In this Edition
Capitol Corner- State
- MN Department of Revenue Presentation
- MN House Agriculture Finance and Policy - Upcoming Overview Hearing on Nitrates
Capitol Corner - Federal
- TFI Update: Senator Brown (D-OH) Agrees to Co-Lead Introduction of P and K as Critical Minerals with Sen Tillis (R-NC)
- FBI Informant Charged with Lying about Joe and Hunter Biden’s Ties to Ukrainian Energy Company
- Donald Trump Fraud Verdict: $364 million Penalty in New York Civil Case
Industry Related News
- EPA Issues Existing Stocks Order for Dicamba
- Crop Insurance Costs to Leap by 29%, says CBO
- EPA Approves New Corn Herbicide from BASF
- Tall Order for Short Corn: The Latest On Short-Stature Hybrids
- 5 Ways Truterra Wants To Break The Carbon Market Adoption Plateau
- Hemp Seed in Chicken Feed? A Potentially Huge Market for Minnesota Growers may be Opening
- Strategic Farming: Let's Talk Crops! Discussed how to make Herbicides Work Better
- U.S. Lost 142,000 Farms According to Ag Census
- Encouraging News on Gulf Hypoxia
Partner News / Announcements
- Certified Crop Advisors – Exams
- USDA – Agricultural Census Data Released
- Chlopyrifos
- Engagement Opportunities on PFAS Rulemakings
- Only Two Weeks Away From AgriGrowth's 2024 Legislative Reception!
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MN Department of Revenue Presentation
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2/22/2024 - Agenda
Minnesota Department of Agriculture
University of Minnesota, Dr. Carl Rosen, Professor, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate
2/29/2024 - Agenda
Minnesota Future Farmers of America
Tyler Ratka, State Vice-President, ROCORI
Alison Murrell, State Secretary, Braham
Presentations on nitrates in soil
Freshwater Society
Minnesota Farmers Union
Minnesota Farm Bureau
Minnesota Corn Growers Association
Minnesota Pork Producers Association
Minnesota Milk Producers Association
Minnesota Crop Production Retailers Association
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TFI Update: Senator Brown (D-OH) Agrees to Co-Lead Introduction of P and K as Critical Minerals with Sen Tillis (R-NC)
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has embraced bipartisan cooperation, joining with Senator Tom Tillis (R-NC) to co-lead the introduction of the Senate companion bill to H.R. 4059, designating Phosphorus and Potash as Critical Minerals. With this crucial step, TFI will promptly transition its advocacy efforts from the House to the Senate. The robust backing garnered for the House bill, including support from 23 congressional members, the New Dems Coalition and over 30 trades, will undoubtedly bolster members to get behind the Senate bill. Please contact Ed Thomas with any questions.
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FBI Informant Charged with Lying about Joe and Hunter Biden’s Ties to Ukrainian Energy Company
Alexander Smirnov has been charged with fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company.
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Donald Trump Fraud Verdict: $364 million Penalty in New York Civil Case
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge ruled Friday against Donald Trump, imposing a $364 million penalty over what the judge ruled was a yearslong scheme to dupe banks and others with financial statements that inflated the former president’s wealth.
Trump also was barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years.
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EPA Issues Existing Stocks Order for Dicamba
Cotton and soybean farmers can still use XtendiMax, Engenia and Tavium to control in-season weeds for 2024 growing season.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s existing stocks order issued Feb. 14, 2024 ensures farmers will still have access to the popular dicamba products XtendiMax, Engenia and Tavium this growing season for weed control in soybeans and cotton.
The federal court's ruling led to confusion regarding what could be done with products already purchased and distributed to farmers, and groups called on EPA for more guidance.
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Crop Insurance Costs to Leap by 29%, says CBO
“These are big jumps,” said former USDA chief economist Joe Glauber, who writes regularly on crop insurance.
The federally subsidized crop insurance program will cost an additional $27.7 billion over the coming decade, said the Congressional Budget Office in projections released on Monday. The government pays roughly 62¢ of each $1 in premiums, and sales of livestock and forage policies are exploding.
Crop insurance will cost the government nearly $125 billion for the decade ending in 2033, said the CBO, up 29% from last year’s estimate of $97 billion over 10 years. In recent years, crop insurance has become the largest strand in the farm safety net. The government has paid $15.6 billion in indemnities so far on losses for 2023 production.
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EPA Approves New Corn Herbicide from BASF
The formula offers residual PPO chemistry and control against 79 weed species.
