News | Field 2 Field

September 22, 2021September 22, 2021

Dry Weather in Time for 2021 Harvest

Dry weather is a never-ending talker at the local coffee shops during the growing season, but even more during harvest. Farmers can get a lot of work done in a short time if the weather stays dry. John Baranick (rhymes with ”mechanic”) is a meteorologist with DTN, who says things might be a little drier as harvest continues to speed up across most of farm country.

Drying Off for Harvest

“A high-pressure ridge will continue to move into the Pacific Northwest and will block a lot of moisture from reaching the Upper Midwest for several days,” Baranick says. “Now through the last week of September should be pretty good for getting out there and harvesting the crops.”

The 2021 drought dried out a big chunk of rural America this year, but over the last several weeks, much of the American farm country saw consistent rainfall. Baranick, an Iowa State University graduate with degrees in meteorology and agronomy, says the consistent rain has recharged at least some of the deficit in soil moisture.

“It has,” he said. “We’ve seen some good rainfall in Minnesota, Iowa, the eastern Dakotas, Wisconsin, and Eastern Nebraska over the past several weeks. The level of drought keeps getting reduced in many of those areas. Some areas in the category of D3 drought were eliminated in northeastern South Dakota and northwest Iowa.

“Unfortunately, most of these areas have been so far behind on rainfall that getting almost a summer’s worth of rainfall in a month wasn’t enough to eliminate the drought,” Baranick added.

He estimates that dry weather has put most areas around 6 to 8 inches behind on their average rainfall totals. It’s even worse in western South Dakota. “I was talking to someone that farms out there, and he’s 10 inches behind on their average rainfall total,” he added. “We’re way behind, and it’s going to take a lot of rain to reverse that trend.”

Baranick, a meteorologist with DTN since 2011, says the fall season will have a lot of variability in the systems moving through rural America. Early September featured some good rainfall, but for the rest of September into October and November, he says they don’t see a strong signal either way of above-normal precipitation that will eat into some of that dryness.

“Some areas may improve a bit while others could degrade,” he said. “I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of movement either way through the fall season. We also don’t see a lot of moisture recharge during the winter season either,” Baranick said.

“Even with good precipitation over the winter, an extra inch or two isn’t going to bite into the five, six, or even eight inches of rainfall deficit we’re looking at,” he said. “We’re going to be dependent here in all these drier areas across the Western Corn Belt, especially the Northwest Corn Belt, for recharging our soil moisture and getting next season’s crop off to a good start.”

Plains Staying Dry Too

Dry weather is affecting he Great Plains from southern Nebraska down through Texas, which makes up the country’s largest winter wheat-producing area. A recent look at the Drought Monitor showed drier areas spreading out quite a bit across even more of Texas, Oklahoma, and southern Kansas.

“We’re looking for some rainfall in many of these areas because it’s also been hot,” Baranick said. “The temps have been above 90 and approaching 100 degrees on many days. The temps have been way above normal, and it’s sucking the moisture right out of the soil. Unfortunately, any systems potentially coming through this week don’t look like they have a lot of moisture.”

The Plains State have been and still are quite dry in 2021. (Photo from bismarktribune.com)

He says that high pressure setting up in the western U.S. will help keep systems at bay in much of the Plains as well. Unfortunately, the above-normal temps and dry weather in the forecast will continue to sap the remaining soil moisture.

Looking ahead to the fall and winter seasons in the south, we’re heading into a La Niña weather pattern, which typically means warm and dry weather in southern states. These areas seeing their soil moisture drying away don’t have a lot of immediate hope for building that back into the soil.

“For wheat production in the Plains, we’re going to be dependent on moisture coming into the region,” he said. “Hopefully, fall rains will be timely enough to get some good root development in wheat through the fall before they go dormant in the winter.

“We’re hoping that the rains turn on right away when we get out of the La Niña in the spring,” Baranick added. “If we don’t, the winter wheat crop in the Plains is going to be hurting.”

