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

I'm your host, Dan Hoffman.

On today's program we learn about the finer points for agronomy with Jamison Schneckloth.

Susan Waughtal updates us on changes made to Squash Blossom Farm.

And the University of Minnesota Extension provides a best practices segment.

All here today on "Farm Connections."

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We traveled to rural Grand Meadow, Minnesota to the Dan Galing farm to learn a little bit about crops and soils, and also about agronomy.

And with me to help us is Jamison Schneckloth.

Jamison, thanks for joining us on the show.

- Thanks for having me, Dan.

- What exactly do you do?

- Well, I'm an agronomist with CHS in Grand Meadow.

And what an agronomist is, and how I define being an agronomist, is being a valued partner to these farms, and their farming operations.

So to put that in some context, if we're in this field of corn right now, it needed fertilizer, it needs chemical, it needs a seed to plant it, and it needs some agronomic advice to get as good-looking as it is today.

So, essentially at the end of the day, I help each and every grower that I work with, be able to make the valued decisions of where to place the crop, where to place the fertilizer, the chemical, and the nutrients to make that farm as successful as it can be.

- Well, that's an important thing because we all like to eat, we like clothes, we like the fuel.

Thank you for the work you do.

- Yeah.

- Now, this field looks really, really good.

What steps did you help, or do you help farmers do to get it to looking this good?

All the way from seed selection, and what kind of conversations do you have with farmers?

- Yeah so, a lot of background work goes into making a crop.

And, not too many people realize that.

So to get to where we are today, it took conversations that took place six months ago.

So, it starts with talking about seed back in December, talk about fertility, talk about chemical options.

And the biggest thing that I stress to growers is having a goal.

So when you start back six months ago, what is your goal when the combine rolls do this field in September and October?

What does that look like to you, and what do you wanna achieve out of it?

And so, we have those conversations, and then we go from there.

So then we build a fertility rack, a chemical rack, and a seeding rate to determine what that grower wants to get out of that.

- So you're visioning, you're looking out into the future, and backing up and saying, "Okay, here's what we have to do," to get to the outcome or goal you want.

- [Jamison] Yeah.

- Fantastic.

So, what's a common goal of farmers these days as far as yield?

- Yeah so, especially in this Grand Meadow area, if we're gonna start with corn here, a lot of guys, especially these top-end producers, they want 250 plus bushel of corn.

There's a lot of guys that are still at the 210, 220, 230 mark, they're trying to push the envelope.

And that's all dependent upon weather.

If it stays dry for a long time, those yield goals may have to come down.

But that's not the fault of the farmer.

It's not the fault of the practices, it's just what mother natures hands you.

- Well since agronomy is the science of soil and crop production, I'm guessing you probably do some soil sampling.

- Absolutely.

So what we do in determining that fertility rack early on in our planning stages, is we do take soil samples.

Usually we recommend every four years.

Some guys are on two year rotations.

So, this field for example, would had been sampled either last summer or last fall.

We use that to build a fertility rack that had fertilizer put on this last fall.

And then also, the fertilizer is put on this year.

And with all that data we start collecting over time, we start getting very good data points.

And so then we start making projections on where it's gonna go moving forward into next year, and the year after.

- Well this field is fairly uniformed, there's a little bit of slope to it, but inside this field, there's probably three or four soil types, wouldn't you say?

- Correct, yep.

- So does every recommendation in every part of the field be exactly the same?

- Not in every case.

So what we find actually is that we need to start doing, and we do already a lot of, is variable rate recommendations, what we call it.

So based on soil type, based on yield data, we can also variable, say this field's got better soil type, higher production area, we can put more fertilizer where it's needed.

And less where it's not needed.

- You test for pH?

- Correct, yep.

- So if there's acidic soil, you need to add probably some supplements?

- Yep.

So then we get into liming, and throwing lime out there.

And that happens roughly every four years, depending on the soil type, to make that soil back to it's neutral state and where it needs to be.

- Bring the pH up some.

- Yep.

- Well, this is a beautiful field.

So I'm guessing the side seed selection, fertility, there's some other things you talk about, too.

