May-June 2022 by Connect Business Magazine

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SHOULD YOU OUTSOURCE YOUR ACCOUNTING? By: Angie Ziegler, CPP | A version of this article originally appeared on eidebailly.com.

Accounting is a critical component to your ag operation. It not only tells you where your operation stands, but also allows you to make informed business decisions moving forward. When your financial information is up to date, you can make smarter, faster decisions and modifiy as needed. You can use the information to identify cash flow opportunities, cost containment strategies and your financial capacity to make business-building investments. When your financial information is out of alignment and outdated, you keep yourself at a significant disadvantage. You’re constantly working of inaccurate, aged-out information, which often leads to faulty assumptions about where you stand and what your next steps should be.

Accounting is a Guidepost

As you move forward with any next steps — whether your goal is cost containment or expanding your operation — your financials and accounting records must be top priority and they must inform your strategy. Accounting is a guidepost for how your operation is functioning. If you’re not prioritizing it and following best practices, it could guide you off course. If you optimize accounting, you optimize your operation. To get it right, there must be an individual or individuals whose primary goal is to ensure up-to-date, accurate accounting at your operation. However, it’s not always easy or within budget to hire an in-house accounting professional or team. For some,

outsourcing is the more cost-effective option. In fact, outsourcing accounting can mean better process efficiency and greater outcomes – and ROI – when you work with an experienced, trusted advisor. Outsourcing provides management-level expertise, giving you confidence in your financials.

The Benefits of Outsourced Accounting Services

Many businesses turn to outsourcing as a way to gain the information they need without having to bear the burden of hiring someone full-time. Specifically, outsourcing can: • Give you financial data you can rely on and trust to make strategic business decisions. • Reduce fraud risk as it adds an extra layer of oversight. • Provide a team of resources and years of experience on a variety of accounting-related options. • Add access to an experienced professional without the additional costs of a full-time employee (salary, paid time off, payroll taxes, insurance, unemployment, benefits). • Stay up to date on daily operations and compliance-related issues. Outsourced accounting staff with a high level of financial knowledge can: • Ensure the accuracy and timeliness of your financial data. • Help you manage cash flow. • Present your financial data in a useful and meaningful manner. • Analyze market trends and help you

define key performance metrics and benchmarking data. • Understand business strengths and weaknesses and identify opportunities. In addition to these daily and monthly tasks such as data entry and reconciliation, outsourced accountants and financial professionals can help you craft a plan to move forward, optimize your operations and position you for the future. Further, top outsourced accounting firms utilize technology to help you move forward with key business decisions. Instead of utilizing an onpremise, possibly outdated solution, the best accounting outsourcing organizations look to the cloud or to software solutions your organization may need to thrive and grow. Such technology also provides access to realtime analytics, giving you a competitive edge while aligning with overall business objectives.

Save on Cost and Gain Expertise with Outsourced Accounting Accounting is a crucial component of business. In the current age of disruption, it’s more important than ever. Outsourcing through a trusted advisor can help you identify red flags more readily, solve for them and pave a path toward for an even more efficient and promising future.

To learn more about transforming your operation, visit eidebailly.com.

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CONTENTS

May | June 2022

COVER INTERVIEW

COMPANY PROFILE

AGCO

Mohr Vet

Compart Family Farms

Innovation Meets Productivity

Science & Business of Animal Health

HOT STARTZ!

FEATURES

Rising Star

Collaboration Connection

Nick Simon of CLA

Bridging the Gap Between High School and the Workplace

Industry Insight

Opinion Column

Press Releases

The Art and Science of Food Recovery

Opinion: Daniel J Vance

Connecting Southern Minnesota Business People Since 1994

New Ulm

Sweethaven Tonics Mankato

Swiss & Madison

Mankato

Prairie Pride Farm Store

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STAFF & CONTRIBUTORS

CIRCULATION

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Publisher: Concept & Design Incorporated

Call: (507) 232-3463

Editor: Jane Laskey

12,000 for May/June 2022 Published bimonthly

Art/Photography: Jonathan Smith

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Contributing Writers: Ashley Hanley, Anna Vangsness, Nancy Zallek, Daniel J Vance

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May | June 2022

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ABOUT CONNECT Locally owned Connect Business Magazine has ‘connected’ southern Minnesota businesses since 1994 through features, interviews, news and advertising. Connect Business Magazine is a publication of Concept & Design Incorporated, a graphic design firm offering print design, brand design, illustration and photography. Learn more at conceptanddesign.com. Copyright 2022. Printed in U.S.A.

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INTRODUCTION

Spring Roundup

Jane Laskey EDITOR

It’s a beautiful drive down to AGCO’s Jackson plant, where a tour of its Intivity Center and production floor reveal a focus on innovation and productivity. AGCO’s goals are simple: to produce quality products that put farmers first. Keep your eyes peeled; its gleaming tractors and sprayers will soon be mobilizing in a farm field near you as the spring planting season begins. Over in Springfield, Dr. Martin Mohr is following in his father’s footsteps with the opening of Mohr Vet and Mohr Vet Research in 2020. Meanwhile in Nicollet, three generations of the Compart family have been pouring their passion into breeding the perfect pig. At Compart Family Farms, the Compart Duroc pig is the king of flavor. In this Groundbreaker issue, we take a look at the New Ulm CTE Center, where ISD 88 is collaborating with community businesses to train the next generation of workers. Many New Ulm students will graduate with skills and certifications that take them straight from the classroom and into the workforce. As always, our Rising Star section introduces a young professional who’s making waves in the business community. This month you’ll meet Nick Simon, assurance director in the agribusiness and cooperatives group at CLA in New Ulm. Our May Hot Startz all have something in common: they’re delicious! Swiss & Madison in Mankato carries on the Sadaka family restaurant tradition. The Prairie Pride Farm store brings quality meats and barbecue from the Prairie Pride Farm to a retail setting, also in Mankato. If you like cocktails and mocktails, you’ll love New Ulm-based Sweethaven Tonics’ craft cocktail concentrates. Happy spring,

Jane Laskey

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May | June 2022

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GREENSEAM: Thought Leader and Magnet for Ag & Food Resources What does it mean to be a part of the GreenSeam? To be a part of the GreenSeam means to be a part of the region, part of the community, part of thoughtfully creating the future of food and agriculture. Seam is both a noun and a verb with the Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to bind, sew.” Being part of the GreenSeam means to be part of the thousands of interconnected organizations, communities, farms, and of course individuals who make up the ag and food quilt work of our region. How is the GreenSeam region becoming a world-class food and agribusiness epicenter? Some would say that Minnesota, and especially Southern Minnesota, is already a leading national and world contributor when it comes to food production, value-added processing, outputs, and services. Blue Earth is a top five Minnesota county when it comes to value-added from agriculture and forestry industries.* Southern Minnesota is already rich with many of the natural and economic assets central to food production and leadership in agribusiness. I don’t think anyone refutes that fact. However, for the region to ensure its place in the future as a world-class food and agribusiness epicenter will require 21st century thinking, collaborations, talents and solutions. This is where the work of GreenSeam becomes integral and impactful. What brings you and your organization to the GreenSeam table? I grew up on a century farm in South Dakota where my parents established a registered Angus cattle ranch from a handful of cows. I have 30+ years of work in the education sector as a teacher, researcher, administrator, and collaborator. I personally come to the GreenSeam table with dual passions for advancing human potential and for the future of food and agriculture. Minnesota State University, Mankato has a 153-year history with its roots as a normal school and the education of teachers for the region. I find it inspiring to think about this history and the role of Minnesota State Mankato for the educational, social, economic, civic, and cultural development of the region and state. As a public university of more than 14,000 students—with a steady increase in the diversity of students, faculty, and staff both domestically * Source: 2020 Economic Contribution Study of Minnesota Agriculture and Forestry, report found on GreenSeam website

Brenda Flannery

Dean, College of Business Minnesota State University, Mankato Dr. Brenda Flannery is a dean and professor of management at the College of Business at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She has been at the University since 1996, serving in many roles and leadership positions. Dr. Flannery is passionate about experience-based education and has designed, initiated, and implemented award-winning courses and programs in leadership, entrepreneurship, experiential and interdisciplinary learning, service learning, and international education. Dr. Flannery has served on many boards of directors across Southern Minnesota, including GreenSeam, where she also participates in the Talent Development, Retention, and Attraction Committee.

and internationally—we continue to embrace our role in educating the talent of our present and future. That future includes food and agriculture programs that attract and prepare the talent needed to start, sustain, and grow the organizations and communities of our region and state. What specific food and agriculture programs does Minnesota State University, Mankato have today? The University’s food and agriculture bachelor programs include Agribusiness and Food Innovation, Agricultural Sciences, Earth Science, Ecology, Environmental Sciences, Food and Nutrition, Food Science Technology, Geography, and Plant Science (Biology).** Most of these programs have been at the University for years, but the Agribusiness and Food Innovation and Agricultural Sciences programs are new and GreenSeam was at the table encouraging their development. The University’s partnerships with regional high schools and 2-year colleges extends the educational pathways and opportunities. ** Visit ag.mnsu.edu for a full list of programs

What might surprise people about Minnesota State Mankato’s developments in food and agriculture? People might be surprised that as the second largest public university in Minnesota, Minnesota State Mankato’s full-time faculty have doctoral degrees and professional experiences that compare to the credentials of faculty found at land grant and research-oriented universities. Minnesota State Mankato’s faculty and staff are cutting-edge researchers and scientists in areas that are applied and action oriented. For example, the University’s Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) Affinity Group is a 30+ interdisciplinary faculty and staff team who specifically seek to work with industry and communities on grants, research, and real-world projects that often include student researchers. There is an exciting new partnership model in development by GreenSeam, Minnesota State University, Mankato, and South Central College that will supercharge ag and food research and innovation collaborations for the region. How does GreenSeam, the organization, shape the future of agriculture, businesses, and communities in the region? I think GreenSeam will help shape the region’s future by being a thought leader and magnet for resources around agriculture and food. Being a thought leader means that GreenSeam will push the envelope and be at the forefront of thinking differently about, for example, the health of people and the planet.

