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CLICK HERE for the latest market quotes from the Brownfield Ag News Network!
JOHNSTON, Iowa – August 4, 2023 – Applications are open for the Iowa Corn Collegiate Advisory Team (CAT) program, which focuses on increasing college students’ understanding of the corn industry. During the one-year program, students will visit the Capitol, tour industry leaders’ operations and expand their network and knowledge outside of the classroom. Applications are available on Iowa Corn’s website and are due September 29, 2023.
“I would recommend the Collegiate Advisory Team to others because it helped me expand my network of industry professionals before leaving college,” said Austin Miller of Buchanan County and 2022-2023 CAT member. “Through the program, I was able to tour an ethanol plant, learn how policy development is created from the ground up and expand my knowledge of what commodity organizations do.”
“Leadership development is a priority at Iowa Corn,” said Larry Buss, President of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. “Our organization and other commodity groups rely on strong farmer and producer volunteers to guide our organizations now and into the future. The Collegiate Advisory Team, allows us to jumpstart many farmers and ag industry leader’s careers and leadership capabilities.” 
2023- 2024 Schedule of Events:
Any post-secondary student who has completed high school and is attending an Iowa college of university to pursue a career in agriculture is encouraged to apply. If you or someone you know might be interested, please contact Brian Bell, Iowa Corn Director of Leadership and Organizational Development at bbell@iowacorn.org. For more information, visit www.iowacorn.org/CAT.
(Radio Iowa) – Fourth District Congressman Randy Feenstra is introducing a bill that would increase the federal government’s monitoring of farmland purchases by foreign business. Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, says the Farmland Act is aimed at China. “We’re seeing it more and more that China or Chinese businesses are buying our farmland and it’s nearly doubled in the last five years from the land they bought over the last decades to just the last three years,” Feenstra says. “They’ve nearly doubled the amount of land they’re buying. And it really comes from a lot of their businesses and obviously security issues is our biggest concern.”
The bill directs U.S. agencies to cooperate on oversight of these transactions. “The one that’s probably most important right now is just trying to get all the agencies together, the USDA, the DOD, other agencies around the country, to get them all together talking the same language and making sure that we are prohibiting some of these things from happening,” he says. “Right now, there’s a lot of lapses that have happened. I know the USDA has only ever really got involved with six different purchases over the last several years.”
Chinese firms have been purchasing U-S ag businesses, and that’s a concern to Feenstra. “If you think about from the farmland to Smithfield to they bought a seed company, I mean, they’re vertically integrated in the whole system from the land all the way to the production side and to our grocery stores,” Feenstra says. “So this has to worry us significantly. What is the purpose? Why are they doing this? And we’re trying to get oversight on this.” In particular, Feenstra says he’s concerned over Chinese land purchases near military bases. “This is sort of what started in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was right by our military installation there,” he says. “We have some of our most secure military assets over there and to have that land being bought and overseen by the Chinese Communist Party is a very significant concern.”
Feenstra says the federal government has not enforced laws already on the books that would protect the U.S. from acquisition of farmland by foreign adversaries.
(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University professor’s research is part of a large, federally funded project to improve the quality of sweet corn. Alan Myers is a professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology at Iowa State. His research is focused on how carbohydrates are stored in sweet corn kernels. “What I look at directly is the synthesis part,” Myers says, “the growth of the kernel from when it’s first fertilized from pollen and egg into making the mature kernel that we chomp down on when we bite down on an ear of corn.”
Field corn that’s fed to livestock or converted into ethanol has starch granules that make the kernels grainy and really hard. “Those things don’t exist or there are a lot fewer of them in sweet corn varieties,” Myers says. “…That gives it the taste and mouth texture that people like to eat when they eat good, fresh sweet corn.” The carbohydrates Myers is studying give sweet corn kernels that soft and creamy texture.
“And when people bite into it, it tastes good,” Myers says. The I-S-U laboratory that Myers leads and another lab in Ames that’s focused on speeding up development of hybrid varieties are splitting 800-thousand dollars in federal funding for corn-related research over the next four years. It’s part of a project involving researchers in other parts of the country with the goals of boosting the sugar content and improving the shelf life of sweet corn.
The project is being coordinated by the University of Florida. About 20 percent of the sweet corn grown in the U.S. comes from Florida — making it the top sweet corn producing state.
(Radio Iowa) – The latest Drought Monitor report shows a little deterioration in the conditions in the state in the last week. D-N-R hydrologist Tim Hall says that doesn’t reflect the most recent storms. “The rain that came in southern Iowa over the last two days came after the cutoff for the Drought Monitor,” he says. The monitor shows a large part of eastern Iowa has moved from moderate to severe drought. Hall says the rains we’ve had recently will help.
