AGRICULTURE

Barns armed with lasers a growing technology on Minnesota turkey farms

Michael Johnson — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:46:00 GMT

ALEXANDRIA, Minn. — Members of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association took a look back at how they used to farm 20 years ago and how they raise turkeys today during their annual summit June 19-20, in Alexandria. The differences in biosecurity measures and technology on the farm are staggering.

One of the big changes in 2025 that is showing up more and more across Minnesota’s roughly 600 turkey farms is that about 100 of them now have a laser affixed to the top of their buildings, warding off wild birds from the premises.

It’s not the sort of thing any of them saw coming, but it’s one that many are quickly adding to their operation in an effort to block entry of flock destroying viruses like highly pathogenic avian influenza that has remained a threat of infection since spring 2022. The infection is largely spread by migratory birds that pass through and pass the virus on to the confined poultry flocks.

Craig Duhr, regional sales manager for the U.S. team of Bird Control Group, was demonstrating the technology of their lasers at the turkey growers summit. He said the latest version of their laser has a class 3B laser that’s popular among poultry producers because they’ve been able to show that it works.

“So what we’re seeing, it is moving birds out of unwanted areas,” he said. “It’s keeping the migratory birds from coming up onto the farms.”

The device does not keep flocks free of disease, but it has been shown to scare off about 90% of unwanted birds with a green laser beam. It works day and night. While humans see a single laser dot moving around during daylight hours, the birds see the entire laser beam during daylight or in darkness, he said.

“I would say we probably, a rough guess, have 75 to 100 lasers on poultry farms in Minnesota alone, that’s not counting dairy farms with the new outbreaks there,” he said.

Legislative funding approved in the most recent session is available to producers for biosecurity equipment like lasers, which were talked about extensively during the recent legislative session. Producers must cover 20% of the cost. The Bird Control Groups Avix Autonomic, an autonomous laser beam, starts at around $13,000. The cost sharing has created a bit of a boom in sales for laser manufacturers in the last three years.

Loren “Butch” Brey runs Brey Farms, a turkey breeding operation with his wife near Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Brey is president of the Minnesota Turkey Research and Promotion Council. He said he brought lasers to his operation after his flock was infected the week of Thanksgiving 2023.

As a breeder, recovery takes about a year, which was taxing on Brey and his employees. He said he poured time and money into avoiding the infection.

“We got a couple lasers on each farm, hopefully to cover the whole farm,” Brey said. “I believe we’re seeing good results. I believe my local bird population and migratory birds passing over is down. Of course, it’s hard to gauge that, but it’s just another tool in our toolbox.”

Even taking five to seven showers a day, limiting traffic, using Danish entries and designated parking areas, they do their best, but still have to get their work done. The lasers are one new tool that can do its work while farmers do theirs.

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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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Here's hoping that the 'storm of a lifetime' lives up to its label

Jenny Schlecht — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 10:30:00 GMT

Of all the odd things that I saw on the morning of June 21, the one that will stick in my mind the longest is probably the free-standing panel twisted around a fence in our feedlot.

I stared at it several times that day, trying to figure out how it got where it was, halfway through the corral panel and somehow twisted both upward and downward, flapping in the breeze. It will be, forever in my mind, the symbol of the power and unpredictability of the weather. Looking at it, it was hard to believe that the evening before, we'd thought maybe the predicted storms would fizzle before it got to us.

On the evening of June 20, my husband and I were sorting heifers when my youngest daughter started sending me messages from the old decommissioned iPhone she can use in the house: "Are you coming in?" "Mom mom mom mom." "I'm scared."

I'd instructed her to leave the TV on in case there were any weather warnings, knowing that meteorologists had been calling for strong storms in the evening. She'd worked herself into a frenzy before my husband and I returned to the house. We told her the storms she was hearing about to our west likely would calm down before they got to us. After cleaning up, I started making a quick, extremely late supper of grilled cheese.

But before the sandwiches were even half done, our phones and TV went off, alerting us we were in a tornado warning. A quick look at where the spotted cloud was and where it was headed told us we might be in the path. We spent a little more than half an hour in the basement before reemerging. The power had gone out. But we thought the wind would start to taper off before too long.

Instead, it picked up, suddenly and severely. We could hear debris smacking against the siding and made the quick decision to go back downstairs. We all huddled into our spare bedroom for the night.

