A new report shows Iowa is deriving more than 35 percent of its electricity from wind energy, an increase from statistics made public earlier this year.  The American Wind Energy Association says in a report released Thursday that Iowa has increased its percentage of in-state electricity that comes from wind turbines. The data, backed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, is based on a 12-month rolling average through the end of August 2016.  The association says Iowa is now the first state to generate more than one-third of its electricity from wind energy. [node:read-more:link]

Andrew Florance hires hundreds of recent college grads for research and tech jobs for his  real estate data firm CoStar Group. [node:read-more:link]

Over the last two decades, the big companies—that is, Monsanto, DuPont—have led the way with massive investments in biotechnology research and with seed and biotechnology company mergers and acquisitions. Historically, the seed-biotechnology companies have been dependent on numerous small and medium scale companies as major sources of innovation (Fuglie et al., 2012). The new small and medium-sized enterprises were specializing in developments of transgenic seed traits. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Agriculture officials are working hard to stop the spread of screwworms that are threatening endangered key deer in Monroe County. Officials showed reporters boxes that each hold 76,000 sterile male flies. Once released, their job is to trick females into thinking they have mated. Because the male flies are sterile, the females stop breeding and do not lay new eggs."We do this rain or shine for as long as it takes to eradicate this," John Welch, from the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

The cows are being put to pasture—forever.  The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections is preparing to end a program that puts convicts to work alongside state farm employees to maintain animals and gardens. The program is being slashed to make more room for “more meaningful career training opportunities,” the prison system said. But not everyone agrees with that logic.  At least 50 state employees will lose their jobs as the program is phased out, which has rankled the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association. [node:read-more:link]

The bumblebees inside the boxes don’t seem to like it, either. My host from Bee Vectoring Technology, a Toronto startup, tells me the insects prefer calmer days and warmer temperatures. In better weather, I might have seen the pollinators buzz out of the nickel-size holes at the ends of the boxes at a regular clip, dipping from flower to flower in the surrounding field, each carrying an unusual delivery: a white dust formulated to protect the strawberries from a type of rot known as Botrytis cinerea, or gray mold. The dust contains a benign fungus, Clonostachys rosea. [node:read-more:link]

As part of its Healthy People 2020 initiative, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is setting up goals to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter infections. By 2020, it is targeting 11.4 cases per 100,000 people for Salmonella and 8.5 cases per 100,000 people forCampylobacter. [node:read-more:link]

One fundamental tenet the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) impresses upon those seeking verification is the importance of good record-keeping. It’s hard to evaluate progress without marking where you started and documenting gains made by implementing on-farm conservation practices.  Now the program itself is taking that same lesson to heart with the implementation of a new MAEAP database its organizers will use to better track, document and promote the program’s stewardship achievements statewide. [node:read-more:link]

A report from the federal Agriculture Department shows that Wisconsin lost almost 400 dairy farms in the last year, though one official says the news isn’t all that bad.  Wisconsin Public Radio reports that about 94,000 dairy herds were active in the state as of Oct. 1 — 4 percent fewer than in 2015. Wisconsin Dairy Business Association President Gordon Speirs says the number of lost farms this year is low compared to previous years, when annual losses reached as high as 1,000. He says that’s “a real victory for our industry” given low milk prices in the past year and a half. [node:read-more:link]