(soft music) - Hello and welcome to "Farm connections."

I'm your host Dan Hoffman.

On today's episode, we attend the youth tractor and farm safety certification event in Fairfield.

Nathan Drewitz joins us to discuss becoming an extension educator and the University of Minnesota extension provides us with a new best practices.

All here today on "Farm connections."

(upbeat music) - [Instructor] Welcome to "Farm connections" with your host, Dan Hoffman.

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- Welcome to "Farm connections," I'm your host, Dan Hoffman, and with us today is Emily Krekelberg from the University of Minnesota.

Welcome to "Farm connections."

- Thanks for having me Dan.

- And today what's happening?

- Well today we are doing one of our youth tractor safety certification programs.

So it's a tractor safety farm safety training program that we do with 14 and 15 year olds all across the state in the summer.

- [Dan] And what a great site, it's in Fairfield, Minnesota.

It's a local Kubota dealer.

- [Emily] Yes.

- So they've generously donated some supplies and goods.

- Yes, we are very grateful for their support and this program would not be possible without the support of a lot of people and organizations, farm bureau, egg partners.

So many people help make this possible.

- Some volunteers also.

- Oh yes, many volunteers.

The youth do get to ride in tractor, and they do have to have an adult supervising them.

So we usually get a lot of volunteer farmers from the community that come and help teach these kids and kind of show them the ropes of tractor operation.

- Why is this program essential?

- It's essential because for me personally, you know, I grew up on a farm and I have seen farm accidents and farm injuries.

And I just think it's so important that we really give our youth this knowledge.

And I hear often from parents of past participants in this program that, you know, once their kid comes through the program and is back at home, they'll go, oh, mom and dad, we're not supposed to do it that way.

It's supposed to be done this way.

So they make great safety champions on their farm.

And two farming is dangerous.

We know that.

And it's dangerous for kids every three days, a child dies in a farm accident and that includes all the way up to 18 year olds.

And so it doesn't matter your age farming's always dangerous.

- One child every three days?

- Yes.

- It's a very sombering statistic actually.

- It is.

- So if the outcome of the program is realized, what happens besides the kids going home and saying, mom and dad, you're supposed to do it the other way.

- You're doing this wrong.

Yeah.

- Right.

- Other than that, other than empowering them a little bit to be safety champions.

So the purpose of this program specifically is to train 14 and 15 year olds in safe tractor operation and general farm safety.

So this is a program that's actually housed within the US department of labor.

And this certificate is required for 14 or 15 year olds that want to operate anything over 20 horsepower, which is most things bigger than a lawnmower on a farm other than their own.

So this law specifically applies to youth working for higher, but I really encourage any families who have children age 14 to 15 to use this program even if your kid is just gonna be working on your own farm, you know, it's 24 hours total of training.

They get practical in tractor time instruction.

And we really try to give them a wide breadth of knowledge on all sorts of safety topics.

Tractor is the big one, of course, but we talk about livestock safety and grain bin safety, and even, you know, stress management and how that relates to safety and how we can't use horsepower as therapy.

You know, we need to use all these things together to help keep these kids safe.

And so it's really robust program and not a program I can put on alone.

I'm very grateful for all the coworkers and colleagues that help with it.

But yeah, we really, we wanna get these kids, these certificates and get them the knowledge and the confidence to be able to operate tractors and equipment safely.

- So important.

Especially with that statistic, you mentioned of one child dying every three days.

That's not even counting the adults.

- Right.

- Farming is very dangerous.

I believe usually it's ranked number two behind mining in the United States?

- Yeah.

So it's kind of mining, fisheries, forestry, farming.

Those are all very dangerous.

Anything that's really labor intensive.

- And you mentioned lawn mowers.

And as of course, many of them are 20 horsepower more, but even if they're not 20 horsepower, they're dangerous.

Very dangerous.

- [Emily] Yeah.

- How do you make children, especially aware of the hazards?

