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Sunday, October 7, 2018 www.thegazette.com $3.00

Kavanaugh sworn in to top court

Narrow vote cements conservative
court but tarnishes its image
Gazette wires
WASHINGTON — A freshly
sworn-in Brett Kavanaugh will
join the U.S. Supreme Court im-
mediately after senators affirmed
his appointment Saturday by a
two-vote margin, the closest confir-
mation for a justice in more than a
century.
The tumultuous process caps
President Donald Trump’s extraor-
dinary reshaping of the federal
judiciary into a conservative mold
for a generation or more. This is
his second successful pick for the
top court, and his nominees for
federal circuit and appeals judges
INSIDE
l Kavanaugh to be pivotal on the court
social issues, 9A
l Political races shift in fallout from
Kavanaugh fight, 10A
have been confirmed at a faster
clip than of any recent predecessor
at this point in their terms.
Yet the acrimony surrounding
Kavanaugh, 53, since Trump nomi-
nated him July 9 further divided
the nation. Now, it threatens to
stain the public’s perception of the
high court as it takes on some of
the country’s most divisive issues,
including gay rights, immigration, Brett
abortion and presidential powers. Kavanaugh
Confirmed
;; KAVANAUGH, PAGE 8A on Saturday

Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette

Soybeans grown by Nate Hofmann and his family are stored in a grain bin Thursday on the land they farm in rural Marion. Multiple factors affect how much any commodity is worth in the United
States and abroad. “We’ll see where it develops, but just because you store it over the winter doesn’t mean you’ll get a better price,” Hofmann said.

GRAIN BIN L
By Dan Mika, The Gazette

ast Thursday morning, Nate Hofmann stood up to his ankles

in harvested soybeans stored in a grain bin he rents north of
Marion.
Parts of the bin were empty after an earlier delivery. But at
the end of harvest season, it will be filled to the brim, several
dozen feet tall, with about 40,000 bushels of the crop.

GAMBLE
Hofmann, co-president of the Linn County Farm Bureau, said the
product in this bin usually is sold off before March, and much of it was
purchased earlier this year in a forward contract.
But as with many producers across Iowa this year, he is planning to
hold onto the rest of the crop longer than usual — and hope sales prices
eventually rise.
“For us ..., we’re almost always clean out for soybeans,” he said. “I
think the price wasn’t good enough for people” this season.
Farmers in Iowa this year are storing the highest amount of soy-

Farmers hope for higher prices

beans in more than a decade as ongoing trade disputes with China and
an expected record yield keep prices for the commodity lower than the
cost of production.

as they store more soybeans ;; CROPS, PAGE 11A

More airport cargo stirs ‘recipe for success’

Business parks and planned
freight facility add to allure
By Mitchell Schmidt, The Gazette
CEDAR RAPIDS — With the cer-
emonial plunge of nine shovels, local,
state and federal officials have broken
overhaul of The Eastern Iowa Air-
port’s cargo facilities.
While the airport expansion project
— driven by an exponential increase
in cargo traffic — will completely
revamp the airport’s freight capacity
and could allow for more commercial
and cargo traffic, it’s just one of sev-
eral components turning the southern
Cedar Rapids area into a sweet spot for
growth.
“This land all around us is develop-
ment-ready, providing a great oppor-
tunity to recruit business,” Doug Neu-
mann, executive director of the Cedar
Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, said
during Wednesday’s groundbreaking.
“This project gives us an opportunity
to widen that lens.”
When finished in late 2019, the
south of two of Iowa’s largest build-
ready industrial sites — a 1,300-acre
industrial park and nearly 600-acre lo-
gistics and manufacturing park — and
a proposed intermodal facility poised
to be a one-of-a-kind freight center for
the state.
Brian Crowe, director of business
attraction with regional economic
VOL. 136 NO. 271

ground on a more-than-$10 million freight, industrial and manufacturing airport expansion will be positioned ;; CARGO, PAGE 7A

