The finance and policy divisions of the Minnesota Senate Agriculture, Rural Development, and Housing Committee met at the University of Minnesota Crookston on Friday morning. The senators, who were joined by Representative Deb Kiel who is on the House Agriculture and Food Finance and Policy Division, listened to scheduled testimony from Bruce Kleven of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association; Howard Olson from AgCountry Farm Credit Services, and Justin Hecht of C&H Insurance on issues related to the harvest conditions and agriculture finance. They also heard public testimony ranging from the effects of the harvest to the Watershed District and rural broadband.
Senator Mark Johnson, East Grand Forks, sits on the committee and invited them to get a firsthand account of the hardships being faced in Northwest Minnesota. “We designed today to be more of how this hangs together,” said Johnson. “So, we had folks from area banks, and insurance reps come to talk about what the yields are like, what the crop situation was so that we could get a more complete and fuller picture of exactly what farmers are dealing with. We understand how harvest is going so, how is this going to be affecting them in their financials. So, we got a much more full view of that today, which was fantastic to see.”
Kleven, representing the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association, testified about the challenging interactions farmers had with the Minnesota State Patrol this fall. Kleven questioned the constitutionality of both the random roadside stops of beet truck drivers and the checking of weight tickets for previous loads without a warrant. Kleven told the committee that Colonel Matt Langer, Chief of the State Patrol, had been in the area and has been open to meeting with the association to find better ways to accommodate both farmer’s harvest and the State Patrol’s enforcement responsibility. Senator Michael Goggin asked Kleven whether truckers in the association on the North Dakota side of the river had similar engagement with enforcement. Kleven said he doesn’t hear anything from farmers in North Dakota on the topic, as North Dakota doesn’t set up checkpoints.
Howard Olson, Senior Vice President Insurance and Communications with AgCountry Farm Credit Services, talked about the requirements for farmers to break even on an acre of sugarbeets or soybeans this year. Based on a price of $38 per ton, a harvested acre of sugarbeets would need to produce 34 tons in 2019 to break even which is significantly higher the average production history and higher than the 32 tons an acre he said has been averaged the past couple of years. Given the wet conditions, he estimated soybeans would need 48 bushels per acre to break even. Senator Gary Dahms of Redwood Falls asked Olson what the diversification of agriculture was in the region. Olson said one question often asked is why there isn’t more animal agriculture, especially around Crookston. He said that is a question we all ask when it comes to challenges and that increased animal ag provide an additional benefit to a place like American Crystal with a local market for feed byproducts like beet pellets. Olson also said the last seven years of decreased earning have required farmers to rebalance debt many times and that the 2020 production outlook is average to poor.
Justin Hecht of C&H Insurance told the committee that while 90 percent of farmland is insured, as part of the hardships, some farmers will choose a lower percentage, which lowers their premiums as part of the cost-cutting measure necessary with decreased earnings. Committee Chair, Senator Torrey Westrom, Elbow Lake, told Hecht he was sure himself and all the senators knew the answer to his question, before asking if Hecht had seen a noticeable uptick in the use of crop insurance on all crops. Hecht told the committee they had issues across all crops in 2019 from fallen to loss of potatoes and sugar beets. He added that, in some cases, soybeans harvested from dry parts of fields that were partially flooded wouldn’t be accepted because of the potential for contamination. He explained that in those cases, the federal program wouldn’t pay for those soybeans because they have been harvested, but the farmer is left with no market to sell them.
The committee also heard about the struggles of the potato harvest and the trickle-down effect on haulers and others within the community from Casey Folsom. Aaron and Brian Hapka shared their struggles with crop insurance interpretations for potato crops, in addition to losing more than 90 percent of their 2019 crop. Rhonda Larson talked about how the wet harvest decimated the wheat crop resulting in low fallen numbers. He also said her farm was unable to lift any sugarbeets, normally the buffer for other struggling crops, before the harvest ended. John Swanson, told the committee that corn test weights appear like the corn crop, which harvested 79 million bushels in 2018, will be 1/3 that amount in 2019, equivalent to about $118 million. Bryan Klabunde advocated for the committee to continue and even increase funding for mental health and farm advocates, including providing funding for a second rural farming mental health counselor.
Johnson said it was essential to get the joint committees into the area to witness and hear about the harvest themselves sharing that Senator John Hoffman, Champlin, told him he was blown away and hadn’t fully understood the struggles. “I sat next to Senator John Hoffman, who has never been up here before,” said Johnson. “Last night, we did the tour of the sugarbeet plant and a few things today as far as listening to testimony about what’s going on up here. He was just blown away – I didn’t realize this was going on, I didn’t understand this. He’s from the metropolitan area, and it was good to get these guys up here. Give them a new perspective on what it’s like to be up in northwest Minnesota in the fall of 2019 with just an exceptionally bad year for crops and harvest. So, great to get those guys up.”
The joint committee also heard from Robert Sip, executive director for the Red River Watershed, about their history, past and current projects, and future needs. And from Garden Valley Technologies CEO Tim Brinkman, who updated the senators on how Garden Valley has used two rural broadband grant awards to increase broadband service to the GB level for 596 subscribers east of Thief River Falls and around Bejou. The grants decreased the cost for Garden Valley to upgrade those subscribers from $9,329.80 to $4,784.38 per subscriber with a payback of just over eight years.
Chairman Westrom, who is also the nephew of UMC Professor Lyle Westrom, said it was a good visit. “We had a really good visit with a focus on agriculture here in Crookston and northwest Minnesota,” said Westrom. “Senator Eken, Senator Johnson, and Representative Kiel were able to join us and very instrumental in getting us up here to hear the plight of farmers, agriculture, and the struggles going on this year. The challenge with the harvest, we heard it from sugarbeets with a third of the crop left in the field, crop insurance issues, potatoes hit hard. That’s not a crop that’s real common in other parts of the state. It was a good experience, a very good meeting to come up here to continue to keep the pulse of agriculture and do what we can to keep agriculture strong in Minnesota. It was also encouraging to hear about the rural broadband and the buildouts that are continuing with the funding we passed last year. Those are some positive stories that also were talked about.”
Westrom said the hearing is beneficial to the senators because it becomes more real, with real faces, on the issues they hear and read about. “It’s beneficial,” said Westrom. “One, the plight and struggles in agriculture are real. They become more real when you’ve got real farmers testifying to our committee members about their financial concerns, the struggles of getting their crop out. And the struggles of collecting some crop insurance in certain scenarios, we heard about some potato farmers. Those put real faces with those issues that we hear about, read about, and it helps impact the legislature and what we can try to help with. When it comes to regulations, aid payments, mental health funding for the mental health that goes along with the stress because of these challenging times, those are all good aspects for us to hear right here on the ground. And to have the farmers and people affected testifying to our committee, we had a very great sample of farmers and citizens in northwest Minnesota. They did a fantastic job.”
