(Sioux Center) — Any soybean farmer will tell you that aphids have become a serious problem in recent years robbing potential yields.
Dordt College Agricultural Department along with Iowa State University Extension have combined efforts to study the effects of new soybean varieties that are resistant to the soybean aphid. The research was was discussed with farmers and students at last evening’s Northwest Iowa Research Field Day that was held at the Dordt College farm. Mike Schouten is the manager of the Dordt Agriculture Stewardship Centers and tells of the performed research involving the soybean varieties resistant to the latest pest to bother northwest Iowa soybean fields.
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(Des Moines) — Iowa’s largest grassroots farm organization wrapped up two days of policy discussion calling for changes in the Army Corp of Engineers management of the Missouri River in order to prevent the kind of flooding which devastated Iowa this year.
Mark Rensink of Sioux Center is the voting delegate of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation. He represents Sioux County. Rensink says attention was given to conservation programs, as well as privacy issues involving the internet.
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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – An economist says an August economic survey
in nine Midwest and Plains states suggests slow to no growth in the
region, but not a return to recession.
The survey report released Thursday says the Business Conditions
Index dropped to 52 in August from 54.1 in July.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the report.
He says that despite healthy economic growth tied to agriculture,
the region is being harmed by cuts in business, consumer and local
governmental spending.
The survey of supply managers and executives uses a collection
of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Any score above 50 suggests
growth while a score below 50 suggests decline for that factor. The
states are Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska,
North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
—
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – MidAmerican Energy has announced it has
completed the installation of 13 wind turbines near Pomeroy as part
of the company’s plan to expand wind energy production across Iowa.
In a news release issued Wednesday, MidAmerican says the
turbines are the first of 258 the company is erecting at three wind
energy projects in Iowa this year.
The turbines, which are supplied by Siemens Energy Inc., will
add more than 590 megawatts to MidAmerican’s energy generation
portfolio. That’s enough to power about 190,000 homes.
The Pomeroy project is in Pocahontas and Calhoun counties. The
remaining turbines will be erected in Cass, Adams, Adair and
Marshall counties by the end of the year.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Republican presidential candidate
Michele Bachmann is proposing ways to create jobs on her first
visit to the leadoff caucus state since winning the state GOP straw
poll earlier this month.
The Minnesota congresswoman is participating in a national tea
party bus tour that is traveling from California to Florida.
Bachmann met privately in the Des Moines area with business leaders
Wednesday and joined the bus tour for an event in Des Moines.
Bachmann’s proposal would allow U.S. companies that have capital
invested overseas to reinvest that money in the United States
without having to pay a tax. She claims it could quickly inject
billions in investment into the U.S. economy.
Since the Aug. 13 straw poll, Bachmann has campaigned heavily in
South Carolina and Florida, early Southern primary states.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Iowa construction workers plan to renew their calls for more local firms to be hired on a major University of Iowa building project. Workers are expected to rally Thursday at the Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building, where they say non-union employees from states like Texas and Florida are taking too many of the jobs. The university hired Chicago-based Walsh Construction as general contractor on the six-story building on the university’s health sciences campus dedicated to cutting-edge research. Its contract is worth $78 million. Groups like the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids Building and Construction Trades Council say Walsh has hired too many subcontractors from out-of-state, and they’ve been trying to build pressure on the firm to hire more of their members. They say Iowa tax dollars should help local workers first.
