Northwest Iowa — This is Farm Safety Week as harvest season gets rolling, and while recent rains have erased or lessened the risk in some parts of northwest Iowa, all farmers and farmhands are being warned to stay especially vigilant for field fires.
Iowa State University Extension ag engineer Kris Kohl says after a series of rural fires in 2012, a study was conducted that focused on variables like temperature, humidity and wind.
Kohl suggests farmers use a leaf blower to blast the dust and debris off their hot machinery, especially when the weather is perfect for a wildfire.
Kohl recommends producers have a disc attached to a large tractor rather than trying to use water to battle any potential fire out in the fields.
The latest drought monitor report puts the southeast half of O’Brien County in three different categories, with more drought as you go further southeast. It starts abnormally dry, but graduates to moderate drought and then to severe drought in the southeast corner. Parts of Osceola and Sioux counties are abnormally dry, and all of Lyon County is normal at this time.
