In this Edition
MCPR News
- MCPR Summer Site Visit Planning
- MCPR Board Elections
- 2024 Elections / MN Crop PAC
Capitol Corner - Federal
- Agri-Pulse Newsmakers: June 14, 2024: Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, Anne MacMillan, and Sam Kieffer on Farm Bill Status
Industry Related News
- Strib Opinion Exchange: Farmers Deserve Clarity on Regulatory Authority: Tribal Groundwater Restrictions in Northwestern Minnesota Threaten the Balance
- Domestic Fertilizer Program for U.S. Expands
- Space Age Fertilizer: Landus Green Ammonia Plant Online in Iowa
- Syngenta and AI Company InstaDeep Collaborate to Accelerate Seed Trait Research Using LLMs
- Solving Data Challenges in Agriculture: Essential for Environmental Reporting
- Nitrogen Loss From Excess Moisture In Minnesota Fields
- Amid Economic Downturn, Machinery Prices Lower
- FAO Foresees A Stable Outlook For Most Food Commodity Markets In 2024/25
- Is the U.S. Ag Economy Heading Toward a Recession? A One-on-One with the President of the Chicago Fed
- How To Translate Generational Misunderstandings
Partner News/Announcements
- U of MN Extension – MN Crop News
- NEW Pesticide Safety Education Field Day Opportunity
- MCPA | Proposed Changes To Feedlot Permits Aim To Reduce Nitrate Pollution: Both NPDES And SDS General Permits Will Be Affected
- CCA Exam Registration
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MCPR Summer Site Visit Planning
Now that we are well into the summer season, MCPR Executive Director Lee Helgen looks forward to visiting with members and doing site visits. Helgen enjoys learning about member organizations and hearing more about how MCPR can help address industry concerns. Engaged members are key to our ongoing success, and your input is critical as the staff team works to identify available resources to meet industry needs. Please get in touch with Lee Helgen at lee@mcpr-cca.org to arrange a time that works for a site visit.
Additionally, we are seeking Ag Retail locations interested in hosting legislator meetings. These events serve as invaluable platforms for us to educate policymakers about production agriculture and foster positive relationships with key legislators. If you're keen on hosting a site visit and tour for legislators, please inform Lee Helgen at lee@mcpr-cca.org.
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MCPR Board Elections
Looking ahead, we have several MCPR Board of Directors seats up for election in 2024 for the terms beginning in January 2025. The decisions made by our board members shape the future of our organization, and we encourage you to consider running for a seat. The MCPR Bylaws and Membership Districts, which provide more information about the roles and responsibilities of each seat, are available on the MCPR website at www.mcpr-cca.org.
- District 2 Director
- District 4 Director
- Custom Applicator
- Technology Rep
- At-large
This year, MCPR will use an electronic ballot system for members to cast their ballots. We hope this change will encourage greater participation in the election process and facilitate a streamlined annual meeting at the MCPR Short Course in December. We will need to identify one individual for each member/location to cast the ballot. MCPR staff will send the ballots to the key contacts in our database and ask those contacts to help coordinate getting the correct person to vote on behalf of the member/location.
The Nominations Committee will be sending out several email calls for nominations in October, but if you are interested in seeking a board seat or learning more about serving the board of directors, please get in touch with Arnie Sinclair at arnie.sinclair@titanmachinery.com or Jeff Moon at jeffrey.moon@corteva.com.
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2024 Elections / MN Crop PAC
As you may have noticed, 2024 is an election year. MCPA continues to have a strong voice advocating at the State Capitol and with our federal congressional delegation. The MN Crop PAC plays a key role in building relationships with key policymakers by financially supporting candidates.
MN Crop PAC is seeking financial contributions from individuals to help build our war chest, make strategic investments, and create opportunities for deeper conversation.
- Contributing to the MN Crop PAC helps provide the resources needed to engage in the political process and helps us keep the doors open to influential policymakers and advocates.
Here are a few key issues that MCPR supported and bad policies the ag sector coalition prevented.
