U-S Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced more actions aimed at making local and regional food systems stronger. The USDA’s Gary Crawford reports….

Vilsack is a former Governor from Iowa. He served as the 40th governor of the State from 1999 to 2000, and is the 32nd United States Secretary of Agriculture, serving under the Biden administration. He previously served in the role from 2009 to 2017 during the Obama administration.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig has announced that the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship will partner in 16 urban water quality projects across the state by investing nearly $2.8 million. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, utilizing the state’s Water Quality Initiative (WQI) and funding from the Conservation Infrastructure Program (CIP), will provide cost-share grants that cover up to 50 percent of the total cost of each project. The overall cost of the 16 projects is expected to be approximately $14.6 million, which includes $2.8 million from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and $11.8 million from local sources.

The Department provides financial and technical assistance to the communities and organizations implementing the urban water quality practices. To receive state funding, the urban water quality projects must include education and outreach components and involve local partners. These community-based projects raise awareness about new stormwater management methods and encourage others to adopt similar infrastructure-based practices to improve water quality. These urban conservation projects include water quality practices like bioretention cells, bioswales, native plantings, permeable pavers, rain gardens, soil quality restoration, and wetlands among many other proven practices.

Wednesday’s grant announcement coincides with Soil and Water Conservation Week, which Governor Kim Reynolds has proclaimed will be recognized from April 30 through May 7 in Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – An organic waste recycling center in Muscatine is working to double its production of methane in the next year using federal grants. The facility takes in some four-thousand tons of food waste each year and uses two anaerobic digesters to generate enough methane to power 13-hundred vehicles. For now, the methane is being burned off, but facility director John Koch (Cook) wants to see the eastern Iowa city harvest that potential.

“What we’re trying to do here is, we’re trying to capture that methane, that food waste that would have been in a landfill, off-gassing that methane into the atmosphere,” Koch says. “We now are capturing that with these digesters and making renewable energy and fertilizer out of that.” Workers remove packaging from hot dogs, palettes of snack packs and drums of liquid cheese and dump it into the digesters which capture the methane. While there’s no infrastructure yet to do anything with that gas, Koch wants to change that.

“Whether that’s electricity or whether we pump it right back in the gas pipeline, natural gas pipeline or whatever we do, there’s a couple of options we have,” he says. Koch hopes federal grant money can help seize on the energy source that’s now being vented into the atmosphere and wasted.

(by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

[Council Bluffs, Iowa] – Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Director Doug Reed reports Conservation and Emergency Management officials would like the public to be aware of a series of controlled land management burns being conducted in Council Bluffs over the next couple of days. Today (Wednesday), controlled burns will be conducted at the Narrows River Park, and near St. Patrick Catholic Church and College View Elementary on Valley View Drive.

Tomorrow (Thursday), burns are planned for the Vincent Bluff area on Thallas St. and near the Broadway Viaduct.

Controlled burning, also known as prescribed fire, is a highly effective and significant tool for many purposes. In this instance, fire will be used to remove built up combustible fuels to reduce risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). “The WUI is the zone of transition where unoccupied land and human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels,” said Chad Graeve, a Natural Resource Specialist with the Pottawattamie County Conservation Department. Additionally, these series of burns will be conducted to invigorate the land by promoting new growth and strengthening the habitat and overall ecosystem in those areas.

Environmental and weather conditions are optimal to conduct these controlled burns and there is very minimal risk to the public around these burns. Burns are being conducted by trained and experienced professionals with operational and contingency plans in place.

The public is asked not to approach the immediate areas where active fire is being conducted. Smoke will be visible in the various areas in and around the city during and after the burns have been conducted.

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) – The legislature has voted to create a state fund to provide 750-thousand dollars in grants or loans for upgrades at Iowa dairy farms. Representative Norlin Mommsen of DeWitt says the Iowa Department of Agriculture will manage the new Dairy Innovation Fund.