Perhaps tillage, seed placement, harvest, weed control, anything else?

- Yeah, so there's a lot of conversations also had about cultural practices.

So, what can we do on the tillage side?

What can we do with residue management?

And how can we just be better stewards of the land while maintaining these better, more efficient yield goals?

And that's a bigger conversation today than it was when I first started.

- For sure.

What happened on this field, or fields like this for weed control?

- So in this field, specifically, there is an early application of a pre-emergence herbicide.

So right as, when the crop was sprayed, when the crop was emerging, and then there would also be a second one happening within the last 14 days.

- I noticed in the row there's a furrow, or an opener.

Has there been fertilizer put on since planting?

- Yep.

So another awesome application of being most efficient with our fertilizer is side-dressing nitrogen is what we call it.

We found out that if you put all nitrogen in on up front, it may not all be there if we get heavy rains like we did this spring.

So, how do we more efficiently place that when the crop needs it?

Which is now until tassel time.

And so actually in this field, it is also done, they side-dress nitrogen in there with colter-style applicator.

They put it right next to the seed in the plant.

- Probably liquid?

- [Jamison] Yep.

- It's so fun to see the corn.

And probably a week ago, maybe on this field, but all of a sudden it hits that fertility zone, and it just greens up and goes.

Have you noticed that, too?

- Yeah, it's one of my favorite times of the year.

- And you talked a little bit about V8.

Can you talk about stages of the plant growth, and what V8 means?

- Yes, when I talk about V8 corn, pretty much they're talking about the leaf counts, or the collar count of the corn.

Where the leaf meets the actual plant.

So in this case, if the corn's V8, generally you get about 18 leaves before the corn tassels.

Corn typically tassels here in another month, a little over.

So between now and then, this corn will put on 10 more leaves, and it will grow very fast.

And, it all starts off with emergence, and then after the first leaf you just start counting, and then V18, it gets to the tassel point.

- Wow, tasseling in a month.

It's certainly the genetics, and that's what you're working with on that seed selection part, has improved our yields.

But our short growing seasons need to have things happen pretty consistently and pretty fast, right?

- Yeah.

Minnesota is very unique, especially southeastern Minnesota, is a very unique environment, in terms of growing corn and soybeans.

We don't necessarily get all the growing degree units that they get to the west.

It doesn't stay warmer as longer, and it doesn't warm up as quicker in the spring.

So, we have to definitely place a seed that's gonna fit best in our area.

And think about that farmer's goals.

- As I think about this crop, there's certainly a lot invested per acre.

Not even talking about the machinery, not even talking about the huge land investment, or the interest on operating, or the interest on the loan to finance the land.

What kind of cost would you have from soil-sampling, buying seed, putting in fertility, also weed control, and then harvest, and processing that plant; in terms of, or the seed, in terms of drying it?

What kind of cost would we be looking at?

- Roughly this year most growers are anywheres from that $1,000 to $1100 an acre between all inputs, including rent appreciation, machinery wear and tear, so to speak; and just the cost of labor.

- And certainly a 500 acre farm is not considered large any more.

But take 1,000 or 1000 times 500, we're well-over half a million just in operating cost, or input cost.

Not counting the fuel, probably.

Not counting all the other things, right?

- Right.

- A little bit interesting, and a little bit scary for a farmer.

So, they also buy crop insurance for risk protection.

Why should a, somebody in our audience, as they're traveling down the road, looking over at these crops, care if they're well-cared for, or not?

- Well, I think agriculture really has, and always had been the backbone of American society.

And with that in mind, everyone needs to keep in mind where their food comes from, where their clothing comes from, where a lot of durable goods come from.

And, it starts with agriculture.

So if we're not doing a good job of producing that crop, we're not doing a good job of producing for America, and for the rest of the world for that matter.

So it really comes down to knowing the acre, knowing what we can do best here, that's gonna impact everyone.

- So when this crop is harvested, you talked about the world.

Where will this corn go?

- A lot of this corn locally goes to ethanol production.

There's multiple ethanol plants between Preston and Lyle, and a couple of others, up by Claremont.