South Finally Drying Up After Storms

Hurricane Ida and Tropical Storm Nicholas brought a lot of extra water to the Southern States and the Delta Region. Moisture coming into the region off the Gulf of Mexico was difficult to turn off.

Hurricane Ida, followed by Tropical Storm Nicholas, brought far too much moisture and damage in the south. Drier weather is on the way, so hopefully cotton and soybeans can dry out in time for harvest. (Photo from wkrg.com)

“We will see some dry weather conditions finally get into the South,” he said. “That’s good because it’s going to take a bit for soybeans and cotton to dry off.”

August 19, 2021August 22, 2021

“Fished All Fifty”- Quite an American Journey

“Fished All Fifty.” – the trek is over. A couple young men from the East Coast had quite the pre-college adventure. They’re two people who can say they’ve done something no one else has.

A couple of Virginia men coming through the Midwest recently had a lofty goal of “Fishing All Fifty.” Luke Konson and Daniel Balserak wanted to catch the state fish of every state in the U.S. They recently caught Brook Trout in their home state of Virginia, the 50^th and final fish on their list.

Luke Konson talked about the accomplishment during a phone call from Clemson University in South Carolina. The two Virginia men are both freshmen at the school after completing their fishing plans in less than a calendar year.

“It’s unreal,’ he said with a laugh. “We still can’t believe how quickly we Fished All Fifty. Dan and I had great luck in the last 20 states we had to fish in. While we had to deal with runoff in a couple of places, the trip was mostly full of great weather and helpful people in each location. We weren’t sure we could make quick work of the western states, but we did.”

Being residents of the east coast, they’d never caught any state fish out west, so there was a knowledge gap to overcome in order to Fish All Fifty. Some of the fish they had no experience with included Cutthroat Trout, Golden Trout, Steelhead, and King Salmon.

“In the Dakotas, we were a little more familiar with the Northern Pike and Walleye,” he said. “It’s a little more difficult because many of the fish out there are at least somewhat endangered. But the hardest thing is you have to travel to some very remote locations to catch these fish, which means a lot of driving and hiking to get where you need to go.”

At one point on their trip, they fished in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California in five days. Needless to say, that’s a lot of driving all night and fishing all day. After coming so far in their Fish All Fifty attempt, they didn’t want to fall short.

Here’s the rest of the conversation:

August 18, 2021August 18, 2021

Canadian agriculture hit hard by drought

Canadian agriculture has something big in common with U.S. producers this year.

In fact, Canada and the U.S. have more in common than just a border. The two countries are also sharing a lot of hot, dry weather. Shaun Haney of RealAg is an agricultural journalist and broadcaster in Canada who says the longtime trading partners are in the same boat.

Shaun Haney of RealAg is an agricultural journalist and writer covering Canadian agriculture, which has been hit hard by drought. (Photo from YouTube.com)

“Absolutely yes,” he said on the phone from his office. “The drought of 2021 in Northern Ontario and the Western Canadian Prairies has been compared to the drought in 1988. This summer has been extremely hot and dry.

“It’s obviously hurt the crop conditions,” Haney added. “In some ways, it’s even more urgently impacted the grasslands and pastures, which is forcing producer discussions on the future of the Canadian cow herd after this fall, depending on what the level of cow cull will be.”

The drought isn’t just confined to 2021. As with many dry areas in the States, the drought stretches back to last fall. Haney noted that many Canadians were saying that “you don’t lose the crop in March.” However, they could have used moisture at that time, which they didn’t get.

“It was so dry that we’d used up a lot of our subsoil moisture last year,” he recalled. “We needed to replenish that moisture through the winter, and it didn’t happen. As we made our way into the growing season and the weeks passed, the rain just didn’t come.”

Severe drought is making things tough on Canadian agriculture. (Photo from globalnews.ca)

As the rain continued to hold off, the area listed on the Drought Monitor began to expand. Early in the year, the drought ran in a tight band along the U.S.-Canada border, especially in the Southern Prairies of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. At the same time, that drought also affected North Dakota and Montana early on in the U.S.

