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Growing interest rates, high crop prices and rising transportation costs are making it more expensive to store grain — a critical step for many farmers. Economists and grain merchandisers say the market conditions leave them and farmers in an awkward place.
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Highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, has hit the U.S. hard over the last year and a half — leaving 60 million chickens and turkeys dead across 47 states. The USDA is working on a vaccine, but that could create new issues.
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Dr. Jones has a new book out Friday on Ice Cube Press called “The Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality.” The book is largely a collection of essays that first appeared on his University of Iowa blog. Jones says it’s an effort to explain to a general audience how Iowa’s politics, economics and culture affect Iowa’s water quality.
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After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a California animal welfare law requiring more space for pigs, some pork producers have already complied with the requirements, while others say they won’t.
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Polk County Judge Scott Rosenberg said the DNR used “illogical interpretations and applications to approve a nutrient management plan for the feedlot" when approving Supreme Beef's manure management plan near the headwaters of a prized trout stream.
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The EPA is allowing gasoline with 15% ethanol to be sold at the pump for the summer months, a move to give Americans financial relief, the agency says. Iowa is the top ethanol-producing state in the U.S.
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Bioreactors work; the question is whether Polk County’s promising new approach to an old problem can be expanded enough to finally address nitrate pollution.
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Three companies want to capture carbon dioxide from Midwestern ethanol plants, transport it by pipeline and store it underground. Many in the ethanol industry claim it’s essential to the industry’s survival. Environmentalists and even farmers argue the pipelines are a boon for the industry — not a real solution for climate change.
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U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced $40 million in grants investing in conservation efforts.
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The report from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach says from 2011 to 2021, the number of Iowa acres operated by large commercial farms grew to about 1,930 acres each. And acres operated by small farms fell by nearly 50%, with each farm operating about 300 acres.