You may be familiar with "The REAL story" as brought to you by the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council. This is a site which spreads the story of your local farmers, telling the R.E.A.L. story (mission to practice Responsible, Ethical Agriculture for Life). Nobles County farmer Bill has decided to share his, in an article from therealstorymn.com. His story is as follows:

In a press release, Congressman Tim Walz released the following statement after being chosen by his colleagues to lead the Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy, and Forestry.

“I am truly honored to serve as a leader of the Conservation, Energy, and Forestry Subcommittee,” said Walz. “Our producers and farmers are good stewards of the land and we must allow them to do what they do best; feed and clothe the world. To accomplish this, we must renew our commitment to passing a long-term, five-year Farm Bill that will give rural America certainty.

In a press release on Friday, January 18th, the IRS announce it will issue guidance to provide relief from the estimated tax penalty for farmers unable to file and pay their 2012 taxes by the March 1 deadline due to the delayed start for filing tax returns.

Tony Beran, the executive chef at Lake Avenue Restaurant in Duluth, received first place, chef par excellence honors at the 25th annual Taste of Elegance pork culinary competition on January 15th via the Minnesota Pork Board and the Pork Check Off.

The drought of 2012 has affected not only grain farmers, but also livestock producers and companies. On Thursday, January 17th, Cargill announced that it will idle its Plainview, Texas, beef processing facility effective at the close of business, Friday, Feb.1, 2013, resulting primarily from the tight cattle supply brought about by years of drought in Texas and Southern Plains states.

Minnesota farmers and farmers markets that sell products directly to consumers are invited to purchase a listing in the new Minnesota Grown Directory. The cost for a listing in the 2013 directory is $40 and interested farmers and markets must sign up by February 15. Over 940 farms and farmers markets were included in last year’s edition of the directory.

WichitKan. – For eight years running, readers of No‐Till Farmer magazine have voted AGROTAIN®nitrogen stabilizer by Koch Agronomic Services the top product in the fertility/soil amendmentscategory. Allen Sutton, who was on the product development team for AGROTAIN® stabilizer, acceptedthe award on behalf of Koch at the National No‐Tillage Conference in Indianapolis on Friday, Jan. 11.

Producers will have no problem finding the more than 150 new products and technologies that exhibitors plan to display at the upcoming AG CONNECT Expo & Summit 2013, thanks to pre-show and at-show efforts to help attendees locate new products on the show floor.

As part of AG CONNECT’s New Products & Technologies Program, attendees may preview new products online and create a personal show planner to keep track of exhibitors they want to visit.

For those whose eyes follow the USDA statistical reports, this is a reminder that all USDA statistical reports released in 2013 will be revealed at 11:00 a.m. (Central Time)

These major reports with the noon release time are:World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), Acreage, Crop Production, Grain Stocks, Prospective Plantings, and Small Grains Summary. USDA previously released these crop reports at 8:30 a.m. EDT. or 7:30 a.m. Central Time

The time for livestock reports currently released at 3:00 p.m. will not change.

Four Minnesota agriculture research and promotion councils are seeking candidates for their board elections. Positions are open on the board of directors for the barley, beef, corn and soybean research and promotion councils. Candidates will be selected through mail ballot elections conducted by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) in March.