Some legislators are balking at the idea of continuing to provide state tax dollars to the World Food Prize Foundation. Representative Larry Sheets, a Republican from Moulton, sits on the subcommittee that drafts the budget where 700-thousand dollars has been tentatively set aside for the World Food Prize. He suggests at least half of that should go to the Iowa Economic Development Authority instead.

“I represent Appanoose County and part of Wapello County and two others,” Sheets says. “Appanoose and Wapello are in dire need of economic development.” The World Food Prize was established in 1986 and is awarded each fall. It has been called the Nobel Prize for those who’re working to end world hunger. Republican Representative Mary Ann Hanusa, of Council Bluffs, isn’t calling for cancelling all state support of the World Food Prize either. But Hanusa says the state’s economic development agency is being asked to cut its budget by 400-thousand dollars — and it may be time to ask the privately-run World Food Prize to do more private fundraising.

“It does seem that for an organization that is well-established world wide and has multiple sources of funding this might be an areas where, perhaps, they could also step up,” Hanusa says. Senator Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, says Republican Governor Terry Branstad and top leaders in the legislature are in favor of giving the World Food Prize about a million dollars.

“Maybe our leadership’s commitment should be readjusted,” Dotzler says. But Dotzler says he’s willing to include money for the World Food Prize in the legislature’s “economic development” budget. Dotzler says otherwise policymakers may dip deeper into the account reserved for constructing and maintaining state-owned buildings. For example, the House voted Monday night to withdraw five-MILLION from that fund for water quality projects.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa DNR says it will hold its 2016 spring auction on May 21st, at Pioneer Livestock Pavilion on the Iowa State Fairgrounds, in Des Moines.  Doors will open at 6:30 a.m., and the auction will begin at 8-a.m. The public may view the items for sale and pre-register for the auction from 4- to 6-p.m., on May 20th. There will not be any buyer’s premium fee added to the sale.  Items up for auction include about 520 firearms, bows, gun barrels, scopes, tree stands and other assorted equipment. The items are sold “as is” with no guarantee or warranty.

Any person interested in purchasing a firearm at the auction must have either a valid Iowa permit to acquire pistols or revolvers, a federal firearms license, or a professional or non-professional permit to carry concealed weapons.  The Iowa permit to acquire can be obtained from a sheriff’s office.  Allow two to three weeks to receive the permit.

Payment must be made on auction day.  All sales are final.  All items must be removed from the site within one half hour after the sale completion.  The Iowa DNR reserves the right to reject any bids and withdraw any item from the sale at any time.

A sale bill is available online at http://www.iowadnr.gov/Hunting and will be updated if inventory is added.  The DNR will not be mailing any sale bills.

You can put them on your pizza, toss them in your salads or fry them in butter and serve as a side dish. For many people, morel mushrooms are some of the tastiest wild foods in Iowa. The season for hunting morels is underway, but Annette Whitrock with the Wapello County Conservation Board says the weather hasn’t cooperated so far this year.  “Depending on where you are, it would be late March until I guess the season’s over through April, sometimes into May, just depending on weather,” she says. “You really need temperatures for the soil probably in the 60 degree area and you can’t be down lower than 40 degrees at night for them to grow. We haven’t had that yet.”

A Morel mushroom (ISU Extension photo)

Soil temperature maps provided by Iowa State University show soil temperatures around 45 degrees for most of Iowa. Overnight temperatures dipping into the 20’s and 30’s are also preventing morels from popping up. Even when they do pop up, morels are some of the most elusive foods to find. Hunting them requires hiking trips through the woods and it takes a sharp eye to spot them. Whitrock says there are some urban legends on the best places to look.

“I’ve been told dead elm trees are the place to look, ash trees, oak trees, old apple orchards or where the May apples are blooming, so it really depends on who you talk to,” Whitrock says. “I think if you find a spot, you find a spot.” Whitrock suggests being wary of all the advice, as people may be trying to drive you away from their best spots. Whitrock says in the early hunting season, morels grow mostly on south facing slopes because that ground is warmer. But be careful, because Whitrock says the inexperienced morel hunter can be fooled or even poisoned.

