Wisconsin | Field 2 Field

February 23, 2022February 23, 2022

Spring: when does it get here?

Spring weather is always a fun conversation across farm country, whether in the local coffee shop, after church, or during a sidewalk stroll down any small-town street in America. I came across a recent article from the National Weather Service saying that March might have above-normal temperatures and was intrigued. So, I got on the phone for an assignment from the National Association of Farm Broadcasting and began digging.

My first phone call was to Dennis Todey, the director of the Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, Iowa. As far as the March forecast goes, the veteran meteorologist says it depends on one thing: location, location, and location.

“The farther north you go, the less chance you have of being above normal during March,” Todey said. “But we should begin to rebound fairly quickly after the recent cold stretch that brought snow into parts of the Upper Midwest.”

Spring weather — Dennis Todey is the director of the Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, Iowa. (photo from climatehubs.usda.gov)

What you may not know is most of the cold that covered parts of the Upper Midwest was originally supposed to stay well to the north, especially up in Canada. Some of that cold worked its way into the North Central U.S., but it’s been limited mainly to the areas with snow cover.

As you go further west in the Northern Plains, there is less snow cover, so the temps haven’t been quite as cold. “The probabilities are not big, but the possibility of some warmer temperatures is there,” Todey said.

Looking out beyond March to the spring weather forecast, again, it all depends on which location you’re referring to. Out in the Eastern Corn Belt from Central Illinois and further east, they’ve had several storm events move through the area. The outlook in that location continues to look wet there.

“Planting delays are definitely on the radar in that location,” Todey said.

It’s the opposite in the Central and Southern Plains, where drought conditions have steadily grown worse in recent months as it’s been a dry and warm winter. The big question is whether the area is going to get any moisture anytime soon.

“It’s going to be interesting in the eastern Dakotas and parts of Minnesota,” he said. “They got some moisture late last year and recently picked up some recent snow as well.

“Places like Missouri and Iowa are more of a mixed bag right now,” he said. “Iowa still has some carryover dry soils, and then we have some dry soils in parts of Wisconsin in areas that keep missing out on moisture events.”

Speaking of dry weather, a good-sized part of rural America is short of moisture. The shortage in the plains begins in Nebraska and stretches to the south. It’s dry to very dry, but the lack of moisture doesn’t stop there.

“Parts of Iowa and Wisconsin are quite dry,” Todey said. “It’s quite dry in northern Illinois, which is a carryover from last year. Depending on which part you’re talking about, parts of the Dakotas had moisture while others didn’t get enough moisture for runoff for ponds and dugouts from a livestock standpoint.”

The winter wheat crop is really struggling because of the dry weather. The spring weather forecast hopefully has some moisture in it to help the wheat crop to at least somewhat rebound from the poor conditions.

As winter begins to wind down and spring gets closer, Todey has noticed an interesting trend in recent years when it comes to winter weather. Up here in Minnesota, we were able to take the dog for a walk in short sleeves or light jackets into November of 2021, which is almost becoming more of the norm rather than the exception.

“Winter has been showing up later than normal in recent years,” he said after some thought on the matter. “Let me frame this climatologically for you.

“The 90 coldest days on average for most of the Upper Midwest are typically December, January, and February,” Todey said. “That’s based on looking at data over the last 30 years. We’ve seen some of the coldest events of the winter occurring in late February.”

While late-winter snow isn’t uncommon, the larger events have been coming later and later, so “something is going on that’s a little different.”

January 5, 2021January 5, 2021

“Fish all Fifty” is the mother of all road trips

“Fish all Fifty.” It might be an understatement to say that’s a rather big goal, sort of like trying to actually shoot the moon.

Two 18-year-old Virginia men have embarked on the mother of all road trips. With their secondary education plans sidetracked by COVID-19, Luke Konson and Daniel Balserak of Virginia hit the road with the lofty goal of catching the state fish of every state in America. Instead of sitting in front of computer screens, they’re staring through the windshield of a “commandeered” family minivan as the miles go by on their “Fish All Fifty” trip.

The buddies graduated high school in June, and they were planning to enroll this fall at Clemson University in South Carolina. However, because the year started with all online education, they didn’t want to spend any more time sitting in front of computer screens. Because they’d taken the last couple months of their senior year online, Luke Konson said, “We didn’t love it.”

Luke Kolson is pictured here after catching a walleye, the state fish in Minnesota, as a part of his “Fish all Fifty” trip with fellow Virginian Daniel Balserak. (Contributed Photo)

“We both decided to defer our admissions to the fall of 2021,” Konson said on the phone from Mississippi. “We were trying to decide what to do in the meantime and didn’t want to sit at home for a year. Travelling was a little more difficult because of COVID-19 restrictions.

