Welcome to Minnesota. I hope you had the opportunity to read Surly’s Minnesota Primer

It’s a wonderful introduction to Minnesota, particularly the metro area. If you choose to venture in rural Minnesota, I have some additional tips.

1. Surly references the I94 shitshow on Fridays. Well that’s because everyone in the metro area is trying to escape to rural Minnesota for the weekend. It’s better out here.
2. You will find accents in Minnesota. Most notably, a lack of TH sounds. “Oh gees, did you hear da tunder last night? What a storm. Uffda.” It’s adorable.
3. Despite our own accents, it’s still fun to laugh at the Canadian accent, eh?
4. We’re days away from the Winter Olympics, and maybe you’ll meet someone who has coached, played with, or is related to one of the 19 Minnesotans who will be competing. Five are from Duluth (head north on I35, when it ends you’re in Duluth.) Skiing, hockey, and curling are essential winter sports for Minnesotans. 
5. We take lakes seriously. One reason to live in rural MN is the abundant and affordable storage for lake toys such as boats, kayaks, ice houses, water skiis, fishing poles, and lifejackets. Frozen or liquid, we love water and the lakes.
6. Minnesota has very diverse agricultural production. We’re top in the U.S. for turkeys, sugarbeets, sweet corn and canning peas. We also rate in the top 5 for wild rice, dry beans, rye, hogs, corn, soybeans and flaxseed. In the event of a zombie apocalypse, I’d head to Minnesota. We can grow our own food. We can teach you how to can and preserve your own fruit and vegetables to survive the winter.
7. Speaking of agricultural production, the University of Minnesota has released some amazing apple varieties. Honeycrisp is the most famous. Personally I look for SweeTango in the grocery stores in the fall. Cashiers judge me and my 6 pounds of apples, but they’re so good.  
8. If you choose to stay in Minnesota, please be ready for our statehood test. We enjoy our sparsely populated rural areas where you can kayak on a lake, all alone except for a pair of loons. We don't let just anyone move in. Our statehood test includes baking a tater tot hotdish, taking a fish off a hook, and lip syncing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy.”  If you can pass those tests, welcome to the neighborhood.  

We’re never done with field work. There is always more that can be done. We can always do more ditching to improve surface drainage.  Maybe we need to haul gravel for a field crossing. If the weather cooperates, we’re in the field.  Now we have snow, and cold temperatures, and we’re done in the field because Mother Nature says we’re done.


 
Winter is here, and the job responsibilities change. We have a heated shop, grain in storage and a seed plant. Everyone stays busy in the winter.
 
Like most farmers, we wish we had a bigger shop. If a shop is 20 years old, it’s too small. Machinery gets bigger but that 20 year old shop stays the same size. It seemed big enough 20 years ago, and now it’s outdated. Shop envy is pretty common among farmers. You’ve probably watched home shows on HGTV. Did you know there are similar shows, but for farm shops? We have those shows recorded on our DVR. 
 
There is already machinery to be repaired, and grain to be hauled. We had a great wheat crop this year, and now we must haul some of those bushels to the elevator. Plus our corn and soybeans go to the elevator, and our navy beans must go to East Grand Forks.  We keep the semi trucks running all winter.
 
Since we raise seed wheat, we have to clean those bushels in our seed plant. We run the bushels over many different machines to clean out the weeds, foreign material and small broken kernels. We clean our wheat, and also wheat for our neighbors. Most wheat varieties allow you to keep your seed and replant the next year. If a farmer bought wheat seed this spring, and liked the variety, they may set aside a few bushels and clean them for planting in 2018.
 
Off the farm, this is meeting season. This is when the extension service tells us what their experiments showed during 2017. This is when private companies try to explain their new products for 2018. We try to stay up to date on new technology, products and ideas that we can use in 2018.
 
The pressure of harvest is done, but the work is never done. We are already selling seed for spring 2018, and buying new seed varieties for the farm.  We only have 10 months until our next wheat harvest!

