(bright music) - Hello and welcome to "Farm Connections."

I'm your host, Dan Hoffman.

On today's episode, we head to the Operations and Management Center for EDP Renewables, and the Pioneer Prairie Wind Farm, where we talk to Kody Retterath about wind turbines and the energy resources and opportunities they provide.

We also spend some time learning about water and soil conservation with Extension Expert, Bailey Tangen, in Goodhue County.

All here today on "Farm Connections."

(cheerful country music) (cheerful country music) - [Announcer 1] Welcome to "Farm Connections," with your host, Dan Hoffman.

- [Announcer 2] "Farm Connections" premier sponsor is Minnesota Corn.

- [Announcer 3] Programming supported by Minnesota Corn, working to identify and promote opportunities for corn growers, enhance quality of life, and help others understand the value and importance of corn production to America's economy.

- [Announcer 4] Additional support from the following sponsors.

- [Announcer 5] Programming supported by R&S Grain Systems, a family-owned business serving its customers for 50 years, with leading designs in the manufacturing of grain handling equipment and grain storage systems.

You can call them for a quote today.

- [Announcer 6] Programming supported by EDP Renewables North America, owner/operator of Prairie Star and Pioneer Prairie Wind Farms in Minnesota and Iowa.

EDPR wind farms and solar parks provide income to farmers and help power rural economies across the continent.

- [Announcer 7] Mower County Farm Bureau Association, a KSMQ broadcast sponsor, advocates for agriculture based on the policies and beliefs of its members.

It's dedicated to making the voices of its members stronger.

You can learn more about membership benefits at FBMN.org.

- [Announcer 8] Program supported by employee-owned AgVantage Software, Rochester, Minnesota, celebrating their 50th year designing and developing agribusiness software for grain elevators, feed manufacturers, producers, fertilizer and chemical dealers, co-ops, seed companies, and fuel distributors.

(gentle country music) (gentle country music continues) - Welcome to "Farm Connections."

We traveled to Leroy, Minnesota to the office of EDP Renewables.

We're going to visit with Kody Retterath about what happens in this area in this office.

He's the site supervisor.

Kody, tell us what happens here.

- Thanks for having me, Dan.

- [Dan] Oh, you're so welcome.

- This is is our operations and maintenance building.

This is a display board that monitors what our turbines do on a daily basis.

And so we've got around 25 technicians that work out of this building, six of them directly for EDPR.

And we just maintenance 61 turbines right here out of this wind farm for EDP.

- So behind us is the footprint of your farm.

- Yeah.

Yep, yep.

So this is our Minnesota farm and then these three here are our Iowa Farms.

Yeah.

So we do all the maintenance right here.

Right here outta this facility.

- Roughly how many people work here?

- In the office on a daily basis is right around 30 to 32 people.

- [Dan] Amazing.

- Yeah.

- In a town of how many people roughly?

- Yeah.

Leroy I think is right around 700, 800.

- So this is probably one of the largest employers.

- Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And you know, without the wind farms, you know, these 30 some people wouldn't have had, you know, a good paying job right here in town, so.

- Possibly including Kody?

- [Kody] Yeah, absolutely.

Yep.

I've been working here since 2010.

- So what percentage of your workforce do you think grew up within say, 50 miles?

- I would say probably around 75% of the people that work here.

And 100% percent of them live currently within 30 to 40 miles of the wind farm.

- So we have the W-2 wages that they pay taxes on.

- Yeah, absolutely.

100% - We have a property here that probably pays some real estate taxes.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- So it's a major contributor to our region.

- [Kody] Yeah.

Absolutely.

100% - So what's the product you sell?

- Well, we're an energy production company, so, you know, that's what we sell.

You know, keep turbines online and keep 'em maintenanced well so that we can produce energy.

- [Dan] What's the biggest challenge that you have in doing that?

- A lot of times, resources get to be a challenge.

Some of the parts and things like that, that get delayed.

And then weather, you know, weather.

