Mark Steil
Montevideo, Minnesota, hopes to be home to one of the state’s first two medical cannabis manufacturing plants. And if not Montevideo, maybe somewhere in surrounding Chippewa County. Read more →
MPR News From our outstate correspondents
By Mark Steil
Mark Steil is based in Worthington, Minn., covering major changes in the economy and society of rural Minnesota for MPR News. Steil has worked for Minnesota Public Radio since 1978.
Ethanol has made a big comeback as far as profits are concerned. Read more →
The debate over immigration reform is heating up in scores of Minnesota crop fields, livestock barns and farm homes. As Minnesota Milk Producers Association President Patrick Lunemann puts it, “we’re struggling to find labor.” Lunemann employs immigrants as part of the work force on his 700-cow dairy farm near the central Minnesota town of Clarissa. Read more →
Corn beat soybeans in several categories when it comes to the 2013 harvest. Read more →
The recent good times on the farm are paying off at the bank. The University of Minnesota extension service has released its most recent numbers covering the state’s farmer-lender mediation program. The state mediation program is designed to find ways to keep a farmer in business after financial troubles lead to a default on a Read more →
For Minnesota, the Lewis and Clark water project could become a pipeline to nowhere.
Read more →
A University of Minnesota genomics scientist is hard at work to sell a new way to change the genetics of livestock Read more →
Last year was one of the best in history for Minnesota farmers, and organic farmers shared in the bounty. The University of Minnesota’s Center for Farm Financial Management (CFFM) analyzed economic data from about three dozen organic farms around the state. They showed a median net income for 2012 of just over $85,000, more Read more →
One of the big changes in farming over the next decade may be the number of people getting out of the business. It’s not because of an economic crisis, since most farmers are making good profits these days. Rather, the driver for the trend is age. The average age of U.S. farmers is about 57 Read more →
On-lookers examine engine parts from the B-47 crash in 1963. (Photo courtesy of The Free Press, Mankato) A memorial will be dedicated Sunday to crew members killed in an Air Force bomber crash in southwest Minnesota 50 years ago. The ceremony is in Comfrey, a few miles from the crash site. The B-47 ‘Stratojet’ Read more →