NEWS FROM THE COFFEE SHOP: 2013-05-26

Saturday, June 1, 2013

#Fluffycows all over the Internet & Social Media

Matt Lautner (@mattlautner) tweeted at 9:19 AM on Sat, Jun 01, 2013: Fluffy cow pictures melt internet hearts | http://t.co /psIX2bsK5A

Friday, May 31, 2013

Pork All-American

Buchanan County Pork Producer, Sean Dolan was recently named a Pork All-American by the Iowa Park Producers Association and is pictured on the cover of this week's Iowa Farmer Today.

Benjamin Riensche (@BenRiensche) tweeted at 2:28 PM on Fri, May 31, 2013: I've never had to plant corn, plant beans, plus spray burndown, pre & post all at the same time. Prevented Planting = Easy Button.

Iowa Rain Records

Justine Stevenson (@farmers_gal) tweeted at 8:01 AM on Fri, May 31, 2013: in 141 yrs #Iowa sets 2 precipitation records in 2013: March - May precip of 16.7" & YTD total of 18.9" #recordbreaker #rainisagoodthing

Bill bans drones from harassing hunters

Animal rights groups won't be allowed to target hunters by air if Illinois' governor signs off on a piece of legislation.

Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro says some animal rights groups in other states have used drones to interfere with hunting.

Last month People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) announced plans to buy drones to "monitor those who are out in the woods with death on their minds."

Flying unmanned aircraft over Illinois hunting grounds may soon be a crime if the intent is to harass and disrupt hunting. The Illinois House and Senate both approved a bill banning such practices.

"There are anti-hunters, whether it's the PETA's group or whatever, and they use kind of unique ways to stop and disrupt hunting,” said Bost. “It’s everything, deer hunting, goose hunting, duck hunting. They use these drones to interfere with that, and this basically makes that illegal."

PETA Spokeswoman Alicia Woempner says new law won't necessarily halt drone flights planned to monitor hunters.

"This bill shouldn't actually affect our plans," Woempner said. "The program we're designing is meant to monitor and report on illegal hunting activities such as hunting with illegal firearms or ammunition, using spot lights or food and other tricks to lure in animals."

The new wildlife bill would make it a misdemeanor to use a drone to interfere with anyone lawfully hunting or fishing in Illinois.

It bolsters an existing law in the criminal code called the hunter interference act that forbids anyone from harassing people who are lawfully hunting.

The bill is awaiting Governor Pat Quinn's signature.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Tama County, IA Farmland Sale Report

Jason Lekin (@jason_lekin) tweeted at 3:46 PM on Thu, May 30, 2013: Land auction success today. Happy sellers and happy buyers. 156 acres of 83 csr farm ground. $10,800/acre

Twitter- Pat Donnelly, Buchanan County, IA

Pat Donnelly (@pdonnelly806) tweeted at 9:32 PM on Wed, May 29, 2013: 4 inches in 2 hours and still counting #replant13

Forklift For Sale

I have a used CAT 6000# LP forklift with a two-stage mast, pneumatic tires and side shift for sale.

This is a very clean machine that runs great, and only has 2000 hrs. on a rebuilt engine. It will lift to a height of 11 ft., and has heavy-duty 54" forks.

I'm using it in my warehouse in Manchester if anyone would like to see it, or drive it. $7500.00

Email or call if interested.

Tim Harbaugh Corn Specialist AgriGold Hybrids 563.580.1212
tim.harbaugh@agrigold.com

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Iowa State University Updates Method for Rating Soil Productivity

Good afternoon,

I thought this might be something interesting you could put a note in about on your blog. It’ll be going into the papers soon, but maybe you could let people know that the new release date of the new rating will be in October.

Ashley Sherrets | Buchanan County
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach
Agriculture/ Horticulture Program Coordinator

Release Date: May 29, 2013

Contacts:

Lee Burras, Agronomy, (515) 294-0559, lburras@iastate.edu

Gerald Miller, Agronomy, soil@iastate.edu

Thomas Fenton, Agronomy, fentonames@msn.com

Richard Bednarek Jr., USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, (515) 323-2238, Rick.Bednarek@ia.usda.gov

Ed Adcock, Agriculture and Life Sciences Communication Service, (515) 294-2314, edadcock@iastate.edu

Iowa State University Updates Method for Rating Soil Productivity

AMES, Iowa — Advances in soil science have necessitated an update in the Corn Suitability Rating (CSR), a system for rating the crop-growing productivity of Iowa soil, according to Iowa State University agronomist Lee Burras.

“Advances in soil-mapping techniques and the adoption of the national soil classification system during the past 50 years provides improved methods for calculating the CSR when compared to its original formula,” Burras said.

The Corn Suitability Rating was published in 1971 by Thomas Fenton and several colleagues at Iowa State. It reflected their expertise and a multi-year detailed analysis on the productivity of Iowa’s 30 million acres of farmland, making it the most sophisticated and complete quantitative soil productivity rating available.

The CSR was originally established in response to county assessors who needed a measure to help assess the productivity of farmland. In the mid-1970’s the State of Iowa established legislation that requires agricultural land be assessed on the basis of productivity and the net earning capacity to ensure equitable assessment. Today, the CSR is used in many additional ways, including to develop land use plans, determine land values, predict yields and negotiate cash rents.

“The goal of CSR2 is to provide a transparent system for calculating CSR such that a county assessor, farmer, realtor and any other interested person readily understands the mathematics underlying CSR,” Burras said.

CSR2 values are meant to be proportional to the existing CSR values, he said, although it is not always possible given the responsibility for transparency and consistency.

The CSR2 values of any given soil map unit (SMU) is a function of five parameters:

(a) the soil properties captured within a soil series classification,

(b) the specific field conditions captured by each SMU,

(d) local climate and environment,

(e) expert judgment.

A secondary goal is the creation of a framework for CSR2 evolution, which is necessary to ensure rapid and transparent updates of CSR2 as new soil series and new classifications are created.

Burras presented the updated CSR2 at the Soil Management and Land Valuation Conference at Scheman Center. A recording of his presentation will soon be available at the Iowa State Land Use web page (http://www.extension.iastate.edu/soils/), which also includes frequently asked questions about the change.

He said the new CSR2 values would be added to the Iowa State Land Use web page by July 1.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will make CSR2 available Oct. 1 through the USDA-NRCS Web Soil Survey (http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm), which is the nation’s official source of soil survey information.

On the Web: This and all other Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences news releases and related photos are available at http://www.ag.iastate.edu/news/.