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

I'm your host Dan Hoffman.

On today's episode, we discuss the diverse opportunities in agriculture afforded to students in Southeastern Minnesota.

Keith Allen joins us to tell all about his Saucy Goat Carmel and the University of Minnesota Extension provides us with a new best practices.

all here today on Farm Connections.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator 1] Welcome to Farm Connections with your host.

Dan Hoffman.

- [Narrator 2] Farm connections made possible in part by.

- [Narrator 1] 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.

Minnesota Corn Growers Association, working to identify and promote opportunities for corn growers, enhance quality of life and help others understand the value and importance of corn production to America's economy.

EDP Renewables, North America, owner operator of Prairie Star and Pioneer Prairie wind farms, Minnesota and Iowa.

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

- Welcome to Farm Connections.

We're so fortunate to have Nick Schiltz with us today.

Welcome Nick.

- Hello Dan, a pleasure as always.

- Absolutely, Nick you're an instructor, both at Riverland Community College and Austin Public Schools.

Tell us about that journey and how you got there.

- I'm very fortunate and very excited to be an ag teacher.

During my graduate program, I was preparing for a career working in agronomy, and I just kinda stumbled into teaching.

It was something that I always enjoyed, helping my friends out with their work, their classmates, and just helping them to understand all the science behind how agriculture functions.

And so then I started teaching some different sections, some different classes, kind of, very much impromptu.

And I really enjoy teaching and I was fortunate to fall in addition here within Riverland during it's very expanding ag science program and then opportunity high school came up also to serve as their ag instructor and we definitely took advantage of that.

So each day I'm very lucky to be an ag education teacher and again continue along those same paths in those same things that I wanted to do in graduate school, teaching my friends about the world agriculture.

Now we do with our developing ag leaders at the high school and the college level.

- And Nick you bring a lot of opportunities to student both on the collegiate level, an the high school.

Talk about that.

What's available out there.

- Yeah, there's there are so many opportunities for students when it comes to agriculture.

And I heard last week at the 94th National FFA Convention, a great quote that I hope to always use with our students when it comes to what jobs are out there for those in agriculture.

The national president stood up and said, "Greetings farmers, scientists, communicators, and students, and welcome to agriculture, welcome to our national convention."

And I circled that and I said, I'm gonna make sure that I use that when it comes to my students so that they know that ag is not just farming.

Only 10% of the population that works in the ag industry is working as a farmer.

That means that 10 of those people support the family's farm in some degree or fashion.

Now we talk about opportunities.

We first need to touch on this is that only 2% of population today has ties to production agriculture.

So we think that many people actually aren't involved with our food production system.

That's actually a very incorrect.

About 45% of jobs out there are tied to the ag industry of some degree, one or the other.

So all of us work in some degree when it comes to producing the food from the farm to our table.

So when it comes to working with students and we get students of all different backgrounds that either they have a genuine love for agriculture, they've had it fostered for many, many years, or those that have said, hey, I'm in this class what are we gonna learn about today?

Is to show students what agriculture is and show them the history of it, where we've been the science of how things work and again, the different options that which they can get involved with.

Our job as teachers is to spark and create a little ignition that gets them thinking that says, hey, this is exciting.

I wanna get involved within this industry.

So opportunities are very much out there for all students of different industries and different pathways.

Our hope again, is to show them what's out there for them.

- You are involved both at the high school and the college.

How do those two integrate?

And what kind of opportunities does that bringing to our local students?

- You know, when it comes to ag education, in our very core, our job is to teach about agriculture.

Now, when it comes to both these roles at the high school, my job is to really create that spark, within the highest school, students aren't gonna be getting degrees in agriculture.

Our job is to show them a couple of things that will resonate with them about different topics, such as small animals, careers, learning about wildlife, learning about, getting AFNR, learning about plant science, learning about animal science, and just seeing what's really out there for them to take part in.

And so once we create that spark at the secondary level, our hope then that then they'll integrate into the post-secondary side, then to get that tangible degree, eventually that reward, in which they can go into them, again, when it comes to agriculture.

So very much it's a seamless process and I think a lot of times as a teacher we try to develop that pipeline where students can start here and then go here and then go off in industry and work.

- You have to be awaken inside of the high school environment.

Can they take concurrent courses and get credits at the college.

- Students have numerous opportunities to take post-secondary credit within agriculture to increase their, give them, maybe get them towards that degree, but also to increase that spark again, to by taking class such as a principles of agronomy or intro animal science, or intro a ag business, and then learning about what's out there and saying, yep, I love that field.

