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GreenSeam News

Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota announces Taylor Farm exhibit

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MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) – Southern Minnesota’s vast fields of corn and soybeans are about to get their close-up.

A new exhibit, Taylor Farm, at the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota, kicks off in September.

Taylor Farm aims to provide a fun and educational experience, combining modern agriculture, playful exploration and innovation.

The exhibit will also allow children to experience modern Ag practices in the hopes of building a love for the region’s agricultural heritage.

The Taylor Farm exhibit will be open to the public Sept. 21.

Click here to read the full article on KEYC.

AGCO’s Jackson, Minnesota, Facility to Become Home of Fendt in North America with the Fendt Lodge Customer Experience Center

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AGCO Corporation (NYSE: AGCO), a global leader in the design, manufacture, and distribution of agricultural machinery and precision ag technology, announced today plans to transform its Jackson, MN, customer facility into the home of its Fendt ® brand in North America. Upon its grand opening in early 2024, a new customer experience center, called the Fendt Lodge , will become the brand’s center for customer visits, launch events, dealer meetings, factory tours, and corporate gatherings. Fendt’s Rogator ® applicator and track tractors, as well as other AGCO machinery, are currently manufactured in the Jackson facility’s manufacturing component.

“Fendt is intensely focused on customer experience excellence,” said Joe DiPietro, VP of Fendt NA. “The Fendt Lodge will provide an unparalleled opportunity for our customers, dealers, and team members to come together, learn from each other, and ensure that our solutions exceed their needs. It underscores Fendt’s strong commitment to North American farmers and the Jackson community itself, where Fendt machines roll off the line every day.”

Plans for the Fendt Lodge are still being finalized, but the vast center will occupy approximately 16,000 square feet. It is designed to be a home away from home for North American farmers and styled appropriately for one of agriculture’s most exciting and cutting-edge brands. Amenities will include a hands-on history center, state-of-the-art meeting rooms, sweeping views of the factory’s assembly line, and even a coffee bar and gift shop. Though the lodge will host frequent customer, dealer, and corporate gatherings, it will also be open to the public for visitor tours.

Fendt has grown rapidly in North America, with dealership locations opening throughout the US and Canada, swiftly increasing sales, and strong brand affinity among farmers of all sizes and types. The brand offers a complete lineup of farming solutions, including tractors, planters, combines, and applicators, that frequently win the industry’s top awards for innovation and engineering excellence.

“The opening of this new customer center aligns perfectly with our ‘Grow Bold’ theme,” said DiPietro. “Fendt offers farming’s most innovative and impressive solutions, and the Fendt Lodge will provide visitors with the same experience. We’re excited to welcome farmers home to the Fendt Lodge.”

Click here to read the full article on AGCO.

U.S. Secretary Tom Vilsack hosts roundtable on Ag investments

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MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) – The Minnesota State Fair is under way and while a lot of attention goes toward the fun and entertainment – investments in agriculture remains a big part of the festivities.

On Monday, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will be traveling to Minnesota for a roundtable discussion.

Included in the meeting will be U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, State Agriculture Commissioner Thom Peterson as well as local producers, small businesses, and community leaders.

The roundtable discussion will highlight investments in rural infrastructure for the state and new income strategies for producers.

Click here to read the full article on KEYC.

Christensen Farms Donates 300 lbs. of Pork to South Central MN Food Recovery

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MANKATO, MN – GreenSeam’s annual Celebration of Ag took place on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, at ISG Field in Mankato. Christensen Farms, a prominent supporter of GreenSeam, had a booth at the event. Due to all the Celebration of Ag attendees and fans at the Mankato MoonDogs game asking agricultural and pork related questions to Christensen Farms’ team, they pledged to donate 300 lbs. of pork to South Central MN Food Recovery.

“We are honored to be able to have the opportunity to support South Central MN Food Recovery again this year and donate enough ground pork for 1200 meals, providing a key source of high-quality wholesome protein for families and individuals in need.” said Amber Portner, Communications Manager at Christensen Farms.

