(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture visited the new Career Ag Academy on the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in Webster City over the weekend. Mike Naig says high school students there can receive dual-credit courses with Iowa Central Community College and with Iowa State University.  “I’ve been able to tour some really good models around the state,” Naig says, “bringing livestock, bringing that opportunity to get our high school students a hands-on opportunity. I know I learned better where you match that in classroom with the experiential learning. Of course, it’s one of the things that we love about ag education and FFA in particular.”

The academy has been active since the start of the current school year, working to educate students about agriculture.”We really need to create these pathways where it’s not just farm kids that are getting a chance to do these types of things and be around livestock and get the experience of doing chore, but any kid, any student, regardless of where you come from, can get to do that,” Naig says. “We need more people working in ag, and if we’re going to get more people working in ag, we need students from all backgrounds to learn about those opportunities.”

Naig says he’d like to see more such career ag academies pop up all over Iowa. “You got to learn to do chore and you got to learn what’s the right feed ration and how do you create the right environment for those animals? But then, of course, you’re going to connect the dots and you’re going to talk about, well, where’s that feed come from? What’s the grain side of it? Oh, also, how about the meat side of it, the nutrition side of it, the culinary arts?” Naig says. “I mean, you really start to string this together and it’s just a farm-to-fork kind of experience.”

Ground was broken on the facility last March. It houses classrooms, a dedicated livestock learning area and meat lab. A date has not yet been announced for its official grand opening and open house for the public.

Cass County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.22
Adair County: Corn $4.06 Beans $10.25
Adams County: Corn $4.06 Beans $10.21
Audubon County: Corn $4.08 Beans $10.24
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.12 Beans $10.22
Guthrie County: Corn $4.11 Beans $10.26
Montgomery County: Corn $4.11 Beans $10.24
Shelby County: Corn $4.12 Beans $10.22

Oats: $2.75 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

(Radio Iowa) – Brian Meyer — the leader of DEMOCRATS in the Iowa House — says says a silent majority of Iowans want the carbon pipeline built and he says the Senate’s REPUBLICAN leader has proposed a resolution that will end the stalemate.

“I think it’s probably the most likely to pass, with maybe some tweaking around the edges,” Meyer said. “It’s my personal opinion that actually would be a way forward.” Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh is offering a bill that would expand the proposed pipeline corridor, so Summit Carbon Solutions could go around unwilling landowners and find people who’d let the pipeline run through their land. Meyer is one of 21 Democrats in the House who voted against a bill this month that would completely ban the use of eminent domain to seize land along the pipeline route.

“It’s just not a real bill,” Meyer said. “…At some point we need to sit down and have a conversation and negotiate a way forward on this pipeline.” Some Republicans like Adam Steen, who’s running for governor, have suggested the push to protect the property rights of landowners who oppose the pipeline is among the top campaign issues of 2026. Meyer says the Senate G-O-P leader’s bill is the best way to resolve the issue.

“I think there’s a lot of people in rural Iowa that want the pipeline and you have to look at everybody,” Meyer said, “not just 250 people that show up at the Capitol with red shirts on.” That’s a reference to landowners and their supporters who’ve gathered at the Iowa Capitol most Tuesdays during the past few legislative sessions, urging legislators to either block the pipeline or at least give them the right to say it can’t be on their property.”That’s certainly something to take into account and it’s very important that we address those issues with eminent domain and we protect property rights,” Meyer said, “and I think the Senate bill does its best to do that.”

But Meyer says it’s time to get the pipeline started. “There’s a lot of people in rural Iowa who are kind of the silent majority that want this to get done,” Meyer said, “because we need to address the economic realities in rural Iowa with corn and ethanol.”

Meyer made his comments today (Friday) during taping of “Iowa Press” which airs tonight (Friday) on Iowa P-B-S.

Cass County: Corn $4.08 Beans $10.20
Adair County: Corn $4.05 Beans $10.23
Adams County: Corn $4.05 Beans $10.19
Audubon County: Corn $4.07 Beans $10.22
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.11 Beans $10.20
Guthrie County: Corn $4.109 Beans $10.24
Montgomery County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.22
Shelby County: Corn $4.11 Beans $10.20

Oats: $2.64 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

(Radio Iowa) – Action this week in the legislature has advanced a plan that would give carbon pipeline companies more flexibility to find a route around landowners who won’t voluntarily agree to let the pipeline on their property. Senate Republican Leader Mike Klimesh says his proposal is an extension of conversations in the capitol over the last four years. “It provides us a solution and a path forward,” Klimesh said.

Carbon pipeline opponents say it does not protect all landowners because if Summit Carbon can’t find alternative properties, it could still use eminent domain to seize land along the current route. Cynthia Hansen’s family farm is in Shelby County. “This bill opens up a larger pool of landowners for the companies to choose from,” she said, “but it does nothing to protect unwilling landowners from the threat of or the use of eminent domain.”

Jake Ketzner, a lobbyist for Summit Carbon, says the company has requested a clean corridor expansion bill. “While the bill does expand the corridor, we oppose the parts that create new processes because this will raise costs and extend timelines,” Ketzner said. The bill would require Summit to show state regulators it tried everything possible to find alternatives before the company could use eminent domain to seize property along the proposed pipeline’s path.