Inclement weather, whether it be in the wintertime or in the summertime, storms and things like that, play a different factor into how the turbines run.

- Well, oftentimes we have people ask this question, why did they turn the turbines off today?

- Yeah, for sure.

That's a very, very common question.

And most of the time it is that there just maybe isn't a lot of wind.

It seems to be really windy around this area almost all the time, but there is times where there isn't a lot of wind, and sometimes the turbines will just go offline for that.

Or it's too windy and the turbines will go offline too.

And then another thing is there's thousands of sensors in the turbines, and at any given point a tiny little sensor can shut off one of them huge machines.

So that could be the biggest case too, so.

- So that tower is very sophisticated.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

It can be the smallest part could shut it down, so.

- Can you control those towers from this office?

- Yeah, absolutely.

Yep.

All of our technicians have the ability to log on remotely and run what we would call the control board, the tack, in the turbine, and yeah, do whatever we need to do remotely to get 'em back online or figure out what the problem is.

The troubleshooting of a fault really starts right in the office right here.

- So how much does this farm produce?

How much electricity?

- Yeah.

The Prairie Star Wind Farm is a 101 MW wind farm.

And that's enough power to power 34,000 homes, the average consumption of a home.

- That's a lot of homes.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

It puts a lot of power onto the grid.

And it's all local here too, you know?

I mean, it goes into the substation right in Adams and floats out right here to the local homes, so.

- So not only you're producing local electricity, a lot of it's consumed local.

- Consumed local.

Yeah, absolutely.

- If it's needed somewhere else in the grid, can it be switched and sent far away?

- Yeah.

Yes it can, yeah.

But there's line loss and things like that that happens when you start sending it a little bit farther away, so most of it is used up locally, yeah.

- So it's more efficient using it close to the source?

- [Kody] Absolutely.

- When you send it far away, there's resistance in the line?

- Yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

- Interesting.

- Line's lost on that.

Yeah.

- Kody, you have a very important job here.

Some days it's not fun, but some days it is fun.

- Yeah.

- What is the most fun you've ever had on this job?

- Yeah, I would say a couple of things is team building events.

We partner with Vestas here in this office and we do Adopt a Highway twice a year where we clean the road ditch along Highway 56.

And every year after that we come back and have a huge barbecue with all the guys, and it's just a great team building event for our team here within the office, so.

- Well, EDP Renewables is part of the business here.

You mentioned Vestas, what are they?

- [Kody] Yeah, they're the manufacturer of the turbines and they also do maintenance on one of our wind farms out of this office as well.

So there's two different entities right here in the building.

- Well, we mentioned the most fun, what's the most stressful part of your job?

- Yeah, I would say that the stressful part is, you know, on a main component or something like that, or we have a main component that goes down and we've gotta get parts and line up cranes and bring all the things together to get that turbine fixed, can sometimes get stressful and then you throw the element of weather in it as well.

And so you're trying to monitor weather and lightning, 'cause we have restrictions on how close lightning can be when our guys are in the turbines.

And so that can get a little stressful and you feel like you're a little bit under the gun to get things done, but then the safety aspect comes into play and you gotta adhere to that, so.

- Safety's important.

- [Kody] Absolutely.

- We walked down the hall to get here and I noticed a bulletin board with, and you were on there too, along with your spouse and family.

The goal is you want everybody to go home safely.

- Yeah, absolutely.

100% Go home in the same shape you came here, right?

That's the goal for everybody here, and so that's why safety is a huge topic within the building and within the company.

- Why do the local people like wind?

- Yeah, I think a lot of our local businesses here see our technicians and employees here out to businesses to eat, you know, and things like that, for lunch.

And we try to do that when we can.

And then the landowners.

I mean, Prairie Star is, you know, coming on 19 years old or something like that right now.

And the landowners love the roads, they love the infrastructure out there in the field, and we've had great relationship with them and repairing tile.

