A packed house of approximately 60 farmers filled the Guthrie Center Activity Center Wednesday morning to learn about upcoming changes to the farm bill from both Guthrie County Extension, and the local FSA Office. The meeting covered a lot of ground, mostly on new policies regarding Price Loss Coverage (PLC), and the two different types of Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC). Bill Hayes, a farmer from west of Guthrie Center learned a bit, but was mostly confused at the end, “The Iowa State person knew what he was talking about, but made it complicated for the rest of us.” Two other farmers at the event were in the same boat, still in need of more information, “Uhhh, I don’t know about this, we’re still debating, this is pretty complicated.”

Apparently, the information gets easier after you hear it a second, or third time, as this farmer will attest to, “It was useful, I was at the Templeton meeting, and this one was actually a little bit more detailed. They’re getting closer to fine tuning everything and making it more useful.”
Those interested in getting an encore to better understand the new Farm Bill can attend the exact same meeting next month in Coon Rapids, December 10th at 6 pm at the American Legion.
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A vehicle fire in front of the K107 studio and Cottage Pantry yesterday in Stuart started in the vehicle’s interior, according to the Stuart Fire Department. The Fire Department, Stuart Rescue and Stuart Police all responded to the blaze, which caused no apparent life-threatening injuries, but two patients were given oxygen to breathe and at least one was later transported to an area hospital.
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There’s been a big promotion at Midwest Partnership, as former economic development coordinator Sarah Gomez, now takes the reigns as CEO, following the departure of former CEO Chad Schreck at the end of October.  Gomez says her tenure, and experience with the organization and their partners makes her a good fit, “I’ve been here five years, I felt like I’ve been here long enough, I knew the right people in place, and I felt like it was a natural step for me to take on this position. I’m ready to take the lead and serve our region.”

Midwest Partnership works with Adair, Audubon, Green and Guthrie Counties in facilitating economic development projects, and retaining current jobs and businesses.
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There’s a mysterious creature allegedly in Iowa, but most photo-graphical evidence of it is grainy, undeveloped, or as the DNR says, oftentimes just a photo of a large dog. This is the time of year where hunters are out in the woods, the brush has cleared, and numerous individuals in the rolling timber of West Central Iowa will claim to see mountain lions, except experts, like the DNR’s Vince Evelsizer says they don’t, at least not usually, “If there is a mountain lion, or rather a report of a mountain lion, then what we’re interested in doing is finding out whether there was one or not. There’s a lot of mistaken identity when it comes to Mountain Lions, usually they are mistaken for large dogs or farm cats. So, when we try to figure out what a report was, we’re not saying they didn’t see a mountain lion, we’re trying to figure out if they did see a mountain lion or not, and usually they did not.”

Evelsizer admits that while the Iowa DNR doesn’t even acknowledge the Mountain Lion as an Iowan species, they do recognize that males with a hunting territory of hundreds of square miles will occasionally wander through the State, such was the case last November, when footage of a large male was caught just down the road near Desoto in Madison County. That animal was never caught or killed.
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Guthrie County Extension is reminding homeowners to protect their trees, shrubs and other landscape plants from rabbits this winter, who will be desperate for anything they can eat, “The most effective way to prevent rabbit damage to trees and shrubs in the home landscape is to place chicken wire fencing around plants. To adequately protect plants, the fencing material needs to be high enough where rabbits wont be able to climb or reach over the fence after a heavy snow. In most cases, a fence that stands two or three feet wall should be sufficient. To stop  rabbits from climbing under the fencing, bury it two or three inches beneath the ground.”

For more information, you can check out Guthrie County Extension’s webpage found on the main ISU Extension website.

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