DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says she is pushing the Trump administration to restore billions of gallons of ethanol demand lost when the Environmental Protection Agency exempted 31 oil refineries from blending ethanol with gasoline to meet the requirements of federal law. Reynolds on Tuesday speculated that President Donald Trump may not have fully understood the impact of granting the waivers on the ethanol industry. Now, she says at least one ethanol plant in Iowa has shut down production.

Reynolds says she has calls scheduled with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Vice President Mike Pence to talk about the ethanol industry after having already talked with Trump, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Ivanka Trump and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Reynolds says she remains comfortable telling the president about polices that hurt Iowa and its farmers even though she’s been named a co-chair of Trump’s re-election campaign in Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) — Two prominent politicians from opposing parties held an event Monday to call for approval of the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement. The new deal would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, updating some provisions and changing others. U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley appeared at a dairy in Des Moines with Democrat Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who served as President Obama’s agriculture secretary. “When everybody thinks everything in Washington is partisan and there’s an opportunity to stress bipartisanship — and with somebody of Governor Vilsack’s background particularly as secretary of agriculture for eight years in the previous administration, it brings credibility,” Grassley told reporters.

Vilsack is now the president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council. “It is the hope of the dairy industry and dairy farmers across the US that we get this ratified before the end of the year,” Vilsack said. “We don’t want this bleeding into 2020 and all the political ramifications of that year.” Vilsack says trade tensions with China are an should be the “impetus” or incentive for getting the U-S-M-C-A ratified.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Amy Mayer)

(Radio Iowa) — Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro — the former mayor of San Antonio — says there “absolutely” should be some federal regulation of large-scale livestock confinements. “I’ve heard plenty of community members here in Iowa who have talked about the environmental impact of some of these factory farms,” Castro says. “I know that there’s concern even with whether there should be any factory farms in the future or the ones that do exist should be allowed to expand.”

Castro says there should at least be a moratorium or what he calls a “pause” on new construction of large-scale animal feeding operations. Castro is the first among the Democratic candidates to release a broad plan addressing animal welfare issues. He calls it “PAW — Protecting Animals and Wildlife.” “We ensure that we’re investing in wildlife preservation, for instance,” Castro says, “that we’re working with communities across the United states to get to ‘no kill’ status in shelters throughout our country.”

Castro is calling for an end to the practice of euthanizing healthy pets if animal shelters grow too crowded. Castro also proposes that animal abuse be a FEDERAL crime. Castro spoke about his proposals during this weekend’s episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa Public Television.

(Radio Iowa) — A bold plan is being proposed to create a nationwide biking and hiking trail from Washington D-C to Washington state that would also cut a path through the heart of Iowa. Lisa Hein, senior director of conservation programs for the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, says the route across Iowa would encompass 465 miles of trail from Council Bluffs to Davenport. Already, 246 miles are complete, but don’t pump up your bike tires in anticipation just yet.

“In Iowa, trails have to apply for competitive grant funding and in the State Recreational Trails Fund there’s a million dollars,” Hein says. “That might do three miles of trail. At that rate, it’s going to take a few years but folks are plugging away at it.” Many of the trails in Iowa are existing, but creating the links between them would be a long process.

Still, the concept of a 37-hundred mile coast-to-coast trail of this sort is staggering — and alluring. “There’s a lot of interest and support across the country because it’s not just for bicycling,” Hein says. “People can get out and walk and run. These trails are really linear parks. Being able to connect across the country is pretty exciting from a transportation as well as recreation and tourism standpoints.”

Many segments of the proposed Great American Rail-Trail are to be built on former railroad beds, but it takes time to acquire other connecting tracts of the land, clear it, grade it and build the trails. “I’m optimistic that the interest and action and implementation of this will just continue to grow, especially as big visions like this are put forth by national organizations,” Hein says. “Iowa can be a very important piece to the entire puzzle.”

Current Iowa trails that would be incorporated under the plan include: Cedar Valley Nature Trail, High Trestle Trail, Raccoon River Valley Trail, the Heart of Iowa Trail and the T-Bone Trail. It will likely be several years before a truly statewide bicycle trail exists in Iowa, reaching from the Missouri River to the Mississippi. “I don’t know that we have really put a timeframe on it at this point,” Hein says. “This whole concept was just launched this spring. Folks are still getting a handle on it and working on how this vision could be implemented in Iowa.”

Learn more about the proposal at the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation website: http://www.inhf.org/blog/blog/the-great-american-railtrail/

Here’s a full list of the Iowa trails that would be incorporated in the effort:
• Government/Arsenal Bridge
• Mississippi River Trail/Riverfront Trail
• Running River Trail System
• Kent Stein to Deep Lakes Park Trail
• Hoover Nature Trail
• Cedar Valley Nature Trail
• Gilbert Drive Trail
• Evansdale Nature Trail
• River Forest Road Trail/Cedar River Levee Trail
• Cedar Valley Lakes Trail
• South Riverside Trail
• Cedar Prairie Trail
• Sergeant Road Trail
• Pioneer Trail
• Iowa River Trail
• Linn Creek Recreational Trail
• Iowa 330/US 30 Trail
• Heart of Iowa Nature Trail
• High Trestle Trail
• Raccoon River Valley Trail
• T-Bone Trail
• Railroad Highway Trail
• Valley View Trail
• Lake Manawa Trail
• Veterans Memorial Trail
• Western Historic Trails Center Link
• Iowa Riverfront Trail
• Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge

(Radio Iowa) Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says she talked with President Trump twice on Thursday about E-P-A waivers to big oil companies that have reduced the amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline.