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May | June 2022

By Jane Laskey

A tour of AGCO Jackson’s sprawling manufacturing campus makes one thing clear: this is not your typical factory. Sunlight pours in the windows of the Intivity Center, the facility’s public entrance. A gleaming two-story lobby leads to a showroom, auditorium and retail store. Through a glass wall on the left, AGCO’s state-of-the-art production floor beckons. Indeed, a world-class production facility is not what most people would expect to find in this rural corner of southwest Minnesota. The city of Jackson is a small town, with a population just north of 3,300 people. Located at the intersection of Interstate 90 and U.S. Highway 71, it rests in the Des Moines River Valley, surrounded by farmland and open plains. But this humble city is home to big industry, including Pioneer Seed, Ziegler, HitchDoc, USF Holland and AGCO, its biggest employer. AGCO is the world's largest manufacturer of machinery and equipment focused solely on the agricultural industry. Continues

Left: Brenna Anderson, Ryan Erickson and Kimberly Phillips. Above: Fendt tractor built by AGCO. CONNECT Business Magazine

Innovation Meets Productivity “We’re in 140 countries, and have about 21,000 employees and 4,050 dealers worldwide,” Ryan Erickson said. Erickson is a senior manager in business process improvement at AGCO’s Jackson campus, which sprawls across 164 acres with 1,033,000 square feet of manufacturing space. He said the plant employs 967 nonunion workers and produces a volume of half a billion in annual sales. “In Jackson, we build application equipment and tractors. We currently build RoGator®, TerraGator®, Massey Ferguson®, Challenger® and now Fendt® brands here,” Erickson said. “This is AGCO’s only North American tractor and sprayers plant. It has other tractor plants in France, Germany, China and South America.” AGCO is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, and has three other North American facilities. One Kansas plant manufactures hay equipment and combines; a second Kansas plant builds tillage equipment and planters. A third facility in Illinois is dedicated to grain storage and protein production

May | June 2022

systems. AGCO’s products are distributed all around the world. I recently toured the Jackson facility and sat down with three members of its leadership team to discuss AGCO’s impact on the agriculture sector in Minnesota and across America. Joining me were Erickson, quality manager Brenna Anderson and senior human resources manager Kim Phillips. Why Jackson, Minnesota? What makes this AGCO’s chosen base for tractor and sprayer production in North America? Ryan Erickson: I think it goes back to the AgChem days. When Al McQuinn put AgChem on the market, he was looking for a buyer who would not change his vision of manufacturing or its footprint. That was really important to him. All of the top companies were interested in buying it, and he chose to sell it to AGCO. That was very strategic, and it was agreed that they would keep production in Jackson. You can see the investments that AGCO

has made in this facility since then, bringing in different product lines like tractors. A lot of that has to do with the leadership and the capabilities of the workforce here. Corporate thinks of us as the cultural leaders in North America. We’re one of the top sites for lean (manufacturing) for AGCO globally, because we’re very efficient in what we do, and we try to get better every day. That’s why AGCO is invested. They feel like they can get their return (on their investment) in this region. Even though it’s a small rural region, they know they’re going to get hardworking people and that whatever challenges they put in front of us we’ll be able to work through them together. Kim Phillips: AGCO is not only important to Jackson, it’s important to the communities around us in the GreenSeam. We employ from about a 50-mile radius. RE: The Jackson location is also important to the dealer network. When we brought the tractors in here, one of the drivers behind that was the dealer network. The customer base wanted a North American

AGCO | Jackson manufacturing footprint because when they are looking to sell a product, it’s a sales tool: “I can bring you to the factory where they build it.” This factory shows really well. A lot of people are amazed. If you go through other factories, if you’re familiar with factories, they don’t look like this. KP: Our plant looks like this every day. It isn’t just a show. Every day it looks like this. The GreenSeam region grows the food that feeds the world. Your employees are a part of that. How does this affect their work at AGCO? KP: It’s important that our people understand the cultural importance of their work. A lot of our employees have a farm background. They’ve walked beans, they’ve grown up on farms, their grandparents had farms. That impacts us. People are very loyal to our brand, they’re loyal to the company and they have a very strong work ethic. You can’t repeat the work ethic that you get here in this area. It’s very strong. To our families, the importance of agri-

culture is a part of their world somehow every day. (Our employees) have an impact on the farmers. They’re listening. They’re making things easier for them. They’re innovating and teaching them how they can make more money with our products. We do this for you. It all goes hand in hand: our employees, our communities and the way that we’ve been raised. Brenna Anderson: The people that work here, they’re prideful of what they do. You’ve got a lot of people that are very loyal and have been here for a long time. When you start asking around, they’ve been here 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. You see that consistently, because they take pride in their work. KP: Over 250 of our employees have been here 20-plus years. BA: It’s generational. Their grandfather works here, and their father and mother work here, and now they work here. It becomes part of their family tree. How do you keep communication open

and encourage feedback from both your employees and your customers? KP: All kinds of ways. We have feedback that comes in from our customers and dealers. We spend time on the floor visiting with our employees, listening to them. What do they hear from our dealers? What do they hear in the community? Why is it important? Would you refer a friend or relative here? The important communication is one on one. We call it our employee rounding, getting on the floor and having those relationships. There’s nothing better than a good relationship with your workforce, and I believe we have a great relationship with our workforce. RE: The Net Promoter score is a big metric that we focus on. It’s about a customer experience, not just a product experience. We ask, “How would you promote the brand or the product you just bought?” We also get a lot of feedback from the public coming through our facility. BA: We have an entire team that is dedicated to getting feedback from our dealerships

CONNECT Business Magazine

Innovation Meets Productivity and getting feedback from our customers. They present that to our customer experience team. My team is involved with weekly calls to find out feedback on things that we’re seeing in the field. Sometimes it’s issues that we have. Sometimes it’s, “Hey, we heard you did a really great job at this.” We do have that open feedback loop. RE: In 2017 we decided to get some external feedback on how we are doing as an organization. We applied for three awards and had people come in and judge us as a company. We won all three awards for North America: Assembly Plant of the Year for 2017, AME Association of Manufacturing Excellence award and Industry Week’s Best Plant of the Year award. Those are some prestigious industry awards. But we still need to keep getting better. That’s why they call it a journey; there’s not a final destination. Your Intivity Center takes its name from innovation and productivity. Why did you want to highlight those qualities here? RE: It all goes back to that customer experience. We want to be known as the leading supplier of high-tech farming solutions, driving that bottom line improvement for the farmer for their operation. What innovations can we provide for you that you are willing to invest in because you see a return on your dollar? It’s not just about having a new shiny piece of equipment. It’s got to drive some return for you. That’s what we’re really trying to do with a lot of our investments. That’s where AGCO is going to win. AGCO is trying to be that

May | June 2022

solution provider and integrator of things for the farmers. The philosophies of some of our competitors are very in-house. If you’re getting their tractor, then your data will be on this platform. AGCO has created more of an open protocol. We believe the farmer is the owner of the data. We’re trying to integrate, and we work with you. You’ll see almost weekly updates that AGCO has signed an agreement to work with new partners. With all these innovation and startup companies, one company can’t be the best at all things. It’s about leveraging what they bring to the table. In farming, its data, its sensors, it’s all this innovation. How can you as a full solution supplier help integrate some of those things for the farmer? A short tour of your plant revealed many cuttingedge manufacturing processes and systems, including automation. How does AGCO select new tools and stay on top of the technology roller coaster? RE: A lot of it depends on automation of processes. What can we do that makes sense for our employees and for the culture? We might think something has a good value, but if it doesn’t play well into the culture then it’s not something we want. Think about the technology in your phone. It’s not just a phone, it does much more for you and it’s intuitive. If technology isn’t like that, then it’s cumbersome. It’s a detractor instead of an aid. Your employees are good at adding value to the customer. There’s also lots of non-value-added things that are necessary to get the

