(Radio Iowa) – Many Christmas tree farms in Iowa are seeing a drop in sales this year, largely due to repeated weekend snowstorms and bitter cold temperatures. Their prime season typically lasts just two-to-three weeks in late November and early December, with most of the sales happening the weekend after Thanksgiving. Brian Moulds manages Wapsie Pines Christmas Tree Farm in Bremer County. “It’s almost sad,” Moulds says, “because you do all this work for a whole year, and it’s almost all done in less than two weeks.” Moulds says sales were higher than normal on Black Friday but they’ve mostly been below average since then. He estimates the farm’s gross sales are roughly 10 percent less this year compared to last year.

Joe Heintz, manager of Strautman Tree Farm in Story County, says most of their revenue is generated by customers who drive through their farm, choose a tree, and cut it down to take home. “So it was a unique season,” Heintz says, as ten inches of snow forced them to close their fields the weekend after Thanksgiving. “And those are our some of our busiest days of our season,” he says. “So, tree sales numbers this year were obviously down compared to previous years.”

Still, Heintz says tree farmers plan six to seven years ahead, so harvesting fewer trees this year helps bump up their supply for future seasons.

Cass County: Corn $4.13 Beans $10.33
Adair County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.36
Adams County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.32
Audubon County: Corn $4.12 Beans $10.35
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.16 Beans $10.33
Guthrie County: Corn $4.15 Beans $10.38
Montgomery County: Corn $4.15 Beans $10.35
Shelby County: Corn $4.16 Beans $10.33

Oats: $2.44 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

(Radio Iowa) – The top Republican in the Iowa Senate will be sponsoring a bill next year that would give developers like Summit Carbon Solutions more leeway in altering the route of pipelines. It would also apply to other utility infrastructure, like transmission lines. Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh of Spillville says for the past three months he’s been talking with Senate Republicans about ideas to resolve the debate over the carbon pipeline soon after the 2026 legislature convenes in January.

“We want to be respectful of private property rights. We want to minimize and all but eliminate the need to utilize eminent domain to build infrastructure,” Klimesh said “and that lies in widening the corridor, giving those companies the ability to find willing landowners that want to enter into an easement with them.” Under his proposal, once a company submits a proposed route to Iowa utility regulators, developers could adjust that route within a 10 mile corridor — to avoid property owned by people who don’t want the project running through their land.

“The goal ultimately is to all but eliminate the need for eminent domain for any infrastructure project to be constructed in this state in the future,” Klimesh said. “I think that shows that Senate Republicans want to be respectful of private property rights for folks that don’t want projects, but also allow private property rights to be exercised by folks that want to benefit from those easements.” Klimesh says last spring the legislature spent a lot of time navigating through a debate over a bill that was complex and he’s hoping a simpler solution prevails.

“Iowa is kind of unique compared to other states where we have a noticed corridor,” Klimesh said. “We don’t allow construction companies building infrastructure to deviate from that corridor. Some states have no noticed corridor requirement.” A dozen Republican Senators refused to vote on state budget plans last spring and joined Democrats in passing a wide-ranging pipeline bill that Governor Reynolds vetoed in June.

In late September Klimesh told Radio Iowa the pipeline issue wasn’t going away and he was searching for a solution that could unify Senate Republicans.

(Radio Iowa) – Members of the Iowa Farmers Union say they agree with Republicans who say something needs to be done about out-of-control health care costs, but the group’s executive director Matt Russell says letting thousands of Iowans lose the tax credits they’ve used to buy insurance — without having an alternative in place — doesn’t solve the affordability problem.

