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

I'm your host, Dan Hoffman.

On today's episode, we visit with Saville Lord in the SPAM Museum to discuss its impact and importance on the surrounding community, Jamison Schneckloth joins us to talk about educational opportunities in agriculture, and the University of Minnesota provides us our best practices, all here today on "Farm Connections."

(warmhearted music) - [Announcer] Welcome to "Farm Connections" with your host, Dan Hoffman.

- [Announcer] "Farm Connections" made possible in part by... - [Announcer] Minnesota Corn.

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.

(warmhearted music) - [Announcer] EDP Renewables North America, owner-operator of Prairie Star and Pioneer Prairie Wind Farms in Minnesota and Iowa.

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

- [Announcer] Northern Country Coop, a full-service cooperative in grain, agronomy, feed, and lumber.

For the latest news, job openings, and podcasts, you can go to their website, NCountryCoop.com - [Announcer] R&S Grain Systems, a family-owned business serving its customers for 50 years with leading designs in the manufacturing of grain handling equipment and grain storage systems.

You can call in for a quote today.

Employee-owned AgVantage Software, Rochester, Minnesota, 47 years designing and developing agribusiness software for grain elevators, feed manufacturers, producers, fertilizer and chemical dealers, co-op seed companies, and fuel distributors.

(lighthearted music) Mower County Farm Bureau Association advocates for agriculture based on the policies and beliefs of its members.

It's dedicated to making the voices of its members stronger.

You can learn more about membership benefits at FBMN.org.

- Welcome to "Farm Connections."

We're in Austin, Minnesota, and with me today is Saville Lord, the director of the SPAM Museum.

Welcome to "Farm Connections."

- Thank you, Dan!

- And thanks for letting us be in this beautiful museum.

What is this all about?

- So we are actually the third rendition of the SPAM Museum.

It started just about 33 years ago at the 100th anniversary of Hormel Foods when we opened a tiny museum in the mall that was just a couple of blocks from here, and we had a celebration of the first 100 years of Hormel Foods.

It had a giant SPAM can as a door, and so people would walk through thinking it was a giant SPAM Museum.

Unfortunately, at that time, it was a very little exhibit that had to do with SPAM.

So people were disappointed.

They got to learn a lot, but they didn't get to experience as much SPAM as they wanted.

And as it turns out, there are a huge number of SPAM fans in this country.

So, we opened up another museum, and that one was down about a half a mile from here, for almost 13 years.

And it was an awesome place for people to come venture, but it had one huge problem.

It was right off the highway.

So people would get off the highway, come visit the museum, and then get right back on the highway.

They would never get to really experience our community.

So what we did was we moved it downtown, and we did that seven years ago.

Actually, July will be our seventh year anniversary.

- Well, congratulations.

- Yeah!

- It's very nice.

And also it tells a great story in that the growth of the company needed the space of the old museum for corporate offices, right?

- Yes, but then we also were able to bring this museum downtown.

As you will notice, we do not have a restaurant in here.

And that's very purposeful, because we want our visitors to go out and spend their money in our community at our restaurants where we have 12 different restaurants in Austin that will serve SPAM on their menu.

- And it's a beautiful downtown.

- Yes!

And then they get to shop and they get to visit, and we have a walking tour of downtown and we have different things that they can do.

There were literally four museums within a three-block radius, so they can go visit those and truly get out into our community in a way that they weren't able to at the last museum.

- So interfacing with the community of Austin, it sounds like.

- Yes, and we do that on a regular basis.

It is really truly the mission of the SPAM Museum not to only educate people as to what SPAM is and what the Hormel Foods Corporation is about but also to educate them about what Austin is as a community and what we bring to the table and to be able to share that story with so many visitors on a day-to-day basis.

You can imagine, we are going to see over 11,000 visitors by the time this month ends tomorrow.

- That's fantastic.

- Like, it is just amazing how many visitors we get coming through here from all over the world.

- And of course that leverages the hospitality industry, the hotels, the food, gas, fuel.

- Yes.

- Convenience stores.

- Yep.

- What a wonderful thing.

- Getting them to come to Austin, visit the museum, but then stay.

- And of course your story is about SPAM, but the company is more than just SPAM.

- Yes.

