Officials with the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) say the passion Stacie Euken has for agriculture is clear from her countless leadership positions with various organizations and dedicated work to help tell the story of Iowa agriculture. Euken’s commitment to youth interested in agriculture and contributions to the local community has earned her the 2015 Bob Joslin Excellence in Agriculture Award from the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.

Stacie Euken

Euken received the award at the 97th IFBF annual meeting in Des Moines on Dec. 2nd. The award honors a young farmer who demonstrates outstanding leadership qualities in Farm Bureau, agriculture, and his/her community. Euken and her husband Eric own and operate a diversified farm operation near Wiota, consisting of corn, soybeans, alfalfa, a cow/calf herd, beef feedlot, and a small farrow-to-finish niche swine operation.

Euken has been an active leader in Iowa agriculture for many years, first joining the Cass County Farm Bureau board of directors in 2008. While serving on the county board, Euken has twice been elected membership chair, served as vice president, and is currently in her third year as the county president.

Stacie’s passion is sharing the story of Iowa agriculture with as many people as possible, and that includes helping others share that message. Euken was instrumental in helping organize a Teachers Academy through the Iowa Ag Literacy Foundation to provide farm tours to teachers and share ways to incorporate agriculture education into their classrooms. Additionally, Euken volunteers for the Cass County 4-H, Atlantic FFA Alumni Chapter, Iowa Pork Producers Association, and is a member of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Soybean Association, and Iowa Cattlemen’s Association.

As the Joslin Award winner, Euken receives a $1,500 Home and Workshop certificate
from John Deere, the award sponsor, a 90-day no-principle and no-interest (NPNI)
John Deere Financial Certificate up to $5,000, a $750 FAST STOP gift card from
GROWMARK, and expense-paid trips to the 2016 American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Annual Convention in Orlando, and the 2016 GROWMARK annual meeting in Chicago in August.

The Excellence in Ag Award is given in memory of Bob Joslin, who served as IFBF
president from January 1986 to December 1987 and was known for his support and
encouragement of young farmers.

The first shotgun deer season opens this weekend on the heels of what has been a successful bow season. Iowa Department of Natural Resources wildlife research technician, Jim Coffey, says hunters have already reported taking more than 27-thousand deer. “We’ve had an excellent fall with weather conditions and the crops came out early, and the hunters have had some great days to be out there. So, I think that has helped increase the number of people in the field and also increase license sales,” Coffey says. Coffey says he doesn’t expect any drop in hunters taking to the field this season.

He says the license sales for the shotgun season have been right on track to be about the same amount as last year. With license sales doing well, he expects the harvest numbers to be right around last year too. “Reported harvest last year was right at about 100-thousand deer and that’s what we would expect this year — unless there’s some major phenomenon in the weather — we should track pretty similarly,” according to Coffey. The weather is expected to warm up this weekend and Coffey says the weather conditions can really dictate the success of the hunt.

“Weather impacts the hunters as much or more than it does the deer. And sometimes warmer weather is just a little more difficult because the deer can spread themselves out,” Coffey explains. “It’ll be an interesting weekend, it will be a little muddy in some places. It should be nice weather, but that can actually make it more difficult to deer hunt.” The D-N-R surveys the deer population to try and keep it under control. Coffey though doesn’t talk about deer numbers in specific areas.

“Populations are something that are very difficult to talk about across the entire state because there is so much difference in the habitat from north to south and east and west. So we talk about trends more than anything,” Coffey says. He says if you saw deer last year in the places you normally hunt, there should be plenty of deer in those areas again this year.

This first shotgun deer season begins Saturday and runs through next Wednesday. The second shotgun season is December 12th through the 20th. The archery season closes Saturday to allow for the shotgun season and will re-open on December 21st. The late muzzleloader season opens at the same time and both will run through January 10th.

(Radio Iowa)

w/ Max Dirks

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

w/ Kate Olson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Cass County Extension office is once again hosting continuing instructional courses (C-CICs) for local commercial pesticide applicators, but wants to remind anyone who has yet to attend the training that all CIC training must be completed by the end of December. To avoid conflicts with year-end scheduling, Cass County Extension is requesting that all training dates be scheduled by Tuesday, December 15th.

