County Road C-60 Begins Paving Project
(Le Mars) — A construction project involving paving county road C-60 begins today and is scheduled to continue until for the next few months. Plymouth County engineer Tom Rohe says contractors are removing a couple of bridges in preparation for the paving project.
Rohe discusses the timetable for the paving project.
Rohe says it will be awhile before traffic will be allowed back on county road C-60.
The county engineer talks about the price tag to the county for the paving project.
Rohe says also scheduled for this week is the start to a bridge replacement project.
D-N-R To Test Iowa Lakes and Rivers Beaches
(Des Moines) — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has started its summer water quality monitory program at state beaches as they open for the summer.
Workers take water samples to test for bacteria and toxins. If levels are too high, beaches are posted with advisories against swimming. The D-N-R’s Roger Bruner (BROO-ner) says he hasn’t seen significant changes in beach water
quality.
He says levels of toxins from blue green algae have been steady in the past few years. But Bruner says bacteria levels can vary widely.
The bacteria levels can spike right after a rain, but then drop as the sun comes out. The D-N-R will update an online map through the summer with weekly test results and swim advisories.
Governor Reynolds To Lead Iowa Agriculture Trade Tour To China
(DES MOINES) – Gov. Kim Reynolds has announced that she will lead an all Iowa agriculture trade mission to China scheduled for July 19-28. Traveling with her will be representatives from state commodity groups and the Iowa Farm Bureau.
The group will be emphasizing Iowa’s corn, pork, soy, beef, egg, poultry, dairy and turkey industries.
This is the first time all of Iowa’s farm groups have come together for a trade mission.
Governor Reynolds says “There is no better time than now to market and pitch our products in China,”
“Our relationship with the country is strong, and their growing
middle class means increasing purchasing power and Iowa stands to gain significantly as a result.”
The goal of the mission is to build relationships, understanding and trust with the hope of opening new possibilities for Iowa’s agricultural products. The groups will be meeting with government officials and industry partners. Reynolds says they will be visiting Ambassador Terry Branstad in Beijing, whose insight will be important as the groups navigate solutions to some of the current issues.
For some of Iowa’s commodities, China is a developed market. For others, it is a new opportunities to bring down barriers to products.
· China is by far the largest soybean importer projected at 83 million metric tons, or a little more than 3 billion bushels (U.S. Soybean Export Council)
· Total aquafeed use in China was around 36 million metric tons with the soy product use for aquafeed estimated at around 8.8 million metric tons in 2015, which equals 408,232,000 million bushels of soybeans.
Beef:
· Chinese ban on importation of US beef has been in place for 13 years, the recent announcement to lift the ban provides opportunity for cattle farmers as 13% of our beef production is exported.
Pork
Over the last decade, US pork exports to China/Hong Kong have surged from $271 million in sales and 169,000 metric tons in 2007 to over $1 billion in sales and 545,000 metric tons in 2016.
Corn
China imported more than 50 percent of the exportable supply of U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS), or 6.3 metric tons valued at nearly $1.6 billion in 2015.
Dairy
· In 2016, China was our 4th largest market for U.S. dairy products imported of $384 million and potential for much more.
Turkey
· Iowa is 5th in US turkey processing and 8th in turkey production, Iowa farmers and processors benefit by reopening access for turkey products back into this market.
The trip will be funded by the participating agricultural organizations.
