Kent Thiesse | Thiesse's Thoughts
Kent Thiesse is a former University of Minnesota Extension educator and now is Vice President of MinnStar Bank, Lake Crystal, MN. You can contact him at 507-726-2137 or via e-mail at kent.thiesse@minnstarbank.com.
National Ag Week
Mar 16, 2010, By Kent Thiesse
National Ag Week is being celebrated March 14-20 all across the U.S., and Saturday, March 20, has been designated as National Ag Day. It is a good time to reflect on all the traditions and advancements that help make the U.S. agriculture industry second to none...
March 15 is Crop Insurance Deadline
Mar 8, 2010, By Kent Thiesse
March 15 is the deadline to purchase crop insurance for the 2010 crop year. Producers need to analyze how crop insurance fits into their risk-management and grain-marketing strategies for the coming year...
NAIS Decision Viewed Differently
Mar 2, 2010, By Kent Thiesse
When USDA announced in February that it was discontinuing the current National Animal Identification System (NAIS), it was celebrated by many agriculture groups and others that have opposed NAIS for several years...
Crop Insurance Decisions
Feb 23, 2010, By Kent Thiesse
Many farm operators are now finalizing their crop insurance decisions for the 2010 crop year. March 15 is the deadline to purchase crop insurance for 2010. Following are some considerations...
What’s Ahead for the CRP Program?
Feb 16, 2010, By Kent Thiesse
In 2009, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) celebrated its 23rd anniversary, and over two decades of conservation success. CRP was originally established in the 1985 Farm Bill, and today has over 400,000 landowners participating – most of which are farmers and ranchers – and involves over 31 million acres under some type of CRP contracts...
Federal Budget Proposal for 2011
Feb 9, 2010, By Kent Thiesse
Earlier this month, President Obama released his proposed federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2011, which begins on Oct. 1, 2010. The proposed federal budget is $3.8 trillion, which will allow the federal deficit to reach a record $1.6 trillion in the current fiscal year, before dropping to an estimated $1.3 trillion in 2011...
Use Caution On Cash Rental Rates
Feb 2, 2010, By Kent Thiesse
Cash corn and soybean prices remained at fairly high levels during 2009, with local cash grain prices during the year in southern Minnesota near $4/bu. for corn, and around $10/bu. for soybeans. The higher grain prices in the past couple of years have lead to some very rapid and dramatic increases in land values and in annual cash rental rates...
SURE Program Available for 2008 Crop Losses
Jan 12, 2010, By Kent Thiesse
The 2008 Farm Bill included a new Supplemental Agriculture Disaster Assistance Program (SURE), or so-called permanent disaster program, which was initiated for the 2008 crop year...
No Easy Decision on Climate-Change Legislation
Jan 6, 2010, By Kent Thiesse
One of President Obama’s goals as he entered the U.S. presidency in 2009 was to address global warming and concerns over world climate change...
Looking Ahead to 2010
Jan 4, 2010, By Kent Thiesse
The coming year is setting up to be another challenging year in the agriculture industry, following a very difficult year in 2009 – especially in the livestock sector ...
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