AGRIBUSINESS

Strawberry season is slower but just as sweet at Country Blossom Farm

Michael Johnson — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 12:45:00 GMT

ALEXANDRIA, Minn. — Opening day of strawberry picking came on June 20 for Country Blossom Farm in Alexandria.

Aside from some early-season frost and a June hailstorm, the plants have recovered well and are producing an abundance for u-pick customers. Troy Heald, who owns and operates the farm with his wife, Tracy, and son, Taylor, said that the damage that was incurred has passed, and more varieties are showing good yield.

“The good news is the berries that are left, that aren't frosted, they’ll get a little bigger then. So it hasn’t really affected our total crop that I can tell, yet. But until we’re done, we won’t know,” Heald said.

Berry ripening has been slow. Inconsistent weather patterns from cold to extreme heat have made picking less consistent. This means they could not remain open daily in the first week as they were quickly picked out. Wide rows and plenty of straw mean picking is comfortable and enjoyable on the farm.

Heald said future weather looks more consistent.

“It looks like next week’s all upper 70s, low 80s (degrees), which is perfect,” Heald said.

While the public can pick in the mornings, staff were picking from 4 acres of strawberries on Tuesday, June 24. They pick for those who would rather not pick their own. They also pick to fulfill their bakery needs at their kitchen and retail space on the farm.

The season typically lasts two to three weeks, but it’s highly dependent on weather. This is the eighth season of strawberry picking on the farm.

“We didn't intend on getting into them, but everyone kept asking,” Heald said. As other area berry farms closed up, they filled in. At their peak, they had 6 acres.

They hope to be picking until about the second week of July. Fourth of July is typically peak strawberry picking for them.

Heald said strawberries have helped the farm build diversity in times when other crops are hurt.

“So you've got to have all these things to really help the farm go,” Heald said. “Otherwise, if you just did apples it would be really hard.”

Apples are the main crop and attraction for Country Blossom Farm, but hail damaged close to 50% of their crop this year. While that could be devastating for some orchards, the fact that the damaged apples can be used in their farm cidery means little will be lost. The cider house will be busy.

Other crops grown and available for picking on the farm include honeyberries, aronia berries, raspberries, pumpkins and a variety of other produce.

Country Blossom Farm is located along Interstate 94 at 1951 Englund Rd SW Alexandria. Visit countryblossomfarm.com or call 320-334-1620 for more information on events throughout the year.

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Midwest Agriculture Summit takes on big questions in ag transportation

Jenny Schlecht — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 14:00:00 GMT

WEST FARGO — What farmers do in their fields is just the first step in a long line of actions to get products to market.

"You can't feed the world if you can't get to the world," said Daniel Maffei, a commissioner on the Federal Maritime Commission. "And getting to the world is through ocean shipping, particularly when you talk about agricultural exports."

A packed crowd at the Midwest Ag Summit, put on Tuesday, June 10, by the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce at the Butler Machinery Arena at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds, learned about "Powering Policy, People & Pathways in Agriculture" during the three-hour event. The summit served as a kick-off for Ag Tech Week, a week of agriculture technology programs throughout the Fargo area.

Along with transportation, the Midwest Ag Summit also featured speakers on ag labor, environmental concerns, trade, fuels, ag business, and policy.

Steve Olson, an agriculture strategist who runs Steve Olson Consulting, led discussions on the transportation of ag products. After the panels on which he participated, he summed up the importance of staying on top of transportation infrastructure issues within agriculture:

"Having a strong infrastructure in the rail, trucking, and the Duluth Seaway Port Authority helps us be able to serve those different markets. And without that ... we wouldn't get the value that we need to for our commodities," he said.

Olson talked to Maffei about the Federal Maritime Commission and its importance to agriculture.

Maffei explained that ag exports usually go out via water, making it vital for the systems to work efficiently and effectively. One issue in recent years in that area has been making sure there are sufficient containers available for products and that shippers wait to take the products out rather than leave them behind while going after more lucrative imports into the U.S.

"If we can't get your product out, we're not as powerful country as we should be, we're not as strong of country as we should be and we're not as generous of country as we should be," Maffei said.

Some of those issues have been helped by bipartisan legislation passed during the COVID-19 pandemic that addressed ships needing to wait to take out exports rather than rush off empty, he said.

Many more challenges and uncertainties continue to impact the shipping industry, like weather, labor, markets, shipping alliances and, most recently, tariffs. The Federal Maritime Commission works to help ease some uncertainties and make sure exporters are treated fairly, he said.

A major ongoing issue is making sure containers for exports get to where they are needed for ag exports, often hundreds of miles from the waterways, Maffei said.

"One of the things that they're doing is trying to make, trying to streamline that and trying to get that more in sync. And so those containers are available, and it's more equitable and lower cost for us to actually get our export markets out," Olson explained later.

Better logistics and possibly even more use of artificial intelligence to determine the best routes for products are on the horizon, Maffei said, which could help ensure that ag products make it to where they're going.

Olson also led a panel discussion with Amy McBeth, regional director of public affairs for BNSF Railway; Kate Ferguson, director of trade and business development for Duluth Seaway Port; and Mike Metzger, executive vice president of Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative.

"It was a fascinating panel," he said.

Ferguson talked about the millions of pounds of grain that go out from the port, along with the machinery and parts that go in and out, which are important to agribusinesses in the region.

A recent improvement that has had a big impact has been the implementation of hands-free mooring in the Great Lakes. That has saved time and money, while improving safety and allowing 10 times more ships to go through the Great Lakes, Ferguson said.

"They're actually able to bring more ships in than they've ever been before because of some of the, again, technology and infrastructure needs," Olson said.

McBeth discussed how vital BNSF is in moving ag products in the western two-thirds of the U.S., especially for moving products from Minnesota and North Dakota to the Pacific Northwest. She addressed how technology is being used to prevent accidents and enhance safety on the rail. The number of incidents has been reduced by 60% since 2000, she said. That comes from training to sensors to using artificial intelligence for predicting problems.

She said streamlining the process for updating, improving and fixing infrastructure is vital to increasing the safety and efficiency of rails, along with other infrastructure.

