Learn About Landscape Design from Yard to Trough

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Scott County office is hosting the sixth annual "Growing Season" webinar series beginning in June.

The June webinar, Design from Yard to Trough, with Iowa State University Department of Horticulture lecturer Lisa Orgler and Fayette County Master Gardener Gary Whittenbaugh, will be offered on June 17, 2015, at the Scott County Extension Office, 875 Tanglefoot Lane in Bettendorf, IA starting at 7 pm. Participants will learn how to add spark to landscape designs and dive into trough planters filled with conifers and their companions. There is a $5.00 fee that is payable at the door, however, pre-registration for the webinar is requested.

To register please contact the ISU Extension and Outreach Scott County office at 563-359-7577 or aheitz@iastate.edu.  All master gardeners attending will earn two continuing education hours for each webinar.

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Emerald Ash Borer Confirmed in Scott and Davis Counties, Iowa

Emerald Ash Borer has been positively identified in Davenport and central rural Davis County, bringing the total of confirmed counties to 24 since it was first detected in Iowa back in 2010. This metallic green insect, which only measures about half-inch long and an eighth-inch wide, kills all ash tree species and is considered to be one of the most destructive tree pests ever seen in North America.

"With emerald ash borer already being in the area on the Illinois side, it was only a matter of time until it was found in Davenport." said Mike Kintner, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship EAB and gypsy moth coordinator. "With these two newest findings being nearly 100 miles apart, it is a good reminder that we just never know where or when this ash-killing insect is going to reveal itself."   

The City of Davenport's Forestry Division has been planning for the arrival of this exotic pest and has a working Emerald Ash Borer Response Plan in place. The city plans to remove ash trees infested with EAB on public properties and continue to reduce its ash tree populations in public areas. The Davis County find was in a rural area north of Bloomfield, Iowa.

Out of the 24 Iowa counties that have confirmed EAB findings, six have been found this year alone. A statewide quarantine, issued in February 2014, remains in place, restricting the movement of hardwood firewood, ash logs, wood chips and ash tree nursery stock out of Iowa into non-quarantined areas of other states.

"We still strongly urge Iowans to not move firewood long distances," said State Entomologist Robin Pruisner of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. "A large portion of Iowa is not showing signs of EAB infestation; let's keep those areas EAB-free as long as possible by not moving wood that potentially harbors EAB or other tree pests. Be vigilant and report suspicious symptoms in counties that are not yet known to be infested to a member of the Iowa EAB Team."

The Iowa EAB Team provides EAB diagnostic assistance to landowners and includes officials from Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service and the USDA Forest Service. 

The Iowa EAB Team strongly cautions Iowans not to transport firewood across county or state lines, since the movement of firewood throughout Iowa or to other states poses the greatest threat to quickly spread EAB and other plant pests. Most EAB infestations in the United States have been started by people unknowingly moving infested firewood, nursery plants or sawmill logs. The adult beetle also can fly short distances, approximately 2 to 5 miles.

At this calendar date, the treatment window for soil-applied preventive treatment measures (soil injection, or soil drench, or granular application) has ended. Basal trunk sprays with dinotefuran can be applied until mid-June and are most effective for trees less than 18" dbh - the diameter of the tree's trunk at breast height, 4 ½ feet above the ground. Trunk injection remains a viable EAB management option, as this method can be done when the tree has a full canopy of leaves (now through August), provided there is good ground moisture. If a landowner is interested in protecting a valuable and healthy ash tree within 15 miles of a known infestation, he or she should have landscape and tree service companies bid on work, review the bids, and treat during the recommended treatment time.

Please contact Iowa EAB Team members to have suspicious looking trees checked in counties not currently known to be infested. The State of Iowa will continue to track the movement of EAB on a county-by-county basis. Before a county can be officially recognized as infested, proof of a reproducing population is needed and an EAB must be collected and verified by USDA entomologists.

To learn more about EAB and other pests that are threatening Iowa's tree population, please visit www.IowaTreePests.com. Please contact any of the following members of the Iowa EAB Team for further information:

• Mike Kintner, IDALS EAB coordinator, 515-745-2877, Mike.Kintner@IowaAgriculture.gov

• Robin Pruisner, IDALS state entomologist, 515-725-1470, Robin.Pruisner@IowaAgriculture.gov

• Paul Tauke, DNR state forester, 515-725-8450, Paul.Tauke@dnr.iowa.gov

• Emma Hanigan, DNR urban forestry coordinator, 515-725-8454, Emma.Hanigan@dnr.iowa.gov

• Jesse Randall, ISU Extension and Outreach forester, 515-294-1168, Randallj@iastate.edu

• Mark Shour, ISU Extension and Outreach entomologist, 515-294-5963, mshour@iastate.edu

• Laura Jesse, ISU Extension and Outreach entomologist, ISU Plant and Insect Diagnostic Clinic, 515-294-0581,ljesse@iastate.edu

• Donald Lewis, ISU Extension and Outreach entomologist, 515-294-1101, drlewis@iastate.edu.

