The Cass County Conservation Board say it will hold a “Geocache the T-Bone Trail” Ride. Persons wanting to participate in the FREE program will meet at the Interstate 80/T-Bone Trail Trailhead Shelter, North of Atlantic, on June 3rd, at 10-a.m.

GPS units and guides will be available for checkout, but you’re asked to pre-register in order to guarantee a GPS unit for the event. Bicyclists, walkers, strollers, everyone is welcome to come out and celebrate National Trails Day!

The Cass County Conservation Board will be geocaching from the trail. The event will be cancelled if there is inclement weather.

Iowa’s governor and lieutenant governor are urging drivers on Iowa roads to be on the look-out because it’s planting season. “This means an increase in slow-moving vehicles and farm machinery on the roads,” Branstad says. “And these vehicles are out not only from sunrise to sunset, but oftentimes after dark on our country roads which can be narrow and hilly and that can make passing very difficult.”

In 2016, there were 199 accidents in Iowa involving farm vehicles. So far this year, there have been 27 crashes and one person was killed when a pick-up crashed into a tractor. That wreck has been in the national news. Chris Soules, a recent star on A-B-C’s “The Bachelor” reality T-V series, has been charged with felony hit and run for the accident that killed a neighboring farmer. Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds says neither she nor Branstad are commenting on the case. Reynolds is urging Iowans to take care while driving in construction zones.

“Ninety-four percent of crashes are due to human behavior and that means there is a huge opportunity to change those statistics,” Reynolds says. “Many of the safety tips for driving around farm machinery translate here, too. Avoid distractions. Leave plenty of room between you and the car in front of you and slow down. After all, fines in work zones are doubled.”

Reynolds says during the 2017 construction season, there will be about 500 work zones on state-maintained interstates and highways, plus hundreds more on county roads.

(Radio Iowa)

A survey of the amount of money Iowa producers pay to rent an acre farmland shows a decrease for the third straight year. Iowa State University Extension Program specialist Ann Johanns says she and others who conduct the annual report were not surprised by the results. “The statewide peak from our survey was 270 dollars and that was in 2013,” Johanns says. “Since then in the last four years, it has been an accumulated 18-point-nine percent decline.”

The annual report by Iowa State University found the highest rents in the Northeast part of the state with the lowest in the southern three tiers of counties. Johanns says falling crop prices often signal the same for cash rent.. “When we see grain prices come down, it’s very typical that you would see cash rents come down — but maybe not as quickly or with the same trend lines — but they do track together,” Johanns says.

She says prices for corn and soybeans have dropped more than 57 percent. She says a new agriculture secretary and renegotiation of trade deals are likely to have an impact down the road. The 2017 I-S-U cash rent survey included nearly 15-hundred responses from farmers, land owners, ag lenders and realtors.

(Radio Iowa)

Governor Terry Branstad says he’s thrilled China has taken additional steps to lift its embargo against U.S. beef.  “Oh, it’s huge,” Branstad told reporters this morning. “This is something we’ve wanted for years and years and years.”

The embargo was imposed in 2003 after a Mad Cow case. China actually agreed to lift the ban last September, but it wasn’t until last week that the reopening was finalized. Branstad expects U.S. beef imports to hit China in mid-July. “So I intend to bring Iowa premium beef to China and I intend to serve it in the ambassador’s residence and in the embassy,” Branstad said during his weekly news conference, slapping his hand his lectern in celebration. “This is a big deal. This is a really big deal.”

Sometime this week, Branstad is likely to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as U.S. ambassador to China. In the past four years, Chinese per capita consumption of beef has grown 33 percent.

(Radio Iowa)

U-S Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s visit to Iowa last week spurred questions about the possibility of Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey joining the U-S-D-A. No announcement happened during Perdue’s visit to Nevada, but he did point out that a Le Mars, Iowa woman serves as his executive assistant. Rachel Pick started working in Washington, D-C as part of Senator Chuck Grassley’s staff before becoming an employee of the U-S Senate in the Sergeant-At-Arms office. She says meeting Perdue was happenstance.

She says Perdue needed help getting to the Senate office building for one of the hearings, and Pick says a friend asked her if she would meet Perdue and his family and help them get to the hearing.

Pick is a 2003 graduate of Le Mars Gehlen High School and grew up on a farm with her parents Wayne and Kelley Pick. She says her friend told Perdue of her farm background and that led him to ask her about a position in his office. “Had a phone interview and then a couple of personal interviews over the weekend, and then on Monday they extended an offer to me,” Pick explains. “So, it was a fast and furious interview process to get over here — but I’m glad it happened.”

Pick works with Perdue’s scheduler to be sure he gets to meetings and other appointments on time. Former Morningside College professor, and rural Hinton resident Sam Clovis joined the U-S-D-A shortly after Donald Trump took office. Pick says she sees him quite often. “His office is currently just down the hall from me, so they commonly refer to us as the ‘Midwest Maffia,” Pick says. “I think we were both kind of surprised to realize that we grew up just about 25 miles away from each other. So, when we talk about home it brings up lots of good memories, and its nice to have someone in the office that knows almost to the county intersection of where you are talking about.”

