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CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
(Radio Iowa) — A farmer from west-central Iowa’s Greene County is taking the helm of the Iowa Soybean Association this fall but it comes with trepidation. Incoming president Tim Bardole (BAR-dole) of Rippey says these are very challenging times for soybean farmers. “It’s going to be a tough year,” Bardole says. “The association is funded from the Soybean Checkoff, a lot of it, and with the low prices, a tough planting season, there’s a lot of unknowns and a lot of budget issues.”
Many commodities have seen poor prices for several straight years and they’re slow to recover, while Bardole says recent tariffs and trade troubles have made matters worse. “We need worldwide free trade,” Bardole says. “The U.S. farmer, even in tough times, we’re very good at producing soybeans and all of the other agricultural products. The U.S. definitely feeds the world.” Bardole took a trip to China earlier this year and saw up-close how that country’s enormous numbers depend heavily on American growers. “I’ve been to Malaysia and the Philippines,” Bardole says. “The world very much depends on U.S. agriculture for the good of their population.”
While foreign travel helps Bardole learn to appreciate what challenges other nations face, he also sees how much they appreciate us. “We have a lot of responsibility to do what we do and to do it very well,” Bardole says. “When you go to these other countries and once they find that you’re a farmer from Iowa, the respect that you get is somewhat overwhelming.”
Bardole will take office in September. He comes from a farming family and his father was the president of the I-S-A in the late 1980s. The Ankeny-based Iowa Soybean Association has 11,000 members.
(Radio Iowa) — The latest crop report shows the corn is planted across the state and beans are not far behind. Just two percent of the corn planting remained going into last week and farmers are now looking for some good warm growing days. Ninety-six percent of the crop has emerged. That’s two weeks behind where we were last year at this time and 15 days behind the five-year average.
The report shows still about five percent of the soybeans still remain to be planted. Eighty-one percent of the beans that have been planted have emerged. That’s also two weeks behind last year. The corn condition improved slightly this week — with 62 percent rated good to excellent. Sixty-three percent of the beans rate in good to excellent condition — up from 61 percent last week.
AMES, Iowa – Produce growers who want to get their water tested can do so for free, thanks to an effort by the Produce Safety Team at Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, which is providing five drop-off dates and locations across the state. The first local date is Tuesday, June 25th from 4-until 6-p.m., in Atlantic. Another local pickup is scheduled for July 23rd, in Atlantic.
Cups are available for pickup locally at the Cass County Extension Office, 805 West 10th Street in Atlantic, from 8-a.m. to 4:30-p.m., Monday-Friday. Drop them off at the Atlantic Farmers Market in the Orcheln Farm & Home parking lot from 4-until 6-p.m., on Tuesday, June 25th. Rural growers can get a head start on knowing what’s in their water, before regulations take effect. Some producers are required to have their water tested, depending on the size of operation and the source of water, in order to comply with the federal Food Safety Modernization Act. Others may wish to test their water as a precaution, in case there are any issues.
Since testing is limited in rural areas, Iowa State Extension and Outreach is sending test cups to county extension offices and farmers markets across the state. Producers should use one cup per water source, and can submit multiple cups if they have multiple water sources.
Producers must follow all collection directions, being sure to mark the time on each sterile cup, and delivering the cup to the drop-off location within three hours. Members of the On-Farm Produce Safety Team will receive the samples at the drop-off locations and return them to the ISU lab in Ames. Testing and results will be completed in about a week’s time.
Dan Fillius, food safety educator with ISU Extension and Outreach, says “This is important for rural growers because water testing is going to be required by the FSMA, and there are very few labs in the state that are performing the required test.” Fillius said FDA has pushed back the compliance dates to 2022 and beyond, depending on the size and classification of each producer. However, he said testing makes sense now, so growers can be prepared and take appropriate actions to improve their water quality, if necessary.
Growers who use public and municipal water do not need to do this test. Growers do not need to belong to a farmer’s market to drop off samples, and growers from any county are welcome to use the service. The three-hour delivery of collected samples is critical. Additional, detailed information will be provided to growers when thy pick up the cups at the Extension Office.
