MCPR Enews April 28

April 28, 2025

Rep. Thompson revered as friend of Ag at Golden Plow Award event

From Lancaster Farming

U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson is the farmer’s friend.

G.T.’s friends gathered Tuesday at Wasson Farm Market to celebrate the congressman’s second Golden Plow.

Each year, the American Farm Bureau Federation issues the award to recognize members of Congress and Senate who advance agricultural policies and support the nation’s farmers and ranchers.

Full story.

US eases port fees on China-built ships after industry backlash

From The SCOOP

The Trump administration shielded on Thursday domestic exporters and vessel owners servicing the Great Lakes, the Caribbean and U.S. territories from port fees to be levied on China-built vessels, aiming to revive U.S. shipbuilding.

The Federal Register notice posted by the U.S. Trade Representative was watered down from a February proposal for fees on China-built ships of up to $1.5 million per port call that sent a chill through the global shipping industry.

Full story.

Ag Secretary says White House is “really close” to final plans for USDA realignment

From KFGO

USDA staffing cuts and office consolidations are raising bipartisan concerns in Congress – sparking objections to what some criticize as haphazard layoffs by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

USDA currently is sorting through employees who submitted their requests for a Deferred Resignation Program that would pay them potentially through the end of September – but terminate their employment.

Full story.

Key issues MCPR supports in omnibus bill issues

At the Minnesota Capitol, we are waiting for the omnibus ag committee bills to pass through both bodies and the conference committee to be formed. The key issues we are supporting include:

Support the Senate position to fund $50,000 for MDA to conduct a study on an incentive-based approach for working with ag retailers to advance the 4R program. This is scaled back approach we suggested when the budget target came out and there didn’t appear to be a couple of million dollars available to launch a program with the 4R incentive payments.
Support the House position eliminating the requirement for handlers to be a licensed pesticide applicator provided they meet the training requirements in federal code. This change would make it easier for workers handling RUPs to support the licensed pesticide applicators
There are a few other items of interest where we don’t have an official position, mainly the House proposal to pay farmers to utilize bio-fertilizer products if they can show reductions in the use of commercial nitrogen fertilizer.

On April 21, the Senate Ag Committee held an informational hearing on SF 8083 – Regulating Pesticide Treated Seeds. Here is the link to the hearing (skip to 1:24:13 for the bill presentation and testimony). Ashly Runholt from Cottonwood Oil Co-op testified in opposition to the proposal on behalf of MCPR (testimony starts at 1:45.51). Following Ashley’s testimony, MCPR Executive Director Lee Helgen provided brief comments highlighting MCPR’s opposition to the bill.

The hearing was only informational, and we don’t expect further action on it this session. However, it is important to keep in mind that the bill remains alive for possible consideration for through end next session.

Below is the written testimony submitted from the advocates and the ag sector organizations.

SF 3083 - McEwen: Pesticides from treated seeds addition to the Commissioner of Agriculture's pesticide management plan requirements; appropriating money

Gov. Tim Walz delivers State of State as gaze goes beyond Minnesota

From MPR News

In a Wednesday night State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature, Walz offered a roadmap to crafting a budget that would “bring everyone to the table” and that involves cuts to spending many in his party might flinch at and Republicans would want to take further.

But he also used the speech to ramp up his criticism of President Donald Trump, attacking the new administration as destructive to “the values that once made America the shining light of the world.”

Full story.

Minnesota House passes 2025 Agriculture Budget bill

From Minnesota Legislature

Today, the Minnesota House passed HF2446, the 2025 Agriculture Budget bill, on a vote of 130-3. The legislation, authored by Agriculture Committee co-chairs Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) and Rep. Paul Anderson (R-Starbuck), funds the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Board of Animal Health, the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, and the Office of Broadband Development. The budget increases total funding for Agriculture by $17 million.

Full story.

Industry News: Minnesota co-op names next CEO, ICL acquires Lavie Bio

From The SCOOP

The Crystal Valley Board of Directors announces Mitch Altermatt has been selected as the cooperative’s next Chief Executive Officer. Altermatt will officially begin his new role on April 28, 2025, following the retirement of long-time CEO Roger Kienholz.

Altermatt brings a deep background in agribusiness and cooperative leadership, most recently serving as CEO of United Farmers Coop, where he helped guide the organization through strategic growth, operational improvements, and long-term planning efforts.

Full story.

The Quarterly: Historic shift in trade policy risks long-term loss of trust

From CoBANK

The long-anticipated “reciprocal” tariff plan turned out to be much more impactful than businesses had expected, and significant uncertainty remains as we enter a 90-day negotiating period with many of our trade partners. Regardless of how those negotiations evolve, the increasingly unpredictable nature of U.S. trade policy will have long-term implications for our trade relationships. Given the anxiety over tariffs and other news coming out of Washington D.C., consumer and business sentiment has turned sharply negative over the past two months. However, we will have to wait for the “hard” data to see if that translates into a weakening economy.