• Jeff Iles, ISU Extension and Outreach horticulturist, 515-294-3718, iles@iastate.edu

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Iowa State Announces New Course on Iowa's Civil Rights History

Iowa State University's School of Education will be offering a new course called "Teaching and Learning Iowa History: Iowans and The Civil Rights Movement". This innovative course will be open to members of the public, to university students, and to teachers. The class will explore the history of racial segregation in Iowa and struggles against it, as well as Iowan's role in the national Civil Rights Movement.

The course will primarily be taught online and will run July 1-31 this summer.

This course is available to interested community members for FREE.

University students can take the class for 3 undergraduate or graduate credits. Cost is determined by credit.

Iowa teachers also have the opportunity to take the course for 1, 2, or 3 licensure renewal credits. This course has been approved by the Iowa Department of Education and the cost per licensure renewal credit is $75.

Those taking the course for undergraduate, graduate, or continued education credit will participate in a 'Best Practices Workshop Day' on July 15 at Iowa State University as well as an Archives Visit day scheduled for July 22 with participating museums across the state.

Further information about the course can be found at: http://www.education.iastate.edu/graduate-studies/social-cultural-education/talih.html. Registration for the course begins May 1 by contacting the project's technology coordinator, Clyciane Michelini, at clyciane@iastate.edu.

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ISU Scott County Extension Master Gardener Fall 2015 Openings

Do you like to garden and share your gardening experiences with others? Are you a plant enthusiast who looks forward to spring time and the outdoors?   Then the Iowa State University (ISU) Scott County Extension Master Gardeners wants you!

Master Gardeners are volunteers, trained by ISU in horticulture, who return service to the community through a variety of educational projects.  Trainees attend over 40 hours of classes and complete volunteer service.  Each master gardener has the opportunity to learn and share their unique skills and knowledge with others in a variety of way.

Each year this opportunity is extended to a limited number of residents of Scott County.  Classes are held Tuesday and Thursday evenings this fall at the ISU Scott County Extension and Outreach office, starting September 10th.  There is a fee which covers the training and reference materials provided by ISU Scott County Extension and Outreach Office.

If you are interested in joining the Master Gardener program, additional information and an application for the 2015 fall session is available at our website http://www.extension.iastate.edu/scott/.  The deadline for receipt of applications is July 31st.  Applicants can attend a Master Gardener informational session scheduled in August.  Send completed applications to Scott County Extension and Outreach, 875 Tanglefoot Lane in Bettendorf.  Call 359-7577 with any questions.

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EXTENSION CALENDAR

 

June 23, 2015    Scott County Extension Council Meeting, Scott County Extension Office, 7:00 pm

July 10, 2015    Pesticide Applicator Testing, Scott County Extension, 10 am-2 pm

July 15, 2015    Water in the Garden, Scott County Extension Office, 7 pm

Visit our events calendar at our web site:   http://dbs.extension.iastate.edu/calendar/

10 U.S. soybean farmers to visit domestic, international soy markets
ST. LOUIS (June 9, 2015) - Farmer-leaders of the United Soybean Board (USB) recently selected 10 U.S. soybean farmers to learn more about the soy checkoff and see where their soybeans go beyond the elevator through USB's See for Yourself program.

"The See for Yourself program is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," says Keith Tapp, a soybean farmer from Sebree, Kentucky, and chair of USB's Audit and Evaluation Committee, which sponsors See for Yourself. "Participants are able to ask questions and give feedback to me and other farmer-leaders directly, while seeing the results of their checkoff investment firsthand."

This year, the following farmers get the chance to see how the checkoff helps increase demand for their soybeans:

• Nathan Brown from Hillsboro, Ohio
• Jennifer Campbell from Franklin, Indiana
• Rick Dickerson from Laurel, Delaware
• Caleb Frey from Morganza, Louisiana
• Adam Guetter from Wabasso, Minnesota
• April Hemmes from Hampton, Iowa
• Tina Holst from Chilton, Wisconsin
• Justin Knobel from Elysburg, Pennsylvania
• Carl Philips from Walnut Ridge, Arkansas
• Antron Williams from Rowesville, South Carolina

The See for Yourself program gives participants a firsthand look at how and where their soybeans are being used both domestically and internationally. It also offers farmer-participants an opportunity to evaluate specific, checkoff-funded research and promotional activities. The program will be held July 30-August 7 in St. Louis, China and Vietnam.

This will be See for Yourself's first visit to Vietnam. The third-largest aquaculture-producing country in the world, Vietnam offers a unique look at animal agriculture's needs for high-quality soybean meal. With the cost of fishmeal-based feeds rising, soybean meal is a more affordable and more sustainable protein option for aquaculture feed. In 2014, Vietnam imported more than 350,000 metric tons of U.S. soybean meal, or the meal from over 16.3 million bushels of U.S. soybeans, most of which was used to feed fish.

Other stops during the program will highlight the checkoff's work in production research, transportation, biodiesel, high oleic and more.