MERCY CARDIOLOGY CLINIC

Sunday

Welcomes Kashif Chaudhry, MD

© 2018 The Gazette

mercycare.org/heart

Cargo/Boosting freight capacity
;; FROM PAGE 1A
development group ICR
Iowa, said it’s hardly
a coincidence the four
projects landed in such
proximity.
“I think it was taking
advantage of one thing
after another,” Crowe
said. “I think that those
pieces coming together
was a bit of luck, but a lot
of really good planning
at the end of the day.”
AIRPORT CARGO FACILITY
Eastern Iowa Airport
officials in September
announced they had
secured an $8.8 million
Federal Aviation Admin-
istration grant, the larg-
est discretionary grant
the airport has ever re-
ceived in a single year.
The proposal is to re-
locate the airport’s cargo
facilities away from the
main terminal building,
expand the west cargo
apron area and build a
connecting taxiway to al-
low for a joint-use cargo
center.
Airport Director Mar-
ty Lenss said the project
will be the dimensions of
three football fields wide
and one and a half foot-
ball fields deep.
Doing so will boost the
airport’s freight capac-
ity — something Michael
Arndt, area human re-
sources manager with
UPS in Des Moines, said
is much needed.
He noted UPS is up
about 10 percent to
12 percent in inbound
volume and about 8 per-
cent outbound volume at
the Cedar Rapids airport
compared with previous
years. “It’s long over-
due,” he said.
All told, The Eastern
Iowa Airport’s year-to-
date cargo volume is up
more than 20 percent,
with the facility handling
about 45 percent of the
state’s total cargo vol-
ume. The airport could
reach half of all Iowa air
cargo traffic by the end
of the year, Lenss said.
From 2008 to 2017,
the airport’s share of
cargo increased from
29 percent to 44 percent,
according to airport data.
In the same span, the
Des Moines International
Airport saw its share of
state cargo traffic drop
from 71 percent to
56 percent.
Lenss said the Cedar
Rapids growth largely
has been driven by on-
line shopping and e-com-
merce, with the airport
able to reach millions of
customers within a day’s
drive thanks to nearby
highways, including In-
terstates 80 and 380.
“This particular devel-
opment really starts to
set us up for an air cargo
complex that meets that
growing demand in e-
commerce, as well as
servicing the increasing
needs of a lot of our local
employers,” Lenss said.
The relocation of car-
go facilities also opens
the door for future ex-
pansion to the airport’s
terminal and commercial
TV reporter fired after wearing MAGA hat to Trump rally
Washington Post
Jim Bunner waved to the
camera, cellphone in one
hand, KTTC-TV branded
microphone in the other, his
receding hairline bared to the
Minnesota morning chill.
He could have been any
other reporter standing out-
side the Rochester civic center lined all the way to the back
Thursday, awaiting President of the civic center, most of
Donald Trump’s rally. At
least, so it seemed in that par- Great Again” hats.
ticular shot.
“I’ve met people all the way frame — visible for a split sec-
from Mankato, from Iowa,
from Eagle Lake, you name
it,” Bunner said in his NBC
Airport Director Marty Lenss speaks to dignitaries and others gathered Wednesday during a groundbreaking ceremony for a cargo ex- After that, work can
pansion project at The Eastern Iowa Airport in southwest Cedar Rapids. The expansion will be the dimensions of three football fields begin on a full design, he
wide and one and a half football fields deep, he said.
Upcoming industrial and freight development projects
151
Prairie Creek
FAIRFAX
76th Ave. SW
Lefebure Rd. SW
Maple Grove
Rd. SW
Tissel Hollow Rd. SW
MARION
CEDAR
RAPIDS
Detail
area
1. With the help of a federal grant, EASTERN IOWA
AIRPORT officials have begun a roughly
$10.3 million effort to relocate and upgrade the
airport’s cargo facilities.
2. The nearly 600-acre CEDAR RAPIDS LAND AND
AIR SUPER PARK was created with hopes of
attracting industries including logistics and
distribution, advanced manufacturing, and biotech
and food sectors.