“While we were trying to make that decision, I happened to be fishing with my family in North Carolina,” he recalled. “So, fishing was on our minds at the time. The idea hit us to travel to all 50 states and, because we love to fish, we wanted to catch every state fish. As far as we can tell, no one has ever accomplished that task.”

Their most recent conquest was catching the Mississippi state fish, a largemouth bass, and the duo was halfway to accomplishing their mission. He says several of the state fish they’ve caught so far were challenging.

“We had to catch a muskie in Wisconsin,” Konson said. “That’s a seriously cool fish, and it’s hard to catch. One of the things we do is if we’re in a state trying to catch a fish that we aren’t familiar with, I’ll go into Facebook groups to tell people what we’re doing and get some advice. The interesting thing is we often get people reaching out to us and offering to take us fishing.”

Daniel Balserak of Virginia is pictured here after catching his own walleye on the Minnesota River near Belle Plaine. (Contributed photo)

The variety of fish has been an especially-interesting part of the trip. The boys caught Atlantic Salmon on a road trip to Maine. Several states feature Brook Trout as their state fish. Konson says anytime they’ve gotten to catch a fish they aren’t familiar with was a “really cool experience.” They each caught a Guadalupe Bass, a fish found only in Texas.

They’ve been fishing in the Midwest as well. Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas all named Channel Catfish as their state fish. It’s one fish the duo knows a lot about as they go after catfish in Virginia. They caught walleye on the Minnesota River near Belle Plaine, Minnesota, and Channel Catfish on the Racoon River in Iowa.

“Our first road trip was a loop through the Northeastern states,” he said, “including Maine. We wanted to grab an American Shad in Connecticut, but it was out of season, so we’ll head back there to get one of those. We also hit New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.”

Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa were next on the list, through the Midwest states, and then into Texas. While on the phone for this interview, Luke and Daniel were traveling through the Southeastern States.

While they don’t usually do the “tourist things” on their trips, one of the best parts of the “Fish All Fifty” road trip is the places they fish in are some of the most scenic areas in the country. “For example, we went fishing for Brook Trout in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and it’s beautiful up there,” Konson said. “Fishing for salmon in the wilderness of Maine was amazing.”

They do intend to do a little more sightseeing when the pair heads west. Konson mentioned seeing Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, as well as the Grand Canyon.

While the price of gas might be as low as it’s been in years in many states, it still adds up quickly when road tripping through every state in the Union. Combine that with food and other incidental costs, the price tag adds up quickly. The next logical question is how they’re financing an adventure like this. While they had a little money saved up for college they didn’t want to burn through, the boys turned to the generosity of others.

“We set up a GoFundMe page, which is where most of our funding is coming from,” he said. “People have been supporting us on GoFundMe, which has been super helpful for us. A lot of those people on GoFundMe, as well as the people we meet face-to-face, tell us the trip is a great idea, and they wish they’d done it themselves.”

With a laugh, Luke said, “I think a lot of people are living out the trip they wanted to take through us.”

The biggest surprise of the road trip so far? “I don’t think we were quite ready for the cold when we headed north,” Konson said. “Six inches of snow fell on our first day in Minnesota. That’s not something we deal with an awful lot where we live.”

Two 18-year-olds likely don’t set a big goal like this without support from their families and friends. However, that doesn’t mean family members weren’t a little skeptical of the idea when they first brought it up.

“It took a little convincing at first,” he said with a laugh, “but we got it done. I think they’re happy for us because we’re getting some good life experiences and learning a lot of things through our travels. We’re seeing a lot of things and meeting a lot of people we likely wouldn’t get to know while sitting in a dorm room watching online classes.”

Their tentative plan is to be home a couple of weeks over the Christmas holiday. They may squeeze in a quick trip to the Carolinas and Georgia, which aren’t too far from home.

Here’s the link to their Go Fund Me page if you want to chip in for gas to help the boys complete what really is a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/catching-the-state-fish-in-each-state

May 21, 2020May 21, 2020

Farmer Angel Network giving farmers a safe place to talk

“Farmer Angel Network.” It just seems like something weird to say because you don’t typically use the words “farmer” and “angel” in the same sentence. However, the old saying that “necessity is the mother of invention” is a true one. More than half a decade of struggle in the agricultural industry has taken a big toll on farmers, so the Farmer Angel Network began in Wisconsin to give producers a safe place to talk about what they’re going through.