South Central MN Food Recovery (SCMNFR) was developed in 2019 and is designed to provide nutritious meals to families in need by using high-quality food that would otherwise be going to the landfill. SCMNFR accepts large quantities of fresh produce and meats, makes them into ready-meals, and works with partners to distribute to people who are low-income and/or Black, Indigenous, or people of color.

Trisha Anderson at South Central MN Food Recovery expressed their gratitude: “South Central MN Food Recovery is grateful for the ongoing support from Christensen Farms and the generous donation of pork provided for the second year in a row. We appreciate the partnership with Sam at GreenSeam to connect us, once again, with the wonderful opportunities to collaborate with Christensen Farms to provide healthy resources to the communities we serve through South Central MN Food Recovery. We look forward to growing this partnership with GreenSeam and Christensen Farms so we can serve more members of our community!”

Sam Ziegler, Director of GreenSeam states, “With agriculture being the leading sector in our economy, it is great to see Christensen Farms not only raising pigs in our region, but to see them feeding families in southern MN. Within the GreenSeam region, our agricultural community continues to accept the challenge of growing food for a growing population. However, to overcome this challenge, we need to continue to foster local collaborations, such as this one, in our region to ensure we take care of those in need right here in our own backyard.”

Click here to read the full article on MankatoLIFE.

SCC receives funding from Metallica’s foundation

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NORTH MANKATO — A heavy metal band’s foundation recently awarded South Central College $100,000.

SCC is among 42 community colleges that are recipients of awards from California-based Metallica’s foundation, All Within My Hands, a multimillion-dollar investment in critical workforce programs at community colleges nationwide.

“The Metallica Scholars Initiative is so important to us because we are seeing results. Five years in, with the help of community colleges across the country, we are helping people fill these essential jobs which require skills and training. We are so proud and grateful that we can facilitate this program,” Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, the band’s drummer and co-founder, stated in a press release.

“We are grateful to the Metallica Scholars Initiative for making scholarships available for these certificate programs, which enable students to become career-ready in their chosen field in a relatively short time period,” Annette Parker, president of South Central College, stated in the release. She said such programs help create an educated workforce with skills necessary to regional employers.

SCC was selected from a pool of applicants to receive funding to support students pursuing specific certificate programs in high-demand industries. The college will begin awarding the scholarships during the fall semester to new students pursuing advanced agriculture technician certificates at SCC’s North Mankato campus or machine tool technology “Right Skills Now” certificates at its Faribault campus.

More certificate programs will be eligible for the scholarship program in the spring semester.

Click here to read the full article on The Free Press.

Farmfest 2023 underway

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Farmfest 2023 is officially underway, and farmers and companies alike are discussing new developments and the future of Minnesota agriculture.

Click here to watch the full video on KEYC.

Farmfest 2023 Preview

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Farmfest 2023 is now underway! The event is the state’s largest agriculture show, and features thousands of visitors and vendors each year.

Click here to watch the full video on KEYC.

Camp Ignite offers ag and STEM perspective to summer learning

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It’s not every day elementary students get to learn how to program a robot, but this week, incoming second graders Aizley Koecheler, Tyeler Richie and Kate Fredrickson got to do just that at the Mankato district’s Camp Ignite.

It’s a new camp that takes a reimagined approach to the district’s summer targeted services by offering kids hands-on experiences in agriculture and STEM.

While the district has targeted services every year to help kids stay up to date on subjects like reading and math, Camp Ignite offers kids who have gone through a referral process the opportunity to take field trips that tie those subjects to both ag and STEM, and social and emotional learning.

During their off-site experience at the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota Tuesday, the students and their classmates made KIBO robots spin, sing and more by scanning barcodes to give the robot directions.

“It went back, forwards, it spinned, it kept on spinning and then it stopped,” Aizley said, adding that it was fun to watch the bots move.

“We got to press the green triangle, and then we had to clap in the ear and then it moved,” Kate added.

