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Ag and Extension

Farm Resource Guide for 2020 is now available

WORTHINGTON — The Farm Resource Guide for 2020 is now available at many University of Minnesota Extension county offices across the state. This resource guide includes a wide variety of useful farm business management information including the following items: • Custom rates: What to charge for planting etc. • Average farmland rental rates by county: From two sources with projections for 2020. • Flexible Rental Agreements: Examples of how they work and how they have worked in past. • Lease forms for Cash Rent and Share Rent arrangements: Which you can fill in the ...

Getting ready for gardening season

As I look toward the grove of trees, in my mind I can see and hear the red winged blackbirds and hear the sound of the return of Canada geese once more on the marshy prairie that now surrounds our farm. The beautiful sun shining days of Minnesota are only in their purist form during these cold Minnesota January days. There are no days like these in very many places anymore. Anticipation always makes spring all the sweeter and as every day goes by, even when we have some terrible winter weather, we are now advancing toward spring. The days are gaining daylength and it is only a matter of ...

Southwestern Minnesota farmland values decrease .2 percent in 2019

At the end of each year for the last 25 years, a survey has been conducted of farm land sales in 14 southwestern Minnesota counties. The survey reports bare farm land sales to non-related parties for the first six months of each year. Land values had been steadily increasing until 2014. After reaching record high prices in 2013, the upward trend was broken as prices declined in 2014 and continued down through 2017. The trend changed to an increased in 2018 and remain constant in 2019. The summary report for this survey is available at the county extension offices in Chippewa, ...

Ag Briefs

Neighbors criticize plan for western Iowa chicken facility MINEOLA, Iowa (AP) — Neighboring residents and other people opposed to the construction of a chicken confinement facility in western Iowa filled a meeting at a church and roundly criticized the plan as better suited to an industrial park. The opponents’ concerns aired at St. John Lutheran Church in Mineola on Monday included the potential smell, the impact on the water table and the affect on local roads. 2 plead not guilty to charges stemming from grain scheme SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Two former officers at a ...

I-29 Moo University Dairy Beef Short Course to focus on animal health and carcass traits

The I-29 Moo University Dairy Beef Short Course will be on Tuesday, March 24, as part of the pre-educational events for the Central Plains Dairy Expo. The short course will be held in the Denny Sanford Premier Center, Sioux Falls, S.D., in rooms 8, 9, and 10. This year’s program will focus on dairy beef carcasses at the farm, processor and consumer end, along with targeting health considerations for maximum performance. The Dairy Beef Short Course, hosted by I-29 Moo University, is a collaboration of South Dakota State University, the University of Minnesota, Iowa State University, ...

Ag and Extension Briefs

Farm Bill crops meetings offered in Ivanhoe, Marshall The 2018 Farm Bill is bringing about changes for crop producer’s risk management. University of Minnesota Extension and the Farm Service Agency are holding free educational events to help crop producers understand decisions regarding the 2018 Farm Bill reauthorization of ARC and PLC programs. Under the 2018 Farm Bill, crop producers must make a selection by March 15, 2020, of either ARC-County, PLC or ARC-Individual for all covered commodity base acres on a farm. This election will apply to the farm for 2019 through 2020. ...