- Hello and welcome to "Farm Connections."

I'm your host, Dan Hoffman.

On today's program, we discuss the wonders of the natural world and some of the programs available to experience it with Master Naturalist, Kate Fitzgerald.

JoAnn Lower shares her story of people worlds apart and especially a young girl that brought them together.

And the University of Minnesota Extension provides us with a new "Best Practices" segment.

All here today on "Farm Connections."

(lively country music) - [Voiceover] Welcome to "Farm Connections" with your host Dan Hoffman.

- [Narrator] "Farm connections" is made possible and powered by, - [Voiceover] Absolute Energy.

A locally owned facility, produces 125 million gallons of ethanol annually.

Proudly supporting local economies in Iowa and Minnesota.

Absolute Energy "Adding value to the neighborhood."

The Agricultural Utilization Research Institute.

Collaborating with businesses and entrepreneurs to foster long term economic benefit for Minnesota through value added agricultural products.

You can learn more at auri.org.

- Welcome to "Farm connections."

We're very fortunate to have Kate Fitzgerald from Le Roy, Minnesota join us.

Kate is a Master Naturalist.

Kate welcome to "Farm connections."

- Thank you Dan, I'm happy to be here.

- Kate can you tell us a little bit more about what a Master Naturalist does and how you became one?

- Sure.

The Master Naturalist program, Minnesota Master Naturalist program was started in 2005.

It was funded through the National Science Foundation.

We got a grant from them to start the program.

It's administered through the Minnesota Extension Service and the mission and goal is to train people who are not naturalists.

Naturalist do all kinds of things across the state, in all kinds of different programs.

(clears throat) But, you know, there's never enough money to hire as many naturalists as the state programs would like to have, you know, the Department of Natural Resources or the Minnesota Extension Service.

They have to stick with their budget and naturalists need to get paid but Master Naturalists are volunteers.

We do this because we love it and we can pick up that slack and learn to do the sort of mundane routine things that naturalists do so that the naturalist can focus on the more higher level work that really requires the full education that they have.

- Well, thank you for being part of that citizen army.

- It's been a lot of fun.

I enjoy it.

- What happens Kate when we interface or put people, nature and the experience together?

- I think there's been a lot of research on the importance of what is referred to as green space.

Where, which is a park, any place that's got trees and grass, and an abundance of green is really important for peace of mind and mental health for people.

The other thing that is being found through research is the importance of blue spaces, which are the lakes, the rivers, the oceans.

Some studies are showing that the blue spaces are even more important than green spaces to human mental health and our ability to cope with day to day crises and the bigger crises that that we've been looking at over the last few months as well.

Especially children, my focus is to work on children's programs.

The naturalist out of Whitewater, Sara Holder developed a program called "Project Get Outdoors."

Which is specifically focused on programs for children, getting children more engaged with the outdoors so I've been working with her to develop my own programs and my own volunteer outreach.

- Kate when you do your volunteer work, you must have a mission or a goal in mind that as you're giving of yourself and your time and your talents, that something will happen.

What is it that you hope will happen?

- I grew up on a small farm outside Stillwater.

So in the summertime, I could run and, you know, climb trees and catch frogs and make up games with my siblings and play all day, catch fireflies at night.

This is the sort of childhood that was common when I was growing up and that's not so common anymore.

It's not so common for children to, even if they have the option, children nowadays tend to spend a lot more time in front of a screen, whether it's a television screen or a computer screen or a video game screen.

Say they're playing indoors, they're engaging in more passive entertainment and it's causing problems.

It's not just a sentimental longing for the way things used to be.

There's a research that shows that it's causing health problems in children and learning disabilities and a lot of things that could be remedied, if kids just were able to go outside and play a little bit every day and get the sunshine and have some unstructured playtime where they can develop the kind of mental skills that are important throughout life.

And so, what I want to do with my volunteer time, is to help leur children back outside (laughs) to help them feel like that's just as exciting and as engaging and as much fun as the things they do in front of the screen.

At this point in my life, I feel that I have so, so much.

I'm so fortunate in my life and I know that a lot of people are not especially in the last few months between the pandemic and the economic crisis and now the social crisis of racial inequality.

(clears throat) Because I am in a good place and a stable place, it gives me the resources and the strength to reach out and help people who are struggling.

And if I can help, particularly children or parents of young children, if the things that I do can help them to be more resilient, help them to feel better about their life and their place in the world, then my goal is met.

- Well, you're certainly doing that well.

How do you share that with others?

- Yes.

When the pandemic hit, actually before, I just took my Master Naturalist training last year so I'm just getting started.

And I had been discussing with the local Early Childhood and Family Education Coordinator in town here.

Had been discussing how I could work with her to develop programs for the children and the parents in the community.

When the pandemic hit then, so many of the programs for parents and young children had to be canceled.

And I thought, "Oh my goodness.