And yeah, the farmers use our access roads and we share 'em really well with them and they love to drive their trucks and their equipment on there and it works really, really well for 'em, so.

- And possibly they get a revenue source from the wind too or?

- Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

You know, there's some people that, you know, they don't have to pull an income outta their farm.

I've heard that said by a few landowners, they don't have to pull an income outta their farm 'cause the turbines are providing that for them.

And it's just a great supplement and it's a guaranteed money coming to 'em.

- So our landowners in the area receive some compensation from your company for having the turbines and the roads and the wires on their farms and in their property, correct?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Does our government agencies in the area get some revenue as well?

- Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

We absolutely pay to the government.

- And so a case like that, if your company is paying government agencies some funding, possibly there's less that has to come from property owners and taxpayers, right?

- Yeah, absolutely, could lower that payment from the landowners.

- Have you got some examples in your mind of landowners or farmers that said, "You know what, this is really helping me out.

I really enjoy getting that payment from the wind company."

- Yeah, 100%.

I had a landowner I talked to several years ago that wished he could have every turbine on his land.

He said, you know, he's a dairy farmer, it's the only guaranteed income he's gonna have so he would love to have 'em all.

- Well, they're relatively quiet also, aren't they?

- Yeah, I actually live near a turbine on Prairie Star, and yeah, I don't have much issue with the noise, and neither does my wife, she doesn't say much either.

- [Dan] Sometimes you need to remodel or rebuild or remanufacture the gear heads in the turbine blades.

Can you speak to that at all?

- Yeah, a lot of times once the turbines hit a lifecycle and they'll do a re-power.

I mean, they'll come through and they'll either put a whole new nacelle on top with blades and rotor and the whole works, or they'll just re-power the main drivetrain in the turbine as well as some blades or blade bearings or things like that, yeah.

To try to kind of try to refresh 'em and get another lifecycle out of 'em.

- Sometimes, are the turbines, the nacelles you speak of, or the gear system or the generator or the blades, are they more efficient than the older ones you replace?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

A lot of times the newer blades, the longer blades, can cut onto the grid and produce power at lower winds.

So on them low wind days where you see the turbine's not running, like, why aren't they running, 'cause there isn't a lot of wind, well, the new ones they can turn and produce power in that lower wind.

Just, you know, expand that wind production area that the turbine can produce.

- Well, they certainly are pretty at sunset, and when you see 'em across the landscape gently moving.

And any thoughts on what the future of wind is in our area?

- [Kody] Yeah, I mean, I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon.

There's a lot of great benefits to the grid and, obviously there's a huge need and there's a big area here that has a lot of wind, you know?

So it's great that we're able to utilize that resource and I don't see it going anywhere and I really hope it doesn't, 'cause there's a lot of great jobs to be had right here locally.

- Well said.

And farmers have been the original people to recycle, reuse, make use of the resources in our area, so you helped the farmers in this area get one more crop off their land.

- Yeah, absolutely.

If it wasn't for the collaboration with the landowners, we wouldn't have a business here.

So they've really been a key part to the whole system and the whole development.

- So Kody, when we look across a wind farm, we see the tower, we see the blades, and something you call the nacelle.

Can you expand on those components?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

So when you see the tower, the nacelle is the square structure.

Or some of the different models have a round structure at the top, you know, and then the rotor would connect to that.

And in that nacelle is, you know, the drivetrain, the gearbox and the generator or however that turbine's configured.

But that's what's inside there is all the drivetrain, so.

- [Dan] Sometimes your staff crawls all the way up that tower or climbs it and goes up and does service work?

- Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

There's a straight up ladder.

Most of the turbines that I know of, the models, they have a straight up ladder that just goes all the way to the top, depending on how tall it is, so.

- How tall are they usually?

- Yeah, ours are right around 280 feet.

Sometimes, they go up well over 300, just depending on where you're at and the different models, so.

- So one of the perks for your techs is they have an amazing view.

- Oh yeah.

Absolutely.

