The Iowa Pork Industry Center and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach are teaming up to provide training for pork producers and others who need certification in the Pork Quality Assurance Plus version 2.0 (PQA Plus v2.0) and/or Transport Quality Assurance program. The certification sessions have been set for Thursday June 19th, 2014 at the Cass County Extension office in Atlantic Iowa.

Updated in June 2013, the revised in PQA Plus® v2.0 provides a framework for significant, relevant food safety standards and improved animal well-being. Pork producers pride themselves on the commitment to continuous improvement and the PQA Plus is regularly revised to increase its effectiveness, incorporate new research information, and ensure the program’s validity.

ISU Extension Swine Specialist Matt Swantek will be offering the TQA training from 12:30 – 3:00 p.m. and the PQA Plus® v2.0 training from 3:15 – 6:00 p.m. Training sessions are limited to 30 persons, but requires at least 5 participants are needed to hold the training sessions.

All training events are sponsored by the Iowa Pork Producers Association and are free for all Iowa pork Producers. Pre-registration is requested to lclemenson@iowapork.org or (800) 372-7675.

There is an on-line re-certification option for those who have current PQA Plus® certification. Contact Matt Swantek (mswantek@iastate.edu) or any other PQA Plus® v2.0 certified Adviser for additional information and setting up the ability to test on-line. New certification or producers with expired certification will require a face-to-face training.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A nonprofit network of investors, companies and public interest groups says in a new report that manufacturers depending on U.S. corn and other commodities must send strong signals to farmers to help preserve water and soil. The Boston-based group called Ceres is working with several companies, including food giants General Mills and Unilever. Both of those have adopted sustainability programs suggested by Ceres that set specific goals for suppliers and farmers.

The report calls for the establishment of corporate policies setting specific goals for suppliers that reduce environmental impacts, procurement contracts requiring that crops be sustainably grown, and efforts to identify areas of high water stress, groundwater pollution and overuse of fertilizer.

Ceres also recommends companies substitute other grains for corn where environmental benefits are well-demonstrated.

(These quotes remain unchanged from Tuesday)

Cass County: Corn $4.27, Beans $14.37
Adair County: Corn $4.24, Beans $14.40
Adams County: Corn $4.24, Beans $14.36
Audubon County: Corn $4.26, Beans $14.39
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.30, Beans $14.37
Guthrie County: Corn $4.29, Beans $14.41
Montgomery County: Corn $4.29, Beans $14.39
Shelby County: Corn $4.30, Beans $14.37
Oats $3.24 (always the same in all counties)

Officials with the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) say they have been made aware of a phone scam targeted toward FSA customers. The caller, who identifies themselves as a Farm Loan Services representative out of Washington, D.C. states that FSA “owes” you disaster assistance funds and proceeds to request your checking account information or requests a credit card number alleging that funds will be credited to these accounts.

The USDA says if you receive a similar call, DO NOT, under any circumstances, provide the caller with your personal or financial information.

MOULTRIE, Ga. (AP) – Aerial drones, a technology perhaps best known for helping hunt terrorists on the other side of the globe, may soon begin helping U.S. farmers monitor what’s happening in their fields. In Georgia, a group of state and federal officials – along with members of industry and academia – has been working since 2009 to develop a drone that can save a farmer’s time and resources during the growing season.

The public got its first glimpse of the group’s drone at a flight demonstration last month at a research farm in Moultrie, Georgia. By deploying a UAV with a multi-spectral camera to survey crops, farmers could spot water and nutrition issues, insect infestations and fungal infections.

Cass County: Corn $4.27, Beans $14.37

Adair County: Corn $4.24, Beans $14.40

Adams County: Corn $4.24, Beans $14.36

Audubon County: Corn $4.26, Beans $14.39

East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.30, Beans $14.37

Guthrie County: Corn $4.29, Beans $14.41

Montgomery County: Corn $4.29, Beans $14.39

Shelby County: Corn $4.30, Beans $14.37

Oats $3.24 (always the same in all counties)

The lastest U-S-D-A crop report out Monday shows a majority of the corn and soybean crops have emerged, but some farmers are heading back to the fields. Corn and soybean growers in six-county area of southwest Iowa have to replant thousands of acres of crops destroyed by last week’s wind and hail storms. Iowa State University’s Southwest Iowa Extension Agronomist, Aaron Saegling rates the damage that stretches from Oakland to Council Bluffs as- among the worst he’s seen during his 25-year career.

“Those plants are gone. They’re not laying down in the field. They’re gone. They’re just not even in the field,” Saegling says, “And so that tells me there is probably as much wind as hail. We have some fields that are pretty bare.” Saegling says farmers can try to get a crop out of some of the fields.  “There will be a lot of soybean replanting. A lot of the corn I don’t believe will make it. …so a lot of those acres will probably not be replanted because it’s pretty late in the year.”

Saegling says many barren fields will be getting erosion-preventing cover crops. The report says 98-percent of the corn crop has emerged, which is 18-percent ahead of last year and four percent ahead of the five-year average. The U-S-D-A report says soybean planting is nearly complete and 87-percent of the crop has emerged. That’s three weeks ahead of last year and about one week ahead of normal.

(Radio Iowa)

Authorities in Montgomery County are investigating a break-in and theft from Sunbest Papetti Farms, on the southwest side of Villisca. Officials say the incident happened sometime between 4-p.m. Friday, June 6th, and the early morning hours of Saturday, June 7th. Officials say a person or persons unknown broke into the maintenance shed at the egg business, located at 2975 265th Street.

Once inside, more than $3,000 worth of tools were loaded into a Kubota utility vehicle and driven to T Avenue, where they were off-loaded into another vehicle. Anyone with information about the crime is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-432-1001.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has looked through more than four-thousand samples and did not find any news cases of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer. D-N-R Wildlife Research Supervisor, Willie Suchy, a deer shot in Allamakee County remains the only positive case in the wild deer population. “It’s good news, we wish there were zero, but we knew the day would come when we would end up with a positive given the proximity of C-W-D in other states,” Suchy says. It’s pretty likely since the deer was shot in a border county that the animal was visiting Iowa from one of those other states.

“We think that the most likely scenario is that this is a deer that was probably in Wisconsin — or it could have been Illinois or Minnesota — and migrated over and showed up in Iowa. It was a mature adult buck and those are — when they’re yearling, some of the animals that travel the furthest,” according to Suchy.  Suchy says. “If we don’t detect any new cases, then we would conclude that we are back to just normal surveillance.” The D-N-R held three public meetings in Allamakee And Clayton County on C-W-D, and Suchy says those residents appear willing to help.

“People are very willing at this point to work with us to get more samples and find out more and then down the road someday there may have to be some harder decisions if we find more,” Suchy says. He says controlling the spread of C-W-D all depends on how large an infestation there is.  Suchy says it’s possibly that natural mortality and the annual hunting seasons could wipe out the infected deer if the infestation is at a low level.

The D-N-R has taken samples from nearly 51-thousand wild deer and 35-hundred captive deer and elk for C-W-D since 2002. Most of the samples are taken in the 11 counties in northeast Iowa which is the area closest to states that have C-W-D infestations.

(Radio Iowa)