And a lot of that goes actually to our field sources, which everyone is dependent on when they go to the pump.

- So we're talking, and probably a third, or slightly more of this crop will be used for fuel.

But that still leaves a lot of other, about two-thirds, where does that go?

- Yeah, so the majority of corn produced in the United States actually goes for additional cattle feed for livestock feed.

And then while the rest of it, the United States does produce a surplus.

We actually export it to countries such as China.

We do get into South America, Mexico, Canada, a lot of our good trading partners.

And then they take advantage of it, and they're also able to use it for their society, as well.

- So when I buy chicken at the store, or I buy a pork chop, or beef steak, it might of started right here on this farm.

- Absolutely.

- Jamison, thank you so much.

You do some great work, and thanks for sharing with us today.

- Yeah, thanks for having me, Dan.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm Connections."

(lively music) - [Announcer] "Farm Connections Best Practices," brought to you by Absolute Energy.

(upbeat music) - Hello, I'm Bruce Potter, integrated pest management specialist with the University of Minnesota Extension.

And today on "Best Practices," I'm going to talk to you a little bit about a relatively new insect pest in Minnesota soybeans.

Not that we didn't have enough pests before, but we picked up a new one.

We confirmed it in Minnesota in 2018, although one of the growers had mentioned that he had seen the problem for several years, years previous.

In 2015 and through 2017, the insect was observed in eastern South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, western Iowa.

But it was assumed to just be a secondary invader to plants, soybean plants that were damaged by hail, or disease.

In 2018, this thing blew up in the spring.

And we realized that this insect was capable of causing plant damage and death to soybeans all on its own.

The adult larvae over winter and pupate in the spring.

And the adults emerge in mid-June.

They lay eggs at the base of the soybean plant.

If you're looking at the soybean field, a lot of times you'll see the damage worse on the edge of it.

In fact, almost always you'll see damage worse on the edge of soybeans adjacent to the previous year's soybean crops, as that where the adults move out of.

To distinguish this from a disease, look at that lower stem, you'll see a dark discoloration.

A lot of times, there's kind of a black border between the green healthy tissue above, and the damaged tissue below.

But if you peel back that outer layer of the stem, the bark, if you will, you'll start to see some white-to-orange larvae in the stems.

There's three larvae in starts.

And they start out white, they last in start, turns orange, and its pretty distinctive.

We got a similar insect that feeds on white mold fungus.

This insect is not associated with white mold.

It'll be on plants that are relatively disease-free.

There's three flights of adults.

The over-wintering flight, one in July, and another one in August.

When the plant larvae are mature, they drop to the ground and pupate.

And that last generation in August, the larvae are what over-winters.

You'll start to see plants wilting in July.

And again, damage is usually worse on the edge of the field.

And, as the season progresses, that damage affects more plants, and moves further into the field.

So if you see damage like that on your soybeans, adjacent to last year's crop, pay some attention, take a look at what's underneath a few of the surface of some of those stems.

We also have a scouting video available.

And there's a soybeangallmidge.org website that has quite a bit of information on this insect.

Fact sheets, webinars.

We're monitoring adult flights, so when those adults are, will be posted on that, as well.

So thank you for listening.

This has been "Best Practices," and I'm Bruce Potter, University of Minnesota Extension.

- We're at Squash Blossom Farm, and with me is Susan Waughtal.

Susan, you're the proprietor, or one of.

- Yes I am, thanks for coming.

- You and Roger, what a delightful space.

What inspired you to do this?

- Oh, it's been a lifelong dream to be a farmer, and here we are, in our old age, doing it.

(laughing) - [Dan] I'm old age-yet.

- Well yeah, retirement age, at least.

- You talked a little bit off-camera before-hand about how you met this guy, Roger, and some of the things in your early days.

Can you recant that?

- Sure, we met in second grade, growing up in Bemidji.

And, were friends all through high school, and we'd go cross-country skiing in the winter, it's pretty cold up there.

So afterwards, we'd go and have hot chocolate and talk about our dream life would be like a farm, all devoted to growing your own food, music, art.

The things that we loved.

