(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who bundle up to brave the evening chill will be able to see a relatively rare event in the January night sky, what some are calling the Parade of Planets. Allison Jaynes, a physics and astronomy professor at the University of Iowa, says Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all shifting into near-alignment, and two more planets — Uranus and Neptune — will join the celestial conga line later this month. “What we can see in the sky changes all the time, and there are often up to four planets visible at once. The big deal about this thing coming up in the 21st through 25th or thereabouts, is that we’re technically going to be able to see six planets at the same time,” Jaynes says, “although two of them are too faint, really, to be seen with just your eyes, so people will need to use something like binoculars.” While you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, Jaynes says it’s true the six planets will be appearing in the same region of the sky, but they will not be in a tight, straight line.

“Some people have been spreading misinformation, it seems, about how those planets will be aligned, like there’s pictures showing them sort of lined up, one on top of each other, like they’re in a line from the Earth to the Sun, and that’s not going to happen,” she says, “but it makes for a nice graphic, so I think people have been sharing that on social media as a result.” Budding backyard astronomers can quickly orient themselves among the stars above with the help of a few key websites or free applications for their smartphones.

NASA Sky Chart

“EarthSky.org is one of my favorite websites to go to look for celestial events,” Jaynes says, “but on your phone, there’s an app called Stellarium, and it uses your geographic coordinates as well as the angle that you’re holding your phone at at the moment to sort of give you a map as you’re pointing your phone around the sky of what you should be seeing at that moment.” From solar and lunar eclipses to the Star of Bethlehem, rare celestial events over the centuries have been interpreted various ways, both as signs of good fortune or impending peril. It should be noted that this Parade of Planets will be best viewed the same week a new administration takes over the White House.

“People like to use these types of events to reinforce their already-held beliefs,” she says, laughing. “So if they’re upset about what’s going to happen at the end of January, this will be a harbinger of doom, and if they’re happy about it, this might be a cause for celebration.”

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is taking applications now for a tree planting program that’s designed to benefit disadvantaged schools across the state. Chip Murrow, an urban forestry program specialist at the D-N-R, says more than 100-thousand dollars is available through the program, with grants of five-thousand dollars per public or private school. “The way a school applies for them is they’re either in what’s considered a disadvantaged community in Iowa, which there’s 621 of those,” Murrow says, “or they have 25% or more free and reduced lunch programs.”

The grant money can be used to purchase trees, mulch and supplemental watering when school is not in session. “We work with the schools to plant the trees using container-grown trees, so anything from a number five to a number 10, they’re the sizes that we look at,” Murrow says. “Those are good, sturdy trees. They’re big enough that they take up a little bit of landscape to start with, but not so big that kids can’t plant them.” Murrow says schools do not need to put up matching funds for these grants, so it’s a win-win.

“Between the economic benefits of shading for cooling, and also wind protection in the winter to help with heating costs, there’s a lot of other benefits,” Murrow says. “We find that schools that have trees, children are more at ease and they test better.” He says students are encouraged to get out in the schoolyard and help with the process of planting the trees. “The foresters love coming out because that’s part of the program. We try and get a forester out there to help with the planting, do a planning demonstration and work with the kids. It’s a lot of fun,” Murrow says. “It also gives kids a chance to see what those of us at the DNR do in the forestry division, so they can ask us questions and talk to us about that.”

The program is being made possible through the DNR, the USDA Forest Service, and the National Association of State Foresters 2023 Inflation Reduction Act. The application and requirements are available online at www.iowadnr.gov/urbanforestry.

(Radio Iowa) – More farmers reported higher levels of stress last year compared to 2022 in the latest Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll, which surveyed nearly 950 farmers statewide. Most of the respondents were men and 66 years old, on average. J-Arbuckle, an Iowa State University extension sociologist, led the poll. “There was a very big shift in the level of personal stress that was reported,” Arbuckle says. “I think that also kind of aligns with the decline in economic conditions leading up to the to the survey time.” Nearly half of the participants said they had medium-level stress, while 17-percent said they had high or very high stress levels. Arbuckle says the ratings can help indicate mental health needs in the state.

