The downturn in the agriculture economy continues to impact the state with the latest evidence another drop in the price of farmland in the annual Iowa State University Extension survey. Wendong Zhang conducts the survey. “Essentially a five-point-nine percent decline. It’s the first time that the Iowa farmland values have been declining for three years in a row since the 1980’s farm crisis,” Zhang says.

The average price of an acre of farmland fell to $7,183. The three years of falling prices come after the peak in 2013 when it took $8,713 to buy an acre of land. Zhang says one key factor is driving the downward trend. “Mainly the weak commodity prices, the low corn and soybean prices. And this time the livestock margins are no longer that strong either,” Zhang explains. He says none of the 99 counties were exempt from the drop.

“No county saw an increase this time– all counties dropped — ranging from a two percent decline in the southern-central to a nine percent in western-central,” Zhang says. Zhang says the drop in farmland prices will likely slow, but won’t end immediately. “The next year or two we will probably see modest declines at the state level — although we’re already seeing some promising signs that south-central and north-central Iowa, are seeing some growth in land values over the last quarter. So, there might be some bounce back, ” Zhang says. But he says it could take three years for the whole state to turn things back around.

The three-year drop in value causes some to think history might be repeating itself. “A lot of people are now concerned about whether we will see a replay of the 1980s farm crisis,” Zhang says. “I think the probability is probably low.” He says landowners were saw some very good earning years between 2003 and 2013 to help their bottom line, which puts them in better position to handle the latest declines. And he says greater lending restrictions have also kept landowners from getting in over their heads.

“And you have much greater and hopefully stronger coverage from crop insurance. So I think overall the factors are better suited to weather the storm. I think people who are over-leveraged or bought too much machinery, they need to watch the working capita,” Zhang says.

The most expensive farmland was in eastern Iowa’s Scott County at $10,335 dollars an acre. Two counties in northwest Iowa were right behind, with O’Brien County at $10, 194 dollars and Sioux County at $10,066 dollars an acre. The least expensive farmland was in Decatur County in south-central Iowa at $3,443 dollars.

Find out more at: www.card.iastate.edu/farmland/

(Radio Iowa)

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – A John Deere plant in Waterloo is celebrating the milestone of building 2 million engines. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports the plant built engine number 2 million last month and marked the achievement Monday as it completed the assembly of a tractor powered by the engine. Deere’s Waterloo engine plant began production 40 years ago.

Kenny Hager, a Cedar Falls resident who has worked at Deere for 20 years, says the milestone is as important to his union, the United Auto Workers Local 838, as it is to the company. Hager called it “a really neat thing, because it’s big for the community.”

The Cass County Extension office is reminding commercial pesticide applicators that this week is the deadline to call to make sure they can view their required continuing instructional courses (C-CICs) by the end of the year. Cass County Extension is once again hosting these required trainings for local commercial pesticide applicators, but wants to remind anyone who has yet to attend the training that all CIC training must be completed by the end of December. To avoid conflicts with year-end scheduling, Cass County Extension is requiring that all training dates be on the schedule by Thursday, December 15^th in order to be honored.

“We know year end is a busy time for all, but we don’t want anyone to miss the opportunity to attend their annual required training, as time to meet those annual requirements is getting short.” shared Kate Olson, Extension Program Coordinator in Cass County. “We do offer trainings on a first-come, first-served basis, and our hours will be slightly different during the holidays, so we’d like to remind folks to call and get their classes scheduled before our year-end calendar fills up!”

According to Olson, reshow dates can occur after December 15^th, but they must be on the calendar before then to be honored. To ensure a spot on the training schedule, applicators needing to complete CIC for the year are asked to call prior to December 15^th. Applicators calling after this date will NOT be placed on the training schedule. Training dates can be scheduled locally by calling the Cass County Extension office at 712-243-1132 or emailing lander@iastate.edu. For more information on the Commercial Pesticide Applicator program or the CIC classes, please visit www.extension.iastate.edu/psep/ComAp.html. If you plan to attend the training in a different county Extension Office, please call ahead, and do so as soon as possible, because many other counties in the area have similar cut-off dates, but these will vary by office.

