Agriculture

As planting window closes, Minn. farmers face tough choices
Spring planting is about two weeks behind. Farmers will soon need to decide whether they'll try to plant late, and run the risk of losing their crops to an early frost, or if they'll work up to an insurance payment deadline and take a loss on the seeds they're not able to get into the ground.
'American soil' is increasingly foreign owned
The number of acres of U.S. farmland held by foreign-owned investors has doubled in the past two decades, raising alarm bells in farming communities.
Trade impasse: Trump pledges $16B to farmers; markets slump
Trump rolled out another $16 billion in aid for farmers hurt by his trade policies, and financial markets shook Thursday on the growing realization that the U.S. and China are far from settling a bitter, year-long trade dispute.
Farmers testing new fertilizer alternative: Bacteria
Farmers across the country are putting a genetically modified bacteria in the ground this spring to help corn plants use naturally occurring nitrogen. The goal is to eventually replace synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.
Collateral damage of the trade war, farmers want Chinese market reopened
American farmers rely heavily on selling their goods overseas. As the trade war heats up again, many Midwest soybean farmers have huge surpluses and are receiving government aid.
A big, hairy solution to restoring Minnesota's prairies
Bison will again roam a 170-acre swath of land at Belwin Conservancy near the Twin Cities this summer, where their presence benefits the restored tallgrass prairie.
Flooding disrupts barge traffic on the Mississippi River
Many of the locks and dams on the Mississippi that closed due to flooding that started in March have reopened, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn't expect the river to be fully unimpeded until possibly June.
Escalating trade war causing anxiety in America's heartland
"It's hard to concentrate on planting when you're constantly checking your phone to see if another (Trump) tweet has prompted a dip in the market," said soybean farmer Jamie Beyer, of Wheaton, Minnesota.