(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s ice anglers have been able to keep pulling in fish by moving north to the Great Lakes region, but the ice there is deteriorating now and the season is coming to a close. The D-N-R’s Mick Klemesrud says the lack of snow is the main culprit. “In a usual winter we’re going to have some snow cover that’ll act as insulation to protect it from these warm-ups in January and February, but this year we don’t have snow,” he says. Klemesrud says the lack of snow protection lets the other elements weaken the ice. “Between the warmer temperatures and the high winds, it really erodes the ice and causes a lot of unevenness. Most ice is uneven to begin with, but this makes it even more pronounced,” he says.

Klemesrud says the deterioration led to a U-T-V breaking through the ice on East Okoboji Lake, a pickup truck broke and a wheel house-style ice fishing shelter also broke through the ice on West Okoboji Lake. “Everything happened super fast. And so that makes it makes it weaker in places that were really, you know, pretty good ice quality a day or two before suddenly had deteriorated to the point where it couldn’t support the heavier ice shacks or vehicles,” Klemesrud says. “So you know, we’re telling people if they’re going to go out, they should be testing the ice frequently, bring your safety equipment with you.” Klemesrud says the cold weather that’s moving in now won’t provide enough continuously cold overnights to build the ice back up before it warms up again.

He says earlier subzero cold stretches this winter did create ice that was ten inches or more think across the state. “And so we did have a lot of thick ice. I mean, Twelve Mile (Lake) down in Union County, we had a lot of good reports, Three Mile (Lake), so those are southern Iowa lakes. And so we did get in a pretty good ice fishing season,” he says. “Now the fishing has still been really good up north, that’s what’s attracting a lot of these people up to the Great Lakes. But unfortunately, we’re just not going to have a normal ice year.”

Klemesrud says you are normally required require to get ice fishing shacks off the ice by February 27th, but most were pulled off recently as ice conditions deteriorated.

(Radio Iowa) – This week’s unseasonably warm weather in the 60s and 70s caused many trees across Iowa to start budding, and February is way too early for that, according to Tivon Feeley, the Iowa D-N-R’s forest health program leader. “The trees that we’re seeing leaf out a little bit right now are the red maples or the red maple hybrids that are pretty common, that you’d buy in the nursery,” Feeley says, “and those buds are just beginning to swell and kind of break open. There’s no leaf tissue hanging out.” The return to winter weather and temperatures in the 20s will spell trouble for those tiny, tender leaves.

“We know that leaf tissue that’s very fragile can freeze, and when that happens, it’ll cause damage to those leaves when they emerge,” Feeley says. “They may emerge green and look healthy, but as we get warmer in June, early July, that tissue will turn brown and fall out.” This condition is sometimes mistaken for insect feeding or disease, but Feeley says it’s simply a delayed response to cold injury that occurred earlier in the season. The leaf buds that are appearing now aren’t the only buds the trees will generate during spring, but leaves are vital to tree health and photosynthesis. Feeley was asked if the freezing of these early buds could cause us to lose any trees.

“We shouldn’t. The new growth that the trees put on won’t have this damage,” Feeley says. “Some of those will look kind of aesthetically unpleasing, but overall, there’s nothing we need to do about it. It’s just something to be aware of at the moment.” He says there should be -no- long-term threat to tree health. Homeowners are encouraged to monitor their trees, but there should not be a need for extra pruning, fertilization, or pesticides. Oh, and sorry, but he says it won’t likely mean any fewer leaves to rake in the fall.

(Radio Iowa) – Deere & Company, Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, reports its first quarter income was down, but there’s optimism for the year ahead. Deere reports net income was 656 million in the first quarter compared with to 869 million dollars in the first quarter last year. Worldwide net sales and revenues increased 13 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

Deere C-E-O John May says in a statement that the global large agriculture industry continues to experience challenges, but they’re encouraged by the ongoing recovery in demand for construction and small agriculture. May says the positive developments reinforce their belief that 2026 represents the bottom of the current cycle and provides a strong foundation for accelerated growth going forward.