The EPA has registered Surtain, a new field corn herbicide from BASF. The solid encapsulated premix formula may offer control or suppression of 79 broadleaf and grass weeds. With a focus on residual control, Surtain applications can be made from pre-plant to V3.
“Every year, growers spend millions of dollars to control weeds in corn fields due to increased herbicide resistance,” said Scott Kay, vice president of U.S. agricultural solutions at BASF, in a news release. “Surtain herbicide’s unique chemistry targets weeds at their most vulnerable state, providing excellent control of even the most troublesome weeds facing corn growers today.”
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Tall Order for Short Corn: The Latest On Short-Stature Hybrids
The massive derecho that swept across parts of five Midwest states in August 2020 spawned 125 mph-plus straight-line winds, torrential rain and large hail. In the process, the storm damaged millions of crop acres, including 550,000 acres of Iowa corn USDA deemed were not harvestable.
“As you drove around this area, the only corn that was standing happened to be short-stature hybrid corn,” recalls Sean Blomgren, a farmer and owner of Blomgren Seed based in central Iowa, near Boone. “We seem to be in an area prone to high wind pressure, so there’s certainly some peace of mind with using this technology.”
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5 Ways Truterra Wants To Break The Carbon Market Adoption Plateau
On the heels of announcing its 2024 carbon programs, Truterra president Jamie Leifker says the industry is still in the messy middle of realizing the potential of these programs for farmers.
As the program offerings have expanded, notably, Truterra’s increased focus to offer opportunities for long-term practitioners, the effort to increase farmer participation still requires overcoming great inertia.
“We can move so much faster. By our estimates, less than 2% of farmers are participating in these programs industry wide,” Leifker says. “For us at Truterra, for the first two years, we sequestered 462,000 metric tons, paid $9 million. But it was still less than 300 growers enrolled in 2022 and 2023.”
- Encourage its retail network to prioritize carbon markets.
- Integrate carbon into the business of ag retail
- Make the data lift easier
- Recognize high retention rate
- Buy into the long-term outlook
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Hemp Seed in Chicken Feed? A Potentially Huge Market for Minnesota Growers may be Opening
Hemp seed meal becomes the first cannabis product to win initial federal approval for livestock feed in modern times.
Hemp grows in a field in 2022 near Waconia, Minn. Hemp seed may soon be allowed in chicken feed, opening a potentially massive market that could boost the industry here.
Egg cartons could soon boast a new green claim: hemp-fed hens.
Regulators recently gave hemp seed meal initial approval as feed for egg-laying chickens, granting hemp farmers access to part of the $85 billion U.S. livestock feed market for the first time.
More markets could engender greater confidence among Minnesota hemp farmers to plant additional acres, which the industry here needs for bigger scale and favorable prices.
Several major players in animal nutrition, including Cargill and Land O' Lakes, are based in Minnesota.
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Strategic Farming: Let's Talk Crops! Discussed how to make Herbicides Work Better
On February 7, 2024, Dr. Tommy Butts, Extension Weed Scientist with the University of Arkansas, and Tom Hoverstad, Researcher at the University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca, joined UMN Extension Educator-Crops Ryan Miller for a discussion on “Making Herbicides work better”.
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U.S. Lost 142,000 Farms According to Ag Census
Vilsack concerned about future of agriculture and food production.
U.S. farmland declined by nearly 20 million acres between 2017 and 2022. That’s according to the latest USDA Census of Agriculture, which was released on Tuesday. As of 2022, there were 880.1 million acres of land dedicated to farming, compared to 900.1 million in 2017.
The data shows there are now a little more than 1.9 million farms in the country. This is 142,000 fewer farms than reported in the previous survey, a number equal to all current farms in New England excluding Connecticut.
Those farmland losses continue a downward trend that has been ongoing for decades. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack notes the U.S. has now lost well over a half-million farms since the early 1980s. He says those numbers make him concerned about the state of agriculture and food production.
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Encouraging News on Gulf Hypoxia
Ag Water Stewardship: In 2022, the hypoxic zone measured 3,275 square miles, the eight-smallest measurement since 1985.
Many will be familiar with the subject of hypoxia, or low oxygen, in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
This phenomenon occurs seasonally, peaking in summer, due to stratification or layering. Heavier saltwater sits at the bottom, with lighter freshwater on top. When these layers do not mix well, the bottom waters can become depleted of oxygen, to the point that fish will evacuate the area, while bottom-dwellers that cannot move far enough or fast enough are likely to perish.
