View From The Cab

By David Tollefson, Columnist

Land and Life. That’s the name of the new issue of the Minnesota Farm Bureau’s magazine. The new magazine also celebrates the 104th anniversary of the organization.

Minnesota’s first County Farm Bureau was formed in 1913 in Traverse County. By 1917 there were over a dozen County Farm Bureaus in Minnesota.

In the fall of 1919, farmers across the state wrote an organizational charter, forming the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation.

Four months after its founding, the MFBF joined the new American Farm Bureau Federation.

The Farm Bureau quickly became a significant political force. Though its goals were dependent on the needs of local communities, the Bureau worked to influence national agricultural policy. It supported rural electrification initiatives and improved roads and freight transportation. It supported the Capper-Volstead Act, which allowed Minnesota farmers to form co-operatives (like Land-O-Lakes) without breaking anti-trust laws.

Land and Life magazine’s first issue has some interesting illustrations and statistics about Minnesota agriculture. The following map illustration is adapted from MN Ag in the Classroom, mn.agclassroom.org.

One of the first pages has a map of Minnesota, broken down into four different color-coded areas. The first area colored dark red, is the area from Kittson and Roseau counties in the extreme northwest corner, down to Swift and Big Stone counties.

Quoting the explanation, “This area has flat land with fertile prairied soils. It gets the moisture it needs to grow several commodities, including wheat, oats, soybeans, corn, sugar beets and potatoes.”

The second area is about 14 or 15 counties in over a third of the whole state, the Northeast, and colored green.

“This area is rough and rocky and has a short growing season. Not many food crops are grown here. But it is home to many pine and hardwood forests.”

The third area is called Central/Southeast, including most of Pope County except the extreme western part, and extending to Houston and Winona Counties in the extreme southeast part of Minnesota. It is colored Yellow.

“This area is hilly and full of pasturelands. Here you will find many dairy, cattle and turkey farms.”

Lastly, Southwest, colored orange. It extends from Lac Qui Parle and Chippewa Counties, southeastward to Mower and Dodge Counties.

“This area in the southern part of the state has a longer growing season. Corn and soybeans grow well here. There are also many cattle and hog farms.”

Another interesting statistic, is that one U.S. farm feeds 172 people. 

“America’s farms and farmers are the world’s most productive. Today, each farm produces food and fiber for 172 people annually in the United States and abroad. Of those 172 people, 106 are in the U.S. and 66 are outside the U.S. By 2050 the world population will reach 9.1 billion, an increase of 1.4 billion from 2021. This means farmers around the globe will have to increase meat production by 43% and grain production by 6% on an annual basis.”

In a “Did you Know” segment, corn yield in bushels per acre have increased 490 percent since 1950.

Since it is obviously winter around here, Land and Life lists three indoor Agricultural attractions, to explore farmaand nature education at these museums and galleries:

1) Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota-Mankato (cmsouthernmn.org). Little ones can crawl around in the Betsy-Tacy inspired play porch, and older kids and adults can work on problem-solving activities at Cecil’s Imagineering Loft.

2) Otter Cove Children’s Museum-Fergus Falls (ottercoveff.org)

3) Wheel & Cog Children’s Museum of Hutchinson-Hutchinson (wheelandcog.com)

In a full page of corn-based ethanol information, Land and Life indicates that Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota are the top ethanol-producing states in the Midwest.

Minnesota has 19 ethanol plants, which produce 1.4 billion gallons of ethanol annually. Ethanol is produced from dent corn, also called field corn. Minnesota law requires that all gasoline sold in the state contain 10% ethanol (E10). 

Ethanol production grew from 13 billion gallons a year in 2010 and grew to 15.8 billion gallons by 2019.

In addition to the 10% fuel blend, Minnesota’s ethanol producers delivered 3.7 million tons of dried distillers grains (for animal feed) and 332 million pounds of corn oil.

One bushel of corn (about 50 ears) produces 3 gallons of ethanol as well as 15 pounds of dried distillers grain (high-protein feed for livestock).

According to a 2016 study by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), ethanol produces at least twice the energy required to produce it.

Also, it takes only about 2.7 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of ethanol, while it takes up to 5 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of crude oil.

A 2021 Department of Energy study showed that ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 44-52% compared to gasoline.

In a “Mythbuster” segment, there’s a comment about “corporate farms”- there are often conversations around corporate versus family farms, leading to a misconception tying the size of a farm to its ownership. In reality, farms of all sizes form partnerships, corporations and LLCs for a variety of reasons, while still being owned and run by families.

According to the USDA, Economic Research Service’s 2020 edition of America’s Diverse Family Farms, 98% of all U.S. farms are owned by individuals, family partnerships or family corporations. Approximately 90% of farms are small, defined by the USDA as having annual gross cash farm income under $250,000. Those small farms also account for about 50% of the land used for agriculture.

The 2021 Agricultural Profile from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture noted that there are 68,000 farms in the state, with an average size of 375 acres. There are approximately 26 million acres, or 51% of the state’s total land area, classified as farmland.

In conclusion, I want to quote the President of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, Dan Glessing, a dairyman from Waverly, Minnesota. When asked “what do you do for fun,” he said, “If I have a free afternoon, I love to spend it at my shop, cleaning or fixing things. After the fall harvest and rush, I enjoy getting in from milking at night by 7, 7:30 and just spend time with the kids, 16, 15, 13 and 8.”

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Please contact David Tollefson with thoughts or comments on this or future columns at: adtollef@hcinet.net