The 70 farmer-directors of USB oversee the investments of the soy checkoff to maximize profit opportunities for all U.S. soybean farmers. These volunteers invest and leverage checkoff funds to increase the value of U.S. soybean meal and oil, to ensure U.S. soybean farmers and their customers have the freedom and infrastructure to operate, and to meet the needs of U.S. soy's customers. As stipulated in the federal Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service has oversight responsibilities for USB and the soy checkoff.

For more information on the United Soybean Board, visit www.unitedsoybean.org
Visit us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/UnitedSoybeanBoard
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/unitedsoy
View our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/UnitedSoybeanBoard

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By Isaac Orr

Nearly 10 years have passed since the federal government imposed a national mandate requiring gasoline be blended with ethanol. At that time, President George W. Bush claimed the United States was addicted to oil and that biofuels, especially ethanol produced from corn, offered an important way to bring down gasoline prices while weaning the nation off of foreign sources of oil and supporting economic development in rural America.

As a farm kid about to graduate from high school in rural Wisconsin at the time, ethanol sounded like a good idea to me. A decade later, it's clear the program will never achieve those results, and Congress should end the mandate.

The ethanol mandate, more commonly known as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), is developed and administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the same regulatory body that wants to regulate farm dust and classify small wetlands, temporary runoff streams, and ditches near farm fields as navigable "Waters of the United States" to increase its regulatory control. Like other government decrees, the ethanol mandate imposes onerous regulations on property owners and increases costs for consumers. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the ethanol mandate will increase fuel costs for drivers by 4 to 9 percent in 2017.

In addition to increasing costs, RFS hasn't made energy independence a realistic option. Most of the farmers I know are very independent people, prioritizing hard work and self-reliance, which is why using ethanol to replace foreign oil appealed to many of us. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), however, the United States consumes about 19 million barrels of petroleum products per day, including gasoline, diesel fuel, and biofuels. In all of 2014, the United States used about 340 million barrels of biofuels, meaning these fuels provided the equivalent of about 18 days of the nation's supply.

While providing only about 5 percent of the fuel we use, ethanol eats up about 40 percent of the nation's corn crop. Even if the United States doubled the amount of ethanol used for fuel, which it can't do because most cars are not designed to handle fuel with more than 10 percent ethanol, America would still only replace the equivalent of about one month of oil, and it would consume 80 percent of the corn crop at current production rates.

Proponents of ethanol championed it as a way of reducing our use of foreign oil, but the ethanol mandate makes little sense now that hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, has nearly doubled oil production in the United States, making us the largest oil producer in the world. Fracking has done significantly more to increase America's energy security, without mandates, than we could ever hope to achieve through use of ethanol.

The federal government has tried subsidizing and mandating ethanol, but it still can't compete with other sources of fuel in terms of price and quantity. It's clear ethanol was just another case of the government picking winners and losers, and as with Solyndra, the failed solar power company that cost U.S. taxpayers more than half a billion dollars before going belly-up, the government backed a very expensive loser.

If advocates of family farms want to be taken seriously when we object to government mandates, such as expanding the powers of EPA over puddles or proposed U.S. Department of Labor rules to limit the types of work kids can do on their uncle's farm, we have to advocate ending existing mandates that don't make sense, even if they appear to benefit agriculture in the short term. Both farmers and the nation will be better off if we end the ethanol mandate.

Isaac Orr (iorr@heartland.org) is a research fellow for energy and environmental policy at The Heartland Institute.

DES MOINES, IA (06/03/2015)(readMedia)-- The Big Boar, Big Ram and Super Bull competitions at the Iowa State Fair are always a favorite, but 'Nothing Compares' to the bigger stakes in 2015. All Big Animal Contests have significantly increased premium prizes for the 2015 competitions

The Big Ram competition takes place on August 13 at noon in the Sheep Barn, while the Big Boar contest takes place at 1 p.m. the same day in the Swine barn. The lucky owners of the heaviest animals in each competition will take home a record $1,000 prize, up from $350 in 2014. Second place in each competition will also receive $500.

The Super Bull contest will be judged at 7 p.m. Thursday, August 13 in the Pioneer Livestock Pavilion sponsored by Prairie Meadows with the heaviest bull bringing home a record $1,750, up from $750 in 2014. Second and third place winners will also receive $650 and $400 prizes, respectively. Plus, an additional $1,000 will be paid to any Super Bull exhibitor who can break the 3,404 pound record set in 2009.

Big Animal Contest Entries are due August 1 and must be submitted by mail. Entrants are limited to one animal per exhibitor. For questions about the contests, contact the Iowa State Fair Competitive Events Department at 515-262-3111, ext. 207 or visit http://www.iowastatefair.org/competition/categories/.

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Frequently ranked as one of the top events in the country, the Iowa State Fair is the single largest event in the state of Iowa and one of the oldest and largest agricultural and industrial expositions in the country. Annually attracting more than a million people from all over the world, the Iowa State Fair located at East 30th and East University, just 10 minutes from downtown Des Moines is Iowa's greatest celebration with a salute to the best in agriculture, industry, entertainment and achievement. "Nothing Compares" to the 2015 Iowa State Fair, August 13-23, 2015. For more information, visit www.iowastatefair.org.