AGCO | Jackson product out the door. But the customer only pays you for value-added work, so let’s automate the non-value-added stuff and keep our living, breathing, thinking humans performing the value-added work. We’ve done a lot of things with high-tech solutions, and we’ve had some successes there. I think some organizations look at technology either as it’s scary or they’re all in and just blindly do it, forgetting about the culture aspect of it. That’s a slippery slope and that’s not one you want to go down. It has got to be a value add, just like a phone is to a person. From the product and quality testing side, our job it to validate the assembly work that we do and the full functionality of the product. We work with our design groups on a global level to determine what our best practices are for validation. Then we work with integrators to develop equipment to simulate inputs and outputs. We do a lot of that to validate the technical aspects of the product. BA: The big thing is setting expectations, setting a consistent standard. We’re diving into this Fendt brand right now, which is relatively new to Jackson. There is a different standard for Fendt quality, it’s our premium brand within AGCO. But we also want to make sure that we maintain that same quality standard across all our products, because that’s what Jackson does. We put our standards out there to say, “This is the expectation.” Then we put quality gates in place, to govern that standard. As long as it’s realistic for us to manage, we should continue to hit that standard and have a consistent product coming out the door so the

first and the 20th unit look identical. Our quality standards tie in with the technology, the people and the culture. It all works together. It’s easy for work to become routine. How do you keep employees engaged? KP: All of that comes through to the type of person we’re hiring. We do a lot of behavior-based hiring. Ten years ago, it was all skill based — they have to have this, this and this, and that’s all the people we’re hiring. Today we’re hiring people based on their values, their personalities and their behaviors. A respectful workplace goes a long way. So, we talk a lot about that and about values. Many of our interview questions are behavior based: “How did you handle that situation? Why did you do that?” We want to know what triggered them to act the way they do. We can train people. We’re very good at it now. But we have to find those people that are tenacious and care. They have to show the behaviors that we’re looking for. Too many times people focus on, “I have to have a person that knows how to run this wrench.” You know, there’s probably 50 people out there that can learn to run that wrench. You’ve just got to give them the opportunity. BA: It’s the same even at the professional level for our engineers and for my whole (quality) team. I will take someone that doesn’t know how to do the technical part with the correct behaviors and the correct personality type over someone that can say, “I’ve been doing this job for 10 years.”

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RE: Kim’s group has done a great job doing workplace simulations in orientation. We put people in situations where we can evaluate behaviors and see what roles might fit them. Then we put them in actual assembly type simulations. That’s where we start the training process. We can see, “All right, this person has got a great aptitude for this, but not for that … they’d probably be a good fit over here.” That’s been a huge thing for our organization. KP: Feedback starts day one with employees. They get feedback on how they act in orientation. They get feedback on how they participate. They get feedback on how they’re going to be successful here and what kind of things they need to work on. We want to make sure that they fit in our culture. It builds that relationship to make sure they know we care. We listen to them. We want them to be part of our team, but they need to also want to be part of our team. That transparency must be welcome. KP: I’m about as direct as it gets. There’s not a lot of secrets here, and I think it’s helpful. A lot of individuals come in with no experience. We have an assembly academy here and they go into a class for about two weeks before they ever hit our floor. We already know their personalities before they go into the class. So, if they’re struggling mechanically, we know by watching their personalities that they’re going to get it. They just need a little bit more time. We also know if there’s red flags before they go on the floor. We’re honest and clear with them about that. They know what their development needs are, and they know they need to work on them because they’re probably not going to stay here if that doesn’t change. That’s a win-win because the employee knows we’re trying to make them successful and they grow. Previously I’d hear from supervisors, “They don’t know how to do this. They’re not going to make it. They can’t work here.” Now we have supervisors saying, “Just give me one more week with her. I think I can get her there.” So that’s the difference. Our supervisors and our leaders have now bought into this approach. It’s been amazing. That’s quite a culture shift within your company to go from hiring for skills

May | June 2022

AGCO | Jackson to hiring for behavioral qualities. KP: We had to change. There are not a lot of mechanical people out there. We can’t just hire you another hundred mechanics. BA: When we were hiring focused on skills, we were seeing that those weren’t the best people out there. It wasn’t who we should be hiring because it wasn’t getting us anywhere. We were not moving forward, and they were turning (over) fast. So that’s how we brought everyone else along to this (behavior-based hiring focus). We told them: “You don’t believe in it? Well, we’ll prove it to you.” Time and time again we did. Over the last 10 years it’s really evolved. Now that’s what everyone looks for most. RE: We also focused on the behaviors of leadership. It’s not just about the behaviors of the people on the shop floor. We started looking at what drives (skill-based hiring). Well, there’s a belief that, “I need a mechanic because we’re doing assembly work.” OK, what drives that? Is it because we don’t have a great training program developed or is it because we need to improve our work instructions? Once you start building those diverse teams, then you’ve got different people looking at the problem in different ways and you start to see better solutions. You start to see better continuous improvement efforts. It’s a win all the way around. You get more engaged employees, more diverse groups working together, better teamwork and a better cultural organization. It’s just a breath of fresh air. BA: I’ve been in hundreds of suppliers (locations) and the ones that still operate in that old school way are not successful. They have lots of problems. Their quality issues are through the roof. The suppliers that understand business has evolved and that they need a standard way of working, those are the ones that are successful. Those are our best suppliers. They get us quality parts and, if we do have an issue, they’re on top of it. They fix it right away. What are the attributes you look for when you hire? RE: You’re looking for communication, responsibility, self-motivation and problem-solving skills. We’ve had people that come in and they’re friendly. But they don’t look for the next thing to do. They’re not

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self-motivated, and we’re not in the business of spoon-feeding people tasks. This is a career. This is a responsibility. We expect everybody out on the shop floor to be doing their job and looking to see how they can make their job better. And that’s in an assembly line. In my team, I’m looking for people that are self-motivated, that have a continuous improvement mindset, a good work ethic and people skills. Your last Jackson expansion was in 2011. Are you at full capacity now or do you still have room to grow? RE: Right now, the supply chain is the limiting factor with our capacity needs. There’s a lot of pent-up demand. BA: We’re at a point where the company wants to continue to invest and grow in Jackson. But we want to make sure that we get the supply chain issues under control so that we’re not leaving any customers behind. We want to get that squared away before we dive into something new or expand what we have here.

You’ve really had to be nimble the last few years. First with COVID and now with supply chain issues. RE: I would not say COVID was easy, but these current supply chain issues have been more disruptive to our daily business. It’s a constant challenge. It requires a lot more effort, a lot more focus and a lot more resources. You’re mitigating risk at every level. You might have a supplier that is struggling. They’re not looking ahead long range and all of a sudden, they stumble across an issue. They let you know, but it’s too late at that point. So, our guys are working with the second-tier and the third-tier suppliers to try and help mitigate. Oftentimes that means getting a large cross-functional group involved to figure out what is going to help break this bottleneck. Can we find components at a different source? Does engineering approve these components? Is it people? Resources? Transportation? So, we’re expediting things, we’re helping move things, we’re building things in some cases. And we’re setting up airfreight and hot shots and we have drivers

waiting for product to be ready. It’s a constant dance right now to keep product lines moving through the factory floor. BA: We’re keeping the product lines moving. That’s something that we pride ourselves on is that we have kept things moving throughout all of this. It might be that we have to think outside of the box a little bit. Just because we’ve been doing it this way all along, doesn’t necessarily mean we can do it that way in this current environment. How do we find ways to kind of flex in different directions to make it happen? And it might very well be that we’ve got to change a component a little bit. Is it a temporary deviation? Is it a permanent deviation? Sometimes we don’t know the answer to that. A lot of the challenge that we have is we don’t find out the issues until they happen. We might find that morning that we’re going to be missing a major part and we can’t build without it. What path do we travel down now to continue to build? You pull in engineering, you pull in all your cross-func-

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tional partners and say: “OK, can we do a makeshift part? Can we 3D print something and put it in there as a placeholder until we can get the actual part? It’s really trying to come up with different ways of looking at things to keep going without jeopardizing the customer’s quality. RE: We’re actually flexing resources to help suppliers. There is no, “That’s not my job.” It’s all hands on deck. That’s what a good culture can do for you. People are willing to step up. That’s what we’ve got around here and that’s why we’re being successful. It sounds like in some ways, COVID helped you take AGCO Jackson to the next level. RE: That’s probably true for lots of folks. When you’re in a factory, you can’t remotely build a tractor. We had to rethink how we worked. Cross-training has always been important, but the level of cross-training now is at a much higher level than it was before COVID. And it’s not going to go back, because it allows us to be flexible. It allows us

to manage our business better. It allows us to take these anomalies that happen in stride — because they’re not going to go away once the supply chain issues stop. You’re still going to have the day-to-day things that come up. We’ll be a better company because we’ll be able to handle those things and be more flexible with our roles, our responsibilities and our workforce. BA: A lot of the things that we had to incorporate into our day-to-day business because of COVID, we’ve been able to build on with the supply chain struggles that we’ve had. We’re used to having to shift things around and make it work. I think that’s what’s making us successful through all of this. We took that opportunity through COVID to better ourselves. A lot of companies (during COVID) were like, “Oh, well, we’re going to shut down. We can’t do anything.” We didn’t shut down for that. We kept going. It highlighted the strengths of our organization. They were there prior to COVID, but until you get put in a situation where you

have to use them, you don’t see those things. RE: It helped us cultivate those strengths, too. You don’t just have pockets of strength now; it’s become organizationally part of our being. KP: My biggest aha! moment from COVID was how amazing our workforce was. They followed our lead. We told them to temp scan, and they temp scanned. We told them to wear masks, and they wore a mask. But they still came to work and they still did their jobs, and they did it without resistance. It was pretty amazing. If we hadn’t had that amazing workforce, there would have been a lot of resistance. But they trusted that we were doing the right thing for them. RE: When we look for the silver linings, that’s been one of the positive outcomes that came out of the pandemic. That and knowing how to manage our way through tough situations. We always joke that if we could manage through COVID, we can manage through anything. I think we did an excellent job working through

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Innovation Meets Productivity

AGCO’s Core Values: TRAIT Transparency—We will provide the full information required. We will communicate openly and sincerely. We appreciate feedback. Respect—We appreciate other individuals with their own cultural identities. We embrace differences. Accountability—We will take responsibility for our area of influence as if this were our enterprise. We will commit to excellence. Integrity—We will walk the talk. We will be committed to a consistent, honest and reliable way of action. Team Spirit—We actively contribute to overcoming challenges as a team.