- But if we walk through the museum, I'm willing to bet we're gonna find out which state consumes per capita the most SPAM, right?

- Yes, you have to!

You have to, we have to tell that story.

Not only is SPAM sold in 47 different countries, but it is also sold domestically in record amounts.

I mean, we just have year-over-year sales that are just incredibly impressive.

- And if we tour through your very nice SPAM Museum, we'll probably see how the Hormel Foods Company and also SPAM Museum helped turn the tide of the World War.

- Yes.

- World War II.

- Yes, World War II was a time period in our history that was devastating, but with a food product that was available on the market at that time, that was SPAM, that was that fully cooked meat, we had the ability to feed our troops and to feed the troops from other countries as well.

And that truly helped solve a problem of how to make sure that everybody who was out there fighting the war effort was nourished.

- Absolutely essential, and of course, a stable community, a stable society needs food.

- Yes.

- And it needs reliable, cheap, quality food, and yet- - And we need the farmers in order to do that.

I wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for the farmers of this country.

I wouldn't, because- - Well, I noticed the farmer right out in front of the museum.

- Yes!

- He's standing guard.

- Yep.

- And also welcoming people inside.

- Yes.

- Tell us more about that.

We're located in Southern Minnesota, rich soils, ample water supply in most occasions.

- Yes.

- And great, prosperous industrious farmers.

- Yes.

- Tell us about how that food moves through the system.

- Well, it is true that the entire reason that George Hormel came to Austin was he was a fur trader, and his route started in Northern Iowa and came through Southern Minnesota, with the most northern part of his route being here in Austin.

And he absolutely fell in love with this community and this area because of that agricultural pull, because of that fresh water, because of the fields that were surrounding us.

That's truly what brought him to our community.

- And currently, I believe Hormel Foods is the only Fortune 500 company outstate in Minnesota, correct?

- That is still correct, yes.

- Well, as we walk through this museum, we'll see many interactive things and things for children as well, correct?

- Yes.

Yeah, and that's what's so fun about the museum.

Like, you don't want to go to a space where... You know, museums are supposed to be kind of interactive and fun, and there's some museums that can't be because of the nature of what they're portraying or showing.

This museum, you have over 17 different screens where there're videos playing or different interactive pieces from that perspective, and then we have touch screens as well so you can interact with our videos, you can interact with different stories, and then different games as well.

So you have all these different things where you can see and do, which makes it really good for all age types.

You have the young kids who want something that they can engage with, and then we have the history piece where we can tell the story of SPAM, and that is a little bit better for the older generations.

But truly it brings people together, because when they come into the museum, no matter what the age group, they can have fun while still learning.

- How many employees are here?

- We have 19 employees.

- And some of them are- - SPAMbassadors.

- There you go.

- You gotta love that, right?

- And sometimes there's samples on a platter?

- Yes.

SPAMples.

See, I just have fun with it.

So we take a little cube of SPAM, we cook it up in our fryer, and then we put in a pretzel.

We serve our 10+ varieties of SPAM throughout the museum to guests all day long.

- And of course, as we mentioned, there's many different products that the company has, and some of them are actually on display here as well.

- Yes, so we talk about the 44+ brands that the company owns.

We do a...

It's really important for people to see it's not just SPAM.

SPAM is a legacy brand, that's with Hormel Chili, Dinty Moore Stew, Mary Kitchen Hash, those are the brands that kind of started the company off.

And then from there we have just grown and grown.

Planters was our last acquisition in 2022.

'21, I'm sorry.

So we've had it now for two years, and we purchased that with Corn Nuts and Cheez Balls.

So that is another addition to that protein-based family of nut products that we have that include Skippy Peanut Butter and Justin's Nut Butter.

- Saville, the company has also been very involved with the University of Minnesota and The Hormel Institute.

- Yes.

- Can you just tell us a little bit about that?

- So we are just so thrilled that The Hormel Institute exists in Austin, Minnesota.

Like, that is such an incredible feat, for the company to have this multimillion dollar building that has the scientists with brains that are just so incredibly smart that are able to come and do the cancer research.

Now, the institute started in 1941, and it actually started to study how food interacted with the body.

And they're the ones who then discovered omega-3s, omega-6s, and truly be able to kind of break down the study of food within the body.

