Gov. Chet Culver's proposed 10 percent across-the-board state budget cut will have a "dramatic effect" on the Iowa Department of Agriculture, state Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey says.

Harvest season is definitely upon us. The season has been fairly interesting. Much of the Midwest had a wet spring, then we somehow missed summer.

DES MOINES -- Merging the Iowa departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources is one suggestion in the midst of Iowa's fiscal crisis.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The USDA will distribute about $1.7 billion in CRP rental payments to participants across the country in fiscal 2010.

In the nature of "going green," the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 supports the effort with federal tax credits for energy efficiency for individual homes.

GOLDFIELD -- Wagon by wagon, semi by semi, Midwestern co-ops and grain elevators are learning how to operate alongside grain users in the ethanol era.

INWOOD -- Mike Ver Steeg says when he was growing up, he noticed his father, Gene, had more to do that just farm and raise pigs.

MONTICELLO --- The Castle Grove Country Club in Monticello may not be a place most farmers want to visit when they hear the name.

DES MOINES --- Supporters of the World Food Prize got a chance last week to celebrate the dedication of a new Hall of Laureates named after the prize's founder, the late Norman E. Borlaug.

Iowa Farmer Today DES MOINES -- Bill Gates started his speech at last week's World Food Prize Symposium by asking a simple question: "how do you help people who live on less than a dollar a day?"

SEYMOUR -- Ray Cook, like many other farmers in Wayne County and South Central Iowa, had not started his harvest as of Oct. 8.

WASHINGTON, Iowa ith the fields too wet to finish the soybean harvest, Southeast Iowa farmer Jim Cuddeback had to switch to corn, something he doesn't like to do.

WHITTEMORE -- The soybeans are not quite dry today.

HARLAN -- Jamie Fahn emptied his combine against an orange sunset, knowing he likely had just a few hours before showers soaked his Shelby County fields.

ELLIOTT -- Richard Kelley and his son, Dan, worked far into the night Sept. 30, knowing Mother Nature was about to halt their soybean harvest.

DUNCOMBE -- Larry Law is combining corn today, but he has no illusions about the yields in this field.

Bryant -- It's Oct. 9, and Clinton County farmer Chris Matthiesen has yet to turn a wheel of his combine in the field.

ALBERT CITY -- The sun is shining in the middle of harvest season, but Tom Wessman is doing hog chores.

ROWLEY -- "Don't call (the corn) bountiful because it is anything but," Andy White said after unloading a grain cart into a semi.

AMES -- A state-of-the-art agriculture pavilion for Iowa State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has received a major gift from Marvin and Janice Walter of Ames.