For more information, visit the On-Farm Produce Safety Team online, or call 515-294-6773.
The Wallace Foundation and ISU Research and Demonstration Farms will hold a Field Day July 18th, from 9-a.m. until 1-p.m., at the ISU Research Farm near Lewis. The field day will feature the latest information on crop production and crop management practices.This is a free field day and is open to the public. CCA credits will apply to those in attendance.
This year’s program will begin with an informal gathering at 9:00 with Dr. Daniel Robison, ISU Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Guest speakers will begin at 10:00. Dr. Erin Hodgson, Associate Professor, ISU Entomology, will discuss soybeans insects and soybean gall midge. Dr. Chad Hart, Associate Professor, Grain Markets Specialist, will give his best understanding of today’s markets and how to help incorporate them into your grain marketing plan. Dr. Lie Tang, Associate Professor Agricultural Engineering, will present on the Global status of robotic weeding. Free lunch will be served at 12:00. Weather permitting, a tour of a gall midge test plot will take place following lunch.
The ISU Armstrong Research Farm is located approximately 12 miles southwest of Atlantic on Highway 6, south on 525th Street, east on Hitchcock Avenue. For more information contact the Wallace Foundation at 712-769-2650 or raelynb@iastate.edu
(Atlantic FFA report) — Last Tuesday, June 11th, three members of the Atlantic FFA chapter traveled to Cedar Rapids, to compete in the Iowa FFA Horse Career Development Event. Taylor McCreedy, Aspen Niklasen, and Craig Alan Becker represented Atlantic FFA at the event. McCreedy placed 4th individually in the event. As a team, the Atlantic members placed 8th overall as well. The competition was held at the Iowa Equestrian Center, located at Kirkwood Community College. A total of 103 individuals from 33 different FFA chapters across the state competed in the event.
Photo: Left to right
Taylor Mcreedy, Craig Alan Becker, Aspen Niklasen.
The state FFA Horse Evaluation CDE was designed to test each contestant’s knowledge of agriculture and their skills in equine science. The contest itself consisted of six classes of horses that each competitor evaluated and judged. They also gave oral reasons and answered questions over the classes that they evaluated. Along with these classes, there was a written examination and a team problem solving competition.
The Iowa FFA Horse Career Development Event was made possible through the Iowa FFA Foundation. The Horse Career Development event was coordinated and conducted by Rhonda Clough of Kirkwood Community College at the Iowa Equestrian Center.
(Radio Iowa) — The summer season officially arrives later this (Friday) morning and with it, an elevated risk of serious or deadly accidents as Iowans seek to cool off in the water. Mindy Uhle, an executive officer with the Iowa Department of Public Health, says if you’ll be on or near the water for fishing, boating or swimming, whether it’s a backyard pool, a lake or river, remember these life-saving tips. “We would encourage everyone to learn how to swim. Keep a close eye on your children. For young children and children who are non-swimmers, keep those kids at arm’s reach at all times,” Uhle says. “Use lifejackets, for non-swimmers and anytime you’re out boating or out doing recreational activities on lakes and rivers.”
Learning how to perform C-P-R takes two or three hours, depending on the course, and it’s a skill you can use for a lifetime. “There are lots of organizations that teach it,” Uhle says. “It is very accessible and it is something we would recommend learning if you are going to be around water or in a caregiver role.” Nationally, drowning kills more children between the ages of one and four than anything else except birth defects.
“Last year, we had 48 drowning deaths in Iowa,” Uhle says. “It’s been pretty stable. The average for the last five years is somewhere in between 40 and 50. Interestingly enough, about 70% of our drowning victims are male and almost 35% of our drowning deaths occur in lakes, rivers and streams.” A report from the Centers for Disease Control says ten people die from drowning every day nationwide, about one in every five is a child under the age of 14. Summer arrives today at 10:54 A-M Central time.
