(Radio Iowa) – D-N-R state deer biologist Jace Elliott says hunters took just shy of 102-thousand deer through the various seasons this year, which is similar to last year. He says the numbers varied quite a bit through each region. “Some places that stand out are the Cedar Valley in east central and northeast Iowa. We continue to see increasing harvest rates there, likely due to increasing deer populations. But then much of the rest of the state, central, southern, and western Iowa, were behind the five-year average,” he says.  “It’s safe to say that in most of the state, we’re seeing population declines. Certainly the western third of the state, as well as much of southern Iowa and central Iowa for that matter,” Elliott says.

He says disease is likely the biggest issue with deer populations. “Population declines are likely a combination of multiple factors, but one thing that we can’t rule out is the E-H-D outbreaks that were reported in 2023 and 2024,” he says. “Those certainly played a big role in some of the population impacts that we’re still dealing with today.” Elliott says it will take some more time to recover from the outbreaks. “It really is situational, over the past we’ve seen some counties bounce back in two to three years after a severe outbreak. But that’s kind of the best case scenario,” Elliott says. “Counties with limited habitat and therefore limited deer populations are likely going to take longer to recover.”

Elliott says one thing that hasn’t changed is the number of people who put on some orange and head out to hunt deer here. “We have very stable hunter numbers in Iowa, which is unique because most of the Midwest and Eastern U-S in general is declining. each year. And we have a relatively stable number of deer hunters, I think likely due to the high quality deer population we have throughout much of the state,” he says. Elliott says the D-N-R will continue to analyze the deer numbers and base the various license allocations on the population of deer in each county.

The D-N-R does an annual spotlight survey every spring to get a handle on the number of deer in the state.

(Radio Iowa) – Many Iowa farmers can expect to pay slightly more to plant, maintain and harvest a crop in the year ahead, according to a new report from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Ann Johanns, an ag decision maker program specialist with the extension, says producers will face tight margins in the 2026 growing season. “So on corn production, overall, it was about 4% higher than last year, and then the soybean total costs were about 2% higher, and it ranged within the different categories,” Johanns says. “Labor was just a little bit higher at 1%, and then machinery costs were around 3% to 4%, depending on kind of what type it was.”

The extension’s report, called Estimated Costs of Crop Production in Iowa 2026, takes into account that average market prices for corn and soybeans are projected to stay below production costs, making for a challenging situation. On the plus side, Johanns says the projected land costs came down slightly. “We take data from the cash rent survey that Iowa State does every spring and then, we take input from our specialists and people that we survey for the estimated cash crop production and take that all into account,” Johanns says. “They did all project a slight decrease in the land costs that we use, and of course, every farm operation is going to be different.”

Johanns says opportunities for profit are expected to be limited this coming year, underscoring the importance of careful cost tracking and farm-specific planning, which is where the extension can help farmers to plan.”We have corn and soybean budgets, but there’s a low till budget, there’s a strip till budget, and so they can look at multiple types of production,” Johanns says. “There’s also some budgets in there for hay, for alfalfa ground, there’s choices within these budgets, so we have some tools online to help people do the calculations themselves.” Johanns says the report’s figures should be used as planning benchmarks, not exact estimates for individual farms, adding, farm-level cost data is vital information for producers to track.

Cass County: Corn $4.08 Beans $10.17
Adair County: Corn $4.05 Beans $10.20
Adams County: Corn $4.05 Beans $10.16
Audubon County: Corn $4.07 Beans $10.19
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.11 Beans $10.17
Guthrie County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.21
Montgomery County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.19
Shelby County: Corn $4.11 Beans $10.17

Oats: $2.59 (same in all counties)

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

(Radio Iowa) – The state Environmental Protect Commission has approved the use of federal funding to continue support of the Lake Rathbun watershed protection program in southern Iowa. Ginger Murphy from the D-N-R’s Water Quality Bureau oversees the project to improve aquatic habitat, and to reduce excess nutrient runoff. “It’s Iowa’s second largest lake and the 11th most visited in recent statistics. It is actually a reservoir formed by the Chariton River. And it continues 142 river miles downstream into the Missouri River,” she says. The lake helps with flood control and as the source of drinking water for 18 counties in Iowa and Missouri. The Rathbun Land and Water Alliance was created as a non profit organization in 1996 to provide the foundation for partnerships and cooperative management of the reservoir.