Pick says Secretary Perdue often talks to her about her opinions on ag issue. She says she keeps an aerial picture of her family farm on her desk and whenever Perdue meets with cabinet members or others, he points out. “And I think that’s really cool that he does appreciate the fact that I did grow up on farm and that my dad still farms,” Pick says.

Pick says she thought she would end up being a teacher in elementary education and special education when she was in high school, and had no idea that she would end up in Washington D-C.

(Radio Iowa)

Bigfoot’s been spotted in southern Iowa — the mushroom variety — not the big hairy ape-like creature. The Iowa D-N-R is showing a picture of large morel mushrooms on its Facebook page that was sent in by the daughter of the man who found them in southern Iowa. The D-N-R’s Alan Foster says the large yellow-colored morels are different from their smaller yellow counterparts.

“It’s technically a separate species — at least from the training that I’ve received. It’s a morchella crassipes, more well known as bigfoot,” Foster says. And it’s one that pretty much signals the end of the season in that particular area.” The bigfoots are the last in the line of the morels that pop out in spring.

“With the progression of morel growth, we start with the greys, and then we get the yellows that are typically four to five inches tall. And then we get the bigfoots. Like their name implies, they can be a foot tall and as wide as a pop can,” Foster says. The recent discovery of the monster mushrooms fits in with the way the entire season has gone.

“It’s been a good season, it’s been kind of weird. We had perfect conditions as far as temperatures, daytime, nighttime soil temperatures. Moisture was good. But it was really strange, people were finding greys in southern Iowa while people in central Iowa were finding yellows. Some people were finding decent groups, some people just find ten or 12,” Foster said.

Michaela Welch took this picture of her grandfather, Everett Garr, and the bigfoot morels he found.

I mean, it’s been a solid season, but I wouldn’t say it has been gangbusters.”  The area of the state where you hunt mushrooms could dictate how well you did in finding them. “I think with the fluctuation of weather patterns and stuff, certain areas didn’t get what they needed, and certain areas did,” Foster says. If you haven’t been out hunting morels yet this season, time maybe running out.

Foster says this weekend may be about the end unless you can find some in the northern part of the state. He says some of his friends are heading to northeast Iowa this weekend and if they don’t find any mushrooms, they will be done for the season. The photo that’s getting all the attention was sent into the D-N-R from Michaela Welch, and shows her grandfather, Everett Garr, and the bigfoot morels he found in southern Iowa two weeks ago.

(Radio Iowa)

Despite Wednesday’s heavy rain in parts of the state, Iowa State University Extension crop specialist Joel DeJong says Iowa’s farmers have been making good progress since the weekend U-S-D-A report that showed about half the state’s corn crop was in the ground.

“We’ve had magnificent days since Sunday,” DeJong says. “There’s been estimates that we’re planting well over a million acres a day in Iowa, probably closer to a million-and-a-half if you do the math, maybe even close to two-million acres a day. We’re making tremendous progress.”

The forecast calls for warmer temperatures for most of the state through the weekend, into the 70s and 80s, with no more chances for rain until Tuesday. With the warm-up, DeJong says corn that was planted a month ago is beginning to appear. “For those producers who planted in very early April, the 11th and 12th of April, we had a few people that planted then, that corn should be up by now,” DeJong says. “We saw some emergence for those hybrids last week, but we hadn’t accumulated a lot of growing days until we got into late last week.”

Corn planted around the 23rd and 24th of April should be emerging very soon. In recent weeks, Iowa has seen early spring snowstorms, wet conditions and very cold temperatures, which has been difficult for the emerging corn plants. “They struggled. You can see tissue damage from those 22-degree temperatures and the really cold nights we had in the mix,” DeJong says. “You can see tissue damage on the chute but it looks like most of them did get above ground and they’re leafing out okay. I’ve heard a couple of reports from a county that says the cold really did mess up the germination and we’ve had some real problems.”

DeJong says it’s likely a majority of the state’s corn farmers will not have to replant their seed.

(Radio Iowa)

• KJAN, Atlantic  .73″
• Elk Horn  .82″
• Massena  .49″
• Oakland  1.5″
• Glenwood  1.83″
• Red Oak  .36″
• Clarinda  .13″
• Shenandoah  .51″
• Missouri Valley .54″
• Woodbine  .42″
• Carroll  .61″
• Bedford  .23″
• Council Bluffs  .72″

The Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund has donated $500 to the Friends of Lake Anita. Fund spokesperson and Trevor’s mom, Melanie Petty, says the funds will be used for the FLA’s upcoming kids fishing clinic, which will be held the first Saturday in June. Josh Peach with the DNR said participation in the clinic continues to grow each year. Volunteers are on hand to show kids different species of fish found in the lake and answer any questions they might have. It’s a fun free event for the entire family.

Fishing was a favorite outdoor activity of Trevor’s. Melanie Petty said “We are happy to donate in his memory.”

Josh Peach and Melanie Petty

She asks you to please consider supporting the Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund by golfing in the annual T-Fred Golf Tournament which will be on August 12th, 2017, at Nishna Hills Golf Club. If you don’t golf, you can still stop by the clubhouse and bid on silent auction items that are set up throughout the day. Other merchandise will also be available to purchase.