The History of AGCO Jackson 1973: Al McQuinn, founder of Ag-Chem Equipment Inc., builds a factory in Jackson to produce the agriculture industry’s first self-propelled sprayers, the Terra-Gator and the RoGator. 1990: AGCO is formed. Based in Duluth, Georgia, it begins manufacturing and distributing farm equipment under the AGCO® Allis and Gleaner® brand names in North America. 1998: McQuinn sells Ag-Chem to AGCO. 2002: The first tractor assembly is brought to Jackson, with a new assembly line to handle the manufacture of Challenger track tractors and articulated 4WD tractors. 2011: AGCO announces plans to expand high-horsepower wheeled tractor production in North America. The Jackson facility undergoes a 75,000-square-foot expansion to include wheeled row-crop tractor production for Massey Ferguson and Challenger. 2012: AGCO opens the state-of-the-art Intivity Center in Jackson. The facility includes a showroom, a conference center, an auditorium, a catering cafeteria and a retail store. 2022: AGCO adds the Fendt brand to its product portfolio, with North American production based in Jackson. 20

May | June 2022

AGCO | Jackson

A tractor moves closer toward completion on AGCO’s state-of-the-art production floor.

Submitted photo.

CONNECT Business Magazine

Innovation Meets Productivity that with our employees, and our employees were absolutely the reason why we succeeded. It took a lot of good communication and people being on the same page and setting opinions aside. … It really brought up our level of management and communication and change implementation, you name it. So, you can definitely see some positives there. Are you seeing any new trends in the ag sector that are impacting your business? RE: AGCO just launched a whole new product line this winter for retrofit sprayer kits so you can take a competitor sprayer that you already own and buy kits from AGCO to make it perform better. It will help you get higher yields and better returns on your crops, and we can show you the business case for it. We do that with planters, we do that with sprayers, and we do that with combines. So not only will we sell you brand new OEM vehicles and equipment, we’ll also sell you kits to make the equipment you already own perform better. There’s a lot with the agronomy side that is newer to our business. That’s the “farmer first” mentality that we’re really driving from the corporate level all the way down through our organization. You see the hunger for that in the ag industry, they’re looking at data and they have been for a long time. Ag has always pushed the technology side of things, but it’s not just to have a new shiny app or a brand new AGCO sprayer. It’s how can AGCO help the farmer improve? We help you see a value in your current products, too. That’s a change

for us from the product portfolio side as AGCO tries to adapt to the ever-changing farm market. What’s on the horizon for AGCO Jackson? Are there any future goals you can share? KP: We want to be the Fendt plant for North America. BA: We want to be the Tesla of ag. KP: Yes! We don’t want to be the Ford or Chevy. We want to be the Tesla. RE: The story there is, Tesla doesn’t try to beat Toyota by being Toyota. They’re trying to compete in the same market by being something different. We used to try and beat our competitors by being them. Well, we’re not going to beat them that way. We’re going to beat them by being different and providing a different level of service and support to our customers. We’ll beat them by focusing on the customer experience: farmer first.

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Nick Nick Simon is currently an assurance director in the Agribusiness and Cooperatives Group at CLA in New Ulm. Here’s a look at the steps he took to get there and the passion that drives his work with various industries.

May | June 2022

Simon What steps did you take to get to your current position? I attended St. John’s University for accounting and passed the CPA exam after graduating. While in college, I completed the summer experience program with CLA, which involved three days of different activities to get to know the firm and public accounting in general. I was offered a full-time job from that experience. I began as an associate working in various industries, including agriculture, manufacturing (and) nonprofit, but I knew I had a passion for agriculture. I continued to narrow my focus down to our agribusiness and cooperatives group, primarily on the assurance side. As I have continued to grow and learn more about the ag industry, I’ve developed an even stronger passion for the farming community and the businesses that support it. That passion and desire to learn more about ag is the primary reason that I was able to become an assurance director.

What is your favorite part of your job? My favorite part of my job is visiting clients and being able to tour their farm or business. Our clients are always excited to show us what they have been doing or tell us about goals that they have for the future. By really understanding their business, I am better able to help them achieve those goals.

Why did you choose this career path? I chose this career path because I enjoy learning about agriculture and businesses in agriculture. I grew up on a dairy farm and know the hard work that is put into the farm. While we don’t have cows anymore, my family and I still run our family farm just doing row crops. Understanding the numbers from a financial perspective is such an important factor in owning a business, especially in farming. Developing my knowledge in accounting has helped me understand how to run

What inspires/drives you? My long-term goals for my farm and my family drive me. My wife and I have many visions of what we want our future to look like, including traveling and purchasing a lake home for us and our kids to enjoy in the future. Our goals for the farm include expanding in order to allow one or more of our children to be able to farm if they wish and to be successful with it. My goals for our farm are similar to many of my clients’ (goals). That like-mindedness is what inspires me to continue to learn and grow in my career.

my own farm better and it has enabled me to do the same with our clients.

What personal strengths help you excel in your chosen career? I believe my organizational and critical thinking skills have helped me excel in this career. Accounting is all about problem solving and figuring out puzzles, and I get to do that every day. I am also very detail-oriented, which helps to find the answers to those puzzling questions that come up in accounting.

Sharing the stories of the next generation, and exploring the dreams that motivate them.

By Ashley Hanley

What advice would you give to other young professionals? I would tell other young professionals to have confidence in themselves. There are always going to be times when you fail. But if you stay positive and have confidence, you will be successful, whether that be in your career or in your life in general. Trust yourself and your abilities. What books, podcasts or videos have helped you? I primarily use books, podcasts and videos to help (myself) unwind, which I believe is also important for having a successful career. I enjoy books written by James Patterson, which help me relax and refresh. These things help me to relax and take a break when I need to, (so I can) come back more focused and refreshed to my work. What app can’t you live without? Maps. With traveling quite a bit for my career, it is extremely helpful to be able to not worry about getting lost on the way to a client, conference or other event. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? In 10 years, I see myself continuing to help clients run successful agricultural businesses using the knowledge I have gained and will continue to build over my career. I also see myself using that knowledge to take advantage of my own opportunities to expand my family’s farm and ensure it is successful for the generations that come after me.

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Ag in Action: Partnering for Education and Leadership The agriculture industry is one of the largest in the nation, with new technologies in food and farming emerging right here in Minnesota. As the industry continues to expand and innovate, so do career pathways. In partnership with three regional nonprofit organizations, Minnesota State University, Mankato is seeking to educate students, from elementary school to undergraduates, on how agriculture impacts their communities, and the future of farming. “Food and agriculture play such an integral role in all of our lives,” Minnesota State Mankato’s AgriBusiness and Food Innovation Director Shane Bowyer said. “We all need to work together to educate and support our next generation.” Over the next two years, Minnesota State Mankato will collaborate with the GMCC Minnesota Venture Farms Initiative, MY Place Mankato, and Model Citizen Farm in Paynesville on the Ag in Action event. The event is derived from the recently awarded $224,744 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The goal of the overall initiative is to provide learning opportunities in food, gardening, and nutrition for youth in underserved communities- many of which have little exposure to farming, and experience food insecurity. Perry Meyer, a life-long farmer, member of the CHS Board of Directors, and advisor for the Ag in Action event shared his thoughts, “This is a really exciting opportunity to teach the next generation that food doesn’t come from the grocery store, it doesn’t come from a processer- it all starts with a seed planted in the earth.” The Ag in Action event will be hosted on April 27th at Historic Sibley Park in Mankato, Minnesota, with an expected attendance of more than 250 students from Southern Minnesota. In this “come and tour” style event, 8th graders will experience hands-on learning through interactive activities. Students will travel through convention

like exhibits and displays about food, agriculture, and livestock. Additionally, the event will host a farm-to-table style catered lunch to help students discover a further connection between what is grown and raised in Minnesota, and the entrepreneurial pursuits of agribusiness partners. The event will be produced by students in Minnesota State Mankato’s newly founded Agribusiness and Food Innovation (AFI) program. The program was designed to further develop students’ innovation skills and knowledge in business creation while exposing them to the expanding career opportunities in food and agriculture. Throughout their studies, students are pushed to think differently, emphasized by solutions-oriented curriculum that encourages students to investigate, prioritize, and creatively design solutions for real-world agriculture and food needs in their own communities. Christine Mollenkopf-Pigsley, Associate Professor and Program Director for the University’s applied leadership program emphasized the importance of service learning in sharing, “Service learning is really what makes this grant so special. Our students are leading this event, and as faculty, we are helping facilitate their decisions and vision. This grant brings focus to the transferable skills that students carry with them into their professional lives and connects it to community service of which we are so proud at the university.” In addition to the Ag in Action event, over the next two years, community partners will collaborate with Minnesota State Mankato students to provide farm tours and summer gardening programs with the intent to develop further connections. If you are interested in learning more about the program, please contact Dr. Christine Mollenkopf-Pigsely (christine.pigsley@mnsu.edu) or Dr. Shane Bowyer (shane.bowyer@mnsu.edu).

