DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The corn and soybean crops in Iowa and Nebraska are significantly ahead of schedule and looking very good for a plentiful harvest this fall. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in its weekly crop progress report Monday says Nebraska corn is rated 87 percent good to excellent and in Iowa its 79 percent. Soybeans are 85 percent good to excellent in Nebraska. In Iowa it’s 76 percent. The crops are significantly ahead in development in both states.

Corn silking is more than a week ahead of schedule in Iowa with 88 percent silked. It’s 82 percent in Nebraska. Soybean blooming in Nebraska is at 78 percent compared with 71 percent of the five-year average and in Iowa 81 percent of the crop is blooming ahead of the 66 percent average.

GREELEY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa officials are investigating reports that dead fish have been found along nearly 20 miles of a creek in eastern Iowa.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says carcasses were found in and along Plum Creek from Greeley to Earlville. They included those of smallmouth and rock bass.

Chief investigator Brian Jergenson says the fish likely died during and after a July 13 rainstorm. He also says it’s difficult to pin down a specific source several days after a pollutant washes into a stream.

WHITING, Iowa – A mysterious clay tile line that was discharging into the McCandles – Cleghorn ditch and reported to the DNR on Friday, July 13 has since been identified.

After dye testing, using a camera in the unknown line, and dirt work, it was determined that a 10-inch clay tile line had collapsed under the city of Whiting’s wetland.  The tile was likely installed in the mid 1900’s and had been abandoned.  The tile was exposed and then removed.  At the end of the exposed tile, a 10-inch air bladder was installed to cap off the line.  Clay was then added to fill in the area near the capped tile line.

Now that the discharge has been stopped, the City of Whiting is working to restore the wetland to the originally designed standards.

DES MOINES – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig today reminded Iowa farmers that funds are available to help install practices focused on protecting water quality.  Practices eligible for this funding are cover crops, no-till or strip till, or using a nitrification inhibitor when applying fertilizer.

The cost share rate for first-time users of cover crops is $25 per acre, no-till or strip till are eligible for $10 per acre and farmers using a nitrapyrin nitrification inhibitor when applying fall fertilizer can receive $3 per acre. Farmers are eligible for cost share on up to 160 acres.

First-time users that apply by July 27 will be the first applications funded.  First-time users that apply after July 27 will still receive priority consideration, but funds will also be made available to farmers that have used cover crops in the past for cost share assistance at $15 per acre.

“We already have $1.3 million in applications from more than 600 new farmers interested in trying a practice for the first time to better protect water quality. We encourage farmers that are interested to contact their local Soil and Water Conservation District office as soon as possible to learn more about the assistance that is available,” Naig said.

The 100 Soil and Water Conservation District offices located in each county across the state have information about this program and other opportunities for cost share funding.

Background on Iowa Water Quality Initiative

The Iowa Water Quality Initiative was established in 2013 to help implement the Nutrient Reduction Strategy, which is a science and technology based approach to achieving a 45 percent reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus losses to our waters.  The strategy brings together both point sources, such as municipal wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities, and nonpoint sources, including farm fields and urban stormwater runoff, to address these issues.

The Initiative seeks to harness the collective ability of both private and public resources and organizations to deliver a clear and consistent message to stakeholders to reduce nutrient loss and improve water quality.

The initiative is seeing some exciting results. Last fall, 2,600 farmers invested an estimated $8.7 million in funding to match $4.8 million in state cost share funds to adopt cover crops, no-till or strip till, or use a nitrification inhibitor when applying fall fertilizer. Participants include 1,000 farmers using a practice for the first time and more than 1,600 past users who are trying cover crops again and are receiving a reduced rate of cost share.

A total of 65 demonstration projects are currently located across the state to help implement and demonstrate water quality practices. This includes 14 targeted watershed projects, 7 projects focused on expanding the use and innovative delivery of water quality practices and 44 urban water quality demonstration projects.   More than 250 organizations are participating in these projects. These partners will provide $37.7 million to go with the $23.4 million in state funding going to these projects.

More than $420 million in funding has been documented for efforts in support of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy last year. This represents a $32 million increase of funding in support of Iowa water quality programs and conservation efforts over the previous year.

More information about the initiative can be found at www.CleanWaterIowa.org.

w/Kate Olson.

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Iowa State University Research and Demonstration Farms (ISU Armstrong Research Farm) along with the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research and Development would like to invite you to attend our annual Demonstration Garden Field Day at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. If you are a beginning gardener or an experienced gardener, we have demonstrations you will enjoy.