“What they have done is raised the costs for Iowans, including family farmers and rural entrepreneurs by thousands of dollars,” Russell said. According K-F-F — a health care research group, 27 percent of U-S farmers, ranchers and agribusiness managers have relied on subsidies to buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. Seth Watkins raises cattle, sheep and bees in Page County. Watkins says insurance cost his family of four about 600-dollars-a month this year — and will nearly quadruple to 23-hundred dollars a month in 2026.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize that farmers and independent business people buy our own insurance,” he said. “I hear our politicians talk about us being the backbone of our economy and yet the people doing this that are making this have great benefits. I’d like them to put themselves in our shoes and understand what this is like.” Beth Hoffman, a Monroe County farmer, raises cattle and goats. She and her husband had been paying 300 dollars a month for insurance — and would have had to pay four times that much next year if they kept the same amount of coverage in 2026. They’ve opted for a bare bones plan with a seven-thousand dollar deductible.

“Here we are the United States of America (with) this great health care system, this place where we have some of the most wealth in the whole world,” she said, “…so it’s very disturbing on many levels.” Iowa Farmers Union President Aaron Lehman raises corn and hay in northern Polk County. “Our farmers right now are meeting with their lenders to try to find a plan just to get next year’s crop in the ground,” Lehman said. “The last thing we need right now is an increase in health care costs.”

The Affordable Care Act tax credits will still be available for households with an income under 400 percent of the federal poverty level, but the subsidies for households about that line that were extended in 2021 are scheduled to end December 31st.

(Radio Iowa) – The Missouri and Big Sioux River paddlefish licenses and tags are now on sale for the season that opens February 1st. John Lorenzen is the D-N-R’s fisheries biologist for Southwest Iowa. “So there are one-thousand tags available, 950 are available to residents and 50 are available to non residents,” he says. Lorenzen says you can buy up to two tags up to December 31st and an additional tag if there are some available from January 1st to January 7th, He says most of the tags are usually scooped up.

“For the most part, we sell out. I haven’t looked into the numbers so far. What we expect for numbers this year, although I would you know, I would assume we’d sell out again as we have in the past,” he says. The prehistoric looking fish are snagged with a hook in a method that’s different from catching most fish. “They have a, it’s called a rostrum. It’s like a giant spoon on the front of their face and they have a very large mouth, and they basically just swim around filtering zooplankton and things like that out of the water,” he says.

“And that’s what they feed on, so they’re not the typical sport fish that’s going to bite on like a crank bait. You know, you’re not casting and hoping they bite it. You’re trying to find where the fish are located.” Lorenzen says. Lorenzen says it’s likely many of the licenses are sold to people who live close to the two waterways, including the non resident licenses. “I can almost say with certainty that most of those are probably sold to Nebraska residents just because they live right across the river. Of the 950 resident tags that are available, I would say most people would be somewhat local just because, you know there’s other parts of the state, like on the eastern side of the state, if people wanted to paddle fish, they can do that on the Mississippi without having to travel over here to the Missouri side of the state.”

Lorenzen says most people have experience paddle fishing, or if they are new will find someone who does. )”It’s not as common or as well known as, you know, just throwing something on a bobber and catching bluegills or whatever in a pond,” He says. “You know, it takes the type of person who wants to try something completely different to be new at it. Otherwise you know most people out on the river usually have experience being on the river.”

A resident license sells for 25 dollars, 50 cents, and a nonresident license is 49 dollars. You must also have a valid Iowa fishing license to get a paddlefish license.

Cass County: Corn $4.13 Beans $10.39
Adair County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.42
Adams County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.38
Audubon County: Corn $4.12 Beans $10.41
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.16 Beans $10.39
Guthrie County: Corn $4.15 Beans $10.43
Montgomery County: Corn $4.15 Beans $10.41
Shelby County: Corn $4.16 Beans $10.39

Oats: $2.42 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

(An IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH report) – Nearly two dozen U.S. senators urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a letter, to “prioritize” a vaccine strategy for the highly pathogenic avian influenza. The virus has impacted more than 184 million commercial and backyard poultry birds and more than 1,000 head of dairy cattle since February 2022.

The letter comes as detections of the bird flu have increased over the winter months in states across the country, according to reporting from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.  A case of bird flu was detected in Iowa Dec. 2, in a Hamilton County commercial turkey flock, and as recently as Tuesday in flocks in Indiana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Washington.