Many years ago, Brian and I were on the floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. It's a beautiful old building with so much history for wheat growers and commodity traders. Just imagine all the buyers, sellers and bushels that have traded through the grain exchange.
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There were rows and rows of cash grain tables and I joked that if one ever came up for sale, I would buy it.  Brian agreed, and it has been a long running joke about how we'd have to add onto the house when I get my table.  It was a great joke, until it became a reality.

In October, I received a press release from the grain exchange announcing the auction of 7 tables.  I submitted my earnest money, watched Brian panic, and eventually won an auction for table 2. 

Now I had to get the table from Minneapolis to Stephen.  I found the website uship.com and found a shipper.  Of course he backed out (I guess that's pretty common on the site). The grain exchange wanted the tables gone by Nov 30, so I found another shipper who would haul the table to my aunt's garage in the suburbs, and eventually bring it to Stephen when he could fill his trailer. 

This table has no practical purpose. It's too big to fit through a doorway. Another buyer mismeasured, and had to cut the table in half to get it into the office. It will make a great lefse making table next Christmas. For now, the table is parked next to the air seeder. We do need to replace the sunroom on our office because it's leaking. When we replace the wall, we could slip the table into the office.  The downside is that the office isn't that big, and the table would be stuck there for life, or until we punch a hole in the wall. 

For now, I have one of these pieces of history.  I never dreamed I would actually own a table. Now I need wheat prices to rally enough to justify a new addition to my house, or a bigger office. You're welcome to come and visit this piece of history. 

​So many headlines about fake news, and its influence on politics and the election. Anybody can start a website, and post fake news. Anyone can call himself or herself an “expert” despite having no background and no training. I can’t figure out why this is just making headlines today.
 
To farmers, fake news and fake experts are nothing new. Anyone can start a blog, claim to be an expert, and start telling stories.
 
Most often these stories are anecdotal, and not scientific.  For example, someone who develops Celiac disease and can no longer eat wheat blames hybrid wheat.  The problem is there is no such thing as hybrid wheat.   That doesn’t stop the rumor mill from churning out the misinformation.
 
Wheat breeding has evolved, and varieties are semi-dwarf as developed by Nobel Prize winning scientist Norman Borlaug in the 1960’s.  A wheat breeder once explained to me why we don’t have hybrid wheat.  I nodded and pretended to understand his scientific terminology. Even thought I didn’t understand all of his explanation, I was glad to know there is a scientific reason why hybrid wheat does not exist.   (As a side note, I recommend Borlaug by Noel Vietmeyer, a 3 book series that contains so much history. It’s amazing what was accomplished in the U.S. during Norman’s life.)
 
One of my biggest fake news frustrations is with good intended consumers who want to “save farmers” from big businesses like Monsanto.  They believe we are pawns for the company, and have no choice when it comes to seed selection. Where did they get the information that we don’t have any choices?
 
On my farm, less than 20% of my acres are planted to Monsanto products. I could choose their products for 90% of my acres.  Instead, we use their products only for corn and sugarbeets, and those crops are less than 20% of our acres.  They have wheat and soybean products, but we choose seed from other companies.  Every farmer makes their own decisions, and some may choose 100% Monsanto. It’s like your family owning all Apple products, or maybe Android phones.  It’s a personal preference.
 
If you have questions about food production, don’t ask an “expert” who doesn’t even have a garden and can’t keep a goldfish alive. Ask a farmer who’s job it is to care for hundreds or thousands of acres, and can tell you the perfect feed blend for their livestock. Farmers who have a lifetime, and maybe multiple generations invested in the same land, and the same business. There is a reason for our methods.
 
Please be selective about where you get your food and farming information.  There is so much “fake news” about agriculture. Farmers are trying hard to spread our stories of real agriculture, but we’re busy. There’s farm work to be done. It’s hard to compete with someone who has made a full time job sitting at a desk dreaming up crazy headlines and absurd assumptions. The truth of agriculture is pretty boring and isn’t nearly as exciting as the fiction you can find from fake experts. Just ask a farmer.  

Farmers had a few years of high prices and all good things must come to an end. Wheat has a new nickname, “poverty grass” because prices are so low.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.  Farmers are searching for alternative crops that may be profitable in 2017.
 
