DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The latest Census of Agriculture shows the number of farms and ranches in the U.S. has fallen but the remaining operations are larger and are responsible for a higher percentage of agricultural sales.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released the 2017 Census of Agriculture on Thursday, marking the 29th release of the report since the government began collecting the data in 1840. Since 1982, it has been released every five years.

The census shows there were 2.04 million farms and ranches in 2017, down 3.2 percent from 2012. The average size of those operations was 441 acres, an increase of 1.6 percent.

About 75 percent of all sales came from only 105,453 of those farms, down more than 14,000 from 2012. The average age of producers was 57.5.

• KJAN, Atlantic  .14″
• Missouri Valley  .8″
• Manning  .46″
• Logan  .49″
• Council Bluffs  .38″
• Carroll  .37″
• Denison  .3″
• Irwin  .56″

(Revised) USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director Amanda De Jong today (Wednesday) announced that effective immediately, emergency grazing use of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres is approved in Iowa through May 14, 2019. The authorization was granted to address the impacts of the recent extreme weather, including flooding. Participation is limited to livestock producers who lost pasture or fences due to the flooding.

“By allowing emergency grazing, we expand the available resources to help Iowa producers respond to recent weather events,” De Jong said. Producers who are interested in the use of emergency grazing of CRP acres must request FSA county office approval before moving livestock onto the acres. Producers whose livestock grazing land was adversely impacted by the flood, must file a CCC-576 Notice of Loss or provide written certification of that loss. The request must include a modified conservation plan, with grazing provisions, from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

CRP participants can allow others to use their CRP acres under this emergency grazing authorization; however, the livestock owners will also need to complete FSA paperwork indicating their grazing land was adversely impacted by severe weather. There will be no reduction in CRP rental payments to CRP contract holders who use the emergency grazing authorization. CRP contract holders are not permitted to charge livestock producers for the emergency grazing option.

For more information on eligible practices or to request approval for emergency grazing use of CRP acres, contact your local FSA office or visit www.farmers.gov/service-locator.

(Radio Iowa) — For only the second time in its history, the National Pork Producers Council has cancelled the World Pork Expo in Des Moines. Jim Monroe, the council’s communications director, says the decision was made out of an abundance of caution. “We think the chances that African Swine Fever could spread to the U.S. swine herd by holding the event are very, very remote,” he says, “but we can’t say that it’s zero.”

African Swine Fever is a viral disease that causes high death rates in pigs. It does NOT present human health or food safety risks. Monroe says an outbreak of the disease in the U.S. would be a devastating economic below to the livestock industry. “There’s already a challenging environment that pork producers are operating in and if we had an outbreak of African Swine Fever or Foot and Mouth Disease, for example, that would immediately close our export markets,” Monroe says.

The National Pork Producers Council has hosted the World Pork Expo since 1987. The only other time the annual event was cancelled was in 2001, when Foot and Mouth Disease was detected in Europe. Despite the EXPO’S cancellation, the National Swine Registry, Certified Pedigree Swine and American Berkshire Association are still planning a live hog show at the Iowa State Fairgrounds that typically runs in conjunction with the World Pork Expo. The groups have been working to confirm logistics for the events from June 2nd through the 8th and will provide those to exhibitors once all those details are finalized.

Atlantic Trees Forever spokesperson Dolly Bergmann said today (Wednesday), that Spring tree vouchers are now available from the Atlantic Trees Forever. Tree vouchers are a great way to help individuals with the cost of purchasing a tree to plant. The vouchers are worth $30 off the price of a tree, and can be obtained at Pymosa Farms, north of Atlantic.

Bergmann advised that there are a limited number of vouchers available and said officials at Pymosa Farms could help you determine what kind of tree would do best for your location. The business is located at 50979 Buck Creek Road, Atlantic. Bergmann suggests you contact owner Tim Reavis at 402-659-1213 before driving to the farm to make sure someone is available to help you since he and his employees may be out planting trees.

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Food Group which took over the former Tyson meat plant in Cherokee has temporarily paused production. The company says it is going to recapitalize for its next stage. There was no mention as to how long the plant would be shut down. Iowa Food Group had announced in September of 2018 that they would acquire the meat plant and process beef, pork, poultry, and lamb. At that time, Iowa Food Group indicated they would employ at least 100 people at the start of operations.

The Iowa Farm Bureau is offering free informational meetings to help Iowans navigate their options in the new 2018 Farm Bill. Farmers should attend to gain a better understanding of the programs and the risk management they offer over the next 5 years. The meetings are about 1 hour in length and copies of the visuals are provided.

Topics will include: Higher Marketing Loan Rates, Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) improvements, ARC or PLC Election Flexibility, Base Yield Updating,

The meeting in Griswold begins 10-a.m. Thursday, April 11th at the Griswold Community Center, 601 2nd Street, Griswold, and at 2-p.m. Thursday (4/11) at the Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum, 122 West Clark Street, in Clarinda.

Space is limited, so register today for more information on this program.  Pre-registrations are encouraged at https://tinyurl.com/18farmbill to help organizers plan for the workshop; registrations will also be taken at the door as space allows.

DES MOINES – The City of Atlantic was recently honored with the 2018 Tree City USA Award at the 29th Annual Community Forestry Awards Luncheon in Des Moines. The award was presented by the Arbor Day Foundation and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources April 3rd at the Sheraton in West Des Moines. State Forester Jeff Goerndt says “The Tree City USA award is a symbol for communities who have made a commitment to the management of public trees .“The City of Atlantic has provided an outstanding example for other Iowa communities by enhancing our forest resources and demonstrating the great value of trees in providing multiple benefits for future generations.”

Jeff Goerndt, State Forester, Bruce Trautman, Acting Director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Bryant Rasmussen, Interim Atlantic Parks and Recreation Director and Roger Herring . (Photo courtesy Dolly Bergmann)

Atlantic was one of 80 Iowa communities to qualify for Tree City USA status. To receive the award, a city must, at a minimum, 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.

(Radio Iowa) — Some Iowa farmers won’t have any crops to harvest this fall as they won’t be able to plant anything this spring due to the flood-soaked soil. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub, based in Ames, says some areas of the state are still underwater and the farmland in those areas has been inundated. “Things will probably be delayed for sure in those locations,” Todey says. “There probably will be some areas that will not be able to be planted this year, period. Delayed planting is an issue over the whole region because we have soil moisture, we have wet soils over the whole region, so any additional rainfall is going to be problematic.”

Many fields are littered with debris left by the flooding, including trees, metal fuel tanks, pieces of structures, and all sorts of trash, but it’s the smaller stuff that will be harder to remove. “The areas that are heavily inundated, the soils there will be degraded because of depositing of sand,” Todey says. “Silt is not so bad because that’s a bit better, but the additional deposits of sand will degrade the soils and cause some problems.”

Millennia ago, giant glaciers helped to form the land now known as Iowa, but this spring, we saw a much smaller, much faster example. “We had large movement of large blocks of ice so there’s a lot of damage done to things like bridges because of the ice,” Todey says, “and then other structural areas and other loss of soil because of large movements of ice over the regions.”

Todey says all of that is beyond the damages to roads, bridges and culverts that will take time to repair. Spring flood damage in Iowa is estimated to exceed two-billion dollars.