Christopher Vondracek
Agriculture Reporter at The Minnesota Star Tribune
Agriculture reporter @StarTribune. Author of Dancing with Welk (memoir) and Rattlesnake Summer (poems). Moonlights on the piano.
Articles
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1 week ago |
startribune.com | Christopher Vondracek
"You just don't honestly know what's going to happen from one day to the next," Johnson said, shaking his head. Soybeans are Minnesota's largest export, producing $2 billion annually, more than taconite and medical devices. Some beans get trucked to elevators on the Mississippi River. But the largest share of beans are loaded on rail cars and shipped to the Pacific Northwest. They then board ships and arrive in Asia.
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2 weeks ago |
startribune.com | Christopher Vondracek
DULUTH ‐ Anxieties are mounting that a water pollution laboratory buttressing Lake Superior's North Shore is slated to be closed, potentially terminating work for dozens of scientists and shuttering an economic engine for northern Minnesota. So far, no closure to the Environmental Protection Agency laboratory has been announced. But on Tuesday, U.S. Sens.
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1 month ago |
chicagotribune.com | Christopher Vondracek
BLACKDUCK, Minnesota — In Minnesota’s north country, a former kindergarten teacher-turned-rancher carefully walks forward on muddy, thawing ground toward a knot of dark heifers. They stare with curious white faces. One high-ended cow trots away awkwardly, a classic signal that she’ll soon be calving. “That one shaking its tail? That one’s probably calving, too,” said Rachel Gray, fourth-generation northern Minnesota farmer. She starts counting.
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1 month ago |
thebrunswicknews.com | Christopher Vondracek
BLACKDUCK, Minnesota - In Minnesota's north country, a former kindergarten teacher-turned-rancher carefully walks forward on muddy, thawing ground toward a knot of dark heifers. They stare with curious white faces. One high-ended cow trots away awkwardly, a classic signal that she'll soon be calving. "That one shaking its tail? That one's probably calving, too," said Rachel Gray, fourth-generation northern Minnesota farmer. She starts counting. "One, two, three, there's probably four in here calving."
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1 month ago |
miamiherald.com | Christopher Vondracek
BLACKDUCK, Minnesota - In Minnesota's north country, a former kindergarten teacher-turned-rancher carefully walks forward on muddy, thawing ground toward a knot of dark heifers. They stare with curious white faces. One high-ended cow trots away awkwardly, a classic signal that she'll soon be calving. "That one shaking its tail? That one's probably calving, too," said Rachel Gray, fourth-generation northern Minnesota farmer. She starts counting.
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Either a swan song on the agriculture beat, or an auspicious beginning to my new role as Washington business correspondent for the @StarTribune, but here I am in my hometown of Wells, MN, talking to farmers on a bright April day. https://t.co/JYxJm5uacM
Feels fittingly absurd that on eve of my last day on the Minnesota agriculture beat I am stuck in traffic on the border of Minneapolis thanks to some wandering, ambassadorial turkeys. https://t.co/w4MVuMHtSW
In honor of my move from Agriculture Reporter for @StarTribune to our Washington D.C. Business Correspondent (with a literal move back east come end of April), here are some of the finer farm beat paintings encountered of late: soybeans in Sen. Tina Smith’s office, grain https://t.co/Z7OmIknQy0