Randy Roeker is a Loganville, Wisconsin-based farmer who started the Farmer Angel Network after going through struggles of his own early in his farming career, a career that began shortly before the recession began in the late 2000s. It hit him hard.

A Growing Dairy Farm

“I started out milking 50 cows here,” he recalled. “Around 20 years ago, we decided to expand the operation. We kept growing and eventually we were milking around 190 cows in a 50-stanchion barn. At that time, we decided to build a new operation, so we built a new milking parlor.

“Then, of course we’d just finished building the new place when the recession hit in 2008,” Roeker said. “The anxiety got so bad for me and I got a bad case of depression. I thought I’d be the last person to come down with depression, and when I did, my thought was ‘I never want this to happen to anybody’ after I got through it.”

At one point, Roeker says they were milking close to 300 cows and losing roughly $30,000 a month. He had heard figures of other farmers losing $60-$100 a cow.

Farmer Angel Network Begins

Ten years later, Roeker decided to put together a meeting in his local church in Loganville. Little did he know how much his meetings would get noticed. At the first meeting, they were interviewed by someone from the Wisconsin State Journal. That report was released on the Associated Press Network and the story wound up all over the country.

“We next had Soledad O’Brien of the weekly syndicated talk show Matter of Fact send a correspondent up here and they interviewed everyone at our meeting,” Roeker said. “Right after that, NBC News with Lester Holt was out here at my farm, so we made NBC News talking about the work we are doing.

“What we’re doing is designed to help farmers overcome the mental challenges associated with farming,” he said. “We talk about different topics to help see these guys through the tough times. Those tough times, unfortunately, affected one of my neighbors so badly that he took his own life.”

Mental Health Struggles and Farmer Suicide

Roeker said the suicide hit him hard. The farmer who took his own life was a member of Roeker’s church. That unfortunate event took the Loganville farmer back to where he’d been ten years earlier. “I remembered feeling so alone, I didn’t have anyone to turn to, and my family had no idea what to do with depression,” he recalled. “I happened to see my therapist the very next day after the suicide and told her it’s now my calling to help other farmers.”

Farmers are self-reliant and independent people who don’t typically want to talk to others about the tough stuff they go through. However, Roeker says he gave them a safe environment to talk in and they’re taking advantage of the meetings. “One of the things we stress is it’s okay to talk about stuff like this,” Roeker said. “We need to shed the stigma of depression in farm country.”

That’s tough to do when dairy farmers are having to dump their milk and hog farmers are unfortunately having to euthanize hogs because there’s nowhere to send them to be processed. “Luckily, we’re not having to dump our milk here, but I do have several friends across the country that are and it’s just a shame,” he said.

“That’s why it’s so important to talk about anxiety and depression because all producers, no matter what crops they grow or livestock they raise, are going through the stress,” Roeker said, “and they just don’t know which way to turn.”

People can find out more about the Farmer Angel Network on their Facebook page. You can also find Randy Roeker on Facebook. “I’ve been talking one-on-one to people from all over the country who see my name in the media and reach out,” Roeker says, “I welcome that because I’ve been through it and I don’t want anyone else to feel so alone that they can’t reach out and talk.”

Overcoming Farmer Reluctance to Talk About Depression

Little by little, Roeker thinks people in his area are getting over the stigma of talking about depression and struggles. Still, it’s a work in progress. He says farmers have driven to his meetings from several hours away, likely because at least some of them don’t want their neighbors to know about their struggles. One thing Roeker would like to see is the Farmer Angel Network spread to other communities and even other states.

“I’ve talked to at least five people about starting these meetings in their own communities,” he added. “Everyone needs to talk out their problems and when we get together like this, it’s a safe setting with like-minded people.”

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

Frost in the Friday night forecast in farm country

Here is the audio podcast with Ryan Martin that you can download to your computer. You can also play it on your mobile device. Just his the play arrow on the left.

Frost in the forecast is rarely a good thing in farm country during any season outside of winter. In an ideal world, the only exception is a killing frost after corn states hit black layer. Of course, we don’t always live in an ideal world, do we? Ryan Martin of Warsaw, Indiana, is a long-time agricultural meteorologist who says the threat of some frost damage will begin this weekend.

“The days most in question are Friday night, May 8, into Saturday morning,” he said. “The axis of the coldest air will come across eastern Minnesota, Wisconsin, east-to-northeast Iowa, northern Illinois, most of Indiana, as well as all of Michigan and Ohio. This is the zone where we’ll see temperatures at 30 degrees or colder.”

