Farmers could stand to lose as much as any segment of the economy if political leaders don’t avert the fast-approaching “fiscal cliff.” The impact on farmers of potential changes to the estate tax is “extremely dramatic,” compared with other fiscal cliff effects, which include income and payroll tax rate increases, said Dave Miller, director of [...]

If you want to know how dry the subsoil is, ask a grave digger. “It’s dry as a bone once you get below 6 inches,” said Carl Thoresen, superintendent at Oak Hill Cemetery in Cedar Rapids. Thomas Higgins of Independence, a grave digger for 28 years, said he’s finding moisture to 2 1/2 feet in [...]

Flooding along the Iowa side of the Missouri River this year did at least $207 million in damages to crops and related economic activities in six western Iowa counties that border the river, according to a study commissioned by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation that was released Monday. The estimated $207 million in lost crop [...]