Source: Iowa Department of Transportation, The Eastern Iowa Airport, and Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway
flight offerings.
The airport is in the
midst of a terminal
modernization project
— Phase 3 is estimated
at about $31 million — to 500 acres and meet eight Lefebure Road SW to
add 54,000 square feet
to the terminal, build
two new jet bridges and
expand other offerings.
A fourth and final phase cubic feet of natural gas
still is being planned.
SUPER AND MEGA PARKS cess to rail and be within already complete, such
Certified in 2015, the
Cedar Rapids Land and
Air Super Park, located
off Wright Brothers
Boulevard SW north of
the airport, boasts 582
acres of build-ready land. announced by Iowa Land nesses looking for a site, incorporate three
About 480 of those are
news station’s Facebook Live
feed. “They are excited for the
fact the president of the United
States is visiting Rochester.
This is big! This ‘yuge,’ in the
words of Donald Trump.”
The multimedia reporter
might have been simply chan-
neling the enthusiasm of the
crowd — thousands of people
them sporting “Make America
But just outside the camera
ond when it pulled back from
Bunner’s face to pan around
— his own bright red MAGA
Sunday, October 7, 2018 ● The Gazette 7A
facilities for freight-to-
truck transfer and vice
versa; a cross-docking
facility for truck-to-
truck transfers; and a
bulk freight storage and
transfer operation.
The facility would ease
the movement of freight
between trucks, rail cars
and shipping containers,
allowing a more efficient
and economical move-
ment of goods.
Iowa’s only intermo-
dal facility is in Council
Bluffs, which includes fa-
cilities for just one of the
three freight components
planned for the Cedar
Rapids site. Having all
three in a single location
will help set the region
and state apart, said
Craig Markley, director
of Iowa DOT’s office of
systems planning.
Markley said work is
underway on an environ-
mental analysis for the
site, with hopes of com-
Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette pleting that this year.
added.
“Certainly, you’ve got
great access to U.S. 30,
more attractive. you’ve got great access
While Iowa eventually with I-380, you’ve got the
fell out of the running,
Cedar Rapids and Iowa
Toyota-Mazda last City railroad and Edge-
year considered Iowa wood Road ... it’s a great
a possible home for a spot, specifically with
380
joint venture $1.6 billion the certified site efforts
4 car manufacturing that have been going on,”
60th Ave. SW plant. The site under Markley said.
consideration was the Markley said the
Big Cedar Industrial
Edgewood Rd. SW
CEDAR logistics park is
26th St. SW
Center. anticipated to result in
68th Ave.
RAPIDS But there have not millions of dollars in
been any major develop- savings over a 20-year
3 SW ments on either site so
period, including:
far, Crowe said. l The intermodal
“We’ve gotten a lot of component is expected
interest from companies to save shippers nearly
who maybe we never
18th St. SW
2 $264.8 million
got to look at us in the l The cross-dock com-
past because we didn’t ponent is expected to
Wright Brothers Blvd. W have the tracts of land save shippers more than
kind of pulled together $260.8 million
as we do now,” he said. l The transload com-
Cherry Valley Rd. SW
“We’re up taking swings ponent is expected to
at the plate because this save shippers more than
land has been vetted $37.4 million
The Eastern
and reviewed and l The facility is
1 Iowa Airport now we’re positioning expected to provide
it for a development $292.7 million in benefits
opportunity.” from avoided crashes
3. The BIG CEDAR INDUSTRIAL CENTER is a 1,300-acre Crowe said planned l The facility is ex-
industrial park with hopes of attracting advanced upgrades to cargo fa- pected to provide about
manufacturing and warehouse/distribution businesses. cilities at the airport $61.2 million in emission
and Iowa Department of reduction benefits
4. THE IOWA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION plans to Transportation’s plans In addition, Jeff