The kids are just going to be so confused and lost and you know, all the grown ups around them are worried and worried about their jobs and worried about this virus."

And I felt like I had to think of something to do.

So I came up with this Pollinator Garden Project.

And the original design of the project, involved each child having their own plant that they could work on separately from the other children, so that social distancing could be maintained as they worked on this project.

And then later as the plants grew and developed, that each individual planters could be placed together into a pollinator garden.

And they'd still be separate so the children could attend their own plant, maintaining social distancing.

And I spoke with the woman who runs the childcare here.

The childcare of course, continued for essential workers.

And she thought it was a great idea.

You know, it was a time when anything that was positive and hopeful I think people were latching on to and that was something that sounded fun and positive and didn't have anything to do with the virus or with the economic crisis.

It was something completely separate that could just be fun for the kids.

And it's worked out fairly well.

We've had a couple of snuffles which always happen in when you're dealing with nature.

And those are lessons as well for the kids.

A lot of these kids either come from farm backgrounds or their neighbors are farmers.

So for them to understand that, you know, sometimes plants don't grow the way we expect them to.

Sometimes the weather interferes with our best made plans.

But that doesn't have to stop us, that doesn't have to destroy the project.

That we can find a way around it and keep going.

I think those are important lessons as well.

- Kate, you seem to be aware of your senses and your environment and the place you are.

Do you think that's true for everyone?

- I think it's possible for everyone.

I think it's sometimes difficult in our culture.

There's a lot of stress on being productive and efficient.

And none of that is bad, in and of itself.

I hope that that's something that we have been able, some people at least, may have been able to learn through the pandemic that stopping for while is hard but it's not completely a bad thing to stop and spend time with your family, to spend time with yourself, to notice the world around you and to just slow down and "be" instead of always doing, just spend some time "being."

- Thank you Kate.

- Thank you Dan.

It's a pleasure to be here.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm connections."

- [Voiceover] "Farm Connections' Best Practices" brought to you by (lively country music) - Hi, I'm Lisa Behnken with the University of Minnesota Extension.

I'm a Crops Educator out of the Rochester or Southeast portion of Minnesota.

And today I'm here to talk about the Best Management Practices.

We're gonna focus on soybeans and some weed control concerns, issues and what we have left for us this season.

We've passed the June 20th day.

That's our cutoff time for dicamba so we know that herbicide option is now off the table, if that was part of your program.

When we look at soybeans at this stage of the game, we've got two things to really think about.

First, did you use a pre-emergent herbicide?

How effective was it?

Have you walked your fields?

Do you know what kind of weeds are coming through?

The second part is, if you did not use a pre-emergent herbicide and you've missed your windows, it becomes a little more difficult to expect, effectively control across the board and to really expect that you will get all of your weeds.

The chances are high that you will miss some whether it be size, or if you have some herbicide resistant issues, you may be missing some.

Our focus right now has to be the size of your weeds and what weed you have.

They need to be small.

For any of our herbicide programs to be effective, you need small weeds.

That means that two inch size or less is best but we know we get to three to four.

Then the second part is effectiveness.

If you have resistant weeds, some of these options aren't going to work as well.

So let's look at our keys.

We have liberty.

That window is closing very quickly, we go up to R1 or right to first bloom.

So if that's an option, get it on as quickly as your field allows.

Then we move into, whether it's glyphosate that might be an option, up through R2.

Flex star, I should mention that.

If flex star's on the table, again, a small window, we want small weeds, we need to get that done as soon as possible.

Not just because of good control but think about that carryover concern.

We wanna go to first bloom, early bloom and not into July if at all possible because of carry over onto corn.

If you have a (indistinct) you got a little wider window.

We can go through full bloom R2 and that would give you a little more time in order to get the job done.

And then really last on the table, is going to be our burners.

So we're looking at Ultra blazer or Avalanche, the Acer Fluffin, which gives you tell about 50 day PHI or Cobra becomes our last effort.

Key is going to be small weeds, get it done as soon as we can but then what's next?

Go out, walk those fields, see what you've got.

Final process here's to think about "What am I gonna add to those mixes?"

Because none of those have residual, we really have to look at a group 15.

So choose a group 15 that you can take mix in with any of those, watch those timings with the crop growth stage but definitely put that in the mix so you have residual herbicide effectiveness to kill those weeds for the rest of the season.

So I'm Lisa Behnken again, Crops Educator with the University of Minnesota Extension.

This has been our "Best Management" segment.

Thank you for listening and don't forget, check those labels, watch the timing, get the job done and we hope that you have a good, effective weed control program in your soybeans today.

(lively country music) - This is the story of two men.

Both ordinary, both hard working, both humble.

Two men in an entire world apart.

Two men who will never meet, who will never know each other.

Two men, each with a story to tell.

The first man, an Iowa farmer.

The second man, a policeman from Seoul, South Korea.

There was a cold, cold winter morning in Seoul, Korea.

