Photo courtesy of The United States Agricultural and Food Law and Policy Blog
The Wall Street Journal reported the United States Department of Agriculture knew of sanitary issues at one Iowa farm that played a major role in the nationwide egg recall. However the USDA failed to report the issues to health authorities.
The United States Food and Drug Administration found bacteria in chicken feed that led to a salmonella outbreak. Ultimately over a half billion eggs were recalled in August.
According to The Wall Street Journal daily sanitation reports showed gaps that could have caused delays in finding the salmonella.
The Food and Drug Administration said it never heard of the problems in the reports including dirt and mold at the Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa location. The USDA report stated, “the conditions at the egg plant packing facilities were routine.†Therefore the USDA did not feel it was necessary to point out the information.
Salmonella contamination is at its highest since the 1970s and it isn’t certain that the sanitation problems are directly related to the outbreak.
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The large wind farm totaled $400 million by completion and produces 200 megawatts of power. That is enough energy to power for 50,000 homes.
Whispering Willow Wind Farm-East is located in Franklin County and has 121 wind turbines over 144 square miles.
Alliant Energy expects over the next 20 years that the farm will save 2 million tons of carbon dioxide, 7,000 tons of sulfur and 2,600 tons of nitrogen oxides. This is like taking 309,000 cars off the road annually.
The construction began in 2008.
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According to the latest American Wind Energy Association survey, Iowa is still one of the leading states in electrical power from wind.
Iowa is the second largest wind-power producing state in the United States. The survey shows that Iowa produces 3,053 megawatts, right behind Texas with 8,797 megawatts.California is the third largest producer with 2,787 megawatts.
In 2009 Iowa has added new farms in Adair, Story and Pottawattamie counties. This increased the state’s megawatts by 300.
Dennis Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, said the interest and growth of wind energy has increased over the past year with a number of government incentives.
“The number of wind power-generating turbines installed in Iowa has increased this past year, which is good for the state,” says Bode. “The U.S. now has a total wind power generating capacity of 31,000 megawatts.”
Top five states for wind power Output in megawatts:
Texas 8,797
Iowa 3,053
California 2,787
Minnesota 1,805
Oregon 1,659
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The Iowa Farm Bureau has predicted that Iowans are looking at an increase of $251 million in property taxes due to Governor Chet Culver’s order for an across-the-board cut in spending.
IFB president, Craig Lang, thinks that the cut in aid for schools, mental health programs and property tax credits will cause a huge increase. Culver insists that schools will use money from cash reserves instead of raising property taxes.
“Although the governor said he will not burden Iowans with a tax hike to balance the budget, that is exactly what he is doing,†Lang told the local media. “The state’s budget default process of leaning on property taxpayers has to stop. Homeowners, farmers and Main Street businesses simply can’t afford a tax increase and a property tax increase is a tax increase,†Lang said.
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The USDA has responded to the pork industry’s request for more money. Iowa Governor Chet Culver and eight other governor’s asked the USDA to support the industry by purchasing more pork.
However, the USDA cannot find extra money in the budget to do this.
The USDA has purchased $117 million in pork products for the nutrition assistance programs during the fiscal year, but the governors are asking the department to purchase $50 million more.
“Due to economic conditions, the value of requests for commodity purchases far exceeds the amount of remaining funding, but we will continue to monitor market developments and make decisions accordingly,†USDA spokesman Justin DeJong said.
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A new opportunity has arose for corn farmers. Cobs, the part left behind after harvest, are always planted back into the ground to add nutrients to the soil and make for a better harvest.
However, companies from South Dakota and California are building two plants in Iowa. One plant will turn the material into ethanol and the other will turn cobs into fertilizer.
The plants are expected to cost over $200 million. Farmers can sell the cobs to these plants to make extra profit off their harvest.
In the current economic system this news is exciting to many farmers.
“We’re excited about it,” corn farmer Jim Boyer told the Associated Press. “there’s an opportunity for another profit to stream off our farm.”
The projects could generate over $10 million a year for local farmers. The plants should be completed by 2011 and will process 130,000 tons of cobs per year. Farmers can expect $50 per ton of cobs.
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After two years of trials no one has officially decided that growers should use fungicide on corn crops.
Many farmers have tried to see the affects, but half farmers have reported a higher yield and some have reported the same amount.
Iowa State University is running extensive research but find that it is hard to determine if a yield will be higher in industry because the application of fungicide is different.
In 2008 theyield in small trials was 3.5 bushels per acre and at a soybean on-farm network. However other studies done by Purdue University found the average of 7.4 bushels per acre. Hi-bred research found the highest increase with 12-16 bushel acre increases.
Overall the investment may be worth the extra money based on the research done thus far.
If you choose to use fungicides consider the following before applying:
*Cost of fungicide, plus application
*price of corn
*drying costs
*harvestability
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Experts believe Iowa farmland may increase in value over the next few months.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago reported from January to April of this year, values dropped seven percent. In southeast Iowa land value dropped only five percent.
Although land value may be dropping, the Farm National Company in Des Moines said medium quality farm land is steady in certain parts of the state.
Many people are perusing for the perfect piece of land and there is a lot of land to choose from.
Livestock land is not expected to do as well as green farmland.
Bob Wells at the Iowa State University Farm said the market is steady because of low interest rates. Most loans have a 5-6 percent interest rate.
“One of the biggest fears we have is rapidly increasing interest rates, which would be detrimental to farmland values,†Wells said.
70 percent of the purchases made over the year was made by actual farmers and 24 percent were made by investors.
“A lot of our investor purchasers have left the market,†Wells said. “The biggest pool of people we have out there for land are the farmers.â€
At the end of 2008 the Iowa State University Extension reported that farmland was valued at $4,500 an acre. It is expected by the end of the year values will be between $5,000-6000.
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The American Wind Energy Association released data announcing the top states currently producing wind energy and those that have plans for future wind power projects.
1. Texas. Texas currently has 7,907 megawatts of wind power. 1,102 megawatt are in construction now.
2. Iowa. Iowa has 2,883 megawatts and 210 under construction.
3. California. California has 2,653 megawatts of wind power with 125 under construction.
4. Minnesota. With 1,803 megawatts across the state of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota comes in fourth.
5. Washington. Washington is right behind Minnesota with 1,479 megawatts.
6. Oregon. Oregon currently has 1,363 megawatts of wind power with 126 under construction.
7. New York. New York has 1,262 megawatts today, with 21 under construction.
8. Colorado. As the eighth top state in the United States, Colorado has 1,068 megawatts of wind powered electricity.
Wind power is a growing trend among farms because the government offers great subsidies. For more information on subsidies and farm loans contact Farm Plus today. Farm Plus has many low-rate farm loans for your needs. Call 866-929-5585 for more information on farm loans or visit online.
After an 11-day Asian trade mission, Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey has a positive outlook that Iowa soybean exports to China and Taiwan will remain strong despite the current worldwide recession.
Parts of China have been hit hard by manufacturing productions shutdowns that will effect U.S. imports, but the demand for pork and chicken livestock remains constant. This is good news for Iowa.
“They’re not going to be able to produce enough grain, certainly not enough soybeans, to feed their own. They’re going to need imports,†said Northey told the Quad City Times.
“It’s going to continue to grow. It may grow at a little slower pace right now. But I think it’s going to continue to grow and I really think that within the next few years they’ll have a need to import corn as well,†the Iowa agriculture secretary said.
While in China, Northey met with feed manufacturers and soybean crushers that cannot keep up with the demand that increases 10 to 20 percent each year. Because they cannot keep up domestically, they must look to outside sources.
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