He said the coldest air looks to hit Michigan and Ohio this weekend, where we could see some big impact on soft red winter wheat, especially in Ohio. The frost timing is not good as wheat has woken up out of winter dormancy and is moving forward through its growth stages.

“The wheat is at the jointing stage and anytime the crop gets further into its growth, that means the wheat is a little more susceptible to cold temperatures,” Martin said, “depending on how much the temps fall and how long they’re under a certain threshold.

“If wheat is just breaking dormancy and you get a cold snap, you have to be under 28 degrees anywhere between three and five hours,” he added. “When we get into the jointing stage and further along, wheat can barely handle 30 degrees for an hour or two. That’s where the issue lies on wheat this weekend.”

Frost — Ryan Martin, Hoosier Ag Today meteorologist, says the fast pace of planting in 2020 is
going to slow down for a few days due to cooler than normal temps in farm country. (Photo
YouTube.com)

Corn and soybeans will hopefully be a different story. Based on the crop planting progress and emergence reports, Martin, Chief Meteorologist for the Hoosier Ag Today Radio Network, is much more optimistic about those crops being able to survive the freezing temps.

“Illinois leads the way with nine percent of its corn crop emerged,” he said. “In most areas, the growing point of the crop is still going to be below ground, so I don’t think it will mean anything for corn and soybeans on mortality. What it does do is slow down that incredibly fast-paced planting season we’ve seen in many states.”

A couple of other examples include Iowa, which was on a record planting pace during the last planting update, while Minnesota just to the north is no slouch either on planting progress. The Purdue University meteorology graduate says all of the “good stuff” that comes with early-planted corn gets slowed down and “stunted” because of the frost/freeze over the weekend and the extended run of below-normal temps that won’t end till the middle of next week.

“Cold air moved out of Canada and focused on the Great Lakes, Upper Midwest, and the northeastern United States,” Martin said. “However, there’s an interesting twist ahead in the forecast for the next seven-to-ten days. We’ll start to see temperatures in the below-normal areas start to moderate on May 13 through 15.

“Things will take a drastic switch after that,” he added. “We’ll see above-normal temps in the Eastern Corn Belt, while the Plains may drop down below normal through the last part of May. There’s a lot of air currents, different movements here, different patterns trying to emerge, and it all has to do with where polar air is shifting to this time of year.”

It’s been a bit of an unusual spring so far for many reasons, but I’m just talking about the weather. What we’ve seen so far in terms of temps and precipitation has been very different from recent years. There’s no question, a lot of states have seen temperatures consistently lower than what they normally expect.

“Big swings in spring temps aren’t unusual,” says Martin. “We’ve certainly seen them before. I think the reason it’s coming home to roost a little bit more and has people scratching their heads is the degree of change from the last several years.

“We’ve had pretty dog-gone decent springs over the past handful of years,” he recalled. “We’ve come out of winter early and been able to hit the ground running based on the temps. Last year, precipitation was a big problem, but the temperatures were still decent. This year is the first out of the past five or so that’s really showed us the kind of variability we can see in the spring.”

Ryan will do custom forecasts for your radio and TV stations. Check out his work at www.weatherstud.com.

April 8, 2020April 8, 2020

Coronavirus outbreak and career choice questions

Coronavirus outbreak. Two words that have dominated our lives. It’s hit home in my house, and I bet we aren’t the only ones. Isn’t it funny how the lives of 7.53 billion people (not all in my house) can be so radically affected by something we can’t even see? Yet the coronavirus outbreak has cost many of us work, time with friends, and most importantly, our health in many cases. How many cases there are is up for some debate, depending on which of the 24-hour “news” stations you get your information from.

I’ll stick with local news if I have to turn something on to find out what’s going on. My buddy Brian Winnekins of WRDN radio in Durand, Wisconsin, says it best; “These stations aren’t reporting the news. It’s more about entertainment and ratings than factual reporting of the news.” He’s not wrong at all.

But enough about that. I’ve lost paying work because of the coronavirus outbreak. Imagine this; going into the heart of the coronavirus pandemic here in the U.S. and Minnesota, and I get this text message from my boss, Scott Bestul, (who used to be the) editor of the Rushford newspaper: “We’re done.” Gifted wordsmith that I am, I replied, “What?” Our group of a half-dozen newspapers had been sold. To the competition, no less, only adding salt to a gaping wound! Have you ever accidentally gotten salt into an open cut? There’s a reason it’s probably a widely used method of torture. It freaking hurts.

