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The 2019 Governor’s Charity Steer Show at the Iowa State Fair marks the 37th consecutive year the beef industry has raised funds to help families who utilize the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Iowa. The show ring competition takes place Saturday, Aug. 10, at 4:00 p.m., in the Pioneer Livestock Pavilion at the Iowa State Fair.
Celebrities will accompany the young steer owners, leading cattle around the ring while vying for the championship designation, showmanship honors, and the People’s Choice award. Among the southwest Iowa teens showing their steers:
Steer # 2 – Sponsor: Crawford County Cattlemen & Nor-AM Cold Storage
Celebrity & Title: Lt. Governor Adam Gregg
Steer Name: Richard
Steer Owner: Makia Smith, Charter Oak
Steer # 8 – Sponsor: Iowa Bankers Association
Celebrity & Title: Mike Pearson, Co-host of Ag News Daily Podcast and VP of Market Engagement, Zaner Group
Steer Name: Richard
Steer Owner: Kerrigan Mobley, Diagonal
Steer # 9 – Sponsor: Volunteer Boards of Iowa Ronald McDonald House Charities
Celebrity & Title: Marcia Morales, RMH Volunteer
Steer Name: Thanks-A-Million
Steer Owner: Eric Plagman, Cumberland
Immediately following the competition, the steers will be sold at auction with proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Iowa. Both the show ring event and the auction are open to the general public.
Since the Iowa Beef Industry Council and the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association began the Governor’s Charity Steer Show in 1983, the effort has raised more than $3.5 million for the Des Moines, Iowa City and Sioux City Ronald McDonald House Charities. The houses provide a “home away from home” for families of seriously ill children being treated in area hospitals and have served nearly 47,000 families.
Each of the 25 steers are owned by Iowa youth who have cared for the animals and participated in other shows with them. The youth prepare the animals for the show and assist a celebrity in the show ring. Sponsors reimburse the youth for the cost of the animal and choose the celebrity.
Thirty-nine Iowa communities will soon be a little bit greener thanks to $105,000 in tree-planting grants from Alliant Energy and Trees Forever’s Branching Out partnership. Communities applied for grants up to $5,000 to fund new trees that will add beauty and save energy. Many of the planting projects will also help replace trees destroyed by the emerald ash borer or by storms – including in Marshalltown, where the 2018 tornado devastated many of the city’s trees.
In southwest Iowa, the City of Creston received $5,000 for plantings at the hospital, school, McKinley Park and fairground buildings. The City of Greenfield received $3,828 to replace trees lost to windstorm last year, and street trees.
In addition to the funds, communities also receive tree-planning support from Trees Forever. A tree expert helps communities select the best species for their area and then assists in creating a care and maintenance plan to make sure the new trees have long and healthy lives.
This is the 29th year that Alliant Energy and Trees Forever have partnered to offer the Branching Out tree-planting program. Several communities planted their trees this spring, with many more plantings planned for the fall. To learn more about the program, visit alliantenergy.com/branchingout.
Officials with the Guthrie County Extension Office say a Farmland Leasing meeting will be held at the Guthrie County Extension Office on Tuesday, August 13th, beginning at 6:00 pm. Topics will include current cash rental rate and land values survey results, methods for determining fair rents for 2020, legal aspects of farmland leases, including strategies for writing and terminating a farm lease, tenant/landlord communications, and ISU Extension web-based and other resources. Workshops are 2 1/2 hours, with a 100-page leasing arrangements book provided, One per registrant/couple.
Registration is $20 per person or $30 per couple. A $5 late registration fee will be added after August 10th. To register contact the Guthrie County Extension Office at 641-747-2276.
(Radio Iowa) — Corn continues to mature across Iowa and while it may be beneficial to farmers, those fields of green can be a danger for drivers traveling on rural roads. Floyd County Deputy Sheriff Travis Bartz says tall corn can tower into a motorist’s line of sight, reducing visibility at uncontrolled intersections. “Whether you can see gravel dust or not, or if the roads are wet, you’re not going to see gravel dust, assume that there is another vehicle, an ATV or somebody walking at an intersection,” Bartz says. “By the time you get into that intersection, it’s too late.”
While that gravel dust can help drivers identify other traffic, it can also create a complication. “If you cannot see the road in front of you clearly, you don’t know — because of the gravel dust — if somebody is pulling out, if somebody is running across the road, wildlife or anything like that,” Bartz says. “Let the dust settle before you continue. Increase the distance between you and whatever is causing the dust.”
According to Bartz, the majority of accidents he’s responded to are with drivers who are unfamiliar with the terrain. Floyd County alone is a home to over 400 intersections — with 300 of them uncontrolled — increasing the risk for a collision. Bartz says frost boils in the gravel, caused by the freeze/thaw cycle, are making this driving season even more challenging. “Driving your vehicle down the road, if you get in one of those ruts, it is going to jerk your car to the left or the right without you being able to control it,” he says. “If you are driving too fast, it’s going to cause you to go into the ditch, you’re going to bottom out your car, or it’s going to be harder to stop.”