“There’s some false morels out there and some morel look-alikes that can, depending on how you react to it, I guess they could give you symptoms like cramps,” Whitrock says. “some of them, if you react to them poorly, could kill you.” Whitrock says it’s fairly easy to tell if what you’re looking at is a true morel or an impostor.

“Morels have a darker cap that is pitted, for lack of a better word, and is connected to the stem and I guess the best thing to look for is a hollow stem,” Whitrock says. “If your mushroom doesn’t have a hollow stem, chances are it’s not a true morel — probably don’t want to eat it.”

Whitrock cautions Iowans to make sure they have permission to hunt for morels on property they don’t own. You can find out if you can hunt on public properties by contacting your local conservation board or the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

(Radio Iowa)

The U-S-D-A crop report released Monday showed high winds and frequent showers kept many Iowa farmers from getting the planting season underway. Iowa State University Extension Crops Specialist Joel DeJong works in northwest Iowa and says despite the cooler temperatures most of the signs are positive. “The soil conditions right now really look like for a lot of fields it’s pretty good. The soil moisture is at capacity right now, so it won’t take much to fill it back up,” DeJong says, “and the wet spots seem to be bigger than normal because of all that moisture in the soil — overall, pretty good.”

DeJong says the four-inch soil temperature was 35 on Saturday and up to 41 on Sunday, so it is moving in the right direction. “We like to have 50 degrees and warming if we are going to plant crops into good soil moisture conditions…so it looks like later in the week the weather might be pretty good,” DeJong says. He says the forecast right now for next week is looking good, but that could change.

Many farmers are still applying anhydrous ammonia for fertilizer. DeJong says conditions are still favorable, if farmers make certain they are applying that anhydrous ammonia at deep enough levels. “It looks like it’s sealing pretty well when it is out there. In the spring we want to put it six- and-a-half to seven inches deep or eight inches it’s trapping that gas in a smaller zone — and it looks like it’s working pretty well out there right now.

While some farmers in southern Iowa are into the fields, he says northern Iowa farmers may want to wait a few more days, even though research studies indicate better yields are obtained with early planted seed.  “I’m a little better about putting seed into cool ground that is warming up, better than putting seed into warm ground that cools off very rapidly due to a major storm system,” according to DeJong. “I don’t see that in the 10-day forecast — some rain maybe this coming weekend — But it doesn’t look like it is a real cold rain. So, if their conditions are set and everything is working in the field, later this week might be a good time to get started.”

He says each farmer can decide what they want to do, but there is no rush. DeJong says some farmers will start this week and others my choose to wait. “And that’s not a problem. A lot of producers can get their planting done in four or five days or maybe even less. Those who have a lot of days to plant, probably will get started,” DeJong says. He says as long as the crops get planted by May 5th, they should be okay. The U-S-D-A report shows west-central and southwest Iowa had the best conditions last week for working in the fields.

(Radio Iowa)

Emergency Management officials in Shelby County say the field/grassland Fire Danger rating will remain “High,” this week. EMA Operations Officer Jason Wickizer says drying conditions, wind and abundant sunshine along with low humidity will make for dangerous fire conditions.

Anyone who plans to conduct controlled burns should contact their local fire chief, first. Be sure and call 755-2124 also, with the location of your burn, so dispatchers can gather logistical data.  Burns should be conducted with fire chief approval during the late evening or early morning hours only, when winds are usually reduced.

Iowa’s spring turkey hunting season opens for youth-only tomorrow (Saturday). Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources say about 50-thousand turkey licenses have been purchased so far this year. Jim Coffey, a forest wildlife species technician with the D-N-R’s Wildlife Bureau, predicts an excellent season ahead.

