Rain fell in parts of Iowa this weekend providing some much needed moisture to Iowa corn and soybean fields, but the showers were isolated, for soil that has been drying back out. Iowa State Extension Agronomist Clark McGrath covers the counties from Carroll to the Missouri border. He says it’s dry, but conditions are better than last year.  “Last year at this time, it was entire fields, and this year, luckily, it’s portions of fields. So, yeah, we could us moisture,” McGrath says. “But after talking to people from across the state — actually RAGBRAI just came through and I talked to farmers from southeast Iowa and east-central Iowa — and they said that they felt like southwest Iowa here was some of the best stuff they’d seen, and I kinda agree with that.”

Joel DeJong is another extension agronomist who covers nine-western-Iowa counties from Sibley to Missouri Valley. He says the rain is important as the corn crop hits a critical stage.
“We’re entering that time period when it’s the most critical time period. It’s at pollination where we really determine where how many kernels we end up with on those ears. The next five weeks after that, it’s kernel fill, but the next four weeks determines what our ultimate potential is,” Dejong explains. “And so, if we can’t get rainfall we would like to bring our average daily temperatures down into that highs into the lower to mid-80s rather than the lower to mid 90s because, that drops daily moisture demand almost in half.”

Dejong says the crops are showing moisture stress. “We haven’t had but a half inch of rain in the last three, four weeks, so we’re starting to see more and more on a daily basis, those plants curling, particularly in the corn fields — and in the lighter soils — the corn is basically turning white,” according to DeJong. He says the plants need an inch of rain daily at this stage of their growth.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A new interactive smartphone and computer app featuring Iowa’s trails is under development and organizations behind the development hope to launch it later this year.  Once completed, the “Iowa by Trail” app will feature an interactive map that allows users to locate their position, find the closest trail and find points of interest along the way. It also will keep track of distance, weather, news and events and communicate with friends and followers about their experience.

The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation is working with the Greater Des Moines Partnership, the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, the City of West Des Moines, and other private partners to raise money to produce the app and website. The foundation needs $59,000.  The expected release date for the app is late this year.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – After a very wet start to this planting season, Iowa crop conditions are quickly reversing from too wet to too dry.  The USDA says topsoil with adequate or surplus moisture declined 22 percentage points last week from the week before with 43 percent of the state’s topsoil now adequate or in surplus. Temperatures statewide averaged 4.8 degrees above normal and average precipitation was barely measurable while normal for the week is just over an inch.

Corn and soybeans remain behind schedule with just 35 percent of the corn crop tasseled, behind the five-year average of 70 percent. Overall, corn is about 10 days behind normal in development.  Thirty-six percent of the soybean crop is blooming, behind the normal 70 percent.

U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers are working to solve a swine disease that has a major negative effect on the pork industry. USDA scientist Dr. Joan Lunney says Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, or PRRS, costs U.S. pork producers money and pigs every year. “Overall, in the United States, PRRS costs us 642-million (dollars) a year and if you take into account veterinary costs, it’s one billion a year in the U.S. alone,” Lunney says. For young pigs, being sick means respiratory problems and loss of growth, so it’s a major issue in terms of production.

“In the adult sow, if she gets PRRS when she’s pregnant, she can lose her litter, and/or her litter becomes sick and some pigs die in utero or are very unthrifty when they’re born,” Lunney says. To alleviate this situation, Lunney and her colleagues in Beltsville, Maryland — just outside of Washington D.C. — have discovered a genetic marker that shows which pigs are resistant to the effects of PRRS.

“We’ve been able to show that there is a region on swine chromosome four that is associated with decreased viral levels and increased growth,” Lunney says. “So, this is really important because it means that we can help farmers now to decrease the effect of PRRS in their herds.” With this knowledge, producers and animal breeders could introduce PRRS tolerant swine into their herds thereby reducing the effects of the virus.

“They would be buying pigs that are resistant, but not completely resistant to PRRS,” Lunney says. “This is not a situation where we have zero PRRS. It is a 15-percent decrease in PRRS and an 11-percent increase in growth traits.” The researchers are now trying to find the exact gene that leads to PRRS tolerance in hopes of developing a vaccine and treatment. Iowa is the nation’s top pork producing state, with approximately 30 million hogs raised in Iowa each year.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Electrical Examining Board is expected to decide Aug. 15 whether Iowa farm buildings must be inspected. The Des Moines Register says the board weighed conflicting opinions on the matter at a hearing Thursday. A judge had ordered the board to reconsider rules adopted after electrical regulatory legislation was passed by the Legislature in 2007. The judge said the board had gone too far in requiring the inspections.

Some farmers and their supporters object to the inspections as a power grab by the board. Other farmers and their supporters say the inspections are needed for safety.  State records say that since 1994, Iowa has had 15 farm deaths from electrocution.

Andrea Farrior and Jim Field talk about the latest animals available at the Atlantic Animal Shelter.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s top agriculture official says hay and straw producers should be sure to keep their information on a state directory updated to help market their products. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey says with the continued tight supply of forage crops used for livestock feed, the Iowa Hay and Straw Directory is a critical link for buyers and sellers.

The listing is available to interested buyers throughout the nation. Only sellers from within Iowa are on the list. The information may be accessed and updated on the IowaAgriculture.gov website.

w/ Kate Olson

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