In the morning, my older daughter and I could no longer sleep and went outside to check things over. While we had known one barn had lost some tin and her basketball hoop had fallen over, what we found went far beyond what we could have imagined. Every building on the farm has some sort of damage, including our house, with a partially ruined roof and deep dents in the siding where debris flew. The two barns in the yard — filled right now with bottle calves and 4-H animals but very vital in calving season — both were missing much of their roofs, and rafters and tin were scattered throughout the yard. Our multipurpose working building — where we park machinery, work cows and store a variety of necessities — strangely had a garage door up that definitely had been down when we left it the evening before. The strong winds had blown through and damaged the opposite wall, leaving piles of insulation to clean up.

There were corrals demolished, panels twisted, trees uprooted or broken off. Everywhere we looked, we saw problems, many we could never explain. That panel in the feedlot, twisted and broken, was the hardest to explain. The National Weather Service, using our photos and those of a neighbor, ruled that a tornado had gone through our farm.

But everywhere we looked, we saw blessings. We were all safe, as were our neighbors, who also had severe damage. We learned quickly, not everyone was so lucky in the storms that had stretched from eastern Montana all the way to Minnesota. The storms were deadly for three people in Enderlin, North Dakota, and multiple families in the region lost their homes. Our house was very much still standing and livable. Our barns, while likely damaged beyond repair, were in no immediate danger of collapsing, and the animals inside were only concerned with how long it had taken us to feed them. My husband's sister and her husband rushed three hours to bring us supplies to patch our roof and help clean up trees and other debris, and their children helped raise our spirits, just by being themselves.

I saw a meteorologist call the storms that blew through multiple states in the region a "once in a lifetime" event. I sure hope he's right. We don't need to experience anything like that ever again.

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Check out the portable solar station that powers tractors and shades cows

Michael Johnson — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 13:00:00 GMT

MORRIS, Minn. — The cows at West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris don't seem to care that they are part of multi-million-dollar research that may change the way agriculture and energy work together. They are just happy to have a cool place to rest while out on pasture.

That cool place is under the mobile solar array that’s on the move across the grazing fields on the University of Minnesota property this summer. The campus already has solar panels fixed in place throughout the pastures that are producing energy and providing shade, but the idea came along that they could create a trailer unit that could move along with the cattle from pasture to pasture. In this way, the benefits of shade would never be lost regardless of the location.

Eric Buchanan, director of renewable energy at WCROC, shared the capabilities of the device, which they call the Solar Shade Power Station, with Agweek this summer. To get to the mobile solar charging trailer, Buchanan drove the university’s electric truck, a Ford Lightning. Parking next to the trailer, Pete Kennedy pressed a button that began to fold and then unfold the bi-fold wings of the array. This place is truly abuzz with electrical research.

Currently, the portable solar array is pulled by an electric tractor, which Kennedy also demonstrated. The compact tractor from Monarch arrived in winter 2023 and has seen increased use around the research farm. It gets its power from batteries that are charged by the batteries on the solar array, which gets its energy from the sun striking the solar panels attached to a former combine head trailer that was chopped and rebuilt by a local shop. The solar trailer has a capacity of 60 kW hours and its panels are equivalent to about 18 kW.

“So when you’re pulling this through the pasture, obviously you’re not tied to the grid, so you need to be able to discharge it someplace and that’s what the electric tractor or other electric vehicles are used for,” said UMN West Central Research and Outreach Center director of operations Mike Reese.

The solar array folds up into itself into a slimmer profile, under 12 feet, that allows it to travel down the road for educational purposes, such as a trip to FarmFest in Morgan, Minnesota, last summer. It’s likely to make a return visit there this year. When it’s fully engaged out on pasture, it opens up like a bird ready to take flight.

“This is really a summer collector,” Buchanan said. The panels open horizontally to the ground rather than at an angle like permanent solar arrays.

The size of the array was based on what was feasible to carry on a trailer, with the most shade production. This setup can easily shade about 20 cows. It sports rear-wheel steering, which was important to be able to maneuver the roughly 40-foot trailer through gates in the rotationally grazed pastures.

The solar array soaks up the sun, leaving a large shaded area below where the cows can stay cool. Research into the benefits of shaded cows vs. non-shaded cows was previously done on the campus. It indicates that those who have shade tend to have lower body temperatures, meaning less stress on the herd. Less stress can mean more milk production, higher fertility rates and the potential for longer life.

Just how else the portable solar array will be used is being researched, but for now it can charge the tractor in the field. The university got the tractor thanks to a grant in order to pull the solar trailer. Buchanan said they could use it for powering irrigation systems or electric fences in the summer. In the winter, the array is parked near the maintenance buildings where it can be used to charge electric vehicles or power a building.