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May | June 2022

By Anna Vangsness •

Photos by Jonathan Smith

Dr. Martin Mohr has been fascinated with the veterinary field since he was a young boy. You might say he has his father to thank for that. Born and raised in Springfield, Minnesota, Martin Mohr is one of six kids. His father was the town’s veterinarian. Mohr and his siblings found their first part-time jobs at their father’s veterinary clinic. It was also a way to spend additional time with their dad. “When I was young, my brother Mike and I would ride along with him to farm visits to be able to spend more time with him,” Mohr said. “It also helped expose me to the country life because we lived in town. My interest in animals and agriculture started there. When I was older, I would work after school at my dad’s veterinary clinic, where I did everything from mixing medication to assisting out on calls with him.” Continues

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The Science and Business of Animal Health When he was 15 years old, Mohr begged his parents to let him use the money he had saved up from his paper route to buy a couple of calves. That summer, he and his siblings rented a barn outside of Springfield and took care of their small herd. “Eventually that led to buying 50 pigs and feeding them for my summer job,” Mohr said. “Little by little the profits from that venture helped fund my college.” Mohr enrolled at the University of Minnesota’s College of Agriculture, where he graduated with degrees in animal science and agricultural economics in 1989. “I took classes in everything from meat science to physiology to nutrition with the intention and interest to use that education to pursue a veterinary degree,” Mohr said. Where Business and Science Meet Mohr’s dual focus on animal science and agricultural economics opened his eyes to the tremendous amount of science and business acumen required in agriculture. He also discovered a deep interest in both areas of study. “The business of agriculture was very intriguing to me,” Mohr said. “I always enjoyed those concepts and used them at an early age, and I continue to use them to this day. I knew you really needed those business skills and an agriculture education background in the business of veterinary medicine.” At the time Mohr was finishing his undergraduate degrees, there was an increasing demand for veterinarians to care for large herds. “After I graduated in the spring of 1989, I attended veterinary school at the University of Minnesota,” Mohr said. “It really helped me in following my father’s footsteps because he attended the same college and graduated in 1961. I was very comfortable with that career path because of my undergraduate degree and early upbringing of my summer jobs, plus my brother was also already in veterinary school at Kansas State University.” While pursuing his veterinary degree, Mohr was exposed to a multitude of fields that he eventually applied in his practice. Areas of study included everything from animal disease diagnostics to pathology, research and computerized production records. Mohr began providing veterinary services in 1993, working with farmers around the Midwest for nearly 27 years. In 2020 his veterinary career came full circle when he opened his own veterinary practice, Mohr Vet, in the same Springfield location his father worked from. “My dad started his veterinarian practice in 1961, and I’m lucky enough to still be able to use the same building and location in downtown Springfield,” Mohr said. “I have a lot of good memories working in the building. The building is a great location for my business.” Emphasis on Swine and Beef Production While his father treated animals of any size, Mohr’s primary focus is consulting with swine and beef producers. “When I started in this field, the swine industry was evolving in Minnesota and the Midwest,” Mohr said. “There was a demand and need for swine veterinary leadership in the area because it was vastly growing in popularity.” In the swine industry, Mohr’s practice assists with disease prevention, disease elimination strategies, herd reproduction and growth performance. Swine production is increasingly technical and scientific, so Mohr collaborates with farm managers, field supervisors, 30

May | June 2022

Mohr Vet | Springfield

The Original Mohr Vet

Born 6 miles south of New Ulm, Dr. Hilary Mohr was one of 10 children and grew up on the family farm. His interest in the veterinary field was sparked when he was 14 years old and watched the town veterinarian, Dr. Tony Eckstein, deliver a calf on Christmas Eve. “I had never seen this before,” Hilary Mohr said. “I was so impressed, and Dr. Eckstein helped encourage me to be a veterinarian.” Hilary Mohr graduated from Holy Trinity High School in New Ulm in 1949 and attended St. John’s University for three years, studying pre-veterinarian, before he was drafted into the Korean War. When he returned to Minnesota, he continued his education, receiving an undergraduate degree in agriculture education from the University of Minnesota in 1956. He taught agriculture education in Montgomery for one year before pursuing his veterinary degree from the University of Minnesota. The elder Mohr opened Springfield Veterinary Clinic in downtown Springfield in 1961 with the goal of providing exceptional animal care to the community. “When I graduated there were openings all over because every town needed a veterinarian,” Hilary Mohr said. “The veterinarian in Springfield wanted to leave to focus on equines in Florida, so I took that job and was the solo practitioner for nine years.” Hilary Mohr brought new ideas and a different focus to his veterinary practice that included up-to-date medicine and an emphasis on obstetrics. “What I liked most was helping people and getting into their shoes and getting to know them on a personal level,” Hilary Mohr said. “I wanted to know what were their fears and successes? You’d have to have a personal relationship with them. We didn’t have diagnostic labs like they do now, so you had to rely on the honesty of the farmer to tell you what the symptoms of their animal were. It was just different back then.” By the time he retired, Hilary Mohr had more than 150 clients from areas including Sleepy Eye and Comfrey. His practice grew to include five veterinarians working with small animals, cattle and swine.

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The Science and Business of Animal Health staff veterinarians and nutritionists to meet these challenges. “I do all size herds — there isn’t one that is too big or too small,” Mohr said. “These days, farms are made up of many different entities, from investor groups to family farmers to corporate farms.” With degrees in veterinary medicine, animal science and agricultural

The Invention of the Veterinary Grip

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When Dr. Hilary Mohr opened his veterinary clinic, pharmaceutical company representatives carried medication in veterinary boxes made of plywood that quickly became odorous and dirty. Hilary Mohr solved this problem by inventing a veterinary medical grip in 1976. His grip was made of Cycolac resin, a material also used to make snowmobile hoods, with stainless steel hinges that withstood rust from moisture and corrosion from chemicals. “The old bags were smelly and dirty, and you couldn’t wash them. So I thought, ‘Why not make a grip that’s acceptable to veterinarians that can be cleaned, has stainless steel, can fit in your truck and can also carry larger bottles of medication?’” Hilary Mohr said. “These didn’t weigh nearly as much as the old ones and were very strong. Heat and cold did not affect them.” Hilary Mohr was a silent partner in manufacturing the veterinary grips with a company in Morgan. The grips were produced until 2010, with more than 4,000 sold across the United States in areas including South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado and Oklahoma, and internationally to Bangladesh, Canada and Australia. “It was a wonderful hobby,” Hilary Mohr said. “Once I retired from veterinary clinic, I would just make them in my basement office where it was warm. The pattern would be drawn, heat molded and then I would have to saw the pieces apart, miter and then punch holes in them.” Mohr still carries one of his father’s veterinary grips. They have also been used by actors and veterinarians on the television shows “The Incredible Dr. Pol” and “Heartland.” 32

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Mohr Vet | Springfield economics, Mohr’s educational training has allowed him to offer a variety of services to his clients. “Agriculture and livestock in southern Minnesota make a big impact on our economy,” Mohr said. “This multidisciplinary training helps farms adapt and succeed to be viable. I’m lucky to be able to provide that to my customers.” A Focus on Prevention Today veterinary medicine focuses on disease prevention to help mitigate the spread of infections. Through adaptive vaccinations, Mohr uses immunology to minimize antimicrobial use. “The end goal, of course, is to provide a safe protein product, in this case, meat, for the consumers,” Mohr said. “Consumers want to know that what they’re eating is safe and where it came from. With modern animal welfare practices, we’re successfully doing that in our country. Our responsibility is big.” Mohr said proper and strategic immunizations and treatments are important to minimize naturally occurring diseases in cattle and swine: “It is my responsibility to serve the farmer with advice for cost-effective and prudent use of antibiotics and vaccines.” On a typical day, Mohr will visit with customers and herds, or the teams responsible for animal production. The frequency of herd visits depends on the need for treatment or prevention. If an outbreak occurs that requires more attention, he relies on flexibility to address the needs of the herd. Though he has a clinic in Springfield, much of Mohr’s time is spent in his truck, which he utilizes as a mobile office. Because he’s on the road traveling to herds in Minnesota, northern Iowa and eastern South Dakota, Mohr said regular communication has been key to his practice’s success. “Between texting, calling and emailing, my business protocol is to answer any questions the farm may have to help them make the best decision for their herds,” Mohr said. “Behind the scenes, we also rely heavily on veterinary diagnostic labs so we can make the soundest decisions.” In fact, as a veterinarian, Mohr said he can’t do without the diagnostic labs. “We do a lot of clinical decision making based on their results,” Mohr said. “They have the technology to pinpoint the disease and to find out what is really going on with the animal that helps us make better decisions today. I couldn’t do my work without them.” Mohr Vet Research In addition to his swine veterinarian practice, Mohr uses diagnostic labs at his research business. For more than two decades, Mohr has been providing research for biological, pharmaceutical and nutrition companies. Mohr Vet Research also opened in 2020, though Mohr has been providing the services for the past 25 years. “I conduct contract research when companies develop new products and need to make sure it’s effective under real field conditions,” Mohr said. “It’s allowed me to learn more in-depth science in the veterinary medical field that I wouldn’t normally get to do. I can do experiments to help find answers to their different questions. “I wanted to add in that second business not only because there’s a need, but also because I have an interest. It requires detailed planning and that can be a challenge, but I enjoy it. Sometimes it’s as simple CONNECT Business Magazine

