(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig says 2019 could best be characterized as a roller coaster ride for farmers — and not the kind you enjoy. “Certainly trade has impacted markets, we have seen some up and down in terms of renewable fuels policy. And I think the dominant issue for our farmers this year was absolutely the weather and the historic delays in planting and harvest, and really historic flooding,” Naig says.

Naig says there were bright spots too — including some good yields at harvest. “Even though we had historic delays in planting and historic delays in harvest progress — for the most part I’m hearing some pretty good things in terms of corn yields in particular. And beans yields are okay — all things considered,” according to Naig. He says one of the issues that continued in 2019 was the preparation and build up of defenses against animal diseases. “African Swine Fever has been active in China and parts of Asia now since August of 2018 and is very much on the minds of our pork producers. One is to of course keep it out of the United States — keep it out of North America — and two is really heightening biosecurity on farms. So if it were to come to North America that folks could keep it off of their operations.”

Naig says there is hope that the prices farmers get for their goods will increase in the new year. Naig says commodity prices have been below the cost of production or just enough to break even since 2018.”That of course is just not a sustainable situation,” he says. “So, what we’ve needed to correct that is of course to increase demand here and around the world. And also to bring some certainty back to the marketplace.”

Naig hopes the pending trade deals will help with that goal of increasing demand in 2020 and lowering the amount of uncertainty.

You’re invited to join Cass County Conservation Staff at Atlantic’s Schildberg Recreation Area- Lake 4, on Saturday, January 4th 2020. Staff will be giving ten-minute presentations regarding the Trumpeter Swans every half-hour beginning at 11:00 a.m. with the last one being presented at 2:00 p.m. There will also be time to view the swans through spotting scopes and witness random swan feeding sessions. Hot chocolate, cookies, grilled hotdogs, and other snacks will be provided free of charge with donations being accepted (for swan care).

The Schildberg Recreation Area is located on the northwest edge of Atlantic, Lake 4 is on the north side of Highway 83. Atlantic is celebrating 20 winters of the Trumpeter Swans wintering here. The event is not to be missed! IF THE WEATHER IS “BAD” OR THE SWANS ARE NOT AT THE PARK…the program will be held at the Atlantic American Legion Memorial Building from 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. with a light lunch available.

The event is being sponsored by the Cass County Conservation Board, Atlantic Parks and Recreation, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and ARISE.

Cass County: Corn $3.59, Beans $8.74
Adair County: Corn $3.56, Beans $8.77
Adams County: Corn $3.56, Beans $8.73
Audubon County: Corn $3.58, Beans $8.76
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $3.62, Beans $8.74
Guthrie County: Corn $3.61, Beans $8.78
Montgomery County: Corn $3.61, Beans $8.76
Shelby County: Corn $3.62, Beans $8.74

Oats $2.63 (always the same in all counties)

(Information from the area FSA Offices)

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A Jan. 13 hearing has been scheduled for a Dubuque man charged with neglecting livestock and failing to properly dispose of dead animals. Court records say 31-year-old Cesar Gonzalez faces nearly three dozen counts. Officials say several of the 26 animals rescued from the Dubuque farm earlier this month were in poor health. The bones and rib cages of some animals could be seen, and they had matted hair. The animals removed included horses, a pony, goats, sheep, pigs and geese.

WARREN COUNTY, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources say that at around 3:15-p.m. Friday (Dec. 27), the Warren County Sheriff’s Office dispatch received a call about two people that had gone through the ice at Summerset State Park, and were yelling for help.

When Warren County Sheriff’s deputies, Indianola Fire and Rescue and a DNR conservation officer responded to the scene they witnessed that Ryan Nesselroad, of Carlisle, had fallen through the ice, approximately 40 yards from the shore. A second man, Gary Anderson, of Venice, Florida, had also fallen through the ice while attempting to rescue Nesselroad.

Rescue crews used throw bags to rescue Anderson and pull him to shore. Nesselroad was farther out in the lake and was rescued by Indianola Fire and Rescue teams and was suffering from hypothermia. Both men were transported to a Des Moines area hospital to be treated.

The Iowa DNR reminds everyone to beware of ice conditions and depth. Obey all posted signs and any warning flags around lakes. Due to the recent unseasonably warm weather, it is best to avoid going onto lakes and small ponds, especially around the edges where the ice is likely very thin.

Safety Tips on the Ice

• There is no such thing as 100% safe ice.
• New ice is usually stronger than old ice.
• Ice fishing is a social activity, don’t go out alone. If the worst should happen, someone would be there to call for help or to rescue.
• There could be pockets of thin ice or places where ice recently formed, so check ice thickness as you go out.
• Avoid off-colored snow or ice. It is usually a sign of weakness.
• The insulating effect of snow slows down the freezing process.
• Safety items in the bucket: Ice picks, about 50 feet of rope and a throwable floatation seat cushion for use in case of rescue.

(Radio Iowa) — An Iowa State University livestock economist says at the current point in the beef production cycle, the number of cattle should be leveling-off. That would usually mean lower prices — but as Lee Schulz looks ahead to 2020 — he sees better prices than the ones today. “That’s certainly setting up that we could continue to hold inventories or not see very large declines or liquidations of the cattle herd because of those supported prices in the horizon,” Schulz says.