So we decided to throw a hail mary and try a new crop.  This is our fescue grass.  A freshly planted green field in October is a little unusual.

We stumbled upon the idea of fescue grass by accident. We harvested an entire field of sugarbeets in August, and the field was left black. We needed a cover crop on it to make sure it doesn’t blow this winter.
 
The fescue grass is a cover crop that we may be able to harvest next summer and may eventually end up in the seed you buy at the hardware store.  It’s a perennial crop so we may be harvesting this same field for the next 2 or 3 years.
 
We didn’t follow the rules when we planted the crop. Our primary concern was a cover crop and not a profit crop. We spread the seed instead of using an air drill, and the crop was planted later than it should have been.  Right now it’s a good cover crop.  We will need a little luck for the cover crop to turn into a cash crop next spring.
 
There is no guarantee that fescue grass will survive the winter because it was planted so late and so thin.  If it does survive and has a good stand next spring, I'll keep you posted on harvest.

Little Carrie is off to preschool this year.  Three days a week she’ll get on the bus, hopefully smiling, with her little pink backpack, and she’ll spend the day asking someone else a million questions.  I appreciate her desire to understand, but no, I don’t know why shark skin is so scratchy.  I wish her teachers the best of luck, and will pray for patience. 

It seemed like the perfect time to get an off farm job.  I’m back at work in farm business management at Northland Community and Technical College. It’s the same job I had 4 years ago.  Some familiar faces, a few new faces, and a new office.  It feels good to be back. 

I wish I could have returned to FBM during better financial times.  When I left in 2012, farm finances were strong.  Cash flows actually worked the first time you entered numbers.  My last year of analysis was 2011, and average rate of return on assets (ROA) was 12.1% in the Red River Valley. In 2015, the ROA dropped to 2.2%.  For perspective, in 2015 farmers were borrowing money from the bank around 5%, and getting a return of 2.2%.   That is not a sign of good financial health.

It appears the 2016 crop year will be similar to 2015.  USDA projected record yields in their August report. That’s great news for production.  They also projected the average price of wheat would be $1.19/bu less than 2015, and corn would be down $.45.  Soybean prices may be similar to last year, so let’s cross our fingers on that one.  

I’ve always been a numbers nerd. I love spending time calculate our farm’s ROA, cost of production, and updating cash flows.  Yes, I love numbers.  That is not the case for most farmers.  Most farmers love being in the field, and dread those necessary office hours.  

My job is to try and teach farmers why numbers are so important.  Young and old, big and small, nearly every farmer could use a kick in the pants for farm business management.   Farmers love bushels, but I argue that numbers are just as important.  Is your debt structure appropriate?  Is your cost of production in line with your peers?  Can you afford that new grain bin?  How much can you pay for rent?  How about developing a marketing plan? All questions I will help calculate and answer over the next few months.

Farming was much easier back in 2011.  The good news is that in 2016 farming is still a great career, and a wonderful industry.  There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.  And now I get to help farmers become better managers, and better positioned for future.  It feels good to be back.   You may never love numbers as much as me, but I do hope to make you appreciate and respect the numbers. 

There are many labels on food; gluten free, all natural, no added hormones, and my favorite, sustainably grown.
 
I got a coupon in the mail for a meal delivery services.  A box arrives with all the ingredients, and you just mix and cook.  I was almost ready to sign up for a trial, when I saw the phrase “sourced from sustainable ingredients.”
 
That was too much for me.  This phrase has become a thorn in my side.  It implies that some food is not sustainably grown.  That plot of land will grow something this year, and never again!    To heck with future generations, let’s live for the moment!
 
There is no industry that is more interested in sustainability than farming.  Many acres have been farmed by the same family for generations, and may be farmed by the same family in future generations. 
 
Farming relies on a long term plan.  When we borrow money to purchase land, we borrow for 20, 25 or even 30 years.  We don’t live day by day, or even year by year.  We live generation by generation. 
 
Farmers are always looking for ways to improve our environmental footprint, and keep our land productive for future generations.   We want to produce the most output, with the least amount of input, and the smallest impact on the land.   Every year we get a little better at what we’re doing.  
 
