By Stephen Sealey

OTTUMWA, Iowa — U.S. Senator Joni Ernst was in Ottumwa Saturday morning, to talk about agricultural issues before the annual cow calf conference.

She was just one of many speakers that covered different topics and perspectives in the agricultural economy.

Sen. Ernst touched on last year's avian flu that hit Iowa birds, as well as the federal water regulations, which 97 % of Iowa's land mass faces.

Ernst spoke to us about getting people in agriculture together to speak on issues.

"Everybody together to talk about the issues that are important to agriculture and of course I come from a strong [agricultural] background and serve on the United States senate agricultural committee. So I love to get the feedback of what is going on here in Iowa. It's wonderful. Great conference," Sen. Ernst said

Even though her speech was to address a crowd of cow-calf producers, it was still met with political questions, but that shouldn't come as a surprise with the caucus on Monday.