“Brad (Heins) is planning on using it in the dairy pastures all summer,” Buchanan said. Research will be done throughout the summer by graduate students to track forage growth and its effects on the cows.

Heins, associate professor of organic dairy management in the Department of Animal Science, is leading much of the research behind how energy and agriculture can work together.

Their solar systems started out small in 2017 but have gradually grown to explore the capabilities of solar on small and larger scales for residential, commercial and farm applications.

So far, their solar includes a 4kW display that helps power a guest house. A 20kW system powers a heat pump system designed to cool sows and provide heat for piglets. It provides about 70% more electricity than it uses at the farrowing barn. A 27kW array provides the power needed for the swine finishing barn. A 30kW display is located in a pasture to provide shade for a grazing dairy herd. This powers a fast charging station for electric vehicles and helps power the WCROC administration building. A 50kW system is used to electrify the dairy milking parlor. A 240kW array again provides shade in a portion of the pasture for a grazing dairy herd, which supports the university’s electric needs. A 500kW array in the dairy pasture was celebrated in summer 2024. This project, in partnership with UMN Morris, provides shade for dairy cows and generates energy for the campus. The campus is carbon neutral thanks to these advancements in energy production on site.

Ongoing work

While work on the dairy grazing research continues, the shop at the campus is also filled with other projects utilizing robotics. Electric weeders are being constructed and tested. Research is being done and improvements are being made along the way. It’s costly work to try to build these devices and develop them, but it’s work that can lead to a model that farmers may someday be able to buy and use in their operations. The university receives funding for these renewable energy projects largely through the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, which is funded with Minnesota lottery proceeds.

“It’s like the electric truck. Not everybody wants to drive an electric truck right away either, until you do it a little bit,” Buchanan said.

But as more and more electric vehicles make their way onto the landscape, the need for more power ramps up as well. This has electric suppliers wanting to understand what’s coming. A tractor is as useful as what it can attach to, so this one already has a trailer to pull, a snowblower, tiller and mower. A road blade is next on the list, so the tractor sees use year-round.

The university is also tracking its energy use on this tractor as it takes on daily tasks and adds tasks throughout the year.

“We installed a bunch of monitoring equipment so as we go and do some of these tasks, we’re going to really closely monitor how much electricity we’re using, when we recharge it, how much is it using,” Buchanan said. The electric suppliers are interested in what effect it will have on the grid if more and more farmers add this equipment. This research will help inform what’s to come.

Getting here has taken time, and more time is needed to make sure these innovations find a place on the farm, but it’s exciting to see how it can all work together, according to Reese. The solar charger is charging a tractor now, but may soon be charging weeders out in the field and endless other possibilities to get where the grid doesn’t.

“There’s all these connection points and the whole system, I think that’s very unique. You know, we can produce green nitrogen fertilizer, we can have electric tractors out in the fields,” Reese said. “All of these renewable energy systems end up working together to improve the carbon intensity of agricultural products and, actually well beyond, through the production of sustainable aviation fuel, e-methanol, and green iron and steel. Since we will be relying on energy generated locally, the goal is that these energy systems will also improve profitability and generate wealth in rural communities."

Agrivoltaics field day

The West Central Research and Outreach Center is hosting an agrivoltaics field day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, June 27, at 46352 MN-329, in Morris, Minnesota. Learn about cattle and sheep grazing, solar site forages, grain crops under solar panels and solar developer perspectives. There is no cost to attend but registration is required by visiting the University of Minnesota Extension website or contacting Sabrina Florentino at slpflore@umn.edu.

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With no standalone farm bill in sight, budget reconciliation may be the only path forward

Jenny Schlecht — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:30:00 GMT

With no movement on getting a standalone farm bill to replace the existing one that already has faced two extensions, including some important farm bill legislation in a budget reconciliation bill might be the only way forward, according to Collin Peterson.

“It’s not a good way to do a farm bill, but it’s probably the only way they’re going to get it done if they can get it done, and I think it’s got an uphill battle so we’ll see how it goes,” Peterson said while speaking at the Midwest Ag Summit in West Fargo, North Dakota, on June 10, 2025.

Peterson served 15 terms in the U.S. House, representing Minnesota’s 7th District, and much of that time was spent in leadership on the House Agriculture Committee. He played a major role in crafting five farm bills during those years. After losing a re-election bid in 2020 , he helped form the Midwest Council on Agriculture, which works to provide a united voice for agriculture from the Midwest region.