“It will provide funds for development, expansion and refurbishing of dairy facilities,” Mommsen says. “It also provides funds for labor reduction equipment such as robotic milkers and manure handling systems.” Representative Monica Kurth of Davenport says the money could help on-the-farm start-ups, like dairies that make cheese or yogurt. “I think that the idea of helping to modernize our dairies is important for the state of Iowa,” Kurth says. Senator Dan Zumbach of Ryan says the legislature has set some guidelines for the grants, loans or forgivable loans.

“If it creates new jobs,” Zumbach says, “if it creates or expands opportunity for local, small scale milk producers; if it provides greater flexibility or convenience for local small scale farmers or it reduces labor associated with on-farm production and storage of milk.” Iowa ranks 12th in dairy production, with about 220-thousand dairy cows in the state today. But Senator Eric Giddens of Cedar Falls says the number of dairy farms in Iowa has fallen to about 850.

“It’s more difficult for our small producers to stay in business and to stay competitive,” Giddens says. “This is a good program that will help them.” The money for the Dairy Innovation Fund is included in a budget bill that won final legislative approval in the House on Tuesday. The program guidelines are in a separate bill that the Senate approved yesterday (Tuesday) and sent to the governor.

DES MOINES, Iowa (May 1, 2023) – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig commented today on the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report released by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. The report is released weekly April through November. Additionally, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship provides a weather summary each week during this time.

“The cooler and drier conditions allowed many farmers an opportunity to get back into the fields, which led to a jump in both corn and soybeans acres planted,” said Secretary Naig. “The weather outlook suggests warmer temperatures and near-average amounts of rainfall, which should help to increase statewide planting activity and gradually reduce the flooding along the Mississippi River.”

The weekly report is also available on the USDA’s website at nass.usda.gov.

Crop Report:

Cool and relatively dry weather offered farmers 4.8 days suitable for fieldwork during the week ending April 30, 2023, according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service. While planting progress continues at a decent pace, the colder than normal temperatures and dry weather have not done any favors for crop emergence. State level moisture supplies are still tightening up with the lack of precipitation. Corn, soybean, and oat planting continued this week.

Topsoil moisture condition rated 5 percent very short, 24 percent short, 68 percent adequate and 3 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture condition rated 8 percent very short, 31 percent short, 58 percent adequate and 3 percent surplus.

Twenty-nine percent of Iowa’s expected corn crop has been planted, 11 days ahead of last year but 1 day behind the 5-year average. Sixteen percent of soybeans have been planted, 11 days ahead of last year and 1 day ahead of the average. Eighty-five percent of the expected oat crop has been planted, 2 weeks ahead of last year and 6 days ahead of normal. Twenty-nine percent of the oat crop has emerged, 1 week ahead of last year and 1 day ahead of the average.

Some reports of cattle being let out to pasture were received again this week, although pasture regrowth is slow with the current weather pattern. Overall, livestock conditions continue to be good.

(Radio Iowa) – A Polk County judge has reversed the decision of the Iowa D-N-R to issue a permit for a massive cattle feedlot near the headwaters of Bloody Run Creek. The creek is a prized location for trout in northeast Iowa and the Iowa chapters of the Sierra Club and Trout Unlimited filed suit saying a faulty manure management plan was used. Judge Scott Rosenberg’s ruling says the D-N-R used “illogical interpretations and applications to approve a nutrient management plan for the feedlot.” Sierra Club attorney, Wally Taylor applauded the ruling.  “They have to follow their own rules and they didn’t do it in this case,” he says.

Taylor says the judge made it clear that the D-N-R does not have unlimited discretion. “What they did was because Supreme Beef’s operation didn’t fit the rules, D-N-R tried to make the rules fit Supreme Beef. And the judge said that’s not going to work,” Taylor explains. Bloody Run Creek is in Clayton County – a part of the state known for its environmentally sensitive porous limestone. “I think the judge’s ruling shows clearly how inappropriate, and how mixed up the rules are for a livestock operation,” he says.