That was my most regular paycheck. By the way, if I didn’t mention it, I’ve been a full-time freelance writer for about four years. Not getting rich but learning to enjoy it. So, the newspaper group is done. Then, I get a message from a second job, the one that pays the most per story, saying “we’re cutting way back because times are tough.” And to be fair, they aren’t just cutting back on freelancers. The editors found out they’re required to take a two week (UNPAID) break anytime between now and June. Just to save a few bucks.

It’s things like this that cause a middle-aged man to question his career choice, you know what I mean? So here I am. I do still have gainful employment with the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (thank the Lord!). However, I’m stuck for regular work to do Monday through Friday.

coronavirus outbreak — “So that’s what the top of my desk looks like?” That was my first reaction to seeing my cleaned up desk. I’ve (unfortunately) got a
little more time for chores like that these days. (Photo by Chad Smith)

So, to fill the time while I wait for the stay at home thing to end (which it will at some point), I find myself making some choices I didn’t expect to have to make. I’ve gotten more yard work done here in the early days of April than I got through a rain-plagued May last year. I’m getting some housework done. Cleaned up the office; had no idea what a pigpen it had turned into. It’s immaculate now if I dare say so myself. I get the sense that I’m trying to adjust to a new (temporary) normal. Bet I’m not the only one.

I’ve signed up to take some Bible Classes through the Christian Leadership Institute. Not considering any type of career change at this point. Just trying to draw closer to God during a challenging time in our family (and country, and world) history.

This might be an unpopular question among the more liberal parts of America, or even in the healthcare community; as the coronavirus outbreak winds down, can we please start putting people back to work? We’ve got bills to pay and filing for unemployment doesn’t help cover the bills.

If we feel the need to try and continue the stay at home “orders,” could we just include the most vulnerable parts of our population. All I’m saying is there has to be a fine line, right?

Anyway, good luck to you and your family amid the coronavirus outbreak. Stay healthy. Stay at home. We’re gonna get through this.

March 29, 2019March 29, 2019

Minnesota-Crookston baseball – “Gritty, not pretty”

By Chad Smith

The University of Minnesota-Crookston baseball team describes itself as “gritty, not pretty.” Whatever they’d like to call themselves, it’s working. In spite of the challenges that come with a small-college program, the Golden Eagles won 14 of their first 22 games. Eagles head coach Steven Gust said they’re playing some pretty good baseball in spite of fielding a young roster this spring.

“We’re getting the job done,” he said with a smile visible through the phone. “it’s been a bit of a surprise because we lost key contributors from last year’s team. However, we’re finding ways to win in spite of that.

Steven Gust is the head coach of the University of Minnesota-Crookston baseball team. (Photo from goldeneaglesports.com)

“We aren’t going to overpower people on the mound this season,” he said. “Our best kid from last year, Zach Seipel, got drafted by the Atlanta Braves. That’s good news but he was only a junior, so we did expect him back this year. The kids we do have back are doing a good job of filling the strike zone, mixing their speeds, and are attacking hitters.”

The first player drafted

Getting a player drafted into Major League Baseball is a feather in the cap of any program. However, it’s an even bigger feather for a small school like Minnesota-Crookston because he was the first Golden Eagle ever picked in the MLB draft. What makes it an even better story is the young man didn’t originally come in to pitch for the Golden Eagles.

“I saw him as a catcher in legion baseball,” Gust recalled. “I thought he had a pretty decent arm behind the plate. I wasn’t sure about his hitting, but good defensive catchers can be hard to find. It was one of my first years coaching and our pitching was thin. We needed someone to pitch the end of a scrimmage and he volunteered after pitching just nine total innings in high school.”

Gust said, “The ball jumped out of Zach’s hand and he was around the zone. After that, we told him to sell his catcher’s glove and he became our closer. He left here throwing a 93-94 mile-per-hour fastball. He’s a great kid and he’s only going to get better as a player.”

The University of Minnesota-Crookston was understandably excited when Zach Seipel became the first Golden Eagle drafted by a Major League Baseball team. He went to the Atlanta Braves in the 27th round and head coach Steven Gust said he expects Zach to do well and move up the chain. (Photo from goldeneaglesports.com)

Getting a player drafted is big milestone considering that before Gust and the current staff arrived, the Golden Eagles had won just two of their previous 100 games. Literally, the team was 2 and 98 before Gust showed up.

Building a program

“We were fortunate to add some good players to some really good-character kids that were already here,” Gust said, “and they all bought in right away. There are so many pieces to the puzzle when you’re trying to build a program like Minnesota-Crookston.

“The pieces include working on facilities and trying to get the highest quality you can,” he added. “You have to find good assistant coaches that don’t mind working for literally nothing other than their passion for the game. We also don’t have a lot of scholarships to offer, so that’s not a strength either.”

