Badger, Minnesota farmer Shayne Isane attended breakfast with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Saturday, representing Minnesota Farm Bureau. “It’s not often the U.S. secretary of agriculture comes to northern Minnesota. If I would have been in the field, it would have been tougher to get away, but we aren’t so I graciously offered to come. I wasn’t going to turn this down.” Isane says many topics were covered, but not all submitted questions were answered. Minnesota farmers want to know more about possible changes to haying and grazing Conservation Reserve Program acres during drought. “It was a big issue for us and if I would have gotten a chance, besides a handshake and introduction, I would have asked him about that. It was an important thing for us last year, especially in northern Minnesota when we couldn’t get early haying and grazing. USDA wouldn’t budge. The secretary said strict rules wouldn’t allow them to do that.”
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