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

I'm your host, Dan Hoffman.

On today's episode, we attend a weed management seminar in Austin.

We discuss the importance of properly handling weeds and maintaining your crops with weed expert Dorian Gatchell.

We then discuss the importance of educational seminars and community engagement with seminar organizer Danielle Anderson, all here today on "Farm Connections."

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

- [Announcer 1] Farm Connections' premier sponsor is Minnesota Corn.

- [Announcer 2] Programming supported by 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.

- [Announcer 1] Additional support from the following sponsors.

- [Announcer 2] Programming supported by 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.

- [Announcer 3] Programming supported by 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 2] Mower County Farm Bureau Association, a KSMQ broadcast sponsor, 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.

- [Announcer 1] Program supported by employee-owned AgVantage Software, Rochester, Minnesota, celebrating their 50th year designing and developing agribusiness software for grain elevators, feed manufacturers, producers, fertilizer and chemical dealers, co-ops, seed companies, and fuel distributors.

(bright pleasant music) - Welcome to "Farm Connections."

We're in Austin, Minnesota, at the Mower County Fairgrounds, and with me today is Dorian Gatchell.

Dorian, welcome to our show.

- Yeah, thank you for having me.

Well, you're a weed expert for sure.

We just heard you present to a group of farmers.

What's going on in your world?

- With weeds, lots of things are going on, or maybe I should say lots of things are not happening.

We're having a increasing issue with weed control.

We seems like we're relying more and more just on the herbicide or the chemistry side for IPM, we're missing a lot of the cultural, biological, other aspects of what we can do for weed control, and as a result, we're getting what we, well, what we deserve, I guess, by relying on the one management tactic only.

- Sadly.

- Yes.

- You mentioned IPM, can you elaborate on that acronym just a bit?

- Okay.

IPM, integrated pest management.

The best way I can describe it is that it is just using multiple tactics to manage weeds.

And I'm gonna try to say manage instead of control, because I don't know if there is actually a way to fully control them.

We're just gonna manage them the best way we can.

But yeah, we, I mean we got chemistry as far, we have cultural practices.

We can use crop rotations, mechanical control.

We have some biological things that we can do to help with weed control and sadly, we kind of forget about those other sides of it and rely wholly on the, on the herbicides.

And that's the issue we're facing and what we're addressing today.

- Could possibly one of the bad side effects be resistance in weeds to certain...?

- Probably the worst side effect.

Yes.

And that's what we're seeing mostly.

And as I had talked about today, it's primarily with water-hemp, one of our most troublesome weeds.

And hey, I mentioned today that there's probably people in the audience today that are gonna have to learn how to control, to manage water-hemp without herbicides.

And sadly, I think that's true the direction we're going.

- Well, for our audience especially, why do farmers not like weeds?

- How do I answer that?

They don't like weeds because they are causing them yield drag.

They can harbor other pests that will affect the cash crop.

They're an economic nuisance, is the best thing about it, I mean, is the best way to describe them.

- So possibly if a farmer doesn't control weeds, he's not gonna get a yield- - He's not gonna get as good of a yield as he should expect.

- And he might actually have losses instead of profits.

- Could have losses.

And probably will have losses.

- Our equipment has certainly improved over the years, but I remember seeing large fields that are weed-infested, messing up some very expensive machinery.

- Yes.

- You know, as the weed seeds get on the walkers and the combine, for example- - Yes, they can take out bearings if they wrap up on bearings.

This last season we had a lot worse weed control simply because of our weather.

It was just the environment, it was nobody's fault really.

It's just we couldn't do what we were supposed to do when we were supposed to do it.

And lots of farms or lots of soybean fields were probably delayed in harvest because that green weed was out there inhibiting, combining.

- Well, you talked a lot about integrated pest management and the things that might go into that.

How does the soil impact weed control?

- Well, it's not just about integrating different management tactics.

It's about understanding how those tactics work and how they interact with each other, is one of the things I had mentioned is that weeds have their own life cycle.

Some weeds will survive in a particular soil type.

Some will be more inhibited in a certain soil type.

So understanding that in the biology and the lifecycle of that weed will help you understand better how to control it.

You know, so where does the soil come into if that soil is not creating an environment for that weed to thrive, the weed's not gonna thrive.

And a good example of that, as I was talking to one of the participants here earlier, is that in a conventional till system, it seems like we are more and more seeing weed infestations at multiple growth stage.

You know, a truly two-inch weed and a six-inch weed.

Well, that two-inch weed, that six-inch weed are going to be way different in control with a herbicide.

But I do seem to see in conservation tillage, more often all the weeds are in a more uniform growth stage, which just makes herbicides work better.

And any other tactic as far as that goes.

- You also talked in your presentation about the high winds that came through the area where you farm and the consequences of what happened based on root structure and soil structure.