build a $46.5 million full-service inter-modal facility, which will to build an intermo- Woods, director of busi-
include three components — inter-modal facilities for freight to dal freight facility near ness development and
truck — and vice versa — transfer; a cross-docking facility for Edgewood Road and the marketing with Alliant
truck-to-truck transfers; and a bulk freight storage and transfer CRANDIC should only
operation.
Energy Transportation,
make those industrial said the logistics park
sites all the more attrac- fits perfectly into the
Gazette map tive to businesses.
larger picture with the
“I think proximity to nearby airport expansion
infrastructure assets
airport-owned. iary of Alliant Energy. and two certified devel-
is a huge opportunity,” opment parks, creating a
To secure Iowa Eco- The 1,300-acre site
Crowe said. “Having “recipe for success.”
nomic Development is bound by Edgewood
land that’s available “You have an eco-
Authority certification, Road SW to the east, 76th
there for companies nomic development park
a site must have at least Avenue SW on the south,
there is a regional that lures a big client
benefit.”
criteria including the the west and a portion because you have an air-
ability to provide a mil- of the Cedar Rapids and port freight facility next
lion gallons of water per Iowa City Railway, or NEW FREIGHT FACILITY to it and you’ve got our
day and 32,500 million CRANDIC, to the north. In 2016, the Iowa logistics hub next to it,”
As certified parks, the DOT announced it had Woods said. “It’s some-
per month within nine sites have some of the secured a $25.7 million thing that will feed off
months, immediate ac- early development steps grant to build a full-ser- itself once the ball starts
vice intermodal facility rolling and you start to
5 miles of an interstate. as environmental impact southwest of Highway 30 land certain types of in-
The following year, studies. and just north of the Big dustries. I think it’s just
in 2016, the state’s first The hope, Crowe said, Cedar Industrial Center. a matter of time before it
certified mega industrial is that doing so in ad- The $46.5 million starts filling everything
park — the Big Cedar vance shortens the time Cedar Rapids Logistics up out there.”
Industrial Center — was frame for potential busi- Park is planned to
l Comments: (319) 398-8309;
and Building, a subsid- thus making the area components: intermodal mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com
hat peeked out from his duffel political views — something gonna be a whole lot of pissed
bag. that the Washington Post, the off liberals in the morning.”
KTTC-TV dismissed Bun- New York Times, Politico and A few months after KTTC
ner the next day, according to many other new outlets hired him in December 2017,
the Associated Press, after an- discourage. BuzzFeed reported, the re-
other reporter photographed “I never have been a big porter changed his Facebook
him wearing the hat and Trump fan,” Bunner wrote a profile image to a photo of
posted it on Twitter. Caption: few days after Election Day in himself in front of the White
“Whyyyyy?” 2016. “I love a lot of what he’s House with the caption: “I’m
While Bunner could not be saying and believe if he could the NRA.”
reached for comment, KTTC live up to all of these promises While Sederstrom did
news director Noel Seder- he’s made about immigration not respond to a request for
strom told BuzzFeed News, and the Supreme Court, he comment from the Post, the
© 2018 The Gazette
“We don’t allow our people to could be a fantastic president.” news director told BuzzFeed
wear campaign clothing while “Look on the bright side,” that Bunner’s political views
on assignment.” he added. “At least now were not a factor in his
As BuzzFeed noted, Bun- Obama’s legacy has been de- dismissal. Wearing Trump
ner’s publicly available social stroyed, Hillary Clinton will campaign gear while on the
media feed was full of his never be president, and there’s job was.
8A The Gazette ● Sunday, October 7, 2018

