Articles

Legal wrangling continues

FARGO, N.D. — The far-flung case of Grafton, N.D., farmer Tom Grabanski rolls on — his many enterprises and legal challenges from North Dakota to Colorado to Texas continue, with legal filings revealing ongoing frustration by all parties.

• Quentin N. Burdick federal courthouse
• Tom Grabanski

More questions than answers

FARGO, N.D. — North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Tony Clark says the agency may look for legal help beyond the state Attorney General’s office to help preserve more assets for unpaid farmers in the Anderson Seed Co. insolvency.

PSC gets complaint on Falkirk, N.D., elevator

FARGO, N.D. — The North Dakota Public Service Commission on April 30 received a complaint about unpaid grain at Falkirk (N.D.) Farmers Elevator, the agency confirms. No action has been taken as yet.

Prepay perils

FARGO, N.D. — Should farmers be protected when prepaid inputs are sucked up in the turmoil of an elevator or provider’s financial mess?

• Tony Clark

Easing wetland designation backlog

WEST FARGO, N.D. — The head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service promised by September to come up with a just solution for wetland determination backlogs when he spoke to farmers on May 1 at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds in Fargo, N.D.

• NRCS chief

Cole Gustafson’s death shocks NDSU family

FARGO, N.D. — The North Dakota State University Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, is shocked today to hear about the death of Cole Gustafson, 56, in a farm accident.

• Cole Gustafson

Tense future

FARGO, N.D. — This year could be a significant turning point in the battle against glyphosate-resistant weeds in the Red River Valley, Jeff Stachler says.

• Jeff Stachler
• 2011 glyphosate-resistant weeds
• Weeds

Crystal says union's cost estimate of labor struggle too high

FARGO, N.D. — American Crystal Sugar Co. officials deny new union claims that a labor lockout has more than doubled processing costs for 2011 beets. They acknowledge costs have increased, but say farmer-owners already know about the costs, and say the company is seeing its replacement hires as a possible permanent workforce.

• Brian Ingulsrud

PSC continues to investigate Falkirk, N.D., elevator

FARGO, N.D. — Falkirk Farmers Elevator in McLean County, N.D., remains in turmoil and people still don’t know what happened nearly two weeks after it was closed to deal with inventory shortfalls.

NDFB's right to farm initiative progresses

UNDERWOOD, N.D. — Doyle Johannes, president of the North Dakota Farm Bureau, says his group started thinking about a petition for a “right to farm” constitutional amendment more than a year ago.

• Doyle Johannes
• Animal abuse measure exempts ag
• Animal ag's stake

Columns

What's real and what's obscene?

FARGO, N.D. — The “pink slime” controversy brings to mind my days growing up, and my re-education about food at Brookings (S.D.) Middle School. It was there in the late 1960s and early 1970s that I first ate school lunch.

Is that pop champagne?

FARGO, N.D. — If farmers are the eternal optimists, then they may have more to be optimistic in 2012 than ever before. And more to be careful about, I would think.

• Mikkel Pates

100 years of history

FARGO, N.D. — My congratulations to the North Dakota Grain Dealers Association, which celebrated its 100th annual convention in January.

• Mikkel Pates

A prediction on American Crystal’s lockout situation

FARGO, N.D. — I’ve often been asked what I think the future of the labor lockout between American Crystal Sugar Co. and the Bakery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union locals. So here’s what I think.

Bees and a book

FARGO N.D. — Honeybees are important — certainly to my family. I occasionally had a firsthand experience with a commercial honeybee business that was run by my mother’s first cousin, Jim Folsland, in Oldham, S.D., in Kingsbury County.

Accidents happen when people get in a hurry

FARGO, N.D. — May 5, I drove from Fargo, N.D., to Bismarck, N.D., to cover a court hearing the next morning. It was a beautiful evening, but it was clear that the fields were too wet for this time of year. Almost none of the field work had been done. I counted two planting rigs operating across that 180-mile stretch. I think there was one outfit planting potatoes.

Does tiling cut flooding?

FARGO, N.D. — My wife and I are contemplating another season of flood fighting in south Fargo, N.D. We’ve helped fill sandbags each year for the past two years but never had to place them around our property. In 2009, I helped a family friend put 30,000 of them around his Moorhead, Minn., house. Lloyd is one of the greatest of the Greatest Generation, in my book, and appreciated the help. He’ll get it again this year if he needs it.

New year guesses can entertain, guide us

FARGO, N.D. — My wife, Barb, and I have an annual New Year’s ritual — Our Predictions.

What does humane production mean?

FARGO, N.D. — I always am fascinated with recommendations from groups like the Humane Society of the United States.

Candidates tout ag connections

FARGO, N.D. — Agriculture = good. If you don’t believe it, look at the year’s crop of political ads. This year, I took special notice of ads by Brad Crabtree, candidate for the North Dakota Public Service Commission.