The decision means carbon pipeline companies must file for a siting permit with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Without statewide authority, permitting would have been left up to individual counties along the pipeline route.
Terry Yockey, volunteer leader for the Goodhue County Extension Master Gardeners, said the pandemic brought an uptick in master gardener participation.
Farm Service Agency Administrator Zach Ducheneaux and other officials visited Minnesota farms on May 19 to take a look at the damage from the storm that blew through a week before. High winds ripped apart grain bins and mangled irrigation and other equipment as well as damaging houses and other buildings.
The seven-stop tour of Farm Credit System-financed projects in Minnesota and Iowa included visits to the Hmong American Farmers Association, Farmamerica, the Minnesota Agricultural Interpretive Center and Lakeview Methodist Health Care Center.
Planting progress for North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and surrounding states is far below normal for mid-May. Farmers have been delayed in getting the 2022 crop in the ground due to late cold temperatures and now excessive rain and storms.
Quaal Dairy in Otter Tail County sold off most of its herd in April. Vernon Quaal says the 2021 drought drastically cut into its feed supply and the rising prices for feed made maintaining the 300 cow herd unstainable. Quaal says many dairies are suffering. But he is determined to build back up, with a crop of bred heifers ready to calve in September.
A derecho – a large-scale wind storm with 90- to 100-mph straight winds and two tornados – blasted through eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota on May 12, 2022, killing one, damaging buildings including hundreds of farms.
More than 70,000 homes and businesses remained without power across the region early Friday as damage assessment and cleanup continued after the second straight night of widespread severe weather.
