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Change to student aid formula would hit Iowa farm families

Darcy and Eric Wemark and their family milk nearly 600 cows at their dairy operation in Ridgeway, near Decorah in northeast Iowa.

The family also has 450 heifers, a 2,500-head swine facility and farms about 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans on land it mostly rents.

The couple’s eldest son, Carson, is finishing his first year at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, where he’s studying agronomy. The 19-year-old plans to carry on in the family business, as does their eldest daughter, Addison. The high school senior plans to head to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to study dairy science next fall.

Carson currently receives federal financial aid through a Pell Grant to help the family pay for the roughly $16,000 annual expense to send him to college, including tuition, fees, room and board, and other expenses.

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Episode 95: Growth Promotants and the Environment Revisited

Video: Episode 95: Growth Promotants and the Environment Revisited

Past research has measured how long residues from growth promoters stay around in a feedlot environment. It showed that certain ones dissipated very quickly, while some could still be found on the pen floor for up to five months after they were last fed. In this episode, we will hear results from a follow-up study that looked at whether composting manure, stockpiling it, or incorporating it into the soil might help to break down these residues.