“As the weeks went by, the drought-impacted area continued to make its way further and further north,” Haney recalled. “It created a situation where the yields became more questionable on an increasing number of acres. The frustrating thing is some of those same fields started 2021 in great condition.”

The crops didn’t get the rain they needed for any consistent grain fill. Haney is located in Lethbridge, Alberta, and said a lot of the dryland in Canadian agriculture never had a chance. He described the 2021 Canadian growing season in one word: heartbreaking.

Crops hit by this year’s drought run the entire spectrum in Canada. Some crops handle adversity better than others, including chickpeas and lentils. However, Canadian farmers are especially concerned about the wheat and canola crops.

“I would say it’s even more so with canola,” Haney said. “From what I’ve heard, there are a lot of people harvesting some pretty light barley. But canola is the one where people are concerned they won’t have the yield. Canola is a fairly small seed, but it shouldn’t look like pepper.”

Canadian farmers do grow some soybean in Manitoba, where farmers may harvest bushels worth as little as $15. Producers also grow a little grain corn in Manitoba, as well as some in southern Alberta, that’s fed to livestock. Almost all of that corn is irrigated.

“There are some irrigated sugar beets in Alberta that are looking good as well,” he adds. “However, the list of struggling dryland crops is a long one.”

Haney says the one possible saving grace is good commodity prices. If prices were low during a drought like this, that would be the mother of all discouraging situations. He notes that if canola is around 20 dollars and you have ten bushels in the field, that’s 200 dollars an acre.

“It’s not a moneymaker on dry land, but it’s a lot better than a market with nine dollars,” he added. “This boils down to Mother Nature not cooperating with us, and it’s one of the variables that are out of our control.

“I can’t even imagine what it would have been like going through a drought like this in the 1930s and ‘40s when we weren’t in a minimum-till situation,” Haney said. “Thankfully, most of our fields are minimum or zero-tillage, which helps to conserve as much moisture as possible. It’s a good reminder of why we change our practices in Canadian agriculture out here on the prairies.”

Find out more about Shaun Haney and everything going on in Canadian agriculture at https://www.realagriculture.com.

August 13, 2021August 13, 2021

Southern border farmers fear for safety

Southern border farmers are afraid of being overwhelmed. The wide-open southern border of the United States has been a political hot potato for some time. Ag reporters found out how serious the problem is during a press conference called by the American Farm Bureau. Zippy Duvall, the organization’s president, took a tour of farms along the southern border and was appalled at what he saw there.

The tour came about because the American Farm Bureau got alerted by some of their state Farm Bureau organizations that sit on the border, including Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, about the challenges farmers are facing. They wrote to the national headquarters asking for help because the situation is quickly getting out of control.

“A couple of months ago, the state Farm Bureaus reached out to me expressing the need for some help with the issues they’re facing along the border,” Duvall said during a recent press conference. “Because of that, we put together a letter to President Biden about our concerns.”

It shows how seriously Farm Bureau is taking the problem when all 50 state Farm Bureaus and the Puerto Rican Farm Bureau quickly signed on to the letter. The letter resulted in a phone call between the Farm Bureau state presidents and representatives from the administration to talk about the problems.

Once that phone call ended, Duvall decided the next step was to get a look at what was happening there. He’s always enjoyed getting out at the grassroots level and hear what’s happening on the nation’s farms. Duvall says emphatically that he’s “seen how serious the situation is for American farmers” along the border, calling it heartbreaking.

“Of course, they’ve experienced people coming across our border for decades,” he said. “But it’s never been at the level we see today. Our farmers and ranchers are worried about their safety, as well as the safety of their families and employees. They’re worried about the security of their property, including their farm machinery and equipment.”

Several farmers along the border have had their homes looted, their fences torn down numerous times, which costs a lot of money to fix, and their water sources have been tampered with and compromised. He says it’s a humanitarian crisis that needs attention immediately.

