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Secretary Naig invites community meat lockers to apply for Choose Iowa butchery equipment grants
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig today invited small-scale meat processors and custom lockers to apply for a Choose Iowa Butchery Innovation Equipment Only Grant. Eligible businesses may receive up to $20,000 of state funding to purchase cold storage, meat processing and/or packaging equipment that helps increase meat and poultry processing capacity in Iowa. “As I travel the state meeting with farmers, I consistently hear about the need for more local meat and poultry processing. That...
Iowa farmers can put soybean quality to test
Soybean harvest is just barely getting started in Iowa, and heavy rains across the state have put much of that early progress on hold. Once combines can get back into the fields, however, soybean growers can learn more about the quality of this year’s crop while...
Rain has defined the 2026 crop year in Iowa
As the Pro Farmer Crop Tour traveled across the Midwest, many reports came in of dry crop conditions and lower yields. That was not the case for the Iowa leg of the tour, though, as yields were actually higher due to significant rains, especially in the eastern and...
Farmers hit hardest by high transportation costs
The impact of higher fuel prices goes beyond just what farmers pay to plant and harvest a crop. These prices are also driving up transportation costs throughout the supply chain. Mike Steenhoek, Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, said that...
Trends in cover crop use and production
An annual survey provides the latest trends regarding cover crop use and production in agriculture. The producer-based cover crop survey is conducted in part by USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Under Secretary for Farm Production...
Iowa farmers elect new leadership to advance opportunities for U.S. soybeans
Farmer-leaders of the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) board of directors last week elected Lee Brooke of Clarinda as president during its September board meeting in Aberdeen, Washington. The association’s 22 volunteer farmer directors represent the state’s nine crop...
Solinftec robot adds another set of eyes
Scouting a cornfield is a job that never really ends. Crop development, plant populations, and disease pressure can all change throughout the growing season. Autonomous technology could provide farmers with another set of eyes that keeps watching even when they are...
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More Ag News
Details from September Cattle on Feed Report
USDA published the September Cattle on Feed Report on Friday September 18th, and the report shows another increase in cattle and calves on feed. That’s according to USDA livestock analyst Anthony Fischer. However, Fischer says that when examining cattle that were...
Long-term effects of data centers must be considered
As the development of large-scale data centers continues to be pushed in rural areas, many communities across the nation have one major question: what is the long-term impact on the local environment? University of Illinois environmental science student Bruce Beam...
Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling advances with Senate farm bill
Mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef moved closer to returning after the Senate Agriculture Committee advanced its version of the 2026 farm bill. The legislation includes an amendment tied to the American Beef Labeling Act that would restore mandatory...
USMEF holds seminars to grow demand in Saudi Arabia
For over a decade, U.S. beef faced technical barriers in Saudi Arabia that left only a small fraction of U.S. production eligible for the market. With those obstacles now removed, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) – with support from USDA and the Beef Checkoff...
Technology and value added ag guide ISU priorities
Iowa State University President David Cook is spending his first year on the job looking at where the university can have the greatest impact in the years ahead, and agriculture remains a major part of that conversation. Cook has been traveling across Iowa during his...