When Gust took over the program, there were 18 Golden Eagles on the roster. Now, in spite of some limitations that come with smaller-school athletics, they currently have 46 players on the roster. They recruit primarily in Minnesota and North Dakota. They’ll include a few kids out of Wisconsin, Iowa, and South Dakota as well.

“The majority of our kids come in from our backyard,” he said. “We’ve created some excitement in the area by bringing in a lot of familiar players. The attendance and support from the community have been great. We’re just trying to do the little things that maybe one day will allow us to start thinking about winning a championship.

“We don’t have any 5-tool recruits,” Gust added. “We’re getting better players who happen to be good students as well. Our team GPA in the fall was 3.3, which is almost unheard of. We’re looking for guys who might have a little chip on the shoulder because they weren’t recruited by some of the bigger schools. They’ll have a passion for what they’re doing out there on the field.”

Gust added, “There’s no way I could run a program if I didn’t have a great group of people around me.”

Weather is a challenge

Like most schools in the north, the weather is always a challenge to deal with. Gust said one of the biggest goals for all the Crookston programs is to get a covered practice facility. What really hurts the team is not being able to get outside much early in the season to get some much-needed practice in. Gust says, “I think that’s coming here at Minnesota-Crookston, it’s just a matter of when.”

The Eagles team is basically brand-new this season. They graduated a lot of seniors from last spring’s squad. Last year, Crookston won 24 baseball games, but Gust said they were “disappointed” because they thought they were headed back to the postseason tournament. However, it didn’t happen.

“We have several junior college players on the roster this spring,” Gust said. “Sometimes, it’s hard for Junior College players to buy in when they come to a four-year school. However, our guys seem to have bought in right away. We’ve found ways to get things done so far in spite of facing some really good pitching in the first three weeks of the conference season.”

NSIC a solid conference

From top-to-bottom, the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference is one of the best Division Two conferences in the country. For example, they have the defending national champion Augustana (Sioux Falls, SD) Vikings as a member of the conference.

“Minnesota-State Mankato is always good,” Gust said. “Concordia-St. Paul has some really solid arms this season. St. Cloud State might be the team to beat. Even the teams that have been on the bottom over the past few years have gotten better. Teams like the University of Mary (Bismarck, ND) and Minot State (Minot, North Dakota) are among the teams taking steps forward.”

Even before they got going in their conference schedule, Crookston headed south to play some very good non-conference squads. They started off their season with perennial power Central Missouri State. Gust said people told him he was crazy to play them. However, he did see some good things in spite of losing to CMS.

“I thought a lot of good things came out of playing tough competition like that,” he said. “I saw signs that we could be a pretty good team. We also went down to Florida to play some really tough teams too. I think our non-conference schedule really prepared us well to do some good things in the conference.”

February 19, 2019February 19, 2019

Minnesota Gophers prepare for spring football

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Clemson beat the socks off Alabama to capture the NCAA football crown. As over a foot of snow sits on the ground in Minnesota (with more on the way this week), it may be surprising to realize that spring football isn’t that far away, at all. Ryan Burns of Gopher Illustrated talked all things Gopher football on a recent episode of Minnesota Sports Weekly.

“We’re only a few weeks away now,” Burns said, “and considering the kind of February we’ve had, with all the snow and the Polar Vortex, it’s going to be a sight for sore eyes. Warmer temps are around the corner, the doldrums of winter are getting behind us, which is a good thing for Minnesota residents and for Gopher football.”Recruiting has basically wrapped up (for now). Burns said Gopher coaches spent roughly three weeks in January pounding the pavement on the recruiting trail. That second national signing day cut down on the number of recruits Gopher football signed this time around during the traditional signing day, which is the first Wednesday of February.

“Minnesota only signed one more scholarship player,” Burns said. “They’d signed 21 scholarship players during the early signing day in December. It’s the second year that college football had two signing days. I’d say roughly 70 percent of all college football recruits have signed during December.

Gopher football — Ryan Burns of Gopher Illustrated. (Photo from twitter.com)

“The Minnesota coaching staff should be back in the office this week and looking at more recruiting tape,” he added. “Just a couple weeks later, the staff will get started on their spring football season.”

How much time do these coaches spend on the road trying to build the future of the program? It’s astronomical. After the Gophers beat Wisconsin at the end of the regular season, head coach P.J. Fleck was out on the road 19 of the next 23 days recruiting, all the way up to the early National Signing Day. As Burns said, “There’s no rest for the weary.” Right after that signing day, the Gophers were off to Detroit and their Dec. 26 appearance in the Quick Lane Bowl.