“The serious problem isn’t just affecting the lives of our farmers and ranchers: it’s also hurting many people coming across the border,” Duvall said. “We’ve heard discussions about farmers and ranchers who found dead bodies on their operations. Not everyone who comes over the border survives the journey.

“It’s been heartbreaking to see and experience everything over the last couple of days,” Duvall added.

Duvall went through Texas with Russell Boening, the Texas State President. As a farmer living in a state along the southern border, Boening said they’ve never seen an influx of people like they’re seeing in 2021.

Russell Boening, Texas Farm Bureau President, says officials along the southern border fear being overwhelmed by the influx of immigrants. (Photo from flickr.com)

“We went through McAllen, which is down in the Valley of Texas, and then we went upriver to Del Rio,” Boening said. “Those are two different areas facing different issues because of the same problem.

“The vast majority of people coming into McAllen include family units, unaccompanied minors, all of whom are turning themselves in to Border Patrol Agents and other authorities,” he said. “The number is overwhelming the capability of the Border Patrol to process and keep track of them to service their basic needs. And what do you do when these folks come in with COVID?”

Boening said the local NGOs are trying to set up places for people who have COVID to stay. The problem is they don’t have to stay at those places. They are “encouraged” to stay, but they aren’t required to. Multiple people are carrying COVID into the country unabated.

The situation is a little different in Del Rio, Texas. Some people are coming in seeking asylum. However, many of them are trying not to get caught. Those folks are sneaking through people’s property, including many farms and ranches.

“It’s a different demographic of people coming through the Del Rio area,” Boening said. “They’re in larger numbers and much more aggressive, often carrying backpacks and wearing camouflage.

“There’s the humanitarian issue of some folks who don’t make it where they’re trying to go,” he added. “They often run out of water, or the energy needed to finish the journey. Sometimes they’re found alive, but many times they aren’t.”

The Sheriff in Hidalgo County, where McAllen is located, put it simply: “This is not sustainable.”

Boening says there’s a sense of fear, desperation, and helplessness among the officials trying to deal with the situation along the border.

Craig Ogden, President of the New Mexico Farm Bureau, also says there’s a sense of desperation in New Mexico. Law enforcement officials, including the Border Patrol, are in desperate need of resources.

New Mexico Farm Bureau President Craig Ogden says Border Patrol officials are overwhelmed and afraid of being overwhelmed by immigration. (photo usnews.com)

“Technology is available to put out sensors along the border, but they need funds to make those purchases,” Ogden said. “They need a lot of resources, and you can feel the frustration of these people just trying to do their jobs.

“This is an ongoing problem that needs to be addressed and can’t be kicked down the road anymore,” he added. “Don’t forget this is also a biosecurity concern, including diseases carried by people entering the country and that can go back and forth among humans and livestock.”

So, what is Farm Bureau’s message? Duvall said it’s time for Washington, D.C., to start securing the nation’s border.

“That’s what my message is to Congress and the administration,” Duvall said. “It’s time to uphold the laws of the land. It’s close to getting out of hand.”

August 11, 2021August 11, 2021

Drought has Utah farmer in “survival mode”

Drought to an average person likely means “it’s dry.” And that’s fair. However, what you may not realize is drought, to a farmer, might mean “we’re struggling to stay in business because of something we literally have no control over.” It’s understandably a situation that non-farm folks have a hard time relating to.

The National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s News Service and the American Farm Bureau Federation undertook a project this month to put a human face on the challenges of drought, especially in the Western United States. That area of the country has been clobbered by a long and intense spell of dry weather.

Tyson Roberts is a farmer from Layton, Utah, who’s seen the challenge firsthand because he’s living it right now. I jumped on the phone with him on Tuesday of this week for an interview about what it’s like to face a drought of this magnitude. While drought is a big topic of conversation in 2021, he said the dry spell stretches back to 2021.

“We got started with this last year,” he recalled while on the phone from his Utah farm. “A lot of people may not realize that.”