Metzger explained Minn-Dak's use of autonomous trucking. Minn-Dak is the only sugar company that owns and operates its own rehaul fleet, traveling 3.2 million miles per year with 18 trucks.

"We move a lot of product in a short amount of time," he said.

Having enough truck drivers has been a continuing problem, and the age of the drivers continues to increase; the autonomous trucking trial is an attempt to solve the issue. Expanding production is not possible without more truck drivers, Metzger said. The autonomous trucking uses a leader-follower system that requires one driver for two trucks.

"We operate in the state of North Dakota autonomously," he said. "We really see this as our path in the future."

North Dakota was very open to the project, he said, pointing out that the state wants to be a leader in ag technology. Policies and infrastructure have been worked out to continue to improve the project, he said.

In Minnesota, things haven't been quite as smooth, he said, but getting the project in place there is still in the works. It will require passing legislation in the state, he said.

Metzger also thinks the program is something that someday could be used on farms or for other companies. The "bolt-on" system can be turned off, so people can drive the trucks if needed, and Minn-Dak has been careful to only operate the autonomous trucks in safe conditions.

"The public acceptance has actually gone quite well," he said.

Publicity around the autonomous trucking project has helped get new applicants from young people interested in using the new technology.

"The number of youth that has come to drive for us has been incredible," Metzger said.

Later, Olson said the fact that the Minn-Dak autonomous project has been attracting young people to careers is important.

"I think that's kind of the key to a lot of stuff we do in agriculture, is it's how do we get the attention of people that are younger to help let them know what those career opportunities are for now," he said.

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John Deere autonomous tillage system gets tryout in North Dakota fields

Jenny Schlecht — Mon, 26 May 2025 12:30:00 GMT

GLEN ULLIN, N.D. — It's disconcerting to watch a tractor with no one inside fire up and drive away. Gooseneck Implement employees testing out a new precision agriculture feature from John Deere watched it happen for about a week in southern Morton County fields.

"We've added technology on to an existing 9RX John Deere tractor, and it is capable of running autonomously," said Jim Campbell, equipment specialist lead for Gooseneck Implement. "So we are out here doing some tillage work today, and there's nobody running the tractor. Nobody in the tractor at all. It's running by itself."

As he talked, the tractor was over a hill, working alone, breaking up some corn stubble in a field south of Glen Ullin in Morton County. The land was to be planted with canola.

The Precision Upgrade Kit that allows the tractor to operate autonomously for tillage practices is a Limited Production Build that is not yet commercially available but will be soon, Campbell explained. So far, it can be added to 9R and 9RX models, in model year 2022 and newer, and 8R and 8RX models going back to halfway through 2020. The implements used on the system need to be 2017 models or newer, he said.

Gooseneck Implement, a John Deere dealership with locations throughout North Dakota and in Lemmon, South Dakota, is testing out the technology so employees can gain some comfort level with it before it's commercially available.

Autonomous efforts

Developing driverless machinery is not a new effort. An article in Popular Mechanics in 1940 noted efforts by Frank W. Andrew to develop a system that would enable a tractor to operate without a driver in circles, "like the grooves on a phonograph record." But neither it nor other efforts took off, and the development of driverless farm technologies largely stalled until recent years.

Leader-follower systems — which rely on an unmanned vehicle following a manned vehicle — are in limited use, including at Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative and in grain carts, like Raven Industries' OMNiDRIVE. Numerous companies have been working to figure out driverless tractors for well over a decade. CNH unveiled concepts for autonomous tractors at the 2016 Farm Progress show.

Companies like Bluewhite and Monarch have developed autonomous systems for use in specialty crops on lower horsepower tractors. The original focus of North Dakota's Grand Farm was around autonomous agriculture systems.

The John Deere autonomous package right now is only approved for tillage. But Campbell said the basis for the program has built on existing, commonly used technologies like autosteer, and he thinks new technologies will continue to build on each other, expanding the capabilities of autonomous machinery.

"A lot of those technologies that Deere has come out with, that's kind of the framework, the building blocks to autonomy. So that's what we're seeing today, is you're starting to see all of those things come together in infield application," he said.

How it works

A Gooseneck employee demonstrated by moving the tractor, pulling a 49.5-feet-wide 2660 vertical tillage machine, to a new point in the field. Then he got out and walked away. When he was at least 1,500 feet away, he used an app on his phone to start the tractor. Lights flashed, horns honked, and the tractor took off across the field.

"It's a little unnerving, if you've been around tractors for a long time, just to see one start heading off, and something to get used to. But I think producers will get to that. We'll get to that state pretty quick," Campbell said.

The system has 16 cameras to monitor what's going on around it. The tractor won't start if anything is within 50 feet of it.

"It's very sensitive to objects that are obviously humans or objects that could contain humans," Campbell said. "There's a lot of safety that's built into the system, and there's a lot of double safety that's built into the system."

The cameras also monitor while the machine is in autonomous operation. Campbell explained images are sent to John Deere, where humans monitor anything the machine alerts on. Depending on what the cameras and sensors pick up, alerts can trigger a "common, ordinary stop," a "partial demotion" or a "full demotion," Campbell said.

A common stop might be from something like a deer running through a frame; if it's determined there is nothing in the way of the machine, it starts operating again. A partial demotion could be something like a stationary object — maybe a spare tire that fell into the field — and the system informs the producer that unless he gives a different signal within five minutes, the machine will try to route around the object. After three failed attempts to get around an object, it triggers a full demotion.

Other things that could trigger a full demotion include mechanical problems like blowing a hose. In the case of a full demotion, someone has to go to the field, identify the problem and restart operations.

Campbell said too much dust obscuring the cameras can also cause a full demotion, because the system relies on the cameras to operate. When things like that become too frequent, a human can take over driving.

The tractors need to be moved from field to field and rely on someone identifying field boundaries on a map, along with obstacles to go around, like rock piles or sloughs.

"It does not recognize standing water. However, what it will do is it notices slip on the tires. So if it sees anything more than 75% slip for two seconds or more, she's done, right? Stop," Campbell said.

John Deere app images

A look at the app that controls the autonomous tillage system from John Deere.

