(Radio Iowa) – There was planting progress last week despite widespread rain.The U-S-D-A report says there were just two-point-three days suitable for fieldwork due to wet conditions. The corn planted was up 16 percent to 34 percent, and that is two days ahead of the five-year average. Soybean planting moved from eleven to 25 percent complete, which is four days ahead of last year.

The report says cooler temperatures have slowed the emergence of the seeds already in the ground.

WEST DES MOINES, IA – The U-S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that due to fuel supply shortages, the agency will issue emergency waivers to permit the nationwide sale of E15 for the 2025 summer driving season. Even though Iowa and seven other Midwest states received approval to allow year-round sales of E15 on a permanent basis, a nationwide waiver provides additional E15 access to consumers outside of the eight Midwest states.

Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) Executive Director Monte Shaw said “While Iowa consumers and retailers already have E15 certainty, we still want consumers all across the nation to have the ability to save 15 to 20 cents per gallon at the pump. And during a time of tight fuel supplies, it would be ridiculous to tell retailers to bag their E15 pumps. Today is good news for Iowa farmers as well when you consider that 96.5 percent of ethanol produced at Iowa plants is utilized outside of the state.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued the following statement in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s emergency approval of the summer sale of E-15: “President Trump is committed to lowering energy prices by unleashing American energy production, and it all starts with U.S. farmers. This move to allow the summer sale of E-15 will provide immediate relief to consumers, provide more choices at the pump, and drive demand for corn grown, processed, and used right here in America. Our nation’s great corn growers are critical to helping the U.S. achieve energy independence which is essential to national security.”

Rollins said “At USDA we look forward to our continued partnership with EPA and are working diligently to increase our energy dominance in the U.S. and abroad by expanding market access for American biofuels on the world stage.”

(Radio Iowa) – North America’s first commercial-scale “green ammonia” field trial is underway in Boone. Landus Cooperative partnered with the company Talusag to produce farm fertilizer using solar energy, air and water. Hiro Iwanaga is C-E-O of the start-up. “Traditional ammonia depends on, depends on a global supply chain that’s costly, that’s unreliable, that’s carbon intensive. We manufacture closer to where the product is used. We cut down risk while giving farmers a stable, more predictable source of one of the most critical inputs,” he says. Landus vice president for strategic initiatives, Brian Crowe, says the process reworks the entire system.

“We’re not only changing how fertilizer is produced, but where it’s made, how it gets to our growers,” Crowe says. He says the system in Boone can produce around one ton per day, but a larger scale model being built in Eagle Grove will produce twenty times more.

Earlier this month, Landus applied green ammonia to corn field trial plots on-site and will compare results with control strips throughout the growing season. The partners hope to have green ammonia commercially available next year.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Master Gardeners have a busy month planned in May! On Saturday May 10, the group will host their annual Spring Plant Sale on the Cass County Fairgrounds. A few weeks later, on Wednesday May 21, the annual Master Gardener Bus Trip will leave from the fairgrounds for a day of education, garden exploration and plant nursery shopping. Any interested member of the public is invited to both events to help kick off the start of the gardening season!

The Plant Sale begins at 8 AM on May 10, and will be held in the front parking lot of the Cass County Community Center on the fairgrounds at 805 W 10th Street in Atlantic. The event promises to have a wide variety of perennials available for gardeners to add to their landscape this year, as well as lawn tools, décor, and gardening books. Interested gardeners are encouraged to arrive early for best selection. The sale closes around 10 AM or when most plants are sold out. All items will be sold for a free will offering, with all proceeds used to support Master Gardener community grants, scholarships, and other projects around the county. A resource table with information on spring gardening topics and local projects will also be available.

For the annual spring sale, the Cass County Master Gardeners offer a variety of perennial plants from their own gardens, as well as plants dug from gardens in the local area. Plants expected on the sale so far include daylilies, grape hyacinth, sedum, ferns, hosta, columbine, walking onions, mukdenia, and a variety of houseplants and succulents. Others may be added closer to sale day. Community members are welcome to donate plants to this event, and members may even help you dig! If you are dividing perennials in your yard this spring and have extra plants to donate, please call in advance and make arrangements to drop off donated plants before the date of the plant sale. The Atlantic FFA chapter and horticulture students will also be set up at the plant sale again this year, offering tomatoes, peppers and flowering annuals for sale. All FFA plants will be sold at a separate booth and individually priced. Information will also be available on student plant sales from other Cass County schools.