The D-N-R feedlot permit would have allowed an 11-thousand-600 head cattle feedlot operation. The ruling sends the case back to the D-N-R for reconsideration.

(By Clay Masters, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa legislature is planning to spend an extra 750-thousand dollars to prepare for a possible outbreak of African Swine Fever. Representative Norlin Mommsen of DeWitt says the virus, which causes severe bleeding and death, has killed pigs in the Caribbean Islands.

“It would be devastating for Iowa agriculture and the Iowa economy if it ever came here, so we’re trying to be as prepared as we can,” Mommsen says. “All we have to do is look at Avian Influenza and how that’s upset the poultry market and how that affected egg prices and food prices.” The Senate has already approved a budget for the Iowa Department of Agriculture that includes 250-thousand dollars toward development of a vaccine and 250-thousand dollars to buy equipment to euthanize pigs. Mommsen says it ensures state officials could quickly respond at the first report of an Iowa herd getting African Swine Fever.

“There comes a point in time when the only response is to euthanize the animals and do it as humanely and quickly as possible to stop the spread, so we want to make sure we have the proper equipment here if that ever were to occur,” Mommsen says. “My hope is it rusts and never gets used.” The House is expected to approve the budget bill this week. It includes another 250-thousand dollar boost to the state’s program for responding to an outbreak of a foreign animal disease.

“We already had $750,000 in a Foreign Animal Disease Preparedness program,” Mommsen said. “There’s a veterinarian hired, running that program, so this is in addition to all of that trying to upgrade our facility and our preparedness.” According to the Iowa Pork Producers Association, on a typical day there are about 24 million hogs in Iowa. African Swine Fever is not a threat to humans, but once a pig is infected it is highly contagious to other pigs — and the mortality rate is 95 percent.

(Radio Iowa) – Members of Iowa’s Congressional delegation are praising a move by the Biden administration to issue a last-minute emergency waiver to allow the sales of E-15 gasoline during the summer driving season. Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion says she is glad to see the waiver happen. “This is great news. It’s gonna save families money at the pump. It’ll help with as I said energy security in our country and of course, supporting our Iowa economy,” Hinson says.

Current E-P-A guidelines prohibit the sale of E-15 from terminals in about two-thirds of the country after April 30th. Senator Joni Ernst tweeted that the hard work in pushing for the waiver paid off — and it’s time to permanently approve the use of E-15 throughout the year. Hinson agrees.

“I want to say thank you to the administration for taking this necessary step that we’ve all been advocating for,” Hinson says. “I think you’ve heard me say a time or two that I think we need the all of the above energy strategy, so I will continue to push for EF-15 to be sold year-round permanently so that our hard working farmers and producers have much-needed certainty.”

Senator Chuck Grassley says the Triple-A survey finds the 15 percent blend of ethanol in gas costs about ten cents less a gallon than the E-10. Grassley says it’s a way to help drivers with high gas prices. Congresswoman Hinson says the E-15 waiver comes on the heels of the negotiations that kept five key biofuels tax credits from rolling back. She says the entire Iowa delegation was in lockstep as they pushed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to keep the credits.

“I think it was very critical that we had an open line of communication, and he could understand where we were coming from as a delegation. I think it was very clear that in those conversations, multiple conversations over the course of the last week, leadership did realize we were not going to cave,” Hinson says. She says they had to make it clear how important biofuels are.

“We made the point about this is about our economy in Iowa, this is about jobs. This is about protecting farmers, and we should not be moving forward on this policy to take Iowa farmers for granted in the process,” Hinson says. “So again, the whole idea of delegation remaining in lockstep and ensured our success.”

Governor Kim Reynolds released a statement that calls the waiver “a huge win for Iowa farmers and our ethanol industry and proves that even our biggest adversaries can’t ignore the advantage biofuels brings to our country’s economy and national security.”