The last farm bill he worked on was the 2018 farm bill — officially the “Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018.” The bill was signed in December 2018 and first expired on Sept. 30, 2023. After a couple extensions, it now is set again to expire on Sept. 30, 2025. The $428 billion bill laid out spending on nutrition (76%), crop insurance (9%), commodity programs (7.3%), and conservation (6.8%), with other programs making up the final 1%.

Despite the normal run of roundtable discussions about what’s needed in a new farm bill, as well as drafts from both the House and Senate, little movement has been made toward actually passing a new standalone farm bill. With important programs becoming outdated or facing expiration, Republicans in Congress have included some farm bill programs in budget reconciliation bills.

Budget reconciliation is a legislative process Congress designed to move certain budget-related bills without the 60-vote threshold to end a filibuster, instead allowing it to move on a simple majority vote. It's a more partisan process than typical, requiring cooperation only from the majority party.

“That’s a process that was set up to try to get around very close margins in the House and the Senate,” Peterson explained.

The House version of budget reconciliation, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” includes extensions for some farm programs through 2031 and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would increase spending on agriculture-facing programs by $56.6 billion through 2034. According to an American Farm Bureau Federation economic analysis, that increase largely would go to enhancements in the farm safety net, with $52.3 billion going toward reference price increases in Price Loss Coverage, or PLC, adjusted formulas for Agricultural Risk Coverage, or ARC, and expanded crop insurance support. The remaining $4.3 billion would go to trade promotion, rural school funding, livestock biosecurity, research and energy programs.

Peterson said “the farm stuff is not really controversial” in the bill. But the bill also contains cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — SNAP, formerly known as food stamps — which is more controversial. The bill would put more administrative costs onto states, too.

Peterson explained that nutrition programs are part of the farm bill, in part, to build a coalition of urban lawmakers who buy into the bill. That’s worked since the 1980s, he said. He’s skeptical that work requirements for SNAP for some adults would be hard to make work.

“Frankly in my opinion the government is not competent to do that,” he said.

The bill passed the House entirely on Republican votes, as is not unusual with budget reconciliation bills. That’s contrary to the way farm bills have historically passed with bipartisan support. Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., the top Democrat on the House Ag Committee, said putting farm bill programs in reconciliation “is threatening the farm bill coalition.”

“And we should’ve been trying to pass a five-year, 12-title farm bill rather than cutting SNAP by $300 billion, putting the stability and income it provides to family farmers in jeopardy,” she said in a June 11 hearing.

With the bill passed, the issue moved to the Senate, which crafted its own bill, with draft text released on June 11. While substantially similar to the House version’s ag provisions, the Senate version doesn’t shift quite as much SNAP burden to states.

U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., said the bill “takes a commonsense approach to reforming SNAP,” while addressing challenges faced by farmers and ranchers.

“This legislation delivers the risk management tools and updated farm bill safety net they need to keep producing the safest, most abundant and affordable food, fuel, and fiber in the world. It’s an investment in rural America and the future of agriculture,” Boozman said in a statement.

Problems in reconciliation

Peterson said a problem with lumping farm bill programs into reconciliation is that the rules of reconciliation limit what can be included in the bill. So called “orphan programs,” which he said include assistance for small farmers, organic agriculture, minority farmers and others, cannot be included. Other orphan programs, according to AFBF, have included things like sheep production and marketing grants, feral swine eradication and control, several bioenergy programs, and rural development loans, among others. Most of those programs already were not funded in the most recent farm bill extension.

Another issue, he said, is that a traditional farm bill is mandatory spending, not controlled by the appropriations committee.

“Once the ag committee passes it, that’s it. There’s no appropriations committee,” he said.

The budget reconciliation process gives more power to appropriations committees. But Peterson said the good thing is that ag has important allies on appropriations, most notably Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who chairs Senate ag appropriations.

“So we have someone who understands this,” Peterson said. “Hoeven has been a big ally.”

Why it needs to get done

With the Senate taking up its own version of budget reconciliation, the matter may end up in a conference committee to iron out differences. Peterson expects some version of the bill will eventually pass, saying it’s “too big to fail.” He explained things like keeping the government funded and expanding the debt ceiling otherwise would need to be dealt with.

“There’s a lot riding on this thing,” he said.

Zach Gihorski, director of government affairs and sustainability for the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, also speaking on the same panel with Peterson at the Midwest Ag Summit, said the stakes are high, not just for farm bill programs. Numerous helpful tax provisions, mostly contained in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, would go away if not included in budget reconciliation, including the 199A pass-through business deductions, estate exemptions and accelerated depreciation.