We've got bulky metal, we've got engines, we've got all kinds of dangers that can be around them and cause injury or death.

How do you get their attention?

- Well, there's a lot of different ways you can do that.

So some of the things we do within this program, one is we have a whole lesson on hazard identification and we have these really cool dioramas of little farm toys set up and who doesn't love those.

And we have the kids look at them for about five minutes and then they have a sheet and they need to write down what they see in those dioramas that might not be safe.

And then also what would they change to make it more safe?

And so I think a lot of us know how to recognize hazards and know how to make safe decisions is just a matter of really reinforcing that in ourselves and in others as well.

And so we really, you know, we treat them as the experts and I think that's what really helps get it through.

You know, if you're a farm kid, you live on a farm, you live, eat, breathe your farm, you know you're a farm better than I would or anyone.

And so we like to be able to really let them tap into the knowledge they already have and then offer a little guidance if they need some help with some of it.

And then another thing that we do and personally, one of my favorite things we do is we like to bring in farmers that have been injured in accidents, just to tell the kids kind of what happens, how it happens, how it changes their lives.

One of our injured farmers that commonly speaks at these programs is actually my dad, Dale, and he'll be coming today to share with us.

He lost his leg at an accident when he was 19.

And I really, you know, those stories are good, especially when you get people that were injured younger, 'cause the kids can see themselves in that.

We have another farmer that speaks, he lost both of his arms in a PTO shaft when he was 13, you know?

And so those kids, they see what it really looks like instead of somebody just going, this is dangerous.

You could lose a limb, you could die.

Seeing what that actually looks like when you do lose a limb or when you are injured in a farm accident.

So it's, you know, it's a lot, safety isn't always the most exciting topic to people, but we try to make it, you know, fun and really educational and really again, kind of position the kids as the experts in, farm safety.

- Great format.

And just making people aware is so important.

Our equipment has gotten safer in terms of how it's engineered, but it's also gotten faster and larger.

Even the visibility from the cab down or from the operator's platform to a small child has really gotten difficult because of the size.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And that is a thing I hear often from parents of, you know, participants we have in this program is, well, it's just so nice 'cause you know, when I learned to drive tractor, it was a small little model M or you know, whatever it was and now you're learning on these, big, huge, whatever they are, you know, 150, 200 horsepower.

And so it is different.

And I think that, you know, with driving tractors comes a lot of responsibility like anything, you know, these kids are driving little mobile power plants around is really what they're doing.

And so we also wanna teach them a really healthy respect for what they're doing and the power of these machines and just reminding them that it doesn't matter if you've done something a hundred times, it only takes once for things to go wrong, which is why we really want them to learn about keeping their guard up as well at all times.

And you know, never get complacent in what you're doing.

I think that that's really important.

- You speak of change.

It could be life changing or actually life ending.

- [Emily] Yes.

- Our much of our audience uses public roads and so do our farmers to get to and fro either taking their products to market or bring their products out of the field or planting or tillage.

What tips can you give us as we drive down the roads and we see equipment, or even if we don't see it, what would we be aware of in our rural areas and even urban as far as agriculture?

- Yeah.

So I kind of split this when I get this question, I split the answers into two.

Number one, the farmer, you know, so the people driving the equipment it's so, so important to make sure that you have your slow moving vehicle emblem on your tractor and on your equipment.

It is Minnesota law for any vehicle traveling under 30 miles per hour.

So they should have those on there.

And then especially with our bigger tractors, larger equipment, making sure the electricals hooked up, that the lights are on, your flashers are going so you're as visible as possible.

And then just, you know, being attentive to what you're doing on the road.

And really when I'm out driving around, you know, the countryside or urban areas or wherever it may be, I'm always more worried about the people driving around the tractor than the tractor, you know, and that's maybe personal bias, but then if you are somebody that's just in your vehicle and you're coming upon a tractor, number one first and foremost, please slow down.

Tractors are moving slow.

And if you're coming at a high speed from a distance, you may think you have time to slow down.

