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Hello, again, everybody.

I'm Ray Gildow, host of Lakeland Currents.

I'm really excited about the program today because the topic is opportunities in agriculture and I think you're going to find there are opportunities are different than what you think.

We're not going to be talking about making you to be a farmer, although there's not a thing wrong with being a farmer, but it's a lot of the other opportunities that are involved with Central Lakes College campuses in Brainerd and Staples, and I'm just going to go around the room and have you guys introduce yourselves and what your titles are and your opportunities here in agriculture.

So Nate let's start with you.

I'm Nathan Wiese.

I'm the Precision Food Production faculty member at Central Lakes College.

I started new this year, a new program.

And I'm Cory Detlof, I'm the director of Ag and Energy and Farm Business Management at Central Lakes College.

I also oversee the Meat Cutting and Butchery program as well as the Precision Food Production program.

I'm Jess Feierabend.

I am the Meat Cutting and Butchery instructor at Central Lakes College.

And as we're talking beforehand here there used to be like 10 different meat cutting programs in Minnesota through the technical college systems.

I think the last one to close was in Pipestone if I'm not mistaken and there was always a need for meat cutters but the challenge in vocational education has always been to get students into the programs, which I'm sure you folks have experienced somewhat to some degree, but I think one of the things that we can tell today for this program is there are great opportunities here and there's really good pay, it's just a matter of learning what those skills are that are needed to get out into the world of work.

Cory do you want to start with giving us some overview of what you guys are doing?

Yeah so on the meat cutting side, you know, it's a partnership with a lot of different agencies really, Minnesota Farmers Union, MDA and a lot of others that are involved as well, but really we're looking at expanding the program.

The program started a year ago, so this is our second fall semester of this, and it's a one semester certificate that's 16 credits but students can come in, do that kind of an accelerated program, but really get a good idea of what that meat cutting looks like.

We are talking about, and I'll let Jess expand on this a little bit, but we are talking about some other opportunities to expand that down the road with more certificates that we can add on top of that, like the value added processing, the smoking of meats and all those different pieces, and then also there's a business side of this too right, so there's the business business aspect of how do you start, how do you merchandise, how do you do a retail aspect and all those pieces, too.

So really the opportunities are really out there and the community and statewide we've experienced a lot of issues with meat cutting especially since Covid when animals were not able to be processed and there were just, there was a lot of challenges with that, so it's kind of in response to some of what's been happening prior to that already, prior to Covid but we've really finally got kind of legs underneath us and getting going with that program.

Brought on Jess, phenomenal faculty member there, that is very much hands-on with this program and I'll turn it over to Jess to talk a little bit more about some of those opportunities.

And before you do, are you just located at Staples?

Yes.

And then you did you take a part of the building and then redesign it for the program or how are you set up there.

So currently right now we are working with a company out of Washington to put a brand new state-of-the-art facility in that should be coming here next year.

Currently right now what we're working on is kind of redoing a portion of the school right now and getting some equipment in there and what we will hopefully have the opportunity to do is bring in animals and process them down within the school and then that way all of our students they're going to learn farm to fork virtually.

So will this be on the main campus or will this be over in the Ag Center across the street.

This will be animals.

This will be on main campus, and the animals there isn't going to be any live animals really associated with the college.

We'll just be bringing them in as carcasses and then processing them down from there.

That way the students get a real hands-on experience of where these primals and sub primals and things like that come from and how to break them down and then also how to make a carcass yield the most money with the different cuts out of there.

And what's your background that you got started in this?

My background, depends on how long you want to talk here I guess, but you know I got my first experience in the meat industry when I was 14 and in cleaning a facility in southern Minnesota just for in high school just as a after school job.

After that I really kind of took a liking to it, so graduated and got an opportunity to run a meat shop here in northeast Brainerd for nine years and did that and after that I went to Costco and I managed their meat department for the last 10 years prior to taking this position.

Was that in Brainerd, too?

Yes.

So I was able to open the Costco here and then manage that for 10 years and then the opportunity came out to teach and so I jumped on that opportunity just because meat cutting is kind of a don't want to say, but a dying breed of people that we haven't really paid attention to in a lot of years.