Sales of farm equipment have been lagging for the past couple of years, but there seems to be a bit more optimism heading into 2017. Tom Junge of the Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association says this fall’s record or near-record crop yields have improved the outlook. “Generally, there’s some optimism that maybe we’ve hit our low and we’re going to be bouncing back,” Junge said. “There has been some good activity after harvest because a lot of people had better-than-expected crops. So the bushels are going to help offset some of the lower commodity prices.”

Equipment dealer Steve Kayton, with Nebraska Equipment Inc. of Seward, Nebraska, says sales of big ticket items are still slow. “It seems like anything under $50,000, we’re getting a lot of interest in. But once you get over that 50-thousand dollar mark, people are kind of thinking about it,” Kayton said.

One of the challenges for dealers is the large number of equipment auctions in the country, according to Kayton. “There are so many auctions out there. People come in (to a dealership) and price a lot of things, but then they wait for that auction,” Kayton said. “It’s tough to compete against the auctions.”

But Kayton says their parts and service business has been excellent. Junge and Kayton made their comments at last week’s Nebraska Power Farming Show in Lincoln.

(Reporting by Ken Anderson, Brownfield Ag News)

Licenses will soon go on sale for one of the more unique animals you can fish for in Iowa. D-N-R fisheries biologist, Ryan Hupfeld says the licenses for the Missouri and Big Sioux River paddlefish seasons go on sale December 15th. “Each angler can receive one paddlefish license and tag. There’s 950 resident tags available and 50 non-residents available,” Hupfeld days.

The season opens March 1st and runs through April 15th. The paddlefish season was closed in 1986 after the numbers got to low, but was reopened in 2015 when surveys found the fish population had increased. Hupfeld says they have size limits that help protect the population. He says the 35 to 45 inch limit protects the primary breeding fish, so he says the season does not have a negative impact on the population.

You can’t just put a worm on a hook and drop it in to catch a paddlefish. “They feed on plankton…so you have to use a snagging hook to do that. So, it can be more difficult, ” Hupfeld says. “If the water temperature is colder they may be stacked in these overwintering holes, so you may be able to target them in those areas and have more success.”

He says most of the people who get Iowa licenses to snag the paddlefish come from Iowa and Nebraska, with some from the Dakotas. They usually eat their catch. “They’re a very good fish to eat, very healthy, it’s a white flesh,” Hupfeld. He says one thing you need to do to prepare the fish is remove the red meat from their along their skin that is there to help them migrate. “If you remove that red meat it kind of removes the fishy or pungent taste. So, be sure to remove the red meat and they are very good to eat.”

Hupfeld expects good conditions when the season opens. He says the river system is fairly low right now and the Corps may release some more water, but that would only raise the levels to near normal. Hupfeld is in his first year of managing the paddlefish and is excited by the opportunity. “It’s a very unusual looking fish — a prehistoric fish — it’s a very neat fish to study and work on and to catch as an angler,” Hupfeld says.

The paddlefish have a long flat paddle on their front. You can get a license for paddlefishing through the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The licenses will be sold from December 15th through January 31st.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Department of Agriculture has confirmed that the vote to institute a state beef checkoff passed with 56 percent of producers voting in favor. Iowa Cattlemen’s Association president Phil Reemtsma, says they did a lot of work to explain the referendum to producers. “I’ve always said a successful referendum for the I-C-A is one where we have a lot of participation and then let the people decide the outcome, “Reemtsma says. “Obviously I’m happy with the outcome as well. I believe we did our job in getting it to a vote and trying to get the word out there as best we can.”

Beginning on March 1st of 2017, producers will pay the 50 cent checkoff for every head of cattle sold. “The work is really just beginning. Now it’s the Iowa Beef Industry Council’s responsibility and job to oversee the fund and make sure that those funds are utilized correctly according to what the producers would like to see happen,” Reemtsma says.