The Science and Business of Animal Health as figuring out what’s working between treatment A and treatment B.” Mohr said that the agricultural and veterinary field is a fast-changing environment, which means that as a veterinarian, he must adapt and adjust. “It may have been hard to think about at first, but it changes a lot,” he said. “Even what I do now from what I did when I graduated from veterinary school in 1993 is completely different. The demands of customers have also changed with what they request from the veterinary field, but you have to change with the times.” Lifelong Learning Mohr Vet and Mohr Vet Research will continue to grow with the goal of helping customers achieve continued success. For Mohr, this means constant improvement and continuing education. In addition to growing his two businesses, Mohr is finishing his master’s degree in livestock systems health from the University of Illinois’ College of

May | June 2022

Veterinary Medicine. The program encompasses health-related issues in population medicine, human resource management, business and immunology. His continuing education is a way to refresh his skill set. “I wanted to position myself for the years ahead,” Mohr said. “I’ve always tried to do lifelong learning. Everything changes, and you have to continue to learn.” Over the years, Mohr has learned different ways to be successful from various groups of people in his life. “I learned a lot of medical information from ... my dad. He said it was important to always solve your clients’ problems,” Mohr said. “No. 2, I learned from my colleagues. And (No. 3), from my customers. These three groups have both mentored me and had a big influence on my success.” Mohr’s family is also involved in the fields of health and science. He met his wife at the University of Minnesota while she was studying food science. Their four children have chosen occupations in food

science, optometry and pharmacy, with their youngest starting college last fall. “It has been fun watching my children develop an interest in health, science and agriculture,” Mohr said. Since becoming a veterinarian nearly 30 years ago, Mohr said what he appreciates most is the ability to solve problems for his clients and help make a difference. “It’s my passion to help the farmers that are feeding the world through healthy, quality and wholesome products for the food supply,” Mohr said. “We’re feeding a lot of people. For years upon years, you can look back and say, ‘Wow, we fed a lot of people.’ That’s why I do it.”

THE ESSENTIALS Mohr Vet/Mohr Vet Research 12 South Marshall Ave. Springfield, MN 56087 Phone: (507) 500-6647 Web: mohrvet.org

FEATURE Collaboration Connection

Jacob Vogel welding.

Cooper Jensen assisting project lead Brayden Gibson.

Kortney Ulrich silk screening.

Jack Freeman, Chevy 350 rebuild.

Marqavion Haefner, Landon Beck & Joseph Hoffrogge, construction.

Jarrett Plate working on a bike rack.

New Ulm CTE Center

Bridging the Gap Between High School and the Workplace We’ve got a problem. In our region and across the country, there are more job openings for skilled workers with technical certifications than there are applicants. This skills gap is hurting local businesses and creating a drag on our economy. Of course, the flip side of this problem is opportunity. There are good-paying jobs out there waiting for those willing to learn and ready to earn. That’s where the New Ulm Career Technical Education Center comes in. The center, which opened in August 2021, is part of ISD 88’s vocational curriculum. It teaches high-demand career skills and provides opportunities for students to explore different career options. “Our job isn’t to make workers. Our job is to provide opportunities through school,”

Jeff Bertrang said. “With opportunities like this, kids can make better-informed decisions about their futures.” Bertrang is ISD 88’s superintendent and a former industrial arts teacher. He understands the challenges and opportunities this type of programming presents. Right now, he’s focused on the opportunities, such as helping students step into good jobs right out of high school. “There are a lot of businesses out there that, if they see you have talent, that you show up for work, they will pay you well.

You can get a good wage if you have a good skill set,” Bertrang said. New Ulm’s CTE Center focuses on courses and certifications within the construction, automotive, manufacturing, graphic design and business sectors. Partnerships with local employers ensure coursework meets the demands of today’s workplace. “In the end, they leave with credentials that they can take to a future employer,” Bertrang said. A Community Effort Businesses are clamoring for employees with technical skills, and high schools across our region are rushing to expand career offerings. So when the Roger and Carol Ryberg family donated five parcels of land to ISD 88 CONNECT Business Magazine

FEATURE Collaboration Connection for this purpose last spring, the timing was perfect. The property includes the former Windings building and parking lot. With 30,713 square feet of industrial space, it is ideally suited for the CTE Center’s needs. ISD 88 took ownership of the building in March 2021, then rolled up its sleeves and got to work. With the start of classes looming just five months later, it required a community effort to quickly bring the center to life. “Everybody is seeing the need for a skilled workforce. They want to get involved, so there are many great partnerships,” Bertrang said. Numerous organizations, businesses and individuals pitched in with ideas, cash, equipment and labor, contributing more than $2 million to the cause. Their efforts are recognized on the donor wall at the entrance to the facility. “The local Economic Development Corporation donated $750,000 for remodeling, and the Economic Development Authority put $100,000 towards startup to get it going. The rest of the people on the donor wall contributed to a capital campaign to raise $350,000 for equipment,” Bertrang said. “We’re so very thankful for all the people who put effort, money and resources towards this.” Planned Growth ISD 88 has a three-year plan for ramping up the CTE Center to full capacity. By the end of the process, it will be serving high school students from New Ulm and surrounding areas, as well as area businesses and community members. The success of the first phase, which launched the program to New Ulm High School juniors and seniors, is a clear sign that the program is welcomed by students and businesses alike. “Year one was internal courses for our students to make sure we figured out the recipe, what works, what doesn’t work,” Bertrang said. “We started the first semester last fall with 60 students in classes. We thought maybe we’d get 30 and start slow, but 60 kids signed up. The second semester we had even more, with a total of 82 kids enrolled.” Planning for phase two is underway. Public and private schools within a 20-mile radius will be invited to use the facilities starting in the 2022-23 school year. The 36

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third and final phase will welcome adults to the center for learning new skill sets, retraining and certification. “Year three is figuring out how to get the community more invested in nighttime and weekend programming,” Bertrang said. “We want the building used. A lot of people put a lot of energy and resources towards this.” If the center’s first year is any indication, the program is already a success. “The student response has been very positive,” Bertrang said. “They are getting their hands dirty and learning to use industry-standard equipment. … They’re not sitting in a classroom, lined up in rows, listening to somebody talk. They’re actually doing things.” Eagle Enterprise, Learning the Business of Business ISD 88’s curriculum includes several business classes, including accounting, public relations and marketing. The culmination of all of these is Eagle Enterprise, a student-run non-profit business that operates out of the CTE Center. “Eagle Enterprise started as a school program, but it’s grown to be so many things,” Bertrang said. “Schools can’t give out money to kids. So, the Eagle Enterprise 501(C) (3) was established, and CTE contracting goes through this group. It has its own board, which is separate from the school.” Eagle Enterprise manages the sale of all products and services produced through the CTE program. Profits are distributed to CTE students in the form of scholarships. “Students go out and build decks for houses. They put in chain-link fences for dog kennels and put sheds together on the construction side. Then there’s T-shirt and

sweatshirt silk screening contracts, small engine repair services and manufacturing bike racks,” Bertrang said. “Students see that their input creates tangible output. That creates buy-in.” The CTE business hub includes offices for estimating, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and marketing, which surround an open classroom area. “They have their own offices. They come together for class discussions, then return to their different offices and work,” Bertrang said. “When a request comes in, the students put together the estimate and give the prospective customer the cost. They OK it or not; then Eagle Enterprise assigns it to a group, and production starts.” Automotive and Small Engine Repairs The automotive section of the facility is a large, open space equipped with lifts and an industrial size garage door for bringing vehicles in and out of the building. It’s used to teach ATV repair, small gas engine repair and autobody/automotive repair. Throughout the space, students work in pairs and groups. An old Camero sits on a pallet with its engine torn apart, waiting for a young troubleshooter to resurrect it. “The students here are learning how to take care of a car, from basic maintenance to tearing apart engines to cutting cars in half, shortening them up, and rewelding them,” Bertrang said. Once students master the fundamentals, they are free to design their own projects. “They learn how to use tools, organize the lab space and automotive basics first. Then, the next step is: ‘What do you want to work on?’ Which is their ultimate goal,” Bertrang said. On one side, rows of lawnmowers, snow

Dumpsters being refurbished by CTE Center students for RVS Sanitation in New Ulm.

throwers, ATVs and snowmobiles await pickup after maintenance or repair. “They had this shop full like it was a running mechanic shop,” Bertrang said. “They serviced them, invoiced them and shipped them back out again. It’s all part of the instruction on small gas engine repair.” Construction and Manufacturing The construction trades area is used for woodworking, advanced cabinetry, construction and contracting coursework. As we tour the space, it is filled with the sound of hammering as students assemble a small building. “They’re learning construction concepts: building wall sections, learning how to make trusses for the roof and then sheeting the outside with plywood. Next, they’ll learn how to put siding on,” Bertrang said. The manufacturing section of the center is home to fabrication, milling and welding classes. It is equipped with manual and CNC or computer-run mills and lathes. “When they start the class, the kids learn to use the manual mills first,” Bertrang said.” From there, they learn how to code with a computer, make parts and then how to do mass production.” The welding area features 18 welding booths with three-in-one welders for stick, MIG and TIG welding. Current projects include building bike racks and repairing metal dumpsters. “RVS Sanitation contracted with Eagle Enterprise to fix dumpsters. Industrial dumpsters sit for a long time and rust out in the bottom. RVS provides us with the new bottom, and then our team cuts out the rusted bottom, installs the new bottom and then puts all the big castors back on again,” Bertrang said. “Eagle Enterprise makes $100 a dumpster for each one they finish.” Senior Jacob Vogel has welded a dozen of these dumpsters himself. Each dumpster he completes adds $60 to the Eagle Enterprise student scholarship fund and expands his welding knowledge. “It’s good stuff,” Vogel said. “I wanted to be in a course where I could learn lots of different forms of welding. Working with super rusty dumpster bottoms, I learned how to prep for welding and then make a product that’s useful for the next five or seven years.”

