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(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.
(Iowa News Service) DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa hasn’t seen as much economic pain as some other states during the pandemic, but many residents and small businesses are still struggling.
Supporters of expanding the state’s solar tax credit say it could help with any recovery from the crisis. The reimbursement budget for Iowa’s credit is capped at $5 million annually, and with many homeowners and businesses investing in solar panels, there’s a waiting list to get return dollars from the state.
Aerial shot top view of solar panel photovoltaic farm
Cody Smith, policy associate at the Center for Rural Affairs, said that’s why the Legislature should consider modifications. He noted immediately paying those on the waiting list, while increasing the cap, would help a lot of Iowans hurting right now. “Now that we have this economic problem caused by the coronavirus pandemic, this solar tax credit could help put money back into the pockets of people who own those small businesses on main street, and people who have already invested in renewable solar energy,” Smith contended. Smith asserted Iowa should also decouple from the federal incentive, given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding that plan.
Rep. John Forbes, D-Urbandale, said he’ll advocate for an expansion in the next session. But he warns its future could depend on the upcoming budget forecast, and whether small businesses see more declines from the crisis. He also wondered whether Republican leaders will consider the idea. Certain sectors of Iowa’s economy, such as manufacturing, have held steady, but Forbes said smaller consumer-driven businesses like restaurants are still seeing pain.
Dwight Dial, a farmer from Lake City, said trying to get by in this environment is tough. He installed a solar array in 2018, and he said the benefits from that investment are helping. “My purpose of sustainability is that I am able to farm next year, that I can financially keep going,” Dial emphasized. “And the solar unit has made it feasible.” Dial said his operation’s energy costs have gone down considerably in a roller-coaster year for Iowa farmers. But he’s still waiting on state reimbursement for his solar purchase, and he said getting that would help pay off the initial investment, bringing more stability.
Those calling for changes say increasing the cap to $10 million not only helps those on the list, it would encourage others to take advantage, creating more demand for the solar industry.
(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Insurance Division recently reported more than one-point-six billion dollars was paid out for claims of damage from the August 10th derecho, which includes more than 70-million dollars just for crop damage. Iowa Corn Growers Association president Carl Jardon says his property near Randolph in far southwest Iowa fared well during the powerful storm, but many hundreds of others were severely impacted. “I was far enough south, I did not get the storm damage but I sure feel bad for our friends and relatives that had to go through that, combining young corn and junk out in the middle of their fields,” Jardon says, “just a terrible situation.”
The derecho, he says, is a clear example of how critical it is for producers to have risk management and a solid crop insurance program. “It really showed through this year,” Jardon says. “That was one of our policy priorities, to protect crop insurance. So, yeah, that really came through this year.” He notes multiple other types of insurance became very important given the derecho’s devastation. “Not only the crop insurance but have insurance on your buildings and your facilities, so yeah, it all comes through this year,” he says.
While more than 200-thousand insurance claims were filed on derecho-related damage, Iowa Insurance Division officials say they got fewer than 100 complaints.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer is integrating fifth-generation technology — or 5-G — broadband cellular networks into many of its facilities. Quad Cities-based John Deere won an auction from the Federal Communications Commission last week to implement 5-G in its production lines. Craig Sutton, who’s runs Deere’s manufacturing innovation, says 5-G will allow the company to expand past previous limitations. “That is kind of the future of manufacturing. We’re very excited about it,” Sutton says. “We want to change the mindset that manufacturing’s the old, dirty smokestacks and the dingy areas. It’s a really cool environment.”
Sutton says automation won’t take workers’ jobs, but it will make them easier. “We can make quicker and better decisions,” he says. “We can move people to the right positions. We can predict machine failures. We can stay in front of any machine that might be having a performance issue. We actually see things like automation as a way to augment work, and then let the people, the highly-skilled people, do the work that they’re skilled at doing.”
Deere is laying the groundwork to switch to 5G next year with a complete rollout expected within 12-14 months. The tech will be implemented at Deere facilities in four Iowa counties — Black Hawk, Dubuque, Polk and Scott — as well as Rock Island County, Illinois.
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