Minnesota

Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar and South Dakota Republican John Thune introduced the Ocean Shipping Reform Act into the Senate last week. It’s the Senate’s response to the House version that passed by a wide bipartisan vote in December. Farm g ...

As of December 1st, U.S. farms held 74.2 million hogs and pigs, a 4% drop from the same time in 2020. It’s also a 1% drop from September 1st, 2021. Those numbers come from NASS’ the latest Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report. Of those 74.2 million h ...

Rural Investment to Protect our Environment, known as RIPE, recently added two highly respected Farmers Unions to its steering committee. The organization announced last week that Minnesota Farmers Union’s Eunice Biel and North Dakota Farmers Union’s Matt Perdue joined the committee. RIPE is ...

Chuck Bundrant, the cofounder of Seattle-based Trident Seafoods died Sunday at his home in Edmonds, WA, at the age of 79. Bundrant arrived in Seattle in 1961 as a 19-year old from Evansville, IN and started working in the fisheries as a way to pay for college ...

Last week, a pair of farm state senators introduced the Precision Agriculture Loan Act. Nebraska Republican Deb Fischer and Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar say their bipartisan legislation would create a program within the Department of Agriculture to provide loan financing to farmers and ranchers interested in purchasing precision agriculture equipment ...

Farmers from Minnesota and North Dakota recently joined a discrimination lawsuit against the Department of Agriculture. The group behind the lawsuit alleges a USDA COVID-19 relief program for socially disadvantaged farmers discriminates based on race ...

Recently, senators Mike Rounds, Republican from South Dakota, and Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding the state of the U.S. meatpacking industry. They asked him to enforce or examine America’s antitrust laws to restore fairness in the marketplace for cattle producers and are asking their colleagues in both the House and Senate to

Sugar beet planting nationwide is nearing completion, a little earlier than normal. According to USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey, 81% of the U.S. crop was planted by May 2nd, ahead of the five-year average of 51% and last year's 47%. "We're seeing planting approaching completion in Michigan 95% complete, and Idaho 93% ...

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty last week filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the alleged race discrimination in the American Rescue Plan. Specifically, the organization targets a provision to offer loan forgiveness based on racial categories ...

When it comes to the 2021 sugarbeet crop, USDA metorologist Brad Rippey says plantings nationwide are off on the right foot. "We're off to a pretty quick start especially in Michigan and Idaho. Overall, national progress 17% of the sugarbeets planted by April 11th ...