We have all experienced the law of unintended consequences; we take an action in anticipation of a specific result and while that result may or may not occur, there are results that we did not anticipate. Sometimes these unanticipated results are positive while other times they are not.
04/16/19 — Crop progress was out on April 15 (tax day) with planting falling further behind in nearly all crops as the cold/wet spring still has not warmed or dried soils enough to allow planting in most areas. Corn planting progress is only 3% (up 1% last week) vs. 5% average so we’ve now f…
For the second year in a row, a late Winter storm in mid-April has pushed back the initiation of Spring fieldwork in the Upper Midwest. Normally by third week of April, Midwest farmers have either begun fieldwork for the year, or are within days of the beginning of the planting season. Howev…
Given the recent havoc endured by producers in the upper mid-west by the spring blizzard or even prior flooding we are aware that many producers have incurred losses. This has come in the form of either livestock death, feed loss, power outages or possibly even having to dump milk due to imp…
Following several cruel false starts, it appears that the vernal season has finally arrived. But the jury is still out for some of us hardened old Northerners who won’t believe that spring is well and truly here until it’s warm enough outdoors to fry an egg on our foreheads.
One tried-and-true tool politicians use to deflect public criticism directed at them is as old as politics itself: beat up the press.
After a 60-year run, there will be no horse racing in Aberdeen this year.
Q The previous owners of our house put up a large post and lattice structure on our hot dry hillside — maybe to grow grapes? We don’t know. It’s probably 6’ high and 12’ wide. We refer to it as the giraffe hitching post, because it has a high rail you could tie your giraffe to. If you had on…
“It sounds good, Mom,” my daughter said encouragingly.
I don’t know why they chose April as National Poetry Month. Maybe it’s because two of the most famous poems in the English language begin with an April reference.
04/09/19 — Weather has not been very nice in the Midwest since about late December, with some extremely cold and stormy days for much of the Midwest this winter. As spring arrived the past few weeks, temps warmed enough to melt most of the snow in the Midwest, bringing flooding in many areas…
We hate to sound like the little boy who cried wolf, but for U.S. farmers there really is a wolf out there and that wolf is called low prices. While the pain is not evenly spread across the nation and across farm types, for those involved it is serious.
Due to the high cost of investment in farm machinery, an ever-increasing number of farm operators are hiring other farm operators to provide some or all of their machinery resources for their farm operation. This is especially true with new and younger farm operators, as well as with childre…
Studies have shown that boosting literacy levels increases living standards. Your library card doesn’t just open the door to a building full of books; it opens the doors to the entire universe.
Easter lily (Lilium longiflorum) plants are a sign of spring and of course Easter. They are usually only available during the week or two before Easter and usually put on closeout the week after the holiday is over. This makes growing them and getting them into flower at the right time a cha…
On an April Sunday afternoon a year ago, the last ancestral connection to the southern Illinois dairy farm of my youth was severed when my mother died quietly and peacefully.
Having spent most of my career in a mixed animal veterinary practice, I had a front row seat to all the bad things that could happen to a horse. Colic, sprained fetlocks, and injuries from trying to run through a barbed-wire fence were calls we’d get on a regular basis. There are some other …
I always will remember the sound of a freight train roaring through my small Minnesota hometown at about 3 a.m. the morning after the Fourth of July holiday.
Agtegra has partnered with Calyxt to give South Dakota farmers the option of growing high-oleic soybeans. These soybeans produce a stable cooking oil that does not have to be partially hydrogenated. This means the resulting oil doesn’t have any trans fat.
04/02/19 — There was news that despite additional losses in 2019, farmers will plant virtually all the acreage they did before, and prices swooned down on the March 29 acreage report. The stocks numbers were perhaps the most negative, and down the market went.
Through the years, I’ve been in the barns of quite a few Upper Midwest dairy farmers. They’re some of the nicest people and best farmers I know.
Q I have several bags of fireplace (wood) ashes. Are they any good for a lawn or any other type of benefit to the earth? Or, should I merely take them to the landfill? I think you or someone at SDSU told me wood ashes are no benefit to a lawn. Please tell me.
On March 29, 2019, USDA released the “Prospective Plantings Report”, as well as the “Quarterly Grain Stocks Report”. These were very highly anticipated USDA Reports, due to the uncertainty in grain prices in recent months, the potential for adjustments in U.S. crop acreage in 2019, and the c…
Few things in life are more costly or cause more aggravation. There are few things that we adore more – we even name them! – even though they often defy our wishes and blatantly misbehave.
Of all the places you’d expect to see a fight between the cold, hard face of ag economics and the warm, tender heart of rural America, that place would not be the corner of West 41st St. and Eighth Avenue in New York City, the home of the New York Times.