It then changed to a cancer research facility in the late '80s, early '90s and since then has just really been able to focus on how to tell the story of breaking down the barriers that people face when it comes to fighting cancer.

- A very worthy cause.

- Yes.

- And of course, speaking of worthy organizations and causes, The Hormel Foundation in this community has donated literally millions of dollars to The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, Riverland Community College, and many other good causes.

- Yes.

- And that's something that people don't always recognize.

- They don't, and, you know, it is just amazing how lucky we are to have that in our community.

There are very few other communities that have the strength of something like the foundation in their community to help them grow.

I mean, we have now the YMCA building, we have the new MacPhail Center for Music building that has just been redone, to have kinda the seed money to get those programs started, to get those projects started and then to be able to blossom from there just truly sets our town up for success.

And then we're able to do other work outside of that.

- You do such a good job, thank you for that.

- Thank you.

You're very welcome.

- And thanks for today's interview.

- You're welcome!

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm Connections."

- [Announcer] "Farm Connections" Best Practices brought to you by Absolute Energy.

(warmhearted music) - I'm Nathan Drewitz, your local extension educator for crops in Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties, and this is today's Best Practices segment.

Today, we're gonna talk a little bit about drought-stressed corn grain and corn silage and taking those for forage sources here in late summer/early fall.

In this case here, most of us, especially here in Central Minnesota where I'm currently standing, but all over the state, we're currently seeing the effects of drought stress on both corn grain fields and corn silage fields, and so we need to be prepared to deal with this, especially in terms of how we're gonna handle this at this fall when we go to harvest.

So the first consideration, the first thing we need to be looking at is evaluating the field as a whole.

So in this case here, we have corn at three different stages and three different levels of growth.

We have the really short stuff, this is the stuff that's actually not under the irrigation pivot, and that's what's currently all around me here.

And this is really, you're seeing a lot of burnt, you're seeing a lot of flaring up.

And so we need to keep that in mind.

Once you start getting a little closer to the irrigation pivot, we start noticing that we start seeing tassels as well as ears that are coming into play as well as on the stuff under the irrigation pivot itself, where while we're still seeing some of that flaring up due to nitrate concerns as well as the heat that we've had and the lack of moisture, we are still seeing quite a nice ear, and that will help us out as we get ready to harvest the stuff for forage.

So in the case here, what we're really looking for is those corn plants that do have an ear attached to them.

And what we're gonna be looking for is whether they pollinated or not.

And so in this case, what we're gonna wanna do is we're gonna pull back those husks, we're gonna turn that ear on its side, and we're gonna wanna give it a light shake.

The idea here is that if the silks fall off of that corn cob relatively easily, that indicates pollination.

If it doesn't, that indicates that it's not pollinated.

Relatively simple.

In this instance here, if we do have a ear that has been pollinated, we are going to try to get that ear and let that ear develop for as long as we can, as that will help us store a lot of the nutrient and help bring up the forage quality in that silage at the end of the season.

The big thing here is that with drought stress, we actually don't see necessarily a drop in forage quality as long as we have that ear.

We don't necessarily see that drop in forage quality, but we are gonna see that drop in actual yields.

And so when we're looking to harvest this stuff, we will have a much tighter margin for error this year in harvesting corn silage versus previous years, including the grain, and this is why making sure that we are actually testing our corn silage and corn grain if you're looking for it for the whole plant moisture, so that way we harvest it at the right moisture for the proper storage unit that you have.

For this area, typically when I think of harvesting for bags or bunkers, we're thinking that 65% to 70% moisture.

For upright silos, we're thinking in terms of the 60% to 65% moisture.

So when we're looking at corn moisture in this case, there are a few different ways that you could do that.

My personal favorite is using the Koster Tester that I have, but for most of you, if you're doing this on a farm, you could do this with a microwave oven or a dehydrator or, you know, any form along those lines that you might have on the farm to help you dry that plant biomass out.

And really what you're looking at is that fraction that dries out versus the fraction that remains.

I will caution that if you're using something like a microwave oven, or an actual microwave itself, that you make sure you don't cook the silage when you're testing it.

Of course, the second option is to go ahead and send that into a lab and have them run the samples for moisture as well, and that will give you an idea as to where you're currently at.