- AFREC renewed for five years. Maintained the current $.40 per ton fee structure to fund research.
- Opposed/blocked $.99 per ton fertilizer fee increase
- Opposed/prevented new restrictions on fertilizer usage
- Opposed/prevented expanded definitions and reporting requirements on nitrogen fertilizer
- Opposed/prevented bans on various treated seeds
Much of our recent legislative work has been defensive. As we look to the future, we want to focus on how we can help support investments in ag retail and production agriculture.
Please note: Contributions must come from personal funds; no company money may be used for PAC contributions. Please be sure to add your contact and employer information as required.
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Agri-Pulse Newsmakers: June 14, 2024: Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, Anne MacMillan, and Sam Kieffer on Farm Bill Status
Duration: 00:25:55 / Release Date: June 14, 2024
Senate Ag ranking member John Boozman laid out his framework for a new farm bill this week, but the bill crosses some red lines for Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow. She joins us on this week's episode of Agri-Pulse Newsmakers to give her reaction to Senator Boozman's proposal as well as her thoughts on the future of the bill.
Then, Anne MacMillan with Invariant and Sam Kieffer with the American Farm Bureau Federation talk about the prospects of passing a farm bill before the end of the year with the partisan divide in Congress.
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Strib Opinion Exchange: Farmers Deserve Clarity on Regulatory Authority: Tribal Groundwater Restrictions in Northwestern Minnesota Threaten the Balance
Talk to any farmer and it likely won't take long to hear about their love for the land and environment, love for their community and their commitment to their work. Every day, farmers get up before the sun rises to tend to their animals and crops, and most don't return home until long after the sun goes down. Their hard work doesn't just feed Minnesotans and people across the world — it serves as the backbone of rural economies across the state, supports some of Minnesota's most iconic companies and is a pillar of our overall state's economy, ranking Minnesota sixth in the nation for agricultural production.
It isn't the long hours that make farming so difficult, it's the risk and uncertainty of forces outside farmers' control — commodity prices, fuel, labor and weather — that can wipe out their work in an instant. That is why our organizations work with farmers and policymakers in St. Paul and Washington, D.C., to establish consistent regulatory tools and programs that give these stewards of our land the stability they need to do their job and a safety net to protect them from the unforeseeable.
Signatories: Jake Wildman, president, Irrigators Association of Minnesota; Dana Allen-Tully, president, Minnesota Corn Growers Association; Brian Sorenson, executive director, Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers; Bob Worth, president, Minnesota Soybean Growers Association; Lucas Sjostrom, executive director, Minnesota Milk Producers Association; Dan Glessing, president, Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation; Kaitlyn Root, executive director, Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association; Harrison Weber, executive director, Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association, and Tamara Nelsen, executive director, Minnesota AgriGrowth Council.
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Domestic Fertilizer Program for U.S. Expands
The USDA announced that fertilizer projects in North Dakota and Minnesota were among the projects to receive a total of nearly $82.8 million in funding on May 23. A Montana fertilizer project received funding in the first round of funding.
The grant funding was part of the Fertilizer Production and Expansion Program (FPEP) through the Biden-Harris domestic fertilizer program and USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack, which began in 2022.
The FPEP provides grants to help eligible applicants increase or otherwise expand the manufacturing and processing of fertilizer and nutrient alternatives and their availability in the U.S.
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Space Age Fertilizer: Landus Green Ammonia Plant Online in Iowa
Landus Cooperative is celebrating the grand opening of a new 75,000-square-foot fertilizer production and distribution facility in Boone, Iowa, this week.
According to the cooperative, the $15 million sustainable fertilizer facility will produce an 82-0-0 anhydrous ammonia from air, sun, and water.
Today, a significant source of the global nitrogen supply is produced offshore in places such as China, Russia and the Middle East and then shipped to the Midwest, resulting in high carbon intensity (CI) scores impacting the farms that use it. That is especially problematic for farmers trying to lower the CI metrics on their farms to become eligible for carbon credit and other downstream incentive programs.