Camp Ignite administrative intern Oscar Andrade Lara said the camp is primarily focused around community partnerships that offer students both on- and off-site experiences related to the learning that happens in the classroom.

He added that community partners were chosen based on industries prevalent in the Mankato area.

“One of the things that we thought about at the start was, Mankato’s such an agriculture-rich community, and so that’s what we chose to start with this year,” he said.

“All of the students have gotten a feel for what the agriculture community around us is, and then from that, what other partners can we collaborate with to focus on 21st century skills,” he added.

Other field trips and on-site experiences have included students taking a trip to MEI-Total Elevator Solutions to learn the math behind how an elevator works and working with the Minnesota Department of Transportation to learn about the inner workings of a city.

“They had the opportunity (with MnDOT) to play different roles, one of them being site manager that read a manual so other students could build a bridge. That literacy component of understanding tough words, working through it, problem solving and then understanding the mathematics behind the strength of a triangle is critical,” Lara said.

Students also have gotten to take field trips to agriculture sites such as Christensen Farms in Sleepy Eye.

Skills are also tied into activities like coding the robots.

Kim Kleven, vice president of play and learning at the museum, said teamwork was a large component of the coding activity.

“Really what we want for children to get out of this is learning a process, following directions and seeing that they cause an effect … and how they can make the robot respond,” she said.

Kids were invited to participate this summer based on screeners the school district traditionally hands out to evaluate academic and social and emotional needs.

About 500 students from those who have completed kindergarten all the way to fifth grade going into sixth were attending the camp, which wrapped up Thursday.

Click the link here to read the full article on The Free Press.

Talent in the GreenSeam: Now is a challenging time for pork production

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The last two years have not been easy on meat. Pork has had a harder time bouncing back in the post-covid market than its beef and poultry counterparts. The price of pork finished 2022 at just over $5.00 per pound, more than a 30 percent increase since the beginning of 2020. As consumers opt out of pork in favor of cheaper proteins, producers face the challenge of repositioning in a hostile market.

In GreenSeam’s 2023 State of Ag survey, more than 300 respondents — all with connections to agriculture — were asked to select four issues that most affect their business’ ability to grow. Out of the 11 issues presented, consumer demand took third place, following talent and public policy. Optimistic respondents recognized the opportunity to “capitalize on the market for local foods as people want to know where their food comes from.” (Complete results of the survey can be found at www.greenseam.org/stateofag.)

Unfortunately, consumer demand can also present the threat of not meeting supply.

Exporting more pork could alleviate the surplus. Jason Ward is a market analyst and managing director for North Star Commodity in downtown Minneapolis. He spoke at the BankIn Minnesota Ag Conference in Mankato this past June. “Pork producers are experiencing losses of $15 to $28 per pig. We need help in this sector that can only come from cheaper prices. I am hopeful China will start importing more pork.”

Ward forecasts exports should see a rise by late fall, ebbing the oversupply and minimizing the need for producers to scale down.

Pork is not the only consumer good that has seen historically high prices in the last three years of Covid-related supply chain issues and runaway inflation; but many suspect there is more at work with pork prices. “Larger members of the pork supply chain are artificially inflating the price of pork”, says James Gordon, market president for Pioneer Bank in Mapleton.

Last September, the federal court in Minneapolis approved two major consumer class price-fixing settlements against JBS and Smithfield Foods — two of the largest pork producers in the country — totaling 95 million dollars.

Large producers do not likely bear full fault for price hikes as companies like Tyson and Smithfield have had to significantly downsize their pork operations since 2022 (according to the Wall Street Journal). The impact of high input costs and decreased demand have made a significant local impact with the Hylife Foods pork plant closure in Windom, Minn. in April of this year.

Small producers are forced to scale up cut costs wherever possible. Jace Vetter, a hog farmer in Kasota, Minn., is faced with repositioning his farm to keep up with production cost increases. “We probably won’t be farrowing for much longer because it’s not feasible. Large operations have more sows than the number of finishers we put out in a year. We plan to add a few barns and focus on just finishers.”