It wasn’t quite as bad last year as it is in 2021. The water available for Roberts’ crops was below normal levels in 2020, but they still grew “pretty much” all of the crops that they would in a normal year. This year has been markedly different.

“We are a vegetable operation here,” he said, “and we grow fresh market vegetables for farmer’s markets.

“When you think about a tradition row crop farm, the producer plants in the spring and harvests in the fall,” Roberts says. “We work a little differently: we’ll start planting different vegetables in the spring and continue through most of the summer and into August.”

Their typical planting schedule came to a sudden stop. Roberts, the sixth generation of the Roberts family to work the farm in Davis County, Utah, got to the middle of June and figured out they wouldn’t have enough water to sustain the crops they have growing and grow the additional crops they’d be planting through the month of July.

“We ended up putting all of our planters away around the first of July,” he recalled. “About 20 percent of our property remained unplanted. We fallowed it because there just isn’t enough water to grow the amount of produce we normally plant in a given year.”

Drought is making the lives of farmers miserable in 2021, especially in the Western United States. (Photo from foxnews.com)

As someone who doesn’t live on a farm, imagine having to give up 20 percent of your income due to circumstances you had no control over. I don’t know about you, but a 20 percent drop in income would likely throw me out of my house and into the street.

The drought hasn’t forced Roberts to destroy any crops, but it has forced him to leave some crops in the field because they’re not harvestable quality, which amounts to the same thing. He offered up his sweet corn crop as an example.

“About 2/3 of the top part of our fields are pretty good quality and should get us good yields,” he said. “However, on the bottom end, we haven’t had enough water for all of the other plants. I guess you’d say we couldn’t get the water all the way to the end of the row.

“We’ve lost a lot of yield and in quality,” Roberts added. “In addition to the unplanted ground, there’s also a portion of the planted crops that are unmarketable.”

Crop farmers get paid when they harvest crops. Can you imagine knowing ahead of time that the one check you get for harvesting your crops won’t pay your bills? That’s what farmers face every year. These are the people that grow our food. It’s a rough way to earn a living.

He sums up the situation on his farm rather succinctly: “We’re in survival mode right now,” he said grimly. “With the unplanted acres and the loss of yield, we’re just trying to stay afloat. And I think that’s fair to say for a lot of farmers around us and across the state, as well as throughout the Western U.S.”

So how do farmers like him find a way to keep moving forward and get through this?

“I serve on the Utah Farm Bureau Board of Directors, and we met last week to discuss how we can help keep our farmers in business,” he said. “Every state has received a fair amount of COVID assistance, which is some help. We’re looking at the best ways to help the livestock farmers, the crop farmers, and get them the help they need.

“We’re looking into government programs to help them stay in business,” Roberts added. “I hate to say it, but sometimes a company or a farm may need a little help staying afloat when they face the challenges that we have for nearly two years.”

Roberts and his wife, Danna, have six children who each help on the farm, and Tyson’s parents, Dix and Ruth, also operate the farm with him.

July 29, 2021July 29, 2021

Ag Economy Turnaround Came Quickly

Ag economy. Have two words ever been gloomier in rural America than they’ve been for the last several years? Well, we’ve had a bit of a turnaround, but my assignment was to find out not only the current state but what might be ahead in the future.

So, I gave Dave Widmar of Agricultural Economic Insights in West Lafayette, Indiana, a call to find out more about the ag economy. He has more than enough experience to make a rational judgment. Before launching out on his own, Dave was a researcher in the Economics Department at Purdue University, as well as the economist for the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

The first thing he told me was that the ag economy turned around quickly. “Not only is it a big difference from 2020 to 2021, but the turnaround also took place in a short period of time,” he said on the phone from his Indiana office. “Last summer, the outlook was very bleak, and it was hard to put together a list of positive things going on.

“Now, just past the midpoint of 2021, we have a very strong outlook with a long list of positive things going for us,” he added. “The biggest piece is higher commodity prices, which have really turned around.”