It's never enough.

So many cars hit tractors because they're moving slow and they're bulky.

They take up space.

So I tell people, you know, slow down, you know, I know the tractor's not going fast enough for you and the person driving the tractor knows that too.

And they're trying to, you know, we all need to share the road.

And so just making sure if you are gonna pass any sort of equipment, that the way is clear and make sure it's clear.

And I know some farmers kind of help drivers out and they'll signal them when the road is clear for them to get around.

But the biggest thing is, yeah, just being attentive to what's going on.

And, if you're down looking at your phone, I forget how far it is you can travel, you know, if you're going 60 miles an hour in one second, you travel 80 some feet or something.

So just being really mindful of who is on the road, what is on the road, you know, where you are in relation to whatever that is, is just really important.

And we talk to the kids about that too.

And we do also bring in local police or county sheriff, and they'll share about accidents that they've had to respond to with tractors and vehicles.

And it's exactly what they say is it's usually a matter of one or both drivers are not paying attention.

- We never know when the farmer needs to turn into a driveway or an intersection or move beyond the, and clear a mailbox, for example, as equipment swings into a different lane.

So you need to anticipate well ahead of time, but it's much easier when you drive slow, right?

- Yes.

Yes.

'Cause then you have time to think about it yourself too.

- What tips can you give farm families for having that table talk and then encouraging the children to get into this program?

- Yeah.

You know, I think that it really comes down to, if you want to farm, there are a lot of things that go into farming and to being a good farmer.

And I personally think safety is one of them.

And I say that because in my mind, you know, if you ask a farmer, what's your most valuable asset, they might say this tractor or this new barn I built for my cows or whatever.

Their most valuable asset is themselves, it's the people, you know?

And so I think it's really important when families and farm families can recognize that and yeah, talk to their kids about, you know, hey, safety's really important to us and you know, we wanna keep you around.

We wanna keep us around.

And I think kids especially are really engaged in just wanting to learn, right?

So maybe safety might not be the most exciting thing.

But then when we say, hey, you can come and drive a tractor and learn how to drive a tractor and take a test and go through an obstacle course.

It's a little more exciting now.

It's a little more enticing to come and do it.

And so I think you just find the things that work.

But generally I find, and I may be biased again, I'm a farm kid, myself, you know, but they're hard workers and this training gives them an opportunity to do more things on a farm.

You know, they have more capabilities now they can help with jobs.

They maybe couldn't before.

And that's really attractive to a lot of farm kids.

- Great tips.

Can any of the program be done online?

- Yes.

So this is a hybrid program.

So what that means is when students enroll in it, they complete an eight hour online course, and then they will complete additional in person training.

So that's what we're here doing today.

So we do lessons on various topics and then they also do their practice and take their driving test.

So it is a big program, but it offers a lot of opportunity and a lot of education for these farm kids.

- And the end goal is?

- The end goal is to not have anybody else die on farms.

That's...

It's very simple and it's very idealistic, but that's, for me, that is always, my goal is less fatalities.

- Well said.

Thanks for all you do to improve farm's safety culture.

- Well, of course, and thank you for having me on Dan.

It was my pleasure.

Thank you.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm connections."

- [Announcer] "Farm connections," best practices brought to you by.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Ryan Miller crops extension educator, and this is today's best practices segment.

We gotten to the point of the season where we really need to get out in the fields and kind of evaluate how well our herbicides work as far as we control and determine where any misses might have occurred and why we might be seeing those misses.

So there's a couple things we need to look for it.

It could be some kind of mechanical issue.

Maybe we had a plug tip or with today's GPS technology, maybe something shut off that shouldn't have shut off.

And so there could be a mechanical or sort of application factor that's responsible for the myths that we're seeing in the field, but oftentimes we'll get out there and we'll see weed escapes.

And so it's important to determine whether those are just things that our chemistry that we're using didn't work or didn't wasn't well or robust enough to, manage the weeds for the full season, or have we developed some kind of herbicide resistance.