The annual Bus Trip on May 21 features a full day of garden visits, educational activities, and a chance to explore and shop specialty plant nurseries. The trip heads east this year, and includes stops near Lorimor, Cumming and Norwalk in central Iowa. The bus departs the fairgrounds in Atlantic at 8 AM and returns around 6 PM. The trip is coordinated by the Cass County Master Gardeners, but is open to everyone. Registration closes on May 15, or when the bus is full. Registrations are taken on a first-come basis, so register soon and be sure to reserve your spot on the bus! The cost is $65 for the day, which includes transportation, a meal and snacks. Registration forms are available at the Cass County Extension office, and can also be found on the Cass County Extension website at www.exension.iastate.edu/cass. A full itinerary is on each registration form.

The goal of the Master Gardener program is to provide local community service and education in horticulture.  The Cass County Master Gardeners utilize funds raised from their annual spring and fall plant sales for community projects across the county, include maintaining community garden spaces, providing education programs to youth and adults, and providing financial support to local horticulture projects and scholarship opportunities. Other upcoming events from the Master Gardeners include a local garden walk on June 22 and the fall plant sale on September 13. Master Gardeners will also be providing education to community members at events throughout the summer.

For more information about the plant sale, bus trip, and other Master Gardener activities in Cass County, please call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132, or email Cass County Extension Director and Master Gardener Coordinator Kate Olson at keolson@iastate.edu.  In addition, you are invited to follow the Cass County Master Gardeners at their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CassCoMG or visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass/master-gardener-program to keep up with local events and tips for gardening and learn more about becoming a Master Gardener in Iowa!

CEDAR COUNTY, Iowa (Iowa Capital Dispatch) – A Cedar County farmer is suing a manufacturer of wind turbines, alleging three turbine fires scattered debris over hundreds of acres of land, damaging his crops. Alan Weets of Mechanicsville is suing the Chicago-based company Nordex USA, which does business as Acciona Windpower North America and Anchor Wind, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. Weets alleges that in 2010, he entered into an agreement with Acciona that gave the company an easement on his property for the installation of two wind turbines. Acciona, the lawsuit claims, was aware of “serious problems” with the turbines that it installed on Weets’ property but failed to repair or replace them in order to render them safe.

In March 2023, one of the turbines caught fire and spread debris across 160 acres of Weets’ land, the lawsuit alleges. The damage allegedly resulted in Weets having to restrict that section of the property to grain production rather than forage and fodder for livestock feed. In May 2024, a second turbine on Weets’ property allegedly caught fire, spreading additional debris across the land. Over the next several months, according to the lawsuit, Weets grew frustrated with a perceived lack of progress by Acciona contractors, who used farm-type equipment in an effort to clean up the property. “The crews created additional debris-damage issues arising from further destruction of plastics and fiberglass pieces, making pieces that were smaller and more difficult to pick up from the foil,” the lawsuit alleges.

In August 2024, the second wind turbine allegedly caught fire again, causing one of the massive blades to fall to the ground. Weets claims that shortly thereafter, the Cedar County Co-Operative informed him it would not accept any grain from him that was contaminated by turbine debris. In all, 230 acres of land were allegedly contaminated by the debris. Weets alleges that although he and Acciona never agreed on the cost or extent of the damages, the company issued him a check for $230,000 as compensation. The two sides have yet to come to terms on that issue, the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for alleged negligence, breach of contract, and consumer fraud. Nordex media representatives did not immediately respond Wednesday to requests for comment.

(Photo by Perry Beeman/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

A 2014 study by Imperial College London, the University of Edinburg,h and SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden found that fires in wind turbines were occurring 10 times more often than were reported. At that time, the wind-power industry was reporting about 11 fires per year, while researchers determined that there were closer to 117 such fires annually among the 200,000 turbines examined. In 2023, a report from the Caithness Windfarm Information Forum identified 3,287 reported wind-turbine accidents, worldwide, between 2000 to March 2023 — an average of 143 accidents per year. Fires accounted for 14% of those accidents, just behind blade failure, which accounted for 15% of the accidents.

The most common cause of wind turbine fires is a lightning strike, although mechanical and electrical failures are also contributing factors.

(Stanton, Iowa) – Montgomery County resident Jan Norris reports a “Carbon [capture] Pipeline Opposition Meeting” will be held April 28th, in Stanton. The meetings that are being held around the state, are hosted by the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, Iowa Easement Team, and landowners who may be impacted by the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline and the possible use of Eminent Domain to acquire land for the pipeline to cross. Organizers say the meetings are intended to educate communities about carbon capture pipelines, and prepare affected landowners for Iowa Utilities Commission (IUC) proceedings.

On Monday, April 28th, local landowners and issue experts will provide an overview of the proposed pipeline projects, the latest updates from across the five-state pipeline footprint, and action steps to prepare for pending permit proceedings.

The meeting will be held at the Stanton Viking Center (501 Elliott St., Stanton, IA), beginning at 6:30-p.m., Monday (April 28th).