He said the system can also do some thinking for itself, just "not always the way I would have done it," Campbell said. It might turn a different direction or do things in a different order than he would have. He compared it to his grandfather having him bale hay when he was just learning about equipment.

"You know, it's like, 'I did the same job as you did, Grandpa,' but it was, 'No, you did it, you did it wrong. You accomplished the same thing, but you did it wrong,' " he said.

"We kind of do the same thing. We sit around here watching. It's like, why? Why would you go that way? You could have went this way. So now we're, we've turned into grandpa talking to our grandson, going, what are you doing going that way? You're going all the way to the end to turn around and come back all the way. Why?"

To do all of this thinking and information transmitting and sharing, Campbell said the tractor is equipped with a JDLink Boost providing satellite internet through Starlink.

"So that way, we don't ever lose connectivity to the rest of the world," he said.

Demand for autonomy

Campbell predicts farms struggling with labor shortages will be interested in autonomous systems like the add-on from John Deere. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 116,400 openings for agricultural workers are projected for each year through 2033 to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force.

"This technology can allow tasks to be done while maybe other higher-priority tasks need to be completed first. You just don't have the resources to spread everywhere," Campbell said.

However, he also thinks it might take some time for people to trust the technology.

"You're going to have that standoffish about, just not sure about that kind of level of technology, until they can start to see where they can really become more efficient in their operation with the resources that they have," he said.

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Dry conditions mean more wear and tear on planters, increased demand for irrigation

Ariana Schumacher — Mon, 12 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT

BRIDGEWATER, S.D. — Dry conditions mean there aren’t many weather delays for farmers in the field, but there can be more equipment breakdowns.

Kenny Weber owns Innovative Ag in Bridgewater, which specializes in building custom planters. He says that during a dry season, planter parts get more wear and tear.

“With the dry soils, the seed disk openers, they are definitely wearing down faster. Field cultivator points, stuff like that, it definitely wears faster,” he said.

Dry conditions also mean the planter settings have to be different.

“The challenges that we’ve been facing is just getting the planters set right. Downforce has been a big one that I’ve gotten a lot of questions on,” Weber said. “You don’t want to be too heavy on your planter units, but at the same time, if you’re not heavy enough, you’re not packing the sidewall, and the dry dirt is going to fall down into the trench before your seed drops.”

This can cause the seed to be inaccurately placed.

“It ends up being shallower than it needs to be,” Weber said. “Then, having that dry dirt around the seed doesn’t help with germination at all.”

Weber also operates 3,000 acres of his own farmland. He says that in the past month, they’ve had around 2.5 inches of rain, which is significantly lower than normal.

“When you’re out in the field digging, you might have some topsoil that has decent moisture in it, but once you get down past the topsoil, it’s dry,” he said.

With more wear happening to planters, Weber has seen an increase in business.

“With the extra wear and tear, there definitely has been more wear parts that have gone out the door; row cleaner blades and disk openers is a big one for this year,” he said.

Lack of rain also means there is more of an interest around adding irrigation to fields, something Innovative Ag also does.

“We sell 360 Rain, which is an autonomous irrigation system that Yield 360 came out with; we’ve had a lot of interest in that,” said Rylee Schultz, Precision Ag tech at Innovative Ag. “It’s just another way to help with the dry conditions.”

360 Rain autonomously drives through the rows and hits every corner of the field that it can with its 3,000-foot hose.

“We can go up to a half-inch of rain banding to equal out to about an inch of rain each pass,” Schultz said. “It takes about six or seven days to irrigate a quarter, depending on how much rain you’re putting out there.”

While it’s still a new product on the market, Schultz says he’s been getting a lot of calls from farmers interested in potentially adding this irrigation system to their operations. He says the demand is up 20-30% compared to this time last year.

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Meat processing demand builds education and business opportunities in rural Minnesota

Michael Johnson — Mon, 05 May 2025 13:00:00 GMT

STAPLES, Minn. — Parker Witulski grew up in agriculture in southeast Nebraska and wanted to find a way to stay in agriculture in his career path.

When he turned 16, he landed a job at a local meat locker and determined that meat processing was his path forward. He looked throughout the Midwest for meat processing training and found few options.

Ridgewater College in Willmar, Minnesota, was on his short list. That college offers a hybrid model of online coursework and in-person labs at a certified meat shop. Another was Western Dakota Technical College in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Unfortunately, that program was on hiatus when Witulski was ready to start, during the 2024-2025 school year, “to refine curriculum and increase program enrollment,” according to Pamela Stillman-Rokusek, director of strategic communications for Western Dakota Technical College. “We are also working to identify a local processor as a program partner.”

Searching further, Witulski heard of another in western Canada, but wasn’t ready for that much of a move.

The 19-year-old landed on Central Lakes College's meat cutting program in Staples, Minnesota, which, as of this spring semester, has two newly installed meat processing modules at the college so students have hands-on experience from start to finish throughout the 16-week program. This cohort of students is the first to learn in such an environment.

“So there’s not too many (options), so this one’s pretty special,” Witulski said.

On April 23, Witulski was working along with fellow student Tay Faber to break down a hog inside the new modules, which is set on the edge of one of the college’s parking areas. While Faber was feeding meat through a grinder near the center of a module, Witulski was slicing cuts in the back.

Faber, like Witulski, also has a desire to remain in agriculture but was lucky to find the program she wanted within a half-hour of home.

Faber had been in 4-H since she could walk and currently helps raise meat ducks and rabbits on the family farm. Due to her drive to butcher animals on the family farm and her desire to further her career, she decided it would be a great benefit to train at CLC.

“My end goal, way in the future, is to actually open my own shop and potentially use that to help encourage people to come back into 4-H,” she said.

A need continues

Retirements of small-town butchers and shortages of meat processing workers due to the pandemic have elevated the need for training more meat cutters. But the vulnerability of the meat processing industry started to grow as the number of smaller processors shrank — well before the pandemic. In the 1960s, there were nearly 10,000 slaughter facilities in the U.S. Over the next 60 years, the industry consolidated, resulting in only 2,850 livestock facilities in the U.S. in 2024.

The COVID-19 pandemic largely revealed the vulnerability of the meat processing industry. Five years later, Dave Endicott, special projects coordinator for Minnesota Farmers Union, said the need still exists for more dispersed processing, even after the industry goes back to something that looks more normal.