“We’re going to be coming off of a good hatch, not just last year but two years ago,” Coffey says. “I would expect to see lots of two-year-old gobblers out there. Those are sometimes aggressive birds that will come to the call more readily than the older birds do. Don’t be surprised if you have a couple-three birds show up to your calls this year.” The wild turkey population should be strong this spring, he predicts, as this past winter wasn’t too harsh.

“Unless we have deep snow over 10-inches, turkeys survive real well in Iowa,” Coffey says. “They want to get out. The sun’s changing, the temperatures are changing. They’re ready to get out and start doing their spring thing and get the nesting season started.” Many hunters could benefit from a reminder about safety, Coffey says.

“We want to make sure we identify our target, we identify downrange so we know what we’re shooting at because if we shoot the wrong thing, we may be in violation,” Coffey says. “We’re going to shoot male birds or bearded birds. On the ethical side, be friendly to the other hunters. Don’t try to sneak in on somebody or do something that might disrupt their hunt.”

The youth-only season begins Saturday and runs through April 17. The first of the four regular seasons will be April 18 through 21. The second is April 22 through 26. The third is April 27 to May 3. The fourth season is May 4 to 22. The archery-only license is good from April 18 through May 22. Learn more at: www.iowadnr.gov

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa homeowners who have tulips, daffodils, newly-planted trees and other tender plants poking up in their yards will need to get busy this (Friday) afternoon to save them. Meteorologist Craig Cogil, at the National Weather Service, says a Freeze Warning is posted for a wide portion of Iowa, roughly from Highway 20 south. “We’re going to see temperatures drop well below freezing overnight across the entire state,” Cogil says. “We are concerned about some of the trees and vegetation across the southern half to two-thirds of the state that have seen growth and are susceptible to freezing temperatures.”

Many areas of the state may see temperatures dip into the low-to-mid-20s tonight and into tomorrow morning. Homeowners will need to act to keep their plants from being nipped or possibly killed by the overnight cold snap. “Individuals in those situations, obviously, if you have smaller plants, cover them up, that helps out,” Cogil says. “People that have orchards will have mitigation techniques they use. The main thing is to get them covered up.”

We’re a couple of weeks into spring now but Cogil says this isn’t an unusual situation. “Some years, especially if you look back at 2012, had an extremely warm March, everything was ahead as far as growing was concerned,” Cogil says. “We saw that a little bit in March where temperatures were warm and things are maybe a little bit ahead of normal, but this is not entirely unusual.”

Some areas of northern Iowa are seeing flurries fly this morning and while it’ll be a cold weekend, Cogil predicts the sparse snow won’t accumulate.

(Radio Iowa)

Emergency Management officials in Shelby County have upgraded the field/grassland Fire Danger rating to “High” this weekend. EMA Operations Officer Jason Wickizer says there will also be a chance of “Red Flag” Conditions.  He urges people to be mindful of drying conditions, wind and abundant dead vegetation.

Authorities therefore are asking anyone who plans to conduct controlled burns to contact their local fire chief, first. Be sure and call 755-2124 also, with the location of your burn, so dispatchers can gather logistical data.  Burns should be conducted with fire chief approval during the late evening or early morning hours only, when winds are usually reduced.

The income tax returns Iowans are filing provide some insight into the health of Iowa’s economy. Legislative Services Agency analyst Jeff Robinson says “So far this tax return season individual income tax returns for tax year 2015 are showing good wage growth,” he says, “but growth in unearned income such as interest, dividends and capital gains is negative, while reported farm income is down significantly.”

Robinson has reviewed overall tax payments to the state over the past nine months. “Year to date revenue growth is 2.3 percent through March and that is in line with current budget expectations for the year.” Eighty-eight percent of that growth is in income tax payments to the state. Sales tax payments to the state are up, but not quite as much as experts had predicted.

(Radio Iowa)

w/Kate Olson.

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