Complaints about crop dusters rising in Indiana
SELMA, Ind. (AP) — New chemicals that promise higher corn yields are sparking complaints from some Indiana residents who say their homes have been sprayed by crop dusters.

The state chemist’s office received 24 complaints last year about crop dusters hitting people or their homes while treating fields. Pesticide program manager Dave Scott said aerial pesticide applications have risen in the last five years, as corn prices have spiked and growers have hired people to apply fungicide from the air to increase yields.

Selma, Ind., resident Sheri Stewart told The Star Press she was hit with pesticide by a helicopter flying over her house. She said she’s a cancer survivor and worries about the chemical’s effects.

Scott told WTHR the chemicals have labels warning against exposing people.

Iowa man, 77, killed in tractor rollover

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a man killed when the farm tractor he was driving rolled into a ditch in Scott County. He was identified as 77-year-old Donavon Sievers, of rural Stockton.
The Scott County sheriff’s office say the accident happened just after noon Thursday. The investigation is continuing.

Western Iowa berm fails; five homes imperiled

GLENWOOD, Iowa (AP) — Officials say a berm that was not part of the main Missouri River levee system has failed, allowing water to cover farm fields and threatening at least five residences in western Iowa’s Mills County.
County officials said the 30-foot breach occurred Aug. 23 a few miles northwest of Glenwood. Floodwater that had collected north of the berm poured through the gap, into the fields.

Emergency management coordinator Larry Hurst said the berm was part of the St. Mary’s Drainage District. He said district workers and the Iowa National Guard are patrolling the main levee system to the west.

Syngenta sues grain elevator over biotech corn ban

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Seed maker Syngenta is suing a grain elevator operator that has banned the company’s biotech corn.

Bunge North America, which operates grain elevators across North America, including one in Council Bluffs, recently posted notices it would not accept corn planted with Syngenta’s Agrisure Viptera seed, The Sioux City Journal reported Aug. 23.

In the lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Sioux City, St. Louis-based Bunge said the seed has not been approved for export to China. “We are surprised and disappointed that Syngenta has taken an action which could put at risk a major export market for U.S. corn producers,” St. Louis-based Bunge said in a statement.

Minnesota-based Syngenta claims Bunge violated federal and state laws and that the seed has been approved for shipment to other international markets, including Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico and Korea. Syngenta spokesman Chuck Lee said only 1 percent of the nation’s corn crop will be exported to China this year.

Bunge said it will accept Syngenta’s Agrisure Viptera seed once it is approved by China. “Until this approval occurs, we must protect the integrity of our export supply chain by not accepting Agrisure Viptera and other varieties that do not have major export market approval,” the company said in its statement.
“Our obligation to our farmers is to provide access to the global marketplace and the price benefits of that access. Syngenta’s decision to commercialize Agrisure Viptera should not foreclose our ability to sell to a major market – China.”

China is the seventh-largest importer of U.S. corn, according to the USDA.

Prize ham brings $600,000 at Farm Bureau auction
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Republic Bank has offered the winning bid of $600,000 for a prize ham auctioned Thursday at a Kentucky Farm Bureau charity event in Louisville.

Farm Bureau President Mark Haney said the money from the 16.9-pound ham produced by Broadbent B&B Foods of Kuttawa will go to Kentucky charities. The $600,000 was a bargain compared to last year’s winning bid, a record-setting $1.6 million.

The Farm Bureau’s charity auction has become a Kentucky tradition, dating back to 1964. The money always goes to the charity of the winning bidder’s choice. The winning bids over the last 10 years have averaged about $460,000.

Feds take more comments on gray wolf protections

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is giving the public additional time to comment on a plan to drop gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region from the federal endangered species list.

The agency has proposed removing federal protections for wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. A public comment period ended July 5. But officials have decided to give scientists and others more time to provide information on the possibility that the region has two distinct species of wolves – gray and Eastern timber wolves.

The new comment period will run through Sept. 26. Spokeswoman Georgia Parham says the agency still plans to make a final decision on whether to remove the gray wolf from the endangered list by the end of the year.

Fish kill in Iowa creek traced to manure

AMES, Iowa (AP) — State environmental officials say a fish kill in Squaw Creek near Stanhope in north-central Iowa was caused by liquid hog manure.

The Tribune in Ames said the fish kill was reported Aug. 19. The Department of Natural Resources traced a pollutant to an underground tile line and began dye testing on Aug. 24 to determine the source.

The dye, which is harmless, showed up in Squaw Creek Thursday and officials determined the source was liquid hog manure from a farm field. The agency said manure entered underground tile lines and traveled about two miles to the creek.

The fish kill extends for nearly three miles. The dead fish included mostly common fish like minnows and shiners, with some larger fish including smallmouth bass.