After growing up on a hobby farm in SE Wisconsin, Kate Ritger moved to the city of Chicago to pursue her career and realized, she should make one on the farm.
State and federal agriculture officials are honing response plans they hope will limit the spread of bird flu they expect to return this fall. Two Minnesota House agriculture committees heard Tuesday about lessons learned and listened to chicken and turkey producers who coped with the avian influenza on their farms last spring.
Minnesota has recorded 13 straight days with no new cases of bird flu as the focus on recovery continues. Minnesota turkey and chicken producers have lost around 9 million birds on 108 farms to the new H5N2 avian influenza virus since early March.
Most Minnesota farm families could get an extra $260 in property tax relief per year under legislation that's meant to ease the squeeze they're feeling between rising property taxes and falling crop prices.
Just when farmers think the weather couldn't get any worse Mother Nature strikes again. First a late spring made it difficult for farmers to start planting crops, now wet weather may delay harvest.