Graphic Arts Over in the graphic arts area, senior Kortney Ulrich works with business instructor Theresa Mosher to clean a silkscreen station in preparation for a production run. Four silkscreen stations and a Cricut cutting machine sit ready and waiting. Merchandise, including T-shirts, shorts and hats, is neatly stacked and ready for sale in the next room. Students in this area learn graphic and web design, pattern creation, product marketing and merchandising skills. They create some products to meet specific customer requests and others to sell on the Eagle Enterprise online store. “We sell things, and that’s one of the things I want to do when I grow up, sell clothes,” Ulrich said. “But then, I also want to be a vet tech and a groomer. I want to do so many things.” Luckily for Ulrich, many of the skills she’s learning will translate to any career. She’s learning various soft skills, including time management, teamwork and communica-

Jane Laskey EDITOR

tion. She’s also honing her customer service and business skills. “The CTE Center offers hands-on learning opportunities for all types of students and learning styles,” Mosher said. “This alone has made students successful by engaging them in real-life applications and career skills needed to become valuable members of the community.” THE ESSENTIALS

New Ulm CTE Center

208 N. Valley St New Ulm, MN 56073 CTE Office: (507) 233-6172 ISD District 88: (507) 233-6187 Web: newulm.k12.mn.us/new-ulmhigh-school

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DIGGING INTO CONSTRUCTION SAFETY

emergency response and rescue, as well as hands-on training in confined space rescue through team-based scenarios using an innovative Confined Space Safety & Rescue Simulator.

South Central College (SCC) Customized Workforce Education is a proud sponsor for the new Dig It! Exhibit at the Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota – the museum’s largest exhibit to date. Visitors to the museum will experience real-world connections to the construction trades with this interactive exhibit, from operating heavy equipment like a tower crane and mini excavator to flying drones and building roads.

Excavation & Trenching Trenching and excavation work presents serious hazards to all workers involved. Cave-ins pose the greatest risk and are more likely than other excavation-related incidents to result in worker fatalities. One cubic yard of soil can weigh as much as a car. Employers must ensure that workers enter trenches only after adequate protections are in place to address cave-in hazards.

Sponsoring the Dig It! Tower Crane Experience was a natural fit for SCC Customized Workforce Education, which offers a wide variety of workplace safety trainings for the construction industry. Through this exhibit, visitors can experience what it’s like to be a crane operator, using joysticks to grab a load down below and maneuvering the grappling hook to just the right spot to pick up a pipe. SCC’s Machine Tool Technology program students and their instructor also contributed their time and talents by designing and fabricating the prototype for the grappling hook on the tower crane. The Dig It! Exhibit runs through March 2023.

SCC President Dr. Annette Parker (left) attended the Dig It! Exhibit grand opening with Customized Workforce Education’s safety trainer Cory Weston (middle) and Dean of Business & Industry Jim Hanson (right).

An SCC Machine Tool Technology student tries the Tower Crane Experience at the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota

SCC Customized Workforce Education has a team of certified workplace safety professionals available to help businesses achieve compliance with safety standards and provide on-site training to ensure their employees’ safety. Read on to learn about how SCC’s workplace safety team can meet your industry’s training needs. Fall Protection Falls are the leading cause of death in construction. In 2020, there were 351 fatal falls to a lower level out of 1,008 construction fatalities, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These deaths are preventable, and safety training is essential to keep workers safe on the job. SCC’s team of OSHA-authorized trainers prepare designated personnel for the inspection and use of fall protection equipment, residential construction fall protection, training requirements, and developing a fall protection program for their organization. Confined Space Entry Many workplaces contain areas that are considered "confined spaces" because while they are not necessarily designed for people, they are large enough for workers to enter and perform certain jobs. Millions of employees who enter into confined spaces each year face a significant risk of injury or death. SCC’s workplace safety team provides training on hazard recognition, air monitoring, equipment inspection, and

SCC Customized Workforce Education’s comprehensive training includes standards on excavations, practical soil mechanics, the use of soil testing equipment, and the stability of shored and unshored slopes and walls. Their state-of-the-art mobile trench simulator creates realistic hands-on scenarios including installation of different types of shoring and trench rescue exercises. Aerial Lifts Little training is given to first-time operators of scissors lifts, boom lifts, and other aerial equipment today. This unfortunately leads to accidents and injuries in the workplace. SCC’s qualified aerial lift trainers are knowledgeable in general industry and construction applications and can tailor aerial lift operator safety training to any industry. Their effective safety training prepares operators to understand the hazards involved in improper aerial lift and how to achieve compliance with OSHA and ANSI A92 standards. Visit southcentral.edu/workforce to learn more about how SCC’s team of experienced professionals can meet your safety training needs.

Learn more:

southcentral.edu/workforce

Customized Workforce Education UPCOMING WORKFORCE TRAININGS 8-Hour Excavation (Competent Person) With mornings in the classroom and afternoons on the job, this 8-hour training covers soil mechanics, the use of soil testing equipment and working with a trench simulator. Classroom time will be devoted to covering the OSHA Construction Standard on Excavations (Subpart P) in depth. Dress for working outdoors is encouraged and a certificate is issued at the end of the course.

Thursday, May 19, 8am-4:30pm South Central College – North Mankato | Course Fee: $300

Forklift Safety Training All forklift operators are required to be certified by their current employer per OSHA 1910.178. This 2-hour training will satisfy the formal instruction part of the certification, and allow your onsite personnel to complete the required driver's training and evaluation. This class also serves as a refresher training for those who are already certified. The concepts in this training will apply to sit down, stand up and rough terrain lifts. Participants will receive a certificate of completion to provide proof of formal instruction in the future.

Monday, May 23, 1-3pm Live Online (Zoom) | Course Fee: $125

Forklift Train-the-Trainer This 7-hour training is designed to educate your company trainer on the rules and regulations of 1910.178 Powered Industrial Truck standard. This course will also give you the tools you need to develop and implement an effective forklift training program at your facility. This comprehensive course will go beyond the basics and give you insight into laws, regulation, interpretations and how to use them to further your company's forklift program. Materials, handouts, and a basic presentation will be provided.

Tuesday, July 5, 8am-3pm South Central College – North Mankato | Course Fee: $350 View all upcoming trainings and register online: southcentral.edu/workforcetraining Contact us for a custom onsite training solution: cwe@southcentral.edu 1920 Lee Blvd., North Mankato, MN | 507-389-7203 | cwe@southcentral.edu An affirmative action, equal opportunity employer and educator. This material can be made available in alternative formats by contacting the Academic Support Center at 507-389-7222 or ds@southcentral.edu.

southcentral.edu/workforce

Learn More:

Ordered from the menu at George’s Fine Steaks & Spirits in New Ulm, Compart Farms Dry-Aged Chop (14 oz Porterhouse Bone-In Pork Chop). 40

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By Ashley Hanley and Jane Laskey Photos by Jonathan Smith

The Compart family: Chris, Rochelle, Kyle, Kaye, Dean, Jim, Diana, and Dan.