“(Congress) not extending them would be devastating,” he said. “If they do not pass the package, basically, you’re going to have this giant tax increase on America.”

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The role of 'Family Keeper' can mean pointing the family toward the future

Ann Bailey — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 10:30:00 GMT

I’ve unofficially declared myself the “Family Keeper.”

It’s a title that I made for myself because I am the fourth consecutive generation of my family to live in our farmhouse and my children are the fifth. The attic of the house is large, which offers both an opportunity and a challenge.

The opportunity is the ability to store a wealth of family history in the form of household items, letters and books, including farm records, dating back to the late 1800s. The challenge is deciding what to store and what to keep.

Over the 31 years we’ve lived in our house my husband, Brian, and I and our children have “cleaned out” the attic several times, but within a few years of the purging and sorting of items we added more of our stuff so we were back to square one.

Now in our 60s and retired, Brian and I decided we had to be ruthless in our endeavor to clean out the generations of items that were in the attic, including our adult children’s grade school and high school report cards, awards and drawings.

I had been keeping all of the latter for sentimental reasons and, after cleaning out my parents’ about a decade ago after my parents died, I realized that if my own three children felt the same way about the things my mom and dad had kept for me, they may not want them.

I was right. They scanned a few things and the rest went in the trash.

I was equally brutal with the generational items that were stored in the attic. I sorted through about a dozen boxes of photos, keepsakes, daily diaries, calendars, farm records books, religious articles, letters, suitcases and many other things and threw the majority of it. I took the Catholic religious items, such as rosaries and broken crucifixes to our church where they will be properly disposed of. The intact rosaries are in my bedside drawer and a beautiful, old crucifix now is hanging on our hall wall.

I waffled over throwing away some of it, such as unidentified wedding and family photos from the late 1800s and early 1900s, but logic prevailed and they went to the landfill. I have no idea who the people are and couldn’t justify keeping them so my children would have to get rid of them when Brian and I are deceased.

I spent an entire day and another half of the day, going through the boxes in the attic keeping top of mind our Brendan, Thomas and Ellen throughout the whole weeding out process. I asked myself, “Will this mean anything to them when Brian and I are deceased or will it just be a headache for them to sort through it?”

I didn’t throw everything. I put family pictures of identified people in separate plastic storage bags with the names of my children, siblings, parents, cousins, maternal grandparents and my maternal great-grandparents. I am giving each of the bags of the living relatives to each of them and they can do with them what they choose, and if that includes throwing them in our farm’s dumpster before they leave our farmstead, that’s fine. My self-imposed responsibility was to give pictures to the people who were in them, and what they decide to do with them is their choice.

I am putting the bags of pictures of deceased relatives in a single box that will go back up in the attic. When Brian and I are gone our children can decide whether to carry that box to the dumpster or look at its contents. The same goes for the farm record books, day-to-day calendars and diaries.

A note: The calendars, diaries and farm record books contain some good column fodder, so I’ll share some of the things I find in them in the future.

Those and the photos of deceased relatives that are identified total three boxes for our children to keep or dispose of when we are deceased. It’s a good feeling to know that, because as someone who helped clean out her parents’ home, where they had lived for 60 years, I know how difficult that is.

The older I get, the more I realize that, in the end, no matter how precious we think those material things are, it’s only “stuff” and that we can’t take it with us.

I’d rather make memories with our children and grandchildren and have them do the same with each other than hang on to physical things. The former are what definitely are worth keeping.

Ann Bailey lives on a farmstead near Larimore, North Dakota, that has been in her family since 1911. You can reach her at 218-779-8093 or anntbailey58@gmail.com.]]>

Minnesota ag commissioner upbeat over legislative support for agriculture

Tom Cherveny — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 12:25:00 GMT

WILLMAR — Agriculture continued to receive bipartisan support in the state legislature, leading Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen to offer an upbeat assessment of the recent legislative session.

With a split Legislature —101 DFL’ers and 100 Republicans — the session went about as well as Petersen believed it could, he told an audience that filled the Life Sciences auditorium of the MinnWest Technology Campus in Willmar, where the annual Partners in Ag Innovation conference was conducted Tuesday.

The agriculture bill was the first approved, Petersen said, and it addressed priority issues for agriculture.

The Legislature approved replenishing the emergency account for responding to the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak affecting the state’s poultry and dairy industries, according to the commissioner.