Cass County: Corn $4.03 Beans $10.80
Adair County: Corn $4.00 Beans $10.83
Adams County: Corn $4.00 Beans $10.79
Audubon County: Corn $4.02 Beans $10.82
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.06 Beans $10.80
Guthrie County: Corn $4.05 Beans $10.84
Montgomery County: Corn $4.05 Beans $10.82
Shelby County: Corn $4.06 Beans $10.80

Oats: $2.86 (same in all counties)

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

(Radio Iowa) – The Sioux City Honey Association unveiled more detailed plans Tuesday on its major expansion of processing operations. Association director of growth Aimee Sandman says the plan includes three phases in the next five years, starting with the renovation of a warehouse they purchased. “So we’ll be upgrading the warehouse with our new racking system that will accommodate our business and then update the corporate office. The warehouse will feature 200-thousand square feet of finished goods warehouse space for us and 26-thousand square feet of modern office,” she says..

The renovation will being in January of next year and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The new warehouse will include six new jobs. The second phase is the construction of a new processing facility near the refurbished warehouse and then all employees will move to that location. The final phase adds more storage for increased production. “Phase three will include a new raw honey warehouse to support our continued membership growth. So this year we increased our membership by 15 percent which is about seven million additional pounds of U-S honey that will be coming into the Sioux City area for us to process,” Sandman says. The Sioux Honey Association has been in Sioux City since 1921.

Association president Kevin Hueser says other states tried to get them to relocate, but local and the state incentives were provided to keep them in Iowa. “At the end of the day, the existing warehouse gave Iowa a tremendous advantage, but also the city of Sioux City, state of Iowa stepped up,” he says. “Working with those communities as well as some of the local contractors that are willing to work with us on a on a build to suit and a lease back. I’m not really concerned. Our financing situation is in good shape and we’ve we’ve had a tremendous amount of support.”

The company currently employees 89 workers and expects to add 40 new jobs by the time the project is completed. Sioux Honey gets raw honey from around 200 beekeepers and produces 35 million pounds of honey annually, which is about 25 percent of the nation’s supply.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra says a deal is near that would allow fuel with a blend of up to 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline to be sold year round. Feenstra is one of the leaders of the House Rural Domestic Energy Council that was set up in January when the year-round E-15 policy was stripped from a budget bill. The group met today (Wednesday).

“This is full on, year round E15 and we worked with the small, midsized and large refiners,” Feenstra says. “We worked with all the biofuels folks. We believe we’ve got something that works for all farmers…We’ve got to get it across the finish line.” House Republican leaders gave the group until February 25th to submit a bill for a vote on the House floor. E-P-A concerns about smog during the summer months have prevented the nationwide sale of E-15 from June 1st to September 15th, but the policy has been suspended in Iowa and other Midwest states.

National media outlets like Politico report the proposal that would end the long effort to authorize E-15 sales nationwide all year long would limit the number of ethanol blending exemptions granted to small oil refineries and prevent those operations from passing along the waiver to another refinery. Feenstra says President Trump’s statement — in Iowa last month — that he’d sign the year-round E-15 legislation was extremely helpful in negotiations.

“Agriculture’s the backbone of this state and we have to make sure we’re helping our farmers and that means opening new markets,” Feenstra said. “We don’t want handouts. We want new markets.” A majority of the fuel sold at U-S gas stations has 10 percent ethanol. The executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association says expanding E-15 sales would create brand new market demand for ethanol.

