IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — In the days before his death, an Iowa meatpacking worker told his nephew that the coronavirus was spreading through his plant due to crowded spaces and a lack of personal protective equipment. Husen Jagir died on May 1, about a week after he fell ill following a shift at the Seaboard Triumph Foods plant in Sioux City. The plant, which is one of the nation’s largest pork processing facilities, announced this week that 59 of its workers had tested positive for COVID-19 and that it had taken several safety precautions. Jagir’s nephew, Shila Dide, says that his uncle told him last month the virus was “everywhere” at the plant.

• KJAN, Atlantic  1.61″
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LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — Federal regulators have reached settlements with two agricultural storage and supply businesses to resolve alleged violations of clean air regulations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a news release Thursday that it inspected Midland Marketing Co-op Inc. and Troy Elevator Inc. in response to accidental releases of anhydrous ammonia that injured workers. Anhydrous ammonia is corrosive to the skin, eyes and lungs. Exposure may result in injury or death. Midland owns a facility in Palco, Kansas. Troy Elevator owns facilities in Bloomfield and Blakesburg, Iowa.

w/Brandon Scheuring.

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — U.S. meat exports are surging this spring even as the processing industry is struggling to meet domestic demand because of coronavirus outbreaks at processing plants that have sickened hundreds of workers. Although the situation could cause concern that American workers are risking their health to meet foreign demand, experts say it shouldn’t because much of the meat sold to other countries is cuts that Americans generally don’t eat. And at least one of the four major processors says it has reduced exports during the pandemic. The meat industry says that if companies manage to keep plants operating, there should be plenty of supply to satisfy both the U.S. and export markets.

(Radio Iowa) — The three-TRILLION dollar economic recovery plan introduced in the U.S. House includes two-and-a-quarter billion for the biofuels industry. Iowa Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer, a Democrat from Dubuque, is part of the House Biofuels Caucus that lobbied for the assistance. “This is obviously a meaningful step towards protecting our producers and providing relief to this vital sector of our economy that means so much to our state, to our agricultural community, also to rural Iowa and our cities,” Finkenauer says.

Under the plan, ethanol and biodiesel plants would get payments based on the gallons each produce. “At a rate of 45 cents per gallon for fuel produced between January and May of this year,” Finkenauer says, “and then for plants forced to shut down, the bill provides 22.5 cents per gallon on the amount produced during the same period last year in 2019.” There are eight biofuels plants in Finkenauer’s congressional district which covers the northeast quarter of Iowa. “And I know they are struggling,” Finkenauer says. “Just last month the ADM ethanol production plant in Cedar Rapids shut down, furloughing 90 workers.”

Growth Energy, a trade group for the industry, projects biofuels production has been cut in half due to the pandemic and the Trump Administration waivers for oil refineries, so they don’t have to blend ethanol into gasoline. Iowa Congresswoman Cindy Axne, a Democrat from West Des Moines, is also a member of the House Biofuels Caucus. She says the downturn in the biofuels industry is having a devastating economic impact, leading to rural job losses and falling corn prices.

(Radio Iowa) — More than a dozen U-S senators, including Iowans Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, are calling for indemnity support for pork producers who are depopulating their herds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jen Sorensen

Jen Sorenson of Ankeny, president-elect of the National Pork Producers Council, says it was a big plus when President Trump declared pork processing plants as critical infrastructure, ordering them to stay open. “But we are still so far behind with plant capacity,” Sorenson says. “U.S. hog farmers need help and relief when it comes to compensation for euthanized animals and also the cost incurred with euthanizing, composting and rendering those animals as well.”

Hog producers in Iowa and elsewhere are asking for financial help in covering their losses.  “A hundred dollars, roughly, for compensation for euthanized animals,” Sorenson says, “and then an additional $50 to cover those rendering, disposal and composting costs, depending on how the producer wishes to walk through that process.” Producers were looking to 2020 as a year of potential profit after a few years of consecutive financial challenges, but then coronavirus arrived.  Sorenson says, “We had two rough years in terms of the trade disruptions in 2018 and 2019 with not having access into Japan, the uncertainty of USMCA, and not having a market into China as well.”

Due to COVID-19 outbreaks that closed some meatpacking plants, processing capacity is down by 20- to 40-percent or more and estimates say the pork industry has lost more than five-billion dollars.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa’s two U-S senators want more money pumped into programs to compensate hog producers who are forced to euthanize herds due to the pandemic. With some meatpacking plants closed, processing capacity is down by 20- to 40-percent, or more. Senator Chuck Grassley says the pork industry has lost more that five-billion dollars already, though he’s not calling for a specific amount to be included in the legislation.

