Kevin Schulz

Minnesota

Editor at The Farmer

Editor at Farm Progress

Take what I do, but not who I am, very seriously. A wordschmidt through and through.

Articles

Minnesota farm family champions soil health through education and innovation

5 days ago | farmprogress.com | Kevin Schulz

CONTINUING EDUCATION: Mark Legvold and his father, Dave, are both former educators, and they see the importance of continuing their education as well as that of other farmers and researchers. They see their farmland as a large classroom. Kevin SchulzDave Legvold and his son, Mark, take soil health quite seriously, with a commitment to preserving the farmland north of Northfield that has been in the family since 1976.
Minnesota farmer's accident leads to thriving meat market business

1 week ago | farmprogress.com | Kevin Schulz

An unfortunate mishap turned into a career-changing moment for Dean Morgan. Back in the 1980s, Morgan was running a 75-sow farrow-to-finish operation. One day while backing a trailer into the sow yard, he hit and killed one of the sows. A team from Lau’s Meat Market in Waseca, Minn., came to the farm to butcher the animal.
Minnesota farmer Kurt Blomgren named state FSA executive director

1 week ago | farmprogress.com | Kevin Schulz

A lifetime in agriculture — both in the field and through farm organizations — led Kurt Blomgren to a new chapter: executive director of the Farm Service Agency in Minnesota. He began May 5. In 1999, the fourth-generation farmer started the first of his three three-year terms on the FSA committee for Watonwan County. “I learned a great deal about the process there,” Blomgren says. He then got involved with Minnesota Farm Bureau and other farm organizations, including a local pork producers group.
Graduation marks the start of a new chapter

3 weeks ago | farmprogress.com | Kevin Schulz

High school and college graduations mark the end of one chapter in young people’s lives, but they also are the beginning of the rest of the book called life. For these young people, it can be an exciting and scary time. For high school graduates, it becomes, “What do I do now?”According to Education Data Initiative, 62% of U.S. high school graduates will go on to postsecondary education. This is a decline of 11.6% since the number peaked in 2009.
PRRS-resistant pigs are one step closer to reality

3 weeks ago | farmprogress.com | Kevin Schulz

HEALTHY PIGS: Gene editing has been researched, resulting in pigs resistant to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, which has been costing the U.S. swine industry an estimated $1.2 billion a year in lost production. Genus PICPork producers may soon have a silver bullet added to their PRRS arsenal.
Minnesota FFA wraps up successful convention

1 month ago | farmprogress.com | Kevin Schulz

ANNUAL GATHERING: The Minnesota FFA Convention wrapped up April 29, culminating at the University of Minnesota’s 3M Arena at Mariucci on the Minneapolis campus. Kevin SchulzAnother successful Minnesota FFA Convention wrapped up April 29, culminating at the University of Minnesota’s 3M Arena at Mariucci on the Minneapolis campus. This year’s convention theme was “Stand As One,” signifying the importance of FFA members from across the state working together for the greater good.
Olivia Vorpagel communicating her way to the top

1 month ago | farmprogress.com | Kevin Schulz

PROFICIENT COMMUNICATOR: Olivia Vorpagel, a sophomore from the Southland FFA chapter, has been working for Walton Webcasting since 2022, and that experience earned her the Agricultural Communications Proficiency Award at the Minnesota FFA Convention. Kevin SchulzGrowing up on a show pig farm near Adams in Mower County, Minn., it was never a question whether Olivia Vorpagel would be working in agriculture.
Research aims to answer questions on H5N1 leap between species

1 month ago | farmprogress.com | Kevin Schulz

Highly pathogenic avian influenza has created a lot of headaches and heartache, not to mention a financial burden, for U.S. poultry producers since its 2014-15 outbreak. As HPAI and influenza A virus subtype H5N1 continue to ravage various species of mammals, the concern has reached more livestock producers, as the virus made the leap to dairy cattle in early 2024. Minnesota’s first dairy detection came in June.
Is Minnesota windier than in the past?

1 month ago | farmprogress.com | Kevin Schulz

Kenny Blumenfeld has heard the question from people such as farmers, foresters and construction workers who work outside: “Has it gotten windier in the past few years compared to the past?”Blumenfeld, a senior climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, says that question actually has two answers. “We’ve heard from a lot of people who work outside, or people who spend a lot of time outside, over the last decade or so that they’re wondering, is it getting windier?
Farmer organizations file to intervene in activist litigation

1 month ago | farmprogress.com | Kevin Schulz

Protecting the state’s water is a group effort, and while some groups feel not enough is being done, a coalition of Minnesota farmer organizations is fighting back.