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DNR temporarily halts massive conversion of pine forest into farmland

Hey, at least in the last paragraph they acknowledged the deer population is in trouble there.
 
that jumped out at me too. HAAA.

Good ole Offutts...... They basically poisoned the water table around Clitherall, MN several years ago and they had to end up connecting to the Battle Lake city water supply due to it.
 
About time they said WHOA! Take a look at an aerial view around Park Rapids, MN. It's a scar you can see from space. That's a lot of timberland lost.
 
Hopefully they can find a way to stop it but I really doubt they can. Look at the ground pure sand should grow some amazing crops,jk.
 
One year ago, I heard 7000 acres of forest had been lost to potatoes in that area.
satchmo should have a good feeling as to what is going on. I have not driven through that area for a bit.
 
we drove through akely last labor day wknd on the way up to LOTW. saw a lot of that land that looked like it was recently cleared and new irrigation units. The corn fields looked like poor crops.
 
Until the Govt stops subsidizing farmers that choose to plant into marginal soils with weak yields, this will continue mostly unchecked. In many areas like this, the farmers know if they clear a 40 square and put in a central pivot irrigation structure, there are ways to get paid, yield or no yield.
 
wiscwhip said:
Until the Govt stops subsidizing farmers that choose to plant into marginal soils with weak yields, this will continue mostly unchecked. In many areas like this, the farmers know if they clear a 40 square and put in a central pivot irrigation structure, there are ways to get paid, yield or no yield.
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My thoughts too. Some land just shouldn't be farmed.

I think Park Rapids just went through something with their drinking water, too much phosphates or something, believed to be a direct result of ag. I did look at Park Rapids on google earth and there is a lot of pivots in that area.
 
wiscwhip said:
Until the Govt stops subsidizing farmers that choose to plant into marginal soils with weak yields, this will continue mostly unchecked. In many areas like this, the farmers know if they clear a 40 square and put in a central pivot irrigation structure, there are ways to get paid, yield or no yield.
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The RDO farms mentioned in the article are on a whole different scale. The guy owns the potato farms and also owns the potato plants that make french fries for mcdonalds. He also has a 50k+ acre farm near Pierre SD and has a 100k acre 30k cow dairy operation in Oregon. I think total landownership under different companies is over 400k acres and I am sure they rent a lot of land as well. The family also owns the biggest John Deere dealership chain in the country, and they expanded into Russia a few years ago. Total subsidies according to EWG from 1995-2012 were $2.2 million which is almost meaningless when its a $1 billion+ business the family privately owns.

While I agree with you on the idea of stopping subsidies for the farmers, but in some ways I think getting rid of them will make it easier for these big farms to take over the small guys where the subsidies actually help them out in some cases.
 
I'm not saying get rid of all subsidies, just the ones on marginal soils. As stated, some areas should just not be farmed.
 
I read somewhere that it takes 1/2 the amount of moisture to grow corn today.....due to the better seed variety. With these kinds of changes, more of our marginal lands become valid "targets" for farming operations. It's happening in lots of places.
 
wiscwhip said:
I'm not saying get rid of all subsidies, just the ones on marginal soils. As stated, some areas should just not be farmed.
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Makes sense, I didn't thoroughly read your comment :oops:. But even on good soils with some large farmers there is a moral hazard issue with crop and crop insurance subsidies. It will be interesting to see if anything changes with the new PLC and ARC programs. It sounds like there is a lot more decision making that has to take place by the farmer.
 
RDO has one of their potato processing plants right on the south end of Park Rapids and the surrounding sand soil forests that they are clearing grow good potatoes when irrigated. Their buy, clear, grow efforts in that area have been slowly ramping up for 20 years. This is not something new. Someone finally took notice after there was contamination discovered.
 
foggy said:
I read somewhere that it takes 1/2 the amount of moisture to grow corn today.....due to the better seed variety. With these kinds of changes, more of our marginal lands become valid "targets" for farming operations. It's happening in lots of places.
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It is a vicious circle foggy. Just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done. I get that it looks good on paper with the new seed and the farmer is caught in the middle. Have good weather, get a great harvest, price drops. Next year, lower price, need more acres to make the same amount of money, clear more ground and put to corn to make up for lower price. Failed crop on marginal ground, still gets paid. 3 years down the road, marginal ground not worth farming, put into CRP, get paid again. Where does it end?
 
