Kent Thiesse AgriGrowth Distinguished Service Award

Congratulations to Ag Analyst and Senior Vice President at MinnStar Bank Kent Thiesse! Kent was honored at AgriGrowth's Minnesota Ag and Food Summit with the Distinguished Service Award. Tamara Nelsen, AgriGrowth Executive Director stated: "I also want to add a special congratulations to Kent Thiesse. His significant contributions to agriculture and his leadership in our industry is greatly appreciated by everyone who knows him. He is very deserving of this recognition."

Kent has specialized in knowing, understanding and advising farmers on USDA Programs like the Farm Bill, CFAP one, CFAP two, WHIP+ and Crop Insurance.  For many years Kent has been my "go to source" for USDA Programs. Kent can explain it in terms I can understand and offer advice or his opinion on which program would be most beneficial. Here is an example of Kent's advice on the new Farm Bill.

The new Farm Bill gave us the choice of signing up for ARC County or Price Loss Coverage (PLC.) Local Farm Service Agency staff knew the programs and which would likely give farmers the best chance of maybe collecting a payment. However, their job was to get farmers signed up. They could not advise farmers on which to pick. However, Kent as an Ag analyst could offer his advice on which one may be best.

For farmers in our area Kent said it appeared like the best choice would be picking PLC for corn and ARC County for beans. As it turned out that was good advice and gave farmers the opportunity to maximize the farm bill payments. For many decades Kent has also been involved in 4-H livestock shows at the Minnesota State Fair and other livestock shows too. It was nice to see Kent get some well deserved recognition!