“The Alliance meets quarterly to update and collaborate with stakeholders and partners on the goals and progress of their watershed efforts, and the alliance has been implementing watershed management plans since 2004,” Murphy says. “The plans are updated to reflect changing land use, changing technology and practices, water quality monitoring and research, and improved soil loss models.” She says an E-P-A Clean Water Grant helps fund the watershed practices designed to improve the lake. “An emphasis on structural best management practices has been most effective in the Rathbun watershed, so they’re installing practices based on N-R-C-S standards that have maintenance requirements anywhere from ten to 35 years,” she says.

Murphy says there’s progress as landowner participation rates and sediment and phosphorus load reductions are encouraging. But she says in the past 20 year estimates show watershed cropland has increased from about 30 percent use to nearly 50 percent, which can mean highly erodible lands used for pastures may have been converted to row crops. Murphy says tests are done with a disc that’s dropped into the water to see how clear it is, with the goal of seeing it one meter down. They have 2024 results and will soon review 2025 data. “None of the sites, this would be the main basin and then some of the arms of the lake that have different tributaries feeding them, none of those sites met the one meter goal. We expect the 2025 data will probably be similar. This is just a trend with high turbidity in Rathbun Lake right now,” Murphy says.

She says they’ll look at that 2025 data at the Alliance’s spring meeting as they talk about moving ahead with the latest plan.

(Radio Iowa) – As Iowans prepare their state tax returns, they’re reminded to remember the Fish and Wildlife Fund on Line 21 of Form 10-40, what’s also known as the Chickadee Check-off. Stephanie Shepherd, a wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Diversity Program, says the fund was created in the 1980s to help protect many hundreds of species of non-game wildlife. Shepherd says, “If you were someone who cared about bald eagles or songbirds, or frogs and toads, or bumblebees, all those other wildlife and enjoyed watching them and how they enrich your life, then you could make a donation towards those species and protecting them.”

Programs devoted to game animals, like deer, ducks and pheasants, are paid for through hunters’ license fees, but more than a thousand other species, from salamanders to monarchs, — which make up the majority of wildlife in Iowa — rely on this fund. Last year, only about 46-hundred Iowans checked the box to contribute to the fund on their state tax forms. That’s barely three-tenths of one-percent of Iowa taxpayers. “The number of donors has been dropping for several years, but the amount of money donated has stayed relatively the same,” Shepherd says. “In fact, from the 2023 tax year to 2024, the number of people donating dropped by about 800 people, but the amount donated went up by four- to $5,000.”

Funding helps to improve wildlife habitat, restore native wildlife, and provides opportunities for people to learn about Iowa’s natural resources and more. The number of donors to the long-standing check-off has dropped by more than half in the last 20 years, so Shepherd is working to raise awareness. “It would be nice also if more people knew about the check-off and how easy it was to make a donation,” Shepherd says. “It doesn’t have to be huge. It could be as low as a dollar to Wildlife Conservation in Iowa so that we could get the number of donors up as well.” Before the fund was created, non-game wildlife had no dedicated funding.

The Wildlife Diversity Program still receives no state income tax funds and is primarily supported by this voluntary donation program on the state tax form — and from the sale of Natural Resources license plates. Donations can also be made online at: https://programs.iowadnr.gov/donations

(Radio Iowa) – Senate Republican Leader Mike Klimesh says it’s time to find a solution to the five-year-long debate over a proposed carbon pipeline and Klimesh says his alternative will fix a flaw in state regulations. Klimesh led a subcommittee hearing this (Tuesday) morning on the House-passed bill that would ban the use of eminent domain for the project. It concluded with Klimesh discussing his own plan to widen the proposed route so Summit Carbon could go around landowners who don’t want the pipeline on their property.

“We are all concerned about their property rights. Everybody in the Senate is. Everybody in both chambers is and it’s time for us to find a solution, but find a solution that allows us to get ourselves and dig ourselves out of the box we have currently put ourselves in by over-regulating the noticed corridor.” Klimesh says current regulations forbid Summit from approaching other property owners who might sign easements. Landowners who’ve refused to sign contracts with Summit back the House bill that bans the use of eminent domain and they say under Klimesh’s bill, Summit could still seize some land. Marjorie Swan and her sister own two farms in Wright County that are in the pipeline’s current path.