Over 20 years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formed the Hypoxia Task Force to address Gulf hypoxia. In 2001, this task force agreed to meet a coastal goal of reducing the size of the hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf to a five-year annual average of less than 2,000 square miles by 2015, subject to the availability of resources.
In December, the Mississippi River-Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force submitted its 2023 report to Congress, showing progress on reducing nitrogen loads and noting that as of 2022, “the task force has met its 2025 interim target to reduce total nitrogen loads by 20%.”
Minnesota is a relatively small contributor to Gulf nutrient loading, with modeling suggesting that we supply about 8% of the nutrients reaching the Gulf.
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Partner News / Announcements
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Certified Crop Advisors - Exams
Exam registration will open February 21, 2024 for available exam dates of March 27 to April 8, 2024.
2024 Quarterly Exam Calendar
Exam Registration Dates
Register and pay for the exam(s) of your choice.
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February 21st to March 18th
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June 19th to July 15th
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September 25th to October 21st
Available Exam Dates
Exams will be conducted during this time frame.
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March 27th to April 8th
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July 24th to August 5th
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October 30th to November 11th
Exam Registration is only available during the dates listed above, and only for the next Available Exam Date. For example, if you want to take your exam in the July 24th to August 5th exam period, you would register in the June 19th to July 15th period.
Sign up for an exam registration notification or get information about specialty exams below:
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USDA – Agricultural Census Data Released
Every five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture releases the Census of Agriculture. Among its findings are about land use, which are of particular interest for water quality.
Highlights for Minnesota:
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Lands with cover crops increased by 31 percent since 2017 for a total of 760,423 acres, or 4.1 percent of all cropland acres.
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Cropland with conservation or reduced tillage practices (not including no-till) decreased by 333,511 acres or four percent. This category stands at 42.3% of all cropland acres.
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Cropland on which no-till practices were used increased by 103,650 acres or nine percent. This category stands at 6.4% of all cropland acres.
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Cropland on which conventional or intensive tillage practices were used increased by 74,518 acres or about one percent. This category includes 51.3% of all cropland acres.
Source: Clean Water Council update 2/15/2024 [Read More]
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Chlopyrifos
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) will provide conditional registration of chlorpyrifos pesticide products valid for the 2024 growing season. This conditional registration expires on December 31, 2024.
The MDA is reregistering products for the upcoming growing season after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a November 2023 ruling vacating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) revocation of food and feed tolerances for chlorpyrifos and ordering the EPA to reconsider the use of the pesticide. The MDA is also requiring product manufacturers to include the MDA’s water quality best management practices, or BMPs, for chlorpyrifos with each sale of the insecticide.
The department will continue to evaluate the use of chlorpyrifos in Minnesota as the EPA determines final steps on federal registration of the pesticide. MDA is working with Registrants (Gharda, Loveland, and Drexel among others) to get their products registered for 2024. For more information, please contact Josh Stamper, Division Director, Pesticide and Fertilizer Management Division, Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
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Engagement Opportunities on PFAS Rulemakings
- PFAS in products reporting rule (initial request for comments period closed Nov. 28, 2023)
- PFAS in products fees rule (initial request for comments period closed Nov. 28, 2023)
- PFAS in products currently unavoidable use rule (initial request for comments period open through March 1, 2024)
The MPCA plans to engage interested parties in the rulemakings through email, webinars, two informal technical groups, and the public comment process. (Note: Working group participation will be at the invitation of the MPCA, which will ensure a variety of perspectives are represented.)
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Only Two Weeks Away From AgriGrowth's 2024 Legislative Reception!
February 28th is coming up fast! Are you registered and ready for AgriGrowth's 2024 Legislative Reception?
This highly anticipated annual event provides an excellent opportunity to network with legislators while enjoying drinks and heavy appetizers in the beautiful 317 on Rice Park. This exclusive event is open only to AgriGrowth members and their invited guests, elected officials and agency leaders, and their staff.
This event is of no cost to members or elected officials. If you would like to invite a non-member guest, the cost is $50 per person. Don't miss out - register today!
Here are the details:
What: AgriGrowth's 2024 Legislative Reception
When: February 28, 2024*
Time: 5:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Where: 317 on Rice Park, 317 Washington Street, Saint Paul, MN 55102
*Note – Original Save the Date listed February 27th as event date – but date is now February 28th
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Minnesota Crop Production Retailers | P: 763.235.6466
www.mcpr-cca.org
601 Carlson Parkway, Ste 450, Minnetonka, MN 55305
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