- Oh, I love that story.

Yes.

And I believe it was in 2020.

We had a windstorm that come through.

We had upwards of a hundred mile an hour winds as I remember.

Devastating.

It was a fairly small geographic area, but we were right in the bullseye of it.

And immediately after, we seen a lot of weird patterns in the fields where crop was standing in some areas, crop was down in some areas.

We've seen a lot of wheel tracks where the crop was still standing.

And patterns, you could see the, actually, you could see the wheel track patterns, sometimes multiple patterns in the same field.

Well, why is that?

And then I went and looked at some other fields where the entire field looked like the wind had never even come through.

Well, that is interesting.

- And what was different?

- What was different?

Well, it wasn't the crop that failed.

It was the soil that failed.

My opinion on what had happened is that, you know, these fields are tilled so heavily that there was very little soil structure for that root to hold onto.

So when that wind come through, I guess, think of it as a tree, you know, when a tree comes down, you get that whole root ball that comes up with it, you know, and that's what had happened with these plants.

Now the question is, is why did those plants stand in the wheel track?

Well, if these fields are really heavily tilled and then all of a sudden those stands, the wheel tracks are still supporting a crop, it's like, well, it's compacted.

Well, no, compaction is actually a negative soil connotation.

More bulk density there.

It had something for those roots to hold onto so that when the winds come, you know, the roots were holding onto the soil, the plant was swaying, the soil was probably ebbing and flowing with that, but it was able to stand.

Then when I go to strip-till fields and right next to it, the corn was flat, and this was in August.

And if you've been out in the field in August trying to pull a corn plant out of the ground, it's impossible.

Well, I was out there able to hold a camera in one hand and hold a, grab a stalk of corn with the other and just gently pull it out.

The plant was fine.

It was the soil that failed in this case, it wasn't- - And that was on the conventional tillage.

- And that was, I mean, it was the strip-till that actually stood, it was the conventional tillage that failed, and that's where I was able to pull it out, yes.

- So what is the difference between conventional and minimum or reduced tillage?

- Well, I don't wanna get caught up in terminology, but conventional tillage is where we will typically do a tillage pass in the fall to manage residue.

Well, I'm, actually this, maybe we should start with why are we tilling.

You know, tillage is not necessarily soil management, it's residue management.

You know, we usually will do a tillage pass in the fall to bury that residue or at least throw a little bit of soil around to help facilitate breakdown over winter.

And then we come back in the spring, we'll do another tillage pass, maybe even more than one tillage pass to be able to make a nice seed bed to be able to plant.

Reduced till is farmers that are doing something to be able to eliminate all or some of those tillage passes.

Strip-till is a marriage of both, where they're only tilling a, about an eight to a nine inch strip through the field, and that's where they plant.

And again, by pictures, that's where the rest of the field that, or the rest of that strip that was not tilled, had really good structure plant was able to hold onto it.

- You seem like you really enjoy your work.

What's the most enjoyable part of it?

- I think the most interesting part of all of this, especially recent in the past few years, is actually watching the change.

There's more and more growers that are actually wanting to adopt, look at some of these conservation practices, and look at the agronomy holistically.

You know, if I'm going to reduce tillage, okay, what else is gonna happen?

Well, we're gonna have weed shifts, we're gonna have to look at the plant or how that operates.

And it's going through that whole process with some of these farmers.

It's not just, okay, what should I plant?

How much fertilizer do I put down?

You know, when should I spray?

I mean, it's a whole, holistic look at the life cycle of growing that crop, which is an interesting conversation.

- Well, farmers have to be smart, they have to be resilient, and they have to plan for the future.

What can they expect for rewards if they follow some of these good conservation practices?

- Well, just repeating what farmers have told me.

Some of them are doing it because dad or father-in-law is getting up in age and can't spend the time in the tillage tractor in the fall.

So they're looking for a way to, you know, replace that lost labor.

Getting farm help is tough.

So they're trying to farm on their own, so they're eliminating that pass.

I guess the economics of it, it's different for everybody, but hey, if you're not spending the fuel, if you're not spending the wear and tear on the tractor, that all adds up, you know, and the biggest benefit in most people are telling me is that's why they're doing it.

It's just, it's an economic move.

They're looking to be spending less time doing this, they're looking to spend less time raising the same crop.

Now there are other farmers who are looking at it solely as an environmental impact.

They're trying to reduce their footprint on the farm and less fertilizer, less tillage pass, less herbicide passes.

You know, that all plays in there too.

- Certainly worthy goals.

- Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

- Dorian, what's your hope that becomes of the work you do with farm families?

- I'll answer that in two ways.

What my hope isn't is that they just do what I say to do.