The next consideration is probably the most important one, and that is on nitrates.

So one of the things that we have happen with the corn silage when it's drought stressed like this is we do have accumulations of nitrates, especially in that lower third of that plant.

And this is important because nitrates can cause issues or even death in livestock as we go along here.

In this instance here, if you're gonna be harvesting especially a lot of this shorter stuff and we haven't had any rain and you haven't had any rain in a while, you may not necessarily care too much about taking a nitrate sample prior to feeding and prior to harvest, but you will wanna collect a nitrate sample and submit that to your local lab once you get ready to feed that out.

And that's mainly because the ensiling process that corn silage goes through will remove between 30% and 50% of the nitrates in that corn silage.

The other aspects that we need to be thinking about as well is that if you do have a field where you are concerned about nitrates, you can run that through before you harvest and get a nitrate level for that, and then you can also adjust then that cutting height as you see fit.

In the case of a lot of our silage this year, I think we're gonna be looking at a lot of, or we will be looking at a lot of growers who are gonna be trying to get as much out of the fields as possible.

And so that might not be feasible, but again, there are options there if you do need to reduce the nitrate concentration in these tissues.

The final thing that we need to be looking at is if you are in a situation where you are going to be harvesting some of this corn for silage earlier than you would expect, in some cases, I know in the central parts of Morrison County as well as chunks of Stearns County here, we have had some fields that are being opened up, you will wanna make sure that you check the label on any pesticides that have been sprayed over the course of the season and make sure that you're following the harvest restriction intervals for those particular pesticides.

I'm Nathan Drewitz, University of Minnesota extension educator for Stearns, Benton, and Morrison Counties, and this has been today's Best Practices segment.

- Welcome to "Farm Connections."

We're in a wonderful spot in Mower County talking to Jamison Schneckloth about careers and leadership inside of the window of agriculture.

Welcome to "Farm Connections."

- Thanks for having me, Dan.

- Certainly, you have a storied history, and here you are in a great position as an agronomist.

How did this all start?

- Yeah, so I grew up on my family's farm with my dad here north of Grand Meadow.

And growing up, I always loved riding around tractors and following my dad around.

And ever since then, I just got a fondness for agriculture, and it just blossomed from there.

So throughout high school, got involved with FFA, got a lot of leadership opportunities, got a lot of opportunities to see agriculture in a much bigger scale, and that really shot me off into the course into my career where I'm at today.

So I ended up going off to college at South Dakota State University where I got a Bachelor's Degree in Agronomy and then an ag business minor also.

And with that, I decided once I was done I'd had enough of South Dakota, I wanted to come home to Mower County, and I started being an agronomist.

And with that, I've learned a lot of valuable information and I've kept my agricultural roots close to home.

One of the biggest things for me, though, has been my connection with Farm Bureau and seeing the bigger picture with agriculture since then.

- Well, it's really significant and noteworthy for me because I do remember when working with your mom and dad, Gary and Debilee Schneckloth, at Grand Meadow in the Farm Management Program at Riverland Community College in Southland, I do remember seeing you as a young man and watching you grow through that, so this is really heartwarming for me, and thanks for agreeing to the interview.

So back in high school, did you take high school ag also?

- We did, we had different classes for agriculture, and they were all kinda mixed between definitions of what they were, you know, between shop class, and there's agriculture class and leadership classes for that, but yeah.

- [Dan] And FFA.

- Yup.

- So why did you select South Dakota State University for your studies?

- It was really different at the time, and I thought that it would be neat to get away and learn a new experience, so.

- And you came back, but you said you had enough of South Dakota, moved back.

- Yeah.

- But didn't you bring a very valuable friend with?

- Absolutely, so after my time out there, that is where I now found my wife, and then, bless her, that's where I got married at, back here, brought her here, and we now live close to home, so.

- Lizzie?

- Yep.

- Yeah, so how does South Dakota feel about this transfer of smarts and good looks?

- Ah, they lost out on that one.

- (chuckles) Yeah.

And you won, and so did we as a community.

So thanks for being here but also sharing the story about leadership.

And you mentioned Farm Bureau, you mentioned FFA.

Are there any leadership development programs in that that you can recommend to others?

