Month: August 2020

The sugar beet harvest pre-pile began last week, and the early indications are 2020 should be a good crop.

Eric Ptacek, Agronomy Manager for American Crystal Sugar’s Crookston and East Grand Forks Districts, said things are going well. “We got started last week,” said Ptacek. “It was pretty wet in the Crookston area to start pre-pile. A little bit of delay getting going, but things are going pretty well this week in the district. Both the Crookston and Nielsville yard started this week, and the Warren piling station was also open today.”

Last fall, local producers dealt with not only wet conditions but low temperatures.  A wet spring also pushed the planting day back this spring, but Ptacek said if the heat can continue through September, it could be a nice crop this season. “We finished the year last year on a very wet and frozen note,” said Ptacek. “Moving into the spring this year, it was wet, and a little bit later start than the five-year average as far as our planting date went. The seedbeds were wetter and clumpier.  We started with a little bit thinner stand than we wanted but acceptable. A very warm summer we’ve had with ample moisture, and the crop progressed nicely. We’ve got a good crop coming, not going to say it’s a record-breaker, but it’s a good crop. If we continue to get the heat units through September, it’s going to be a real nice crop.”

There are pockets of root rot thanks to some heavy rains in late June and early July; however, it’s not widespread, according to Ptacek. “We’ve got plenty of moisture in the ground,” said Ptacek. “We don’t need anymore. The heavy moisture events at the end of June and the beginning of July, where we ended up with some ponding water and ditches overflowing into fields is where the rot showed up. It’s been pretty good conditions since then, and the rot never got a chance to spread. We know we’re going to have a little bit of root rot in these fields from observations, but so far on pre-pile, the beets have been pretty good in the Crookston District.”

Spraying sugar beets began around the Fourth of July and continues every 12-14 days to keep the leaves green to soak up the sun, which produces more sugar and mass on the root. Farmers spray their crops to stave off the Cercospora leaf spot and keep those leaves green, explains Ptacek. “As far as disease goes, there are some pockets of root rot,” said Ptacek. “It’s not widespread, but a little bit is showing up. And our Cercospora leaf spot is our big one right now. Guys are on their spray programs and managing them to coincide with their pre-pile dates as well. They should be finishing spraying their fourth application this week or next week, and possibly do a fifth if the heat stays around.”

Harvest season is probably the busiest and most dangerous time of the year on roads around Crookston, and Ptacek reminded everyone to keep an eye on each other and have a safe harvest. “The only thing I would add is safety on the roads,” said Ptacek. “There is going to be a lot of trucks moving whether its beet harvest or other grain harvests going on in the next month and a half. Keep an eye on safety, and let’s have a safe harvest.”

The University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC) has put a public health curfew in place on campus.  Those living on-campus must return to campus, with a few exceptions, by 9:00 p.m. each night and will revaluate the curfew September 8. About 400 students at UMC reside on campus, while another 250 live in off-campus housing in the Crookston community.

Chancellor Mary Holz-Clause said the university administration wanted to protect the students and keep them safe to avoid the outbreak other universities have seen with the return to campus. “We felt for the students on campus, that live in the residence halls, which is a little more than half of them, that we wanted to protect them and keep them safe,” said Holz-Clause. “We wanted to not have people coming from off-campus onto campus after hours. And also, to ask the students to be back on campus by 9 p.m. They don’t have to be in their rooms, we just want them back on campus as a way to prevent what has happened at other universities where those numbers have spiked right away when students come back.”

Holz-Clause said a zoom meeting was held with students Sunday to inform them of the curfew. “When students came back, we wanted them to know we’re doing a public health curfew through September 8,” said Holz-Clause. “We’ll re-evaluate it then and see where everything is at. We met with the students on Zoom on Sunday night and had 100 plus on that Zoom to talk through the curfew. A lot of them were concerned I have a job and can’t be back until 9:30-10 p.m. and that’s fine. Those are the exceptions. Some students go home. They can go home over the weekends. Labor Day weekend they can go home. We are trying to have as many activities on-campus as we can so we can limit the student’s exposure off-campus.  It’s a curfew that’s meant to provide protection for our students from exposure to COVID-19.”

Students who break the policies in the Student Conduct Policy can be entered into a student conduct process according to Holz-Clause who said despite some rumors in the community she was unaware of any such actions going on regarding the curfew. “To my knowledge, and I’m usually included in that process, those are interesting rumors that aren’t true right now,” said Holz-Clause. “For the most part, our students have followed this. I’m not aware of any extenuating circumstances or situations where they haven’t. With any residence hall living if there are situations where students aren’t following the rules or doing what they’re supposed to there is a student conduct process that they go through. Our students are such responsible students. We want them to do things for the right reasons and we’re seeing that our student leadership is understanding. They’re maybe a little disappointed but 2020 has sort of been a year of a few disappointments for all of us. They don’t have the opportunity to have those big parties and yet when we’re looking where COVID exposures are happening those are the situations.”

Holz-Clause added that students are excited to be back and are taking on the responsibility to do what they can to prevent incidents of COVID-19 in the area. “The students that are on-campus are so excited to be back,” said Holz-Clause. “I’ve been out to some of the stores in Crookston and seen a number of them. I think it was a long spring, and everybody is very excited. I know that our students are really taking the responsibility to act as responsible as they can to prevent the exposures and incidents of COVID across this area.”

