Ag News

Corteva Files Motion With U.S. Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals

IARN — Corteva Agriscience filed a motion Friday to intervene in the Ninth Circuit Court case removing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) registrations for three Dicamba herbicides.

As previously reported on the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on June 3rd vacated the EPA’s conditional registrations for three dicamba products, due to “substantially understated risks.” Products affected included: Bayer’s Xtendimax, BASF’s Engenia and Corteva’s FeXapan.

On June 8th, the EPA issued a cancellation rule which allows farmers who possessed the chemical before the June 3rd ruling to use the product by July 31st but canceled any new orders after June 3rd. Read more

What If COVID Strikes Your Farm?

IARN — I am not a doctor, nor have I ever played one on television. I am not the person to ask if you are trying to determine if it is safer for us to be getting back to normal or if we should be remaining cautious. I also am the last person whose brain you should consider picking about how COVID-19 affects different people. I am also not opening the floor to debate on conspiracy theories on the origins of COVID-19, what a treatment plan could possibly look like, or what is or is not a hoax. Read more

IRFA Applauds Iowa Legislature For Funding Biofuel Infrastructure

IARN — Sunday morning the Iowa legislature authorized another year of funding for Iowa’s cost-share biofuel infrastructure program, a move that ensures access to biofuels will continue to grow throughout Iowa.

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program (RFIP) provides Iowa fuel retailers with cost-share grants to add the necessary equipment to their stations to offer higher blends of biofuels. RFIP has led to millions of dollars of private economic investment and hundreds of new stations offering E15, E85, and biodiesel blends at the pump. The program’s funding of $3 million for FY2021 was included in HF 2642, a bill to fund the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund. It passed the Senate 45-3 and passed the House 63-29. Read more

Ethanol Industry Pleas For “Faithful Enforcement” Of Renewable Fuels

IARN — President Donald Trump visited Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy (SIRE) in Council Bluffs, Iowa one year ago – June 11, 2019 – to celebrate regulatory changes allowing year-round sales of E15.

Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, reflects on the momentous occasion. He recalls a “very exciting day.”

“We had an incredibly rare opportunity to speak with the President about the industry and the issues we were facing,” Cooper said. “We had his undivided attention for a few hours, while he was at SIRE, and we made the most of it.” Read more

Soybeans Lead Charge In U.S. Weekly Export Sales Report

IARN — The latest U.S. Weekly Export Sales Report showed strength in the soybean complex.

That’s according to Greg McBride, commodities broker with Allendale. McBride says analysts were expecting strong soybean export numbers for the week ending June 4th. They were correct.

“We did end up with a combined total of about 2.2 million tons of beans sold,” McBride said. “That was above the average guess. That looks good for us. Corn, meanwhile, came in inside the weekly range, but at the lower end of it. A little bit of a neutral tilt to that. Meal was inside the range as well and bean oil was below the range. Nothing really too extraordinary to get excited about other than the bean sales.” Read more

Cover Crop Adoption Requires Shift In Mindset

IARN — Matt Bormann, of Algona, Iowa, last week spoke to crop progress, where he attributed early season results to conservation practices, such as cover crops and less tillage. Today he challenges farmers to step outside their comfort zones.

Bormann doesn’t deny, “It’s easy to get stuck in our ways of how things have to be done.” He understands how comfortable that may be, but asks, “Is that a better way of farming?”

“Generations of the Bormann family have done tillage. When you start to do something different, it’s scary. It’s like: Is it going to work? Is it not going to work? I keep telling farmers, you have to get your mind set up. You are not going to fail by cutting back on tillage; you are not going to fail by using cover crops,” Bormann said.  Read more