Farming is sustainable.  There is no alternative.  I hope the label makes you laugh the next time you see it.  If you have a chance, ask the company why their competitor’s product is not sustainable.   Expect a few fancy buzzwords that mean nothing.   Kind of like that sustainable label.    

It’s been a week since I’ve returned from Vietnam.  I am still suffering from dragon fruit and Vietnamese coffee withdrawal, but my sleep schedule is back to normal.

I toured Vietnam with the Minnesota Ag and Rural Leadership (MARL) program.  We’re a mix of 30 people from across Minnesota, involved in ag and rural development.   We have been meeting for 18 months so we are familiar with each other, but could we survive two weeks together in a foreign country?  We did more than survive; we thrived!

Our group didn’t choose where to go, the MARL board selected our country.  I was hesitant about Vietnam.  I was certain the war would overshadow our trip.  I was nervous about being a U.S. citizen in communist Vietnam. 

It turns out Vietnam has moved past the war.  The north calls it the War of Reunification, and the south calls it a Civil War.  There are distinct differences between north and south Vietnam.  It sounds silly, but the size of people is dramatically different.  In the north, people are tiny.  In the south, they look much more “Western” size.  Not overweight, but taller and fuller.  Our group stood out in northern Vietnam.  We weren’t quite so obvious in the south.   We were giants in the north.  Attitudes are also different.  In the north, we were taught a song about their "uncle" Ho Chi Minh.  In the south, they still call it Saigon.  We have political differences in the U.S., and so does Vietnam, even though they are communist.

In the north and south, we were welcomed with open arms.  During a visit with the U.S. embassy, they told us the U.S. has an 80% approval rating in Vietnam.  One Vietnamese person joked he wished he could have been on the final plane to the U.S. so he could be wealthy and living in the U.S.  They don’t hate us, they want to be more like us.  It’s a communist country but think of it as “communism light.”

Since many on the trip were farmers, we took time to visit Vietnamese farms.  A pineapple farmer in the north told us his biggest concerns were weather and prices. I could get that same answer in the Stephen café!  We traveled around the world to find a farmer just like us.  The family was so generous.  They saw a bus load of people viewing pineapple fields, and invited us into their yard for tea.  

We ambushed a rice farmer too.  The bus made a rest stop, and while we were using the WC and grabbing snacks, the bus driver ran across the road to see if the farmer was interested in visiting with us.  We lined up along the muddy field border while she showed us how to transplant rice.  A few group members hopped into the rice patty and tried their best, but the farmer just laughed and laughed at us.  Rice planting by hand is an art we don’t know.

In the north, nearly every undeveloped piece of land is devoted to rice production.  There were more bare patches of land in the south.

Labor is cheap and plentiful, and we were reminded of that throughout the country.  Most field work is still done by hand and with the help of cattle and water buffalo.  We saw rice planting in the north, by hand, and harvesting in the south, by hand.  There were a few tractors, but they were exceptions and not the norm. 

We were able to visit a modern hog farm.  We had to shower in to prevent disease, and the barns were new and clean.  The farmer even has a website and youtube video to help market his pork.  Our group spent a disproportionate amount of time examining his manure recycler.  Only a group of farmers would travel to Vietnam and spend time looking at pig poop. Visit his website and scroll all the way to the bottom.  What other pig farmer hires a tattoo artist?   http://traiheobanhty.blogspot.com/ 

The infrastructure of Vietnam cannot support American agriculture.  They don’t have major freeways, or railways.  Logistics are still very rustic.   They do have an extensive river system, and a brand new sea port. With 93 million people living in small country, they cannot give everyone a car or pickup.  Scooters are the main source of transportation, even for livestock and crops.  There’s just not room for cars, and the pollution would be horrible.   Their resourcefulness on scooters was incredible.   Look at the pigs and garlic being hauled on scooters, and the rice on river barges. 

And the beauty of Vietnam cannot be overstated.  We started in Ha Long Bay.  I never thought I’d be cruising through Ha Long Bay.  The tourist town of Hoi An was beautiful with lanterns everywhere at night.  We looked longingly out the bus window at China Beach in Danang, but we had no time to stop.  I’ll save that for the next trip. 


