Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Corn prices have retreated from record high levels as favorable weather has improved this year's crop outlook.
Prices for corn futures have fallen steadily this week, with the Chicago Board of Trade reporting July 2008 corn contracts selling for $6.83 per bushel at the close of trading Wednesday. That's a big drop from a few weeks ago, when corn prices were hovering near $8. And that's welcome news to livestock producers in Iowa who have been struggling with high feed costs.
The rise in the price of corn was halted on June 30, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agriculture Statistics Service issued a crop acreage report that showed much higher than expected corn planting for the year. The report states that farmers have planted 87.3 million acres in corn this year, despite the devastating flooding throughout the Corn Belt this spring. That's more than 1.3 million acres higher than many crop analysts had expected, and it represents the second-largest acreage devoted to corn in the United States since 1946.
Since the NASS report was released, farmers have had more than a week of fair weather conditions. "A lot of fieldwork was able to take place across the state last week as fields continued drying out," said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey in his weekly crop condition report on Monday. According to Monday's report, as of Sunday, 12 percent of the corn and 13 percent of the soybeans in Iowa will have been replanted.
Corn growth is still behind the average, because of the wet and cool weather earlier this year. The average corn height is 25 inches lower than last year's average and 19 inches below the five-year average.
But only 13 percent of the corn in Iowa is currently rated in "poor" or "very poor" condition, while 57 percent is rated as "good" or "excellent."
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