Bartz says the best thing for drivers to do is go back to the basics. “Every accident has a large degree of human error,” he says. “Stay attentive. Make sure you’re looking both left and right and forward and check your mirrors for vehicles coming up behind you and stay off your cell phone.” He adds, property owners can trim back weeds and grass along the road to improve visibility.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new report says a July survey of business supply managers suggests economic growth will slow over the next three to six months in nine Midwest and Plains states.
The report issued Thursday says the Mid-America Business Conditions index dropped to 52.0 in July from 55.4 in June. It’s the lowest figure in more than three years. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he blamed the slowdown on weak farm income, produced in part by tariffs and flooding.
The survey results are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests growth. A score below that suggests decline. The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is warning paddlers to use caution on the Raccoon River in Des Moines and Upper Iowa River in Winneshiek County as there could be obstructions caused by falling trees and logs. The D-N-R’s Todd Robertson says people in kayaks and canoes have flipped when a strong current took them into the obstructions. Robertson teaches paddling courses and says it’s something everyone should look into — especially rookies. “Whether it’s canoe, kayak or paddle board, you should know four or five basic strokes. If you know those strokes and know how to navigate your vessel — your’re going to be much, much safer out on the water,” according to Robertson. “But when you end up going to a corner store and just buying the first kayak you see and then head straight to the river, that’s when things can happen.
Seeking formal instruction, knowing safety, knowing rules and regulations is very important for first-time paddlers.” Robertson teaches paddling classes through the D-N-R and says there are other opportunities for lessons. “There’s padlding clubs around with seasoned paddlers that you can find on Facebook. Granted, they may not be certified instructors, but you can learn some basic strokes. A lot of these bigger retails stores that you go into, some of them offer a free hour or two-hour paddling class,” he says. Robertson has been seeing more people get into paddle boards. “It’s so easy to get into paddle boarding because unlike a canoe or kayak — it doesn’t fill up with water. So, if you dump into the water you are able to get back on your board real quick, plus it’s just real fun,” Robertson says. “I think for the last four or five years it’s been the fastest growing outdoor vessel as far as activity goes.”
Paddle boards can be used on the same waterways that are used for kayaks and canoes. “You can definitely run them on a river — but it’s not advised until you have a lot experience — because it is a whole different ballgame. The storkes are basically the same, but you are up against moving water rather then just flat unmoving water,” Robertson says. Robertson says the lifejacket rules apply the same to paddle boards as the other vessels. “Just like canoes and kayaks — you’ve got to have a lifejacket on that board,” Robertson says.
Robertson, is the D-N-R River Programs Outreach Coordinator, and says it’s natural for rivers to have the hazards from trees and logs. A section of the Raccoon River from Walnut Woods State Park to Waterworks Park in Des Moines has caused a lot of problems for paddlers recently. A large log jam that formed upstream of Chimney Rock Park on a river left outside bend of the Upper Iowa River in Winneshiek County near Decorah has also been causing problems. You can see a real time look at issues on the water through the D-N-R’s interactive paddling map at iowadnr.gov/paddlingmap.
(Radio Iowa) — A northwest Iowa ethanol plant suspended production this week “until further notice.” Plymouth Energy in Merrill is one of at least 10 ethanol plants in the country to temporarily shut down. Three others have closed. Monte Shaw is executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. “A lot of the experts say we’ve got about a 10% overage of production and until that production comes off line, the economics aren’t going to improve,” Shaw says.
Shaw says this supply-demand imbalance is caused by waivers federal officials are granting big oil companies — so refiners don’t have to blend as much ethanol into gasoline. “If you look at the demand destruction from these waivers that the Trump Administration has done, for the first time in 21 years, in 2018 the U.S. used less ethanol than the prior year,” Shaw says. “In other words, for 20 straight years we always used more ethanol each and every year than we did the year before here domestically, not talking exports. In 2018, we actually took a step backwards.”
Shaw says the past 18 months have been a very rough on the industry. “A certain portion of the industry has made a little bit of money, barely; some have been just struggling to break even and then there’s a portion of our industry which has been losing real money on a cash basis and you can only do that for so long. Eventually your cash reserves run out and you can’t buy corn and so we did see that come home to roost, even in Iowa.”
The board of Plymouth Energy issued a statement, saying all existing corn contracts will be honored and they hope to resume production “in the not too distant future.” A coalition of groups representing ag and biofuels interests today (Wednesday) asked a federal court to allow a 2018 lawsuit challenging the E-P-A’s management of renewable fuels policy to proceed. Shaw says if E-P-A policy doesn’t change over the next few months, more ethanol plant managers may consider temporarily shutting down production. “This is not good for our economy,” Shaw says. “This is not good for corn prices and things like that, but it’s really tough on the employees whose jobs are in question right now.”
Shaw says if the E-P-A were to adhere to the rules outlined by the Renewable Fuels Standard, there would be an “immediate impact” on corn prices and ethanol production would quickly rebound.
MONDAMIN, Iowa (AP) — Authorities in Harrison County have recovered the body of a farmer who died after his tractor flipped over atop him when it ran off a riverbank edge into the Missouri River. The tractor was spotted by people searching for the man Tuesday evening a little more than 2 miles northwest of Mondamin. The Harrison County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as 82-year-old Malvern Wallis, who lived in Mondamin. He had been working along the riverbank since 8 a.m., getting the land ready for cattle. It’s unclear when the accident occurred.
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