That’s what is pushing Minnesota Farmers Union to continue to move ahead with a meat processing business, which will also be located in Staples, but a short drive away from the college at the city’s industrial park. That facility is expected to break ground in June and be completed in January 2026. The college has two modules, a meat-cutting module and a cooler module, that are connected end to end.

The Farmers Union business will feature a slaughter area, cold storage, dry aging area, freezer, meat cutting area, retail space, USDA inspection office, mobile processing unit and everything else needed to make it a full-service USDA-certified meat processing facility — ready for producers and consumers.

It’s a combination of on-site construction, modular units being placed on foundations and a mobile processing unit that is part of the overall infrastructure. The architect for the project calls it very unique.

The fully assembled modules, built by U.S. manufacturer Friesla, are installed on foundations and built to order specifications. Central Lakes College meat cutting instructor Jess Feierabend compares the modules to building blocks that you can attach together to suit your needs.

“To be able to just walk in there and really go to work has really been impressive. I don’t know of any other companies that are doing that, and they are doing a really good job with that,” he said.

Friesla said they developed these units in response to the vulnerability of large, consolidated meat-packing plants.

“Whether it’s The Meating Place in Oregon, MTXBeef in West Texas, or Harrison Harvesting in Kentucky, these small meat processors aren’t waiting around to have their destiny defined for them. They’re taking back control of local meat processing: on their terms, time, and site,” according to Reece Lodder, head of sales and marketing for Friesla.

While they have been building models to suit the needs of processors across the country, these units at CLC are unique.

“Central Lakes College’s Friesla Modular Meat Processing System is the first of its kind to be designed and built for in-person, hands-on training of technical college students — a key part of America’s next generation of butchers,” Lodder added.

Endicott said the MFU facility moved ahead with a partnership of funding sources, including Minnesota Farmers Union, USDA ($600,000), Minnesota Department of Agriculture ($100,000) and the Economic Development Administration ($2.93 million). The facility, plus a mobile processing unit, will cost nearly $4.79 million. The mobile unit would be used in Staples, but would also travel to Ridgewater College when needed for its meat-cutting program.

Endicott, who helped establish the meat-cutting program at Central Lakes College while serving as the academic dean at the time, said it’s been a long time to get to this point, but that’s because it involves many funding sources and construction entities. They want to make sure they get it right. It could serve as a model for others to grow meat processing.

“We feel good. We’ve got a lot of producers, a beef co-op and those kind of folks that are looking forward to us getting this up and running,” Endicott said.

The facility is meant to fill a gap in central Minnesota, rather than take away business from other processors. Endicott believes it’s the only USDA facility within a five-county area. The primary business would be processing for farmers and sending it back to them. A retail space and potentially a source for meat for the Farmers Union restaurant, Farmers Kitchen + Bar, in Minneapolis, are other sources of revenue the group is considering. They moved ahead with the project because farmers were desperate for processing options.

Even though the project has been three years in the making, Endicott said the need is still there.

“We need facilities, we need workforce, we need availability to farmers, we need it to be priced at a place where farmers can make money,” he said. “The need has not changed. The reason for the need maybe has to some degree.”

Since the Staples college does not have a slaughter space, students currently slaughter the animal at the farm and the producer delivers the animal to the module for unloading. In the future, the animals can be brought live to the Farmers Union site, and then the carcasses can be delivered to the college if they are destined to be used for the college courses.

The on-site meat cutting facility at CLC is unlike any other Feierabend is aware of. He said that while they are doing unique work now, the future looks even brighter. They plan to add a smoking and curing course next year, then utilize the Minnesota Farmers Union facility for slaughter.

“And we’re just going to keep making it exciting and hopefully adding new things from one year to the next to keep it going,” he said.

The program is three years old and previously operated out of the college’s kitchen. That worked but had its limitations. Now, students are involved from farm to fork over 16 weeks to take an animal from a local farm, process it at the college, and return the packaged meat to the farmer when done.

“It’s been a game changer in our program,” Feierabend said of the new modules. He said a partnership with the Minnesota Farmers Union helped to make this dream a reality. The cost of the modules came to just over $1 million.

The students would agree that the training has prepared them for the workforce. When Witulski and Faber complete their course in May, they say they are walking out with jobs in meat processing waiting for them.

“I’ve actually got a job lined up back home, so when this is done in a couple weeks, I’ll truck it back home and start working,” he added.

Meat cutters can earn between $16 and $27.75 per hour. The demand is expected to grow at a rate of 2.4% for the next 10 years, according to Ridgewater College’s website.

More opportunities

Minnesota Farmers Union has funded five projects using about $420,000 for meat processing upgrades or new facilities in the state from a Meat and Poultry Intermidiary Lending Program. It’s money from the USDA to be given as low-interest loans. They still have about $500,000 available and are seeking more meat processors that are looking to increase their capacity or build new facilities in Minnesota. The loan is 4% with a 10-year amortization. Loans can range from $5,000 to $100,000.

“The caveat is they have to demonstrate that they are either expanding the amount of processing that they are going to do or they are starting a new facility,” Endicott said.

Those interested can find out more and apply at MFU.org. MFU has about a year and a half to distribute these dollars. The returning payments would be used in a revolving loan fund to allow Farmers Union to lend these funds in the future for other projects.

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Research finds that spread of invasive plants into Minnesota can be just one click away

Noah Fish — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:00:00 GMT

How easy is it to have invasive plants delivered right to your door?

Too easy, discovered the University of Minnesota's Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center along with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The groups collaborated on a recent research project to understand the online sales of terrestrial invasive plants as a pathway of spread in Minnesota.

The research team, led by principal investigator Amy Morey, aimed to purchase up to five different samples of 77 different plants from unique sellers and document data from the sales and items received. Of these, 57 were regulated under the Minnesota Noxious Weed Law and 20 were unregulated but prioritized by the research team as potentially harmful.

"If you think about the internet, in whatever context we're speaking about, it's a complicated platform, and it's a complicated landscape," Morey said. "When we're talking about the ornamental plant trade as a narrow subset of that, it's no different."

