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CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
(Radio Iowa)n – The pheasant season opened on October 31st with a lot of optimism about bird numbers and the prospects for a good season. Iowa D-N-R wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says a lack of phone calls to his office tells him things are looking good. “I haven’t gotten hardly any calls at all –so that means it’s going well,” Bogenschutz says. “Because, if it’s going bad I get the complaints.”
He says the one complaint he’s gotten is a lack of birds in eastern Iowa near Davenport. Bogenschutz says that’s due to a lack of habitat there. He says everything heading into the opener pointed to the potential for success. “We kind of expected that things would be pretty decent. It was a little hard with the roadside counts and the drought, because that does impact the birds that we count. Generally in those regions where the counts weren’t as good, people are pretty pleasantly surprised,”Bogenschutz says. “The weather has been pretty challenging. We’ve had a lot of windy days, some dry days, warm days at least in the first part of the season that make hunting challenging.”
He says calm winds make it easier for dogs to smell the birds and keeps them from moving. “A little bit of snow and the lack of wind is generally ideal. The birds tend to hold better when its calmer and scenting conditions are a better when we’ve got a little moisture,” he says. Bogenschutz says they will have some exact numbers when they get the survey information in after the season ends.
Area Emergency Responders, firefighters, EMT’s, law enforcement and EMA personnel are being informed Due to current circumstances and social distancing the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) will be offering 4-hour long Ethanol Safety Webinars. The FREE webinars are instructed by a nationally accredited and professional instructor with an extensive background in emergency management/firefighting/hazardous materials response. The goal of these seminars is for attendees to gain a full ethanol and ethanol-blended fuel emergency response training experience that can be put to use immediately in the field.
The training program will include the following elements: Ethanol and Ethanol-Blended Fuels, Chemical and Physical Characteristics of Ethanol and Hydrocarbon Fuels, Transportation and Transfer, Storage and Dispensing Locations, Fire Fighting Foam Principles, General Health and Safety Considerations, and Storage and Pre-planning Considerations. Certificates of Participation will be awarded to all registered attendees once the webinar has been completed.
The RFA has conducted nearly 300 in person Ethanol Safety Seminars across the country.
Registration: https://www.transcaer.com/training/training-events/ethanol-emergency-response-webinars/10065
Sessions:
Tue, 12/08/2020 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Wed, 12/09/2020 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 01/27/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 01/28/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 02/24/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 02/25/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 03/24/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 03/25/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
Wed, 04/21/2021 08:00 AM to 12:00 PM CDT
Thu, 04/22/2021 12:00 PM to 04:00 PM CDT
RFA also offers Ethanol Emergency Response – Train the Trainer webinars which is a pay-it-forward type of program. A single webinar can train a group of individuals who can then turn around and pass that information forward, equipping entire communities with the knowledge necessary to respond to any potential ethanol-related emergency. The Train the Trainer courses are intended to develop instructors to lead operations level training. The instructors are responders who have an awareness level of hazardous material storage, handing, and emergency response. The learning objectives established are relevant objectives that the instructors must understand. The webinars are open to all professional individuals above the technical level of training who are interested in learning how to teach ethanol emergency response. However, the instruction is tailored toward ethanol production facility employees, ethanol safety professionals, railroad safety professionals, emergency responders, firefighters, police officers, emergency management professionals, etc. Certificates of Participation will be awarded to all registered attendees once the webinar has been completed.
Registration: https://www.transcaer.com/training/training-events/train-trainer-ethanol-emergency-response-webinar/10071
Sessions:
Wed, 12/02/2020 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST
Tue, 03/09/2021 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST
Thu, 06/17/2021 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST
Tue, 08/24/2021 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM CST
(Des Moines) – With many holiday gatherings put on hold due to the pandemic, pheasant hunting is one way to keep an annual holiday tradition alive, while staying apart. “Pheasant hunting is a big part of Thanksgiving for many families but with health experts advising against gatherings, this tradition won’t look the same as in year’s past, but it can still be part of the holiday,” said Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. He said hunters who do not live in the same house are encouraged to drive separately to the hunting spot and when they arrive, to space out and not congregate while in the field.
What they’ll find in the field is a pheasant season that’s off to a good start. “I’m hearing really good reports, good pheasant numbers from all parts of the state despite the state experiencing an unusual number of days with gale-force winds and temperatures in the 70s,” said Bogenschutz. “Everybody that’s hunting in good cover is finding and getting birds.” That’s good news heading in to the Thanksgiving holiday and might be just enough incentive to delay the trip to the couch until the afternoon hunt is completed.
Iowa’s pheasant season closes Jan. 10, 2021.
