MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) – Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic had everything on lockdown…and farmers across the region were wondering what they could do to bring some excitement into the community.

“It was hard,” said Sam Ziegler. “Everybody was down, and it was…what can we do to think about how we are succeeding to make sure food gets to family’s tables, and where can we do it?”

Then, Celebration of Ag was born. Created by Green Seam, a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing southern Minnesota’s agriculture industry, it brought farmers together to celebrate what they’d accomplished.

The event was set at ISG Field, home of the Mankato Moondogs – and five years later, it continues to be a huge success.

“It’s really grown in attendance and support, and it’s fun to see everyone come out and support what we do, and what this means to the ag industry,” said Ryan Erickson with AgCo.

This year, the focus was on how much southern Minnesota’s agriculture has grown over the past year.

“We have lots of producers in our area – corn, soybeans, cover crops,” said Anne Johnson with Redwood Falls.

It wasn’t all good news – in Jackson, agriculture production has been severely impacted by recent flooding.

“The flooding has affected the farmers and the crop production, it’s affected the towns and the communities,” said Erickson.

But even the flooding couldn’t put a damper on how fast Minnesota’s agriculture industry has grown – and GreenSeam says it that trend will only continue.

“It’s a great sign of what we’ve started, but we have a lot of work to do,” said Ziegler. “Because of our soil, because of our weather, because of the business and innovation created here, I only see this continuing to grow.”

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