Arbuckle says, “We had probably some of the strongest ratings of past farm financial performance and really high ratings of job satisfaction.” He says job satisfaction is an important marker for mental health, but farmers also reported higher stress and were more pessimistic about their economic prospects for the next five years. “Sixty-two-percent indicated that they thought they would be worse,” he says, “and that’s the highest that we’ve ever recorded by a long shot.”

Farmers were surveyed last February and March when crop prices and farm sector forecasts were declining after historic highs from 2021 to mid-2023. The I-S-U survey about farmers’ quality of life, finances and conservation was first conducted in 1982.

(Massena, Iowa) – The Cass County Conservation Board (CCCB) will hold a Cabin Fever Escape program near Massena on January 18th, from 1-until 4-p.m. The program/open house will take place at the Outdoor Educational Classroom outside of Massena. It is FREE, and all ages welcome.

You’re invited to cure your cabin fever by spending some time outside with family friendly FUN! Bring your mugs, sleds, dress for the weather, snowshoes, and cross country skis will be available! If you get cold, warm and tasty drinks and a movie will be playing inside our lodge! There will be no snow activities planned as well!

The Outdoor Educational Classroom can be found by taking Highway 148 south of Massena. Turn Left on Tucson Road and follow it East for about two miles. Then, turn right into the parking lot. The CCCB hopes to see you there, on January 18th.

(Radio Iowa) – John Deere has notified state officials it will lay off 75 workers from its Ottumwa plant next month. Last year, Deere offered early retirement to over 100 employees at the Ottumwa facility and, in November, Deere announced it would temporarily close the plant in December, due to reduced customer demand for its products. Hay balers and mowers have been produced in Ottumwa.

Deere is moving mower production from Ottumwa to Mexico. Monday was the last day of work for 80 employees at Deere’s Davenport facility and for 112 workers at Deere’s Waterloo factory where tractors are produced.

Deere executives have cited weak demand for farm equipment as the primary factor in several waves of layoffs over the past year.

(Radio Iowa) – When the winter winds are howling, some Iowans take solace in dreaming of the coming warmth of spring and working in their green backyard gardens. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach is launching its free Home Gardening Webinar series this week. Alicia Herzog coordinates the master gardener program and says this year’s topics will include soil health, identifying edibles, and more. “Many of our master gardeners will use this webinar series for continuing education, but it’s also free and open to the public,” Herzog says, “so it’s a really great series for anyone who’s interested in gardening and horticulture and just wanting to have a better yard or lawn or grow better vegetables.” The first webinar is scheduled for Thursday night.

“This is a weekly series,” she says. “It goes for 10 weeks. It’s every Thursday, from January 9th through March 13th, and it’s at 6 PM from six to seven.” While there are a couple of online options, Herzog says the webinars will also be offered at many I-S-U extension offices throughout Iowa. “Some extension offices across the state will be offering live streaming in the office,” Herzog says. “So if people prefer to go in person, or maybe they don’t have internet at their house, or they just want to get out and socialize, they should call their extension office and double check with them, as not all extension offices will be offering it.”

There’s also the option of joining via computer using Zoom, or by going to the livestream on the extension’s Facebook page.

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Corn farmers in Iowa, and across the country, will have “full and fair” access to markets in Mexico after a United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, panel found Mexico’s bans on genetically engineered corn were against USMCA commitments. The U.S. brought forward seven claims under the trade agreement in 2023 and on Dec. 20, 2024, the USMCA panel sided in favor of the U.S. claims, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Under a 2023 presidential corn decree, Mexico initiated a ban on GE corn in dough and tortillas and called for the gradual elimination of GE corn from other food sources and from animal feed.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig called the bans “baseless” and “rooted in politics” rather than science, according to a news release. “This dispute resolution case reinforces the value of securing free trade agreements with key partners around the globe,” Naig said in a statement.  “These agreements not only secure markets for Iowa-grown products, they also outline a fair, transparent and binding dispute resolution process.” According to USDA, Mexico is the largest corn export market for the U.S. and accounted for nearly $5 billion worth of exported corn from January through October in 2024.

