportunities. He says the payments will be critical support for farmers while broader trade discussions continue.

Farmers who raise 20 different crops, including corn, soybeans and oats, will get 11 BILLION dollars under the “Farmer Bridge Assistance Program.” The U-S-D-A will use the remaining BILLION dollars to help farmers who grow specialty crops and sugarcane.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R recently released a series of informational updates on chronic-wasting disease that’s found in deer. State deer biologist Jace Elliott says they want to get information out to update everyone as the deer season is underway. “C-W-D has always been a hot topic. It’s controversial, and it’s important for hunters and the public to understand, you know, there, there’s a lot of information out there and we just want to help provide maybe sort of a biological, scientific and deer management focus,” he says. If you haven’t seen any of the information, you can find it online.

“Our deer hunting website, which is just iowadnr.gov/deer, has a lot of different helpful resources,” Elliott says. “We have a a sub website in there called deer health. You can find a lot of information about C-W-D, including our our interactive C-W-D dashboard.” He says there’s also information on other diseases that impact deer.

” You can also see. our E-H-D and blue tongue reporting tool and dashboard, So, for anybody who hasn’t visited that website, there’s a wealth of information for folks who are interested in in how and why we manage deer in Iowa,” Elliott says.

The D-N-R collects samples from hunters throughout the deer season to test for C-W-D to help track its spread in the state.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa farmers are starting to talk with lenders about borrowing money to pay for operations, or to buy land and equipment. The Federal Reserve Bank reports weakness in the crop sector weighed further on farm finances, and credit conditions have gradually tightened. Ty Kreitman, an economist with the Federal Reserve of Kansas City, says while we’ve seen a couple seasons of high costs and low crop prices, it’s too early to draw comparisons to the farm crisis of the 1980s.

“We’re in the second year of losses, but we also have to recognize that the two years prior, 2021 and 2022 and to some extent, 2023, were very strong years for crops, across the ag sector, in fact,” Kreitman says. “So, we had substantial increase in farm incomes during those periods. And so, a lot of operations were able to bolster their working capital.” Kreitman says the situation is bleakest in the crop sector, where farmers have been at or below the break-even mark for the past couple of harvests. He says the number of operations they classify as highly leveraged has been creeping up.

“There’s probably about 20% of farm borrowers who have debt-to-asset ratios, so a ratio measuring leverage of above 40%, and I would say that would be considered high leverage,” he says, “and then obviously distributed throughout that, even beyond that, we’re not quite sure how many would have extremely high leverage.” Kreitman says younger farmers and those who rent most of their land have been the hardest hit by the downturn in the ag economy, because they haven’t built equity like more established operations. He says land prices remain near historic highs, meaning many operations have strong equity.

There have been 18 farm bankruptcy filings in Iowa so far this year, the largest number since 2020.

(Radio Iowa) – While some Iowans are grumbling over two consecutive weekends of moderate to heavy snowfall, others are loving it and have learned to embrace all that winter in the Midwest has to offer. Matt Miner is president of the Iowa State Snowmobile Association, based in Cresco. Miner says snowmobiling is a wonderful hobby, as long as all riders follow the basic rules. “We want everybody to have a good time, but we want everybody to be safe. We want them to enjoy the sport, enjoy having fun with friends and family,” Miner says. “We always promote to ride safe and don’t do anything you wouldn’t do in your car. We like seeing the partying and stuff that everybody does, but we don’t want to have it continue on into the sleds and riding when you shouldn’t be riding.”

Iowa DNR photo

Miner says the Iowa Department of Natural Resources offers an online course for new snowmobilers between the ages of 12 and 17. “Just go onto the Iowa DNR website, go under the Snowmobile tab and you can look up the classes,” Miner says. “That’s the only thing we offer right now. We are looking to offer here in the next year or so, hopefully be back into in-person training for youth snowmobiles.” Miner says there are nearly 60 separate snowmobiling clubs in Iowa and each offers its own activities and opportunities to ride the trails. “My home club, we’ve got Snow Fest which will be in 55th year this year, the last weekend in January,” Miner says. “There’s the Winter Games over in Okoboji. We do a thing down in Huxley with spina bifida for the kids with spina bifida. We get them out and have them ride in the snowmobile.”

