WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Dec 07, 2023

MARGARET RIGETTI
LANGBANK, SASKATCHEWAN

Margaret Rigetti finds it hard to imagine the future. “Earlier generations couldn’t imagine where we are now. They just kept adapting,” Rigetti says. “The general principles are to embrace innovation and involve family. Any business requires the energy of youth to keep going.”

Rigetti will always remember the day back in 2003 when her uncle came to her and said, “From now on, you can do the marketing.” She had never thought of taking over the marketing. It wasn’t on her radar. “He was getting tired of it, so he gave me the job and mentored me.” Rigetti has been the farm’s marketing lead ever since.

“I was always told there were opportunities on the farm for me, which was maybe an extra important thing for me as a girl to hear,” she says.

Rigetti has three children – two sons and a daughter. “I just had a conversation with my daughter. I told her she would be running the grain cart,” Rigetti says. “She was nervous, but I said ‘you can do it and we need you to do it’.” The two sons are also involved.

“We’ve found success in grain farming. Is that where my children will find success? Maybe.”

A big question Rigetti has for farming in general is whether agriculture will be allowed to innovate. “The Prairies have seen incredible positive changes as a result of technology,” she says, giving glyphosate, herbicide-tolerant canola and zero-till drills as examples. “Will agriculture be able to reach its full potential without too much outside interference, misinformation and disinformation?”

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Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.