By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

A group of national Democrats may soon recommend that another state vote first as Democrats select their presidential nominee in 2024.

Former Iowa Democratic Party chairman Scott Brennan is the only Iowan on the panel that starts meeting Thursday to recommend a schedule of state primaries and caucuses for 2024.

“There’s been a real move away from Caucuses by the Democratic National Committee. They view them as inherently undemocratic…and they complain that Iowa is just not as diverse as our Democratic Party writ large,” Brennan said recently on Iowa PBS, “so those things combined put us in a bit of a pickle.”

The Iowa Democratic Party’s Caucuses have been the first presidential voting event since 1972. The first primary has been held in New Hampshire. Ray Buckley, chairman of New Hampshire’s Democratic Party, has taken a shot at another strike against Iowa — the days long delay in results from the 2020 Caucuses.

“We have held presidential primaries for over 100 years and not once have we had any reporting issues,” Buckley said during a presentation this summer.

Party leaders have said voting should begin in states that reflect the diversity of the Democratic Party and be key toss up states for winning the presidency. Judith Whitmer, chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party, told the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee Nevada fits those goals.

“As a diverse, accessible and union strong battleground state, Nevada represents the bright future of the Democratic Party,” she said in late June.

Minnesota is another state applying to take over Iowa’s lead-off spot. Ken Martin, chairman of Democratic-Farmer-Laborer Party, dismissed the idea his state’s weather in January would be too harsh for campaigning.

“March 1st, which is when our primary is now, there’s still a lot of snow on the ground and it’s still cold,” he said during a question and answer session with the Rules and Bylaws panel. “It’s not much different if you move it up a month or two.”

Michigan Democrats say the Democratic sweep in this year’s elections in Michigan shows their state should kick-off the presidential campaign.

The Republican National Committee has voted to keep the same slate of early voting contests in 2024, so the Iowa GOP’s Caucuses will be the lead event as Republicans choose their next presidential nominee.

By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

The USDA is predicting the average corn yield in Iowa this year will be 202 bushels an acre. That’s just a couple of bushels short of last year’s record.

Iowa State University ag economist Chad Hart says drought conditions had a mixed impact on yields.

“The western side of the state faced more of those drought problems. As we move over, especially into east central Iowa, we saw some record yields from some producers there,” Hart says, “and so when we add it all up for Iowa, it was actually a pretty good production year.”

Commodity prices are strong and the USDA predicts farm income nationwide will be about 5% higher than in 2021. “Agriculture’s in a pretty good spot right now. We are seeing good revenues when we look across the board. The challenge is we are starting to see those input costs rising,” Hart says. “…Eventually those costs will catch up to the prices we’re capturing today.”

Initial USDA projections for 2023 suggest Iowa farmers will plant more acres of corn next spring. “That tells me that USDA is saying farmers are still chasing after the higher prices or higher returns that corn produces,” Hart says, “even though corn is the higher cost crop to produce.”

Hart says lingering drought conditions have been a concern for farmers in each of the past two growing seasons and will be again in 2023.

“The longer we’re in this pattern, the most likely we are to see more dramatic impacts on our production,” Hart says, “and do some true economic harm to Iowa agriculture.”

Officials in Texas say drought there is causing billions of dollars in losses for cotton farmers. In the American west, drought conditions have persisted for 22 years and ag operations are fighting to maintain access to dwindling water supplies.