A yearly survey of duck populations show encouraging statistics for northwest Missouri’s duck hunters and resulted in a 16-day early teal season.

The North American Duck Breeding Population Survey shows an increase in breeding populations of seven percent. The U.S. And Canadian fish and wildlife services estimate the total duck numbers at 48.6 million.

Mallards, the mainstay species for Missouri waterfowl hunters, is estimated at 10.6 million, up 15 percent from last year.

The length of Missouri’s early teal hunting season is set according to the number of blue-winged teal recorded in the annual survey. Blue-winged teal numbers this year are estimated at 9.2 million. That is similar to last year’s population. This year’s early teal season will open Sept. 8 and run through Sept. 23.

Doreen Mengel, a resource scientist with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), notes now it’s important to track the weather.

“It would have been difficult to imagine that we would see these kinds of waterfowl numbers 20 years ago,” says Mengel. “Having near-record duck populations is a testament to the hard work hunters and conservation groups have made to restore wetland habitat on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border. It’s reason for celebration. However, remember that weather, local habitat conditions, and migration timing will play major roles in shaping the 2012 teal and regular waterfowl seasons we experience in Missouri.”

The Missouri Conservation Commission will set opening and closing dates, bag limits and other details of the regular waterfowl season at its August meeting.

 

 

Officers searching for evidence in the disappearance of two Edgerton women have found two bodies, but so far they have not formally identified them as the missing women.

Sisters Britny Haarup and Ashley Key were declared missing Friday after Haarup’s two young children were found unattended.  On Saturday officers found what is believed to be their truck about half a mile from where the bodies were found.

Officials with the Platte County Sheriff’s Office say a person of interest led authorities to the bodies.  That man is now in police custody and is believe to be the only person involved.

The bodies were taken to the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Officer for autopsies and positive identification.

No formal charges have been filed

The City of St. Joseph Health Department Community Health Division joins forces with the Robidoux Resident Theater to sponsor a free walk-in clinic for rapid HIV testing.

The event coincides with the Robidoux Resident Theater’s production of the musical “Rent,” which explores the lives of some New York City bohemians struggling with life, love and AIDS.

The Health Department offered information at a special table during each performance at the Missouri Theater.

 

The St Joseph Health Department Community Health Division asserts that all persons with risk factors for infection should be tested for HIV and STDs.  Free testing will be available Monday, July 16, from 10:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. at the St Joseph Health Department, 904 South Tenth Street in the first floor clinic.

The $10 testing fee will be waived during these hours and no appointment will be necessary.

For more information, please call (816) 271-4636.

 

 

A cover crop workshop this week drew about 160 farmers to Northwest Missouri State.

Farmers and producers from as far away as Wisconsin showed up Tuesday to the event by the university’s Agriculture Department.

The day-long, free event on cover crops focused on education on using cover crops and how they can help. It featured guest speakers, including local producers, university experts and representatives of the Missouri Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Attendees also had the opportunity to tour cover crop demonstration plots on the Northwest campus that consist of various cover crop species and cover mixtures.

Cover crop usage has grown about 400 to 500 percent to increase soil organic matter contents, porosity and nutrient levels, as well as reduce erosion, said Dr. Jamie Patton, associate professor of agricultural sciences at Northwest.

“Often times we’re not taught this kind of information in college, the whole idea of the soil being an ecosystem,” Patton said. “So this was a way to try to get producers to look at soil not just as a geologic material but as a living being and how we can treat that living being better so that she can better serve us in food production.”

Northwest’s agricultural sciences department has grown various types of cover crops during the last three years.

 

 

 

Missouri consumers have another tool they can use to compare insurance companies. It’s called the complaint index. You can search for ratings by company or by type of coverage, whether home, life, auto, and so forth. More than 12-hundred insurance companies do business in Missouri, and the Department of Insurance receives 35-hundred complaints a year about them. You can click on the complaint index here.

 

This summers lingering heat-waves and drought is to blame for several fish kills in shallow ponds and lakes throughout the Midwest.

It typically occurs when ponds are not deep enough for fish to retreat to cooler and oxygen-rich waters.

Shallow ponds get warmer than deeper ponds, and with little rain, area ponds are becoming shallower by the day. Evaporation rates are up to 11 inches per month in these conditions, according to the Missouri Conservation Department.

When there is less water in pond, nutrients often concentrated  in smaller areas and lead to increased plant growth.  Too many plants can cause wild fluctuations in oxygen levels.  Sunlight fuels the growth of aquatic plants and algae to produce oxygen.  The plants will use the oxygen at night and clouds during the day can limit the production of oxygen by plants.

Once a fish kill begins, fish will be at the pond surface gulping for air, especially early in the morning.  The water will change color to a dark tea color and the largest fish will die first.  Largemouth bass, grass carp and large catfish will be accompanied by small bluegill because they require the most oxygen.

There’s no reason to remove the dead fish.  Leaving to decay is the only real option. Fish will decay rapidly in these temperatures and disappear, probably in about five days.

Prevention is difficult, and must be done at the right time as well.

First, the best prevention is to construct the pond properly.  Ponds that have water depths eight feet or greater over at least 25 percent of the pond’s acreage are much more likely to keep fish alive during these hot and dry conditions.

Controlling excessive aquatic vegetation must begin before water temperatures reach 80 degrees.  It’s too late now to try and kill excess aquatic plants.  Killing plants now will lead to more of an oxygen demand in the pond and will dramatically increase the likelihood of a fish kill.

Trying to maintain water depth in your pond by pumping water into it from either a well or city water supply is not feasible.  It takes 325,000 gallons to add a foot of water to a one acre pond.  City water also contains chlorine that could cause a fish kill.

Aeration systems can help but only if used before high temperatures cause low oxygen levels in ponds. Aerators must be the type that draws cooler water from near a pond’s deepest bottom and sprays it into the air to add oxygen. But it’s late to do this as well, because these systems will cause the pond to “turnover.” They will mix water from the very bottom of the pond that is devoid of oxygen with the upper layer of water which is already oxygen-starved.

Low oxygen fish kills usually don’t kill every fish in the pond.  Restocking the pond can be done.  But if the pond conditions are not changed, a fish kill could happen again.   If your pond does have a fish kill, it may be time to deepen it and make it more hospitable for fish in extreme weather.

WireCo World Group has acquired a synthetic rope manufacturer, Lankhorst Ropes based in the Netherlands, in a deal valued at about $177 million.

The Kansas City-based WireCo has facilities in St Joseph. In a news release, the company said it had closed on the purchase Thursday.

The company will assume Lankhorst’s outstanding debt worth about $40.5 million (33.2 million euros).

Lankhorst makes synthetic ropes used in the maritime, fishing and offshore-drilling markets. The firm has more than 1,300 employees in the Netherlands, Portugal, and Brazil.