And, who knew that we would actually end up married to each other and doing it?

- You said something about utopia.

Is this it?

- Well, for me it is.

(laughing) I've never been happier than on this place.

- Awesome.

What brings that happiness, and why do you share it?

- I love being connected to the earth.

Hands in the dirt, breathing the fresh air, listening to the frogs and crickets, and just watching the seasons.

It just seems like not everybody gets that chance to be that close.

And this is a really neat place, so we wanted to share it.

- Well, everybody's definition of utopia is perhaps different.

But certainly, it seems like you've cultivated utopia here.

How much work and how much time has it taken?

- It's kind of funny.

Well, we've been here 15 years.

And we kind of work 24/7 all the time.

But it's the kind of work that is like play.

Like when you were a kid and you played school; it was work, but it was really fun.

You know like when it's your dream, it doesn't really feel like work.

But a lot of people walk up the driveway on a pizza night and say, "Whoa, this is my dream."

But they don't really have a clue that how all-consuming it is to make that dream happen.

It's, you gotta love it.

- It's a lot of work.

- [Susan] It is, yeah.

- Now we know that Roger pulls from his architecture background to do some of the things here.

But you're pulling from all the things that brought you to this space, too.

So, tell us about that.

- Well, I've worked...I'm an artist.

So, that's a huge part.

I kind of consider this farm to be an ongoing art project.

My biggest art project, ever.

That's really fun.

I have a lot of background working in non-profits, in renewable energy, waste reduction, and recycling and community-building.

So, those are all aspects of what we do here.

So, that's- - It seems like a perfect collision.

- It is a perfect collision!

(laughing) A collision and a collusion.

- I was admiring the fish, admiring the ceiling that you stenciled and painted.

I mean, awesome.

- Yeah, we're all about, I mean, recycling is part of our whole ethic on this farm.

Recycling and repurposing.

So this Mead Room that we're in, it was kind of our pandemic project.

And we had a little more time to gather up all the materials.

We got a bowling alley floor, and walk-in cooler panel ceilings that we stenciled, and repurposed.

Maybe it's a, I don't know, this back bar came from the re-store.

It might of been in a law office at one time, we turned it into our back bar.

Bar doors, church pews, everything is done on a small budget, and a lot of love and labor.

(chuckling) - It sounds beautiful, and it comes together well.

You mentioned music, art, and food.

Behind me is some art, does that have a story?

- Well we found that art, on Marketplace, on Facebook, and it just seemed to be the right mood for our whole place.

And I really love the style.

And it turns out that it was once in the Loring Cafe, and we're trying to track down that artist who did it, and tell her it's got a new home.

It's been in storage for many years in somebody's garage, and now it's in a new little Mead Eatery.

And it's got admiring customers to take, to appreciate it.

- Exactly, storage not so cool.

Eatery, yes.

- [Susan] Yes!

- Enjoyment by many.

- [Susan] Right.

- So when you say Loring Park, as in Minneapolis?

- Yes.

The Loring Cafe was a really wonderful establishment in the 1980s that, right on the park, Loring Cafe.

- Well your history goes back to second grade, and its been a long journey, but you also have children on this farm that enjoyed, and helped you do it, correct?

- Right, our kids, I wish I could of raised our kids on a farm, but in retrospect, maybe it worked out better this way, because a lot of times kids who grew up on a farm, can't wait to get off.

Our kids never had that opportunity.

But, as soon as we bought this farm, they like stomped out of college, came home, and said, "We're gonna help you start the farm."

So we had, are indebted to them.

We envisioned it being it kind of a little hobby farm.

And we would continue our jobs and dabble in chickens, and gardening, and bees.

But they come and they're like in-born entrepreneurs.

And they're gonna raise money for college.

So, we started out our first year with cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, geese.

Baking for the farmer's market, we just dived into all of it.

And I told them that they could do whatever they wanted, as long as they didn't leave us with everything when they went back to college, and sure enough our vegetarian daughter's harvest it all, their Mead animals, and changed their whole lives.

- What drives you to do this?

It's a lot of work.

I see the passion, but what drives it?

- I don't know.

