Iowa
Northwest Iowa agronomist retires after career helping farmers
LE MARS, Iowa (AP) — Go to any farm on this nook of the state, and chances are high the farmer dwelling there’s using some bit of data, some tip gleaned from Joel DeJong.
For many years, DeJong has been a go-to supply of data on area crops and associated matters for farmers, answering questions on unusual bugs, crop illnesses or learn how to squeeze an additional bushel of corn or beans out of each acre.
“There are a couple of that drive you loopy, however for probably the most half purchasers have been very variety, appreciative. Persons are grateful for what we provide, and we’re not promoting something,” mentioned DeJong, who retired final week after an almost 41-year profession with the Iowa State College Extension and Outreach, the final 30 of them as a area agronomist serving 9 Northwest Iowa counties. The Extension will host a thank-you occasion at 5 p.m. Wednesday on the Le Mars Conference Heart.
DeJong has answered numerous questions from producers in search of the most recent crop farming improvements and from media members who continuously search his perception for information tales. With entry to knowledge compiled by researchers in Iowa, in addition to different states and nations, and hours spent at take a look at websites and analysis plots, he at all times has a solution and is pleased to share it.
“When you simply do analysis and don’t get the data out, what worth is it?” he informed the Sioux Metropolis Journal. “That’s the good factor about this job is the educational is steady.”
Agriculture will be an unpredictable enterprise. Rising up on a household farm between Maurice and Orange Metropolis in Sioux County, DeJong realized settling right into a profession in agriculture will be simply as unpredictable.
Attending Iowa State after graduating from Maurice-Orange Metropolis Excessive College, DeJong started as a pre-veterinary drugs main, however says chemistry lessons satisfied him his future was elsewhere in agriculture. He would earn an ag enterprise diploma with a finance main, however an internship with an ag lender wasn’t that thrilling. He took a job out of faculty promoting swine seed inventory, a flowery manner of claiming he offered boars. He didn’t actually like that both.
A good friend with the ISU Extension inspired DeJong to use for one of many service’s many openings, and he landed a job because the county Extension director in Greenfield, Iowa, in 1982. Three years later, he got here to the Woodbury County Extension workplace as an agriculturalist and lined horticulture, too, launching the county’s grasp gardener program in 1986 earlier than turning into the county’s Extension director.
After a reorganization in 1992, DeJong was named the agronomist for Northwest Iowa, working first in Sioux Metropolis earlier than shifting to the Extension’s Plymouth County workplace in Le Mars, the place he and spouse Lorraine, a retired center college trainer, nonetheless stay.
The Extension’s retooling helped DeJong discover his area of interest of passing the most recent research-based info on to farmers.
“Typically when change comes, persons are afraid what’s going to occur. But when I hadn’t modified roles, I don’t know if I might have lasted with the Extension all these years,” he mentioned.
He’s helped quite a few farmers since then navigate the ever-changing agriculture trade, whether or not it’s informing them of simpler manure purposes or utilizing on-farm trials to search out the perfect soybean plant density of their fields. Name him throughout the rising season, and also you’re more likely to attain him in his pickup truck heading to test crop progress, examine storm injury or have a look at diseased crops.
Hectic at instances, sure, nevertheless it’s higher than sitting within the workplace.
“I’d relatively be out within the area,” he mentioned.
That probably gained’t change in retirement. He’ll nonetheless fear if the realm is getting sufficient rain and marvel how the crops are faring.
“My spouse in all probability thinks I’ll drive higher as a result of I gained’t be fields up and down the highway,” he mentioned, laughing.
DeJong has no instant post-retirement plans, however is aware of he’ll stay concerned in agriculture in some way. It will be a disgrace to not cross on what he’s realized to producers frequently looking for higher yields.
“To me, it doesn’t make sense for all I’ve realized to die with me,” he mentioned. “There’s nonetheless possibilities to have my finger in it, and I simply haven’t figured it out but. My identification has been a crop specialist for a very long time. The query is, what is going to my identification be after this?”
It’s one of many few ag-related inquiries to which he doesn’t instantly know the reply.
However simply because the corn and beans do each spring, he is aware of a brand new alternative will sprout up.
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Iowa
Area District Judge Appointed to Serve on Iowa Court of Appeals – Storm Lake Radio
Governor Reynolds on Friday announced that an area district judge was been appointed as a judge on the Iowa Court of Appeals.