The agriculture bill included funding for the development of 100 weather station sites across the state, an initiative supported by the state’s corn growers, according to the commissioner.

The new legislation continues to offer incentives for the development of the sustainable aviation fuel industry in Minnesota, but some of what Petersen termed the “bigger pieces,” or tax credits, were dropped out of the final bill.

The commissioner is optimistic about the state’s prospects for becoming a leading producer of plant-based fuel for the aviation industry. “We’re right on the cusp of getting this,” he said.

Petersen said he expects that corn will initially be the primary feedstock for the fuel production, as development continues on other possible crops. Minnesota raises corn on roughly 8 million acres, making it the state’s largest crop.

“Corn is going to be in the mix,” Petersen said.

The University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative has been researching the use of winter camelina and pennycress as potential feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuel.

The Legislature approved continuing to provide grant funds to help retail service stations install the infrastructure for E15 and higher ethanol blends.

Petersen also pointed to continued state support for developing more small meat processing operations across the state. Minnesota livestock producers were among the hardest hit when the COVID pandemic led to closures and cutbacks in production at large meat processors.

At one point, pork producers in the state had 30,000 hogs a day backing up with no place to deliver the animals for processing, he pointed out.

In response, the state has helped support meat processing programs at post-secondary educational facilities, including Ridgewater College. The Minnesota Farmers Union recently opened a meat processing plant in Staples where students will be able to train, added the commissioner.

Petersen also cited the importance of work to help young people get into farming.

“Fifty percent of the farmland in Minnesota is going to change hands in the next 20 years,” he said.

The commissioner would like to see more funding for the beginning farmer tax credit. Funding for it was decreased while eligibility for the tax credit it provides on land and equipment purchases was expanded to allow more participants. As a result, the department is now only able to fund 62% of the requests for the credit, according to the commissioner.

Petersen said the state is one of the few actually adding farms. The new farmers are people raising livestock and produce for local markets.

They are typically operating in areas such as his home county of Pine, where there is access to smaller parcels of land that are more affordable. In locations such as Kandiyohi County, it’s virtually impossible to start a 1,000-acre operation unless taking over as part of a family operation, he said.

Asked about the situation for undocumented workers, Petersen said he is regularly taking calls from large entities — everything from landscapers and horse racing tracks to dairy and pork producers — concerned about it. He said the Agriculture Department is working with the Attorney General’s Office on the issues.

Most of the foreign workers in Minnesota are here under the H-2A visa program, which allows for temporary employment.

“Many of these workers come every year, same families, farms, businesses. Very important for our whole sector,” said the commissioner.

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Knowing what’s healthy, but still reaching for the unhealthy

Michael Johnson — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 10:30:00 GMT

Living healthy doesn’t just come naturally for most people, and it certainly doesn’t seem to come easily.

While it may be uncomfortable to do so, sometimes we all could use a little nudge to change our ways. Turning 40 was a nudge for me to improve my health. Maybe a significant medical event brought you to change your diet or exercise routine. Maybe it was a financial decision.

A political nudge recently came from the USDA and Health and Human Services arms of our federal government. They worked with several states to remove soda from SNAP-eligible purchases.

If I have the money to do so, I am perfectly capable of choosing to buy my own sugar fixes. If I don’t have that money, I would be happy that the benefits I am eligible for are looking out for my health, over my less-than-perfect desires. Everyone deserves a treat from time to time, but soda, nutritionally, doesn’t need a regular place in anyone’s diet.

So far, the only states that have requested this waiver to remove soda from the list of eligible purchases are Arkansas, Idaho, Utah, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska. It seems a logical decision has once again become political and will perhaps stay that way.

Arkansas’ waiver excludes soda, low and no-calorie soda, fruit and vegetable drinks with less than 50% natural juice, other unhealthy drinks, and candy, and it will take effect July 1, 2026. The waiver for Idaho excludes soda and candy, and it will take effect Jan. 1, 2026. The waiver for Utah excludes soft drinks, and it will take effect Jan. 1, 2026.

As someone who once benefited from the financial support of our state’s WIC program, I can attest that getting support to buy healthy food like milk, fruit and vegetables kept my family from experiencing food insecurity. Junk food was not an option under that program and I believe it should have no place there.

Why is soda in the crosshairs? Simply, it offers 0 nutrients and loads of sugar. It’s been known to cause weight gain, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other health problems, according to WebMD.