This year’s garden planting theme is planting the rainbow. Vegetables produced will be donated to local food pantries.

Other topics to be presented include planting flowers for bees, including Tithonian, part of the sunflower family and borage.  Iowa State entomologists will participate in the field days to share information about planting nectar plants and host plants for bees and other pollinators.

After your trip through the gardens, join us in our air conditioned classrooms for a tradition of ice cream and strawberries. The facilities are handicap accessible.

The Armstrong Research Farm is located 12 miles southwest of Atlantic on Highway 6, half a mile south on 525th Street, and a half mile east on Hitchcock Avenue, or 13 miles east of Oakland on Highway 6, half a mile south on 525th Street, and half a mile east on Hitchcock Avenue. The field day is open to the public at no cost.

Please plan on attending this event at the Learning Center.

Members of the Iowa Congressional delegation are inviting the new head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to visit Iowa. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he hopes Acting E-P-A Administrator Andrew Wheeler takes them up on the offer.

During his confirmation hearing, Wheeler pledged to fully support the R-F-S program and recognized it as “the law of the land.” The previous E-P-A director Scott Pruitt resigned earlier this month after being blamed for undermining ethanol and the R-F-S.

Grassley says corn prices have dropped below three-dollars a bushel at his home elevator in New Hartford. He says he’s “optimistic” Wheeler will work with Iowans to “maintain the integrity” of the R-F-S.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Farmers and agricultural economists are worried that president Donald Trump’s trade, immigration and biofuels policies will cost farms billions of dollars in lost income and force some out of business.

Even before Trump began talking tariffs earlier this year farm income was expected to drop 7 percent from last year to just under $60 billion. That’s half of farm income reported just five years ago.

In addition to falling corn, soybean and pork prices caused by the tariff dispute, the administration’s ethanol policy has reduced the use of corn by hundreds of millions of bushels, helping to push prices below profitability and immigration actions risk hampering expansion plans in pork industry.

Some are saying the resulting blow to agriculture could create the worst farm financial crisis since the 1980s.

Quail hunters had good success this past season — despite a drop in the number of hunters. Wildlife biologist Todd Bogenschutz keeps track of the numbers.  “Quail harvest was up 11 percent — we went from 24-thousand to 27-thousand — and actually hunter numbers were down a little bit. So, the guys who went out and hunted did better than the guys last year and we had more hunters,” Bogenschutz says.

He says the increase in birds mirrors the strong population. “Our quail index last year was like the third highest in the last 22 years,” Bogenschutz says, “and we had a mild winter and they’ll nest all the way through September. They’ll double nest where pheasants don’t.”  Bogenschutz expects positive news from the August roadside survey. “I think quail numbers potentially could be pretty dang good again this fall,” Bogenschutz says.

The August roadside survey takes place August 1st to the 15th.

(Radio Iowa)

Pheasant hunters shot around 20-thousand fewer birds last hunting season compared to the year before. Iowa D-N-R wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says the drop follows lower counts in the roadside surveys. “I kind of expected that because the roadside counts…were down 30 percent. We were in a drought when we did the counts last year, so we think things were probably a little better than that based on what hunters told us,” Bogenschutz says. “The roadside counts said the populations were down about 30 percent — the hunters said they were only down about ten percent.”

He says the drought meant there was less dew when the roadside counts were done and that led to less birds out in the morning — which impacted the overall count. Bogenschutz says the numbers have held pretty steady in recent years. “We’ve bounced up from the all-time lows when we were down to almost a hundred thousand. So we’ve been back up around the quarter-million mark these last couple of years, so we kind of hung right there. Last year we shot about 245-thousand, this year it was 221-thousand, so about 20-thousand different, right in that same ballpark,” Bogenschutz says.

The next pheasant number survey takes place in August and Bogenschutz says all the weather issues this year didn’t help pheasants nesting numbers. He says they numbers will be status quo at best and likely down. “Given the flooding is on par almost with 1993 levels. A lot of rain in May and June is not good at the peak of nesting. In April we had record snow in parts of the state and some of the birds can nest that early.”

There were 55-thousand hunters out this past season, which is down around four percent. He says the survey numbers likely impact the hunting plans of some. “I think hunters do look at the report, I think that’s why hunter numbers are down,” according to Bogenschutz. “They look at our forecast and if we said things are down there’s a few folks who tend not to go. I think when we say things are good or just word of mouth from other hunters, then we go up.”

While Bogenschutz expects the weather to impact the number of pheasants this season — he says southern Iowa had been much drier and that could make for better nesting and numbers there.

(Radio Iowa)