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CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
ODEBOLT, Iowa (AP) — Iowa environmental officials are investigating a chemical fertilizer spill in western Iowa. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources say a tanker carrying ammonium thiosulfate, a liquid fertilizer, tipped over Friday morning in Odebolt.
Investigators say the tanker, which was bound for a bulk plant in Boone, was carrying about 4,340 gallons of fertilizer. Officials say it’s not known how much of the product leaked from the top fill port before it was stopped and contained.
Some of the fertilizer ran into a small tributary, through a culvert and flowed through town to Odebolt Creek. Officials have tested water quality at several places and found elevated levels of ammonia, but did not detect ammonia downstream. There are no fish in the tributary. Cleanup of the spill is planned.
WAPELLO, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say several thousand turkeys have perished in a southeast Iowa fire. The blaze was reported around 11:10 a.m. Thursday at a turkey farm southwest of Wapello in Louisa County.
Davenport television station KWQC reports that several fire departments responded to calls for extra help. Firefighters say the fire burned rapidly because of high winds and fresh sawdust bedding for the birds. Damage was estimated at $300,000 with the loss of nearly 10,700 turkeys.
The fire cause is being investigated.
Republicans in the legislature have approved two bills that doom the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. However, closing the research center seems to endanger donations to I-S-U that were specifically FOR the center. Mark Rasmussen, the center’s director, has begun notifying researchers who got grants from the center.”The way the bill is written, we have to start winding it down almost immediately,” he says. “As you can imagine with anything like this, we let out two- to three-year grants, so we’ve always got projects in the pipeline that are either just starting or are in the middle of their lifespan.”
Democrats in the legislature have been pleading with Republicans to abandon their plan to close the Leopold Center. Senator Bill Dotzler is a Democrat from Waterloo.
“This center at Iowa State is more than what a lot of you may realize,” Dotzler said. “…It’s unfortunate that this became some kind of a political game, I guess in a way, to shuffle the money away from something that does so much for sustainable agriculture.”
Over the past three decades, the center has funded more than 600 research projects. Republicans included language in a budget bill that calls for closing the center. A DIFFERENT bill re-directs nearly 400-thousand state tax dollars that would have been spent at the Leopold Center. Another I-S-U research center that’s specifically focused on manure and fertilizer management would get the money. Republican Senator Tom Shipley, a farmer from Nodaway, defends the move.
“We believe the Nutrient Research Center can do a lot of those things, if those projects have merit, not to say that the others haven’t — but,” Shipley says. “I have a lot of faith in the people at Iowa State University. I’d better have because I’ve got a piece of paper that says they taught me a few things. If they see other opportunities or ways to make these things work, I have every confidence that they’ll be able to do that.”
Republicans in the legislature want the Leopold Center to “cancel any existing grant or project that is not in the process of being completed.” It’s unclear how Governor Terry Branstad views this move. During his weekly news conference on Monday, Branstad did not respond directly to a question about closing the Leopold Center.
(Radio Iowa)
The first corn seeds got into the ground last week, but weather has kept most farmers out of the fields. The U-S-D-A’s week crop report says there were just three days suitable for fieldwork last week thanks to wet weather. Soil temperatures that are warm enough for planting have also been an issue. But there were some farmers who pulled the planter into the field — and two percent of the new crop is now in the ground. The crop report says this year’s start is five days behind last year and three days behind the five-year average for corn planting.
(Radio Iowa)
Recent rainfall events have dampened the fields and grassland areas to the point where the Shelby County Emergency Management Agency has reduced the field and grassland fire danger index from High to LOW.
Even though the fire danger rating is Low, you are asked to call-in and report your burning projects to Shelby County Dispatch at 712-755-2124, and, notify your local Fire Chief.
A study finds record ethanol and biodiesel production in Iowa in 2016 had a significant impact on the state’s economy. The report says renewable fuels supported more than 42-thousand Iowa jobs and generated 2-point-3-billion dollars in household income for Iowans. Study author John Urbanchuk says because the fuels are produced in the state, impacts on the state economy are even more important.
“What makes the industry so important to Iowa is that virtually all of the feed stock that’s used by that industry is produced in the state,” Urbanchuk says. “The economic impact, all the dollars spent on that stuff, circulate back through the Iowa economy. That’s a bit more important for Iowa than it is for some of the other states.”
He says the amount of ethanol that was exported to other countries also helped the state’s economy. “We looked at the volume of export on the U.S. side and figured Iowa’s share of production roughly represents that of the trade and calculated what the impact, coming from trade is,” Urbanchuk says, “and that is not inconsequential. It points out the fact that foreign trade is not only a fairly large component but a growing component of economic activity for Iowa as well.”
