(Radio Iowa) — The first part of a three-part farm aid package is scheduled to be rolled out by the U-S-D-A in about three weeks. Bill Northey, the agency’s Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Ag Services, says more details will be out soon on what’s being called a market facilitation program.

“That is looking to get stood up right after Labor Day,” Northey says. “Right now, the target is September 4th of Labor Day. As we get a little closer, we’ll get some more information, but in the next couple of weeks there’ll be more information coming out so that folks will be ready for sign-up.” Northey, a former Iowa Ag Secretary, says the delay on the program’s details is because they’re still working on the rule-making part of the process.

“We’ll have a rule that will come out. It will actually be noticed in the federal register before that time,” Northey says. “That’s one of the reasons we’re not able to share what the final rules are because we’re in the process of that. That should all be done so that folks will be able to go in and actively get signed up that first week in September.” Northey says they’re trying to make it so producers can certify their production numbers as simply as possible.

“Once we announce rates and the method for the producer to be able to determine whether they want to participate or not, that’s going to be as simple as we can as well,” he says. “We’re going to have more information on farmers.gov — that’s a website that we’re getting more information to.” Northey also encourages farmers and ranchers to visit that site for more details on the tariff aid package.

By; Erin Hodgson, Ethan Stoetzer

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State University Extension and Outreach entomologists have identified and confirmed the presence of a new soybean pest, the soybean gall midge, in 12 Iowa counties: Lyon, O’Brien, Clay, Plymouth, Cherokee, Buena Vista, Woodbury, Harrison, Shelby, Pottawattamie, Cass and Page. In 2016 and 2017, there were isolated reports of soybean injury as a result of soybean gall midge in northwest Iowa. The pest’s presence was reported in 2011 in Nebraska and 2015 in South Dakota.

Midges are a fly in the Cecidomyiidae family, with 6,000 species worldwide; at least 1,100 species are in North America. Midges are small (2-3 mm in length), have long antennae and have unusually hairy wings. Most midges are fragile and weak fliers. Many midge species are considered economically important plant pests; however, some are predatory on aphids and mites. Midge maggots are not mobile and must be located on or near the host plant to survive. Midge larvae feed within the host plant tissue, creating abnormal growths called galls. This particular midge larvae are clear-colored and eventually turn bright orange as they mature.

Not much is known about the soybean gall midge, and entomologists have not been able to confirm the species as of yet. Plant injury as a result of the pest has been most severe at field edges, which is a possible indicator that adults fly to new soybean fields following the growing season. Injury is usually restricted to the base of the plant. Initially, infested stems look swollen, then eventually turn brown and break off, resulting in plant death. In some instances, plants were infected with a fungal disease, but this was not a consistent occurrence.

From observations thus far, cultural control practices, including variety selection, time of planting, row spacing, tillage or manure application, do not appear to have an impact on soybean gall midge. Insecticidal seed treatment does not appear to effectively suppress the midges. Entomologists think that the soybean gall midge can complete at least two generations in Iowa, but it is not known yet how long a generation takes to develop. It is assumed that it can overwinter in Iowa, and does so as a pupa in the soil or leaf litter similar to other midges.

If you see these midges infesting a soybean field in Iowa, please contact Erin Hodgson, associate professor and extension specialist in entomology at Iowa State, via email at ewh@iastate.edu or on Twitter @erinwhodgson. More information will be shared as it becomes available about this pest, as well as effective management solutions as they become available.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is again calling on volunteers to participate in the state’s annual wild turkey survey. Each summer, the department asks for volunteers to participate in the July-August survey. The information is used to monitor trends and manage the state’s turkey population.

Participants are asked to keep an eye out for wild turkeys as they work and play in Iowa during July and August. Volunteers are asked to distinguish adult females from males and young poults. They’re then asked to count the number of adults and young turkeys and make a note of the date and the county in which they were seen. That info is then reported to the Wildlife Bureau online using a computer or smartphone.

(Radio Iowa) — Today (Saturday), is August 11th — or eight-one-one — which coincides with the three-digit telephone number Iowans need to call before they do any late summer digging in their yards. Seth Hale is spokesman for Iowa One Call. He says on this date, they’ll be doing a promotion to remind people across the state of Iowa, to call at least 48 hours before they dig. That includes any project, planting a tree, putting in a new mailbox, installing a fence, and also the big projects that professional excavators are doing.”

The goal of Iowa One Call, he says, it damage prevention. “There’s tens of thousands of miles of pipelines for gas and electric and communications and internet and water,” Hale says. “By not calling, you put yourself at risk of not knowing exactly where those utilities may be.”  By calling that single phone number of eight-one-one at least 48 hours before digging, that gives all of the utilities time to mark your yard, either with spray paint or colored flags, exactly where their lines are buried.

“Striking those utilities can put you at a safety risk,” Hale says. “Beyond that, your community and neighborhood may be at risk to lose service, to lose power, to not have natural gas, to not have water going to their homes and businesses. Making that call is vitally important not only for the people doing the work but for everybody else around.”

About 500-thousand calls were made to Iowa One Call last year, resulting in about two-and-a-half million “locate requests” from utilities. On the web at www.iowaonecall.com

(Radio Iowa) — Recent ag nuisance rulings against hog operations in North Carolina have resulted in large financial awards to the plaintiffs. But the legal counsel for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, Eldon McAfee, doesn’t believe those rulings will have much impact on livestock producers in the Midwest. McAfee says the North Carolina cases are focused on the manure handling practices of the farms, which differ from those used by most Midwestern farmers. “The use of lagoons and spray irrigation – which is what we call it here in Iowa – that’s regulated, as to how you can use spray irrigation. You can’t use it with undiluted manure,” McAfee says.

