News

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is issuing a second Emergency Commodity Assistance Program Payment (ECAP) payment to eligible producers for the 2024 crop year. Of the authorized $10 billion in ECAP assistance USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has already provided over $8 billion on payments to eligible producers to mitigate the impacts of increased input costs and falling commodity […]

Physical loss loans through the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) can help producers repair or replace damaged or destroyed physical property essential to the success of the agricultural operation, including livestock losses. Examples of property commonly affected include essential farm buildings, fixtures to real estate, equipment, livestock, perennial crops, fruit and nut bearing trees, and […]

Earlier this year, the Brian and Kim Fruechte family was named the Lincoln County Farm Family of the Year.  “It’s a nice honor, of course,” Fruechte said. “It’s very nice to have them think about you that way.” The family lives on a farm near Verdi that once belonged to Fruechte’s great-grandparents, John and Ora Fruechte, who kept bees at […]

University of Minnesota researchers are studying the use of fungi as a tool to control invasive buckthorn, a problematic species that crowds out native plants and persistently degrades forests in the Midwest and Northeast. Currently, the best control for common and glossy buckthorn is chemical herbicides, which are not always appropriate for ecologically sensitive sites. The research team set out […]

Tressa Withers loves competing in 4-H swine shows. And she’s good at it. Withers, a junior at Jackson County Central High School and a longtime member of the Petersburg Willing Workers 4-H Club, recently showed her crossbred market barrow to a fourth-place finish at the Minnesota State Fair’s 4-H swine show and showed her own way to a fourth-place finish […]