Like you have mentioned Pipestone, you know, they quit in '06.

Granted their glory days were probably around in the 80's and so they kind of kind of lost interest there and there isn't a lot of guys who know the start to finish process of processing of meat.

What we have found in the industry is that there's a lot of people who know maybe one sector of it, whether that be breaking down the primals or working a retail counter but there isn't a lot of guys out there that know how to bring it from farm to fork and what Covid, as Corey has mentioned kind of exposed is that we need those people and we haven't been paying enough attention to that career and by putting this program together we're able to cater to that career field too.

Do your students get involved with actually putting the animals down or do they just get involved with the carcass forward.

So we will go into humane handling.

Yep.

So you know it's not just as simple as putting the animal down.

There's a lot of other things that have to take place prior to that but once we get this facility we'll be working really close with the Farmers Union who is also having a facility in Staples as well and we will have full access to their processing area as well.

At that point we will be able to experience the harvesting of the animals and it will go from start to finish.

So how will that work with your partnership with them?

How do you, are you going to have some things at the campus and then some things in their own?

Are they having a new facility?

So they're having a new facility built.

We're not quite sure when the date of that will be here and they're going to be under USDA inspection there and what they're going to be doing is processing local farmers' animals in there.Okay.

And then you know they're going to have hours of operation, probably, you know 8 to 4:30 and our classes currently are from 4 to 8 so we'll be able to use that that facility after hours and that's where the students can learn the humane handling and then the harvesting of the animals.

From there what will happen is it'll go into an aging cooler and then from the aging cooler it'll go over to the college with a transfer truck and at that point then we can take the students in and we can really slow down the process and work with them in detail on what they need to achieve to extract what they need to out of these carcasses.

And when you talk about recruiting students you were talking about, I think Cory said something like it's 16 credits, or how long a period of time are we talking for people who don't know what that means.

Yep.

So right now it's 16 credits, it's 4 hours a night and it's a semester long so it's 16 weeks is what it is.

So it's evening classes currently right now.

It is yep.

And then is your ultimate goal to have it daytime and nighttime or just daytime or just nighttime?

You know right now, as Cory had alluded to that we're going to do more certificates, so right now what you would get after that 16 weeks is a kind of an introduction meat cutter certificate, which is recognized by some of the local businesses that'll start you out at a higher wage because now you know the information that you need to achieve this job.

And then we're going to do stackable so some of those hours will probably get moved to during the day depending on what courses they are taking so as Cory mentioned we're going to do smoking and curing and then we're going to do an entrepreneurship type program as well, and there'll probably be some other business courses that would be needed to take in order to do that, too, and the reason we want to do that is because we, you know, when we first started this program we probably had two to three different meat facilities within Minnesota calling us up saying, hey we need the help but not only do we need the help we're to the age where we want to retire and we are looking to sell our business or pass our business on and so to kind of fit the need of that what we decided is, you know, maybe putting an entrepreneurship type course together where these students can can read a profit and loss and can manage a business and, you know, plug the holes on a leaky ship if needed and make sure that business carries on and is still successful for generations afterwards.

When I was a kid we used to have lots of things we call locker plants and there aren't many locker plants anymore per se where you could take in your own animals and have them processed and that's something that's gone away isn't it?

It sure is.

Yeah.

You know we're coming up well deer seasons are generally pretty popular and and we get a lot of phone calls of people where do I bring my deer, where do I bring my deer, and there isn't a lot of facilities that are even doing that anymore.

So, you know, hopefully by doing that we'll give everybody an opportunity to get their deer processed, you know, and keep some of these businesses alive, so.

That's pretty cool.

And we've seen a big swing in just in how people eat, too, right.

So in Covid we had a lot of bare shelves in the grocery stores and that really made people start to think, well, you know, if this is an issue maybe we should find out where to get meat if the grocery stores run out, so you're starting to see a little bit of a trend change where people are looking to their local farmers and looking to their local processors to get their proteins right?