Full story.

John Deere offers precision upgrades for existing equipment, boosting farm profitability

From Farm Progress

On this Farm Files episode of FP Next, Curt and Sarah talk to Kyle Barry, manager of precision upgrades marketing; Clint Chaffer, product marketing lead for precision upgrades at John Deere about retrofitting new technology into current equipment.

Using a Precision Essentials kit with core components will bundle a display, receiver and modem to bring access to Operations Center to the current machine. There are also options for AutoTrack and other essentials that not only benefit row crop customers, but high-value crop customers and livestock ranchers.

Full story.

This winter’s lack of snow cover could spell trouble for drought in these areas

From The SCOOP

It was the winter that wasn’t for some areas of the U.S. Farmers located in the upper Plains, northern Plains and Northeast came up short on snow for the 2024/25 season. In some cases, they experienced the winter that wasn’t, now sitting 10" to 30" short on normal snowfall.

It’s been the “haves” and “have nots” when it comes to moisture. April started with monsoon rains that brought flooding all the way from southern and eastern Arkansas to the Ohio Valley. According to USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey, some of those areas saw their worst flooding since the spring of 1997.

Full story.

Planted acres soar as Mother Nature plays nice (for a few days)

From The SCOOP

Last week’s warm temperatures and handful of rain-free days were a perfect recipe for spring planting — and farmers took full advantage of the opportunity.

At this time last week, USDA reported 4% of corn and 2% of soybean acres had been planted. As of April 20, those numbers have jumped to 12% for corn and 8% for soybeans.

Full story.

Early soybean disease control: What to watch for following early planting

From CropLife

Early planted soybeans often equate to high yields. However, early planting comes with inherent risks. Several pathogens that attack soybean seeds and seedlings — Phytophthora, Pythium, Rhizoctonia and Fusarium — survive in the soil and diseased plant material. These diseases are most common in the first few weeks after planting, especially in heavy, poorly drained, compacted or high-residue fields.

Full story.

Cultivating a healthy company culture in agribusiness

By Lara Sowinski for CropLife

In late January, I attended Compeer Financial’s inaugural AgTech Forum. CEO Jase Wagner focused on company culture for his opening remarks, including lessons learned from the 2017 merger with two other Farm Credit cooperatives.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting this to be Wagner’s topic of choice given the theme of the event and the current farm economy, so he had my attention from the start.

Full story.

How ag detail services drive farmer customer loyalty

From The SCOOP

Every two years, the team at Stratus Ag Research looks at how services provided by ag retailers are valued by farmer customers. One of the main takeaways is the more engaged a farmer is with services provided by a retailer, the more influence the retailer has on crop protection decisions.

When a farmer engages with six or more services provided by their main retailer, two-thirds of that group say the retailer has a strong influence on input decisions. Comparatively, if a farmer only uses three services provided by a retailer, one-fourth of those farmers say the retailer has a strong influence on their decisions.

Full story.

Cover crops gain acceptance from farmers when their agronomic advisers already use them

From The SCOOP

Agronomic advisers are increasingly recommending the use of cover crops to their farmer customers and helping them find success – especially when they have experience with cover crops on their own ground.

That’s just one of the key findings in a new survey from the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC), Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), and the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA). A report on the survey was released by the three groups on Wednesday.

Full story.

Green ammonia could be key in reducing costs and carbon emissions for Iowa farmers

From Iowa Public Radio

At the Landus AcreEdge Fertilizer Facility in Boone, Tracy Keyes pointed to shipping containers behind a fence.

“The Talus plant is made up of five core systems,” she said. “Our two most important containers, I would say, is our hydrogen unit and our ammonia generation unit.”

Keyes is an engineer with Talusag. The company partnered with Landus Cooperative to produce what they say is North America’s first commercial-scale “green ammonia.”

Full story.

Which of these smart sprayers is best for your operation?

From FarmProgress

Targeted spray technology is revolutionizing the way crops are managed. Manufacturers tout up to 90% input savings. While there are systems that use light to identify weeds, the technology behind each brand’s offering is similar.

Cameras capture images, which are analyzed by on-board computers in real time. In fractions of a second, artificial intelligence and predictive modeling algorithms differentiate between crop and weeds, and direct nozzles to open and close.

Full story.

Calcium sulfate fertilizer plant opens in Illinois

From The SCOOP

With capacity to produce 100,000 tons of calcium sulfate fertilizer, SUL4R-PLUS opened a new plant in Marissa, Illinois.

Manufactured from by-products from coal-fired power plants SUL4R-PLUS is a patented, dust-free, low-salt, calcium-sulfate fertilizer. This is the company’s second production facility and is located near the Prairie State power plant. SUL4R-PLUS is distributed by HELM, and the Marissa plant can supply up to 2 million crop acres.

Full story.