(Radio Iowa) — The site of a movable restaurant that has moved on, is destined to become a gathering place to link biking and walking trails in the Iowa Great Lakes region. Erin Reed is executive director of the Dickinson County Trails Board. “It runs right along next to our railroad trail, so we’ve been watching that property for some time,” she says. “It’s been for sale for a while and just always thought it would be a great spot to have a trail head.”

The Lake Street Diner in Spirit Lake that sat on the property was moved in December. Reed says her group has gotten a grant to cover the cost of buying and developing the property. “At this time we are looking at different design concepts for a shelter type area that would include restrooms and be somewhat unique to the old rail trail concept,” Reed says, “and also include some landscaping and clean up of the area.”

Reed expects the project to take a couple of years. The city of Spirit Lake sits on the western shore of East Lake Okoboji. The railroad trail being developed in Dickinson AND Osceola Counties will eventually run 37 miles — on land first laid with rail tracks in 1867. The 14-mile Iowa Great Lakes Trail includes a loop through Spirit Lake’s residential and downtown areas.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Smithfield Foods says its pork processing plant in South Dakota will temporarily close for cleaning after over 80 employees were confirmed to have the coronavirus. The company plans to suspend operations in a large section of the Sioux Falls plant on Saturday, then completely close on Sunday and Monday. It plans to sanitize the plant and install physical barriers to “enhance social distancing.”

South Dakota health officials announced Wednesday that over 80 employees of the plant had tested positive for COVID-19. The Department of Agriculture says there has been no evidence that the coronavirus is being transmitted through food or its packaging.

w/Max Dirks.

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DES MOINES, Iowa – Every year the Urban Forestry Awards luncheon recognizes cities, college campuses and utilities that demonstrate a variety of dedication to the importance of trees in their respective categories. All awards are presented on behalf of the Arbor Day Foundation and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. This is the 30th year for the awards presentations. To qualify for the Tree City USA award, a city must have either a city forester or an active city tree board, have a tree ordinance, spend at least $2 per capita annually for its community forestry program, and have a tree planting and maintenance plan.

Among those cities receiving a 2020 award Tree City USA award was:

• Atlantic – The 25th year in a row the City has won the award.
• Carroll
• Clarinda
• Council Bluffs
• Denison
• Glenwood
• Harlan
• Onawa
• Red Oak
• Westphalia
• and Winterset.

(Radio Iowa) — Dairy farmers in Iowa and across the country including those are adjusting to a new marketplace. Farmer relations manager for Midwest Dairy, Mitch Schulte says that’s because demand from the foodservice industry and from schools has dwindled after they were shut down by the coronavirus outbreak. But on the other hand, Schulte says retail customers are purchasing more milk. “I think we’ve seen a pretty big surge in buying of dairy products in the beginning and as people stock up, that surge is slowly going down,” according to Schulte, “just know that our dairy farmers work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and they continue to produce milk every day. We do have a readily available supply of dairy products.”

Schulte says the challenge the industry is facing is oversupply — and that has producers looking for a home for their products. “These processors and co-ops are evaluating on a case by case scenario. As they deal with the disruption in the supply chain, they’ll make the decision on whether they may have periodically dispose of milk to adjust that supply or not,” Schulte says.

Schulte says on the positive side, retail demand for milk, cheese, butter and ice cream is up. Industry estimates say sales are as much as 60 percent higher than this same period last year.

w/Kate Olson.

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Officials with POET biorefineries announced Tuesday the company will idle production at its bioprocessing facilities in Chancellor, S.D., Ashton, Iowa, and Coon Rapids, Iowa, and delay the start-up of its new plant in Shelbyville, Ind.  Company officials say the move comes as producers across the United States continue to grapple with the economic fallout of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On an annualized basis, these operational changes are expected to reduce corn demand by 110 million bushels, freezing 330 million gallons of ethanol production across the four facilities. POET has also significantly slowed production at other facilities, further decreasing corn demand.

POET Founder and CEO Jeff Broin said in a Press Release, “Across the board, biofuel producers and our partners in the farm community face an unprecedented challenge. From day one of this crisis, we have placed the highest priority on protecting the health and welfare of our workers, partners and farm suppliers. Unfortunately, plummeting fuel demand amid the coronavirus pandemic has overwhelmed markets already suffering from continued trade barriers, a foreign price war over oil and regulatory uncertainty here at home. In South Dakota, the crisis has been compounded by one of the worst growing seasons in memory.”