This policeman stepped out of his house to walk to work like he did every morning.

Huge parka.

Mittens in snow.

The snow crunching under his boots.

Oh, it was cold.

After walking a few minutes, he thought maybe he heard a sound.

"No, just the wind" he thought.

Got a few more minutes and yes he had heard something.

There was underneath a low growing bush, wrapped in a blanket tucked into a basket, a baby.

He reached down, picked her up, zipped her into his warm winter parka and walked just a little bit faster to the police station than he would have on an ordinary day.

What if he hadn't heard her cries over the winter wind?

What if he had just decided, "So what?

There are so many babies abandoned like this, dozens of babies" But he had children of his own.

He couldn't just leave her there.

At the police station, he made one phone call, another, another.

And finally he was able to reach an orphanage that would take one more abandoned baby girl.

The people at the orphanage took one look at this tiny little six pound baby girl.

She looked healthy.

So they gave her a birthdate.

They gave her the name Aeng Hwa.

That's a pretty name for a little Korean baby girl.

And they put her name on the bottom of the list.

Four months later, her name came to the top of her list, as did the family in Mason City, Iowa, who very much wanted a little baby girl to complete their family.

And then the match was made.

Little four month old Aeng Hwa, now named Laurie, was flown from Seoul, South Korea where she met her brand new mom and dad and her big brother Timothy.

Little Laurie grew up to be a beautiful six year old.

And it was one day as she was sitting on her grandpa's lap, reading him a book.

When she put down her book she said, "Grandpa, why is it my Korean mama didn't love me?"

Oh, her grandpa gave her a big hug.

"Laurie that's not how it was.

Your Korean mama loved you so much.

But you see, she didn't have a family to give you.

She didn't have money to buy you warm winter clothes or food or those books that you love so much.

And so one day when you were just one week old and all you weighed was six pounds, she hugged you real tight.

She wrapped you in a blanket and she put you in a basket, then took you to a place where a man found you."

"A man found me?

A man found me grandpa?

(gasps) Grandpa, do you think there was an angel who showed that man where I was?"

Ah, the wisdom of a six year old.

A few months later, found little Laurie in her red, white and blue dress holding her tiny little American flag.

Her mom, her dad, her big brother Timothy, who had taught her the Pledge of Allegiance for this most special day, her naturalization day.

There was her grandma and of course, her grandpa.

He picked her up.

And he said, "Laurie, this is such a special day.

Do you know what you're going to be at the end of this day?"

(gasps) "Grandpa, grandpa don't you know?

I am gonna be Norwegian."

Little Laurie has grown into a beautiful young woman.

She's married now to a wonderful man named Jim who teaches school.

She works at Harvard Law School.

They live near Boston.

And it's every winter, when there's snow on the ground here in the Midwest, like there is in Seoul, South Korea, that I ask for God's most special angel to bless that man.

That man who thinks he's just ordinary, the policeman.

And I ask for God to bless that other special man.

The Iowa farmer who loves little Laurie more than the entire world and everything in it.

And I should tell you, yeah, the Iowa farmer, that's my dad.

Me, I'm Laurie's proud mom.

(lively country music) - [Lemke] Like other segments of agriculture, cattle producers have taken a hit during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Beef processing facilities are back up and running but not yet at full capacity.

Those processing disruptions have upset the supply chain and have delivered a substantial hit to farmers according to Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association President, Mike Landuyt.

- It was really hard on our market.

We saw over 35% decline in our prices, you know, just through this and now the cattle are backing up a little bit in the yards, but fortunately, there's a few things we can do to manage through this.

- [Lemke] Unlike hog producers, who have had to euthanize animals because there was no processing capacity, cattle feeders haven't had to take that drastic step.

However, with fewer animals going to market, that's thrown a wrench into the typical production process.

- It was probably more seeing the holdup is in the people that background cattle are the cow and calf folks cause they're just not been able to move their cattle.

Cause if we don't have plenty of space in the feed yard, there's nowhere for their cattle to go also.

And that ends up affecting them more and you know, they made their feed last summer and for how long they expected to have the cattle and now they're starting to run out of feed and having to come up with alternative ways to feed them.

- [Lemke] Even moderate disruptions in the supply chain of protein like pork, chicken and beef, illustrate how intricately connected the nation's food supply really is.

It also demonstrates the challenges livestock producers face in planning for unforeseen circumstances.

- [Mike] The cattle that are being bred this year won't calf till next year, won't hit the market till the year after that.

So the decisions being made now are a couple year decision so you don't just change that overnight.

It takes some time to catch up and, you know, it's all planned out for what somebody expects the market to be in three years.

- [Lemke] This is Dan Lemke reporting.

(lively country music) - The world is a wonderful place full of beauty and mystery.

Take some time to connect with nature and enjoy what lies all around us.

It will be worth the effort.

I'm Dan Hoffman.

Thanks for watching "Farm Connections."

(lively country music) (lively brassy music)