Ketzner says the company currently has signed contracts that give Summit voluntary access to 74 percent of the land along phase one of the project. In late 2023, Summit submitted an application to the Iowa Utilities Commission for phase two of its project, to expand the pipeline to POET and Valero ethanol plants.

The Weston–Underwood segment of the Great American Rail Trail took a significant step forward this month when the Iowa Transportation Commission approved the application to the Statewide Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside Program (TAP).

The approval, issued at the Commission’s January 13, 2026 meeting, includes $1,920,435 in funding through the Transportation Alternatives Program. These federal transportation funds are anticipated to be available beginning October 1, 2026, which marks the start of Federal Fiscal Year 2027.

This milestone advances planning efforts for the Weston–Underwood trail segment. Before eligible reimbursable project expenses may occur, the project must receive authorization from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and be included in the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency’s (MAPA) FFY 2027 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) as well as the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).

Photos courtesy of Pottawattamie County Trails Association and Western Iowa Development Association. (Via Pottcounty-ia.gov)

In addition to the TAP award, the Weston–Underwood segment has also received $500,000 through the State Recreational Trails Program, approved by the Iowa Transportation Commission in November 2025. This funding is part of a broader, multi-source approach to advancing the project.

These awards do not fully fund the Weston–Underwood segment. Pottawattamie County is awaiting decisions on two additional grant applications, expected in the coming months, that could help close the remaining funding gap.

Additional updates will be shared as the project continues through required planning and authorization steps.

(Radio Iowa)- Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig is asking lawmakers to boost funding for the state’s “Choose Iowa” program that supports individuals and businesses that produce everything from locally grown food to trees and soy candles. There’s a one-hundred dollar yearly fee for enrolling in the program, which launched in 2023. The number of participating businesses jumped 113 percent last year. “We want to continue to grow that membership — recruit new members, retain existing members (and) increase consumer awareness. The more that consumers know that Choose Iowa’s out there, the more they’ll look for it, the most products will be sold,” Naig said. “And, of course, we also are now really going the next level of how do we help connect our Choose Iowa members with distributors, with retail, you know, try to get to where they can sell some larger quantities on a more predictive basis.”

Naig is asking for a 300-thousand dollar boost in the Choose Iowa program budget. He’d use part of that money to hire someone with experience in getting products placed in retail locations. “Recognizing that we’ve got members that are just getting started. You’ve got members who are in a growth potential,” Naig said. “You’ve got other members where they are at a point where they need to get into distribution now. They are really looking to grow big.”

The program handed out half a million dollars in grants to businesses this past year and Naig says each state tax dollar awarded to a Choose Iowa business led to nearly a dollar of matching local investment.

(Radio Iowa) – President Donald Trump announced work is underway to make E-15 available nationwide during his stop in Iowa Tuesday. Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, a fellow Republican, says supporters can’t let up until the issue is done. “While our farmers are hurting and our ag economy is on the brink….I’m telling in these conversations with my colleagues, half measures are unacceptable. And so we need to make sure we’re delivering on E-15,” Hinson says. Hinson says she recently had a conversation with a member of the U-S-D-A about the high cost of fertilizer.

“U-S-D-A is very aware, and so is Secretary Rollins, of input costs and what our folks are facing,” she says. President Trump also talked about the payments to farmers to offset loses from tariffs and Hinson says those will help. ” I think it’s a good start, but farmers don’t want checks, they want markets, and that is what we need to be focusing on,” she says.

Hinson is from Marion and currently represents Iowa’s Second Congressional District, but is running for the open U-S Senate seat.

Cass County: Corn $4.07 Beans $10.18
Adair County: Corn $4.04 Beans $10.21
Adams County: Corn $4.04 Beans $10.17
Audubon County: Corn $4.06 Beans $10.20
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.18
Guthrie County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.22
Montgomery County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.20
Shelby County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.18

Oats: $2.61 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

ALGONA, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH)— The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has detected a second outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza in a Kossuth County mixed-species flock in a week. A spokesperson with IDALS said the flock had about 25,000 birds. The outbreak occurred at a mixed-species game bird hatchery and included pheasants, quails and chukars, a game bird in the pheasant family. The previous bird flu detection in Kossuth County occurred Thursday in a flock of chickens and game-bird pheasants and affected about 7,120 birds. The spokesperson could not disclose if the outbreaks occurred at the same facilities.

This is the second, 2026 outbreak of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu in Iowa. Since the start of the current outbreak, which began in 2022, more than 186 million domestic birds, nationally, have been affected by the strain of the virus, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The current public health risk of the highly pathogenic avian influenza is low, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the flu is not currently known to spread between humans.

IDALS urges livestock producers to “continue bolstering” biosecurity measures on their operations to prevent future outbreaks. Additionally, producers who detect symptoms like lethargy, a sudden increase in deaths, swollen heads, or difficulty breathing in their flocks, should contact their veterinarians immediately. The highly pathogenic avian influenza has also been detected in wild birds in Iowa. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources urges Iowans who notice 20 or more sick or dead birds in an area to contact the department.