Ethanol producers across the country are slashing production amid the ongoing crisis. Nationally, experts predict a decline in fuel demand of up to 55 percent. If these conditions persist, it will result in an annualized drop in ethanol demand of up to eight billion gallons or 2.7 billion bushels of corn. POET President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Lautt said “As always, we will continue monitoring the situation closely and working with team members at each plant to stay ahead of market changes as the situation continues to evolve day by day. We remain optimistic that elected leaders will move ahead swiftly on efforts to shore up the rural economy and deliver relief for struggling families. We are fully committed to protecting the strong, stable biofuel markets that America’s farmers need now more than ever, and we look forward to rebuilding and growing America’s agricultural markets.”

(Radio Iowa) – While much of the world is caught up with coronavirus, an Iowa State University study estimates the pork industry could lose 50-billion dollars if there’s an outbreak of African swine fever in the United States. Study author Dermot Hayes, an I-S-U economist, says tracking the spread of that virus in hogs would look very much like understanding how COVID-19 has infected people.  “The circumstances are almost identical,” Hayes says. “We have pigs out there that may be infecting other pigs, but we don’t know it. But once the infection becomes clearer, we would like to be able to trace that pig’s movement to find all the other pigs they were in contact with.”

Hayes advocates creating electronic movement records for all pigs, trucks and people in the pork industry. He says reducing imports of products that could harbor the virus are also necessary. Hayes says the 50-billion dollar figure looks out ten years after the virus arrives and includes a complete shut-down of U-S pork exports.  “If we can get rid of the disease before we force the industry to downsize, then the impact is still huge. It’s about $14-15 billion,” he says. “In either case, the take home for me is, we need to keep this disease out of the country and it’s worth spending a lot of money to do that.”

Many pork producers have already adopted strict biosecurity measures on their farms. Hayes says a 2011 study of a hypothetical foreign animal disease outbreak led to tighter customs security for meat coming into the country. He says now may be the time to stop importing things like pet food and organic soybean meal that might inadvertently give the virus a free ride into the U-S.

(Reporting by Amy Mayer, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) — Tyson Foods has suspended production at its Columbus Junction pork processing plant.  The company released a statement saying they’ve identified two dozen cases of COVID-19 involving team members at the plant in Muscatine County. The company headquartered in Arkansas and says it is experiencing varying levels of production impact due to additional worker-safety precautions and worker absenteeism.

Muscatine County had 41 cases of COVID-19 reported as of Monday — with 52 in nearby Scott County. Tyson says they will divert the livestock supply originally scheduled for delivery to Columbus Junction to its other pork plants in the region. Tyson has other Iowa plants in Waterloo and Storm Lake

(Radio Iowa) — The U-S-D-A recently approved the state’s plan for hemp production sand producers can now start applying for a hemp license. Robin Pruisner is overseeing the plan for the state Ag Department and says a public hearing Wednesday is the final step. “We have one more public hearing on this latest set of rules, and then they should go into effect April 8th without any more hiccups,” Pruisner says.  The public hearing is set for 9-10 a-m central time via teleconference. You can participate by calling 866-685-1580 and entering code 0009990941#. Pruisner says the U-S-D-A approved the plan pretty much as presented.  “There were some minor changes — I would call it wording changes — and they wanted us to carry over a few sentences that were actually in the statute and they also wanted them in the rules,” Pruisner says. “So those were our biggest changes. I think for someone looking at hemp, they are not going to see any major here that impacts them as they move forward with their plans.”

She says all the information to apply for a hemp license is online. “There will be an application form that can be downloaded from our website and they’ll need to fill that out. And then the key personnel and anybody with five percent or more legal or equitable interest will need to submit their official fingerprints to us — so that we can do the F-B-I background check that is required,” Pruisner explains.  Governor Kim Reynolds signed the hemp bill into law around one year ago — and it has been touted as an alternative crop for Iowa farmers. Pruisner says a lot has changed in the time the rules have been developed since the bill was signed into law. “Nothing is ever simple I think this world, and there’s a lot of I don’t know if you call them urban myths or rural myths out there about the enormous amount of money that can be made growing hemp,” according to Pruisner. “And maybe that might have had a little tinge of truth to it a couple of years ago when not many people were growing it.”

But she says you really need to review the market before moving forward. “I think anybody who is considering getting into this business needs to take a hard look at some of the price reports and stock reports that are available out there. My number one piece of advice is that no one should plant hemp unless you already have a contract to sell it — because of the oversupply that has reared up here in the last year,” Pruisner says. She says she had a lot of calls when the bill was first signed into law, and still gets calls from people interested in growing hemp. But, she isn’t sure how many people will be willing to jump into the hemp market.  “It’s too early to tell. And for several months I’ve answered that question the exact same way. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be more than three licenses — but less than three thousand,” Pruisner says.

Detailed instructions on how to apply for a hemp license are available at iowaagriculture.gov/hemp. This commercial hemp production program does not legalize the use of cannabidiol (CBD) for human consumption, extraction or processing in Iowa.