Places to Hunt
The Iowa DNR’s online hunting atlas lists nearly 700,000 acres of public hunting land, including 22,000 acres of land enrolled in the popular Iowa Habitat and Access Program (IHAP) allowing hunter access to private land.
Each area on the atlas includes a link to a map with property boundaries, the size of the area, habitat type, species of wildlife likely found, if nontoxic shot is required and more. The map is available as a downloadable pdf that can be printed or saved to a smartphone.
To view the atlas, go to www.iowadnr.gov/hunting and click on Places to Hunt and Shoot in the left column.
(Radio Iowa) – Farmers took advantage of good weather last week to wrap up some of the remaining harvest work. The U-S-D-A crop report out Monday shows only scattered cornfields remain to be harvested across the state — amounting to about two percent of the crop. Some of the derecho damaged cornfields still have to be disked down — and the report says some farmers are doing extra tillage in areas where corn was knocked down with the worry that the downed corn will come up as volunteer corn in the spring. The harvest finished up three weeks ahead of last year.
AMES, Iowa — Registration is open for Practical Farmers of Iowa’s second annual cover crop boot camp. The event is free, and will be held virtually Dec. 3-4 from 9 a.m. to noon. The two-day workshop will explore how cover crops boost soil health, improve weed control and provide grazing opportunities. 
Row crop and livestock farmers of all cover crop experience levels are invited to attend. Certified crop advisor participants can earn one continuing education unit (CEU) for each session, for a total of six credits in the soil and water category across both days.
Registration is open until Dec. 3. To sign up, visit practicalfarmers.org/ cover-crop-boot-camp. Farmers without access to a computer or reliable internet connection will have the option of calling in to participate. For questions – or technical support with Zoom or the call-in option – contact Lydia English at lydia@practicalfarmers.org or (515) 232-5661.
Boot Camp Agenda: Attendees will hear from a combination of farmers, university researchers and agricultural professionals.
Day one will focus on the basics of cover crops in each topic area, and will provide a good introduction for those just getting started with cover crops. Sessions this day will explore:
Day two will feature more advanced strategies for those row crop and livestock farmers wanting to advance their cover crop journey. Participants will learn:
Each presentation will be followed by 20-minute small-group discussions, where participants will have a chance to network with one another and share their experience using cover crops. Sarah Carlson, PFI’s strategic initiatives director, says “These breakout discussions will be a fun way for farmers to interact with and learn from one another. They will also help to overcome Zoom meeting burnout by creating deeper connections between farmers.” Farmers are encouraged to attend both days of the boot camp, but may also attend just the day that best suits their experience level. More details, including the full agenda and speaker information, are available at practicalfarmers.org/ cover-crop-boot-camp.
The cover crop boot camp is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, and is made possible by the support of Agribusiness Association of Iowa; Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers; Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance; Iowa Corn Growers Association; Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship; Iowa Learning Farms; Iowa Pork Producers Association; Iowa Seed Association; Iowa Seed Corn Cover Crop Initiative; Iowa Soybean Association, Iowa State University; Natural Resources Conservation Service; and Soil Health Partnership.
(Radio Iowa) – While there have been scattered showers, parts of Iowa have had very little rain since mid-summer and the continued dry weather is drawing down soil moisture levels. State climatologist Justin Glisan says while drought conditions are lessening in some areas, they’re worsening elsewhere, as much of Iowa’s western third is now in moderate to severe drought. “Subsoil conditions across much of the region show a below-normal percentile,” Glisan says. “Recent warm and windy days produced higher evaporate demand in the atmosphere, so the atmosphere is thirsty, especially for this time of year, those conditions allow for extraction of any subsoil moisture or surface moisture that we see.”
We’re heading into a drier time of year, so Glisan says it will be difficult to recharge soil moisture levels before spring. “With a lack of precipitation, this makes rainfall infiltration when we do get it harder to get down deep,” he says. Glisan says that lack of soil moisture may bring some help to Iowa’s farmers in the spring. “The silver lining here is that moving into the growing season, drier-than-normal conditions will make field work and planting easier,” Glisan says. “If you go back, the last two or three years, we’ve had pretty wet conditions going into the growing season with record subsoil moisture which delayed planting.”
Conditions could change within a matter of several weeks, as Glisan says the trends point to above-normal precipitation for January through March.
(Radio Iowa) A major upgrade is planned for the Koch Fertilizer plant near the Webster County town of Duncombe to boost ammonia production. The upgrades will boost yearly production by 85,000 tons. The work on the project will begin next year with completion by the fall of 2022. The cost of the project is estimated at $140 million. Koch officials did not say if there will be any new jobs with the upgrade. The plant has been in operation for over 50 years.
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