Trump, as well as EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue, and other White House staff were on a conference call. They discussed a number of different options for farmers and those employed in the ethanol industry.

The ethanol industry has been harshly critical of the latest round of ethanol waivers. POET Biorefining, which operates six plants in Iowa, has shut down its ethanol plant in Indiana and announced this week it is reducing production at others. Ernst says given the make-up of a key committee in the U.S. Senate, there’s little chance for a pro-ethanol bill to clear congress. She’s optimistic the Trump Administration will come up with a solution.

Ernst said. Ernst made her comments last (Thursday) night after a G-O-P fundraiser in Forest City. She’s holding town hall meetings in Humbolt, Emmetsburg AND Forest City today (Friday).

CLOVERDALE, Ind. (AP) — The owner of a western Indiana ethanol plant is blaming its shut down on the Trump administration allowing some refineries to not blend ethanol with gasoline as required under federal law.

South Dakota-based ethanol producer Poet says it will cease production by mid-October at its Cloverdale plant, one of four it operates in Indiana. A company notification says 50 workers will lose jobs from the closure.

The company says production is being cut at half of its 28 plants where corn is processed into ethanol. Poet says it’s consolidating jobs at plants in Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, South Dakota and Missouri.

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued gasoline refinery exemptions removing 2.6 billion gallons (9.8 billion liters) of ethanol from production.

Poet calls those exemptions “bailouts to oil companies.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The amount of water being released into the lower Missouri River will remain high at least into September.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that water releases from Gavins Point Dam on the Nebraska-South Dakota border will remain at current levels of 70,000 cubic feet per second.

The Corps says it is still clearing out floodwater that accumulated in the reservoirs during the spring.

The large amount of water flowing into the river may exacerbate flooding in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri because many levees are still damaged from spring flooding.

(Radio Iowa) — Farmland values across the region fell by one-percent during the second quarter compared to a year ago but they rose one-percent in Iowa, according to a report from the Chicago Federal District. Sam Funk is director of ag analytics and research for the Iowa Farm Bureau.

“If anybody out there thought that land values would maintain and sustain as strong as they have, I think that would’ve been a shock for most people to think anything else than maybe a little weakness,” Funk says, “just because of general economic conditions we’ve seen across the district and across the primary commodities that we have in the Midwest.”

Funk says Iowa’s farmland values are in better shape than in the rest of the region. “The fact that they haven’t fallen any more than they have I think is a very good sign of the strength that we have in the underlying asset value with land,” Funk says. The biggest factor for farmland values was lower commodity prices, which he says was caused partially by weather extremes this year.

“Iowa actually had stronger appearance of good crop conditions relative to some of our neighbors in Illinois or Indiana,” Funk says. “That’s been seen in several USDA reports and other factors where we got more of our crop planted and it does look better generally than in some of our neighboring states.”

The Chicago Fed District Survey covers all of Iowa and parts of Illinois and Indiana as well as southern Wisconsin and the lower peninsula of Michigan.

(Radio Iowa) — After a phoned-in threat from someone in Iowa, the U-S-D-A has pulled its staff from an annual tour of midwest farm fields that develops yield estimates. According to a report from Reuters, “an angry farmer” called in the threat against a U-S-D-A official who was on the privately-organized ProFarmer tour.

Farmers have been upset with the higher-than-expected official yield estimates released by the U-S-D-A 10 days ago, as corn prices fell dramatically on the news. The Trump Administration’s decision on August 9th that granted ethanol waivers to big oil companies has fueled frustration in farm country, too.

A spokesman for Farm Journal, the parent company of ProFarmer, said “this is clearly a stressful time” and precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of those who will participate on the tour’s final leg today (Thursday). That final leg starts in the Spencer area. A statement posted on the ProFarmer website says the threat came “from a person in Iowa who was not affiliated with the event.”

The annual Pro-Farmer event, in its 27th year, features scouts taking day-time tours of fields along with evening meetings with local farmers. Things reportedly got heated at the tour stop in Grand Island, Nebraska earlier this week and police at the next stop in Nebraska City were dispatched to the tour’s evening event there on Wednesday. The tour wraps up in Rochester, Minnesota tonight (Thursday).

• KJAN, Atlantic  .47″
• 7 miles NNE of Atlantic  .68″
• Massena  .8″
• Bridgewater  .9″
• Underwood  1.53″
• Clarinda  .08″
• Shenandoah  .12″