Mikkel Pates is an agricultural journalist, creating print, online and television stories for Agweek magazine and Agweek TV. He writes about a wide range of farmers and agribusinesses throughout North Dakota, Minnesota and surrounding states. He earned his degree in agricultural journalism degree from South Dakota State University and has worked for what are now Forum Communications papers since 1979. He grew up on at Brookings, S.D., where his father was an agricultural journalist with the SDSU Extension Service.

Readers can reach Mikkel email at mpates@agweek.com, or by phone at 701-936-0686.

Commercial farmers in Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota start using drones for spraying, seeding.
A recent $30,000 per acre land sale in Sioux County, Iowa, sends signals into the land market in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and even as far away as Indiana.
Mike Clemens, a farmer from Wimbledon, North Dakota, was literally (and figuratively) “blown away,” when his equipment shed collapsed under a snow load.
Green Plains Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska, is a company that markets corn ethanol coproducts and is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into equipment bolt-ons at their own ethanol plants.
Green Plains Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska, uses three Innovation Centers to develop fish food and other “ultra-high” protein and yeast products from corn.
Samantha and Taylon LaMont of Carpenter, South Dakota, are pork producers in a boom for confined animal feeding operation permits in Clark County. Samantha, 31, manages the barn and cares for 2,400 pigs in a weanling-to-finish operation.
Cathy Scheibe, at 82, of LaMoure, North Dakota, continues with Toy Farmer Magazine, more than 22 years after her husband and co-founder, Claire, died. She talks about how the company is changing and preparing for transitions, about how markets for toy tractors and construction equipment have been unusually strong due to the pandemic and supply chain issues for new toy commemorative projects.
LeRoy and Rosemary Helbling of Mandan, North Dakota, farm with International Harvester equipment that is mostly 30 to 40 years old, kept in pristine condition. They raise crops primarily as feed for their Hereford herd of cows.
Cow-calf producers had plenty of time to bring cattle from summer pastures, to shelter around farmsteads and to fenced corn stubble fields for late grazing prior to winter. Northeast South Dakota farmer Wally Knock said he has plenty of feed despite a dry late summer.
Nathan Faleide has spent about 20 years in agribusinesses, helping farmers use aerial and satellite imagery in precision farming. Now, he’s started “Boundri,” a business that prints those images on novelty items including travel mugs, play rugs and functional or wall hangings, based on views of farmland anywhere in the U.S. and Canada.