I wanna be on that side of agriculture, all the different facets when it comes to agriculture.

- And certainly save some tuition dollars, but also rubbed shoulders with great instructors inside of a classroom environment that has perhaps some students are even more motivated than at the high school.

- Absolutely, and again, it's all about that culture when you get around students that really wanna learn, and those that are here that are driven and motivated, that really says a lot to the other students that are listening they're listening and they're seeing what's all around them.

- How about student organizations, leadership development, and also Discussion Meets.

- Within its very core of ag education is that involvement within leadership development and also civic leadership development.

So within FFA and ag education, it's built right in the curriculum.

It's part of what we do as licensed ag teachers is providing opportunities on the FFA side, both at the high school and also the college level.

Now within the high school, again, we get integrated in FFA so that they can learn about why is what we've learn with passion important?

How do we apply it?

Why do we learn the things we do?

Where can I, what can I do with this now?

So we do that through a number of career development events called CDEs and also solution development events called LDEs.

And then students can compete in a number of different classes on their contest wise as an individual or as a team.

And so then they can go off and they compete at the regional level locally, go on to state and then if they earn a national trip, then go across the U.S. and compete.

Now students can also take part in supervised ag experiences called SAE.

If they've ever worked on a farm, done an internship, if they've ever helped raise an animal before, or have a genuine question of what agriculture which they wanna research or start a business, that's a field for them to go into as part of their educational experience.

Now, again, that's tied into the courses at the high school level.

So it's really all built in together through the department of education.

At the second, at the post-secondary level, we have, again, numerous opportunities for students both across the college, but also within the ag program first students to get involved with within the Riverland ag science program, we have our ag intel and Sans technology club where students can serve as leaders, they can plan events, take part in different opportunities and very much in that similar instance that which we do with an FFA at the high school level, they can do at the college levels well to.

So it's getting the students to learn by doing.

A lot of times we witnessed that growth with all students throughout their involvement at the post-secondary level.

We're also a Riverland FFA alumni affiliate.

So we're not a, so within FFA, there's the local chapter FFA program and there's the community made up of alumnus.

Those are that support the local chapter.

Here in Austin we have three FFA Alumnus.

We have, one when you get to college, one on the community, the Austin FFA Alumni, and also one within Hormel to, within the Hormel FFA Alumni.

And we, and again we work together seamlessly amongst all of us to integrate us in together so that we brought opportunities for all of us were working hand-in-hand together.

- Well, you certainly highlighted the importance of partners as well.

And the college has a lot of partners inside of the community, but also inside of the state and the region.

And you mentioned one a large food producer in the community.

So jobs are available besides just producing food on the farm, but also a transportation, engineering, technology, electrical work, and those kinds of things.

What kind of partnerships have you forged with the Alumni and the larger community?

- We've continued to work with a lot of our regional agricultural companies to drive curriculum, driving equipment purchases, and simply tell us what we need to be offering to help students to start here and then go work with them and really go anywhere.

So when we buy equipment, we always made sure to run that by our partners, make sure that what we're gonna purchase is what they're using within their lines of work.

So that's very crucial to our work to which we do.

Again, we also form ways within partnerships within, internships and full-time opportunities.

Students start here and then again they meet some of our partners and they talk about opportunities for internee, opportunities for full-time work and that again segues beautifully right into those opportunities.

We're always looking for companies to partner with and companies to work together closely.

So again, we, so it's, we invite all of our local companies to come to the table here and help Riverland Community College develop an ag science program that which is innovative, we're all proud of and certainly producing students ready to handle the issues in the ag world here locally.

- Nick you've also partnered with Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation in something called Discussion Meet.

Why is it important to be involved with partners such as that?

And why is it important for students to be able to intellectually have discussions that bring meaning to other people.

- Within the ag community, we have a lot of organizations that worked in outreach, education and awareness.

And so it's instrumental that we partner with those organizations to again, show support, to work alongside with, and also advocate and show students what's out there for them.

In most of the same way as we do that at the FFA level, we also do that with partners such as Farm Bureau.

Each year, they have a, Farm Bureau has their annual conference up in Minneapolis and they have their Discussion Meet.

Now a lot of times when we think about Discussion Meet as being a contest or being a debate, being a speech, this is very much a board meeting.

It's a way for students to talk about some issues of the day and working on, and working alongside one another to develop solutions to the problem at hand.

Students take part in this contest and again, they are graded on their ability to number one, work together.