Kavanaugh/‘Totally brilliant’ justice

;; FROM PAGE 1A
Trump, who watched Sat-
urday’s Senate vote aboard
Air Force One, told reporters
that Kavanaugh is “going to
go down as a totally brilliant
Supreme Court justice for
many years.”
The president praised Ka-
vanaugh’s temperament and
judicial service and said that
“we’re honored that he was
able to withstand these hor-
rible, horrible attacks by the
Democrats.”
Kavanaugh’s nomination
became an intense personal
and political drama when
California professor
Christine Blasey Ford
accused him of sexually
assaulting her in the
upstairs bedroom of a home
in a wealthy suburb of
Washington in 1982, when
they were high school
students.
Two other women addi-
tionally accused him in the
media of sexual misconduct
in the 1980s.
Kavanaugh fought back
against the accusations,
denying them in an angry
and tearful testimony
before the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
PRAISE FOR KAVANAUGH
Following the hearing that
included testimony from
both Ford and Kavanaugh,
the confirmation vote was
delayed a week to allow the
FBI to conduct a limited
investigation into the allega- of the Judiciary Committee
tions of Ford and another ac- that oversaw
cuser, Deborah Ramirez, who tion, on the Senate floor cited party lines, with one
asserted Kavanaugh exposed Kavanaugh’s “extraordinary Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin that Chief Justice John
himself to her while they
were in college.
Republicans said the
FBI report, which has not
been made public, showed
no corroboration of the
allegations and exonerated
Kavanaugh. Democrats
argued it was too limited in
scope to be enlightening.
vote margin in 1881.
Before Saturday’s vote, WHO IS ON THE U.S.
Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., SUPREME COURT
warned that his colleagues
A full U.S. Supreme Court consists
were “about to elevate a of a chief justice and eight associate
nominee who doesn’t be-
justices, although they are commonly
long on the nation’s highest referred to simply as justices. Here are
bench.”
the nine people now on the court:
“To Americans, to so
many millions who are out-
John Roberts Jr.
raged by what happened l Chief justice
here, there’s one answer: l Nominated by President George W.
Vote,” he said.
Bush
l Took his seat Sept. 29, 2005
ACCUSERS RESPOND
Photo released by U.S. Supreme Court
In a new statement online, Clarence Thomas
Judge Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in during a private ceremony Saturday as an
Ford said she believed and l Associate justice
associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts as
still believes “that it was my l Nominated by President George H.W.
Kavanaugh’s wife, Ashley, holds the family Bible and his daughters, Liza and
civic duty to come forward, Bush
Margaret, look on. Kavanaugh is expected to be on the bench Tuesday when
but this is by far the hard- l Took his seat Oct. 23, 1991
the court hears its next case. est thing I’ve ever had to do,
much harder even than I Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Still, Republicans mostly ers angered by the treatment thought it would be.” l Associate justice
On Saturday, Ramirez is- l Nominated by President Bill Clinton
have been careful not to say of Kavanaugh’s accusers
sued a statement saying that l Took her seat Aug. 10, 1993
they disbelieve Ford’s asser- against conservatives who
tion, but to assert this is a see him as a man wrongly witnesses who could have
case of mistaken identity. accused. corroborated her allegations Stephen Breyer
Trump said Saturday, for In an interview with the were not interviewed by the l Associate justice
l Nominated by President Bill Clinton
example, he is “100 percent” Washington Post, Senate Ma- FBI.
“Thirty-five years ago, the l Took his seat Aug. 3, 1994
certain that Ford had named jority Leader Mitch McCon-
the wrong attacker. nell called the opposition to other students in the room
In statements distributed Kavanaugh a “great political chose to laugh and look the Samuel Alito Jr.
Saturday to the news media, gift” to the GOP right before other way as sexual violence l Associate justice
was perpetrated on me by l Nominated by President George W.
neither of Iowa’s senators the elections, where control
— Chuck Grassley and Joni of the House and Senate are Brett Kavanaugh,” she said. Bush
“As I watch many of the l Took his seat Jan. 31, 2006
Ernst, both Republicans who on the line.
supported Kavanaugh — Trump is holding rallies Senators speak and vote on
mentioned Ford. and stumping for Republi- the floor of the Senate I feel Sonia Sotomayor
Ernst lauded Kavanaugh cans facing tight congressio- like I’m right back at Yale l Associate justice
l Nominated by President Barack
as a “highly-qualified justice nal races. He is set to appear where half the room is laugh-
committed to the rule of Tuesday in Council Bluffs, ing and looking the other Obama
l Took her seat Aug. 8, 2009
law and the United States where he will campaign for way. Only this time, instead
Constitution.” Iowa 3rd House District Rep. of drunk college kids, it is US
Grassley, who is chairman David Young. Senators who are deliberate- Elena Kagan
ly ignoring his behavior.” l Associate justice
Saturday’s confirmation
l Nominated by President Barack
the confirma- vote broke largely along In a news release, the
Supreme Court announced Obama
l Took her seat Aug. 7, 2010
record as a judge and citizen” III of West Virginia, Roberts Jr. and retired
and decried a Democratic supporting Kavanaugh, Justice Anthony Kennedy Neil Gorsuch
“character assassination” he and one Republican, Sen. — whose seat Kavanaugh l Associate justice
l Nominated by President Donald Trump
called “beyond the pale.” Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, fills — would administer the
oaths of office Saturday so l Took his seat April 10, 2017
opposing his nomination.
‘GREAT POLITICAL GIFT’ The margin is the tightest Kavanaugh “can begin to
The confirmation battle in 137 years, when the Senate participate in the work of the Brett Kavanaugh
is certain to influence next confirmed Stanley Matthews Court immediately.” l Associate justice
month’s midterm elections, — a nominee of President l Nominated by President Donald Trump
Reuters, the Washington Post and the
pitting energized female vot- James Garfield — by a one- l Sworn in Oct. 6, 2018
Los Angeles Times contributed.