According to the research summary, previous research has documented the widespread availability of invasive plants through online sources, including many that ship worldwide.

Morey, who purchased plants from 20 countries and 30 U.S. states, said she likes to believe that many who purchase invasive plants online don't know they're doing so.

"There are so many plants out there, and it can be difficult to keep all of them that could be problematic, and (the) problem can be context specific, too, so what might be a huge threat in Minnesota may not necessarily have the same intensity in another state or certainly another country," she said. "I think awareness is still a big key to this issue."

The methodology

Morey said she used Google Chrome as the browser while searching for invasive species for sale online, and entered the names of each species in the search bar.

"If you're familiar with Google, there's also a shopping tab, so you can go there immediately, and for a lot of species, that just opens up where you don't have to look very hard at all," she said. "For my particular methodology, that's where I started. If I couldn't find anything after a 10-minute search, I cut it off."

If the opposite happened, where she found a lot of options, she'd attempt to purchase up to five examples of the species from different vendors.

The results were a bit overwhelming, Morey said, as she was able to buy 57 plants that are regulated under the Minnesota Noxious Weed Law, and only about 8% of all her attempted purchases were denied due to regulation.

"We got all sorts of plant material — things that were in pots, that were a couple feet high, bare roots, that were dormant, rhizomes and seeds ... But those also came in various shapes and sizes in terms of packaging and where they came from," she said.

All plant material is being kept in a secluded area at the University of Minnesota. Final data from the study will be available later this year.

Advice for online shoppers

Morey said for online plant buyers, it's important to be educated on what's invasive to your state before making a purchase.

"When you're online looking for plants, or even in a store, you see something new, take a beat, and type the name into your favorite search engine, and ideally, it's the Latin name or the scientific name, but that's not always obvious, or sometimes it can be a little difficult to find when you're buying plants," Morey said.

When in doubt, buy native, she said.

"There's so many really beautiful and great and diverse plants that are part of Minnesota's native flora that are much healthier for our lands, and we should really encourage better understanding of what it is that you're purchasing and ultimately putting in the ground," she said.

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Midwest Dairy partners with pizza companies to boost milk sales by over 3 million pounds

Ariana Schumacher — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 13:00:00 GMT

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — When you think of pizza, there is one key ingredient that makes it on the meal almost every time: cheese.

Midwest Dairy has been partnering with pizza chains around the region, including Pizza Ranch, Godfather’s Pizza and Marco’s Pizza. These pizza partnerships increased milk sales by 3,465,440 pounds of milk in 2024.

“Pizza is a great carrier of cheese, right? Cheese is a wonderful use of milk. Ten pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese. So, it’s a great opportunity for our dairy farmers to sell more milk on the market” said Martha Kemper, Vice President of Dairy Experience-Business Development at Midwest Dairy. “As we can provide a delicious experience to consumers with that product, it’s what we would consider a win-win.”

When partnering with the companies, Midwest Dairy finds out what their needs are and what their key objectives to their new business model or products are.

“Once we can find alignment, that’s where we find our sweet spot,” Kemper said. “Really, the engagement has been around sales and promotion of dairy. It’s been around supporting them in their research and development. It’s been around developing some of these limited time offers and also around the sales and promotion, so helping them with some creative assets that appeal to consumers.”

Midwest Dairy started this partnership program with Pizza Ranch first in 2020.

“We take a consultative selling approach with our partners. You know, are there any opportunities for us to align? Is there a way that we can help them with maybe some key objectives that they have that we can help solve,” Kemper said.

Pizza Ranch, being primarily a buffet restaurant, needed help creating a better pickup option for their pizza during the pandemic, something that Midwest Dairy was able to help them establish.

“We were able to help them with that pivot and successfully launch a pickup process for their pizzas, and we’ve had a wonderful partnership since,” Kemper said.

Pizza provides a lot of ways to create innovative products to get dairy to consumers.

“In fact, think about our partnership with Marco’s Pizza. We actually helped amplify their promotion of new fiery flavor menu items. The basis of that fiery flavor was a Carolina Reaper cheese,” Kemper said. “If it sounds hot, it is. And that’s what was on trend, what consumers were looking for and a great differentiator for Marco’s Pizza.”

With this project, Midwest Dairy helped Marco’s Pizza with their in-store point of sale materials to promote the new product to consumers.

“It was a very successful what we consider an LTO, limited time offer, for them,” Kemper said.

Through this partnership, both the dairy industry and the pizza companies have been pleased with the results.

“One is our dairy farmer funders. I think they’ve been very pleased with the results and that we can demonstrate that there is incremental growth in this very already developed category,” Kemper said. “And I think our partners have been thrilled with our partnerships and that we bring some of that unique ideation as well as some additional promotional dollars that maybe they hadn’t budgeted for. So, we’re able to amplify the promotion for better results in the long run.”

As money is a growing concern for consumers, dairy plays a key role in getting them good food at affordable prices, Kemper said.

“I think dairy right now is in the right place at the right time,” she said. “As people are scrutinizing their wallet and their choices and still trying to provide the opportunity to eat out as well as eat in, I think there’s a great opportunity to engage with consumers on again, not only the value of cheese and dairy, but, you know, also the essential nutrition that dairy offers.”

Kemper said there is unlimited ways this partnership could continue to grow.

“I think you’re going to continue to see innovation in this space and I think as inflationary pressures continue to take hold, consumers are looking for a good value for their dollar, yet they don’t want to give up on the taste,” she said. “So, there’s been a lot of really great meal deals out there in this pizza space, and I really see that we’ll continue to have some engagements especially around innovation in this space with our pizza partners.”

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Sno Pac Foods offered frozen organic produce before organic was cool

Noah Fish — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 13:00:00 GMT

CALEDONIA, Minn. — While the market for frozen organic foods has expanded over time, Sno Pac Foods Inc. goes back to the early days of frozen, when they began experimenting with it around World War II, said Pete Gengler, president of Sno Pac Foods Inc.

"Once upon a time, we were the only ones doing this," Gengler said of the organic frozen food company.