Urbanchuk says while ethanol production expanded in Iowa in 2016, biodiesel expansion was even greater. “We saw a very small increase in total U.S. ethanol capacity in 2016,” he says. “Iowa’s capacity also expanded in terms of production capacity and that helped them a little bit as well.”
Iowa’s 43 ethanol plants produced a combined record of 4.1-billion gallons of ethanol last year. The study was by conducted by A-B-F Economics and was commissioned by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.
(Radio Iowa)
The warmer weather has people itching to get outside — especially those who like to hunt what some consider an Iowa delicacy. Iowa State University plant pathology professor, Mark Gleason, says morel mushrooms will start to pop out as the ground warms. “I don’t know if there’s a specific temperature, but this is about the time right now. Some people say when you get bud break on certain types of plants — it depends on the year — this year we’ve been warm and cool,” Gleason says.
The warm weather is key along with some rain. “We also have enough soil moisture to push them out of the ground,” Gleason says, “so in dry years we tend to have poor morel stands. In moister, wetter years with more rainfall, we tend to have more.” The temperatures so far this spring have fluctuated, but Gleason says once a warm day pops the mushrooms out, they are there until found or they dry up.
“It’s a one way trip. Once they are out they don’t go back in. They’ll enlarge a bit as they come out of the ground and reach their standard size,” Gleason says. “There’s five species of morels in the state and each of those has its own characteristic size The smallest one is probably the gray — which is the first to come out of the ground — and the largest is the last one which kind of a golden color and can be six or eight inches, even larger.”
Leaves popping out of the ground are a key signal the morels are there for the picking. Gleason says many people look for dead elm trees as the prime growing spot, but that’s not the only place they flourish. “But also other trees, and that area around the root zone of other trees can work, alive or dead. So looking in woodlands is good, but they will grow in meadows and things like that. But more often they are in association with some decayed wood or buried wood. So, it might be a decayed root or something like that,” Gleason says.
You might think asking veteran morel hunters for the best places to find them — but he says the people that are most successful don’t like to share their hot spots. “Most people are very reluctant to do that,” he says. “Unless you are related to them or they like you, it might be hard information to get.”
There are a lot of stories or tales about how to help the morels flourish. One is to use a mesh bag that allows the morel spores to drop out as you hike through the woods — providing seed for a new generation. “Well, there are people who strongly believe that. I’m skeptical of that,” Gleason says. “Because, when morels are picked they are very, very young and the spores haven’t formed yet. If you are waiting for a morel to form spores, it’s probably well beyond the age where you’d want to eat it.”
If you do decide to give mushroom hunting a try, Gleason says you have to remember they can easily blend into the surroundings. “You kind of have to train your eye to them a bit. They are easy to overlook,” Gleason explains. “It’s possible to walk through a wooded area and just overlook the morels. But once your eye gets trained to what a morel looks like amongst other spring plants — then it’s easier to spot.”
Gleason says the morel season can vary across the state depending the weather conditions.
(Radio Iowa)
The recent warmer temperatures and other signs of spring have encouraged a lot of Iowans to schedule outdoor getaways. Staff at Iowa’s state parks have been busy preparing for another camping season. Todd Coffelt is chief of state parks for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “Park staff around the state have been busy turning on the water, so we can get the facilities up and running,” Coffelt says.
Shower and restroom buildings in most of Iowa’s state parks will have the water on for the first time this weekend, so they’re ready for campers. Iowa has more than 4,700 state park campsites for motorhomes, travel trailers and other recreational vehicles.
There are also 92 cabins available to rent in 19 state parks. Some of the newest cabins are located in southeast Iowa’s Washington County. “Our most recent ones are six, modern, year-round cabins at Lake Darling State Park and they have been very popular,” Coffelt says.
Cabins and campsites are available for reservation online ( http://www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Parks/Make-a-Reservation ). Coffelt is encouraging Iowans to check out some recent improvements to a handful of state parks, including one in southeast Iowa’s Davis County. “The Lake Wapello State Park campground opened late in the season last year,” Coffelt said. “With the water turned on, it should be good to go for people to take a look at a lot of that work they’ve done to make those sites more organized and easier to back into with a trailer…and ultimately to enjoy that fishing resource they have in the lake.”
Nearly all of the state parks with campgrounds will offer special programs or activities on May 6, including fishing clinics, fun runs, volunteer projects, special hikes and demonstrations. Learn more at: www.iowastateparks.gov/campingkickoff.
(Radio Iowa)
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