That turnaround didn’t start until last September, and it has played out quickly over the past several months. That rise in commodity prices has been especially good for corn and soybean producers.

While it’s not as true as it was earlier in 2021, another thing the ag economy and farmers were benefitting from was a low-cost environment. “Over the last six months, fertilizer went from about $9 an acre in the fall of 2020 to between $130 and $140 an acre today,” Widmar says. “Farmland values and cash rental rates have increased as well. But it’s important to recognize that last year and early in 2021, the lower cost structure helped profitability.”

Here’s the rest of the conversation:

June 10, 2021June 10, 2021

Renovation – preserving the past for the future

Renovation is usually one of my favorite topics. It involves retrofitting old structures to make them new again. Those assignments involve me talking about and photographing old structures, something the urban explorer in me really enjoys.

The past and future stand guard at the entrance to Main Street in Harmony, Minnesota. The McMichael Grain Elevator was built in 1879 and stands on the west side of Main Street, where it meets the curve of State Highway 52. On the east side of the street is the much newer and more modern Harmony Agri-Services. A group of Harmony citizens is working to make sure the past and future of grain handling in the area watch over Main Street for many years to come.

Harmony sits smack dab in the middle of Minnesota farm country, so they needed elevators near railroads to process and store harvested grain, as well as move it into large freight cars for transportation. The A. & T. McMichael Grain Company of McGregor, Iowa, built the original elevator structure, one of several facilities they owned and operated in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and North and South Dakota. It included the elevators in Preston, Mabel, and Canton, Minnesota.

Farmers drove in here and dumped their grain for storage down through the floor grate in the old Harmony Elevator. The town’s Historical Society is kicking off a fund drive to raise money for renovations and turning it into a historical landmark. (Photo by Chad Smith)

Joel Wolsted bought the facility in 1914, and his family would hang on to it for a long time. He passed on the operation to his son, Ron Wolsted, who ran it as “Harmony Feed and Fuel.” As the new Harmony Agri-Services facility went up on the other side of the road, the old structure was gifted to the City of Harmony and the Harmony Area Historical Society by Jeff and Barb (Wolsted) Soma of Harmony Agri-Services in 2019.

Understandably, the then 140-year-old facility was in rough shape when the historical society first opened the doors. Ralph Beastrom is one of the historical society’s elevator committee chairs. With a laugh, he said the place was “full of stuff” when they looked inside it.

“We had a crew come in and clean the bins,” he recalled. “They went down inside the bins (which are long gone) and shoveled them all out. We also had a soda blaster come in and clean everything up inside the building. There were cobwebs, bird droppings, and dirt everywhere you looked in here.”

The local Falk Foundation gave the project a grant to help pay for the soda blasting. If you don’t know what that is, it’s like sandblasting, but workers use what’s essentially baking soda.

He said there are a few pieces of equipment left behind, including what are called “fanning mills” that sort the grain. Once the mills and other left-behind equipment get cleaned up, they will become part of the historical site.

Machinery left behind at the old elevator in Harmony, Minnesota. The local Historical Society is raising funds to renovate it and make it a historical landmark the town can be proud of. (Photo by Chad Smith)

“Our overall renovation plan is to work on the outside first,” Beastrom said. “We’ll do the siding and fix up the doors, so they work smoothly again. At some point, the inside will get renovated with some new lighting and some interpretive information. Whether we’ll do anything electronically, I’m not sure yet.

“We also need to get the windows taken care of, which will probably be our next high-dollar item,” he said. “Then, it’ll be time to work on the doors and close any openings that the swallows are using to get in and build their nests.”

The Harmony Historical Society is working with a preservationist in Spring Grove to do the work necessary to get the site into the Historical Registry. “We’ve already determined it’s eligible for the Registry, we just need to get the paperwork finished up,” he added. “That should be completed this year. It should open some doors for extra funding to get the renovation work done.

“Preservation architects have already told us the building is solid,” Beastrom added.

