(DES MOINES) – Gov. Terry E. Branstad today signed a proclamation to allow the transportation of overweight loads of soybeans, corn, hay, straw, silage and stover. The proclamation takes effect today, September 25, 2015, and expires after 60 days.

“I am pleased today to sign this proclamation to allow Iowa farmers to move their crop yields in an effective and efficient manner,” said Branstad. “Iowa’s farmers are a critical component of Iowa’s economy and this proclamation will ensure they’re able to transport their crop ahead of deteriorating weather conditions.”

“Governor Branstad and I continue to look for ways in which government can assist Iowans and today’s harvest weight proclamation is another way we’re able to ensure producers can get their yield out of the fields and to market,” said Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds.

This proclamation is intended to allow vehicles transporting soybeans, corn, hay, straw, silage and stover to be overweight, not exceeding 90,000 pounds gross weight, without a permit, but only for the duration of this proclamation. This action is intended to allow loads transported on all highways within Iowa, excluding the interstate system, and those which do not exceed a maximum of 90,000 pounds gross weight, do not exceed the maximum axle weight limit determined under the non-primary highway maximum gross weight table in Iowa Code §321.463(5) (b), by more than twelve and one-half percent (12.5%), do not exceed the legal maximum axle weight limit of 20,000 pounds, and comply with posted limits on roads and bridges.

The Iowa Department of Transportation is directed to monitor the operation of this proclamation to assure the public’s safety and facilitate the movement of the trucks involved.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Chinese officials agreed at a ceremony in Des Moines to buy 13.18 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans.

The officials signed 24 contracts Thursday that The Des Moines Register reports are valued at about $5.3 billion.

Ray Gaesser, an Iowa farmer and chairman of the American Soybean Association, says the amount China will import is roughly equal to all the soybeans grown in Iowa, expected to be the second-largest soybean producer this year behind Illinois.

China uses most of the soybeans it imports to feed livestock and poultry.

Don Roose, the president of U.S. Commodities, a commodities broker in West Des Moines, says the giant contract is good news for farmers, but he didn’t think it would change soybean prices.

Cass County: Corn $3.37, Beans $8.28
Adair County: Corn $3.34, Beans $8.31
Adams County: Corn $3.34, Beans $8.27
Audubon County: Corn $3.36, Beans $8.30
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $3.40, Beans $8.28
Guthrie County: Corn $3.38, Beans $8.32
Montgomery County: Corn $3.39, Beans $8.30
Shelby County: Corn $3.40, Beans $8.28

Oats $2.18 (always the same in all counties)

(Information from the USDA’s Farm Service Agency offices)

w/ Kate Olson

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DES MOINES – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey today commented on the Iowa Crops and Weather report released by the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service. The report is released weekly from April through October.

“The warm and windy weather helped the crop continue to mature and widespread harvest will likely start in the next week or two,” Northey said. “We are in the midst of National Farm Safety and Health week, which runs from September 20 to 26, and is a great reminder to everyone working on the farm or traveling through rural areas to be careful and stay alert during the harvest season.”

CROP REPORT

A windy, warm, and mostly dry week aided crop maturity for the week ending September 20, 2015, according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service. Statewide there were 4.8 days suitable for fieldwork. Fieldwork for the week included harvesting seed corn, chopping silage, cutting hay, and reports of scattered corn for grain and soybean harvest. Farmers were also preparing farm equipment for the upcoming harvest. Reports indicated seed corn harvest was wrapping up, and corn harvested for grain has had widely varying moisture content.

Topsoil moisture levels rated 0 percent very short, 3 percent short, 86 percent adequate and 11 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture levels rated 0 percent very short, 6 percent short, 82 percent adequate and 12 percent surplus.

Ninety-five percent of the corn crop was in the dent stage or beyond, with 49 percent mature, 5 days ahead of last year, but 5 days behind the 5-year average. Corn condition rated 79 percent good to excellent. Eighty-three percent of soybeans were starting to turn color or beyond, while 48 percent of soybeans were dropping leaves, 5 days ahead of 2014, and 2 days ahead of normal. Soybean condition rated 76 percent good to excellent.