Many of our states, including my home state of Minnesota, continue to allow the use of taxpayer funds to purchase sugary beverages, candy and a multitude of snack foods that are a long way from healthy choices. The reason for allowing those purchases is to be less restrictive, allowing people to make their own decisions. My opinion as a consumer, not a nutritionist, is that we could all do better in making better personal food choices, and our nutrition assistance program should absolutely be doing better.

Even if consumers know the difference between what is healthy and not, they will inherently choose the unhealthy one if it hits certain categories. A recent Purdue University study highlighted that. The study showed that while the average American consumer knows what is healthy, they acknowledge that their diet is unhealthy.

“Our research shows that consumers care about nutrition, but that they prioritize taste first and foremost, and then price and availability,” said Joseph Balagtas, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue.

For example, I realize that an apple would be a great snack and I have a whole bag in the fridge, but there’s a doughnut on the counter that is going to start to dry out if I don’t inhale it soon. The doughnut is going to win almost every time. Why? Because I was able to buy it, it's right there and I want it, not because I should eat it.

The study showed that 76% of consumers agree that their health depends on the foods they eat every day. It’s just hard to make the right choice if the poor choice is cheaper, easier and tastier.

Food insecurity also plays a role among respondents to the survey. About 32% of the surveyed said they were food insecure but had excellent or very good diets. Meanwhile, about 37% were food insecure while having a fair or poor diet.

In the consumer behaviors category, those who rate the health of their diets as being “excellent” or “very good” tend to check food labels more frequently. These consumers also tend to purchase foods more frequently with specialty production attributes, including organic, local and grass fed.

The Food and Drug Administration is working to define a “healthy” label that would be placed on food products to indicate they comply with what is considered healthy by the agency.

“Perhaps this label will help consumers to make more informed choices when purchasing foods at the store,” Balagtas said.

I have my doubts that another label in the sea of labels attached to our foods is going to move consumers to change their eating habits, even if it flat out reads "not healthy," but it might prove more helpful than current nutrition labels, which I think are now largely overlooked by anyone not strictly tracking their calorie intake. I can’t possibly look at a soda nutrition label and convince myself that it’s the healthy choice. I can very easily ignore the label if my comfort is more important than my health.

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From gratitude to grief: Minnesota farm couple mourns loss of dedicated lawmaker

Noah Fish — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 18:51:24 GMT

CANNON FALLS, Minn. — Goodhue County farmers Danny and Mary Lundell had relatives living in Sweden reach out them about the pre-dawn shootings of Minnesota lawmakers.

The couple broke down in tears when they learned that early Saturday morning, June 14, Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed in their Brooklyn Park home, in the second of two reported shootings of state lawmakers that have been labeled “targeted political violence.”

Also shot Saturday were Sen. John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in Champlin. The Hoffmans are recovering from their injuries.

Late Sunday night, authorities arrested 57-year-old Vance Boelter, who is facing six federal charges in addition to state charges.

The shootings happened just several hours after Danny and Mary Lundell, who operate Cherry Valley Farm in Cannon Falls, where they raise corn and soybeans, saw Hortman in person at a Democratic fundraiser in downtown Minneapolis.

Saying thanks

Mary Lundell was waiting in line for the restroom at the annual Minnesota DFL’s Humphrey-Mondale Dinner on Friday — where Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith and others spoke — when a nearby elevator opened.

“And here came Melissa,” Lundell said of the Minnesota House member who served 11 terms. “I got a chance to talk to her right there, give her a hug, thank her for all work she’s done.”

Specifically, she thanked Hortman for her pragmatic leadership that led to passing a state budget during the special legislative session a week prior. The DFL House caucus leader joined Republicans in the House to pass the bill, which rolled back a signature issue for Democrats in the 2023 legislative session, health care for undocumented people in the state.

Hortman gave a press conference outside the Minnesota House afterward, saying she knew people would be hurt by the outcome but she had a job to get done for the people of Minnesota.

The threat of a government shutdown forced her hand to cut a deal with Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, and pass a final budget. It was a hard pill to swallow, Lundell imagined, and she wanted her to feel comfort in the sacrifice.

“I told her, I know how hard that last vote was for you,” Lundell said.

‘She was gone’

On Sunday evening, Lundell was still processing how it felt to open up to Hortman the last time she was seen publicly. It was still a few more hours before the accused killer crawled his way out of the woods in Sibley County to be placed under arrest by a team of federal, state and local law enforcement officers.

“Today was better, but yesterday was really kind of tough,” Lundell said Sunday evening. “All I could think of was that like eight hours after I gave her a hug, she was gone. She was in her own home, and she was gunned down. It’s just unbelievable.”