According to McAfee, although each case is different, several recent Midwestern nuisance rulings have been in favor of the farmers. “Nuisance cases are very fact-specific, both from the neighbors’ standpoint and from the producers’ standpoint, at least at the trial level,” McAfee says. “You can’t take a lot of precedential effect from one case to another. It depends on the facts of each case.”

McAfee works for the Brick Gentry law firm in West Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa) — Senator Chuck Grassley says the chairman of the Senate Ag Committee has assured him the 2018 Farm Bill will become law before year’s end. “And I sure hope so, because I don’t want to do what we had to in 2013 — extend the Farm Bill for one year,” Grassley says, “because farmers need that continuity you get from a five-year Farm Bill and farmers also would (get) a bit of good news if they had a five-year Farm Bill, considering the anxiety they have about the tariffs.”

Iowa’s other U.S. Senator, Joni Ernst, is serving on the conference committee of House and Senate members that are trying to craft a final version of the bill that could pass both. Grassley toured the Iowa State Fairgrounds Friday morning, visiting with fairgoers.

The Shelby County Extension Service in Harlan announced Friday (Today), Tim Christensen has joined Iowa State University Extension and Outreach as a farm management specialist. Christensen, who has worked at Iowa State as an agricultural specialist since 2015, will cover the counties of Ida, Sac, Calhoun, Monona, Crawford, Carroll, Greene, Harrison, Shelby, Audubon and Guthrie for ISU Extension and Outreach. Christensen joins a team of eight farm management specialists located throughout Iowa who deliver the latest in research-based information on farm financial and risk management, instructions on government programs such as the farm bill and crop insurance, guidance on strategic and business planning and information on agricultural marketing tools and supply chains to farm owners and operators.

Prior to joining ISU Extension and Outreach Christensen was as an agriculture specialist for Iowa State University, working to monitor the health and wellbeing of Iowa State’s animals, maintaining detailed herd health records and training students and staff on animal welfare protocols. Christensen also has experience as a location manager for Farmers Cooperative and as a group leader of vet services at Boehringer Ingelheim in Fort Dodge. He holds a degree in animal science with a minor in commercial agriculture from Northwest Missouri State University.

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman reports the Board of Supervisors are expected to take action next Wednesday (Aug. 15th), on a request for a 50-percent, five-year property tax abatement for a company that is in the process of acquiring the ADM grain elevator north of Atlantic. Pipeline Foods, LLC – a developer of supply chains in agriculture with a focus on organic foods and feeds, grains, oilseeds, and ingredients will be acquiring, converting and utilizing the ADM facility for organic grain handling.  Total capacity of the facility is expected to be about 3.4 million bushels.

An approximately 2 million bushel capacity will be utilized for conventionally grown grain and the other 1.4 million bushel capacity will be for organic crops.  Pipeline’s plan is to acquire the facility in mid-September.  Local farms are expected to transition from conventional to organic farming as organic farming allows farmers to reap up to three times the profit margins of non-organic farming.  It was stated that crop land can be rotated in and out of organic production.  The company’s request for an abatement was taken under advisement during the Board’s meeting on Aug. 8th.

(Radio Iowa) — He’s anything but Itty Bitty, but that’s his name, and he’s the winner of the 2018 Iowa State Fair’s Big Boar Contest. The ironically-named big pig weighed in at 1,163 pounds, just two more than runner-up Yo Yo. Itty Bitty is owned by the West Delaware High School FFA chapter and many of the 44 members of the group were at the fair’s Swine Barn Thursday for the annual contest. They say their four-year-old pig’s favorite food is Iowa corn and he’ll often eat 16 pounds of it in a day.

(Oakland, IA)—The Golden Hills RC & D in Oakland reports the Loess Hills Missouri River Region’s (LHMRR) Parks to People plan, has officially designated its first round of priority projects for funding from the MidAmerican Energy Foundation’s $500,000 commitment to the Parks to People Plan.

The LHMRR Board is dedicating $338,000 towards seven priority projects: the Harrison County Conservation Board’s Willow Lake Nature Center; Friends of Lake Manawa’s Dream Playground; Mills County Trails Board’s Glenwood Trail Project; Mills County Conservation Board’s Pony Creek Expansion; West Nishnabotna River Accesses; and Overland Hiking Trail. Regional projects include the Lewis & Clark Today Route signage and Green Hill Ranch.

The Parks to People plan addresses the future of the tri-county region’s parks, trails, and cultural assets to enhance overall economic and community vitality. One of the primary goals is to offer a premier parks system. The selection and approval of the priority projects by the LHMRR Board will allow them to use the specified amounts as match when seeking additional funds for the projects. The projects represent over $9.5 million in planned recreational improvements to the tri-county region. To date, over $3.5 million of that has been secured or pledged towards their implementation.

The plan supports collaborative, regional projects to enhance economic development and tourism; public health and social vitality; natural resources (habitat, water) health, parks, and trails; and overall regional vibrancy. The initiative intends to attract and retain young people interested in an active lifestyle, which will stimulate Iowa’s economy and promote business growth.

For more information about the Loess Hills Missouri River Region Parks to People Plan or to submit project ideas for funding consideration, visit goldenhillsrcd.org/lhmrr or facebook.com/loesshillsmissouririverregion.