Well what they're finding out is that there's cattle out there and there's farmers out there willing to sell their cattle to people but there's nobody to process it, and what they're running into is all these processors are getting bombarded and a lot of them you can't get an animal in for a year even to two years right now.

Really?

Wow.

That's how far out they're booked out so we're starting to see, you know, the value in this field as well coming back, you know.

With processing dates that far out there's a lot of room in this industry for people to start up their own and for people to become meat cutters and help out those people that are already open, as well.

So what what are you talking for animals?

What are the animals that you cover?

The animals that we cover is going to be poultry, swine, lambs and beef is what we cover.

In the fall time we also do do deer processing so what we do is we take 10 deer and we process those and we'll bring those from start to finish as well so we got a couple hunters or students want to bring in their deer that they harvested that weekend, they can bring it in we'll process it and we'll show them how to process it to meet the standards of the industry.

And I would guess that the job market is very, very lucrative.

The job market is very lucrative.

Yes.

I know lots of, I have a friend that has a supermarket, and I know they can never find somebody to butcher with their animals or even cut up the finished product, you know, so they get quarters maybe or whatever.

Or to produce sausage.

Yeah.

Hams and bacon is really hard to come by nowadays really.

Yep.

So you know you cover that, too, how to make bacon.

We will.

That's going to be one of those stackable certificates on top of it that later in the years, maybe in the next year or two that we'll be putting that course together as well.

So in that course the students will be able to learn how to cure and smoke sausages, hams, bacon, some lunch meats, things like that.

So who are your partners?

You talked about Farmers Union, do you have other partners you're working with?

Yeah you know we have an Advisory Board, every course in CLC has an Advisory Board, and we have some other partners, you know, Gohmann Supply, you know, he helps us out quite a bit, Barbecue Smoke Shack, you know, just some local resources that we have of guys who are working in the industry and kind of give us a little bit more insight on what their thoughts are in the direction that we should take these courses.

So it's been pretty easy to find partners in the meat courses just because everybody knows that there's such a need for it.

Is there anything important that we are missing here on the meat cutting portion?

No, I think, I mean there's a lot of opportunity in meat cutting going forward right and there's a lot of support, there's a lot of partnerships.

This wouldn't be possible without those partnerships so that's certainly appreciated.

I hope we can get a good workforce out there where we can continue to provide opportunity because that's really the bottleneck.

Just like Jess talked about having animals processed, there's limited places to go and limited time frame on when you can do that.

So you're talking about individuals who might want to do their own business and then people that might want to go work at Costco or one of the big stores and have all those skills involved.

Both opportunities.Yep that's pretty cool.

And there's a lot of opportunities within the meat industry.

You know we talked a little bit about harvesting the animals, but if that is something that somebody doesn't want to partake in there's a lot of other fields within this industry that they can partake in if they just want to cut steaks or if they just want to make sausage or if they just want to do a retail that doesn't really have anything to do with the harvesting end of it, because sometimes people don't want to take part in that and that's fine, there's other opportunities.

So there's retail, marketing, wholesale.

You know it's really crazy how many jobs there actually are in this industry that a lot of people aren't aware of.

Are there any other colleges in Minnesota doing this right now?

Currently right now there is one other college, it's in Willmar, Ridgewater College also has a program, so they're kind of a sister college to us and so their program is a little bit different than ours, they're more on a apprenticeship type program where we're more hands-on, in person.

So yes there are other colleges that do it but they're structured a little bit different than ours.

Okay, so Nathan you want to talk a little bit about what you do?

So we started a new program this year, Precision Food Production, kind of been in the works for what four, five years.

Four years probably.

Yeah.

Really tying together back in the 80s they had Farm Business Management programs, different programs there at the school and Del had told me that in the '80s and '84 they went from 20 Ag programs in the state of Minnesota down to three, and so now 40 years have gone by and there's a need again for people in agriculture to do a lot of the jobs like meat cutting.

There hasn't been a big focus there and there's a lot of people in the industry that are getting older, close to retirement, and then they're looking at it going there's not people to replace us, and so they started the new program Precision Food Production Given it's a vast, it's a two-year program, a diploma giving a vast approach to the different aspects in agriculture.