The Gengler family operates around 2,000 acres of certified organic farmland to supply the business, which also collaborates with around 30 partner farms. Sno Pac Foods has a product line of about 25 different frozen items grown in the region, ranging from peas, green beans, edamame, mukimame, beets, potatoes, cranberries and more.

Family history

Gengler's great grandfather grew up on his family's farm in Caledonia and went off to school to be an architect. He came back to his hometown in the early 1900s and started a lumberyard where he employed around 20 carpenters who built barns and other structures.

"He built a man made ice pond, and a dike across an area that had some springs on their farm, and then started getting his crew in the winter time to harvest ice," Gengler said. "They stored the ice in huge warehouses, which were all packed in sawdust, from the lumber mill that he had for his lumber yard, and that's how we got into the refrigeration part of things."

The family delivered ice door-to-door and even had a small rail spur that allowed them to haul ice by rail out of the pond.

In the 1930s, the Gengler family built a locker plant where they could freeze meat they raised on their farms, and they were also growing vegetables they sent to an Onalaska, Wisconsin, canning and pickling plant.

"A lot of farmers around here at that time, in the 1930s and '40s and such, were growing peas and green beans and things for that cannery that was over there, and they'd ship the raw product over there," Gengler said.

He said the family began to experiment more with refrigeration around World War II, when they were still doing a lot of the region's slaughtering.

"They were doing a lot of chickens and turkeys that they were cutting up into wings and thighs and so on, and packing them in shaved ice that they got from the ice pond," Gengler said. "That shaved ice was like snow, and that's where the Sno Pac name came from."

The family's vegetable business was all local at the time, Gengler said, until his grandpa started to expand it.

"My grandpa was on the board of directors for Land O'Lakes, and they built a plant in town here, and he ran a local butter route in the tri-state area," Gengler said. "When they started doing frozen vegetables, he took his frozen vegetables along with Land O'Lakes butter, distributing it at that time, mostly within 75 miles."

Gengler said he's been working for the family business since he was a child.

"I was 5, 6 years old, working either by picking strawberries — when we used to have 20 acres of strawberries — or working in the plant, running the boiler — when at that time, we shoveled coal in the boiler," Gengler said.

About a decade after Gengler graduated from Caledonia High �� in the '70s, he took over the family business.

A mega-popular CBS 60 Minutes' story in 1989 on the dangers of Alar, a chemical sprayed on apples to regulate their growth and enhance their color was what Gengler called a "tipping point" for the organic industry.

"After that, I feel like that's when it started tipping towards organic, so much more," he said.

Fortunately for the family business, the Gengler family had always been organic.

"That's why we always say we were organic before organic was cool," Gengler said.

Processing side

Sno Pac's processing facility is around 60,000 square feet. Gengler said it's probably the largest strictly organic processor in the state, producing 10 million pounds of product annually.

"We'll start in May, probably processing some potatoes and sweet potatoes out of storage that were left over from last winter. In June, we'll get going with peas and green beans, edamame, mukimame, potatoes, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes," Gengler said. "We keep going from one crop to the other until, usually, we finish up with the actual processing next fall, usually done by about a week before Thanksgiving."

The high-end processing equipment at Sno Pac is able to go through about 8,000 pounds of root crops in about an hour, Gengler said.

All products go through a blancher before being frozen, which is crucial for preservation by deactivating enzymes that cause off-flavors, color changes and texture degradation during storage.

"If you didn't blanch product and just threw it in the freezer, it's only going to be good for about six months before it starts to lose its color, get some off flavors and so on," Gengler said. "If you blanch it properly and freeze it, you can get at least two years out of it, if not more."

In the winter, Gengler said it's all about resetting for the processing cycle to start again.

"In the winter we're doing maintenance, of course, on all of our harvesting equipment, farming equipment," he said. "Make sure the bearings are good and things like that, but we also package year around."

Walking through the Sno Pac processing facility, Gengler bumps into longtime employee Logan Thiele who started working for the company right after he graduated from Caledonia High ��. Thiele has done everything from working on the farm side of the business to working in the processing plant and driving delivery trucks.

"I love working here, and I love the fact that it's all local," Thiele said. "You don't see many bosses that actually get their butts out on the line and work with you. (Pete Gengler) won't do anything he won't tell anyone else to do."

In the front office, Gengler runs into his sister, Joan, who does inventory and sales for Sno Pac, and his brother, Nick, vice president of the business.

"Things have changed a lot since we were little," Nick Gengler said. "It's nice to see from where we started, using wooden equipment, to where we are now."

Farming side

The last couple of years, Gengler said the area has been "too wet" for good production of many of their products.

"Organic vegetables can't take the wet weather, like regular soybeans or corn can," he said. "They've got shallower roots and so on, and they're just a weaker plant."

He said that last growing season, a lot of the damage was done early with torrential rains.

"We couldn't hardly get stuff planted, and then what we did have planted, a lot of it drowned out," Gengler said. "Weather is probably our biggest challenge. Weather and weeds."

No year was worse than 2007, when Houston County felt the impact of more than 15 inches of rain in 24 hours.

"We had finished our peas, and were doing green beans at the time," Gengler said of the 2007 flooding. "We lost all of our remaining green beans, and the edamame suffered badly, too."

They were able to bounce back the next year with business, and Gengler said being a farmer and running a business means you have to be optimistic for the future.

"That's the way all farmers are," he said. "They have to be optimists."

Growth, the future

Although the percentage that Sno Pac has of the frozen organic industry isn't what it used to be, Gengler said the business continues to grow at a reasonable pace.

"We've always been just steadily growing," Gengler said. "We're not looking to light the world on fire."

Gengler's two sons both work at Sno Pac along with his brothers' sons as well. The business will one day be in their hands, Gengler said.

"I can't think of any of the Genglers that have not taken interest," he said.

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Avian flu tops list of concerns for Minnesota’s turkey industry

Tom Cherveny — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 16:06:07 GMT

WILLMAR, Minn. — Dealing with the two different viruses harming turkey production is their top concern, but turkey growers and processors told Minnesota's U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith that there are a wide range of other worries for the industry.

The two Democrats, who are members of the Senate’s Agricultural Committee, hosted a roundtable session Tuesday with turkey industry representatives at the Fahlun Farms turkey barns south of Willmar. The start of the spring waterfowl migration makes the potential spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza a top concern, participants said.