“Over the last month things have remained relatively stable across the state,” he says. “We ended up behind normal for rainfall in July, although we did get more rain in July than we got in June, so that’s good.” Hall says rainfall in mid July did impact the level of drought, but we haven’t seen consistent enough rain yet to get rid of all the concern. “We’re sort of still on the edge of drought that could become much more significant but it hasn’t gotten appreciably worse,” Hall says. He says the recent rains helped with the much needed soil moisture. 
“The other thing that’s working in our favor is that in about another month or so, we’ll get through the peak demand time of the year. So the demand for water will start to drop as we move from August into September. And that certainly helps to preserve whatever waters in the system,” according to Hall. The weather outlook has indicated we could see more rain in August, which would also help the drought situation.
(Radio Iowa) – The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is smaller this year, primarily because the Mississippi River basin is so dry, the waterway is moving less water and carrying fewer nutrients from states like Iowa. Nutrient pollution, in the form of nitrogen and phosphorous, is the main cause of low oxygen levels that threaten marine life in the Gulf.
In Iowa, those nutrients commonly come from excess farm fertilizer that washes into waterways. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says federal infrastructure funding will help states scale up conservation efforts. Long-term studies show the rate of surplus fertilizer applied to the land has slowed in recent years.
This summer’s dead zone covers just over three-thousand square miles. That’s among the smallest it’s measured since 1985, but over a five-year average, the hypoxic zone is still more than twice as large as the goal set by river states and federal regulators.
(Atlantic, Iowa) – “Corn 4 a Cause” is hosting a community sweet corn picking day this Saturday, August 5, 2023 from 8-until 10-a.m. Area residents are invited to the farm north of Atlantic to pick a dozen ears of free sweet corn to take home to their household, and welcomed to pick extra sweet corn to share with neighbors in need.
Corn 4 a Cause is an Atlantic-area non-profit that donates as much corn as they sell because they want all Iowans to be able to enjoy sweet corn. Teens and adults with all ranges of sweet corn picking experience are welcome at this Saturday’s event. Closely-monitored children are also welcome. Corn 4 a Cause will provide breakfast snacks and orange juice. All pickers are encouraged to bring a bottle of water, and wear clothes and shoes that can get dirty. Light long sleeves, pants, close-toed shoes, gardening gloves, and safety glasses are recommended for premium safety.
Community sweet corn picking day with Corn for a Cause (Photo courtesy Ciara Hoegh)
Please RSVP to Ciara Hoegh at corn4acause@gmail.com or 712-249-5870 for exact field location.
Corn 4 a Cause shares sweet corn and popcorn through Cass County food pantries, Grow Another Row, and other organizations. More information on Corn 4 a Cause can be found at
https://corn4acause.org/.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Small non-farm businesses in 20 Iowa counties and neighboring counties in Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and South Dakota are now eligible to apply for low interest federal disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Director Tanya N. Garfield with the SBA’s Disaster Field Operations Center-West, says the loans offset economic losses because of reduced revenues caused by drought in the following primary counties that began June 6th
Primary Iowa counties: Cass, Lee, Lyon and Montgomery;
Neighboring Iowa counties: Adair, Adams, Audubon, Des Moines, Fremont, Guthrie, Henry, Mills, O’Brien, Osceola, Page, Pottawattamie, Shelby, Sioux, Taylor and Van Buren;
“SBA eligibility covers both the economic impacts on businesses dependent on farmers and ranchers that have suffered agricultural production losses caused by the disaster and businesses directly impacted by the disaster,” Garfield said. Small non-farm businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and most private nonprofit organizations of any size may qualify for Economic Injury Disaster Loans of up to $2 million to help meet financial obligations and operating expenses which could have been met had the disaster not occurred.
“Eligibility for these loans is based on the financial impact of the disaster only and not on any actual property damage. These loans have an interest rate of 4 percent for businesses and 2.375 percent for private nonprofit organizations, a maximum term of 30 years and are available to small businesses and most private nonprofits without the financial ability to offset the adverse impact without hardship,” Garfield said. By law, SBA makes Economic Injury Disaster Loans available when the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture designates an agricultural disaster. The Secretary declared this disaster on July 31.
Businesses primarily engaged in farming or ranching are not eligible for SBA disaster assistance. Agricultural enterprises should contact the Farm Services Agency about the U.S. Department of Agriculture assistance made available by the Secretary’s declaration. However, nurseries are eligible for SBA disaster assistance in drought disasters. Applicants may apply online, receive additional disaster assistance information and download applications at https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/.
Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information on SBA disaster assistance. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services. Completed applications should be mailed to U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155.
The deadline to apply for economic injury is April 1, 2024.
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