Agriculture

The Minnesota DNR released a draft wolf management plan that calls for maintaining a statewide population of between 2,200 and 3,000 wolves. It does not take a position on a wolf hunting season.

It’s hard to get into farming if you are starting from scratch. Now, just south of the Twin Cities, a nonprofit is helping a group of new farmers grow food to support their communities and families, while also giving the environment a helping hand. 

Temperatures topped 104 degrees in the state’s top cattle county. In widely seen video footage, rows of carcasses are shown lined up along the edge of a field.

Angela Dawson is a fourth-generation farmer in Sandstone, Minn. and co-founder and president of 40 Acre Cooperative. She joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk more about the impact.

During the last avian flu outbreak seven years ago, the central Minnesota turkey farms owned by Matt Herdering's family managed to escape unscathed. This time around, they weren't so lucky.

Rising costs, supply chain trouble and extreme weather are causing problems for farmers. MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Minnesota’s agriculture commissioner about the state of farming.

Hydroponics is seeing a rebirth -- and with fresh urgency as food shortages and the effects of climate change intensify. Micah Helle, hydroponic farm manager for Pillsbury United Communities, joined host Tom Crann to share more.

A Des Moines utility has for years engaged in a bitter struggle to clean up drinking water that comes from rivers teeming with agricultural pollutants, filing lawsuits, proposing legislation and even public shaming to try to force farmers to reduce runoff from their fields.

Tractors and other machinery used on farms have grown enormously heavier over the past 60 years as intensive, large-scale agriculture has become widespread.

New cases of avian influenza in Minnesota commercial flocks have slowed in recent weeks, suggesting the worst may be over. But the unpredictability of this year’s outbreak has caused a lot of mental strain for farmers, their families, veterinarians and others in the poultry industry.