It's a gorgeous view when you get all the way up there.

Yeah.

- And they do a lots with safety harnesses, I trust?

- Yeah.

Yep.

Absolutely.

100% tie-off for all of our technicians whenever you're up in the turbine, so yeah.

- Well, in addition to that tower and the parts we can see, there's of course the road, and I've heard, surprisingly, a farmer say, "I really like that road on my farm because I can park my truck, I can dump my grain into it, and I get it off the farm and onto the road into the market."

- [Kody] Yeah, absolutely.

- [Dan] You hear a few stories like that?

- Oh yeah.

100%, yeah.

And we share the roads.

I mean, this time of year, it's one of the things that we talk about in our safety meetings is sharing the roads and the access roads with the landowners.

They all use them and we don't have any issues with that, so.

- Well, beyond the roads, we've got an infrastructure of wires underground.

Can you expand on that?

- Yeah, so the infrastructure of wires, a lot of times it gets to be a concern when it starts to talk about drain tile.

A lot of landowners, you know, say like, "Oh, I don't know if I want this 'cause it's gonna affect our tiles."

And they do.

There is an effect on that at construction.

But we go around and they call in with their concerns and we're here locally and so we just help address 'em, and 18 years later, at Prairie Star, we, every now and then, you know, one or two a year, we'll have a landowner call and we'll go out and get our tile company over there and we'll get it taken care of for 'em.

- Excellent.

- Yeah.

- When you speak of those drain tiles and high-voltage wires, can you talk a little bit about safety?

Do people call you to find where those wires are?

How do they identify?

- Yeah, no.

Yeah,.

Usually, whoever's doing it, they'll put a dig ticket in, and then we have a company that comes out and does all the locating for 'em.

And if they need to, in a few rare cases, they'll call in and if they need to cross the wires, they'll call in and we'll schedule an outage for them to do that if they need to, so.

- So in other words, don't dig without calling.

- Yeah, no.

For sure not.

That could be a huge hazard and we have had a few cables, no injuries, but we have had a few cables get nicked within the project, so.

- What kind of distribution system beyond the tower, beyond the collection wire, do you have?

- Yeah, we have a substation that steps up, a step-up transformer in there to get us to the grid where we tie in.

So yeah, we have our own substation that, we have a high voltage team, they manage that for us.

- And you referenced sometimes changing out the blades or changing out parts.

Is there a recycling program or what happens to that?

- Yeah.

Yep.

All of our blades go to a recycling program where they will grind up the fiberglass and the blades and then just re-use it into materials like asphalt or different plastic products or bunks or whatever would be needed.

But yeah, they do get recycled.

- Well, thanks for having us today, sir.

- Yeah.

Thank you very much, Dan.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm Connections."

(gentle country music) (gentle country music continues) (Bailey gently laughing) - Welcome to "Farm Connections."

We're near Goodhue, Minnesota on the Ed McNamara Farm for a wonderful field day on soil health.

And with me today, is an expert from the University of Minnesota, Bailey Tangen.

Welcome to our show.

- Hi, thanks for having me.

Glad I could be on.

- [Dan] Bailey, this was a wonderful field event today and you've been very helpful with it.

What's it called and what's it all about?

- Yeah, so this was great.

We were working with Ed McNamara on this field day where we were looking at planting green.

So planting a cash crop into a standing cover crop.

So working with the Goodhue County Soil and Water Conservation District, U of M Extension, and local farmers in the area, to see the do's and the don'ts of this practice.

- [Dan] Why is it important?

- Ooh, so this is really important 'cause we have a lot of interest in growing cover crops on the landscape.

We don't like to see our soil blowing off or eroding with these rains that we're getting.

And trying to keep living roots in the ground for as long as we possibly can, getting as much cover crop biomass as we can.

'Cause that's really important for adding organic matter back to the soil, feeding the soil biology, creating pore space within your soil, and creating soil structure, which is really important in determining when a raindrop falls, where's it gonna go?

