Agriculture

Prosecutors allege Michael Butikofer, who operated an animal-feeding operation called Fawn Hollow, used “threats of violence, violence, and loss of employment or legal status” to keep foreign workers from blowing the whistle on a criminal enterprise in which he sold cattle belonging to other people for his own gain.

Most of the confirmations this fall have been in mixed species backyard flocks or in relatively small poultry operations. But two incidents, both in November, make up the majority of the birds that have been euthanized to slow the spread of the virus.

Infected sites now total 15 this fall — ranging from backyard flocks to immense commercial chicken operations — with nearly 3 million birds.

The climate is changing — but there’s still time to adapt, assessment authors said.

Iowa has a small network of Black farmers — just 72 were reported in the 2017 Census of Agriculture — but Todd Western III wants to invite them all to the first Iowa Black Farmers conference next month in Des Moines.

The report by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship brings to 11 the Iowa counties where the outbreak has been reported in the state since October.

This year’s corn and soybean harvests are virtually complete in nearly every area of the state, with one exception: south-central Iowa, where they still have more than 10 percent of their crop remaining to be harvested.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has approved a manure plan for Supreme Beef, a cattle feedlot in northeast Iowa, but opponents questioned whether it’s legal for the applicant to tweak the plan midway.