(laughing) Something weird about me.

(laughing) It's just the creative impulse, and being connected to the community and the earth.

Rog and I are the best team for building things together.

I couldn't ask for a better partner.

I come up with the wacky ideas and he makes them actually happen safely.

(chuckling) So yeah, it's yeah, it's really just fun.

Life is short, you gotta learn as many things, and squeeze as much into as you can.

- Well, you speak about change.

And certainly this farm exhibits and displays, and is rooted in pivoting change, resilience, regeneration...Tell us more about that.

- You know, I was part of group of local food entrepreneurs, and most of them did a product like salsa, or coffee, or a baked good or something.

And they would say "What's your focus?"

And it would be like, "Well, it's not really a focus, it's an ecosystem."

You know we have, everything supports each other.

The animals provide, take care of the garden, and fertilize it.

And we get the eggs for our baking.

And our herbs and fruit, and tomatoes for our baking, and our pizza.

And now having the Mead, offers a really wonderful product.

That on pizza night you can have a, and buy a little bit of a yummy alcoholic beverage along with your pizza.

It just seems to be an ecosystem.

And the side benefit of that is that, if something changes like a pandemic, you can swivel a little bit.

And during the pandemic we did pretty well.

Because we couldn't sell our goods at the farmer's market any more, but we did an online service through the farmer's market, and took orders.

And since restaurants were closed, that was really popular.

People could order frozen pizzas and soups, and breads from us, and still have a really nice dinner that they didn't have to prepare themselves.

And it supported our farm, and it was a really interesting experience.

And maybe a big restaurant or fast-food place would not be able to do that very easily.

But because we have kind of situated ourself as always changing and trying new things, it was real easy for us.

- You definitely were resilient because you're still here.

- Yeah, we're still here (chuckling), we're still having fun.

- No doubt you've brought a lot to the community that comes to you.

But sometimes we learn from them, too.

What have you learned from the customers and the people that come here?

- Oh, a lot of things.

They're always, once they come here, they have a lot of ideas, things that we should try.

(laughing) People that we should know, resources that we should check into.

And then I should mention our neighbors.

A lot of long-time farming neighbors.

The neighbors across the road have been here for four generations raising dairy cattle.

And I'm sure that they thought we were kind of, you know, silly coming here and trying to be farmers.

But they were so kind and generous with their advice, and their help.

And they still, we get our wood from them for our wood fire pizza.

We hire them to till when we need it, or use their big equipment to clear out our compost piles and stuff, 'cause we do everything by hand.

It's just a really nice micro-community right here in our neighborhood.

We have other artists and we share events.

And it's really fun.

- Isn't that what agriculture communities are like?

- That's, I didn't know that, but it is.

(chuckling) It's great.

- Susan, you are very accomplished, but I also heard that you wrote a book.

And I happened to find it on your bar, in the Mead Room at your farm.

Tell us about this book.

- Well, last year I applied to the Southeast Minnesota Arts Council for a grant to write this book.

So it covered a tiny portion of my time.

It was a really huge labor of love.

But it's a book based on our adventures on the farm, about 15 years.

And there have been so many things we did, and so many things I wanted to include.

I finally decided it had to be pretty short on words.

So, it's long on pictures.

Because I take a lot of photos.

And it also has a lot of my art in there.

And it's in alphabetical order.

It's an alphabetical, it's "Alphabetical Adventures in Artisan Agriculture."

So I think that there's a little bit of technical information in there, and a few stories.

And even a little poetry, but a lot of photos.

And hopefully each photo will tell a thousand words.

So, it has a lot more in there than you think.

- It definitely does, it's delightful.

It actually looks like your farm.

And I recognize at least two of the farmers.

And, some of the animals that live here.

I must have your autograph, please.

- I would be happy to sign my book for you.

(chuckling) Thank you.

- Thank you so much for sharing with us, Susan.

- Thank you so much, Dan.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm Connections."

Well, that will about do it for today.

We hope you enjoyed the program, and we hope to see you again next time.

I'm Dan Hoffman.

Thanks for joining us on "Farm Connections."

(lively music) (bright musical tag)