Number two, provide solutions and number three, develop why their solution is going to work to some of the problems of the day.

They're giving questions right on the fly of saying, question number one today is gonna be this, question number two is this, they have to go through and then form solutions to those questions.

So students can receive a cash prize as well as a trip to the state Discussion Meet, to compete with those across the state.

This really helps students to talk with one another, to communicate to, again, build the leadership qualities that we as instructors try to do.

At the very heart of ag education is that investment in the students is development as a leader because they're probably gonna be leaders we have so many opportunities for students out there with two times as many open jobs than qualified graduates, we know all students are gonna be going into the ag field to receive a career very soon.

So opportunity such as this allows students to grow professionally and when we coach these teams, it's so fun to see each week when they work together and they begin to become comfortable.

And again, they just become, more willing to work together and talk about some of the problems of the day.

- And Nick, as you so well know when a student has need, the teacher does appear.

- Yep, absolutely.

We're here for you when you're ready.

We'll Nick you've given us a great interview and a great discussion.

A lot is riding on the outcomes that you're able to cultivate the environment, food, science, jobs, the economy, public health.

Thank you so much for the work that you do.

- Well, thank you Dan, for thinking of me, very humble.

- Stay tuned for more on Farm Connections.

- [Narrator 1] Farm connections, best practices brought to you by.

- This is Brad Carlson, extension educator with the University of Minnesota Extension and here's today's best practice segment.

Everyone's aware that the year 2021 was extraordinarily dry.

Historically we would see following a dry year, large concentrations of nitrate showing up in our surface waters, and obviously it's coming off of the land.

And so really what's happening is we have large amounts of residual nitrogen carrying over from the previous crop year.

The reason for that is that the loss processes of nitrogen are water based and when it's really dry, we just simply don't lose it and therefore nitrogen accumulates, not just simply during the growing season, but even following the growing season as our crops mature somewhere in the vicinity of labor day or a couple of weeks afterwards, but things don't really cool down until we get to late October early November, we continue to see nitrogen mineralizing out of soil organic matter through that time period and then it accumulates in the soil.

Also coming up into the 2022 growing season we're seeing nitrogen prices at record high, and a lot of farmers are questioning whether there's ways they can adapt their management to maybe cut some costs on this.

Well, this is a perfect situation where we would look at taking a soil nitrate test.

Historically, we would recommend taking a soil nitrate test in situations.

One like we have now where it has been extremely dry.

And then also in fields that have a long-term manure history.

So very specifically corn following corn anywhere this year, if you're growing corn next year, following corn this year, we will be particularly looking for whether we've got applied fertilizer from this last year.

That's still there and potentially available for next year and then corn following soybeans, where we have a manure history where we would also expect high levels of nitrogen to be mineralized out of the soil organic matter.

Now it's possible we might also see high levels of nitrogen just in any ordinary circumstance of corn following soybeans, but that's not necessarily part of our recommendation, but it won't hurt anything if you wanna take that sample.

The recommendation is to take a sample down to two feet deep because nitrates are mobile in the soil profile.

It's gotta go much deeper than what we would normally take for a PRK soil test and to try and take that sample as close to the time of crop use or planting as we can.

So in South Central Minnesota, you're primarily looking at taking that sample probably in late March or early April, and then adjusting your nitrogen rate according to the amount of residual nitrogen that's found in the soil.

Western Minnesota, you can take it in the fall, but recognize that if it gets really wet in the spring, your number may no longer be good.

Look for the University of Minnesota Extension's website type in soil nitrate test, and you'll find the chart to interpret your test results and credit your total amount of nitrogen and potentially cut your costs for the 2022 growing season.

This is Brad Carlson with our best practices segment.

- Welcome to Farm Connections.

Our wonderful guests today are Keith and Morgan Allen from Kenyon, welcome.

- Thank you.

- Thank You.

- Well, it looks like a bright sunny day on your farm.

What's happening?

- Well, we were just like every other day we get up in the morning, take care of our goat herd, and then we get ready to head for regular jobs.

- Well that sounds busy.

- Yeah, it's harvest season here.

So it adds a lot of things to the pile for us.

So yeah, with the milking and raising kids and trying to farm and then having full-time jobs off the farm, it's a lot.

- Certainly, well Keith, are you messing with me raising kids that means a lot on your farm or tell me more.

- It does, I, it's kind of, we joke about it every year that we're raising about 80 kids.

We have to paraphrase it by saying dairy goat kids.

We do have two of our human kids.

