The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 103

FARM CLASSIFIEDS IfJSIDE Be JUotncs JMtnbau jRcmstcr STGC SUNDAY September 5, 2004 JERRY PERKINS, Farm Editor 515-284-8456e-mail: perkinsjnews.dmreg.com ftini GRASSROOTS if 6. DOUG PHOTOS Bragging rights: The world's largest combine, sold by Claas Omaha LLC, will be available for purchase next year. The price can be as high as $300,000. m- 1 1 I (03 DnfLl LQ3 LTD QLTQCDJ fiiMO1 Farmers witness hot new products at 2004 show. Nuts, chickens focus of field day A Practical Farmers of Iowa field day of a farm that produces and markets nuts and pasture-raised chickens will be held 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday at Tom Wahl and Kathy Dice's Red Fern Farm near Wapello.

Wahl and Dice grow chestnuts, hazelnuts and black walnuts. Their chickens fertilize the trees, and the trees provide shade for the birds as they graze on the surrounding grasses. The chickens also provide protection from pests. The couple head up the Southeast Iowa Nut Growers cooperative, which markets chestnuts grown in the region. Red Fern Farm markets about 1,000 chickens a year, selling directly to customers in the area.

Last year, they added 24 pasture-raised turkeys and a small brood of laying hens to the mix. The event is free. Call (319) 729-5905 to reserve a complimentary lunch. To reach Red Fern Farm at 13882 1 at the intersection of Iowa Highway 92 and U.S. Highway 61, go a half-mile south on Highway 61.

Turn east on 145th Street and continue 1.6 miles. Turn left at the Red Fern Farm sign. Johnson wins both beef merit shows Matthew Johnson of Allison, a sophomore at North Butler High School, has won both the high quality grid market window and the high cutability categories in the Iowa State Fair's Beef of Merit Show. He is the first to win both categories since the contest began in 1993. In the Beef of Merit Show, 4-H contestants enter and show their cattle live and then the cattle carcasses are evaluated for the quality of the beef they produce.

(See Page 3M for more winners.) President elected for farmers union Chris Petersen, a farmer from Clear Lake, has been elected president of the Iowa Farmers Union for a two-year term. Petersen has been vice president the past two years. Kevin Miskell, a farmer from Stanhope, was elected vice president. Other board members elected include Blaine Nickles, Clarion; Kenny Brooks, Story City; Jim Berge, Kensett; John Gilbert, Iowa Falls; Gary Hoskey, Montour; Marvin Shirley, Minburn; Phil Lehman, Slater; Bob Sullivan, Woodbine; Ralph Johnson, Bloomfield; Donna Winburn, Grinnell; and Bob Gunzenhauser, Humeston. Research farm sets field day A field day at the Iowa State University Armstrong Research and Demonstration Farm will be held at 9:30 a.m.

Wednesday. Production of confinement cattle in a hoop structure, tillage and crop rotation, a cropping issues update and tillage and fertilizer placement will be covered. Lunch will be served. The farm is located 11 miles southwest of Atlantic on U.S. Highway 6, one-half mile south on county road M-53 and three-quarters of a mile east.

ABC Monster ot a machine: Daryl Thompson of LuVerne, right, checks out the big combine at the Farm Progress Show in Alleman last week. The corn and soybean heads are 40 feet wide. By JERRY PERKINS HEGISTER FARM EDITOR lleman, la. For Deere also had two new models of self-propelled sprayers and two new planters on display at its Farm Progress building, Alexander said. The auto-steering systems rill laimeis across ill Amer'ca' visiting the (Jf Farm Progress Show last week was like a trip to the toy store 480-horsepower Daimler Chrysler engine.

The cab of the Cougar rotates 180 degrees so that the mowers can go behind the operator during transportation. "The Farm Progress Show is one of the shows that we like to use to launch new products," Armstrong said. "It's well-attended by farmers from all over the U.S. and South America." Farmers at the show have shown a lot of interest in the Lexion combine and the Cougar mower, Armstrong said. "We've had good traffic by our lot," he said.

Down the road at the Deere Co. building, Chuck Alexander of Marion, Deere's east central Iowa manager, said the company's auto-steering system, known as AutoTrac, will be available soon for installation on combines. AutoTrac now can be used to automatically steer John Deere tractors and sprayers using LLC hogged most of a corner lot on the east side of the show grounds. Everything about the combine is huge a 462-horsepower Caterpillar diesel engine, 40-foot-wide corn and soybean heads, a 360-bushel grain tank and a price tag equal to the cost of 135 acres of Iowa's average farmland, or about $300,000. Bob Armstrong, product marketing manager for Claas North America, said the big combine, the 590 model, will be available next year.

Other, smaller combines in the Claas 500 series are available now. The 500 series combines, which are distributed through Caterpillar dealers, cost $180,000 to $308,000, Armstrong said, "depending on the bells and whistles" that come with the big, yellow monsters. Also introduced at this year's Farm Progress Show was the Claas Cougar the largest self-propelled mower around by virtue of the 45-foot swath that it cuts through hay fields using a REGISTER FILE PHOTO attracted a lot of attention from farmers who stopped by Deere's displays, he said. "We're seeing more and more interest all the time in AutoTrac," Alexander said. "It can eliminate a lot of overlap of applications in the field, and that saves money.

