Minnesota Ag Connection - NPPGA Winter Meeting Starts Today with ARS Tour

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NPPGA Winter Meeting Starts Today with ARS Tour
Minnesota Ag Connection - 02/18/2020

USDA-ARS has installed a new potato grading/sorting system at the Potato Research Laboratory located in East Grand Forks, Minn. This purchase replaces a 30+ year-old wash plant/grading line at the facility.

For those interested in learning more about the grader and ongoing research trials, the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association (NPPFA) will be hosting donuts and coffee from 7 to 8 a.m. Feb. prior to NPPGA's Research Reporting Conference at the Alerus Center. Individuals may also contact Dr. Darrin Haagenson, Darrin.Haagenson@usda.gov for more information.

The NPPGA Annual Meeting, Research Reporting Conference and Chairman's/MSA Banquet will be held at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks beginning at 8 a.m. at the Alert Center in Grand Forks, N.D.

The NPPGA Annual Business Meeting will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

At the banquet which begins with a social hour at 5:30 p.m., the Association will be honoring Meritorious Service Award winner John Nordgaard and recognizing Dr. Neil Gudmestad's illustrious career. The group will also be passing the chairman's gavel from current Chairman T. J. Hall to Chairman-elect Matt VanRay.

The entertainment for the evening will again be "Jazz on Tap" playing background music to allow growers and associates to visit before and after dinner.

NPPGA will host Molly Yeh, the star of The Food Network's Girl Meets Farm, to make a personal appearance at the International Crop Expo on Thursday. Yeh will speak briefly and answer questions in Ballroom 4 at the Alerus Center at 1 p.m. followed by an appearance at the NPPGA booth on the Crop Expo floor from 2 to 3 p.m., where she will sign her new book, Molly on the Range. Copies of the book will be for sale at both appearances.

Molly lives with her husband Nick Hagen and their baby daughter on a farm near East Grand Forks. Nick's grandfather Cliff Hagen was the Chairman of the Board for the Red River Valley Potato Growers Association in 1966-67. The Hagen farm and the Greater Grand Fork area is the actual taping location for her hit television show Girl Meets Farm.

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