(Radio Iowa) — More than 100-thousand acres of farmland in three southwest Iowa counties were flooded this spring. One southwest Iowa farmer says his family has been able to plant just THREE PERCENT of their cropland due to this spring’s flooding. “About 75 or 76 acres is about all I’m going to get in this year.” Pat Sheldon says in a normal year, his family’s farming operation near Percival would plant 25-hundred acres of corn or soybeans. They planted beans this year. This is the second time in less than a decade that Sheldon’s farm has been hit by flooding.
“We had to build a new home after 2011 and we built this one up, so it’s dry and in a good shape,” Sheldon says. “Some of our buildings have had water in them, lost some grain bins and some of that stuff.” Sheldon says hauling out the rotten grain is a concern.
“Most of ours isn’t as bad as what I’ve seen some of the neighbors have, but you know the structural integrity of some of those bins in getting the grain out in a safe manner is a real issue — I mean a very dangerous issue,” Sheldon says. “Farming’s dangerous enough in normal conditions, let alone the things we’re dealing with now and it’s going to be a while because we’ve got to fix roads before we can even get a lot of it out.”
Nearly two MILLION bushels of corn and another half a million bushels of soybeans were sitting in grain bins and spoiled by this spring’s flooding. The U-S-D-A has not yet come up with the documentation required for getting federal payments to cover some of those losses. State officials advise farmers who are removing grain to take photos and have a third-party confirm how much grain was damaged.
A state legislator from Glenwood says farmers in his area are struggling to figure out how to safely remove ground-level sections of their grain bins — so a skid loader can be used to get the spoiled grain out.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Bankers surveyed in parts of 10 Plains and Western states are seeing improvement in the region’s farm economy. The Rural Mainstreet survey released Thursday shows the survey’s overall index rising from a stunted 48.5 in May to 53.2 this month. Any score above 50 suggests a growing economy, while a score below 50 indicates a shrinking economy.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the survey, says higher agriculture commodity prices and rebuilding from recent floods boosted June’s index. Goss also noted that despite negative consequences from trade tensions and tariffs, nearly 7 of 10 bank CEOS surveyed support either raising or continuing the Trump administration’s current tariffs.
Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.
(Radio Iowa) — An Iowa State University mosquito expert says you really can make a difference in the amount of mosquitoes around your home. Assistant professor of entomology, Ryan Smith says mosquito populations are starting to pick up some in different areas of the state. “I think it really just kind of depends on the given location, I think the temperatures are getting a little bit warmer, we’ve had some rain, but not quite as much in the recent week. So I think the increased temperatures are allowing the mosquitoes to finally show their ugly heads,” Smith says. He says mosquitoes need to get blood from somewhere to help them reproduce.
“Just a single female mosquito can lay anywhere between 50 to 100 eggs,” he says. “That one female might feed multiple times during her lifetime. And each time that she feeds on one of us — taking a blood meal — that provides a nutrient source to produce eggs.” Smith said “Each time that they bite us they are actually trying to have offspring, and so, a female mosquito might feed multiple times in their life, and just that one mosquito might produce maybe 300 mosquitoes.” So one way you can keep the female mosquito from reproducing is by not becoming a meal. Smith says you can do this by wearing repellent and proper clothing.
Smith says some of the mosquitoes don’t feed exclusively on human and can feed on birds or dogs and cats. “But really, just preventing any biting and removing any standing water around the home can actually make an important difference in kind of eliminating mosquitoes,” Smith explained. Most of the mosquitoes that are buzzing about now are what Smith calls nuisance species. “They will bite humans — but they don’t really transmit disease — and so, that’s kind of why I use the word nuisance. They will bite and feed off of people, but there’s no real major kind of health concern,” Smith says.
Smith says the mosquitoes that DO carry West Nile are already showing up in some places. “Populations that can be important for West Nile Virus transmission — we start to see them already — but really as the summer time progresses, their number and populations will continue to build,” Smith says. His studies of mosquitoes show that the mosquitoes that carry the West Nile Virus are most prevalent on the western side of the state and the populations drop down as you get to central and eastern Iowa.
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