 
This trip really changed my opinion of Vietnam.  The only thing preventing Vietnam from becoming a major tourist destination is the flight.  It really is a killer.  You can visit Vietnam on a shoestring budget for hotel and food.  If you can afford it, splurge for first class, or even premium economy.  I’m only 5’3”, and my knees were hitting the seat in front of me on the American Airlines flight home.  It was a brand new plane, and nothing extra was spent for comfortable seats or leg room.  We flew Japan Air to Vietnam, and I’d recommend that airline.  The few extra inches of leg room are well worth it. 

You can even visit via a cruise ship.  Your one star budget will get you a 5 star vacation.  Enjoy a hot stone massage for $10, or a pedicure for $3.  A beer for $.75 (also available for $.25 but pay for the can or bottle, not the local brew), a big plate of spring rolls for $2, and all of our hotels included a big breakfast buffet with fresh fruit, croissants, pho (Vietnamese dish), omelet bar, fresh juice, and best of all Vietnamese coffee.  Enjoy your trip!

I have a friend who raises a few hogs every year.  The one in my freezer was named Batman.  Someone else bought Robin.  Pork is delicious, and I love picking up my smoked bacon and delicious hams from the local butcher.   I felt like a true food snob.   I knew where my pork chop came from, who raised it, and where it was butchered.   Makes it taste even better.
 
Last week I had the opportunity to visit a pork processing plant.  I had a few assumptions before I arrive.  My first assumption was pity for the employees.  No one could possible want to work there.   The plant was the last option for people who couldn’t find work elsewhere. 
 
Second, I assumed it would be dirty, with blood everywhere.  The employees would be covered in blood, and it would be spattered across the walls.  I prepared myself for a bloody mess. 
 
I knew Temple Grandin has been working with livestock handling so I didn’t expect horror on the killing floor.  I did expect a few squealing pigs, a brief moment of horror, and then death.
 
Turns out all my assumptions were wrong.  I was so impressed with the processing plant.  I had no idea food processing could be done so efficiently and safely.  The tour took us to every corner of the plant.  We saw everything from beginning to end.  Actually the tour went in reverse, starting at the end of the line, and working our way back to the live animal pens.   We spent close to 2 hours walking around the plant.
 
The first stop was the testing lab where the pork is continually checked for all diseases.  They test for trichinosis, e coli and other scary diseases I can’t remember.  It has been so many years since the lab workers have found trichinosis worms that they actually receive samples in the mail, just so they can remember what they’re looking for.  Since the pigs are kept indoors and do not forage on garbage and other animals, they are at low risk for trichinosis, but the testing continues anyway. 
 
Then we moved onto the floor.  There’s actually many floors, and many levels, with conveyor belts moving pieces of pork in every direction.  There are so many people standing along the conveyors.  Each person has an adjustable floor so they can move up and down for comfort, depending on the employee’s height.  The jobs switch every few hours to reduce repetitive motion injuries. 
 
As we moved along the floor, I kept thinking of the pioneer days, when nothing went to waste.  The Native Americans used every part of the bison.  Little House on the Prairie tells of the fried pig’s tale.  The same is true in this plant.  Very little of the pig goes to waste.  Some parts are used for pharmaceutical uses.  Other parts are exported.  I have no use for a pig’s stomach, but someone in a foreign country does.  Even the pig blood is kept.
 
I visited alibaba.com and sure enough, you can buy a centrifuge for pig blood plasma separation.  You can buy powered porcine plasma.  I don’t know what the plasma is used for, but it has value, and it does not get wasted. 
 
We finally made it to the kill floor.  It was darker than the rest of the plant, and very quiet.  The shades on the lights keep the pigs calm, and they move along to what I call a ferris wheel.  A few pigs enter the carriage, it rotates down, the pigs are gassed, and a few minutes later the dead pigs emerge.  There’s no squealing, no horror, just a very calm area.  From there the pigs begin their procession down the line.
 