So there's going to be different classes.

What's unique for us is we have a 2,000 acre farm that we're able to utilize there as an enterprise unit of the college.

So going over there for lab classes and taking advantage of that real life experience right there but being able to train these students to go out and work in the Ag industry and as Jess is saying there's a lot of opportunities not just being an advisor, a crop scout, crop insurance, different aspects are looking for people that are educated, knowledgeable of the aspects of what goes on because there's been a real disconnect over the years of that farm to fork: where do the products go and what do they get used for, what's going on in the Ag industry.

One thing that's unique for us is that doing the partnerships with the MDA, different companies out there.

So there's a big focus on water quality now, and we got classes for that, that's new to our program and very unique to our program, to working with different partners and taking an in-depth look at how does agriculture and the environment work together and then doing a lot of the the more basic stuff, nutrient management the beginner level all the way through a advanced precision Ag.

What technologies are available, it's a changing world and it's changing fast.

So what are some of the skills that are being taught in your program?

Some of the skills being taught...

So right now, first year, we're teaching nutrient management, so the basics of crop production, what's it going to take to produce the crop, what resources are available, fertilizers, chemicals, soils and how do each different soil type react, whether what region of the state you're in might use this type of fertilizer, this chemistry for spraying programs.

As well as then, you know, water holding capacity for irrigation.

So we're trying to look at it from a whole viewpoint of start to finish, what's it going to take starting from planning at the beginning of the season to getting your end result of a crop that's harvestable.

And for the students there's a lot of opportunities, whether they want to go back and work for a farmer, what part of that whole envelope that they want to work with in whether they want to go back and be a farmer, help on a family farm, or if they want to go and work for a co-op and providing services there, spraying, fertilizing, crop planning, advisor, scouting.

So we're trying to train the next generation to be able to help the Ag industry to accomplish some of those things that, as Jess was saying that people are starting to retire out of, and we need more people to help fill those shoes.

And you've got 2,000 acres that you're working with.

Talk a little bit about the equipment because I know Cory you've been in a couple parades with tractors that are about as big as a house.

Yeah so we were fortunate with the Egan Energy Center we have about 2,000 acres, different research and demonstration projects happening on each of those acres, and we really work with local producers and a number of different partners around some of the things like Nathan mentioned, the water quality, the soil health, some of those different factors, precision irrigation, precision equipment.

Right.

So we're fortunate we've got a relationship with Midwest Machinery where we lease equipment from them and then we have that educational piece along with that.

So we've got the latest and greatest technology, the GPS, we've got the precision planter to be able to shut off individual rows and do variable rate prescriptions and do all of that kind of stuff, and we work with a number of partners that provide us opportunities for those things, so we really have kind of one of the biggest playgrounds.

And Precision Food Production, you think about it's around Agronomy, right, but what you're really doing with Agronomy is you're producing food in a precision manner.

So we're not just taking the planter out of the back 40 anymore or out of the woods and pulling it out and going planting a corn crop.

You know that's kind of a thing of the past, you've got to have all that technology to really focus and do a good job.

You want to have as much technology as possible and utilize those new aspects out there.

You could certainly plant with an old planter, yet I'm not saying that, but you need to, you know, the new generations are looking at as much technology as we can integrate, how can we do this, how can we do this production in a better way that's better for the environment, more environmentally sustainable, right, and so that's what we're really using as that technology to do that, and then we're producing food.

But if you think about Precision Food Production it's not just on a large scale crop side, we also have things like high tunnels, we have a shipping container that's outfitted for year round growing, vertical growing.

What's a high tunnel?

So a high tunnel would be like if you think about a greenhouse but you're planting stuff in the dirt in the ground rather than having shelves in there where you're starting stuff in pots in a greenhouse so you're utilizing the natural soil there, but you're extending your growing environment to, you know, being able to plant sooner and hopefully have that going later in the fall.

So you're really extending those things.