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Syngenta and AI Company InstaDeep Collaborate to Accelerate Seed Trait Research Using LLMs
Syngenta Seeds, one of the world’s leading global agriculture technology companies, has announced a collaboration with AI company, InstaDeep, to bring Syngenta’s proprietary trait research and development capabilities together with InstaDeep’s Large Language Model (LLM) platform to accelerate the development of solution-providing crop traits for farmers.
InstaDeep has developed a state-of-the-art language model, AgroNT1, trained on trillions of nucleotides from agriculturally relevant crop species, to interpret the complex language of the genetic code. This next-generation AI technology learns from nature and was designed to accurately predict how genes are regulated, potentially enabling a new level of trait control and crop performance.
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Solving Data Challenges in Agriculture: Essential for Environmental Reporting
As a Portfolio Manager at AgGateway, I have a unique view of the agricultural data landscape, engaging with diverse topics and stakeholders weekly. Discussions range from GNSS accuracy for field boundaries to documenting manure lab test methods, irrigation data standards, and grower identification for contracts and seed deliveries. This broad engagement reveals the diverse perspectives, challenges, and solutions that various organizations experience with agricultural data.
A prominent recurring topic is environmental reporting. Initially seen as a temporary trend, it has become a sustained interest, crucial for documenting carbon offsets, sustainability practices, nutrient management, water use, and verifying climate-smart commodities. There is a significant push to standardize farm data for environmental documentation.
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Nitrogen Loss From Excess Moisture In Minnesota Fields
Oversaturated soils are resulting in lost crop nutrients.
University of Minnesota Extension educator Brad Carlson says many fields are several inches above water-holding capacity.
“The loss processes of nitrogen are water-based. So when we have saturated conditions that’s when we’re at high risk for losing nitrogen, either through leaching down through the profile through the tile lines, or through denitrification up into the air.”
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Amid Economic Downturn, Machinery Prices Lower
Demand for new farm equipment plummets as production costs, interest rates rise
Plummeting farm machinery demand due to falling crop prices and rising production costs continues to drive down sale prices at the auction block and on dealer lots. New machines are getting log-jammed by high inventory, so prices are being slashed to make room.
“Dealers are a little concerned with inventory. That’s going to cost them in the long term with interest rates as high as they are,” says Kim Rominger, president of the North American Equipment Dealers Association, adding that the economic downturn comes as dealers are finally catching up on COVID-19-era backorders. “They’re going to have to retail for a little less. That’s going to cause used products [inventory] to increase, and we’re already seeing increased activity at auctions for used equipment.”
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FAO Foresees A Stable Outlook For Most Food Commodity Markets In 2024/25
Rome – Supplies of most of the world’s major food commodities are expected to be adequate in 2024/25, although extreme weather, rising geopolitical tensions, sudden policy changes and other factors could all potentially tip the delicate global demand-supply balances and impact prices and global food security, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The latest FAO Food Outlook, a biannual publication, offers updated forecasts for the production, trade, utilization and stocks of major food staples.
On the production side, world outputs of rice and oilseeds are expected to be at record levels, while those of wheat and maize will likely decline modestly. The Food Outlook provides detailed market assessments for wheat, coarse grains, rice, oilcrops, sugar, meat, dairy products and fisheries.
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Is the U.S. Ag Economy Heading Toward a Recession? A One-on-One with the President of the Chicago Fed
The Federal Reserve voted to keep the benchmark interest rate steady last week. The news didn’t come as a big surprise. Taming what's been sticky inflation has proven to be a challenge, despite some promising inflation data that was reviewed during the Fed's meeting, but agriculture is also feeling the pinch as higher input costs and high interest rates are eating into the outlook of the ag economy this year.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for May was also released last week, showing inflation cooled slightly in May. The CPI climbed 3.3% year-over-year, according to data released last Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The index was flat month-over-month.