There’s been a national effort to promote beef for many years, but Reemtsma says they felt the need to do something in Iowa. He says will be run through the Iowa Treasury and then back to the Iowa Beef Industry Council and will be a separate fund from that national fund and give them more flexibility in using it. “And that’s one of the benefits of a state fund, we have a little more flexibility in how we spend those dollars,” Reemtsma says.

He says it will be state dollars helping promote the industry, and he says it could also have some impact on the choices for those who eat beef. “There may be opportunities for us to develop new products that the consumer wants and the consumer needs within beef,” according to Reemtsma. “And so we are always looking at trying to enhance the marketing to our consumers and having some additional funding to bring new products to the market that they may want is always beneficial.”

Reemtsma says anything the checkoff dollars can do to support the industry is important. “The cattle industry in the last 18 months has been through quite a roller coaster — from record highs in 2014 to record lows in ’15 and part of ’16,” Reemtsma says, “so we have to view this as a long-term investment in our industry. We are hopeful that the funding will help us in Iowa stay in business.”

The checkoff referendum was the last big item on Reemstra’s list of things to do as his term as I-C-A president comes to an end. He runs a cattle operation in Dewitt in eastern Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)

An official representing the Elite Octane, LLC ethanol plant, issued a Press Release today (Friday), saying the Cass County Board of Supervisors have received an updated proposal from Elite Octane, with regard to the construction of an ethanol production facility in Atlantic.  Nick Bowdish, President and CEO of N Bowdish Company, LLC, said the proposal provides for new infrastructure to be completed in Cass County that will be paid for entirely by property taxes generated by Elite Octane.  Bowdish says at the completion of the proposed project, Cass County will have an additional two and a half miles of newly paved roads that should help facilitate development of the area surrounding the proposed plant.

According to Bowdish, property taxes generated by Elite Octane’s proposed project will also support the installation of a “gray water” line that will recycle a waste stream the community has released down the Nishnabotna River for more than 75 years. The recycling of gray water, he says, is certainly a positive from both water conservation and environmental perspectives, but is also important to the viability of the ethanol facility itself. Recycled gray water is an important component in plans for Elite Octane’s proposed $190 million dollar investment, which will bring with it 49 long-term, high quality jobs and a local payroll in excess of $3.5 million.

While previous proposals contemplated Cass County carrying a greater share of the project’s financial and infrastructure burdens, as neighboring counties have done with ethanol plants in the past, Bowdish says Elite Octane’s newest proposal contemplates that Cass County taxpayers will not pay for any of the new infrastructure required by the project. These will be entirely funded by Elite Octane’s future property taxes. Cass county residents will, however, enjoy the benefits of immediate and certain job growth as well as a value-added processor for corn grown in the region that should drive local farm incomes higher.

In addition, Bowdish says there will be opportunities for further economic development on the newly paved roads, which will be paid for entirely by the tax revenues generated from the asset investment Elite Octane proposes to make in Cass County. “It has always been Elite Octane’s intention to pay its own way into Cass County,” said Bowdish. “Elite Octane looks forward to finalizing an agreement with Cass County that will enable it to promptly sign construction contracts, avoiding further delay and risks of labor and material escalation which could potentially delay, or even stop, the project.”

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman said a public hearing on a Development Agreement, based on the new proposal, will be held during the Board of Supervisors meeting at 9-a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14th.

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Elite Octane, LLC is a privately held, development-stage ethanol production company.  The Company is in final stages of due diligence and anticipates it could begin construction in January 2017 on an ethanol plant near Atlantic, Iowa that will consume over 40 million bushels of locally grown corn and produce approximately 120 million gallons of ethanol and 300,000 tons of distiller’s grains per year.

A Guthrie County farmer’s passion for telling the story of Iowa agriculture, and his involvement in the community, has earned him an award and prizes from the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.

Adam & Mary Ebert and family

Coon Rapids area farmer Adam Ebert was presented with the Bob Joslin Excellence in Agriculture Award during the IFBF’s 98^th Annual Meeting in Des Moines this week.

The award, presented by IFBF, honors a young farmer, under 35 years old, who demonstrates outstanding leadership in Farm Bureau, agriculture, and their community.   The award is named in recognition of Bob Joslin, IFBF president from 1986-1987, who was well known for his support and encouragement of young farmers.