“This would be a good follow-up article,” my husband said with a grin.
When farmers are marketing their crops, they’ve got all kinds of market data, weather data, trends, current political situations, and plenty of market commentators to help make that decision. When farmers are looking at prices for their inputs, however, less information is available.
03/26/19 — March Madness is a term usually reserved for the college basketball tournament that starts this month, with teams whittled down from 64 to one champion through a series of tournaments. It could just as well apply to agriculture, but for a different reason. Flooding is the first pa…
The 2020 Fiscal Year Budget (https://tinyurl.com/y63rovly) that President Trump sent to Congress on March 11 cut spending for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) by 15 percent. While this proposed budget may be dead on arrival, with Congress likely to ignore it as they have do…
When you’re a reporter in North Dakota, you learn to write about weather. You learn the number for the National Weather Service by heart, and you know where to find historical information about storms and low or high temperatures of the past.
As I write this, spring flooding is a huge concern for livestock raisers as well as everyone else, posing real risks for animals and the people entrusted with their care. Across those areas, cattle producers have been busy moving animals and feedstocks to high ground; animals and feed suppli…
The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) recently released the 2018 estimated average county yields for corn, soybeans, and other crops. The 2018 corn yields in Minnesota were the lowest since 2014 and broke a string of three straight years (2015-2017) of State record corn yi…
Soil from gardens that were recently flooded may not be safe for growing fruit and vegetables this summer. Depending on the location, flood waters may contain contaminants such as agricultural or other chemicals, as well as disease-causing organisms from fresh manure, animal carcasses, septi…
The neurosurgeon looked at my wife and me and folded his hands on his lap. “Do you have any questions?” he said.
If the ballot box is the ultimate source of power in the United States, then voters in Toledo, Ohio, used that power Feb. 26 to create what’s now being called a “Bill of Rights” for their wide, blue neighbor, Lake Erie.
Earlier this month, our state was hit by a bomb cyclone – an unusual name to match unusual circumstances. The middle of our state got buried in snow, while the southeast corner was devastated by four inches of rain fallen on frozen ground, sending it into the river and causing major flooding…
“I’m more German than you are Norwegian!” my husband exclaimed, grinning at me.
Gov. Kristi Noem failed South Dakota farmers when she vetoed the industrial hemp bill passed by the Legislature.
Over a little more than a century, technological innovations have significantly changed agricultural practices and increased the yield per unit of ground and the level of production per unit of labor. Four key innovations—the internal combustion engine, the Haber-Bosch process of producing n…
03/19/19 — We talked about the likelihood of increased flooding this spring for the past few weeks, and now that snowmelt has begun in upper Midwest states it certainly has begun. Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota all reported flooding this week as the heavy snow finally melted on top of alre…
The annual USDA “Ag Outlook Forum” was held in Washington, D.C., in late February. This Forum is usually the first USDA projection for expected crop acreage for the coming growing season, as well as other current economic conditions in the agriculture industry. The latest Ag Outlook Forum pr…
March proved yet again that it’s the meanest month by smacking us with another bomb-cyclone-snowpocalypse. Thank goodness the state high school basketball tournaments are now over! If history has taught us anything, it’s that that the state tournaments are reliable blizzard triggers.
While officials in Washington stare at a federal budget proposal headed nowhere and a federal budget deficit headed to the moon, farm leaders in rural America are closely watching two recent moves into Big Ag by Big Retail.
Even though every producer tries their best to keep all animals born alive, there will always be death loss in livestock production systems. Thus, we need to keep in mind the regulations surrounding disposal. Why? Carcass disposal is crucial to preventing the spread of disease and protecting…
As the weather warms in late winter and early spring sap begins to flow in maple trees. For many people that live in the northeastern part of the United States, that means that maple syrup season has arrived. Spiles (taps) should be installed in the maple trees before typical sap flow begins…
“Hi, I’m Julie. What’s your name?” I asked the woman sitting at the table at a food safety conference.
Young kids often have a misplaced sense of confidence.
When I was a kid, I was fascinated with space. I was obsessed with the idea of space stations and lunar colonies. I would borrow books from the library about what life would be like on other planets or how we could simulate gravity in space. I read crackpot theories about how faster-than-lig…
03/12/19 — It has been a bitterly cold winter, especially the past few months as temps seem to fluctuate between normal and ridiculously cold (well, well, well below normal). It has been typical to see week long forecasts predicting temps 10-20 degrees below normal — only to be followed by a…
“You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone,” goes the old Joni Mitchell tune. This is true for numerous things such as your car keys, the TV remote and your short-term memory.
