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Ag and Extension

Soil Management Summit moves online

Like many annual events, this year’s Soil Management Summit (SMS), formerly known as the Conservation Tillage Conference or CTC, has had to make the transition from in-person to online. The SMS planning committee wants to ensure the health and wellbeing of participants, vendors, and everyone else involved in the summit’s production while maintaining the high standard of programmatic content the event has provided over the years. As the COVID-19 situation has evolved, the committee made the decision that this event will be offered online only.  The Soil Management Summit (SMS) ...

Christmas trees

It is that time of the year when we are starting to look forward to putting up the Christmas tree in our homes. So, what do you think is the most popular Christmas tree to purchase for the holidays? Keep reading to find out! If you wanted to purchase a native tree to Minnesota, could you do it and if so, what is the variety? Each holiday season, there are a little over half a million real Christmas trees sold to families in Minnesota. There has been a debate for some time what is better for the environment — a real tree or a tree made from plastics? Well, we won’t get into that ...

Protecting your plants

There is a bunny rabbit that has been living in and near a community garden that I take care of in Marshall. Generally, I only know he or she is there when I just about step on it while I am weeding or planting something in the garden. I am also making the assumption that this is the same animal that must have chewed on some of the shrubs that are also planted in the garden last winter. Well, what can you say about last winter other than it seems for wild animals it is survival of the fittest. This is the time of the year to try to make sure that some of your prized plants don’t ...

Outside plants

It is that time of the year when we need to start thinking about how to take care of those plants outside before we are sent into the deep freeze for a few months. Mulching is very important to protect plants from winter kill and it can be done in several different ways. The first thing to know is that it takes a while before our ground is cold enough to freeze. While we had snow this week, it also acts as a blanket against any cold temperatures which help to keep the ground from freezing quickly. Snow has a lot of good qualities for our plants which is good because, after a while, we ...

Farm programs during COVID19: Making government programs work for you

The I-29 Moo University webinar series continues with a presentation by Minnesota Extension Ag Business Management Specialist, Megan Roberts, on Wednesday, Nov. 4. The webinar will be live from noon to 1 p.m., and there is no registration. This presentation will dive into what we do and don’t know about COVID- 19 government programs, including PPP forgiveness application changes, tax considerations, and the upcoming Dec. 11 CFAP 2 deadline. COVID-19 brought farms many challenges, as well as several new governmental programs to decipher — from the Paycheck Protection Program ...

Farm and ranch stress assistance clearinghouse available

ROCHESTER — Midwest farmers and ranchers are facing unprecedented stressors and uncertainly imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, weather related concerns, and the derecho storm that impacted parts of the Midwest. As a result, mental health experts are predicting an increase in deaths by suicide due to social isolation, economic stress, and related factors. “That is why it is so important for farmers, ranchers and the agribusiness community have quick access to available programs and materials,” said David Brown, behavioral health specialist with Iowa State University Extension and ...