Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey is reminding Iowa farmers that funds are available to help install practices focused on protecting water quality. Practices eligible for this funding are cover crops, no-till or strip till, or using a nitrification inhibitor when applying fertilizer.

The cost share rate for first-time users of cover crops is $25 per acre, no-till or strip till are eligible for $10 per acre and farmers using a nitrapyrin nitrification inhibitor when applying fall fertilizer can receive $3 per acre. Farmers are eligible for cost share on up to 160 acres. First-time users that apply by July 24 will be the first applications funded. First-time users that apply after July 24 will still receive priority consideration, but funds will also be made available to farmers that have used cover crops in the past for cost share assistance at $15 per acre.

“We already have $1.6 million in applications from more than 700 farmers interested in doing more on their farm to protect water quality. This includes first-time uses of cover crops as well as farmers who have tried them before and are willing to do even more,” Northey said. “Fortunately, as a result of the significant increase in funding for water quality, we have addition funds available. I hope interested farmers will contact their local Soil and Water Conservation District soon to learn more about the assistance that is available.”

Farmers are also encouraged to visit their local Soil and Water Conservation District office to inquire about additional opportunities for cost share funding through other programs offered at their local SWCD’s. The cost share assistance was announced on May 12. Since then, the Governor has signed into law $9.6 million to support the Iowa Water Quality Initiative, which is an increase of $5.2 million from the $4.4 million provided last year.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship also received $6.75 million for conservation cost share, a portion of which can be used on management practices such as cover crops. In the last 2 years this program has been available, over 1,400 farmers put in new nutrient reduction practices on over 144,000 acres. The state provided about $3.4 million in cost share funding to help farmers try a water quality practice for the first time and Iowa farmers provided at least another $3.4 million to support these water quality practices.

More information about the initiative can be found at www.CleanWaterIowa.org.

The Guthrie County Extension Service reports there will be a land lease meeting on Thursday, August 6, at 6 pm at the Extension office, in Guthrie Center. The cost to attend is $20 per person if you pre-register, and $25 per person without pre-registration.

Attendees will receive a land leasing handbook with reference and resource materials. The workshop will last approximately 2 ½ hours. Shane Ellis, ISU Farm Management Specialist for the west central region of the state, will be presenting.

To pre-register, call 641-747-2276.

Twelve Iowa organizations and businesses will receive Environmental Excellence awards from Gov. Terry E. Branstad this summer. The awards are the premier environmental honors in Iowa. Among the winners is the Guthrie Center Community Schools, in Guthrie Center. The district will receive Special Recognition for Habitat Restoration and Environment Education.

The Governor said “The vision and initiatives undertaken by the award recipients to benefit Iowa’s citizens both economically and environmentally are recognized and celebrated through these awards. They showcase the commitment being made to make Iowa a better state now and into the future.”

Branstad will present awards to the recipients at a recognition ceremony at 3 p.m. Aug. 4th in the Capitol Rotunda, located at 1007 East Grand Avenue in Des Moines. The public is invited to attend.

For more information about the Governor’s Iowa Environmental Excellence Awards, go to www.iowadnr.gov/eeawards.

Cass County: Corn $3.82, Beans $9.86
Adair County: Corn $3.79, Beans $9.89
Adams County: Corn $3.79, Beans $9.88
Audubon County: Corn $3.81, Beans $9.88
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $3.85, Beans $9.86
Guthrie County: Corn $3.84, Beans $9.90
Montgomery County: Corn $3.84, Beans $9.88
Shelby County: Corn $3.85, Beans $9.86
Oats $2.54 (always the same in all counties)

We hear reports on Iowa’s corn and soybean crops from the U-S-D-A every week, but one thing we don’t hear updated often is the condition of Iowa’s -sweet- corn crop. Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey says so far, so good. “We’ve seen just a little sweet corn coming around and we’ll see a lot more in the next several weeks,” Northey says. “I’m hearing there’s a really good crop out there and it’s a great time of year for sweet corn.”

Northey said the condition of the sweet corn crop varies in different areas of Iowa. “We have some parts of the state that have gotten too much water,” he says, “so in those cases, if the sweet corn was in a low area and got too much water, that may be either hard to harvest or may even be such that it just drowned out pieces of that sweet corn or set it back.” Favorable reports have come from many sections of the state, especially northwest and north-central Iowa.

Northey says the first locally-grown corn started appearing around the 4th of July weekend and vendors are ready to sell the golden ears. “It’s a great time to pick up sweet corn at farmers markets,” Northey says. “There’s a lot of local sweet corn that’ll be sold in our grocery stores and of course, we have a series of festivals around that are centered on sweet corn, from now until almost Labor Day.”