But what I hope that they do is take the information I'm giving 'em, adapt that to what fits within their management, within their system, and be able to improve that, and hopefully make that system more viable to pass on to their next generation.

- When you look back over your career, can you think of a success story that you'd like to share?

- Again, I'm gonna go back to that story I was sharing in the presentation about the wind and the corn tipping over.

That was two years after transition into strip-till.

I mean, it was an immediate return on their management change.

That's great.

- Very visible.

- Yeah, very visible.

Hard to put a dollar amount on, you know.

But when this grower was actually able to combine because his corn was standing, in his mind, there's a big value to that.

It actually turned out to be kind of a wet fall.

He was combining when his neighbors weren't able to, because their neighbor's soil was too loose.

He was not pulling mud up onto the road.

Like I say, it's hard to put a dollar figure on all that, but there's definitely a value.

- And did his peers, other neighbors, other farmers witness that and make some changes in their operations?

- Neighbors seen it, definitely.

Did they make changes?

Not always.

You know, and the reason some make changes and some don't, are very nuanced, you know.

There's a lot of reasons why people aren't able, aren't willing to make those changes.

And it's different for everybody.

- If we want different results and we do the same thing year after year, we might not get change.

- That's true.

Yes.

- Dorian, what do you hope the future is in agriculture as influenced by the work you've done?

- My hope is, and more of a short term than a long term hope is that I hope to keep seeing these changes come, whether they are influenced from what I did or other colleagues.

As long as there is change, I think we're always gonna be heading in the right direction and making improvements and learning to adjust from those improvements.

- Great advice.

Dorian, thanks for sharing with us today.

- Thank you for having me.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm Connections."

(gentle soothing music) (gentle soothing music continues) Welcome to "Farm Connections."

I'm Dan Hoffman, and we traveled to Austin, Minnesota, to the Mower County Fairgrounds.

And with me today is Danielle Anderson.

Danielle, thanks for joining us.

- Yes, thank you for coming.

We appreciate it.

- Well, you work for Mower County.

What do you do there?

- You know, I wear multiple different hats, but one of my favorite ones is a county ag inspector and Mower County feedlot officer.

I do help out sometimes in recycling with household hazardous waste, but my main priority for the county is a feedlot officer and county ag inspector.

- All those sound like very interesting jobs.

- Yes.

I enjoy both of them.

When it comes to the ag inspector, you know, we're focusing on your noxious weed, how do we control them, how do we, you know, it's not all about eradicating them, it's about how to control them and use them to our benefit in the environment.

Feedlot side, you know, water quality, that's our main push on the feedlot side.

- All those are very interesting topics.

They can also be a little bit tough sometimes, can't they?

- Yeah, it's very tough.

Environment plays a huge role.

You know, economics play a huge role, even technology and how we're changing the future and you know, we're always trying to better and go forward in the future.

So everything's changing and you have to learn that.

And it's different, and you know, you're getting older generations, new generations, everything is, that is evolving.

And not just the people, but your animals, your plants, everything is changing, and you have to kind of combine that together.

And I'm here to help educate, to help others see where is needed for change.

- Well, and certainly your work impacts the environment.

- Absolutely, like I said on the, you know, ag inspector side, we talked about noxious weed and weed management and how we can help soil health.

And if we have good soil, that's giving back not only to us as humans, but to our agriculture in the aspects of food and our animals.

And you know, if we can keep that soil healthy, it's gonna give back to us more than we can even imagine.

- And I'm so happy that our county commissioners have decided to invest in that because that's our tax base too.

There's a lot of revenue that comes back so that our county can do the things it needs to do.

- Yeah, absolutely.

You know, speaking of that, you know, that's how we got this grant through MDA and we're allowed to put on this weed management workshop.

And the biggest thing is outreach education.

Give people an opportunity to hear from multiple different others who are doing and implementing different strategies, different practices.

Get them an opportunity to take something home to their own farm and try it.

If it works, great.

If it doesn't, maybe they come back, learn something new and do a different opportunity.

- So you bring some credibility to this job as a beef and crop farmer.

Can you tell us a little bit about your farm?

- Yeah, so at home I actually farm over in Olmsted County.

Love it over there, but love working in Mower County with producers over here, they're just as great.

We do run a cow-calf operation, me and my husband.

We're running about 60 head of cows.

We do row crop.

Main focus is your corn, soybeans, but we do do alfalfa.

We mix in some cover crops, winter rye, anything like that that we can double get benefit from, right?

So we can use it to benefit soil, but we're also getting it to as a feed source for cattle to graze on.

So that's kind of what we are trying to do for ours.

- And in today's meeting, you must have had some goals in mind.

What did you hope that farmers and landowners left the meeting with?

- You know, my goal is you see a lot of conventional guys, right, and you see guys who wanna go organic.

They're super good pros on both sides of it.

