Wednesday, Nov. 1 marked the second time President Joe Biden has visited Minnesota's Dakota County — a community with deep agricultural roots and a unique farmland easement program.
Here are some agriculture-related facts about Dakota County:
- Farmland comprises more than half of Dakota County's land area or about 200,000 acres.
- Dakota County is Minnesota's only county with permanently protected farmland — 71 easements totaling 7,800 acres. About 2,800 of those acres are in Greenvale Township, where President Biden visited Wednesday.
- Corn is Dakota County's top crop.
- Farms with sweet corn, peas, snap beans and organic produce have increased in Dakota County, which is home to the second-most irrigated acres in Minnesota.
- Agricultural firm CHS, the nation's largest agricultural co-op, is headquartered in Dakota County.
- Dakota County boasts the largest 4-H program in Minnesota.
- Other White House visitors to Dakota County include President Donald Trump, Vice President Dick Cheney, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and President Rutherford B. Hayes.
- While rural communities dominate much of the landscape, cities here continue thriving and have built Dakota County into Minnesota's third-largest county with a population of more than 442,000 people.