At Fahlun Farms, located about midway between Lakes Wakanda and Big Kandiyohi, two lasers beam streams of colored lights at the sky, day and night. They’ve been effective, Jake Vlaminck, president of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and general manager of Fahlun Farms, told the senators. The wild birds perceive the random patterns of light as a threat, “so they don’t stop and keep going,” he said.

There are around 100 laser systems on turkey farms in Minnesota, and that has helped the state reduce its losses due to avian influenza while losses nationwide have not declined, Vlaminck said.

The turkey industry is coping with bird losses due to both the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or H5N1, as well as an avian metapneumovirus that primarily infects breeder stock. Producers are relying on foreign-made vaccines to manage the avian metapneumovirus until a domestically produced vaccine is available. Klobuchar expressed optimism that a waiver allowing the importation of the vaccine will be extended.

Producers said they also want the federal government to support the development of a vaccine.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza is estimated to have reduced the supply of turkey by 5%, and the avian metapneumovirus by another 4%, Matt Schrupp, vice president of supply chain operations for Jennie-O Turkey Store, told the senators.

It’s meant the loss of workdays for employees, Schrupp said, as there are fewer birds for processing. His company is trying to even out the loss of work time among its plants to reduce the economic impact on workers.

Some of the worst flock losses are occurring on independent farms in Minnesota that are located relatively close to one another, according to Michael Barber, a grower and member of the Minnesota Turkey Research and Promotion Council.

“I know two guys who already shut down,” he said.

Klobuchar said the United States Department of Agriculture “accidentally fired” employees involved in helping manage the disease, but that they have now been rehired. She is reaching out to Republican colleagues with turkey producers in their states to emphasize the importance of including the turkey industry in the federal response to avian influenza.

The turkey industry is concerned that U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins did not directly mention turkeys when she outlined federal plans for avian influenza in a recent opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal.

Roundtable participants expressed their concerns Tuesday about the biosecurity audits that are now being required as part of the National Poultry Impact Program. The audits are required at barns where avian influenza has infected flocks, and at farms in their vicinity. Erica Sawatzke, chair of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, said producers told her the audits are “burdensome” and slow down the reintroduction of birds to the barns, while providing no value.

At the session’s start, Klobuchar cited the economic value of turkey exports and her concerns about the potential impact of tariffs. Minnesota is the nation’s leading turkey producer. Roughly 15% of the nation’s turkey production is exported. Mexico is the largest buyer, and Canada is an important customer as well, according to Klobuchar.

She said the threat of tariffs on Mexico, though now paused, is “like a dark cloud out there.”

Smith said she is also concerned about the $300,000 USDA block grant that the federal government would usually provide the state for testing costs associated with the avian influenza response.

Dr. Brian Hoefs, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, said the state still expects to receive the funds, but the delay means the state had to cut some of its program contracts for testing. It also means growers are paying for testing costs, he said.

After the session, Klobuchar told reporters she will redouble her efforts to enlist Republican support to address the vaccine and avian influenza concerns cited at the roundtable. In response to questions, she said there is no assurance that funding for indemnification will be part of a new farm bill.

“Everything is in some danger right now,” she said.

On the optimistic side, she said she had not known about the use of lasers and will now promote support for their use. Lasers are something she believes President Donald Trump would support.

A laser costs roughly $16,000, and two are recommended for a site, according to Vlaminck. Minnesota offers a grant for a cost-share program for lasers, and consequently, more farms in Minnesota have adopted their use than in other states, according to Dr. Jill Nezworski, a poultry veterinarian.

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Small food businesses that won Business Builder awards from USDA face uncertainty due to funding freeze

Ariana Schumacher — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 13:00:00 GMT

BRANDON, S.D. and MEDINA, N.D. — Five years ago, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, things like the temporary shutdown of meat packing plants or food processors due to employee illness, changes in transportation and a shift toward more eating at home revealed some limitations to the food chain and some opportunities for enhancing regional food systems.

During the pandemic, eggs were scarce in the grocery store. That’s when Stephanie Peterson of Brandon, South Dakota, saw business at her small poultry operation, Fruit of the Coop, really increase.

“I sold more eggs during the pandemic than I’ve ever sold because people couldn’t get stuff in the grocery store and couldn’t go out,” she said. “Small farms will help with that community resiliency in the face of crisis in our feed system.”

In one effort to enhance regional food systems, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service used funding passed through the American Recovery Plan Act to develop 12 Regional Food Business Centers. In 2022, then-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called the centers "a new, critical asset as we continue our work to strengthen and enhance local and regional food systems across the nation.”

One way the 12 Regional Food Business Centers have worked to enhance local food chains has been to give out Business Builder awards, to provide direct financial assistance to farms and food businesses. The North Central USDA Regional Food Business Center awarded funding to 15 projects across North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota — including one to Fruit of the Coop. Kramlich-Deede Meats of Medina, North Dakota, also received funding.

"They're real important to small — especially small town — North Dakota," said Joe Deede, who owns Kramlich-Deede Meats with his wife, Melinda Kramlich-Deede, of such funding opportunities.

But now a federal funding freeze enacted by the Trump Administration has cast uncertainty on whether the projects will ever receive their full funding. On Feb. 26, farmers and businesses that had been awarded the 2024 Business Builder Grant from the USDA’s North Central Regional Food Business Center received an email saying that grant funding had been frozen.

With few answers from the government or lawmakers, funding recipients are uncertain what will happen next.

Region Five Development Commission is the lead cooperative partner for the North Central USDA Regional Food Business Center. Many of the activities and initiatives for the center are on hold.

“We maintain close communication with our 31 partner organizations across Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota as we wait, but the financial implications of federal funding decisions have resulted in a pause in their activities," said Candice Zimmermann, program coordinator for Region Five Development Commission in a statement to Agweek. "We are also working closely with the 15 Business Builder award recipients from Round 1 to maintain fiscal responsibility. The Center remains hopeful that funding will be restored soon so we can open Round 2 of Business Builder Grants and continue providing support and resources to farms and food businesses, helping them grow and reach new markets.”