Beastrom, who also serves as Treasurer for the Harmony Historical Society, says the goal isn’t necessarily to restore it to the original condition. The goal is to preserve the building and make it look good because it “sits right at the entrance to our Main Street, and we want it to look good in that spot.”

The Harmony Historical Society will host a couple of Open House Events over July third and Fourth from 11 am-2 pm each day. They’ll have the interior on display for the public, including some of the old machines and signage as well. The Open Houses will be a kickoff to a major fundraising push for the renovation project.

“We lost an entire year to COVID-19,” he added. “Nobody could come to meetings or get any work done. We hope that the Fourth of July will really get this project going in the right direction again.”

The total cost of the renvoatioon is estimated at $200,000, so the Historical Society needs help from the public. For more information, you can contact them at hahs@harmonytel.net. Feel free to reach out to the elevator renovation chairs, including Ralph Beastrom, Richard Kiehne, or Vicky Tribon.

To make donations online, go to www.givemn.org/organization/Harmony-Area-Historical-Society, or donors can also mail a check to HAHS at P.O. Box 291, Harmony, MN, 55939.

June 10, 2021June 10, 2021

Water Rule Reversal a Blow to Agriculture

Water is a touchy subject, especially when it comes to our agriculture and environmental discussions these days. I have to admit that I was worried about this from day one. The Environmental Protection Agency announced it intends to reverse the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall his organization is very concerned about the idea and its potential impact on the nation’s farmers.

“The American Farm Bureau Federation is extremely disappointed in the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement that it intends to reverse the environmentally conscious Navigable Waters Protection Rule,” Duvall says, “which finally brought clarity and certainty to clean water efforts. Farmers and ranchers care about clean water and preserving the land, and they support the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.

“Administrator Regan recently recognized the flaws in the 2015 ‘Waters of the U.S. Rule’ and pledged not to return to those overreaching regulations,” he added. “We are deeply concerned that the EPA plans to reverse the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which puts the future of responsible protections at risk. We expected extensive outreach, but today’s announcement fails to recognize the concerns of farmers and ranchers.”

Duvall, a third-generation Georgia farmer, says this is an important moment for EPA Administrator Michael Regan and will be pivotal to his ability to earn the trust of farmers on this and other administration priorities. Duvall says the EPA boss must “keep his word” to recognize the efforts of agriculture and not return to flawed, overly-complicated and excessive regulations.

“We call on the EPA to respect the statute, recognize the burden that overreaching regulation places on farmers and ranchers, and not write the term ‘navigable’ out of the Clean Water Act” Duvall says. “On this issue, and particularly prior converted croplands and ephemerals, we also urge Secretary Vilsack to ensure that we don’t return to the regulatory land grab that was the 2015 ‘WOTUS’ Rule.

Duvall adds that clean water and clarity are paramount, which is why farmers shouldn’t need a team of lawyers and consultants to farm.

From a personal perspective, why can’t we meet in the middle here? You do realize that farmers don’t get to stay in business and pass on the operation to their kids if they don’t take care of their environment?

Am I anti-environment by being concerned about farmers? I’m not. I’m saying there has to be a way to preserve the environment and still allow farmers to make money. After all, they do feed us, remember? Food doesn’t just show up at Safeway.

May 3, 2021May 3, 2021

Farm State of Mind mental health website goes live

Farm State of Mind in recent years can be summed up in one word: stress. While things are starting to turn around due to higher commodity prices, it doesn’t mean farmers are out of the woods yet.

In recognition of May as Mental Health Month, the American Farm Bureau Federation launched a comprehensive, easy-to-use online directory of resources for farmers, ranchers and their families who are experiencing stress and mental health challenges.

The directory, which is on the Farm State of Mind website at farmstateofmind.org, features listings for crisis hotlines and support lines, counseling services, training opportunities, podcasts, videos, published articles and other resources in every U.S. state and Puerto Rico. Listings for crisis support, counseling and behavioral health resources that are available nationwide are also included.

