AgriBusiness State of the Agriculture Panel

The Agribusiness State of the Agriculture Panel will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Lyon County Fairgrounds Hoop Barn.

The even includes a panel of Agriculture experts in different areas to hear about the state of agriculture in 2020.

Joining the panel are:

Paul Lanoue — dean of Agriculture and Business Management at Minnesota West Community & Technical College, Farm Business Management instructor, SMSU Ag Bowl scholarship coordinator, Local beef and crop farmer.

Greg Boerboom — Boerboom, along with his family, are owners of Boerboom Ag Resources LLC which is the name of the family farming operation which raises hogs, corn, soybeans and does feed milling.

Boerboom serves as president of the Minnesota Pork Producers Association, which oversees State and National legislative and public policy interests traveling to both St. Paul and Washington D.C. on behalf of Minnesota pork producers. He is also a member of the Lyon County Farm Bureau board of directors.

Ken Franzky — agronomy services manager at Centrol. He has 26 years in the agriculture industry including the last five at Centrol.

Rep. Chris Swedzinski — farmer and local state Representative for District 16A. He sits on the Energy & Climate Finance and Policy Division, Commerce & Taxes committees.

Eric McVey — plant superintendent at Archers Daniel Midland (ADM).

Prior to the panel discussion, the Lyon County Farm Family of the Year will be awarded at 11:30 a.m.

Please register in advance if you plan to attend. Contact Brad Gruhot at brad.gruhot@marshallmn.org. Admission is $10 per person for Marshall Area Chamber members and $15/person for non-members. The cost includes lunch.

Picnic tables will be spread out. We will encourage social distancing by having four person per table.

Industry experts discuss dairy outlook on the global and US dairy markets

There has been unprecedented milk and product price volatility over the last few months. Rabobank’s global dairy strategist Mary Ledman and Vice President of Dairy Research Ben Laine discuss their outlook on the global and US dairy markets on a webinar at noon (CDT) on Tuesday. The webinar is hosted by I-29 Moo University Consortium.

Laine has spent 10 years working across the dairy value chain from cooperatives and cheese processors to food and agriculture finance. Laine is currently an analyst covering the North American dairy production sector for RaboResearch.  

As Rabobank’s dairy strategist, Ledman leads a team of analysts around the globe to analyze developments in the regional and global dairy markets. She develops Rabobank’s dairy forecasts. Ledman has extensive knowledge of international dairy markets and policy with over 30 years of experience in the sector.

There is no registration and participants can access the webinar at https://z.umn.edu/I29DairyOutlook

For more information, contact Jim Salfer at salfe001@umn.edu or 612-360-4506; Fred M. Hall at fredhall@iastate.edu or 712-737-4230; Jennifer Bentley at jbentley@iastate.edu or 563-382-2949, Tracey Erickson at tracey.erickson@sdatate.edu or 605-882-5140; Kim Clark at kimclark@unl.edu or 402-472-6065.

Nebraska Farm Bureau president announces upcoming retirement

AXTELL, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson has announced he will retire at the end of this year.

Nelson made the announcement Monday, saying he and his wife want to spend more time with family and look forward to “new adventures.”

Nelson was elected president of the state organization in nearly a decade ago, in December 2011. Before being elected president, he spent 14 years on the Farm Bureau board, including nine years as vice president.

South Dakota farmers plant more this year than last year

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota farmers were able to plant more this year than they did last year despite spring storms and flooding.

A total of 1,279,908 acres were not planted this year, including 897,773 acres of corn and 296,425 acres of soybeans. That number is down 67.6% from 2019 when nearly 4 million acres was not planted, which made it the most acres of any state. But this year’s 1.2 million acres made South Dakota the second hardest-hit state in the country, the Argus Leader reported.

Brown County had the worst numbers this year. A total of 105,684 acres was not planted, which is 22.41% of the acres there.