Six years ago, the Eberts started farming in Guthrie County, where he and his wife Mary grow corn, soybeans, and hay, in addition to raising hogs and cattle. Mary also works for the local ISU Extension.

As the Joslin Award winner, Ebert receives a $1,500 Home and Workshop certificate from John Deere, the award sponsor, a 90-day no-payment and no-interest (NPNI) John Deere Financial Certificate up to $5,000, a $750 FAST STOP gift card from GROWMARK, and expense-paid trips to the 2017 American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Annual Convention in Phoenix, and the 2017 GROWMARK annual meeting in Chicago in August.

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack plans to “run through the tape” when his eight-year tenure as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture draws to a close. Vilsack’s the only member of President Obama’s cabinet who remains in the office where he started in January of 2009. “One of the reasons why I stayed in the job that I stayed in for as long as I did, which is unusual in this day and age, is because of the people I worked with and the people I worked for,” Vilsack says.

Vilsack made two speeches in Des Moines yesterday (Wednesday). He addressed delegates at the Iowa Farm Bureau’s annual convention. Vilsack referred to the 1986 shooting at a city council meeting that killed the mayor and wounded two others. “A tragedy actually almost 30 years to the day in my small hometown of Mount Pleasant created an opportunity for me to get in public service,” Vilsack said. “You all have given me just an incredible opportunity. You’ve allowed me to realize every dream I ever had as a kid. You didn’t have to do that. You didn’t have to give a guy from Pennsylvania the opportunity to be a mayor…to be a state senator. You certainly didn’t have to give me the opportunity to be the govenror of this great state for eight years and because of that I had the opportunity to serve you as the secretary of agriculture for eight years.”

Vilsack also was honored Wednesday by the Des Moines-based World Food Prize. The Norman Borlaug Medallion is awarded to individuals and institutions which cannot win the World Food Prize. Both Vilsack and the U-S-D-A were presented with medallions. Borlaug is the Iowa native who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work in plant genetics. Vilsack salutes Borlaug’s vision of “using science in order to improve the lives of all people.”

“Norm was about feeding people. Norm was about helping people,” Vilsack says. “And he never stopped.” Vilsack, who will turn 67 on December 13th, isn’t planning to retire after he leaves the U-S-D-A in January, but Vilsack told reporters yesterday that he has no firm plans yet. “I want to be involved in one way, shape or form of advocating for agriculture, for rural America and I have, obviously, an affinity for young people so it’s an opportunity potentially for Christie and me to team up with some young folks,” Vilsack says.

The Vilsacks have two married sons — one in Iowa, the other in Colorado. The former governor says “family is important” and he and his wife want to “spend time” in both states with their four grandchildren.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday) tentatively set next Wednesday, Dec. 14^th, at 9-a.m., as the date and time for a Public Hearing on a development proposal for the Elite Octane Ethanol plant in Cass County. The hearing is contingent upon lawyers for both the County and Elite Octane reaching an agreement on the County’s financial obligation to help make the plant possible.

Elite Octane’s Nick Bowden said “Time is of the essence,” in reaching an agreement and getting the plant constructed. He said that’s because they have bids for major pieces of equipment and vendor supplies on hold for twice the length of time they would normally be able to hold those bids viable.

Bowden said also President Elect Donald Trump’s policies may also impact on the amount of construction labor that’s available. He says they need to move forward in the very near future to have certainty on the construction price. Every day that goes by without an agreement, he says results in a risk to both the County and Elite Octane, that they can’t hold the construction budget together.

A question was raised about what happens if the company goes out of business after it’s constructed, and how it would affect the county. Bowden said the company has a huge incentive to continue paying the property taxes. If taxes aren’t paid on a regular home, the County files and lean to take over the property. The same is true for Elite Octane’s 101.6 acres which is which be valued at more than $100-million.

The Supervisors were asked if the County and Elite Octane are close on an agreement. Board Chair Gaylord Schelling said he can’t give a definite answer to that at this time.