“They (coaches) got a couple weeks off after the bowl and they were back out on the recruiting trail through late January and early February,” he said. “They get another week off and then it’s back to work figuring out who they want to recruit for the 2020 class, which is all juniors as we speak today. It’s spring football until April 15^th, after which they’ll be back on the road till the end of May.

“Once that wraps up, their home with their families for 6-7 weeks,” Burns said. “Coaching is demanding. I know several Gopher coaches that consistently work 12-14-hour days and it’s tough being away from your family that much. When you’re out for a six-week stretch of recruiting, you’re home maybe one day every week. You better have an understanding better-half who’s willing to put up with the lifestyle.”

Looking at recruiting specifics, Burns said they had a few holes in the roster to fill. “They were trying to add more talent into a young team. The Gophers might have been the youngest team in the country last year. You always want to continue to add talent, especially at the quarterback position.

“It’s the position at which the Gophers have the biggest question marks on how the program takes the next step forward,” he added. “I’d argue they have as good of a stable of running backs that they’ve had in a long time, they have as good a wide receiver group they’ve had in a long time, and the Minnesota offensive line really flipped a switch in the last month of the season. The O line was a big reason the team took a big step forward late in the year.”

Minnesota signed two quarterbacks in the offseason. One was from out-of-state and was the highest-rated QB to sign with the Gophers in decades. His name is Jacob Clark and he’s from Rockwall, Texas. They also signed Cole Kramer, a quarterback from Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Burns said Fleck did “a good job” of filling his two biggest needs at quarterback and along the defensive line.

One of the most amazing things about recruiting under P.J. Fleck is how the Gopher program is getting recruits who are being chased by school in the Power 5 conferences. A good example is defensive lineman Rashad Cheney of Atlanta, Georgia. The 6-foot-2, 270-pound defensive tackle, a four-star recruit, had previously committed to play for both Georgia and Alabama in the SEC. However, he signed a letter of intent late last year to play football for the University of Minnesota.

“Any time that you’re able to get a kid who had committed to Alabama all the way up to Halloween of last year before deciding to look around,” Burns said, “I think Alabama’s defensive line is absolutely something you should try to emulate. Think about it, they annually send two or three guys off their defensive line to the NFL every year.

“Winning in the trenches every year is a big point of emphasis for defensive coordinator Joe Rossi,” he added. “I think they addressed that well.”

Here are lots of Gopher football highlights from last season

The Gopher football team took many Minnesota football fans by surprise, finishing 7-6 overall, getting three wins in the Big Ten Conference, and winning five of their seven home games. The goal of spring football is to make sure the program takes steps to keep things moving forward.

“The coaches want to make sure they can build on some things,” Burns said. “They want to make sure the players who had difficulties last year with certain aspects of their positions can get those things corrected by understanding the cause and correcting their technique. As much as they want to get the kids physically ready to go, it’s more about the mental aspect as Minnesota will continue to install new things both on offense and defense.”

He added, “Going into year three, they want to take things up a notch.”

The big headliner for Gopher football fans to watch in spring football is definitely at the quarterback position.

“You had Mankato native Zach Annexstad win the job out of Gopher football fall camp and then gets injured during the season,” Burns said. “Tanner Morgan then comes in to finish the season. Tanner started seven games and Zach started six. Neither one of them really did enough to pull away from one another.

“You also have the two freshmen quarterbacks coming in, both of whom graduated high school early,” he added. “They’re already enrolled on campus and will be there for workouts, as well as spring ball, trying to compete for that starting quarterback job. Fleck has said the quarterback job is wide open, but I say that Annexstad likely has the inside track. However, they’re all underclassmen, all 18-20 years old, and they’ll all grow and develop at a different pace, so we’ll see what happens.”

January 2, 2019January 2, 2019

Invasive Insect Found in Holiday Decorations

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is encouraging residents who purchased wreathes, swags, boughs, and other evergreen decorations at several retailers to burn items, or bag and throw away items to stop the spread of the invasive insect elongate hemlock scale (EHS).

EHS is native to Asia. It feeds on nutrients found on the underside of conifer needles.

Earlier this week the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection issued a similar warning after finding EHS in greenery at several retail chains. The MDA then began inspecting similar retailers across Minnesota, looking for the insect in any leftover greenery. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture found the insect in displays at Menards and Home Depot locations. Both companies are cooperating with MDA investigators and are pulling what’s left of the displays off the shelves.