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 Sunday, October 7, 2018 ● The Gazette 11A

Rebecca F. Miller photos/The Gazette

Soybeans grown by Nate Hofmann and his family are stored in a grain bin in rural Marion. The amount of grain in bins steadily has increased over the past several years across the country.

Crops/Grains in storage increasing

;; FROM PAGE 1A
The most recent U.S. Department
of Agriculture grain stocks report, re-
leased Sept. 28, said corn in storage in
Iowa fell 6 percent from this time last
year, to 475 million bushels.
But soybeans in storage in Iowa
increased 66 percent, to 87.9 million
bushels, the highest September figure
since 2007, the report said.
That number doesn’t come close
to the record of 158 million bushels
in Iowa, set in 1986 in the midst of the
farm crisis. But the latest figure is
one of multiple signals showing the
magnitude of China’s influence as the
world’s largest importer of soybeans.
Beijing slapped a 25 percent tariff
on American soybeans and other agri-
cultural products entering the country
earlier this year as part of a trade dis-
pute between the world’s two largest
economies, leading Chinese importers
to look to foreign countries for a less-
expensive product.
Iowa State University economist
Chad Hart said the most recent report
doesn’t yet reflect the grain planted
earlier this year because it hasn’t been
harvested or sent to grain holding yet.
The next USDA grain storage re-
port in January will reflect how much
grain from this year’s season is stored.
The amount of grain in bins steadily
has increased over the past several
years across the country as seed en-
gineering makes crops increasingly
resistant to weeds, pests and disease.
That has led to years of record or near-
record yields.
This year’s sharp increase in siloed
soybeans, combined with the trade dis-
pute, is partially because of that trend.
“It’ll be incrementally more stressed
than it has been in the past couple of
years,” Hart predicted. “We’ve seen
big crop after big crop hitting our stor-
age capacity this past few years.
“What is unique about this year is
this trade dispute, which is slowing
down the usage of the crop.”
Ron Woeste, operations manager
for Linn Co-op, said area producers
already have booked all available
space at the cooperative’s two grain
elevators in Springville and Alburnett,
and he suspects it’s the same at other
elevators in the area.
USDA Iowa soybeans in storage
90,000
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports
80,000 Iowa soybeans in storage jumped 66 percent
from last September to this September, a sign
70,000 farmers plan to hold on to their harvested
crops until prices return to a break-even level.
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000 38,134
20,000
10,000
* Bushels times 1,000
0*
2010 2011
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
ISU’s Hart said that strategy could
Nate Hofmann stands in a grain bin on the land work if the trade disputes end. But it
he and his family farm in rural Marion. could backfire if too many farmers of-
fer their grain at a later date as that
would flood that portion of the market
HOLDING FOR PRICE and minimize any higher prices they
Farmers probably will hold onto could get.
those soybeans until prices improve The USDA’s next worldwide supply-
enough to cover production costs, and-demand estimates report is sched-
Woeste said. uled for release this Friday. Hart said
Soybeans were trading at $10.35 per it will show where prices might be
bushel April 2, the day China imposed heading.
counter-tariffs on U.S. goods. Prices
slid over time, and the commodity COOL CONDITIONS, FREQUENT RAIN
has been trading below $9 since early Corn and soybeans can survive
August. years in storage, depending on several
“They’re hanging onto them be- factors — one of the most important
cause the price declined so bad,” being the condition of the crop when it
Woeste said. “ . . . They got to get to a was removed from the field.
break-even, but we’re not there yet.” A dry, fairly warm harvest reduces
That theory has credence from one the amount of moisture the kernels
of the largest oilseed processors in the and pods will carry into the bin, reduc-
world. ing the chance of mold growth.
Two weeks ago, Bloomberg News re- But a series of rainfalls have passed
ported Soren Schroder, chief executive through Eastern Iowa in the past
officer of agribusiness giant Bunge, two weeks, and more rain is forecast
told attendees at the Wall Street Jour- through the week in the area. Temper-
nal’s Global Food Forum in September atures have dropped to highs of
that producers will try to store as 50 to 70 degrees.
many soybeans as they can and sell Those are not ideal conditions for
them later than usual on the futures harvesting crop for storage, and might
market. lead to grain loss.
“Anybody who can store will do it,” “If these beans sit in these pods,
Schroder said. they could get moldy,” Linn Co-op’s
87,866
66 percent
increase in
storage year
over year
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Gazette graphic
Woeste said. “Just because everyone
thinks it’s going to be a record harvest,
it might not be . . . because we really
haven’t gotten a harvest. We just got a
really good start to it, but the weather
has caused a lot of havoc.”
Some producers had been able to
start harvest weeks earlier than usual
because of prime growing conditions
this summer.
THE PRICE GAMBLE
Hofmann and other farmers plan-
ning to stow soybeans are taking a
risk, waiting for prices to rise.
Multiple factors are in play that
affect how much a bushel of any com-
modity is worth, such as the amount
of yields expected in a harvest domes-
tically, how much crop foreign com-
petitors are planning to grow and the
amount of demand in the United States
and abroad.
But with the price of soybeans
below the cost of production, it’s a
risk many farmers will take in an
environment in which breaking even
is a challenge.
“We’ll see where it develops, but
just because you store it over the win-
ter doesn’t mean you’ll get a better
price,” Hofmann said.
l Comments: (319) 398-8366;
dan.mika@thegazette.com

