Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) recently held its inaugural Women’s Leadership Conference titled Energizing Women and Growing Our Leadership.

Women are, and have always been, an integral part of the farm and this conference brought women from all across Minnesota together to tap into the leadership skills they already possess from working on the farm, and learning how to use those skills in their community, as well as meet and greet other women to share ideas and stories.

Tuesday evening saw the wrap-up of the 84th Minnesota State FFA Convention held at the University of Minnesota. Several local FFA chapters brought the heat to the State FFA Convention, combining their experiences and knowledge in order to WIN State FFA in several CDEs! Congratulations to the following teams:

Minnesota Soybean's newest issues video, featuring well-known outdoorsman, Ron Schara, shows consumers what farmers are doing to protect Minnesota land and water resources. Non-farmers are increasingly generations removed from farming, and may be concerned by the flood of messages regarding the impact of agriculture on water quality. Farming is just one of many human activities that can influence water quality. Farmers manage a lot of land, so they have more influence than most, but they also know and care more about it, and are actually doing more about it than most.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the Des Moines Register he would give up part of his salary if the department were forced to furlough employees as part of government-wide across-the-board spending reductions known as sequestration.

“I’ve indicated that early in the process,” Vilsack said in an interview. “We’ll be doing what we have to do.” All cabinet secretaries make just under $200,000 a year.

Happy Earth Day! Today, Monday April 22nd, Minnesota Energy Resources is offering all current residential natural gas customers in Worthington FREE Water Conservation Kits. The kits include low-flow showerheads, along with kitchen and bathroom faucet aerators. These items are easy to install so you can begin saving on your home's water heating costs right away.

The free kits can be ordered by visiting www.minnesotaenergyresources.com/waterkits or by calling 1-877-831-6050.

If you recall, Minnesota Soybean gave the public several opportunities to win a year's worth of free groceries through a fantastic giveaway through March. With April turning a new leaf, the Minnesota Soybean is once more holding another giveaway; in April, you can enter once a day to win a fishing getaway for yourself (and three guests!) at McQuoid's Inn on Lake Mille Lacs!

The sweepstakes officially kicked off April 1st and will run through May 5th. Remember: limit one (1) entry per person per day.

ST. PAUL, Minn.-- Weather conditions are delaying the onset of corn planting, but wide fluctuations in corn planting progress are not uncommon in Minnesota. By the end of April, about 50 percent or more of Minnesota’s corn acres were planted in 2009, 2010 and 2012, compared to less than 5 percent in 2008 and 2011.

4th Annual Farm 40 On Us is ON!

If you're an area farmer, we want to honor YOU!

Farm 40 on US95 and AM 730 KWOA just wrapped up Thursday night at Hickory Lodge in Worthington. Congratulations to the Farm 40 On Us grand prize corn winner: Vern Bosma!

Congratulations to the Farm 40 On Us runner-up bean winner: Jean Meester!

Blue Mounds State Park, near Luverne in the southwestern corner of Minnesota, has closed its campground through Sunday, April 21, due to ice-storm damage.

Park Manager Craig Beckman said freezing rain and strong winds have taken down numerous trees and branches in the park’s campground. “With more rain, wind and snow predicted, I can only assume that branches will continue to fall,” he said.

No campers were in the park during the storm and no injuries occurred. No camping reservations had to be canceled.

The report of the NW Iowa on-farm research projects conducted during 2012 is available on the web. Find it here. This report not only summarizes data from our original 3 counties in the NW corner of Iowa, it also has data from other counties across Iowa that have started to look at replicated, field length trials on farms. This past year there were 130+ different comparisons! You can also find the report from the 2011 and 2010 trials at this web page.