My goal is to be able to, both people can see both sides of it and work with each other to go home to their own farms and know that it's not a one fix all, right?

They've said it today multiple times.

Tools in your toolbox.

And that's not just going down to how you farm, it it's everyday life.

It doesn't matter if it's row crop farm or if you're raising livestock or if you're in the medical field.

You gotta be able to pull any tool out and use it.

And I hope that's what people can take away from this meeting, is multiple different things that they've been able to put now in their toolbox, take home and try it on their own farms.

- Great thoughts.

And we know that biology and weeds and agronomy, things change, and they don't stay the same.

So it seems like one of the themes is resilience, taking many tools in the toolbox and making something good happen.

Is that an accurate thought?

- Absolutely.

I couldn't agree more.

I mean, we see it on our own farm.

One day you might go use one practice the next it, it doesn't work.

You have to think outside of the box, try something different.

It doesn't matter if you're, you know, applying manure as your fertilizer.

It might work one day and the next day you might not be able to get out there.

So you have to think of a different way to get that manure spread or make sure you're able to hold it at your farm.

Or, you know, depending on what the weather is, you might not be able to use a certain crop.

You might have to change your, you know, seed that you use depending on, oh, we've had a really bad wet year, or we need to think differently on how we're going to move forward with our farming for that year.

And year to year is different.

So yeah, I mean, you gotta be able to adapt and change.

And I just think that's the greatest thing about being in this type of setting with the producers we have, it's phenomenal.

- We brought some great experts together today.

How did you get them here?

- You know, I had some calls come in about, you know, how can we better my neighbor's field, let's say to say, right, we're running into some weed issues over there and I just, you know, I'm concerned about it maybe coming on my property.

And I agree, I said, that's a fair point.

I said, you know, I'm gonna reach out to a beef producer, which is Tom Cotter.

And I said, I know you're an organic farmer, and I'd just like some input.

And he's like, you know, "Maybe we should put on a weed workshop."

He said, you know, "I work with Minnesota Soil Health Coalition and you know, we'd be willing to team up."

And I was flabbergasted.

I was very excited about that.

I knew that I had this grant opportunity coming through MDA, I knew I wanted to apply for it, and I figured this would be just a perfect scenario to be able to get the right speakers, get good speakers, get people who are enthusiastic about what they're preaching to other people, you know, and showing the facts, right?

And they are excited about it and excited to teach people.

And that's how it all started, you know, I talked with Tom, and Tom got me in connections with Mark, and we just kept steamrolling ideas and producers and they asked, they were asking me, you know, what's my, what do I want for this, you know, weed workshop, and management was my biggest push, and and I think they've done a great job.

- Certainly have.

And the audience participation with questions is notable.

- [Danielle] Yeah.

- What's your hope that essentially happens from the work you do in Mower County?

- Biggest thing is we always wanna better the environment, right?

We only got the land we have, we have to best use it for what we got it.

We need to be able to make as much as we can off of it, but also make sure we keep it healthy.

And I think as a feedlot officer and ag inspector, we can work together, we can do that.

We need to have good water quality, but we also need to have good soil health.

And by able being able to do both of those, we are going to be able to flourish on the land that we have left.

And I, you know, everyone knows that the crop land, it's diminishing, right?

You know, the amount of cattle and livestock in the United States is going down in numbers.

So we need to be able to flourish on what we have now.

And I think that's just the biggest aspect that I hope I can do for my job, is to help educate and outreach to others how important it is that we need to have good water quality to better, you know, water... Every animal needs water.

All of us people need water.

All the plants need water.

We gotta have good water quality.

And if we can keep that soil health healthy, we're gonna be growing as the best crops we can, and also, you know, growing crops to feed them animals.

So I think that's the biggest push that I wanna give in my industry that I do for work.

- Excellent.

And thanks for the meeting and also sharing today, Danielle.

- Yes.

Thank you, Dan.

- That does it for now.

I'm Dan Hoffman.

Thanks for joining us here on "Farm Connections."

(bright pleasant music) (bright pleasant music continues) (bright pleasant music continues) (bright pleasant music continues) (bright pleasant music continues) (bright pleasant music continues) - [Announcer 1] Farm Connections' premier sponsor is Minnesota Corn.

- [Announcer 2] Programming supported by 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.

- [Announcer 1] Additional support from the following sponsors.

- [Announcer 2] Programming supported by 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.

- [Announcer 3] Programming supported by 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 2] Mower County Farm Bureau Association, a KSMQ broadcast sponsor, 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 - [Announcer 1] Program supported by employee-owned AgVantage Software, Rochester, Minnesota, celebrating their 50th year designing and developing agribusiness software for grain elevators, feed manufacturers, producers, fertilizer and chemical dealers, co-ops, seed companies, and fuel distributors.

(soft bright music)