The bigger challenge for inspectors is the evergreen items came all the way from North Carolina. It’s more than possible that the items were sold at other locations as well.

Minnesotans who bought wreathes, swags, boughs, and other evergreen decorations at Home Depot or Menards should burn the items, or bag them and dispose of them in the trash once the items are no longer useful for decoration. Do not compost the items.

Here is the insect itself and the damage it leaves behind. (Photo courtesy of OSU Extension)

“Unless you know you purchased evergreen products from a locally grown source, residents should err on the side of caution and burn, or bag and throw away your evergreen items,” said Assistant Agriculture Commissioner Whitney Place. “This will help us ensure this invasive insect does not get a foothold in Minnesota.”

Elongate hemlock scale has been found in the eastern U.S., Michigan, and Nevada. It had previously not been found in Minnesota.

October 5, 2018October 5, 2018

More Palmer Amaranth appearing in SW Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is investigating the source of a Palmer amaranth plant found growing in Jackson County.

In early September, a farmer noticed a suspicious weed in the first few rows of a soybean field adjacent to a utility field road. The weed survived a herbicide treatment. making initial identification difficult. The farmer then contacted the University of Minnesota Extension, which submitted the plant for genetic identification. The test has confirmed it was Palmer amaranth. MDA staff scouted fields in the area and have not found any other Palmer plants. The MDA is investigating where the Palmer amaranth seed came from.

“This is another case illustrating the effective collaborations established between the MDA, U of M Extension, crop consultants, and farmers throughout the state for locating and reporting Palmer amaranth,” said Mark Abrahamson, MDA’s Director of Plant Protection. “We continue to urge farmers and landowners to become familiar with what Palmer amaranth looks like and to immediately contact the MDA, Extension, or a crop consultant for help if they suspect Palmer amaranth on their property.”

Since 2016, the invasive weed has now been found in six Minnesota counties. In addition to this latest find in Jackson County, the MDA confirmed the weed in a Redwood County soybean field last week. It was also discovered in conservation plantings in Lyon and Yellow Medicine counties in 2016, and Todd and Douglas counties in 2017. However, after eradication treatments, Palmer has not been found at any sites in those four counties during 2018.

Palmer amaranth is listed as a Prohibited Weed Seed. This means it’s not allowed in any seed offered for sale in the state. It is also on Minnesota’s Prohibited Noxious Weed Eradicate List. All above and below ground parts of the plant must be destroyed. Also, no transportation, propagation, or sale of this plant is allowed.

If anyone suspects Palmer amaranth, they can contact the MDA through the Arrest the Pest line at 1-888-545-6684 or arrest.the.pest@state.mn.us.

Palmer amaranth is native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It has been found in over half of the states, and along with Minnesota, it has been found in the neighboring states of Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

August 29, 2018August 30, 2018

GoFundMe Miracle for Wisconsin Dairy Family

Dale and Karen Cihlar of Algoma, Wisconsin, can vouch firsthand about just how tough things are in the American dairy industry right now. Low milk prices are making it difficult for American producers to get the loan capital they need to stay in operation. The Cihlars were literally down to their last option for more operating money when they turned to crowdfunding through the GoFundMe website. Down to their last chance, they saw a miracle happen.

“Milk prices were down, and we had lost some cattle,” said Karen Cihlar. “We also had a big payment due on our manure storage facility. My husband (Dale) went to some loan officers, looking for a $35,000 loan for livestock because we were down in numbers. We also wanted to pay off a little debt. The bankers told us they weren’t loaning money to dairy farmers at the present time because of low projected milk futures prices.”

“When we asked the loan officers what to do, a lot of them said walk away,” she recalled. “I told Dale that just wasn’t an option. We have six or seven years in this business, everything is paid for, and the farm is ours. No, we weren’t going to walk away. We gotta fight.”

She had noticed in previous weeks that there were other farmers with campaigns on GoFundMe. Karen asked Dale if it was something he wanted to try, and he said “no.” He didn’t want other people to know what’s going on in their business.

“I said ‘if we have to pull a U-Haul up to the house and load up, they’re going to know our business,’” she recalled. “The last loan officer we went to said, ‘do what you have to do and don’t worry about what anyone thinks because they’re not in your shoes.’ That night, Dale told me ‘no to GoFundMe one more time. However, I really felt we should try it.

“I went over to our daughter’s house for some help and we did it,” she added. “We started getting donations right away.

Here’s the rest of the story:

In case you were wondering? The campaign was for the exact amount the family was turned down for; $35,000. The five-month campaign has raised over $90,300! Amazing!