Lundell finds solace in the fact that she had the opportunity to thank Hortman in their last interaction.

“To see her and talk with her, yeah, but then to thank her. I actually thanked her. That's one I will always think about,” she said. “People have regrets about things they don’t say, and I’m just grateful that I thanked her when I had that opportunity to thank her.”

Danny Lundell didn’t speak to Hortman at the dinner, but the image of her smiling and visiting with people within a few feet of him keeps going through his mind in the days following her killing.

“She always carried that smile,” he said.

Rural advocate

The Lundells only knew Hortman through her work as a Democratic legislator and by her interactions at various events where she showed a genuine concern for the needs of people across the state and not just from her district.

“She cared about issues that are important for rural people, even if they don’t think of her that way because she was from a suburb,” Mary Lundell said. “She cares about health care so much because she cares genuinely about people and their issues.”

The Minnesota Milk Producers Association named Hortman as its 2019 Legislator of the Year, saying she was an integral part in securing the 2019 Agriculture, Rural Development, and Housing budget that included investing $8 million for the Dairy Assistance Investment, and Relief Initiative, as well as funding for mental health programming and high-speed broadband internet service in Minnesota’s rural communities.

Danny Lundell said what made Hortman special was her ability to navigate through conflict between opposing sides.

“She did not have an ego,” he said. “She makes me think back to Hubert H. Humphrey, who was known as the Happy Warrior.”

Mary Lundell said Hortman’s approach to the democratic process reminded her of the tortoise and the hare.

“She was slow and steady, very thoughtful and thought things through, and she could listen to people that didn’t agree with her, and work with them,” she said. “Melissa was really good at listening to the other side and figuring out the little things that were in common.”

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Things go right more often than it seems

Jenny Schlecht — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 10:30:00 GMT

We planted the garden a touch late, delayed by rain and abnormally cool weather in May, followed by about a week’s wait while we acquired a new tiller.

I planted green beans and potatoes Memorial Day weekend, and I’ve been wandering over to look for signs of life ever since. Everything I planted earlier was in old lick tubs, and everything came up nicely — save for a spot where a cat may have played in the soil where I planted carrots.

But the beans and potatoes in the ground seemed slow to emerge. In reality, I saw the first signs of both about a week and a half after planting — not outside the normal realm of emergence — but I was impatient.

My daily inspection of the ground reminded me of a scene in one of my favorite books, "Anne of Avonlea," the first sequel to "Anne of Green Gables."

Anne had given little garden plots to two orphans in her charge. One, Dora, planted in an orderly fashion and patiently waited for her seeds to emerge in neat rows. The second, Davy, planted haphazardly and constantly dug up the seeds to see if anything was happening and came up with all sorts of reasons why his sister’s plot was growing and his wasn’t — ignoring that his own impatience and constant messing with things had been his problem all along.

I didn’t get all the way to digging up seeds to see if they were sprouting, but I did think about doing it. I hadn’t watered them enough, I thought. Or it wasn’t warm enough — which likely was the reason they took a bit longer than I expected to emerge, but I hadn’t really given them enough time to show that. Or what if there was something wrong with the seeds or the seed potatoes?

But of course, they started to come up, just like they do pretty much every year.

I think sometimes in agriculture — whether in a field of hundreds of acres or in a tiny garden plot hidden next to the tree rows — we give ourselves more credit than we deserve. We think we have to do everything a certain way or things won't work out. But oftentimes, nature takes care of what needs to be taken care of.

For example, last summer, I noticed some unexpected plants in the tall grass bordering our lawn. I watched them for the next few weeks and eventually realized that one patch was yellow summer squash and another patch was pumpkins. The yellow summer squash apparently came up from seeds out of discarded squash from the year prior, while the pumpkins had to have sprouted from discarded Halloween pumpkins.

No one ever planted the seeds; nature just found a way. They weren’t watered beyond rain or cared for in any manner. But we got a few side dishes off of the squash plant and a little pumpkin for the front step.

I think about it from time to time when we’re stressed about how things are going on the farm. Things go wrong frequently. We lose calves and even cows to disease and injury, despite taking precautions. The weather can destroy crops and can sometimes keep things from growing.

On the grand scale of history, though, the crops come up and yield what they need to yield more often than not. The cows calve and raise their calves more often than not without much intervention.

We most certainly should keep learning about best practices and the most effective ways to grow and raise our crops and livestock. But perhaps the best thing we can do after that is just sit back and let nature do its thing.

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