Mason's 11, Reece is five, and they are, they definitely enjoy that time of the season just because there's a lot of baby goats running around and it's always nice to have the help, especially when it's that busy, so.

- So if I understand this right, you and Morgan get up early in the morning, go about your daily work on the farm and then go to another job and then repeat it again at night?

- That's right.

Yap.

- What causes one to do this?

- I think it's just a, I guess, a passion for agriculture.

We sort of have a love for the animals and it does take a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of effort in planning but I think it's just something that's sort of in your heart and in your blood and no matter how much work it is, and you still love it, you continue to do it.

- Well, it doesn't just all of a sudden happen.

You must have roots in agriculture and understanding that goes back to your childhood.

- Yeah, it kinda goes back to when we were both kids.

On my side of it, I came from dairy and, or excuse me, a beef and a hog operation and we raised crops and I remember getting off the school bus and running out and helping my dad on the farm and that's what I loved and that's what was in my blood.

And I enjoyed that a lot and it's kinda nice to be able to bring that forward to our kids and they get off the bus and they wanna come out and help do chores.

And it's kinda where it started for me, so.

- Yeah, and I grew up on a small dairy farm here in Minnesota, and also we always had goats as a 4-H project.

And so I always love the goats.

They were fun.

They were easy and when Keith and I got married, looking at wanting to stay involved in agriculture as a young couple, looking for a farm to buy, a hobby type farm was something that we could afford.

And then the goats really fit into that hobby type setting they're more easily put into, old style barns and older buildings and they don't require as much space.

And so the goats were really a good fit for us on our hobby farm after we got married.

And it's just kind of grown from there.

- How far is your goat farm from where you both grew up?

- It's pretty close.

We're kind of right in between actually, got a half an hour from either of our home farms.

- Right.

- Nice, so you're used to the community, used to the agriculture and also the climate.

- Yeah, for sure.

- It's remarkable when we first bought this place, I was like, why are we settling down where we're settling at?

It's like far away from my place, far away from her place.

By the time it was all said and done.

We were like a half hour away from Rochester, half hour away from Red Wing, half hour from all Owatonna and about 45 minutes to an hour from the south side of the Twin Cities.

So it's like, this is the perfect spot.

- Not only for you as people looking for work and also having a community that's supportive of what you do, but also for probably distributing your product.

- Yeah, it's been good to have some bigger communities that we can reach out to.

Where you've got more people that are interested in alternative type products and value added products that have maybe a little more disposable income to spend on more specialty type products.

And so looking at the Twin Cities and the Rochester markets is kinda where we would look for marketing our product.

- And plus there's such a huge amount of farmers markets that are located in this area.

It's, the communities are amazing when it comes to that and the diversity of agriculture that shows up to those farmer's markets, it's, it kind of is nice because everybody kinda plays off of the time of season that you're in so when there's apples coming in, our caramel is there to be able to serve with those apples.

So it kind of works out nicely.

- Well, you've mentioned product.

Tell us about your company name and what you do with that goat product.

- Sure, we made a product, it's a caramel sauce and we named our little business Saucy Goat Caramel, and we basically originally did it to use up some extra milk.

So we have a small dairy, goat dairy, and we sell most of our milk to an artist and cheese maker, but there were certain times of year when we had more milk than she could use.

And so we were looking for ways to use the milk and not just have to dump it in our grass.

And so we played around with a recipe where we just basically use really simple ingredients, milk, sugar, baking soda, and we can turn that milk into a caramel sauce, like something you would dip apples in or pour on your ice cream.

So that's the product we've been making with our extra goat milk.

- Nice, do you have a website for your farm or your product that you can share?

- We do, it's very basic, but it's a saucygoatcaramel.com.

And then we have a Facebook page also Saucy Goat Caramel.

So we're still working on some of the marketing type things now.

We've got, the product is great we've got all of that kinda set up and I think the next step, I guess with any businesses is maybe the marketing, so kinda done a lot of the background work, but yeah, we have a website you can order caramel on it and the Facebook page, you can check out and try to see some photos of our goats through the process through the product.

So, yeah, we've got a little bit there.

- Morgan and Keith, thank you so much for sharing your ideas, your thoughts, your goals, and also your farm.

- You're welcome.

- Thank you for having us.

- Stay tuned for more on KSMQ Farm Connections.

In our competitive world the hope of farming the land and providing for others has become even more challenging.

Understanding the concept of agriculture helps to redefine society's expectations and deepens the next generations appreciation of what got us here in the first place.

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

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