Dear Neighbor,
Spent the last couple of days attending ag roundtable meetings at colleges in Alexandria and Crookston and came away from both with good impressions.
The word we received at Alex Tech and CC was especially positive as we talked about their farm business management program. The folks at Alex expressed appreciation for the funding increase the Legislature approved for them last year to expand their program and assist more farmers in enhancing their operations. The new funding will help hire new farm business instructors in our state.
A key objective of Alex's program is to assist farmers in assessing their cash-flow situations to identify where improvements can be made and determine what steps would be beneficial.
This is more important than ever today, given the tough markets farmers are facing. This is especially true in the dairy industry, but grain farmers are not far behind. Ag is commodity-driven work and strong management skills can help maximize the benefit of good times to better protect us against leaner times such as these. It will be interesting to see what kind of gains graduates of this program achieve over the long haul. Click here for a link to more about farm business management at Alex.
That positive meeting in Alex was followed by a good trip to U of M-Crookston today. Renewable fuels and animal care were among the topics we discussed. We also received a lab tour and learned some of the history of this Northwest Research and Outreach Center, which was founded in 1895 on land donated to the state of Minnesota by industrialist/railroad mogul James J. Hill. The center conducts research and demonstrations that are designed to bring greater efficiency to agriculture and natural resources in our state. Here is a link to more about the NWROC.
Thank you to the people at Alex and Crookston for hosting these roundtable events and I will continue to support our state's ag industry as chairman of the House Ag Policy Committee. I welcome your input on these issues and any others as we prepare for the 2016 session to start in less than one month.
Sincerely,
Paul