The third cutting of alfalfa hay was 89 percent complete, 1 week ahead of last year, but a week behind the average. Pasture condition rated 67 percent good to excellent. Livestock conditions were reported as good.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa company has been awarded the first license by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a bird flu vaccine. Ames-based Harrisvaccines says the conditional license authorizes it to continue testing the vaccine’s effectiveness and stand ready if the USDA gives order to begin manufacturing. The company was licensed to make pig virus vaccines last year and in 2012.

Company Vice President Joel Harris said Monday that testing with the USDA shows the virus to be 95 percent effective in adult hens and 93 percent effective in day-old chicks with one dose. Harrisvaccines creates vaccines using genetic code — a string of 1,500 letters in specific sequence — eliminating the need to handle live virus. Harris says that allows the vaccine to be updated quickly if the virus mutates.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has collected the signatures of 46 other senators on a resolution that would nullify an Environmental Protection Agency rule that’s unpopular in farm country. The “Waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) rule outlines six types of waterways that the E-P-A and the Army Corps of Engineers say are subject to federal Clean Water Act regulation. “I’ve just been hearing overwhelmingly from so many Iowans that the expanded definitions are causing confusion and uncertainty for farmers and ranchers and manufacturers,” Ernst says.

Other proposals attached to budget bills would block federal funding for implementing the rule. There’s a bill that essentially tells E-P-A officials to rewrite the rule and address some specific concerns. Now, the Ernst resolution seeks to get rid of the rule altogether. “It is just one of the options that we have on the table right now,” Ernst says. All three of those proposals face a presidential veto.

The Iowa Farm Bureau has suggested 97 percent of the land mass in Iowa now could face Clean Water Act regulation because of the rule, which went into effect in late August. Ernst calls the rule ill-conceived. “It’s a lot of over-regulation,” Ernst says. Iowa’s other U.S. Senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, is a co-sponsor of the Ernst resolution.

Officials in the Environmental Protection Agency say their rule “is fundamental to protecting and restoring the nation’s water resources.” The 1972 Clean Water Act gave the federal government jurisdiction over “navigable” waters, but a series of court cases over the past few decades have caused confusion over what “navigable” means. The agency’s new rule is an attempt to clarify its authority, but critics like Ernst say the E-P-A has gone so far as to seek jurisdiction over the gullies in corn fields.

“The law behind the rule has good intent,” Ernst says. “It’s just that the new rule takes it way too far.”

(Radio Iowa)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A new survey suggests that the economy will slow down in rural parts of 10 Western and Plains states in the months ahead. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says weak crop and energy prices are hurting profits across the region. The Rural Mainstreet Index dipped into negative territory at 49 in September from August’s 50. Any score below 50 suggests that factor will decline.

Farmers are delaying big purchases if they can because of the environment. The farm equipment sales index remained at 14.2 in September. Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

DES MOINES, Iowa – As the poultry industry in Iowa and across the Midwest works to rebound from the spring outbreak of avian influenza, there are predictions that another round of the disease will hit this fall.

Dale Wiehoff, director of communications for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, says while it’s still unclear how the disease became so widespread, he notes that avian influenza will likely become a permanent part of industrial poultry production. “The model of industrial poultry production that we have confines thousands of birds together that have the same genetic makeup, getting the same food and the same water,” he explains. “So it is really ripe for the spread of disease once it gets inside a facility.”

Nearly 50 million chickens and turkeys in the U.S. were lost in the spring outbreak of the H5N2 strain of avian influenza, including around 32 million in Iowa alone. With that unprecedented number of dead birds, Wiehoff says there needs to be a serious review of the safety of the methods of disposal, including incineration, burial and composting.

“The risk is if all of the virus isn’t killed in the compost process, it could be just spread out on the field and contaminating and infecting other birds,” he points out. “And worse, the possibility of the virus mutating and spreading to humans and other animals.”

Wiehoff says the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service just launched a review of how to handle the carcasses from any future outbreaks, which could include prearranged disposal sites.

(Iowa News Service)