Some of the bigger sweet corn festivals in the state include those in Adel on August 9th, West Point on August 13th and Des Moines on August 29th.

(Radio Iowa)

Pheasant hunters in Iowa saw a lot more birds last year, according to data compiled by the Department of Natural Resources.

Pheasant Hunting

Kevin Baskins is a spokesman for the DNR. “For the third consecutive year, we’ve seen a harvest increase for pheasants,” Baskins said. “It looks like it’s up 30-percent in 2014 to an estimated 216,000 roosters.” The harvest estimate released this week is based on an annual survey of hunters following the season. The biggest factor in the growing pheasant population involves the fact that Iowa has experienced several consecutive mild winters.

“We went through an extended period where the winters were just brutal on the pheasant population,” Baskins said. “Once crops get harvested and we start getting snow on the ground, there really isn’t much habitat in a lot of places for pheasants to kind of escape the elements.” Pheasants weren’t the only species to show a harvest increase in 2014. Hunters also killed more quail, rabbits, squirrels and doves.

“We also saw a corresponding increase in the interest,” Baskins said. “Our total number of (small game) hunters was up 9-percent to more than 63,000 in 2014,” Baskins said. DNR officials are predicting hunters will enjoy even bigger small game populations this coming fall and winter. The agency will get a better idea of the state’s population of pheasants, quail, rabbits and partridge during an annual roadside survey conducted over the first two weeks of August.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Governor Terry Branstad’s request for a federal disaster declaration to respond to the bird flu outbreak has been denied. The governor had sought a major disaster declaration from President Barack Obama for the four counties most impacted by the virus. In a letter from federal authorities dated Tuesday, the request was rejected.

The letter said the damage was “not of such severity and magnitude” that it could not be handled by the state. The virus has infected more than 31.5 million birds in Iowa, mostly egg-laying chickens, making the state the hardest hit in the nation. Branstad spokesman Jimmy Centers said the administration was gathering information to assess whether an appeal would be effective.

For the second time in three years untimely heavy rains and flooding caused many Iowa farmers to either lose a crop or prevent them from planting a crop altogether. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is encouraging those farmers to explore the benefits of planting a cover crop.

Barb Stewart, state agronomist for NRCS in Iowa, says farmers with unplanted fields will have to weigh their program and insurance options. “We encourage producers to also assess agronomic options for ensuring long-term productivity,” she said. Stewart says planting a cover crop will help producers with unplanted fields capture applied nutrients, fix nitrogen, build organic matter, control weeds, reduce erosion, and improve soil health and biology during the remainder of the season. “Iowa farmers can build considerable yield potential for following year crops,” she says.

Cover crops also help prevent Fallow Syndrome – a population loss of beneficial fungi in the soil which develops in corn roots and assists in taking up nutrients. “Cover crops will serve as a host crop to give a better chance for the fungi to recover,” says Stewart.

Iowa NRCS recently revised a fact sheet for planting cover crops on prevented planting fields. The fact sheet includes a table with diverse cover crop mixes to address specific natural resource concerns. This fact sheet is available on the Iowa NRCS website (www.ia.nrcs.usda.gov) or at your local NRCS office.

Producers are advised to check with their crop insurance agents on prevented planting requirements and harvest restrictions for cover crops.

w/ Kate Olson

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The bird flu outbreak won’t keep a fan favorite from the Iowa State Fair next month. The free egg-on-a-stick will still be available free at the fair despite the aftermath of bird flu and soaring egg prices. Iowa Egg Council consumer affairs director, Katie Coyle, says it’s especially important to have the egg-on-a-stick this year. “There’s a lot of consumer questions that are going on and we just want to show that we’re still here, we still have plenty of eggs for everyone, we’re not going anywhere, so that’s why we’re still continuing with our original plan,” Coyle says.

The avian flu forced Iowa producers to kill millions of laying hens, which has led to an increase in egg prices in stores. Coyle says the organization buys some of the eggs and others are donated by producers. The Iowa Egg Council handed out more than 11-thousand dozen hardboiled eggs-on-a-stick last year. “Eggs are the most affordable source of protein out there and they are still healthy, and nutritious and delicious,” Coyle says. “Egg-on-a-stick is just a hardboiled egg on a popsicle stick, cause everything at the fair is on a stick so why not eggs.”

Coyle says the group expects to hand out as many free eggs as last year, nearly 137-thousand from their booth in the Agriculture Building.

(Radio Iowa)