- Yeah, so a big one for me in being a part of Farm Bureau especially has been the LEAP Conference that they do annually.

So the Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee that they call it, every year, picks a location throughout the state, and they try to get as many young farmers, ranchers, and people in agriculture to attend so they can pick up something valuable.

And there's a lot of workshops, seminars, there's awesome speakers, and it's really a way for young people to stay engaged in agriculture.

But also if you're not from agriculture, it's a great way to see how important ag really is to everyone.

- In FFA?

- Yeah, and FFA was the same way.

I mean, growing up through FFA, I was definitely a part of some leadership opportunities between region officers, I did a lot of crop competitions, which actually kinda spurred me into being an agronomist, so.

- A good base plus the farm.

So you still farm also, correct?

- Yes, my dad and I farm north of Grand Meadow, like I said before, and over the last few years, I've taken more of an active role in that and hope to further take that further down the lane.

- So not only do you farm, you help other farmers in the sense of agronomy.

What's special about being an agronomist and why should somebody aspire to do so?

- Well, I think it's the difference you can make that you don't necessarily see from the outside.

So, as I've said, being an agronomist to me is being a valued partner, and being that valued partner and making a difference in that farmer's operation also impacts what we do, you know, between food and clothing and everything else that we depend on agriculture for.

And that to me is a big difference-maker, and I appreciate every second of it.

- If farmers don't get a good crop, if they're not profitable, what happens to them?

What happens to their family?

What happens to the community?

- Yeah, ultimately they start suffering.

And the same with local communities.

You know, as smaller farmers or as farmers in general start struggling and they may have to give up, it may get outsourced to larger corporations, it may harm our local communities, and it may not be the best for everyone.

- In your case, you needed a Bachelor's of Science to become an agronomist with CHS.

- Yes.

It wasn't needed, but it was preferred.

And so anyone that wants to get into the agronomy field, it doesn't necessarily come down to having a training, but more or less I define as having experience.

Experience that shows that you're able to make adjustments, you'll be able to communicate, and you're able to have that goal with the farmer and be able to have that conversation and be able to use that for the best of their operation.

- Well, there's an extremely intense growing season in Minnesota, and it's short.

Things have to be done just right, don't they?

- Absolutely.

- So agronomy becomes very important and agronomists become very important.

What would you say was your largest success story?

- In this spring?

- Yeah.

- I would say my largest success story this spring was giving the advice, we had an early planting window this year, and I gave some advice to growers to plant through it.

And currently right now, it got cold afterwards, everyone's lenient, and something that is the best-looking corn they've had on their farm.

And I've gotten comments about it and they appreciate it.

- So over your career as an agronomist, what's been the most exciting or rewarding thing you've done over the whole time?

- To sum it up in a general idea, I've had it multiple times, but the most rewarding thing is when I've sat down with a farmer, and they said, "Hey, I wanna reach 240 bushel corn or 250 or 230.

And we sit there and we tweak the fertility recs, the chemical recs, and everything else.

And riding in that combine in the fall and seeing that go across the yield monitor is one of the most rewarding things I've had in my career.

- Excellent.

What other advice can you give to young people looking at careers or post-secondary education or anything about agriculture?

- I would definitely say not to look past it.

It is one of the most, to me personally, it's one of the most rewarding things, as we just said, but there's a lot of deeper meaning in agriculture and a lot of things that you find out more about yourself in doing these careers than you probably never would've imagined.

- Is technology increasing in agriculture or going a different direction?

- Technology is very, very quickly becoming the norm in agriculture, and for the better.

I mean, it's helping us get more efficient with crop placement, with nutrient uptake, with chemical applications, and with the fertility applications.

- And would you say that young people are getting the right education to be positioned to help in agriculture at this time?

- Absolutely.

So even if you don't have a degree in agriculture, if you've been working on drones, if you've been working on anything in the technology or the software development, you know, there's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes with us, with scouting fields, with drones, or using software to develop soil samples or fertility recommendations that they are more than qualified to be using in those career fields.

- Jamison, this is so interesting and inspiring.

Thank you for your time.

- Thanks for having me, Dan.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm Connections."

That's gonna do it from here today.

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

(warmhearted music) (bright music)