The Iowa Seed Association has received an additional $500,000 in funding from IDALS to provide additional cost-share to seed corn growers interested in planting cover crops this fall. The "Iowa Seed Corn Cover Crops Initiative" enters its second year in 2017 and will make these cost-share funds available to seed corn growers from seed companies in Iowa that have joined the project as partners which include: AgReliant Genetics, Beck's Hybrids, Cornelius Seed, DuPont Pioneer, Gro Alliance, Monsanto, Mycogen, Remington Seeds, and Syngenta. 

In 2016 the Iowa Seed Association and these seed company partners assisted their growers in planting over 36,000 acres of cover crops - estimated at around 15-20% of seed corn ground in Iowa. The additional funding will help continue to increase the number of growers utilizing cover crops following seed corn production. 

Seed corn growers interested in this project can contact Shannon Moeller at 641-861-2280 or for more information. 

AAI Chairman Dave Tierney (back right) talks with Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds (back left) at the Monsanto ribbon cutting in Muscatine, IA.

The completion of a $50 M expansion at the Monsanto plant in Muscatine was celebrated last week with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The expansion supports dicamba-tolerant trait technologies and will be the primary supply source for the Xtend-based herbicide crop protection system. The facility, which has been in Muscatine since 1961, will add 35 employees due to the expansion. It currently employs more than 400 people.

Agribusiness Association of Iowa CEO Joel Brinkmeyer attended the ribbon cutting along with AAI Board of Directors Chairman Dave Tierney. Tierney, a Monsanto employee, took part in the program.

Also at the event were a number of elected officials including Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, officials from the Iowa Department of Economic Development, and local officials from Muscatine.

Senator Joni Ernst (left) and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey (back right) 

look on as LICA member Tim Recker (front right) explains the bioreactor flow control mechanism on a demonstration farm in Melbourne.

Senator Joni Ernst and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey were guests at the Water Quality & Ag Field Day for Legislators last Friday. Environmental Technology Director Shawn Richmond participated on behalf of the Agribusiness Association of Iowa (AAI) and the Iowa Nutrient Research and Education Council (INREC).

The field day is an opportunity for legislators to learn more about the various conservation practices being used on Iowa farms, to answer legislator questions about the practices, and to provide a working, visual demonstration of edge of field practices. The field day is a joint effort of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Corn Growers Association, and the Iowa Land Improvement Contractors Association.

The Iowa Land Improvement Contractors Association (LICA) demonstration farm in Melbourne, Iowa, has a variety of structures in place including sediment basins, terraces, a wetland, and a soon-to-be-completed deep water pond. Learn more about the field day here: Agribusiness Report. 

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