They will continue to update their website as more information becomes available.

A need in the communities

Peterson grew up in South Dakota, went to Augustana University, worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and then moved back to South Dakota, where her love of raising backyard chickens was able to flourish.

“I had backyard hens in a very urban setting and then when we moved here to South Dakota ten years ago, I was able to get this small farm and just go crazy with chickens,” Peterson said.

She started her business, Fruit of the Coop, around eight years ago.

“I had too many chickens and too many eggs, so basically, I decided I was going to start selling eggs to restaurants,” Peterson said. “I had a few friends that owned restaurants and were chefs, so I started there, and it has grown over time.”

Right now, Peterson has 125 laying hens, and she buys and markets eggs from other suppliers as well. Overall, her company supplies 200 dozen eggs per week for local restaurants and consumers. She will be getting an additional 75 chickens on her operation this year.

Along with the egg production, Peterson also has an on-farm Airbnb and teaches classes on raising chickens. This summer, she plans to open an on-farm outdoor event space.

Last year, Peterson knew it was time to start increasing her business. That’s when she learned about the Business Builder awards, designed to help local and regional farm and food businesses expand.

On June 28, 2024, Peterson found out she had been awarded $35,000. She put $4,000 toward supplies for delivering and packaging eggs and used the remainder to hire a part-time employee for two years to help with egg processing and delivery.

“I hired her last fall and it’s been incredibly helpful to have all those hours in front of an egg washer. I can hand that over to someone else while I work on growing the business,” Peterson said.

Kramlich-Deede Meats opened more than a year before the pandemic and started out just cutting meat in a small room, making sausage and other products using recipes already popular in the community because of a previous meat company owned and operated by Kramlich-Deede's family. It evolved over the years into selling groceries after the small central North Dakota community's grocery store closed, and eventually to being a full butcher shop.

"We started from just selling meat out of this little room to being a full meat processing center now," Deede said. "We're just about under our three or four weeks now being USDA here every week, doing federal inspection and processing on beef and pigs."

The move to being USDA inspected allows producers to sell meat into retail establishments.

"We're bringing in beef now that people are getting processed, and they're selling it to bars or restaurants, or that type of thing in their hometown," Deede said. "We're in the local supply chain. We ... have a local producer here is gonna do hogs on a regular basis, and he's wanting to get those into in the stores and different locations, health food stores."

The business has used a variety of grant and loan programs in their expansion efforts over the years, including interest buy-down programs, loans and grants, including programs through the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, USDA Rural Development and the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives.

As part of their latest expansion into USDA inspection, Kramlich-Deede Meats applied for the Business Builder award. The $50,000 award they received was to be used for equipment to enhance efficiency.

"We were going to buy a new hamburger tie machine and a new mixer grinder that we could grind into from our grinder we have now," he said.

They elected to take the $50,000 over three years. They received $20,000 in 2024, but since none of the equipment they intended to buy cost under $20,000, they were advised to just hold onto the money until they received their 2025 installment. But with the funding freeze, they're uncertain when or if that money will come.

"So right now, we still have the $20,000. We're waiting for this year's second payment, and then we could order our equipment, but now they've told us, don't do anything until we get notification," Deede said.

The funding also was being awarded to Peterson in installments.

“I’m not sure if I’m going to be getting those payments or not,” Peterson said. “No one knows what’s going on, so it’s a little confusing. From a business standpoint, it’s hard to continue on this plan that I have when I’m not sure of where that money’s coming from.”

With current upgrades and expansions in the works on the farm, Peterson said it will be difficult to go forward without that anticipated grant funding.

“Like I’ve said, I’ve hired a part-time employee, and I don’t know what to tell her, you know, if she has to go seek employment elsewhere. She was counting on me as well,” Peterson said. “We’re just kind of in a gray area, and I’m going to try to forge ahead as best I can, but we’ll just see what happens.”

Kramlich-Deede Meats will still operate under USDA inspection; not getting the updated equipment will just mean slower processing for the time being, Deede said. He has not been able to get answers on what happens next.

"I just talked to (Region Five Development Commission) this morning, and they said, right now, they have not heard anything, so we're all on standstill until we hear something," he said on March 10.

Confusion and contradictions

When she found out the funding was frozen, Peterson reached out to U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, a Republican who is South Dakota's lone representative in the House. In a response to Peterson on March 7, Johnson indicated that on Jan. 29, 2025, the Office of Management and Budget "rescinded a memo regarding a spending freeze on federal loans and grants."

Dusty Johnson Response.pdf by Jenny Schlecht on Scribd

"It is important to note that this directive did not apply across-the-board, and any payment required by law would have been paid without interruption or delay. Specifically, any program that provides direct benefits to Americans was explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process," Johnson wrote. "These programs include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Pell Grants, and Head Start. Further, funds for small businesses, farmers, rental assistance, and similar programs would not be paused."

"To be honest, this response seems to imply that this freezing fund isn't happening and is not affecting farmers and small businesses," Peterson said. "Does he want me to question my own reality? If so, I can assure you, my funds have been frozen, and this freeze is real and is having a direct effect on me and my peers."

Peterson also reached out to U.S. Sens. Mike Rounds and John Thune, both Republicans from South Dakota, and did not get a response from either as of March 11.

Grants like these are crucial to small farmers like Peterson.

“Small farms often have difficulty with traditional lending opportunities because we’re small and considered a higher risk,” Peterson said. “We don’t have banks or, you know, other organizations that will lend us money. So, we do rely on those grants when they are available.”

Peterson said she understands there is an issue with government spending, but she doesn’t think this is the way it should be handled.

“I understand there is government waste and fraud. Of course, in a system as large as ours, there’s going to be. But I really don’t know that this is the best way to go about finding that waste — putting people’s lives on hold while they’re looking for that,” Peterson said. “I hope that they see that this funding freeze needs to be lifted and at least, I would like the U.S. government to honor the contract that I signed with them, you know, a lawful signed contract. I’m holding at my end of the deal. They’re the ones who have broken the contract.”

Peterson hopes all the current grant recipients are able to get the remainder of their grants.

“Then, you know, we can talk about future grants and trying to find places there where we don’t want to spend money,” she said.

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