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CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Iowa Agribusiness Network!
CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
Good weather conditions have led to healthy populations of animals trapped in Iowa for their fur. D-N-R furbearer biologist, Vince Evelsizer, says one animal in particular has flourished. “Raccoon numbers are especially high this year. All populations of the furbearers are stable to slightly increased this year, doing well and fine — except for the gray fox is a little bit low,” Evelsizer says. He is hoping trappers will help manage the raccoon population. “Raccoon numbers are extremely high, so we encourage plenty of trapping and harvesting of them,” according to Evelsizer.
He says trappers should be aware that there has been some distemper in raccoons. There are some signs the animals may be infected. “They may encounter raccoons out in the daylight moving around, usually seem to be kind of stumbling or staggering around oblivious to their surroundings,” Evelsizer says. “If they encounter them, it’s good to go ahead and dispatch them.”Evelsizer says you should take a few precautions for animals which might be infected. “Handle them with gloves and just use common sense when handling them. It has not been found to transfer to humans,” Evelsizer says.
Information from the D-N-R shows the raccoon harvest has varied greatly depending on the price paid for their pelts. The harvest hit an all-time high of 390-thousand-877 in the 1986-87 season, but that declined rapidly in the next three years to 103-thousand-468 as fur prices dropped.
The harvest went back up in the 2010-2011 season to nearly 237-thousand as pelt prices increased, but dropped off to 89-thousand last year as the fur prices dropped again. The average raccoon pelt price last year was four dollars, 53 cents ($4.53), which was about half of the year before.
(Radio Iowa)
Sales, revenue, and profits all fell for John Deere as the company reported results for the fourth quarter and its 2016 fiscal year. Deere spokesman Ken Golden says for the year, sales and revenue fell eight percent, and profits dropped 21 per cent. “We’re still in the middle of a global farm recession and on our other big global business, we are having difficult conditions in the construction equipment sector. So when you add up both of those — you have years that are down from previous record years in 2011, 12 and 13,” Golden says.
Despite that, he says it was still one of Deere’s ten best years ever. For this year, the company now predicts sales and revenue will decline just one percent, including a one percent decline for ag equipment. “We’re beginning to see indications that the downturn in large ag is nearing the bottom of cycle,” Golden says, “And so again, we are only predicting a slight decrease in agricultural equipment sales next year.”
Golden says construction equipment sales should increase one percent, thanks to rising housing starts and an improving economy in the U-S. Worldwide net sales for 2016 totaled 26-point-six billion dollars – down two-point-two (2.2) billion dollars from the previous year. Profits fell to one-point-five (1.5) billion dollars — a drop of 400 million dollars.
(Radio Iowa)
The Cass County Board of Supervisor’s Wednesday, tabled action on a request from Elite Octane, LLC ethanol plant representatives, for a financial assistance package from the County, until lawyers for the County and Company can come together to present some solid numbers on what the County’s obligations would be. Elite Octane wants to construct an ethanol plant in Cass County, and requests to use property tax revenues generated by the increase in valuation due to construction of the facility (Tax Incremental Finance) for the project.
The Board discussed: the assessed value of the proposed 120 million gallons-per-year facility, which is estimated to be anywhere from $27-to 33-million dollars; taxes generated (estimated $750,000 to $900,000 in new taxes each year); county and city infrastructure expense; legal counsel; and a financial assistance package. The matter was then taken under advisement, with legal counsel for both entities expected to bring more substantial information to the next meeting.
And, while the company requested the Board of Supervisors set Dec. 7th as the date for a public hearing on a financial package, it’s questionable if negotiations can move along that quickly. If all the chips fall into place, the company has promised the creation of 49 new jobs with 45 of them paying more than $18.50 an hour.
In other business, the Cass County Board of Supervisors heard from representatives of the Cass County Agricultural and Educational Association, the Fair Board and the Fair Grounds Committee, who reported on how the money contributed by the county is used. They asked the board to consider an unspecified increase in the annual contribution (currently $58,000). The request was taken under consideration.