I was amazed to discover I could work at this plant.  I have admiration for the employees, not pity.  They have good jobs, with good pay and benefits.   It’s clean, and there was nothing I found disgusting or repulsive.  It is truly a clean place to work.  The only downside was the smell.  It smelled like pork chops everywhere.  At first it was great, but it got old quickly.  It would take me time to adjust to that.
 
I came away for a whole new appreciation for our food system.  It is so efficient and safe.  Earlier in the week we learned about the Vietnamese food system, where a farmer owns 3 pigs, and hauls one on the back of his moped to the marketplace.  They don’t have the infrastructure to haul trailers of animals.  Instead they are hauled one at a time.  And I would assume they don’t test for trichinosis at the street market. 
 
I have no reservations about buying pork in the grocery store.  I hope everyone has the opportunity to visit a processing plant.  It was an eye opening experience, and changed my assumptions of the grocery store meat.  There’s no need to be a food snob.  Food tastes great, regardless of where it is purchased.

I've been busy the past few weeks with ambulance training.  I appreciate my fellow volunteers on the Stephen Volunteer Ambulance Service and the past few weeks have only strengthened my appreciation.

Let's start with our newest machine, the Philips 12 Lead.  A few years ago I applied for a grant through the American Heart Association.  We weren't selected in round 1, but we got the approval in round 2!  In October our group received training on how to use our newest machine. 

This machine changes the way we treat potential heart attack patients.  If you call us with chest pain, or maybe you just don't quite feel right, we will hook you up right away.  We'll cover you in electrodes, hit "analyze" and then hit "send" and the results will be sent to Altru. 

There, a doctor will read the results, and that will determine the rest of your protocol.  Minutes are muscle, and if you are having a heart attack, you will be whisked right from the ambulance into their procedure room.  They will be ready for you, and save those valuable minutes.   This is a big deal, a lifesaving deal. 

At first glance, the machine is intimidating.  Turns out, it's very easy to use.  Everyone was a little nervous pulling it out of the box but it's a very user friendly machine. 

Early one Saturday morning we started training at 8am with our fearless Medical Director Mark.  We are so, so, so lucky to have his as our medical director.  He pushed for us to purchase LUCAS, a mechanical CPR machine. We raised the funds (over $20,000), and purchased LUCAS.  It is such an amazing machine that one has been purchased for every ambulance service in Minnnesota and North Dakota, so now we have 2!  You probably hear that CPR is ineffective, and that's usually because it is not done correctly.  LUCAS does it right every time, never gets tired, and always has the perfect depth and timing.  This is another lifesaving device we are fortunate to have, and all thanks to a push from our medical director.  It takes 50 minutes to get from Stephen to Grand Forks, and that's a long time to do CPR, and do it effectively.  Now we can with LUCAS.

Our medical director is also wonderful because of the lifesaving medications he allows us to carry.  We are a Basic Life Support service which means we are only required to do the basics.  We can apply for variances to carry additional lifesaving medications, and our medical director has pushed us to do that.  It does require extra training, and the medications are expensive, but they are worth the peace of mind.   Imagine your nephew is visiting, has a peanut allergy, and eats a brownie with nuts.  We carry an epi-pen, and not all ambulance services do that.  One simple medication can open his airway, and save his life.  We can give glucagon to diabetic patients, nitroglycerin to heart patients, and nebulizers for breathing problems.  When you live 50 miles from a trauma center, these medications are critical.  Taking time on a Saturday for training is worth the peace of mind.  Thanks to Mark for pushing us to be more than a Basic Life Support service. 

Finally, it was a cold and windy night when we met at the airport to meet Valley Med Flight, a new medical helicopter service based in Roseau. 

The flight paramedic, nurse and pilot brought pizza to our meeting, a sure way to win over our hearts.  The firemen and SVAS members learned how to set up landing areas and when to use a med flight.

We have used Sanford Air Med in the past, and this is just one more option available to use if we feel the patient needs extra care. 

It has been a busy 3 weeks for training.  We are a small ambulance service, but we have the same training requirements as a big city service.  If you live in Stephen, sleep well tonight knowing the ambulance service is well trained, and ready if you need us.  I'm so grateful to be working with the greatest volunteers in the world.