Then within our growing container or shipping container, it's called the pod that's outfitted with vertical growing.

We really have the ability to start seeds in a seedling area in little plugs and then we can take those, transplant them to other areas like the high tunnel or we can actually utilize them in the vertical grow panels, and be able to do that with no soil, no external sunlight.

It's all self-contained, HVAC units on there, it's all done by lighting within there and there's pumps and all kinds of things that do that and nutrient management sensors that sense and actually automatically change your pH levels, your nutrient levels within that, so the technology behind that.

So if people think about Precision Foood Production is only for a farmer, it's not because we really have those opportunities too.

So we also have an urban farm business management program that we started and specialty crops so with that some of those producers would be very interested in how do you grow in a high tunnel, how do you grow in that vertical growing environment with that technology.

So some of those pieces can be integrated with the program as well, so it's really an all-around program.

You know a number of years ago the state redesigned agricultural, technical colleges in Ag, could you just talk a little bit about that because it's called something different now than we used to just have Ag programs at technical college campuses but now you have a network don't you, a state perspective of this.

Yeah so we have, we now have well AgCentric.

Right.

AgCentric is, right, one of the Centers of Excellence.

So now they have a couple of different Ag Centers of Excellence.

There's a northern Center and a southern Center of Ag Excellence.

The northern Center is AgCentric, and we're fortunate enough to have AgCentric housed at Central Lakes College which gives us a good partnership right, and AgCentric is also a partner in a lot of the things like the Meat Cutting, the Precision Food Production, a lot of the different pieces that we're doing and really the overall goal right is to build Ag programs, build opportunity, educate, and do that outreach piece around agriculture and what's there.

It's still a huge, huge business in Minnesota.

The thing that amazes me how is how you can go down with GPS systems and know in the field where you need more, maybe you need nitrogen or less water, I mean to be able to do that on a grid it's just unbelievable the technology.

I know some of the old farmers I know have no idea how to run this equipment anymore and so you got to go to someone who's being trained but it's increased productivity so much hasn't it?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And you think about some of this technology and we also have horiculture programs, we have natural resource programs, we have an Ag science A.S. where you can take that and move on to another university or whatever the case may be in animal science and a number of different programs around agriculture, so it's not just these three programs, right.

I mean you've got multiple areas you can go and I look at this as we can overlap a lot of this stuff, that technology, you can use that for your lawn, your turf management, in horticulture or in landscaping or in natural resources it's important to know some of these things.

Nutrient management is certainly a part of natural resources and soil, soil health, soil sampling, you know, so some of those pieces they certainly overlap and that's what we've got going really for us at Central Lakes College is we work together as a group.

On the meat cutting side you know we've got Ag and Energy can produce some of that food that could be used with the steak that he's cutting and then prepared by a culinary, you know we have a culinary program, so we look at that as this is a true, really a true farm to fork experience that if we tie these programs together we can offer something that nobody else is really currently offering.

And how many campuses are doing Ag programs right now?

For Central Lakes College?

No how many colleges in the state are still involved in agriculture to some degree.

Oh I would say a lot of them probably have some sort of agricultural program.

To the extent that Central Lakes does probably not near as many.

There's probably only a handful on that.

And you still have a pretty solid relationship with the University of Minnesota don't you?

We do.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah well it's pretty exciting stuff that you guys are doing, it really is, and if people haven't been to the college for a while to see what these programs are you have open houses.

You have a new semester starting when?

It'll be early January.

So for the meat cutting course it's two semesters is what we do, so it's a semester long, but there's two semesters in a year, so our second semester will start here early January.

Okay.

And CLC has given us a really good platform to make these courses very affordable, so for a very, very small cost to get into agriculture you can do that through Central Lakes College.

We're out of time sorry, but you have a website.

Central Lakes College has a website you can all be contacted through that website I do believe?

Certainly.

So there are opportunities in agriculture I think a lot of people just didn't realize.

Thank you guys for jumping on board with us.

It's an exciting field that you're in, doing a great job, Thank you.

I'm Ray Gildow, you've been watching Lakeland Currents.

So long until next time.