Potatoes get our attention throughout winter

Justin Dagen, Karlstad

While riding with my father across the snow-covered North Country in the dead of winter some 50 years ago, I looked out the window and asked him a question: "What is the land doing now, Dad?" To which he replied, "It's resting, son, it's resting."

That statement is an apt description of one of our favorite activities, as our work week has decreased from 100 hours to 40 hours. After a long and strenuous three-month harvest marathon, November is a blessed time of decompression and healing as we look forward to the celebration of our Savior's birth in Bethlehem.

December begins the basketball season as well as the farm enterprise analysis process, where we discover the financial success of various crops on farms across our operation. This we do while attending meetings addressing the latest research in seed, fertility, and crop protection materials, as well as marketing and financial management.

Much of this information may be available on the web. However, the networking component that the meetings encourage is priceless. A 6 a.m. basketball league helps maintain physical and mental health throughout the winter months.

Cash-flow projections for 2017 were completed in mid-December, about the same time as Christmas shopping commenced. Excitement and anticipation for the new year build in January, as the day length increases.

Also in January, the Minnesota certified seed potato producer has a duty to work in Hawaii for a few days. A very important component of successful seed potato production is the winter grow-out test, conducted on the North Shore of Oahu. Representative samples taken from each of our seed potato fields are planted in Hawaii around Thanksgiving and are ready to be inspected in early January. Members of my agronomy team and I will join officials from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture there and will spend days slowly going through the seed potato plots, clipboard in hand, giving careful observation to thousands of individual plants to ensure seed purity and vigor.

February brings an agricultural advocacy trip to Washington, D.C., to visit Sens. Klobuchar and Franken as well as the grand champion of agriculture legislation, Congressman Collin Peterson. March is the month to be sure all potato handling equipment is ready to go as our seed customers begin to call. The potato storages that we have been baby-sitting all winter will begin to empty, and the process will start all over again. I get excited just thinking about it! Enjoy the rest of winter.

Farm meetings, winter activities keep us busy

Rochelle Krusemark, Trimont 

Project list on the farm? I’ve never finished a project without starting at least seven more!

When the weather outside is frigid you may find my husband, Brad, and I working on the four-season porch and office renovation in the house. The garage … cabinets and shelves … get organized? I may also be found in the woodshop helping our son, AJ, build surrounds and mantels for their two-sided fireplace.

Warmer days bring opportunities to enjoy Minnesota outdoors! Snowmobile tracks grace the landscape, along with grooves from sledding down the hills. Two year-old grandson Titus has graduated from a battery-operated Gator to Uncle Caleb’s Kitty Cat snowmobile. His daddy, AJ, now understands why Brad and I were thin when he and brother first started to drive.

The arctic cold temperatures in December made sufficient ice to expand the backyard onto the lake. Hopefully Brad, AJ, Caleb and Titus catch some fish in the Ice Castle. Fresh fish and Brad’s hand-cut french fries made in high-oleic soybean oil, salad, snap peas and carrots round out the menu for our picnics on the ice. The meal wouldn’t be complete without Brad’s homemade ice cream for dessert. Personally, I think skating, broomball or tossing a football or Frisbee are more fun than watching a Vexilar, but I enjoy consuming fish. A stack of batten strips still needs to be nailed to the outside walls of that porch.

Winter does not bring a hiatus to serving the ag industry. Minnesota Soybean Growers and Corn Growers associations hold annual meetings at the MN Ag Expo Jan. 25-26, and then I work the United Soybean Board booth at the International Poultry Expo in Atlanta. I will attend the USB meeting in February. Brad and I will travel to San Antonio to attend the Commodity Classic in March, followed by QBE NAU crop insurance Crop Adjuster Spring Training, and then calving … and then time to plant corn and soybeans.

Challenge of juggling turkey production, family time year-round

Paul Kvistad, Wood Lake

Winter can be a less stressful time of the year for many farmers, but our winters are not very relaxing around the farm. Winter months on our farm are busy, with plenty of turkey production work.

We run a tight turkey schedule of flocks, so downtime in the winters is nonexistent. We need to fulfill our contracted turkey head obligations. Snow removal is also a big winter job on our farm. We have feed delivered at all hours of the day, so the farm needs to be cleared for the semis.

Planning a getaway during the winter months can be tricky at best for us. We look far in advance for a window in our flock schedule. Our window of opportunity would be to only have one flock on the farm and those birds being at a good age for someone else to watch them. Our next obstacle would be looking at the family and school activities for our high-school-aged boys, so we don’t miss too many ball games or concerts. Trying to find someone to help with the chores and someone to supervise our boys while we are away is not always an easy task. And of course, we must add watching the weather forecast. Needless to say, there is a lot of scheduling, planning, stress and anxiety involved when we try to plan a trip. More than once, our best-laid plans did not work. With all that said, we do usually get away to someplace warm for a few days.

Winters do give us the opportunity to enjoy our time in the gym watching our local high school basketball teams. My favorite thing to do during the winter is to go ice fishing with my sons. We talk ice fishing year-round at my house. I look forward to time spent with my boys the most as the weather turns cold and the ice thickens.