Iowa Corn Growers Association President Stu Swanson called Mexico a “key trade market” for corn growers, in a press release from Iowa Corn that said farmers and leaders must work with the incoming administration to enforce the ruling. “Iowa’s farmers rely heavily on trade and corn exports to Mexico,” Swanson said in the statement. “That’s why we joined other state and (National Corn Growers Association) grower leaders in pushing USTR to challenge this ban.”

Corn growing in a western Iowa field in August 2023. (Photo by Jared Strong/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

USDA data on genetically engineered crops in the country show 95% of Iowa corn planted in 2024 was genetically engineered, which is consistent with rates in other corn production states across the country.  U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in a statement the USMCA panel decision affirms U.S. allegations that Mexico’s policies were “counter to decades’ worth of evidence.” “This decision ensures that U.S. producers and exporters will continue to have full and fair access to the Mexican market, and is a victory for fair, open, and science- and rules-based trade, which serves as the foundation of the USMCA as it was agreed to by all parties,” Vilsack said.

According to USDA, Mexico has 45 days from the final report (issued Dec. 20) to comply.  The panel, in its final report, acknowledged Mexico was “seeking to address genuine concerns in good faith” but it recommended the country do so instead with “measures based on scientific principles” and “in dialogue” with USMCA parties.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State Extension survey found that average price of an acre of farmland dropped in 2024, breaking a five-year trend of increases. I-S-U extension economist Rabail Chandio conducts the survey and says the one trend that didn’t change is the type of people buying farmland. “The highest demand for our farmland comes from existing farmers. They may be existing local farmers or existing relocating farmers, but 70 percent of all farmland demand came from this group,” she says. Chandio says 23 percent of the farmland purchases were by investors.

“These investors include local as well as non local investors. They may include absentee landowners. They may include people who are next generation farmers or and they are not manually farming. They’re not personally farming, but they do want to keep connected with their legacies, and they’re buying farmland,” she says. Chandio says the investors in Iowa aren’t usually the institutional investors or big companies or individual big name billionaires. “It includes a lot of maybe Iowa residents, or previous Iowa residents, or residents from our neighboring states who are showing interest in our farmland,” Chandio says. “It also includes the demand for recreational ground that is more pronounced specifically for southern Iowa.”

The recreational purchasers are using the farmland in southern Iowa for hunting, and she says that’s whey it had three-point-six percent increase in value. Chandio says Iowa farmland doesn’t usually come up for sale until the owner dies or decides to retire. “Estate sales is the largest category contributing 57 percent of the land that was up for sale this year. Retired farmers is the next biggest category, making up for 22 percent of all land that was available for sale,” she says. Chandio says the long-term landowners have paid it off, and that gives them some protection against economic swings. “Eighty-four percent of all Iowa farmland is owned debt free, so those who already own it are not feeling the interest rates, which is why it is a negative pressure, but it has not been enough to really tip over the markets in the last year either,” she says.

Chandio says the high interest rates create the most pressure for beginning farmers and can really make them struggle.

WATERLOO, Iowa (KCRG) – Friday (Jan. 3rd) was the last day of work for 80 John Deere employees in Davenport. The layoff will impact the John Deere Davenport Works location, which builds tractors and farming equipment. John Deere announced the layoffs on Oct. 16th. The company cited recent low demand and challenging market conditions. Deere announced a net income of $7 billion for the 2024 Fiscal Year, a 16 percent drop from the year before.

However, the layoffs don’t stop there. Monday will be the last day for 112 employees at the Waterloo works location. These layoffs were announced on Dec. 3rd.

So far, more than 1,700 John Deere employees across Iowa have been laid off since the start of last year, with most of them in Waterloo.