“Landowners cannot enter into the negotiation process when the heavy hand of big government is tipping the scale in favor of multi-million dollar CO2 pipeline companies via threats of eminent domain,” Swan said. The ethanol industry and the Iowa Corn Growers Association back Klimesh’s plan and say without the pipeline in Iowa, they’ll lose money shipping corn to Nebraska ethanol plants because a carbon pipeline is now operating there. Union representatives say the pipeline will create thousands of valuable construction jobs and the House bill would endanger the project. Dylan Gramlich is a lobbyist for the Laborers’ International Union of North America which has members who specialize in key aspects of pipeline construction and hope to work on Summit’s project.

“For our trade alone, that breaks down to over 2 million man-and-woman hours on this project,” Gramlich said, “and that’s roughly the same amount that our members accrue in a full construction season.” Cynthia Hanson owns a farm in Shelby County that’s in the pipeline route and backs the House bill. “Labor jobs are important and I understand that and I don’t want you guys losing jobs, but farmers are businesses, too, and we have jobs,” she said. “…We want our land safe to do our jobs on.”

Once the Senate Commerce Committee meets to consider the House plan that would ban eminent domain for the pipeline, Klimesh intends to switch it out for his own proposal.

DES MOINES, Iowa – An Ankeny man was sentenced Monday (January 26, 2026), to a six-month term of probation for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. According to public court documents and evidence presented at sentencing, 82-year-old Joseph Thomas Lamb drove his vehicle into a flock of Canada Geese on State Street in Ankeny around 6:30 am on June 10, 2025. Lamb stopped to let a flock of nine Canada Geese cross in front of his vehicle. When the geese were in the middle of his lane, he accelerated into the geese, killing one of the geese. In addition to a six-month term of probation, Lamb was ordered to pay a $2000 fine.

The Canada Goose is a migratory bird protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service maintains a list of birds protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act are punishable by up to six months in prison, a fine of up to $15,000, and a term of supervised release of not more than one year.

United States Attorney David C. Waterman of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Ankeny Police Department investigated the case.

If you believe you have information related to a wildlife crime that violates federal law, please reach out to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

You may also submit a wildlife crime report to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) using the Turn in Poachers (TIP) online form or call the TIP Hotline at 1-800-532-2020.

Cass County: Corn $4.07 Beans $10.16
Adair County: Corn $4.04 Beans $10.19
Adams County: Corn $4.04 Beans $10.15
Audubon County: Corn $4.06 Beans $10.18
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.16
Guthrie County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.20
Montgomery County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.18
Shelby County: Corn $4.10 Beans $10.16

Oats: $2.57 (same in all counties)

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

(IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – Young hunters could skip the in-person elements currently required by Iowa’s hunter safety program under a bill that advanced from a House subcommittee Monday. Currently, Iowa hunter education for those under the age of 17 requires either in-person classes or a combination of an approved online program, plus an in-person field day.

House File 2020 was filed by Rep. Jason Gearhart, R-Strawberry Point, who explained that the in-person requirements were difficult to attend for some families — like his own — who live in more rural areas and have limited opportunities to attend. Gearhart said to get around this, his children took an approved hunter safety course from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which does not have a field day requirement, but is accepted in Iowa through reciprocity.

The bill adds language that a hunter over the age of 11 may obtain a hunter safety certification from a “nationally recognized organization, including the national rifle association.” HF 2020 also said the requirement could be satisfied by an online course either offered or approved by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Tammie Krausman, DNR’s communications director, said the language pointing to “recognized organizations” could affect Iowa’s reciprocity with other states since certifications are issued by a government entity. Krausman said the field days are a time for hunters to learn about handling firearms, Iowa-specific laws and how to interact with landowners. The department was not registered for or against the bill.

Gearhart said the field days should be optional for hunters who have someone to show them how to shoot and be responsible hunters.

Cass County: Corn $4.06 Beans $10.17
Adair County: Corn $4.03 Beans $10.20
Adams County: Corn $4.03 Beans $10.16
Audubon County: Corn $4.05 Beans $10.19
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.17
Guthrie County: Corn $4.08 Beans $10.21
Montgomery County: Corn $4.08 Beans $10.19
Shelby County: Corn $4.09 Beans $10.17

Oats: $2.56 (same in all counties)

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