Crops Progressing Rapidly 

By Kent Thiesse, Vice President, MinnStar Bank

The 2007 corn and soybean crops in much of Minnesota are continuing to make rapid progress toward maturity...

Future of Ag Biotechnology 

By Kent Thiesse, Vice President, MinnStar Bank

Within the past year or so, USDA released a report about the future of biotechnology in agriculture that is quite interesting. This report, “Opportunities and Challenges in Agricultural Biotechnology: The Decade Ahead"...

Amazing Rainfall Amounts 

By Kent Thiesse, Vice President, MinnStar Bank

We heard some petty amazing stories during the first weekend of the Minnesota State Fair regarding the large rainfall amounts that hit southeast Minnesota...

The Wrath of Mother Nature 

By Kent Theisse, Vice President, MinnStar Bank

This past weekend, southern Minnesota once again got an extreme example of how quickly the wrath of Mother Nature can change things...

Farmfest Forums in Summary 

By Kent Thiesse, Vice President, MinnStar Bank

Another very successful year of FARMFEST Forums has come and gone. After Farmfest is over, it is kind of interesting to look back and see what “nuggets” are the take-home messages from the various forums...

Some Much-Needed Rainfall 

By Kent Thiesse, Vice President, MinnStar Bank

This past weekend, the extremely dry areas of southwest and south central Minnesota, and adjoining areas of northwest Iowa, finally received some much-needed rainfall, with most areas receiving 1 in. to over 2 in. of rainfall...

Farmfest Focuses On Ag Policy 

By Kent Thiesse, Vice President, MinnStar Bank

Farmfest will feature an exciting lineup of Feature Forums and a Farm Family of the Year recognition event in 2007. The forums will be held August 7, 8, and 9, in the forum tent on the Farmfest site...

Some Rain 

By Kent Thiesse, Vice President, MinnStar Bank

Depending where you are located you may have gotten some much-needed rainfall in the past 7-10 days, or may have received virtually no rainfall. There have been several rainfall events that have moved through the upper Midwest during the past couple of weeks...

Hot And Dry 

By Kent Thiesse, Vice President, MinnStar Bank

Some portions of south-central Minnesota received some much needed rainfall on the evening of Sunday, July 8; however, much of southwest and south-central Minnesota missed the rainfall entirely. Rainfall amounts...

Hail Damage 

By Kent Thiesse, Vice President, MinnStar Bank

Many farm operators in south-central Minnesota got a reminder on June 20 and 21 of just how fragile crop growing weather conditions can be in the Upper Midwest. Crop conditions in south-central Minnesota have been almost ideal for the first two months of the 2007 growing season...