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Minnesota Corn board chair concerned about mergers and government regulations

The chairman of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association has concerns about ag mergers and overregulation.

Bryan Biegler, who farms near Lake Wilson in southwest Minnesota, says one of the resolutions voted on by National Corn Grower members during Commodity Classic last week supports the Department of Justice’s ongoing review of mergers and price transparency.

“A lot of (mergers) are happening right now, and it’s just eliminating a lot of the competition that we have and means less options for us to work with, especially in the fertilizer industry. And even the seed and chemical industries, it’s getting fewer and fewer of them to work with. So it’s nice to hopefully get that out there that we do have concerns about that.”

He tells Brownfield government regulation is another concern.

“There’s some stuff going on at the capitol in Minnesota that if things come along, I think there’s going to be a lot of issues for us in the near future.”

Biegler says a potential problem for farmers in southern Minnesota is a wet spring because of significant snow cover.