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CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Iowa Agribusiness Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
(Radio Iowa) – State officials today (Tuesday) confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks at Perdue Farms pork processing facilities in northwest Iowa. A company spokesperson says the testing was conducted on May 4th and 5th. On May 11th, Perdue Farms announced 425 workers had been tested and fewer than 20 percent tested positive. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, 69 workers at the Perdue Farms plant in Sioux CENTER tested positive and tests confirm another 20 workers at the company’s plant in Sioux CITY have had the virus.
Hogs are slaughtered at the facility in Sioux Center and the Sioux City location is the processing plant for ALL the company’s pork products. Jim Perdue, chairman of family-owned Perdue Farms, issued a video statement on May 7th about the pandemic. “We are supplying masks and protective gear to our associates and government inspectors in our plants as well as any essential personnel who enters our facilities,” Perdue said. “…We have increased our already stringent cleaning and sanitation protocols and we are physically altering our production plants and running at reduced speeds to facilitate social distancing.”
Perdue Farms is based in Maryland. The company’s website indicates it owns plants throughout the country that process poultry, pork, lamb and beef.
(Radio Iowa) – Officials in a southwest Iowa community are laying the groundwork for a “farm school.” The Essex City Council has given initial approval to an ordinance that would let the Essex School District keep livestock on school grounds. The council will review the proposal again at its June meeting. Essex Superintendent Dr. Mike Wells says the ordinance limits the number and type of animals. “We agreed that lambs and goats and chickens and ducks would be year one of the program,” Wells says.
They hope to start this vocational program this fall. Wells says school officials have addressed concerns about odor and cleanliness. “We would not bring animals onto the grounds until after the Labor Day celebration each year and then we would sell the animals at the sale barn by the end of April, by May 1st,” Wells says, “and then we would clean that site before baseball starts to make sure everything looks nice for baseball season.”
Wells is also superintendent of the Hamburg School District, where a similar program is already operating. Wells says city and Essex school officials will review the program yearly and decide whether it should continue. The Essex school board has hired its first-ever ag instructor to conduct the farm school courses for vocational students, who would start by constructing the buildings for the animals.
JOHNSTON, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa DNR said Tuesday (today), that at approximately 4:45-p.m. on Monday, May 25th, DNR conservation officers responded to a boat explosion on Saylorville Lake. Upon initial investigation, it was determined that an accumulation of gas fumes in the engine compartment of the boat ignited when the boat was started.
At the time of the explosion, there were eight passengers on board, including the operator and owner of the boat, Michael Jenkins, of Ames. Two passengers were treated and released at the scene with minor burns and one passenger was transported to UnityPoint’s Iowa Methodist Medical Center with more serious burns. Investigators do not believe alcohol was a factor in this incident.
The DNR reminds boat operators with inboard motors to run the blower system before starting a boat to prevent this type of incident from happening.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The meat and poultry industry has historically relied on immigrant labor to do some of the most dangerous jobs in America, from employing refugees to a notorious record of hiring immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Now that reliance and uncertainty about the pandemic is fueling concerns about possible labor shortages to meet demands for beef, pork and chicken.
In this photo provided by Cristobal Francisquez, his parents Paulina and Marcos Francisco pose for a photo in front of their house in Sioux City, Iowa, Monday, May 25, 2020. They bought the home after years of working in a meatpacking plant and other food processing jobs. (Cristobal Francisquez via AP)
Companies struggling to hire are spending millions on fresh incentives. Whether there’ll be long-lasting difficulties hinge on if employees feel safe, unemployment, industry reforms and President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
(Radio Iowa) — Iowa hunters reported a record number of wild turkeys taken in the just-ended season at the same time the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is studying the population decline of the birds. D-N-R wildlife research biologist Jim Coffey says they’re researching a disease known as L-D-P-V. “L-D-P-V stands for Lymphoproliferative Disease — which is a relatively new disease to the wild turkey world. And we are not sure what the impact is or has been on wild turkeys,” Coffey says. Hunters were asked to submit a lower leg bone from their birds — and they will be tested for the disease to try and answer some questions.
Coffey says they want to know if the state has the disease and then where the disease is located in the state. “And then we’ll start to look at that data compared to some of our historical bird surveys and population estimates to see if there is any kind of correlation.” He says the wild turkey decline has happened in other states and each is trying to figure out why. “There’s several speculations — and Iowa has chosen to kind of look at the L-D-P-V version of it — whereas other states are looking at other aspects, so we can double up our efforts in trying to solve this mystery.”
He says getting the information from the samples supplied by hunters will let them move to the next step. “Usually the typical pattern in diseases pass through. They impact the population and then they fall off and the population recovers,” Coffey says. “The first aspect is to try and determine do we have it and then is there anything that we can do as managers — was it something that we just have to plan for in our hunting strategies– so that we have to look at how many birds are available to the people of Iowa to hunt.”
Coffey encourages hunters who still have a lower turkey leg and want to participate in the study to go online to www.iowadnr.gov/turkey to request a packet.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — One of the many troubling aspects of the coronavirus pandemic has been seeing farmers have to destroy crops and euthanize livestock at a time when millions are losing their jobs and demand is soaring at food banks. However, some states have begun spending more money to help pay for food that might otherwise go to waste and the U.S. Agriculture Department is spending $3 billion to help get farm products to food banks.
New York dairy farmer Chris Noble says it’s gratifying to find a way to avoid dumping milk and get nutritious products to people who need them.
JOHNSTON, Iowa – High waters and construction around the Sycamore Boat Ramp near the I-80 bridge is forcing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to close the ramp until construction is complete.
The Sycamore Boat Ramp is located near where Beaver Creek flows into the Des Moines River. A barrier is now in place at the boat ramp to prevent launching of boats or any other vessels, as well as kayaks and canoes. Currently, the high water levels and the construction equipment in the area on the river are causing hidden and dangerous undercurrents, as well as very fast currents at the surface.
Anyone boating or paddling through this area is encouraged to use extreme caution or avoid the area all together. The boat ramp will be closed until the construction is complete.
On Saturday, May 23, the currents in that same area caused a woman to be thrown from her kayak causing minor lacerations to her head. Two nearby anglers were able to pull the woman from the river. She was treated and released at the scene by the Des Moines Fire Department. The DNR responded to the incident and will continue to investigate.
MOUNT VERNON, Iowa — On Friday, May 22, around 3:45pm, the DNR was notified of a person who had fallen on a trail at Palisades-Kepler State Park and had lacerations to his head. Four hikers came upon 32-year old Brian Jungen, of Coralville, along Cedar Cliff Trail. Jungen was lying along the trail near a bench and was bleeding from lacerations on his head. The hikers were able to speak briefly with the victim before he blacked out.
The hikers called 911 and first responders from Mount Vernon and Lisbon, as well as Linn County Sheriff’s Office deputies and DNR park rangers responded to the scene. When they arrived on scene, they were not able to detect a pulse from Jungen and began immediate medical attention. Jungen was pronounced dead at the scene.
DNR park rangers continue to investigate this incident.
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