For Minnesota farmers, 2020 was nothing like they expected and surprisingly profitable

At the start of 2020, Minnesota's livestock farmers looked out and saw a fairly good year ahead. Dairy farmers had just enjoyed a price rebound that lifted their financial hopes while corn and soybean growers feared another year of low prices and abundant crops.

Today, nothing looks like it did a year ago for Minnesota's food-growing industry, the nation's sixth-largest by revenue. A wrenching disruption upended hog farming, and milk producers teetered as the coronavirus pandemic spread last spring.

But corn and soybean growers flourished, after extreme weather and a surge in exports bolstered prices. "It turned out to be a way better year than what we thought it was going to be," said Tim Little, a corn and soybean farmer near Faribault.

https://www.startribune.com/for-minnesota-farmers-2020-was-nothing-like-they-expected-and-surprisingly-profitable/600008627/