Is it gonna run off and carry some soil or is it gonna go through your soil to your crop?

- Well, I watched you when you got into the soil pit and you took out a tool, a knife, and cut and looked and dissected the soil and looked for things.

What were you looking for?

- Ooh, so I love soil structure.

Everyone should too.

'Cause it's so important for determining the pore space, for your roots, for the soil biology.

So I was looking to see if I could see any earthworm channels, because when we till our soils we're disrupting.

So if you think of the pore as like a straw, we're disrupting that straw and so water doesn't really easily go down.

So I was looking for the pores.

I was looking for roots in the soil to see if there was any plow pans or compaction layers, seeing how strong the soil was, and moisture as well.

And just, yeah, looking at soil texture and lots of other goodies.

- And what did you find?

- Ooh, I found some really cool vertical pores.

Into the soil, I think I showed you, we found some nice soil biology.

We kind of interrupted their sleep.

It seemed like he was tucked away in one of the pores.

and that was wonderful.

And we were on a fence row, a fence line, and so, yeah, there was pretty good soil structure, especially in that topsoil, which was nice to see 'cause that's gonna be, kind of falls in line with what we're trying to do here, which is, yeah, keeping the roots in the ground is really helping with your soil structure and increasing the water availability for your crops.

- Well, very well said.

And when you were finding that soil biology, you were approximately three feet from the surface.

- Oh, we were deep, yeah.

We were kneeling down in things, so yeah, that was cool to see.

- So Bailey, what happens when you're in the soil pit or looking beneath the surface, or even at the surface, and you don't find biology, you don't find anything except maybe dirt?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

I typically would never use the word dirt to describe soil, but in the case where there's no biology, it's sort of like dirt, right?

Soil's a living ecosystem, it should have lots of biology.

And the more beneficial biology that you have, and a better food web, you get better nutrient cycling and organic matter turnover.

Hopefully, that's adding back to your soil.

And just a healthier ecosystem overall for the crops.

And you're hoping that those beneficial biology can take care of some of those pests that might show up.

- Well, again, well said.

As soon as you mentioned that, I'm reflecting back to a soil science class and my soil science professor at the University of Minnesota.

- Oh!

- And he said, "Dirt's what you sweep up on the kitchen floor, soil's what we grow things in, we grow our food."

- Oh, yeah.

- It's so true.

And I think of a sandbox versus a garden, right?

- Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Having good organic matter, it's so critical having a... And no, not all soil types are the exact same, we know.

If you've got really sandy soil, you're dealing with different types of resource concerns than someone who's got really high clay soils, but in the end of the day it should all be this living ecosystem.

It's an extension of what you're managing for a good healthy crop.

- You did talk a little bit about soil movement.

So if we've got soil movement with water or soil movement with water, what's the consequence?

- Ooh.

Well, so for a farmer, I mean, you could be losing valuable nutrients that you're applying.

And also, the organic matter that's held within that topsoil.

You know, we're not making more soil within our lifetimes, really, so it's important to keep what we have and make sure it doesn't run downstream and end up on someone else's property.

They'll get the benefits and, you know, you kind of lose out there.

So not only for your own fields and crops are there potential issues, but then also for the watershed, you know?

We wanna drink clean water and when we're sending our soil and nutrients downstream it's expensive and difficult to treat that.

So ultimately, keeping your soil in place has so many benefits to you, the crop, to everyone who drinks the water.

- Protecting the value of the farm.

- Oh, yeah.

- And protecting our resources, water and soil both.

- I think about the long-term productivity of our soils a lot.

You know, we often plan on an annual basis, but it's a really important, in 30 years from today, what's the soil gonna be like?

In five years from today, what's the soil gonna be like?

And I work a lot on these soil health practices and helping farmers try them out, implement them, and do it successfully.

And so for me, yeah, protecting the soil, keeping it in place, adding organic matter, beneficial to everyone.