“We know year end is a busy time for all, but we don’t want anyone to miss the opportunity to attend their annual required training, as time to meet those annual requirements is getting short.” shared Kate Olson, Extension Program Coordinator in Cass County. “We do offer trainings on a first-come, first-served basis, and our hours will be slightly different during the holidays, so we’d like to remind folks to call and get their classes scheduled before our year-end calendar fills up!”

According to Olson, reshow dates can occur after December 15th, but they must be on the calendar before then to be honored. To ensure a spot on the training schedule, applicators needing to complete CIC for the year are asked to call prior to December 15th. Training dates can be scheduled locally by calling the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or emailing lander@iastate.edu. For more information on the Commercial Pesticide Applicator program or the CIC classes, please visit www.extension.iastate.edu/psep/ComAp.html.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has released the results of a special checkpoint held earlier this month at the southbound Interstate 29 weigh station south of Sioux City. D-N-R Conservation officer Chad Morrow set up the checkpoint. Morrow says there are a lot of hunters and fishermen traveling at this time of year and they tried to do as many compliance checks that they could for proper licenses and game limits. The 60 state and county officers involved interviewed 620 people traveling on the interstate between noon and 5 p-m. Morrow says they ended up with 35 wildlife citations and one traffic citation.

“But we also addressed probably hundreds of other violations with written warnings, verbal warnings, along with citations as well,” Morrow says. He says one issue stood out. “Probably being the transportation of pheasants without the attached foot, wing or head so we can I-D for sex and wether they are a rooster or not. That was probably the most common violation,” according to Morrow. There were a variety of other violations too.

“Firearms uncased, loaded, we had some illegal deer cases that we investigated and turned over to other state,” Morrow says. Morrow says the results of the operation are good reminder for all hunters and fishermen to read up on the rules and regulations before going out. He says you should know the transportation and license requirements along with the bag limits and daily possession limits. “There’s quite a few details to know there, so you have to be prepared before you take a trip to another state or go out on a hunting trip or on any hunting, fishing, trapping type activity,” Morrow says.

The citations issued carry a fine and court costs totaling 195 dollars. Officials seized 166 pheasants and nine ducks during the operation which was held on November 15th.

(Radio Iowa)

Three siblings who grew up on a farm in southwest Iowa will be honored early next year for their actions in selling the property. Dale Nimrod says his father died of cancer not long after purchasing the farm, near Stanton in Montgomery County, in 1944. Nimrod’s mother stayed on the 240-acre farm and raised her children — with help from neighbors and the community. In 2005, the Nimrod children decided it was time to sell the property.

Sunny and Dale Nimrod on their farm near Decorah.

“We were looking to give back to that community that helped raise us in the absence of my dad,” Dale said. The Nimrod family hoped to find a young family that would appreciate “the land, the community, and the church.” They settled on Mark and Melanie Peterson, a couple raising five children. “When we sold it to them, two of (the children) thought they may want to go into farming,” Dale said. “Mark was determined, if they wanted to farm, he’d have something they could work on.” The farm was sold to the Peterson family at a below-market-value price.

“(We) were willing to sell it on its economic value, its productivity value, not whatever its market value is – which is not very relevant, I don’t think, to anything,” Dale said. “So, we had (Mark) fill out some forms from Iowa State, like the kind of forms you’d fill out if you’re going to take out a farm loan, so he could see what he’d need to do in order to make the payments and we set the payments accordingly.” The 75-year-old Nimrod taught chemistry for many years at Luther College and lives on a farm near Decorah with his wife Sunny. He and his siblings, Faith and Vance, were recently selected as the 2015 winners of the Practical Farmers’ Farmland Owner Award.

The award will be presented to the Nimrod Family at the Practical Farmers of Iowa’s annual conference on January 22 in Ames. According to the organization, the Farmland Owner Award is given to non-operator landlords “who use their land to advance stewardship and help get the next generation started on the land.”