The bipartisan letter, which included Iowa Republicans Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, said a “thoughtful and comprehensive vaccine strategy” would “strengthen” the nation’s ability to fight the bird flu, as it prepares for a “resurgence.” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins launched a $1 billion plan in February to combat the ongoing outbreak of the H5N1 virus. Part of that plan included $100 million for research into a bird flu vaccine and other potential treatments.

The letter said USDA has a “draft proposal of an avian flu vaccine strategy for poultry” that is “currently under review” and the signed senators urged the department to advance the process with “speed and diligence.”  A draft proposal for a bird flu vaccine strategy had not been filed in the Federal Register as of Friday. In June, Reuters reported USDA was “considering” a plan to vaccinate poultry for HPAI and expected the plan would be completed in July.

Members of the Congressional Chicken Caucus, representing the interests of poultry producing states, submitted a letter to Rollins in February, noting they were wary of a vaccine, as it might interrupt export markets.  While the December letter from senators urged the advancement of the vaccine process, it also asked for “proactive consultation with affected stakeholders.”  Senators said the vaccine strategy should also address “all impacted species” of poultry and that the department should then prioritize a vaccine strategy for dairy cattle.

The letter was addressed to Rollins and dated Dec. 11. Signees included: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota; Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania; Sen. John Thune R-South Dakota; Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona; Sen. James Justice, R-West Virginia; Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan; Sen. Michael Lee, R-Utah; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York; Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia; Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio; Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota; Sen. Ted Budd, R-North Carolina; Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia; Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado; Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana; Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico; Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio; Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-New Mexico.

Cass County: Corn $4.14 Beans $10.47
Adair County: Corn $4.11 Beans $10.50
Adams County: Corn $4.11 Beans $10.46
Audubon County: Corn $4.13 Beans $10.49
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.17 Beans $10.47
Guthrie County: Corn $4.16 Beans $10.51
Montgomery County: Corn $4.16 Beans $10.49
Shelby County: Corn $4.17 Beans $10.47

Oats: $2.45 (same in all counties)

(Prices are per bushel; information is from the area Farm Service Agency [FSA] offices)

(Des Moines, IA)  – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says the recent blast of arctic air is growing ice on lakes and ponds across the northern two-thirds of Iowa. Outdoor ice enthusiasts are ready to get out ice fishing, snowmobiling, ice skating or fat-tire bike riding. The DNR recommends a minimum of four inches of clear ice for fishing and at least five to seven inches for snowmobiles and ATVs.  Larger off-road utility vehicles should wait for seven or more inches of clear ice.

Ice forms at different rates on each body of water depending upon the size and water depth. Once frozen, conditions change constantly and ice thickness can vary across the lake. Rocks, trees, docks or other things that poke through the ice will conduct heat and make the ice around it less stable. Trust your instincts – if the ice does not look right, don’t go out.

A blanket of snow on top of an ice-covered lake insulates the ice, slowing the growth of ice and hiding potential hazards or weak spots. River ice is 15 percent weaker than lake ice. Ice with a bluish color is safer than clear ice.  Avoid slushy or honey-combed and stay away from dark spots on the ice.  Don’t walk into areas where the snow cover looks discolored.

Safety Tips on the Ice

• No ice is 100 percent safe.
• New ice is usually stronger than old ice.
• Don’t go out alone – if the worst should happen, someone will be there to call for help or to help rescue.
• Let someone know where you are going and when you will return.
• Check ice thickness as you go out – there could be pockets of thin ice or places where ice recently formed.
• Avoid off-colored snow or ice. It is usually a sign of weakness.
• The insulating effect of snow slows down the freezing process.
• Bring along these basic items to help keep you safe: hand warmers, ice cleats to help prevent falls, ice picks (wear around your neck) to help you crawl out of the water if you fall in, a spud bar, a life jacket, a floating safety rope, a whistle to call for help, a basic first aid kit and extra dry clothes including a pair of gloves.
• Use extreme caution when snowmobiling on ice. Snowmobiles can be difficult to steer and take a long time to stop with limited traction on ice. Slow down and avoid heavy braking.