It's also especially useful at night when there's a lot of dust in the air." Changes inside the soybean will make it possible for Iowa farmers to earn a higher price for their beans next year if the efforts pay off for two different groups at the Farm Progress Show. Monsanto announced at the show that it will sell Vistive soybeans through the Asgrow brand next year. Ten years of research were needed to come up with a soybean that, when processed into oil, for a 7-year-old boy: There was so much to catch your eye and amaze you. On display on the sprawling grounds east of this central Iowa town were the world's largest combine and other farm machines that steer themselves. There were new varieties of soybeans that have changed their internal workings, and there were new ways to control moisture in the soil.

Here are a few examples of agriculture's Brave New World that were unveiled at this year's Farm Progress Show, which folded its tents Thursday after a three-day run: The world's largest combine a yellow behemoth Lexion series combine sold by Claas Omaha reduces or eliminates trans fatty acids in processed foods. Trans fatty acids are now found in partially hydrogenated soybean oil and have been blamed for clogging arteries and causing heart disease. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will require labeling of all foods with trans fats in 2006. The Vistive soybeans have been See PROGRESS, Page 3M Deere GreenStar global positioning system.

Midwest farms aren't solely to blame for 'dead zone' WASHINGTON FARM REPORT For Iowa farmers, the EPA's findings may not make a whole lot of difference, experts say. Because of Clean Water Act requirements, Iowa already must cut the amount of both nitrogen and phosphorus in the state's own lakes and streams. How much of a reduction will be necessary is still being debated within the state. Iowa Agriculture Secretary Patty Judge, who serves on a task force that See BRASHER, Page 3M would not fix the Gulf. Parrish said the research that led to the nitrogen-reduction plan is no longer credible.

The dead zone, or hypoxia, extends from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Texas coast and reached 5,800 square miles this year. The dead zone occurs when nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus spur the growth of plankton and algae. When the algae and plankton decay, the water is robbed of oxygen, and fish and shellfish cannot survive. problem as they have been portrayed," said Don Par-rish, a Farm Bureau spokesman. A report done by EPA's southeast regional office says that phosphorus also appears to be contributing to the dead zone.

The study says "there may be considerable benefit" to reducing both nitrogen and phosphorus use. Phosphorus gets into rivers and lakes from several sources, including municipal sewage as well as runoff from manure and fertilizer on farms. Derek Winstanley, chief of the Illinois State Water Survey, a state agency, studied the latest EPA analysis and says it shows that phosphorus may be the most important pollutant when it comes to the dead zone. That means the Clinton-era plan could be targeting the wrong pollutant. An earlier EPA report, issued in January and now being circulated by the Farm Bureau, claimed that the 30 percent reduction in nitrogen that the plan calls for Washington, D.C.

Talk about muddying the waters. Every summer, a large, oxygen-depleted "dead zone" appears in the Gulf of Mexico, and Midwest farmers have been blamed for it. The Clinton administration came up with a plan for shrinking the dead zone by reducing the nitrogen flowing down the Mississippi River into the Gulf by 30 percent. Much of that nitrogen comes from cornfields in the Midwest. But now, the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency is PihupBrasher taking another look at the problem. "Farmers are not the problem, or not as big a t. I-J Tj Pi i Hi John Landon Eddie Reynolds Jay Sharp Randy Luze Bobble Bumetl Steve Bruere Richard Ferguson Bob Fridley indianola 515-249-5815 Dick Ledlw Carlisle 515-975-6395 Cedar Falls 319-415-0455 Indtanota 515-661 -5970 Indlanola 515-240-0719 Ankeny 515-249-0348 Laurel 641-891-1814 LacOM' 515-249-4429 Norwallc 515-240-7500 55 ac ml Clarke County (Approx 40 A I liable, Lois ot He, Pond $lb90ac. Call Bob 515-249-5815. 115 ac ml CRP A raw ana.

hwv. location in area ot new houses lot's of notential. Call John 515-249-0348. 120 acml minutes from new Jordan Creek Mall. 1 1 0 acres tillable.

Owner will lease back. Weal view. Lois of potential, $39b0ac. Call Steve 515-240-7500. ATTN: Deer Hunters; own your own piece of prime deer hunting land.

Bordered by South Otter creek. Approximately 35 miles of Des Moines In Lucas County. 1 00 acres ml mostly in timber Call Jay Sharp 51 5- r.n i'm iw ac nvi, warn, vr, nay, limner, pan, great minting. i auac. un Jonn ais-w-tuw.

129 ac ml NE Warren County, house and several out buildings Development ground $3500ac. Call Bobble or Dick. 86 ac, 9 ml of Indlanola $3600 CRP pasture rent income Great for Hunting with Otter Creek on West border iU 'i, Call Eddie 515-681-5970 4 184 ac ml Slable, CRP.Hwy., Hickory Timber Great Hunting. $1 920ac Call Bobble 515-249-4429. 198 acml Warren County.

(1 00 A tillable. Hi proton Completely tiled, Bal Hay Pasture) Excellent House Buildings Hwy location $0Qac Call Bob 515-249-5815..