“The most recent inflation readings have been more favorable than earlier in the year, however, and there has been modest further progress toward our inflation objective,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. “We are maintaining our restrictive stance of monetary policy in order to keep demand in line with supply and reduce inflationary pressures.”
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How To Translate Generational Misunderstandings
Communication between one generation to another can seem like talking a different language.
“I suggest you approach looking at another generation with curiosity rather than judgment,” says Kim Lear of Inlay Insights.
In her work, Lear shares generational theory insights and highlights how these are trends, not traits, but can inform better teamwork.
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Partner News/
Announcements
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U of MN Extension – MN Crop News
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NEW Pesticide Safety Education Field Day Opportunity
The UMN Extension - Pesticide Safety and Environmental Education program (PSEE) is offering an educational field day workshop for pesticide applicators on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 from 7:30 am - 4:00 pm at the UMN Southern Research & Outreach Center located at 35838 120th Street, Waseca, MN 56093.
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MCPA | Proposed Changes To Feedlot Permits Aim To Reduce Nitrate Pollution: Both NPDES And SDS General Permits Will Be Affected
Because of an evolving and improving understanding of how nitrate is affecting Minnesota’s water, the MPCA is proposing updates to its feedlot permits to bolster protection of water resources. Nitrate is a chemical pollutant found increasingly in Minnesota's waters. One source of nitrate is manure from animal feedlots. Manure contains nitrogen, a valuable fertilizer. The challenge is that when manure is applied to farm fields, some nitrogen is naturally converted to nitrate – and nitrate is very water-soluble, meaning it can move easily with the flow of water.
The MPCA proposes adding additional protections for land application of manure in vulnerable areas to keep nitrate from moving easily through the soil into groundwater. Vulnerable areas include those with karst susceptible bedrock, coarse textured soils, shallow bedrock, and highly vulnerable drinking water supply management areas.
Both the state and federal feedlot operating permits will be expiring soon, which provides the opportunity for changes to the permit requirements. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) is a federal, five-year permit that expires Jan. 31, 2026. The State Disposal System (SDS) 10-year permit expires May 31, 2025.
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More than 17,000 feedlots are registered in Minnesota. The general permits apply to about 1,000 facilities. For some, the updated permits could require:
• planting cover crops.
• incorporating perennial crops into rotations.
• moving from fall to spring manure application.
• incorporation of manure in floodplains.
Additionally, proposed changes would require people who take manure from these facilities to comply with the land application requirements of the permits.
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CCA Exam Registration
CCA Exam Registration will be online and open June 20, 2024.
Next CCA Exam Dates: July 24, 2024 - August 05, 2024
Registration Period: June 20, 2024 - July 15, 2024
Exams are now available to be taken by section!
The International and Local Board exams are organized into sections, Crop Management, Nutrient Management, Soil and Water Management and Pest Management. Section testing offers a flexible way to tackle the ICCA and Local Board exams by allowing candidates to take each of the four sections separately, rather than all at once. You can choose to complete the sections in any order and at your own pace within a five-year timeframe. More information about section testing is available on the Exam FAQ page.
For this exam window, you will need to register for the exam of your choice between now and July 15th. You will receive an email inviting you to schedule a day to take your exam on July 17th. After scheduling your exam, you will receive detailed information about the exam and proctor process via email from certification@sciencesocieties.org, so make sure our email isn’t marked as spam. The exam window is July 24th to August 5th.
If you’re not able to take the exam in this window, you need to wait until the next available time to register of September 25th to October 21st with an exam window of October 30th to November 11th.
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Follow MCPR on Social Media! |
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Are you following MCPR on social media? Make sure you like and follow us so you don't miss out on events, what's happening with our members and the latest news impacting Minnesota’s agricultural retail sector!
Does your organization or company have news or a press release that you would like to share with the MCPR’s membership? If so, please contact MCPR - lee@mcpr-cca.org.
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Minnesota Crop Production Retailers | P: 763.235.6466
www.mcpr-cca.org
1020 Innovation Lane, Mankato, MN 56001
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