So when we look at, look at the first case of herbicide resistance, oftentimes when we're out looking in the field, we'll get a dead plant here and a live plant there.

And you'll start to see this kind of mix match approach of, of some dead, some alive plants and maybe even some injured plants.

And so when we get in that scenario, we need to do some kind of evaluation.

So there are places we can send plant tissue to be tested our University of Minnesota team and the lab or the weeds group on campus does some screening in the greenhouse.

So they'll grow seeds and then actually do some screening of the weed populations, right in the screen, in the greenhouse with different herbicides.

And so they can provide some information.

And so look for opportunities to where you can really definitively say that I've developed a herbicide resistance problem.

And so then once you've determined that you in fact do have some herbicide resistance issues, you can focus on selecting, a herbicide program that might work better in future years or try different tactics as far as different things for weed management.

And so those are some things to do.

The thing that we want to talk about either with herbicide resistance or with regular weed management is selecting products that have multiple effective sites of action.

And so we can reference research materials like we've got at the University of Minnesota here, some of the plot work that we do some evaluations with, we can talk to our ag professional consultants, those sort of folks.

And then we can also refer to different publications.

So we've got this publication from the USB, it's kind of a roadmap to herbicides.

So we've got our common trade names.

We can look up alphabetically and then see what the active ingredients are and what sites of action we're using for our weed management.

And so you can look things up, it's kind of a reference material.

On this side, we've got the different sites and modes of action.

So we can see what process we're affecting when we're controlling weeds in our field, but it can be a handy tool because, you know, keeping all these things straight and what's and what can be a little bit challenging.

And oftentimes we'll find if we use a product, you know, there might be another product we pick and it could have the same sites of action.

So in an effort to kind of diversify our approach, we can use a reference material like this too, to see how diverse we're getting.

And I'm Ryan Miller crops extension educator, and that was today's best practices segment.

- Welcome back to "Farm connections."

We're on site in Rochester, Minnesota with the University of Minnesota and their extension plot on the east side of Rochester.

And with me is extension educator, Nathan Drewitz.

Nathan welcome.

- Thank you.

Nice to be here today.

- It is nice.

And what a great day to learn more about agriculture.

Tell us about your career.

Where are you at?

What you doing?

- So, you know, right now I'm just started as a regional educator within crop six hour within extension here within the university system.

And so just started actually about three days ago.

So not entirely sure what I'm gonna get into, you know, with the new position just yet.

I know I'll be working with Ryan on some of the weed side stuff out here.

Also dealing a lot with forages, as well as cover crops and working with some education on that.

Hopefully some plot work and demonstrations.

Outside of this, before this, I was up at, in the central part of the state in Stearns, Benton and Morrison Counties where I was a local educator.

I did focus there as well on crops, but of course that's dairy land for us here in Minnesota.

So lots of forages, lots of opportunities to work with health and things like that.

- And of course, Stearns county is home of St Cloud.

So that gives some geographic reference to where you were.

- Yeah.

And I covered the three counties.

So say between St Cloud, if you go over towards Glenwood or the Belgrade area, and then over towards almost not quite to Mille Lacs and then up north towards like little falls in that region.

- Well, and like here, there's some great farmers and some great agriculture.

- Oh, absolutely.

You know, I have had a chance at different points in time to work with some of these guys down here at some, one of my different stops.

And, you know, it's great to be down here in the Southeast portion of the state again.

- Well, you've certainly connected to some family people down here.

Any news there?

- Yeah, I mean, we just moved down here with my wife of course.

And with, you know, my in-laws, they down both down here and, south of Chatfield area.

So, you know, we're working on getting the house and working on getting settled again and hopefully buying some acres.

- Lots of exciting times.

And of course, bringing two young people one back to the Southeast region and a new recruit it sure made mom and dad and the rest of the community happy.

So welcome again.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

- Tell us about your educational background and the qualifications to do what you do.

- Yeah, so I started off when I was...