(Radio Iowa)

The first of Iowa’s two shotgun deer hunting seasons starts next Saturday (Dec. 5th), and hunters may need to brush up on their safety skills in preparation. Megan Wisecup, the hunter education administrator with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, offers a few tips. “One of the main ones is just going back to the basic firearms safety rules,” Wisecup says. “You want to treat every firearm as if it’s loaded, always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, be sure of your target and what’s beyond it and keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.”

Depending on the weather next weekend, foul conditions could raise even more dangers for hunters. They need to be vigilant in their awareness of the rules, she says, like when climbing over a fence. Wisecup says “Take some extra precautions when you have different weather factors coming into play, especially when you’re crossing an obstacle. If it’s snowy, icy, definitely take the extra time to unload that firearm while you’re crossing the obstacle or use another member of your hunting party to hold your firearm while you cross that obstacle.”

Last year, there were 14 deer hunting-related incidents in Iowa during the two shotgun seasons. There were two personal injuries and 12 property damage incidents. If the weather is especially cold, hunters need to be particularly cautious if they’ve layered their clothes.  Wiscup says “When you’re bundled up, with the extra bulk of coats and fingers, make sure you’re careful when you’re handling your firearm. You could easily get caught, one of the fingers in the gloves in the trigger guard area and cause it to accidentally discharge.”

Iowa’s first shotgun season runs December 5th through the 9th, with the second running from December 12th through the 20th. Learn more at: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Hunting/Deer-Hunting.

(Radio Iowa)

Despite low agricultural commodity prices, Iowa farmland still seems to be in high demand — with buyers willing to pay near-record prices. At a Sioux County land auction held two weeks ago near Hospers, a tract of 154 acres sold for more than 17-thousand dollars an acre ($17,300). Jim Klein of Remsen was the auctioneer for that sale.

“I think everybody figured coming into the fall season with the grain markets down and going down that the land market was going to follow,” Klein says. “Actually in the last probably month, month-and-a-half we’ve actually seen the prices increase and I don’t quite understand it yet.” Klein says “local people” were bidding for the ground and it was sold to a neighbor who owns land across the road. In addition to row crops, Sioux County has a number of livestock and poultry operations and Klein believes one reason for the high demand for land in the area is so farmers have somewhere to spread their manure.

“I think they want to expand their operations in numerous ways and one of them of course is having extra property to disperse their manure,” Klein says. A parcel of Sioux County land near the town of Boyden sold for nearly 22-thousand dollars ($21,900) an acre about two years ago, the all time record price for Iowa farm ground.

(Radio Iowa)

A southwest Iowa farmer has carved the first name of his favorite presidential candidate into the landscape. “I had a couple of yard signs stolen and I was out on my tractor there that day and it just kind of hit me. I though: ‘Geez. I’ve got a perfect place for this.’ It’s soybean stubble which would make it show up good, over next to the road. So I just thought: ‘I’ll go try it. It probably won’t work. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just scratch through it if it doesn’t’ and it just seemed to turn out perfect.”

68-year-old Michael Pattavina, of Clarinda, is a Bernie Sanders supporter. He didn’t map out a plan for his bean field. Pattavina just used a chisel plow on the back of his tractor to cut a seven-foot-wide swath as he wrote out “Bernie” in his field. “It probably took me about 20 to 30 minutes to do it,” Pattavina says. “The ‘B’ is about 60 feet tall.” Pattavina’s “flat Bernie” billboard is the talk of the town.

“Whenever I see somebody on the street, they talk to me about it and say they really like it and everything — even the conservatives,” Pattavina says. “I might mention that I live in an ultra-conservative area.” The sign can clearly be seen from the air, as the name “Bernie” covers about half an acre in Pattavina’s field. Pattavina says he didn’t do it “to be popular” but he would love to hear from his favorite candidate at some point.

“It only cost me a few cents for the fuel and a little bit of time and that’s exactly what Bernie’s all about,” Pattavina says. The farm Pattavina lives on has been in his family for 158 years and Pattavina has farmed the ground all his life.

(Radio Iowa)