Consumer demand for pork has dipped while prices continue to soar. For a silver lining, prices are expected to roll off in 2023 and producers can look forward to increased exports to China by late fall. The losses sustained on each pig will likely lead to some restructuring in the industry — including downsizing and specializing. In the meantime, the best thing for everyone to do is eat more pork and continue supporting pork producers.

GreenSeam believes that working together as an agricultural community helps us better navigate the challenges in our industry and attract more people to consider careers in agriculture, food and natural resources. GreenSeam Economic Development Coordinator Holly Callaghan can be reached via email at hcallaghan@greenseam.org.

Click here to read the full article on The Land.

Farmamerica: Grounds for learning in the GreenSeam

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“Nothing compares to hands-on learning. Textbooks cannot replicate in-field learning experiences.” – Megan Roberts, Ed. D., Executive Director of Minnesota State Southern Agricultural Center of Excellence.

Certain topics lend themselves better than others to traditional classroom learning styles. Agronomy, plant and soil science are more effectively learned and experienced in a real-world, outdoor environment. We at Farmamerica couldn’t agree more, which is why we have been exploring collaborative research opportunities with non-land grant higher-education universities and colleges to help their students and researchers have access to in-field experiences.

Farmamerica is Minnesota’s 45-year-old agricultural interpretive center. Located near Waseca, Minn., Farmamerica utilizes historic buildings, modern ag exhibits, and over 200 acres of farmland to connect Minnesotans to the evolving story of agriculture. Through partnerships, field trips, guided tours, and public events, Farmamerica strives to help Minnesotans discover that the agriculture industry is part of the solution to the food, fiber, energy, and environmental challenges we face today.

 

Farmamerica is a Water Quality Certified Farm through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, with endorsements for wildlife and integrated pest management. A portion of its its acreage is utilized by Crystal Valley for their agronomic and seed genetic research. Over 100 of those acres recently became a Discovery Farm Minnesota site where new controlled drainage structures will help students, farmers, researchers and consumers understand the impact and benefits of managing the timing and amount of water discharged by agricultural drainage systems.

The Minnesota Agricultural Water Resource Center helped secure grant funding from the Natural Resource Conservation Service to install over 20 miles of drainage tile, four controlled drainage structures, and four automated monitoring stations on 114 acres of Farmamerica farmland. This new tile system connects to the recently updated Waseca County Ditch 19 tile system which drains into a holding pond downstream before traveling further in the Le Sueur River Watershed.

Discovery Farms Minnesota is a farmer-led initiative to gather real-world water quality information from different farming systems across Minnesota. Their goal, stated on their website discoveryfarmsmn.org, is to provide “practical, credible, site-specific information to enable better farm management.”  Currently, on-farm data is being collected in real time from five other Minnesota farms. But none are tracking controlled water drainage in southern Minnesota. Farmamerica will now serve as an elite demonstration and evaluation site for drainage water management (controlled drainage) in the GreenSeam. The public can monitor the quantity and quality of water leaving these farms online at mda.onerain.com/dashboard/list.

 

The data collected will illustrate the effectiveness of controlled drainage in southern Minnesota cropland. It will also show how proper tile drainage can slow the flow of excess water into streams and rivers and prevent surface runoff. In addition, the data provides scientific results to help farmers and landowners make more informed decisions on how to manage water movement and nutrient applications on their farms.

Farmamerica hopes everyone in the GreenSeam benefits from partnerships like this one. Through webinars and in-person field days, events, and demonstrations of controlled drainage systems, we hope to help interested parties understand the benefits and operation of water drainage management systems.

Research results will help Farmamerica and other farmers make best management decisions. It also helps agency leaders, legislators, and consumers understand the basics of tile drainage.

Last but not least, this partnership provides in-person research and learning experiences for high schoolers, higher education students, and professors in the GreenSeam — developing future talent for the region.

Jessica Rollins is Farmamerica’s executive director and serves on the GreenSeam Regional Branding and Promotion Committee. She may be reached at jrollins@farmamerica.org.