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Prairie Grains is the official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat, Inc., and the Minnesota Barley Growers Association.

A new program in northwest MN has been formed to assist growers in identifying ways to improve their crop production enterprise through an on-site professional assessment. When a grower joins the program, an instructor through the Northland Community Technical College’s Farm Business Management Program will work with the grower to develop a complete farm financial analysis if one has not already been completed. This financial analysis, when assembled, will be sent to a "diagnostic team," consisting of the FBM instructor, a banker, a University of Minnesota extension educator, and a professional crop consultant-all of whom are not currently advising the grower, to allow a broader, independent range of input. The diagnostic team will do an on-site assessment of the crop production enterprise with the grower, and generate suggestions that may be used to increase the profitability of the crop production enterprise. Participation and suggestions generated through the program will be confidential. For details, contact Hans Kandel, Red Lake County Extension Office, at 1-800-770-1244.

Mandan research station included in President’s budget

The Clinton Administration will propose keeping the Mandan Agricultural Research Station (ARS) open and operating in the budget it submits to Congress, the first time in three years the Administration has included funding for the facility in its budget request, according to Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND. The Mandan ARS facility conducts agricultural production research specific to the Northern Great Plains ecosystem.

U of M will host global food, ag summit July 7-9

Over 1,000 ag leaders, producers and educators from Minnesota and around the world are expected in St. Paul this July for an event centering on food and agriculture. "Exploring Our Global Community—People, Food, and Agriculture: An International Food Summit and Celebration" will be July 7-9, 1999, headquartered at the Radisson Hotel in St. Paul. The University of Minnesota is the sponsor.

The event is designed to provide an international forum where people from Minnesota and the upper Midwest can exchange ideas with food and ag leaders and experts from around the world. Speakers will include Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug, German biotechnology expert Gabriele Sachse, Chinese agricultural official Chen Xu, and former U.S. Trade Ambassador and Secretary of Agriculture Clayton Yeutter.

For more detailed information, call (612) 625-7061 or e-mail globag99@coa1. agoff.umn.edu. The summit’s Internet web site is at http://globalag.coafes.umn.edu.

Prairie Grains editor’s "Ramblings" recognized by AAEA

Prairie Grains Editor Tracy Sayler placed second in the humorous article category of the American Agricultural Editors Association 1998 writing awards program. Syndicated writer Alan Guebert won the category, and Farm Journal’s John Phipps was third.

Funding boost sought for grain research at Fargo lab

Grain growers are urging the USDA to boost funding at the Northern Crop Science Lab (NCSL) at Fargo, N.D. Current funding of barley, oat, hard red spring, and durum wheat research projects at the NCSL is significantly below the amount that the USDA’s ARS considers as a minimum amount needed to adequately conduct research, says Mark Gage, president of the North Dakota Grain Growers Association and a Page, N.D. farmer.

In a recent letter to USDA-ARS Administrator Floyd Horn, Gage pointed out that the NCSL plays a key role in identifying genetic material used by other public and private crop researchers in the region to develop into more pest-resistant, higher yielding, and higher quality varieties for commercial production. "Before you construct a house, you build the foundation. In a sense, that’s what the NCSL role is in small grains varietal development," says Gage.