And, an organization offered to provide Christmas lights to decorate the evergreen on the northwest area of the courthouse block. The County would need to run power to near the tree and have the lights installed. Lights would remain on the tree year round. A bid was obtained for power installation and hanging of the lights. A motion was made by Duane McFadden, and seconded by Chuck Rieken, to accept the proposal to provide Christmas lights and the bid of $1,500 to install power and hang lights. After discussion and a roll call vote, the motion failed. Gaylor Schelling and Duane McFadden voted in favor, Frank Waters, Chuck Rieken and Mark Wedemeyer voted against it.
The Board also adopted a Resolution abating the taxes, interest and penalties on a parcel of land now owned by the City of Griswold, and as allowable under Iowa Code.
There’s just one section of the state that’s still behind in completing the corn and soybean harvest. The latest U-S-D-A crop report shows that southwest and south central Iowa still have approximately eight percent of the corn crop and five percent of their soybean crop to harvest. The report says the harvest is virtually complete in most other areas of the state, with 98 percent of the corn out of the fields.
That puts the corn harvest — which had lagged behind for awhile due to weather — two days ahead of the five-year average. Iowa’s ag secretary says it looks like farmers are going to set records for yields and total production of corn and soybeans once all the numbers are in.
(Radio Iowa)
Your deer is down, tagged and on its way to the truck. Your harvest is not complete, though, until you register it; online, over the phone or at a license vendor.
For hunters who have registered deer for years, there is no change. Online, it takes just a couple minutes. Go to www.iowadnr.gov and click on the ‘Hunting’ tab, then on ‘Reporting Your Harvest’ and follow instructions. Be ready to enter your tag’s nine-digit harvest report number. By phone? Call 800-771-4692.
The deer should be reported by the hunter whose name is on the tag…and it must come before midnight, the day after the deer is tagged. The harvest reporting system provides information much faster, and with more detail, than the previous, cumbersome postcard survey. This leads to more responsive management of deer populations; such as adjusting county by county tags or special zone hunt allotments.
(DNR Press Release)
Have an extra deer at the end of the hunt? Maybe you bought an extra tag, to hunt longer? Consider donating to Iowa’s HUSH program. HUSH (Help Us Stop Hunger) works with 81 participating lockers to provide high quality meat to needy Iowans, through the Food Bank of Iowa.
Field dressed deer are skinned, de-boned and ground into two-pound packages…then distributed to local needy families. The program is funded by hunters, who pay a dollar surcharge with each deer tag purchase.
HUSH has provided meat from 66,300 deer to those who need it—nearly 3,400 last year. Processors receive $75 for their end of the work. The Food Bank of Iowa picks up $5, as it oversees distribution.
Each locker will accept whole deer, asking the hunter to fill out a Hunter HUSH card. There is no fee paid at the locker. A list of participating lockers is available in the Iowa Hunting Regulations and online at www.iowahush.com.
The Iowa DNR’s wildlife staff will be collecting tissue samples during Iowa’s shotgun deer seasons to test for the presence of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Iowa’s wild deer herd. The effort will concentrate in southeast Allamakee County where CWD was found in the wild deer herd, in counties near Wisconsin and Illinois where CWD has been confirmed, in south-central Iowa near Missouri, and in Pottawattamie and Cerro Gordo counties, following positive tests in the past from captive facilities and wild deer in or near those counties.
Most of the 4,500 samples the DNR hopes to collect will be taken during the first half of December, as more than 120,000 hunters take part in Iowa’s shotgun deer seasons. Sampling involves removing and testing the lymph nodes of mature deer.
Many hunters voluntarily contribute samples of their harvested deer for these testing efforts. Most samples are obtained by wildlife staff, checking with hunters in the field or at home processing points. Hunters willing to provide samples may contact the DNR regionally to arrange collection. In Pottawattamie County, call 712-350-0147.
Since 2002, more than 55,000 wild deer in Iowa have been tested. CWD was first detected in the wild herd in Allamakee County in 2013. Iowa DNR’s website provides information about CWD and other information on infectious disease at: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Hunting/DeerHunting/CWDEHDInformation.aspx
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