The University of Minnesota and Minnesota Beef Council are collaborating on an overview study mapping the pathways Minnesota beef cattle travel from birth to finish.

The study will provide a foundational overview by documenting and describing the farm-to-feedlot pathways currently being utilized by Minnesota beef producers. “Our team needs producer knowledge and experience in answering survey questions pertaining to management practices and the movement of cattle. We want to gather knowledge from MN producers so we can better serve them by tailoring research specific to MN needs,” said Dr. Joe Armstrong.

The survey is the first step in a larger effort involving a collaboration between the UMN College of Veterinary Medicine, MN Beef Council, and UMN Extension. The research team is being led by Dr. Noelle Noyes with help from Dr. Tim Goldsmith, Dr. Luciano Caixeta, Dr. Joe Armstrong, and two veterinary students – Sabina Ponicki and Kaylan Risacher.

Dr. Joe Armstrong – “We are all excited to start a project that is specific to cattle production in Minnesota, and hope producers are willing to give a few minutes of their time to take the survey. We are striving to use research to provide recommendations that fit the MN cattle industry, not extrapolate from research done in other systems.”

The survey is available online at z.umn.edu/beefpathways and should take producers approximately 5-10 minutes to finish. Survey results and responses are completely voluntary and confidential. Participants will have the option to be entered into a raffle using an email address that will give away a Pierce VAXmate cooler.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH is reporting 1,158 new cases of COVID-19 and 13 deaths. There were 21,144 tests completed for a positive rate of 5.5 percent. There were three new reported cases in Polk County.

MDH STATEMENT ON HIGHER THAN NORMAL NEW CASES AND COMPLETED TESTS

The COVID-19 data posted today show 1,158 reported new cases and 21,144 reported test results. These higher counts are partially due to a backlog of data belatedly reported by a Minnesota provider and lab, Valley Medical, which has had an inconsistent record of reporting results to the state despite the requirements of the communicable disease reporting rule.

After MDH followed up with Valley Medical, the company provided almost 19,000 test results to MDH as required. We have started to process the data, and today’s new cases include a batch of 265 positive cases from that provider. These cases from Valley Medical have specimen dates from the past two weeks. Today’s data set also includes 4,658 tests from Valley Medical. The remaining 14,000 test results still need to be processed by our team and will be included in case counts and testing numbers into early next week.

While we appreciate that Valley Medical provided the information upon follow-up, this episode shows the importance of laboratories and providers’ understanding and consistently complying with disease reporting requirements that are not new. These requirements have been in place for many diseases like measles and mumps for years, and have been in place for COVID-19 for months. This belated reporting will affect our daily reports for the next few days. More concerning, delayed reporting also means that 265 people who tested positive for COVID-19 were not contacted by health officials in a timely manner. This creates multiple problems – not only does it mean the person tested is unaware of their infection and the need to self-isolate to protect family, friends, and close contacts, but it also delays our case investigation work and makes it harder to slow the spread of this disease. We encourage all providers and laboratories across the state to be diligent and timely in their reporting.

Updated August 27, 2020
Updated daily at 11 a.m., with data current as of 4 p.m. the previous day.

Data is for cases that were tested and returned positive. All data is preliminary and may change as cases are investigated. Many data points are collected during case interviews. Data presented below is for all cases, regardless of interview status. Data for cases pending interview may be listed as “unknown/missing.”

Not all suspected cases of COVID-19 are tested, so this data is not representative of the total number of people in Minnesota who have or had COVID-19. Cumulative numbers are since Jan. 20, 2020.

Other Statistics

• Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children (MIS-C) Statistics
• Minnesota COVID-19 Public Dashboard
• Minnesota’s COVID-19 Response and Preparation Capacity
• CDC: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Cases in the U.S.
• Minnesota COVID-19 Modeling

Data in the data tables is correct as of 11 a.m. daily. Dynamic images and maps for case demographics, likely exposure, residence, and residence type will update shortly after 11 a.m. daily and will not work if your browser is in compatibility mode.

Happy Joe’s Pizza & Ice Cream in Crookston will be limited to pickup only through Sunday and will be closed Monday, August 31 through Friday, September 4.  Manager Brooke Panzer said the changes are due to a staff shortage following a positive COVID-19 test of an employee, and that employee’s close contact with other staff. “We did have an employee test positive for COVID-19, and we determined he had close contact with six employees who work here,” said Panzer. “All six of them and including him have to get quarantined and tested. So, what we’re going to do here is run a limited staff, and we’re going to be open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. today, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We’re only going to be open for pickup only. Next week it looks like we’re going to have to be shut down Monday through Friday, and tentatively reopen Saturday (September 5) at 11 a.m.”

The close contacts will have to quarantine through Friday, September 4, and Panzer said if they’re results come back negative, Happy Joe’s will be able to reopen for pickup and delivery on Saturday, September 5. “If anything changes, we’ll let you and the public know,” said Panzer. “It’s probably just what we’re going to have to do right now. Depending on the results of those six employees, they for sure have to be out through September 4, and then if they do come back negative, they can come back to work Saturday, September 5. If everything does work out, we will reopen for pickup and delivery on September 5.”

Panzer also said to watch the Happy Joe’s Facebook page for updates to specials and when they will reopen next week. “Just watch our Facebook page for any updates,” said Panzer. “We will update that with specials and if we have any changes at all.”