By Brad Barth, MCIA Board Chair
It is Sunday night as I write this, and the house is eerily quiet. My wife is in bed and the kids and grandchildren have all gone home. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, enjoying way too much food, and felt thankful for the family time spent together.
Harvest is mostly over in Minnesota and seed cleaning is underway. I was happy to see a nice harvest window for most of our members. Wet spring weather here turned to dry weather throughout the summer and with good yields and better pricing this should be a fair year for all.
Remember, the MCIA seed lab staff is ready to process your samples and will be happy to help you in any way they can.
MCIA has made great strides in the advancement of the new database system for our members and employees alike. I have been involved with a few computer database projects in the past and believe me there are plenty of, “Oh wow, I thought we were almost done,” moments in the development stage that always equated to more and more hours spent on the project. Even though we have made great progress, there is still a way to go to get to the finish line. When it is finished, I am sure all involved will appreciate it and say that it was worth the wait.
I was able to meet the newest staff members at MCIA and would like to say that they are a couple of great additions to our staff. A big welcome to Shauna Ilse in the organic department and Claire Biel in the seed lab!