“For far too long, farmers and ranchers have been trying to cope with increasing levels of stress on their own,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. “Our Farm State of Mind campaign is encouraging conversations about stress and mental health in farming and ranching communities. It is so important to spread the word that no one has to go it alone.

“This new online directory of stress and mental health resources in every state gives farmers, ranchers and rural communities a user-friendly, one-stop shop to find services in their area that can help them manage farm stress and find help for mental health concerns. Whether you’re looking for information about how to recognize and manage stress, trying to find counseling services in your area or are in need of crisis support, you can find help here.”

National research polls conducted and published by AFBF in 2019 and 2021 showed that a number of factors including financial issues and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic are impacting farmers’ mental health, highlighting the need to identify local resources that can help farmers and ranchers cope with chronic stress and mental health concerns.

The Farm State of Mind directory lists resources specifically geared toward farmers, ranchers and rural communities in states where these specific services are available, with additional listings for county and statewide mental health and other support services in every state. The listings can be filtered by state and type of resource, including hotlines, counseling services and published information.

AFBF partnered with the University of Georgia School of Social Work to research available resources across the U.S. and Puerto Rico and compile comprehensive information included in the directory.

Farmers and ranchers are encouraged to share the directory with their family, friends and community networks to ensure widespread awareness of the availability of these important resources.

May 3, 2021May 3, 2021

Anoka State Mental Hospital Coming Back to Life

Here’s a complete look at the main campus as it stands today.

“Anoka State Mental Hospital” – It’s been abandoned since 1999. Just saying the name evokes memories of every single scary movie you’ve watched in recent history, such as those Friday the 13^th movies we used to watch as kids. However, like many other abandoned places in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, it seems to be coming back to life.

Here’s the link to the photo album on Facebook

Some of the buildings are still in rough shape, and those are easy to pick out by the plywood in all the windows. Others are in the process of being renovated, and a couple are used now as veterans’ homes. The first thing that jumped out at me was how BIG the campus is. Lots of large brick buildings got built in the shape of a half-circle. It’s enormous!

The brick buildings have every right to look like they’ve been through a lot: they have. A minnpost.com article says the fourth Minnesota state hospital for the insane opened in 1900. The place was quite different from the other three institutions; the Anoka State Mental Hospital was the first to be built in Minnesota according to the cottage plan. The goal was to reduce the institutional feel of the place for its chronic patients.

It was a bright and sunny day when I walked the grounds of the Anoka State Hospital grounds. (Photo by Chad Smith)

They say overcrowding was a big problem at Minnesota’s mental health institutions operating in Rochester, Fergus Falls, and St. Peter. To help alleviate the overcrowding problems, the planning commission chose 650 acres right near the scenic Rum River in Anoka for a fourth site.

Building the hospital got started in June of 1899, and the first 100 patients (all men) were transferred to the facility on March 14, 1900. The facility began to expand in 1905, adding several cottages, as well as farm and service buildings. By 1917, ten cottages, an auditorium, and a new administration formed in a semicircle at the completed facility.

However, like many mental institutions across the country, history wasn’t always a good thing for the facility. A dramatic series of articles exposed some horrible conditions at the hospital in the mid-1900s. State officials became determined to do something about the problem.

Still some work to do at the Anoka State Hospital. (Photo by Chad Smith)

The atlasobscura.com website says, on Halloween night in 1949, they held a bonfire on the grounds of the Anoka State Mental Hospital. It must have been a big fire as around 359 straitjackets, 196 cuffs, and 91 straps, all different forms of restraints used on the patients, were destroyed. Governor Luther Youngdahl and other officials used the event to show the world that the facility was moving toward more humane forms of treatment.

Conditions did improve for the patients, thanks to the development of new drugs and institutional reforms. Some unfortunate incidents that compromised community safety around the hospital took place here and there over the next several decades. The Anoka State Mental Hospital closed in 1999, and the patients got moved to a nearby facility.