By Rep. Paul Anderson
Gov. Mark Dayton has been pushing for a special legislative session to deal with the economic impact of the walleye fishing season being closed on Mille Lacs Lake.
A special working group has been convened, and it has met twice to discuss the problem and come up with possible solutions. The governor has even named the date. However, there doesn’t appear to be widespread support at this point for a special session. The problem is larger than simply dumping walleye fingerlings into the lake, which up to this point, has not been done before. Its genetics have come only from natural reproduction within the lake.
We are told the lake’s water temperature is rising, which is not conducive to walleyes. There are also issues with netting fish. All these topics are complex, and until reasonable solutions are on the table, a special session may not produce the long term, hoped-for results that Minnesotans all want for this lake.
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Hope you’re enjoying our comfortable summer weather. For most areas, rainfall has been abundant, although it seems that the same general areas keep getting the heavier amounts. Southern parts of the state got doused again Sunday evening so their crops should be made, and the same holds true for parts of our area. Prospects for outstanding yields of corn and soybeans seem realistic, that is, if we don’t receive any “hard water” in the form of hail during the rest of the growing season.
I had one field of wheat, and it produced a good crop. Some was contracted for delivery off the combine so it was hauled directly to the elevator. My smile quickly turned to a frown, however, when results of the grading process revealed a low protein content.
Because most of the wheat grown this year has been low in protein, it was explained, the discounts are heavy. Starting from a standard 14 percent level, 10 cents is subtracted from the selling price for every one-fifth of a percentage point below that level. Since my test came back with a figure of 11.1 percent protein, the discount was a whopping $1.45 per bushel. That’s roughly one-third of the entire value of the wheat, since the base price that day was around $4.50 per bushel!
To take that large a discount for one grading criteria doesn’t seem right, and it certainly means that growing wheat this year was not a money-making proposition. At these current price levels, the income off that field won’t even come close to covering the out-of-pocket expenses such as land rent, seed cost, and fertilizer. With these large discounts, the big grain companies that buy our wheat are not encouraging us to grow more of it. And I’ve never seen a loaf of bread with a sticker on the wrapper saying the flour in this bread was made with low-protein wheat.
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Our parade season came to a close this past weekend with the celebration in Belgrade. Beautiful weather and good crowds made for a fun day.
The Pope County Fair was also held last weekend, and that area was hit with heavy rain Thursday, which made for wet conditions and caused their demo derby and tractor pull to be cancelled. The Douglas County Fair is set for this weekend as our summer is rapidly winding down.
High school football practice started this week with the entire schedule statewide being moved ahead by two weeks. This marks the second year of the state championship games being played outside because of no domed stadium, and the risk of bad weather late in November is the reason dates have been moved up. The new Vikings Stadium is scheduled to be ready in time for the following season.
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