“Usually the bill says ‘such sums as may be necessary’ and the appropriators would make that final decision,” Grassley says. “The fact that I haven’t mentioned a specific dollar figure is only because it’s kind of an unknown at this point.” Grassley notes that the CARES Act provided more than 24-billion dollars for grain farmers, specialty crops and livestock producers who were suffering losses.

“This money that is already available, six weeks ago, was anticipating just low prices because of the pandemic,” Grassley says. “Nobody talked about depopulating herds at that time.” In a letter to Congressional leaders signed by Grassley and several other senators, they say: “The crisis is immediate. Pork producers send to market over two million pigs each week. If 20 percent of processing is idle, that means somewhere around 400,000 animals per week must be disposed of in some manner other than processing.”

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says farming communities are in an economic crisis, especially hog farmers who are faced with the prospect of euthanizing their animals. “It’s very hurtful, I think for all of us, especially for those of us in leadership that are really crying to be heard broadly across the United States with our colleagues as to what our American farmer and rancher is going through,” Ernst says. Ernst made her comments last Friday during a forum with Vice President Mike Pence in West Des Moines.

Jen Sorenson, president-elect of the National Pork Producers, says of euthanizing hogs: “That goes against every farming instinct. We need significant help to support U.S. pork producers that generate more than 500,000 jobs and $23 billion in personal income across America.”

(Radio Iowa) — State campgrounds re-opened this past weekend and the head of the Department of Natural Resources Parks Bureau says things went pretty well. Todd Coffelt says it was evident when the opening time hit that many people were itching to get outdoors. “People started to trickle in at eight o’clock just like the announcement. Some people must have their campers already loaded and ready to go — because being able to be there at eight o’clock — that’s something,” Coffelt says.

He says this is a start to getting things back to normal. “I would say on average most of the campgrounds were 25 to 30 percent full,” according to Coffelt. “We wanted everyone to be there, but the weather wasn’t the 80 degrees we had the weekend before and the sudden change in travel plans is always a challenge.” Coffelt says people at the campgrounds have been following the social distancing guidelines in most cases. “For the most part folks are doing a pretty good job. We have general reminders — our goal is to educate folks not to enforce laws…if we do see a group most of the time it is temporary and we don’t really have push back from anybody ,” Coffelt says. in the campgrounds when we open them up, we are limiting access to the campgrounds to just the registered campers.”

The registration system for campgrounds is now open again and Coffelt says they had some three-thousand people already registering through Monday afternoon. “Seventy-five percent of the sites in our campgrounds are reservable. There still is walk-in traffic — but as we near the Memorial Day holiday — it is a bigger risk the closer you get,” he says. “People are starting to look forward now that we know the campgrounds are open — they obviously have taken advantage of the convenience of making a registration.”

Coffelt says you should always check campground availability before heading out. He says you can call ahead or check the websites beforehand. Coffelt says they are still working on the parks and sometimes projects will impact the availability and access to sites. You can go to www.iowadnr.gov to find out about the availability of campsites or to make a reservation.

(Radio Iowa) – The planting season continues to move rapidly ahead following a year where farmers had to sit and wait for things to dry out. The weekly crop report from the U-S Department of Agriculture shows 91 percent of the corn planting is done — up from 78 percent last week. The report says 71 percent of the soybeans were in the ground — an increase from 46 percent the week before. Iowa State University Extension Field Agronomist Paul Kassel says it’s been decades since farmers have the conditions to be able to work at this pace. “It was a record soybean planting in Iowa. I think the north-central crop reporting district had 66 percent like a week ago which is way ahead of schedule, so yeah, so kind of a neat deal to have that situation after the last couple of springs,” Kassel says.

The only downside has been a cold snap that spread across the state last week. Kassel says he has not received any reports of frost damage — but the cold is slowing the growth of the one-third of the corn crop that has already emerged from the ground.  “Kinda losing out here on leveraging our early planting. We like to plant early to kind of extend the growing season and increase the amount of time during the summer months when we can fill the kernel and the pods that’s probably the overall bigger concern,” according to Kassel.

The corn planting progress is now almost one month ahead of last year and two weeks ahead of the five-year average. Less than five percent of the crop remains to be planted in the northwest and north-central Iowa. The soybean planting is also one full month ahead of last year and more than two weeks ahead of the average. Northwest and north-central Iowa also lead the way in soybean planting with less than 20 percent remaining to be planted.