Schulz says export sales grew by double-digits in recent years, and a bit more modestly in 2019. The new trade deal with Japan and the likely implementation of a new North American agreement could keep beef exports strong in 2020. On the pork side, 2019 included ongoing tariffs on Chinese imports of U-S pork. But the year also saw the unprecedented African swine fever outbreak claim more than half the pigs in China, which pushed the country to go shopping for more pork on the world market. Schulz says China started buying more pork from the European Union but it eventually turned to the U-S, too. “We’ve seen the U-S really ramp-up exports to China as well as back-filling other places that maybe weren’t getting exports from the European Union,” he says.

African swine fever has not been found in North America. But Schulz says the threat of it has prompted many farmers to pour profits into shoring-up bio-security, which has the added benefit of reducing the spread of existing diseases, too.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — President Donald Trump likes to joke that America’s farmers have a nice problem on their hands: They’re going to need bigger tractors to keep up with surging Chinese demand for their soybeans and other agricultural goods under a preliminary deal between the world’s two largest economies.

Yet skeptics are questioning how much China has committed to buy — and whether American farmers would be able anytime soon to export goods to China in the quantity Trump has promised: $40 billion a year, according to Trump’s trade representative, Robert Lighthizer. For perspective, U.S. farm exports to China have never topped $26 billion in any year.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office says a Creston man reported Tuesday afternoon, that someone had stolen 34 100-pound John Deere tractor weights from two of his tractors. The weights have an estimated value of $4,900.

(Radio Iowa) — Economists taking stock as Iowa enters the 2020s indicate this decade has been a “bumpy ride” for key sectors, like agriculture and technology. Iowa State University ag economist Chad Hart says there were about 93-thousand farms in Iowa in 2007. “In 2017, they updated the Census of Agriculture. We only had 86,000, so we have seen the number of farms shrink,” Hart says. “That means the average size of the farm has grown…It takes more money to farm these days. We’ve seen incomes rise, but we’ve also seen expenses rise.”

The other thing that’s rising is the number of farmers who have off-the-farm jobs, according to Hart. “We have some farm families that are surviving by not necessarily growing the farm, but relying upon the farm as part of the portfolio of their economic activity,” Hart says. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says there’s more volatility in Iowa’s agriculture AND manufacturing sectors now than in previous decades because of global competition.  “This presents challenges but opportunities,” Goss says. “One other factor that Iowa has been pretty successful historically in attracting workers from other nations. That’s legal migration and, of course, that’s slowed down pretty dramatically over the last couple of years.”

Dave Swenson, another economist from Iowa State University, says manufacturing and construction are “reasonably bright spots” in Iowa’s economy. “In contrast to the nation, we have more people working in construction than we did before the ‘Great Recession,'” Swenson says, “and our manufacturing sector has recovered to close to what it was prior to the recession.” But Swenson says while the state’s unemployment rate is historically low — overall job growth in Iowa lags behind most other states. “We have fewer fast-growing sectors in our economy compared to the nation,” Swenson says. “Our information sector contracted sharply, but the subset of that information sector — for example, IT — it also contracted. Whereas nationally IT and IT-related business opportunities are growing and especially in hot spots like Seattle and the San Francisco area and Denver and places like that.”

Goss, the Creighton University economist, regularly surveys purchasing managers and bankers in Iowa and other Midwest states. He’s concerned by the declining number of independent banks. “That becomes a real challenge for lending in the area as farmers, manufacturers, individuals don’t have a source for borrowing or savings in a bank that’s locally tied,” Goss says. “Those banks that are independent, community banks — they understand their customers.”

According to the State Banking Division, about 30 state-chartered banks closed between 2011 and 2018 and more than 50 federally-regulated community banks closed during that period. Those trends are happening in other states as well. Iowa ranks 30th overall in terms of economic output. According to the latest federal data, the state’s gross domestic product rose just over one percent in the second quarter of this year.

(Radio Iowa) — The man who conducts the annual Iowa State survey on farmland values says many owners have been able to weather the downturn in the farm economy because they don’t have to make payments on their ground. Wendong Zhang says it’s something that goes with the profile of the state’s residents. “Eighty-two percent of the land is owned debt free. That is in part related to the aging population. There is more and more land owned by aging landowners. Sixty percent is owned by landowners who are 65 or above,” Zhang explained.  He says there also seems to be a lot of carry over from the days of record-high commodity prices. “I’m personally surprised how much equity and cash were stored through the golden years from 2003 to 2013,” according to Zhang. “During those years — during that decade — essentially Iowa farmers and across the midwest had seen eight percent annual growth in their adjusted farm income.”

But Zhang says there is a growing concern about the continuing increase in the number of farm bankruptcies as the economic downturn continues. He says when land is sold it continues to be mainly an Iowan to Iowan sale. He says there is a growing interest by investors in farmland. “But the majority of the action is still existing local farmers buying land. And buying land very nearby their existing operation as well,” he says. Zhang says the land that is available comes after the owner retires or passes it on. “Half the land are coming from estate sales. Twenty-four percent is coming from retired farmers,” Zhang says.

Zhang says those sales are most often to family members or other farmers.