Cass County: Corn $4.04               Beans $10.79
Adair County: Corn $4.01             Beans $10.82
Adams County: Corn $4.01          Beans $10.78
Audubon County: Corn $4.03     Beans $10.81
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.07      Beans $10.79
Guthrie County: Corn $4.06                               Beans $10.83
Montgomery County: Corn $4.06                    Beans $10.81
Shelby County: Corn $4.07          Beans $10.79

Oats: $2.83  (same in all counties)

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

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Environmental Protection Commission is referring an alleged water pollution case to the Iowa Attorney General’s office. E-P-C Attorney Bradley Adams says Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy (SIRE) is illegally released sludge from its wastewater treatment facility near Council Bluffs into the Missouri River. He says they got a complaint August 25th of an orange sludge being released into the river. “On August 26th, Field Office 4 investigated the complaint and observed an orange wastewater discharging from the effluent pipe, orange coloration of the riverbank where the sludge deposits formed, and also orange sludge deposit buildup and the water beneath the effluent pipe,” he says. There was no fish kill found, but Adams says the sludge could harm wildlife. He says SIRE had been trucking the sludge away from the site.

“Beginning in March of 2025, SIRE began intentionally discharging the holding tank’s untreated clarifier sludge to Missouri River in violation of the facilities NPDES permit. According to Sire’s director of operations, approximately three-thousand of wastewater were discharged into Missouri every other day for a six-month period, beginning March of 2025 through August of 2025,” Adams says. Adams says SIRE sought to avoid the fees for trucking away the waste. “D-N-R estimates that sire avoided approximately 53-thousand dollars in disposal costs that other similarly situated businesses would pay. And, this is a clear and deliberate attempt to circumvent the law to save money,” he says. Adams says the D-N-R can only issue a penalty of up to ten-thousand dollars, and says by forwarding the case to the Attorney General, the state can seek a bigger penalty.

SIRE C-E-O Eric Fobes says they were trying to avoid the the truck traffic from hauling the material away. “It was never our intent to subvert a cost. We are not after cost savings of that magnitude at the plant. This is too small. It was more of an ease of execution not to haul it off site,” Fobes says. Fobes says his staff thought the discharge in the river was allowed. “Based on the permit as written, our team believed that sending backwash water to the permitted outfall was allowed. This was obviously a mistake. We now understand the department’s interpretation under the general water quality rule, and we respect that interpretation,” he says Fobes says they have made changes to do a better job of handling the requirements of the permit. He asked the Commission to not send the case to the Attorney General based on their response. “We acknowledge it happened. We are remorseful that it happened. I think we have learned a valuable lesson in that process. We’ve bolstered our internal compliance,” Fobes says.

The Commission voted to refer the case to the Attorney General with just two commissioners voting no.

(Statewide News) – The number of Iowa counties under a burn ban continues to grow due to an ongoing fire risk. As of Tuesday, Feb. 18^th, 13 Iowa Counties were banning opening burning. Elsewhere, open burning and tossing of cigarettes or other means that may accidentally create fires, was strongly discouraged. Persons who previously had a controlled burn that was extinguished, were asked to keep a close eye on their property, because strong winds could cause those burn piles to rekindle. In southwest Iowa, Mills County was added to the list, that also includes Crawford, Shelby, Union and Ringgold, as of the latest information.

Aa burn ban goes into effect when fuels (such as tender vegetation, brush and timber) get less than 20% moisture and high temperatures, high winds, and low humidity start to develop.

Burn bans in February are rare, because there is usually enough snowpack on the ground, or at the very least heavy moisture in the ground, because the snow is starting to melt. In the last couple of months, though, Iowa has had significantly less snow than usual. Without that moisture in the ground, the risk of grass and field fires heightens.

Fire officials say what’s needed is a good soaking rain that saturates the soil, along with higher humidity in the range of 40%-50% or more, for a sustained period of time. Otherwise any moisture in the ground from rain can be dried out by the wind within 48-hours, which results in the same dry conditions.

(Glenwood, IA) – The Mills County Emergency Management Agency reports a BURN BAN is now in effect, and until further notice. The ban is in-place due to the continued high temperatures, existing dry fuels, limited moisture, and renewed drought conditions. The BURN BAN is in effect for all areas and jurisdictions within Mills County. The ban prohibits ALL open and controlled burning in Mills County, including all incorporated city limits within the County. For more information, see the attached notification: