September first may be considered “Black Wednesday” by some. It’s deadlineday for farm landlords and farmer tenants across the state to give notice ofrenewing or ending their leases. One top state official expects there to bea great number of farmers being forced to call it quits within a few days.Steve Reno, Iowa’s Assistant Attorney General in the Farm Division, callshimself a farm boy from Bonaparte. He says he hopes in his heart it won’thappen, but he fears the current commodities price crunch is going to be toomuch for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Iowa farmers.Reno says there are several ways the termination of lease notices can begiven by September 1st.Iowa Ag Secretary Patty Judge warns one-third of all Iowa farms maydisappear within a year if the federal government fails to act. An IowaState University study concludes about half of all Iowa pork producers are inweak-to-vulnerable financial condition.
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