He says the association has helped to maintain an expansive fleet of trail groomers and a trail system comprising 8,800 miles statewide.

Cass County: Corn $4.12 Beans $10.60
Adair County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.63
Adams County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.59
Audubon County: Corn $4.11 Beans $10.62
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.15 Beans $10.60
Guthrie County: Corn $4.14 Beans $10.64
Montgomery County: Corn $4.14 Beans $10.62
Shelby County: Corn $4.15 Beans $10.60

Oats: $2.46 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

(Iowa DNR News) – Hunters may sign up as a deer donor or recipient with the Iowa Deer Exchange at www.iowadnr.gov/deer then scroll down to Iowa’s Deer Exchange Program link. There, donors can provide their information on what they are willing to donate. The database creates a map and table with information deer donors and deer recipients can use to get connected. Hunters and recipients who had previously registered for the Deer Exchange Program should review their information to make sure it is still accurate and active. There is no cost to participate. It is illegal to sell wild fish and game in Iowa.

The Iowa DNR, the Food Bank of Iowa and 32 meat lockers also participate in the Help Us Stop Hunger program for 2025. Hunters are encouraged to contact a participating locker before they harvest a deer to see if the locker has any additional drop off instructions.

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Hunters interested in working with farmers to harvest additional does are encouraged to sign up with the Iowa Doe Harvest Registry. The Registry has been a resource that the Iowa DNR has offered to farmers since the mid-2000s, but is now easier to access. To participate, go to www.iowadnr.gov/deer and scroll down to Doe Hunter Registry (Connecting Farmers with Hunters) and complete the online form. Hunters and farmers can select their preferred hunting seasons and their region of the state.

Harvesting antlerless deer is the most important tool for managing deer populations at the state, county and local level.

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Hunters donated nearly 3,500 deer hides to Elks Lodges across Iowa last year, which was a decrease from the year before but still very beneficial to the program. The deer hides are used by the Elks Veterans Leather Program to make professionally-crafted leather gloves for veterans in wheelchairs and also turned into leather used for therapy programs for recovering veterans.

The Elks Veterans Leather Program relies on the charity of hunters to donate their deer hides. Hunters willing to donate their hides are encouraged to contact the local Elks Lodge for drop off locations or visit www.elks.org/lodges to find the nearest lodge. The therapeutic kits and gloves are distributed at no cost to the veterans. Contact Curtis Blystone at 712-621-2823 or blystonecurtis@gmail.com for more information.

(Iowa DNR News) – Iowa anglers can buy the Missouri and Big Sioux River paddlefish license and tags starting Dec. 15 through Jan. 7. Buy your special paddlefish license and tags on the Iowa DNR online licenses sales website at https://gooutdoorsiowa.com. A resident license sells for $25.50 and a nonresident license is $49. You must also have a valid Iowa fishing license. You can buy up to two tags – one from Dec. 15 to Dec. 31 and an additional tag from Jan. 1 to Jan. 7, or two tags if you didn’t buy one in December. A limited number of paddlefish licenses are available – 950 resident and 50 nonresident.

The license, harvest tag(s), and regulations will be mailed to purchasers in mid-January. Purchasers will be asked to complete an electronic survey to help the Iowa DNR evaluate the success of the paddlefish season. Please complete the survey whether you harvested a paddlefish or not.  The Iowa DNR is always working to improve the paddlefish season for anglers; any input provided is considered and is greatly appreciated.

The Missouri and Big Sioux River paddlefish season opens Feb. 1 and runs through April 30. For more information about Iowa’s special paddlefish season, visit the DNR website at www.iowadnr.gov/paddlefish – click on Missouri River Paddlefish Season and Regulations.