I suppose I should give you guys some truth here.

1. The farm subsidies have done nothing but smoother the small producer. I remember the days of Welfarestone canvasing the state in his green bus and how he was gonna help save the family farm. Even if he was well-intentioned it turned out complete opposite. Most of the small family farms have been crushed since the subsidies have been rolled out. As a small producer I wish it would go away completely!!

2. The new farm program is a complete joke. They used to pay like $15 an acre for my crops. Now they took away the direct payments and came up with ARC (average revenue program) and PLC (price loss coverage). With the HUGE yields across the country sending prices into the toilet these programs are set to MASSIVE payments per acre for 2014 and 2015 crops. For example, I plugged my numbers in and it looks like I may be getting around 50-55$ per acre each of the next two year. This was something the CBO never figured in when they scored the bill. They thought they would be saving money but they severely overestimated the crop prices. And as a small producer I cant hardly opt out and then try to compete on rent with the neighbor next door that is taking the free money. Not like we get to keep it. It all either ends up with the landlord, the fert plant or Monsanto. You can be sure a bunch of dipshit farmers will always bid the profitability out of something. There are few rented farmers around me where the numbers are in the black right now. Guys are willing to take losses for a year or two to keep going. I dont have that luxury

3. The reason they like these potatoes by Park Rapids is cause of the sand. You cant grow potato in heavy Renville county dirt on a mass scale. They are trying to get the rotation longer between plantings too so they can fight pest. Instead of planting every other year or every third year they are going every fourth year. They dont consider this marginal land. They consider it PERFECT for what they want to do.

4. There is no CRP sign up. Dont blame the farmers. The govt is the ones not renewing the contracts. YOu cant just sign your farm up. You can however do projects like wetland restoration, buffers, filter strips, etc.

5. Any farmer with woods in my area gets classified as recreational. So they make them pay this high tax and get nothing in return. So in return the farmer gets out the chainsaw and bulldozer. Now its farmland and taxes drop and its producing something.

I could go on and on and on some more. Makes me sick the way things are.
 
We have the same thing in the central sands area of WI where I hunt, the only 2 things the soil will grow really well are irrigated potatoes and pine trees. I can see where your coming from Buck, the small farmer gets a handful of peanuts from his subsidies, and the corporate farmer rakes in millions due to the raw scale of operations. I don't know much about the new farm program personally, but farmers I help out and others I have overheard have the same opinion as you. As far as CRP, wetland resto, or any of those other similar programs, they are all basically the same, they reward the person for putting land into the program that likely shouldn't have been tilled in the first place. And as far as forested tax rates vs ag rates, in WI(not sure on MN) we have the Managed Forest Law that greatly reduces taxes on forested ground that allows the state to recover the lost tax revenue at a later time when it is able to be logged for timber, so that is not an excuse, at least in WI and I would be surprised if MN didn't have something similar.
 
bowhunternw said:
My thoughts too. Some land just shouldn't be farmed.

I think Park Rapids just went through something with their drinking water, too much phosphates or something, believed to be a direct result of ag. I did look at Park Rapids on google earth and there is a lot of pivots in that area.
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Park Rapids is battling high nitrate levels in their drinking water supply.
 
Farmers will need to produce as much food in the next 50 years as they have in all of the past history of mankind.

Not saying it is true, but I read it last week in a farm magazine.
got to agree that the tax structure is forcing farmers to clear land. Now there is a bill in the legislature for farm land not to have increased taxes if bonding is introduced for a school. All homeowners and all non-farm land will pay the price. That will be more pressure to farm from ditch to ditch.

If buffer areas are expanded along ditches, how will it be taxed and is it considered farm land or not?
 
MNAaron said:
Park Rapids is battling high nitrate levels in their drinking water supply.
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Are there also concerns about water flow int he Straight River?
 
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