701-566-9300Murphy’s Law Blog 2018 | #57
This is an update on the activities of the Interim Natural Resources committee whose activities, so as not to rehash, were last explained in blog #53. This meeting was mostly about the collaboration (and lack of) between the wind power industry, the Public Service Commission (PSC), the North Dakota Game and Fish Department and agricultural interests. Also testifying on wind siting issues were...
NDSGA Officer Elections Held
The North Dakota Soybean Growers Association (NDSGA) held officer elections during its recent Board of Directors meeting. NDSGA officers elected included President Joe Ericson of Wimbledon, Vice President Ryan Pederson of Rolette and Secretary Greg Gussiaas of Carrington, North Dakota. Treasurer Eric Broten of Dazey, North Dakota was re-elected.
Monte Peterson of Valley City and Josh Gackle of...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2018 | #55
Public input is still being taken by the North Dakota Department of Health (DoH) on their Nutrient Management Plan, include at a meeting at the Fargodome on the first of May. There were people interested in municipal, livestock and general agricultural sources as well as septic system problems. We listened to reports from DoH officials on the status of the Plan and then broke into separate...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2018 | #54
Last week, I attended the third interim Agriculture Committee meeting. All four of their study topics for the 20 months between legislative sessions were included. First up was the State Soil Conservation Committee, a group which had been under scrutiny when cutting budgets last session. Bruce Schmidt is the new (6 months or so on the job now) Program Coordinator, Watershed and Soil...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2018 | #53
This is a recap of the Natural Resources Interim committee of Thursday, March 29 in Bismarck. First on the agenda was testimony considering the efficacy of a new law from SB2286 last session which is about the Public Service Commission (PSC) taking control from local subdivisions of energy siting. That includes things like pipelines, transmission lines and wind farms. They testified that while...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2018 | #52
Last week, I attended my first Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Technical Committee Meeting in Bismarck. I failed to see what was technical about it, but it lasted only 3 hours or so and a very diverse group was there to listen to the speakers. Here is a partial list starting with interested agricultural organizations; Farmer’s Union, Farm Bureau, Grain Growers, Durum,...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2018 | #51
This week had me driving to Bismarck for two birds with one stone; the ND Water Quality Monitoring Conference at BSC on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday along with sitting in on the Energy Development and Transmission Legislative Committee’s meeting on Thursday in the Capitol. Mother Nature cancelled the Tuesday portion, so they jammed it into Wednesday and half of Thursday. There were several...
Dicamba Training Scheduled
BISMARCK, N.D – Dicamba training sessions have been scheduled by BASF, Monsanto and DuPont in various locations around North Dakota.
In October, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released their new label language classifying the new formulations as restricted-use products, meaning that they may only be applied by a certified pesticide applicator or under the direct...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2018 | #49
On January 17 I drove to Jamestown to attend the ND Grazing Lands Coalition’s (NDGLC) Winter Conference. Like a couple of the many folks I spoke with, you may be wondering what a NDSGA representative was doing there. I explained to them that the Soybean Growers are interested in knowing what is going on in ND Agriculture and that the paramount interests of this winter conference, namely Soil...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #48
This week, I attended the Interim Agriculture Committee in Bismarck. This was their second meeting, the first one months back discussed if anything should or could be done to improve the accuracy of grain testing (see blog entry #42 for more detail). That topic came up at the end of this meeting and it looks like the committee may be looking at it again next time they meet – probably in March...