A Southwest Iowa Beginner and Young Farmers group will kick off in Montgomery County on December 14, 2016. The Start to Farm: New Farmer Learning Network, organized by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, is a statewide program designed to provide education and support for beginning and early-career agricultural producers.

The SW Iowa group will meet several times throughout the year to discuss farm management and beef cattle production topics. Based on priorities and specific topics determined by the group, they will discuss production techniques, ways to grow and improve business practices, and farm management strategies.

Production topics include: winter nutrition, reproduction management, preconditioning, nutrition management, low-stress weaning, pregnancy checking, body condition scoring and more. Farm Financial topics include: developing farm financial statements, using key financial rations and indicators, managing cash flow, financing capital assets and livestock economies.

Participants will participate in a wide variety of activities, including the opportunity to learn about resources available to get started and tour successful farming operations. They also will become part of a community of Iowa beginning farmers.

There is no registration fee for this program. It will be held in the White 4-H Exhibit Building at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Red Oak, Iowa. The program will begin at 6:30 pm, and it will end at 8:30 pm. The address is 1809 4th Street, Red Oak, Iowa. For more information contact Montgomery County Extension at 712-623-2592, or through their website at www.extension.iastate.edu/montgomery ,or “like” Montgomery County-IA Extension on Facebook.

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The field and grassland Fire Danger category in Shelby County has been reduced from “High,” to “Moderate“. The Shelby County Emergency Management Agency reports most of the crops in the county have been harvested, reducing the availability of fuel sources. Regardless, if you are planning any large burns, the Emergency Management officials say you should still contact your local fire chief, or call the EMA office at 712-755-2124.

The U-S-D-A is awarding more than four-million dollars in grants to 48 veterinarians serving rural communities in Iowa and elsewhere. The money aims to help them repay some of their veterinary school loans in return for serving in areas lacking veterinary resources. Dr. Phil Reemstma, a veterinarian in DeWitt, says this is an important step in getting young veterinarians out into rural America.

“The debt that these students are coming out of college with now and what we’re able to pay them, there’s a pretty significant amount of debt there,” Reemstma says. “When the U.S. government can help them repay some of their loans and provide incentives for them to go into these rural communities, it’s really a big deal.”

On average, student veterinarians have an average loan debt of more than 135-thousand dollars. Reemtsma, who’s president of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, says he has experience with the U-S-D-A program and says it has worked well in the past. “There was a four-county area here that, three years ago, was designated as needing veterinarians,” he says. “I hired a veterinarian into my practice and he was able to participate in that program. It helped him out quite a bit and it helped eastern Iowa to bring veterinarians to our area.”

The focus for many veterinarians today, he says, is shifting and there’s a demand for those kinds of skills. “The veterinarians’ role has continued to evolve into more disease prevention and focused on preventive type medicine,” Reemtsma says. “Not that we don’t go and work on sick animals, but a lot of what we do every day is production-oriented any more. There’s a real need for those type of people.”

The latest U-S-D-A grant of four-point-three-million dollars aims to help fill the veterinary shortage in Iowa and 26 other states.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Conservation Board has announced the winners of their Lighted Halloween Campground event held last weekend at Cold Springs State Park, in Lewis. First place went to site #2, the Johnson (Terri Ehrman) family, the second place winner was Site 4, the Pangelina family, the third place winner was Site 1, the Amos family, and the fourth place was site 3: Melissa Ehrman-Johnson.

(left to right) Johnson family, Anita Pangelina, Karen Kirchhoff, Haden McAdams, Kaylee McAdams and Bob Amos

The CCCB thanks their business sponsor Cappel’s Ace Hardware who donated the prizes for the Lighted Halloween Campground. They also would like to thank everyone who signed up to decorate a site, and for sharing your Halloween décor with everyone.

Officials say The Lighted Halloween campground will be held again, in 2018!

DES MOINES– Floodplain mapping and watershed planning will be discussed at a meeting of the State Interagency Missouri River Authority (SIMRA) Nov. 18 in Des Moines. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. at the Iowa Utilities Board, located at 1375 East Court Ave.

Scott Ralston from the Iowa DNR will present on the efforts of the DNR and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on providing new and updated flood hazard data for counties along the Missouri River. Larry Weber from the University of Iowa will present on a rural watershed approach to be used in the East and West Nishnabotna River watersheds. Other items on the agenda include updates on basin conditions and from the National Weather Service.

The complete agenda is available on the SIMRA website at www.iowadnr.gov/simra.

Interested people can attend the meeting by conference call. Dial 866-685-1580 and follow the prompts. The conference code is 5152817051 followed by the pound (#) sign.

• KJAN, Atlantic  .55″
• Massena  .08″
• 3 miles South of Lewis  .8″
• Red Oak  .32″

Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Seivert reports the grassland and field fire danger index will remain “High” through at least this Thursday, due to lack of moisture. When the Fire Danger rating is “High,” burning of any kind is restricted in Shelby County unless approval is received from local Fire Chief. Controlled burns that are not reported will result in Fire Department being dispatched, and Fires extinguished if determined to be un-safe. Please call 712-755-2124 with questions.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An unseasonably warm week has aided farmers in getting crops out of fields in Iowa and Nebraska although both states remain slightly behind the five-year average. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday in its weekly crop update that in Iowa 71 percent of corn is harvested, about two days behind the average. The soybean crop is 89 percent harvested, about five days behind average.

Farmers in southwest and south central Iowa still have a third or more of their soybeans to harvest. Nebraska experienced a week with temperatures averaging nine degrees above normal helping to get 91 percent of the soybean crop in, near the 96 percent five-year average.

Corn farmers in Nebraska are 69 percent harvested which is near the 70 percent five-year average.