I actually am originally from the state of Missouri, a north central portion of the state there.

I went to a small university in the Northwest corner.

actually named Northwest Missouri State University and, and got my degree in agronomy from there.

And then I went to the university of Wisconsin Madison for my master's degree.

I was a master's student for agronomy.

I emphasized weed science, so covered that, you know, that process.

And then of course I do also hold my I'm a certified crop advisor as well, took the test and hold that as well.

- What advice do you have for young people perhaps just graduating from high school or early career?

- You know, really honestly, I guess the biggest thing for me is if, is don't be afraid to take a little bit of time to figure out what you want to do.

You know, maybe university works for you, maybe it doesn't.

In my case, I knew the university system was gonna work quite well for me and what I wanted to do in life.

Make sure that you spend the time ahead of time doing the research and go to the institution that you know, is gonna provide you with the best education for what you want to do.

You know, and I think that's probably what I really focused in on was where can I go, where I'm gonna get the best value for what I'm doing.

And Northwest was a great opportunity where I was at in, Wisconsin was a great opportunity working with the research there.

And now here, I mean, you know, you, it's, hard to beat the Midwest when it comes agronomy.

- What happens if somewhere along the career educational process, one determines they're on the wrong course, what should happen next?

- Change.

Change course.

You know, we tend to think of this thing as you know, well, it's a long haul and I know a lot of people, a lot of kids in, you know, in, even in college at this point that when they started, they were in one degree path and then they switched to a different degree path.

You know, the biggest thing there is if you're not happy with where you're at making that shift can be quite helpful.

And for me, I started in sales.

I went to extension now, you know, and I'm, I really enjoy my job.

Don't be afraid to make some of those changes if you realize you're really not where you want to be.

- When a student has questions or potential student has questions, who should they go to?

- Well, you know, you got your school...

If you're in high school, you got your school counselors.

They tend to help out quite a bit.

But for me, my influences, grandparents, parents, and local community down there in Missouri, you can't beat that.

You know, people who have that real life experience are willing to go, well, you know, if you do this, this is where things are headed and that's where those things are headed.

The other part of that, too, I would say, is get to someone who is in the same field that you want to go into find that person, and just, just have a conversation with them about what their job is like, but also what was the process for them to get into where they're at, because that's gonna help you or help them, you know, students in that case, figure out kind of where they're going and or where they need to be at.

- You mentioned high school graduates or soon to graduate students.

But what about the people that have already graduated from high school are already mid-career what is available in our side of our post-secondary education facilities and institutions for help and information.

- It's a similar system, a lot of counselors and a lot of different individuals.

Again, if you're within a specific industry and you want to figure out, well, maybe, well, maybe I need some more education or maybe I need to switch jobs.

Oftentimes you could talk to different professors even within there.

I know I did that a few different times where I was talking to my agronomy professor about what can I do here?

What can I do there?

So make sure your university systems and technical colleges have a lot of great opportunities to connect with experts, connect with people who've been there and have in many cases, helped get kids or, you know, mid-career individuals jobs outside of the university and education system.

- Well, just in wrap up, Nathan, why did you choose agriculture?

And why is it important?

- Oh, I grew up in a small town.

That's all I've ever done, you know, and that, it probably is fairly typical, but, you know, I grew up working with a local farmer down there.

We'd fix fence, we'd move cows, we'd pull fence posts out, we'd put fence posts in, you know, and then worked with pecans, worked with plants.

That's really what drove me down to the agronomy road.

I really like working with the things that grow green and on the earth.

And so I enjoy working with that.

And you know, when you're around, 'em all the time and you grow to appreciate the agricultural community, it's just nothing like it.

- Well said, Nathan.

- Thank you.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm connections."

- Okay.

- Providing educational opportunities and hands on exposure to the next generation helps to ensure that as they take over the family farm, they're doing it safely and successfully.

I'm Dan Hoffman.

Thank you for watching "Farm connections."

(upbeat music) (soft music)