Pompeo reassures Japan en route to meet Kim in North Korea

Washington Post
TOKYO — Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo met Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe on Sat-
urday and reassured him
Japan’s interests would not
Jong Un in Pyongyang, as he
tries to set the stage for anoth-
er summit between Kim and
President Donald Trump. His
Tokyo stop was designed to re-
assure the United States’ most
important ally in Asia that its
intercontinental ballistic mis- by North Korean agents in the Pompeo had come to Japan
sile program but 1970s and 1980s, an issue that before going to Pyongyang,
leaves North Ko- incites considerable concern where he is to meet Kim Jong
rea with shorter- among the Japanese public. Un today for talks on North
range missiles In a meeting with Abe, Korea’s nuclear program.
that could strike Pompeo said Japan’s concerns Pompeo said his mission is
Tokyo. The Japa- would be addressed, and said “to make sure that we under-
© 2018 The Gazette

be forgotten as he heads to
Pyongyang to continue talks
over North Korea’s nuclear
and missile program.
Pompeo is expected to meet
North Korean leader Kim
interests would not be forgot-
ten in negotiations with Kim.
Japanese foreign policy
experts worry that Wash-
ington could cut a deal with
Pyongyang that limits its
nese government he wants to make sure the two stand what each side is truly
also is demanding countries are “fully in sync” trying to achieve” and how
Pyongyang come Mike Pompeo with regard to missile pro- “each side is seeking to ap-
clean about the Secretary of grams, as well as chemical and proach that, and how we can
fate of Japanese state biological weapons. deliver against the commit-
citizens who were abducted Abe said he appreciates that ments that were made.”