Take 5 Newsletter

April 26 , 2018

A five-minute summary of AAI, regulation, and industry activities for members of the largest state agribusiness association in the nation.

In This Issue

Celebrate Soil & Water Conservation Week: April 29 - May 6

Thank You to Our 2018 Golf Sponsors!

2018 AAI Golf Tournaments Registration Opens May 1

Guest Column: Farmers Take Part in Earth Day Every Day

The Trade Policy Shift: Are US Farmers Losing Their Competitive Edge?

California Court Affirms Previous Glyphosate Ruling

3 Water Quality Demonstration Projects To Expand Work in Targeted Watersheds

Checking Out the Biggest Grain Bins

Dicamba Training

AAI IN ACTION

Celebrate Soil & Water Conservation Week: April 29 - May 6

Iowa Soil and Water Conservation Week is an opportunity to recognize the important conservation work that has been placed on the Iowa landscape and bring attention to the ongoing work by farmers, landowners and urban residents to protect the state's soil and water resources. Download flyer here.

Iowa Soil and Water Conservation Week this year is being coordinated with national Stewardship Week, which is sponsored by the National Association of Conservation Districts. This year's Stewardship Week theme is "We All Need Trees" and is designed to focus the nation's attention on the stewardship and importance of our natural resources.

Learn how you can participate at

https://www.iowaagriculture.gov/conservationweek.asp

Thank You to Our 2018 Golf Sponsors!

We'd like to thank our main 2018 golf sponsors for our summer tournaments. With the support of our sponsors the association can make our summer golf outings "must-see" events. Thank you for all your support!

Snack Cart Sponsor:

Luncheon Sponsors:

2018 AAI Golf Tournaments Registration Opens May 1

Our golf tournaments are a great way to network and grow your connections in the agribusiness community. We host four golf tournaments in the state of Iowa: two in July, one in August, and one in September. Registration opens May 1 for all tournaments. Visit us online to learn more!

July 24 | Fox Ridge Golf Course - Dike
July 25 | Emerald Hills Golf Course - Arnolds Park
August 9 | The Legacy Golf Club - Norwalk
September 13 | TBA

ResponsibleAg Auditor Training Course June 19-22

The next ResponsibleAg Auditor Training Course will be offered June 19-22, 2018, in Owensboro, Ky.

Registration is now open, and seats are limited to 24 for the four-day course offered by ResponsibleAg, an industry initiative launched in 2014 to help retail facilities comply with federal environmental, health, safety and security rules for safe handling and storage of fertilizer and agrichemical products.

The course provides graduates with a thorough understanding of the assessment and auditing process as it relates to the areas found at retail facilities including dry fertilizer, liquid fertilizer, anhydrous ammonia, seed treater, shop, office and grounds. Read More

https://www.responsibleag.org/Training/

ResponsibleAg Helpdesk (270-683-6777)

AG IN THE NEWS

Guest Column: Farmers Take Part in Earth Day Every Day

by: WCF Courier

Every year on Earth Day, many people pledge to live more "sustainably." Commuters promise to carpool more often. Homeowners vow to feed themselves from a garden they'll soon start. Politicians make sure someone snaps a picture of them planting a tree.

These folks are all filled with good intentions. For me, sustainability means the ability to stay in business using the best practices available to preserve a farm my children will want to come back to and raise their families someday.

Farmers who treat every day as Earth Day seldom receive credit for their environmental stewardship. Actions taken to improve the soil or clean the water have an immediate cost to the farmer, yet the benefits accrue to distant consumers, whether a hundred miles downstream or a century in the future. As a farmer enrolled in the Soil Health Partnership, I'd like to tell you what farmers are doing every day to improve the environment in which we raise our families and earn our living. Read More

The Trade Policy Shift: Are US Farmers Losing Their Competitive Edge?

by: Agri-Pulse

President Donald Trump, to say the least, has American farmers and ranchers variously worried and bewildered about his intentions and the direction of U.S. trade policy.

The president's main foreign trade actions so far were telegraphed repeatedly on the campaign trail: Severing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership, its biggest multilateral trade deal in a quarter century, and plunging the big multi-lateral one with U.S. neighbors - the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993 - into limbo with renegotiations. Read More

California Court Affirms Previous Glyphosate Ruling

by: Brownfield News

A California state appeals court has dealt Monsanto and a coalition of ag groups a legal setback, ruling the state was well within in its legal bounds when it decided to list glyphosate as a possible cancer-causing agent.

California's Fifth Appellate District affirmed a previous court ruling, saying California's decision to list glyphosate as a possible carcinogen, based on determinations made by an international health organization, did not override the rights of U.S. citizens. Read More

3 Water Quality Demonstration Projects To Expand Work in Targeted Watersheds

by: IDALS

Io wa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig today announced that three locally-led watershed-based demonstration projects will be expanding their work in targeted watersheds to accelerate implementation of practices that improve water quality.

"We are excited for the next phase of these three projects as they focus on accelerating adoption of practices and broadening their reach to even more farmers and landowners," Naig said. "The 55 rural and urban demonstration projects in place across the state have played a critical role in reaching out and demonstrating new water quality focused practices and encouraging Iowans to try something new." Read More

MEMBER MOMENTS

Checking Out the Biggest Grain Bins

by: WHO Radio

At the Elite Octane ethanol plant in Atlantic. There are two Zero-Entry Commercial Sweep Grain Bins built by Sukup Manufacturing, 156 feet diameter, 168 feet tall and they hold 2 million bushels of corn.

In fact, Charles Sukup says it would take a line of semi's 27 miles long to fill them. Read More

View Twitter video of inside the empty grain bins.