John Sandy of Spirit Lake currently serves as District Judge in District 3A which includes Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, and Ida counties. Sandy received both his undergraduate degree and law degree from the University of St. Thomas.
Sandy fills an Iowa Court of Appeals vacancy created following the retirement of Judge Thomas Bower.
Iowa
Give these new Iowa City art exhibits a spin on the Ped Mall — literally.
New installation brings tradition back to Ped Mall after a year off
IOWA CITY — An interactive art exhibit in downtown Iowa City is putting a new spin on foot traffic to areas impacted by construction.
As the location’s third interactive art exhibit, the spinning tops known as Los Trompos may not be figuratively revolutionary for the Iowa City Downtown District. But each piece, based on the age old toy, will spin you in circles to your heart’s content.
Los Trompos, after being on the Iowa City Downtown District’s list “for a long time,” follows installations of Mi Casa, Your Casa in 2022 and The Loop in 2021. After a year off from the imported art from Montreal art production company Creos, this year’s installation invites visitors to relax, hang out and play on the Ped Mall.
“These are much like (the last art exhibit), which were really visible, vibrant and allowed multiple people to use them. That’s what we were looking for with Los Trompos,” said Betsy Potter, executive director of the Iowa City Downtown District (ICDD). “We know it brings a positive piece to a public space and drives foot traffic.”
What: Los Trompos interactive art exhibit Where: The Pedestrian Mall, 210 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City
When: To Aug. 5, 2024
If you go
Los Trompos, which means “spinning tops” in Spanish, is set up through five larger-than-life, three-dimensional pieces crafted from fabric woven in a traditional Mexican style. With vibrant colors and shapes, the sculptures opened on June 21 function as rotating platforms.
Each 8-foot-wide module, large enough to hold several people, comes to life when visitors spin tops from their bases, activating a sense of interaction and teamwork.
The concept by Latin American artists Hector Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena draws inspiration from traditional toys with colorful expression and craftsmanship by Mexican artisans. Inspired by history, art, music, architecture and books, the pair have more than 25 years of experience and an extensive list of projects across North and South America.
“We are inspired by ordinary objects that surround us. We are influenced by our context and our everyday activities which allow us to visit and share with different cultures and different individuals,” the artists said in a statement. “We firmly believe that these are the goals of design: to weave and generate interactions, human connections and emotions, to relate to users, and to enhance and translate our inheritance and skills into new expressions.”
It was first commissioned several years ago by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and has traveled the country ever since. Its six-week stint in Iowa City, ending Aug. 5, is Los Trompos’ second time visiting the Midwest, after Chicago.
With a greater appeal to children, a lot of thought went into the whimsical design of Los Trompos that, essentially, functions like a piece of playground equipment.
And with a short presence this summer, it will help tide businesses and restaurants that rely on foot traffic over to the fall, when the Dubuque Streetscape project started in March will be completed.
“It was a deliberate choice to support foot traffic,” Potter said. “Part of why we’re bringing back (interactive art) this year is because of the impacts of construction.”
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
Iowa
Iowa prom king, 17, drowns in lake weeks after graduating
A recent high school grad and prom king tragically drowned in an Iowa lake Wednesday.
Ayden Beeson vanished beneath the surface of Rathburn Lake in Centerville more than an hour before rescue teams found his body, officials said.
The 17-year-old swimmer “went under the water and had not resurfaced,” according to the Appanoose County Sheriff’s Office.
The boy’s body was found at 7:33 p.m. in 15 to 20 feet of water. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
While police did not identify the teen, Centerville Community Schools confirmed it was Beeson, who was crowned prom king before graduating from Centerville High School in May.
Despite achieving quintessential high school popularity, the football and tennis player was well known in the community as a “genuinely kind person who treated every student and staff member with respect.”
“On top of being a great athlete his best quality was him just being him,” Beeson’s tennis coach Tyler Baze wrote on Facebook.
“Ayden was the kid every teacher and coach loves, he was such a kind and compassionate kid and gave you everything he had in the classroom and field/court! I’m am thankful for getting the opportunity to know such a person.
Centerville High School reopened its doors this week to offer counseling to grieving friends and dozens gathered at the football field where the teenager once played for a prayer vigil.
The school district also shared an emblem to its social media channels reading “Be like Beeson #20,” in reference to his jersey number.
The circumstances surrounding his drowning are still under investigation.
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