So yeah, we do a lot of planning on our fields at the annual scale, thinking year-to-year, even day-to-day.

But I think about soil productivity in the long run.

You know, what's the soil gonna be like in a year from now, five years, 30 years from now?

So thinking about, while we are trying these soil health practices today, we really start to see those benefits accumulate over time.

And so, you know, you get some benefits and then eventually you get even more benefits over time.

And what we do today does have an impact on our fields now, but also into the future.

- [Dan] So we're at the top of three watersheds.

So where that particle of water drops might go three different directions depending on where it falls on the farm.

- Yeah.

- Doesn't that just boggle your mind?

- Oh yeah, it's fascinating how, yeah, we're standing here at this top of the hill here and that, yeah, where a raindrop falls, it could go anywhere.

But ideally, the raindrop would go into your soil, hopefully, for your crop rather than running off and carrying the nutrients and organic matter with it.

That is so valuable to your crop and to you.

- And you talked about it and other speakers talked about it today, but the water holding ability of the soil, why is it important and how do we improve it?

- Yeah, so since starting my job about a year and a half ago, and also doing a grad school degree since 2021, I've seen some really wild weather years.

And I'm sure we'll see some increases in that as well.

And so it's all about trying to protect your crop and give it the best conditions possible.

And so by increasing the pore space and organic matter in your soils, you can increase the water holding capacity and the ability to infiltrate water.

So not only how much water you can hold, but how much water can actually infiltrate.

It's gonna be increasingly even more important as we get these dry spells and then really, really wet times, 'cause you want water to move into the profile and not just sit there on top of a plow pan.

You know, you really want it to get it to the roots, so.

It's gonna be something that I'm happy to talk about at any point.

Love thinking about water and soil.

Always happy to help farmers increase their water holding capacity.

- And you do well at it.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you started down this career path?

You mentioned a year and a half ago you came to the University of Minnesota.

- Yeah, so growing up, I'm from Minnesota, but I'm from Lakeville, so kinda more on the edge of a suburb and farmland.

And so it was interesting to see that growing up.

And I started working at parks and taking more environmental courses and just learning more about how do we use land in Minnesota.

And so farming is incredibly important to many, many people, and over many acres.

So for me it was all about helping people trying to protect our landscapes and protect these family businesses, and yeah, do better for the today's, but then also into the future.

'Cause we all will have kids, potentially, so.

- Thank you, Bailey.

- Yeah, it was great to talk to you.

Thanks for coming out.

- That does it for now.

I'm Dan Hoffman, thanks for joining us here on "Farm Connections."

(cheerful country music) (cheerful country music continues) (cheerful country music continues) (cheerful country music continues) (cheerful country music continues) - [Announcer 2] Farm Connection's premier sponsor is Minnesota Corn.

- [Announcer 3] Programming supported by Minnesota Corn, working to identify and promote opportunities for corn growers, enhance quality of life, and help others understand the value and importance of corn production to America's economy.

- [Announcer 4] Additional support from the following sponsors.

- [Announcer 5] Programming supported by R&S Grain Systems, a family-owned business serving its customers for 50 years with leading designs in the manufacturing of grain handling equipment and grain storage systems.

You can call in for a quote today.

- [Announcer 6] Programming supported by EDP Renewables North America, owner/operator of Prairie Star and Pioneer Prairie Wind Farms in Minnesota and Iowa.

EDPR wind farms and solar parks provide income to farmers and help power rural economies across the continent.

- [Announcer 7] Mower County Farm Bureau association, a KSMQ broadcast sponsor, advocates for agriculture based on the policies and beliefs of its members.

It's dedicated to making the voices of its members stronger.

You can learn more about membership benefits at FBMN.org.

- [Announcer 8] Program supported by employee-owned AgVantage Software, Rochester, Minnesota, celebrating their 50th year designing and developing agribusiness software for grain elevators, feed manufacturers, producers, fertilizer and chemical dealers, co-ops, seed companies, and fuel distributors.

(bright music)