ATCHISON, Kan. (AP) — The final three bodies were recovered Oct. 31 from the burnt wreckage of a Kansas grain elevator where a weekend explosion killed six people and injured two others, a company official said.

The first three bodies were found during the weekend before but unstable concrete, hanging steel beams and other damage had forced crews to temporarily suspend the search for the remaining victims at the Bartlett Grain Co. facility in Atchison, about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City.

The final three victims’ bodies were recovered Oct. 31, said Bob Knief, a Bartlett senior vice president. Knief declined to discuss the identities of the three victims, but relatives identified two of them as Curtis Field, 21, and state grain inspector Travis Keil. They have said the third person also was a state grain inspector.

The grain inspectors worked for Kansas Grain Inspection Service, Inc., a private firm based in Topeka, said Tom Tunnell, executive director of the Kansas Grain and Feed Assoc.

The Oct. 29 blast fired an orange fireball into the night sky, shot off a chunk of the grain distribution building directly above the elevator and blew a large hole in the side of a concrete silo. The three Bartlett workers whose bodies were recovered earlier were identified as Chad Roberts, 20; Ryan Federinko, 21; and John Burke, 24.

Bartlett Grain President Bill Fellows said in a statement workers were loading a train with corn when the explosion occurred, but the cause of the explosion remained unclear. The company brought in a South Dakota-based engineer with expertise in such accidents to help federal safety investigators at the scene.

Over the past four decades, there have more than 600 explosions at grain elevators, killing more than 250 people and injuring more than 1,000, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

PILOT MOUND, Iowa (AP) — A 74-year-old farmer has died after anhydrous ammonia leaked from a tank in central Iowa.

Authorities say a hose broke, allowing the fertilizer out of the tank on Oct. 29. The accident occurred on the east side of Pilot Mound in northwestern Boone County.

Richard Shaw of Ogden was pronounced dead at the scene. His 54-year-old son, Michael Shaw, was taken to a Des Moines hospital. A sheriff’s deputy, two paramedics and another rescuer have been treated for exposure.

Anhydrous ammonia can damage skin, eyes and lungs.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man has been sentenced to prison for making false statement to a federal agency on crop loans.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Friday that Donald Yotter of Oakville pled guilty to three counts of making a false statement and was sentenced to three concurrent terms of a year in prison. Prosecutors say Yotter farmed in Henry and Louisa counties. From April 2005-December 2006, he applied for three separate crop loans totaling nearly $342,000. He pledged corn and soybeans as collateral.

Spot checks by the Farm Service Agency found the crops didn’t exist, were improperly sold or weren’t in the designated storage location. Yotter hadn’t gotten approval from the agency to remove or dispose of the crops.

BAD AXE, Mich. (AP) — The owners of a Michigan dairy farm who pled guilty to hiring illegal immigrants are getting support from businesses that rely on the farm, in their effort to avoid jail time.

John and Anja Verhaar pled guilty to misdemeanor charges and acknowledged employing 78 illegal immigrants from 2000 through the fall of 2007. Many were hired on multiple occasions using different names or Social Security numbers.

After emigrating from the Netherlands in the 1990s, the Verhaars have turned a small farm into a major 5,000-cow operation in Huron County, 110 miles north of Detroit. “The Verhaars are law-abiding, honest individuals who made bad judgments with respect to certain hiring decisions,” attorney Matthew Leitman said in an Oct. 27 court filing.

They face up to six months in jail, but supporters hope the Verhaars remain free. Federal prosecutors have not taken a position.

“Since the Verhaars’ arrival to our area, they have become valued members of our community – both socially and economically – and I cannot even begin to stress the adverse effects likely to occur” if the farm suffers, veterinarian Ken Walker said in a letter filed in court.

Kameron Southworth of Michigan Manure Management said Aquila Farms has been a steady customer for years and is a significant source of income. Hay suppliers Scott and Trudy Fodor said they might have to lay off their own children if the dairy farm doesn’t buy hay.

“Now would not be a good time for them to have to find new employment with the economy such as it is,” the Fodors said.

Leitman said the farm already has agreed to pay a $2.7 million penalty and any time in jail would jeopardize the business.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio milk produced without the use of a synthetic growth hormone no longer needs to carry a disclaimer along with the label advertising its absence.

The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Assoc. announced Nov. 1 it has reached an agreement with the Ohio Department of Agriculture to withdraw a 2008 dairy labeling rule. The rule required that milk boasting to be free of the synthetic bovine growth hormone rBST print a disclaimer on the container stating the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says there’s no significant difference between milk produced by cows given the hormone and cows that aren’t.

Opponents had said the rule made it costly to produce labels and market the milk. A call to an Agriculture Department spokesman was not immediately returned.