Re-live some of the 2013 Cass County Fair on KJAN TV!  CLICK HERE to see the Swine and Beef sales and the Queen/King contest.

w/ Kate Olson

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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Iowa and Nebraska health officials say a prepackaged salad mix is the source of a cyclospora outbreak that sickened more than 178 people in both states. Public health officials from both states announced their findings on Tuesday. Outbreaks of the same illness have been reported elsewhere in the U.S., but it’s not clear if prepackaged salad mix is also linked to those. Cyclospora is a rare parasite that causes a lengthy gastrointestinal illness.

Nebraska officials say the salad mix came through national distribution channels. It included iceberg and romaine lettuce, along with red cabbage and carrots. Local health departments are working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to identify exactly where the contamination originated in the food production chain and where the product was distributed.

Iowa State University Research and Demonstration Farms (ISU Armstrong Research Farm) along with the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research and Development is inviting the public to attend the Research Farm’s annual Crops Field Day at this Thursday, Aug. 1^st, beginning at 5-p.m.

The evening will begin with a light supper compliments of the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research & Development. After supper everyone will load up on people movers and be transferred to four different stations while riding on the movers. The first station will be a demonstration of the new Weather Stations presented by Elwynn Taylor, ISU Agronomy Professor. He’ll discuss the system of the statewide weather stations and how the stations will measure soil moisture at four depths and be accessible by producers.

The second station will be presented by Mark Hanna, ISU Ag & Bio-systems Engineering. Mark will discuss the Farm Energy Project being done at the ISU Armstrong Research Farm. Mark will tell us about the new project monitoring fuel usage with farm equipment and corn drying costs. At station number three Aaron Saeugling, ISU Crops Field Specialist, will be discussing corn development at various corn planting dates. The final station on the tour will be a Cover Crop Study by Ajay Nair, ISU Horticulture Assistant Professor. He will be discussing nine different cover crops to be trialed and discussed.

The ISU Armstrong Research Farm is located 12 miles southwest of Atlantic on Highway 6, half a mile south on 525th Street, and a half mile east on Hitchcock Avenue, or 13 miles east of Oakland on Highway 6, half a mile south on 525th Street, and half a mile east on Hitchcock Avenue. Call 712-769-2600 is you have any questions. The field day is open to the public at no cost.

GALVA, Iowa (AP) — Quad County Corn Processors in northwest Iowa’s Ida County, has launched a construction project to build onto its existing ethanol plant a facility that can make additional ethanol from corn kernel fiber. The $8.5 million project uses newly developed cellulosic ethanol science to convert additional parts of corn into ethanol at the company’s Galva plant. The project will add about 6 percent more ethanol from the same amount of corn. The plant currently makes 35 million gallons of ethanol a year.

General Manager Delayne Johnson says the process also will add several jobs. It also improves the protein content of the animal feed byproduct the plant sells to livestock farmers by about 40 percent. Construction is expected to be completed by next April.

Iowa has 41 ethanol refineries.

A meeting and workshop for landowners, tenants and other agri-business professionals is scheduled to take place this Thursday evening (August 1st), in Guthrie Center. The Farmland Leasing Meeting will be held from 6-to 9-pm at the Farm Bureau Hall. The workshop will assist interested persons with current issues related to farmland ownership, management, and leasing agreements.

Each workshop attendee will receive a set of beneficial materials regarding farm leasing arrangements and farmland ownership. Topics to be covered include Iowa Cash Rental Rate Survey and Land Values Survey, comparison of different types of leases, lease termination, impacts of yields and prices, and more.

The meeting is being facilitated by ISU Farm Management Specialist Shane Ellis. The cost is $20 per person or $35 per couple. Pre-registration is preferred, and can be made by calling 641-747-2276.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa motorists who buy gasoline without ethanol could soon see a price jump at the pump.  The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa’s largest pipeline operator, Magellan Midstream Partners, will no longer ship “clear” 87 octane regular gasoline to its Iowa terminals. Instead, the pipeline operator will start shipping 84 octane fuel, which can be blended with more expensive 91 octane fuel to produce the regular 87 octane product. Iowa requires a minimum 87 octane fuel at gas pumps.

The change means that both the new 87 octane and 91 octane fuels without ethanol will likely cost more at the pump. Magellan spokesman Bruce Heine says the change is driven by pipeline customers, including refiners, petroleum traders and petroleum marketers.

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the ag industry will suffer if congress fails to enact some sort of immigration reforms. “If you know what I know about the impact of the immigrant workforce on agriculture, you recognize that this is something that needs to get done,” Vilsack says. “We have had crops not harvested, crops not raised and crops actually leaving the United States and being grown elsewhere because we have a broken immigration system.”

America’s agricultural industry has been able to keep food prices low, in part, with cheap immigrant labor. In 2006, 77 percent of all agricultural workers in the United States were born in another country. Vilsack cites a recent study in the state of Georgia. “They’ve determined that their state has suffered $320 million annually of economic loss and roughly 3200 jobs that otherwise would have been filled weren’t being filled,” Vilsack says. “So if you start multiplying that by a lot of agricultural states around the country, you can see this lack of a comprehensive immigration bill is having an impact on the agricultural economy.”

Georgia enacted a state law in 2010 that made it harder for employers to hire illegal immigrants and directed police in Georgia to be more aggressive in checking for undocumented residents. A University of Georgia study found farmers in Georgia were 40 percent short of the fieldhands they needed to harvest crops in 2012. The immigration reform plan that recently cleared the U.S. Senate would grant legal resident status to current farm workers who entered the country illegally. Advocates say a separate guest worker program outlined in the bill will increase the flow of temporary farm workers into the U.S.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Fair continues its 6-day run here in Atlantic, today. The Swine show kicked-off activities early this morning, at 7:30. The Commercial Exhibits building opens at 10-a.m. The Thrashing and Antique Equipment Show is slated to run from 11-a.m. until 3-p.m..

Other events include the Decorator’s Showcase from Noon until 4-p.m., where young people have an opportunity to decorate one room in their own style. Participants select coordinating textures and colors, consider a formal, informal or semi-formal look, then put those selections into a display. Each member is allowed one-hour for the contest. Local businesses have donated and loaned samples of wallpaper or fabric as a starter for 4-H’ers to use.

The Poultry and Dog show, and Skid Loader Rodeo events begin at 2-p.m., the Texaco Country Showdown for new music talent gets underway at 3-p.m., “Share the Fun” at 5-p.m., with Cass County 4-H’ers showing-off their talent, and the Horse Fun Show is at 6-p.m., along with the Tractor Pull.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Many Midwest farmers are beginning to worry that last year’s drought could return. The concern is inching closer to reality for a large part of the corn growing region as many states have experienced only spotty rain, with some areas far too dry.

The National Drought Monitor released Thursday says abnormally dry conditions have spread eastward farther into southern Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Portions of Nebraska including the southeast that had May rain are now drying out again.

Rain also seems to have missed southeastern Indiana, which is now listed as abnormally dry after the state had been lifted out of drought. Corn is in the pollination stage, which determines how much grain it will produce, and needs moisture now to fully develop