At Compart Family Farms in Nicollet, three generations share a common purpose and passion for producing the world’s best pork. "It starts with passion,” Dean Compart said. “It is something that we've grown up in. It's a lifestyle we've all enjoyed. It is also a challenge, a challenge a lot of people can't relate to. It really gets in your blood." Dean is part of the Compart ownership group and the son of founders Richard Compart and Bonnie Compart. He manages the Elite Genes A.I. brand at Compart’s Boar Store, one of several Compart businesses. Compart Family Farms is the heart of the family’s business. Its Nicollet farms produce premium Compart Duroc pork, which is sold through its online store and through distributors to restaurants and retailers globally. “We work hard as a family, and we developed something together that people love,” Jim Compart said. Jim is Dean’s brother. “Dad was interested in the science of raising pigs. He always said, ‘I never believed that we would be taking science and putting it on somebody's plate.’" Compart-branded meats have earned a stellar reputation with master chefs around the world. You’ll find Compart-branded meats on restaurant menus from Tavern on the Green in Manhattan to Duke’s Beach House in Maui to Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. “We service restaurants coast to coast, as well as restaurants and distributors in other countries, including Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia,” Jim said. Continues

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A Passion for Producing Gourmet Pork At Pinpoint Research, the Comparts’ nutritional research farm, they perform research and testing to optimize growth, performance and meat quality characteristics. In the process, the Comparts have reduced their farm’s carbon footprint. Then there’s Compart’s Boar Store, the original family business, which capitalizes on 70 years of breeding and genetic research to produce top-in-class breeding stock and boar semen for artificial insemination. Under the Boar Store umbrella, you’ll find the Elite Genes brand, which helps introduce superior genetics from elite Duroc, York and Landrace boars and gilts. Meet the Compart family Compart’s Boar Store was founded by the late Richard Compart and his wife, Bonnie Compart. “Our operation dates back to 1949, when our father, Richard, started Durocs as a 4-H project. He met my mom at the State Fair. She was showing a Hampshire pig, which is a black and white belted pig. He

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was showing Durocs,” Jim said. The pair married and started raising Duroc pigs and milking cows. Along the way they raised five children: Dean, Marc, Jim, Chris and Heidi. All helped to run the family farm. “Raising pigs is something we all love. You always wonder what the next year’s pigs will be like and where you want to go,” Dean said. “We all enjoyed seeing it change and putting the work in. It was a great opportunity to work alongside our parents.” By 1964, the Comparts had sold their milk cows and brought in Hampshire pigs. Then sons Marc and Jim added the Yorkshire breed in 1977. In 1982 Dean joined the business adding more Hampshire sows, and Chris brought in the Landrace breed in 1988. “Our parents’ passion was pigs,” Chris Compart said. “Dad started the very first on-farm test station in 1965 when he saw the need to select animals that are good for the trade. It evolved into all of the sons coming back to the farm and developing

the other breeds.” Since those early days the company has grown substantially and now has 4,800 sows in its program and processes about 100,000 animals each year, 50,000 of which are raised on its Nicollet farms. Today brothers Dean, Jim and Chris are still involved in the business and the third generation of Comparts is joining in. Dean and his wife, Kaye Compart, focus on the Elite Genes boar stud program. Their son, Kyle Compart, heads up dayto-day production on the numerous farms. Jim focuses on sales for Compart Family Farms’ branded meat products. His wife, Diana Compart, heads up the company’s accounting group. They have two sons in the business: Robert Compart runs a breeding stock farm at Princeton; Dan Compart handles fulfillment and logistics for Compart Family Farms. Chris oversees the genetic side of the operation at the Compart’s Boar Store and growing crops for the business. His wife, Rochelle Compart, performs pedigree

Compart Family Farms | Nicollet work for breeding stock and fulfills meat orders for the online store. The Comparts agree that their passion for farming is something they were born with, so it has always been about family from generation to generation. Everyone in the family is connected to the products they send to market. But they acknowledge they also have a great team of people that work with them. “Everybody has a lot of pride in what they do for us. They have a lot of pride, and they’re doing everything right because they put their name on it.” Jim said. The Compart Duroc The Comparts don’t produce just any pork. They believe the pork they’re producing at Compart Family Farms is the best pork on the market. “It’s the most tender, juiciest pork you can buy,” Jim said. So what separates the Comparts’ pig from the competition? Decades of genetic research and breeding to produce the best in the breed. The Comparts specialize in the Duroc pig. It is a red pig with a long history. “The Duroc breed came over from Spain,” Jim said. “They say that Christopher Columbus brought it over. If you go on vacation, you’re going to take your best shoes along so you can enjoy your trip. Well, he made sure that if he was going to a new country, he brought the best pork that he knew.” Duroc pigs tend to be large, with auburn red coats and droopy ears. They are valued for their feed efficiency and rapid growth rate. Their meat also appears redder before it is cooked. “We have the trademark, ‘redder is better’. Color is a good indicator of pH. Darker pork is typically higher in pH, and higher pH pork is more tender,” Dean said. When the marketing slogan, “Pork, the other white meat” swept across the country, it changed how consumers shop. According to Jim, pork producers were referring to the pale color of cooked pork. But consumers interpreted the saying differently and began looking for light-colored, uncooked pork at the grocery store. This led to breeding for lighter colored meat, which can be drier and less flavorful. “When you buy a pork chop in a store or

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A Passion for Producing Gourmet Pork a restaurant, you have no idea, sometimes, what you are going to get ... the comment that I hear is, ‘I don’t like pork when I’m dining out because it is usually so dry.’ But our product is different. When the top chefs eat it, we know it is good,” Jim said. “You will never find a better, juicier, tastier bacon than that which was made the Compart way.” Dean said. The Duroc breed is the foundation of Compart quality. But there are several other ingredients that make their meat excellent. The Compart family has spent 70 years recording pedigrees and selectively breeding their pigs to encourage certain characteristics. While some breeders aim for lower cost and rapid growth, the Comparts breed for marbling and water retention for a juicier product and better flavor. Chris is a certified ultrasound technician and uses this tool to evaluate Compart pigs. “We used to weigh pigs and measure their backfat and loineye size. Now I also can look into the loineyes and measure the amount of intramuscular fat these pigs have, which translates into the juicier, flavorful pork we’re looking for,” Chris said. The ultrasound data is used to select the best pigs for breeding, as Chris explained: “We’d keep the top 2 to 3 percent of the males and females and put them together. The next year we would do the same thing again. After 10 years, we created a far superior product. It is all a part of genetic selection and something we learned way back as kids. When you rely on good data, you get good results.”

Award-Winning BBQ

...and so much more.

Pursuing a higher level of excellence every day.

sschwickerts@tectaamerica.com | 507-387-3101 Mankato | Savage | Rochester, MN | Lawrence, KS

www.schwickerts.com 44

May | June 2022

With summer just around the corner, it’s time to heat up the grill and plan for back yard barbecues. At Compart Family Farms, they believe the secret to a great barbecue is starting with a great meat. “We sponsor barbecue teams that cook our products. It took no time at all to prove it’s not just the sauce that matters,” Jim said. “The past five to six years, all the winning teams used Compart Duroc pork. We’ve had judges tell us that they can tell when they’re eating Compart pork because it tastes so much better. There’s such a difference.” The Comparts sponsor about a dozen teams and sell their branded meats to many more. “We sell to hundreds and hundreds of teams. Across the country, there are barbecue contests with 25 to 50 teams competing every weekend. In the south, people barbecue like people in Minnesota go fishing,” Chris said. According to Dean, the Compart teams have been performing well on the national barbecue scene. They’ve won in top competitions across the country four out of the last five years. The good news for the weekend amateurs? You, too, can make award-winning barbecue. Compart Duroc porkchops, ribs and roasts are only a click away on the Compart Family Farms website.

Compart Family Farms | Nicollet

Serving Only the Best At George’s Fine Steaks & Spirits in New Ulm, Compart Duroc Pork plays a starring role. “It tastes so good because it’s a quality product that you can’t get anyplace else,” George Cottom said. “Our restaurant is all about providing the best and Compart Farms pork is the best that I’ve ever had. It’s such a reliable product and it has exceptional flavor and tenderness. It just works great for us.” Cottom is the owner of George’s and a long-time customer of Compart Family Farms. He relies on them for all his pork supplies. One of the things he appreciates most is the way the extra marbling in Compart pork creates a juicy, delicious meat. “It has fat content/marbling you don’t find normally with pork products. These guys have been working for years, making sure that they only reproduce pigs that have that capability,” Cottom said. “When they source it genetically and refine it year after year, you end up with this fantastic, consistent product.” Compart Duroc Pork is featured in one of Cottom’s favorite specials: small pork medallions with bell peppers, onions and exotic mushrooms.

George Cottom

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Although it’s not yet officially summer, folks are already getting their orders in for one of Compart’s most popular products: a Compart Duroc gift box. “We get very busy during the holiday season shipping all different types of pork that people order online. People are buying gifts for the holiday season, and year round. People love the Compart Duroc pork gift boxes, because it’s restaurant-quality pork, and it’s packaged very nicely”. Chris Compart said. Gift boxes are available for thank you presents and special occasions any time. Holiday orders start rolling in in September or even earlier, as businesses start planning their budgets for the season ahead. There are seven gift box combinations to choose from in a variety of prices and sizes. For an extra special gift, the family recommends their unique, dry-aged porkchops. Typically, dry-aging doesn’t work with pork, but Compart Duroc pork is bred and fed to give it higher quality fat and marbling, which allows the dry-aging process to occur. “When we take dry-aged pork porterhouses or dry-aged pork ribeyes to steakhouses, it’s like, ‘Wow, that reads really good on the menu.’ And when they taste it, it’s unbelievable the difference in taste,” Jim Compart said. “The flavor is more condensed. It’s juicier.” Gift boxes, dry-aged pork and many other cuts can be purchased in the Compart Family Farms online store, then shipped or picked up out at the farm.

Compart Family Farms | Nicollet

The Compart breeding program has paid off in a big way as Compact Durocs have double the marbling of their peers and have the consistently great flavor their customers count on. “We’ve created a very highly marbled Duroc line that is undoubtedly the most highly marbled Duroc available today anywhere in the world. When you order a Compart Duroc pork product, it is like a Hershey’s candy bar; it is the same yesterday, today and next week,” Jim said. To ensure their pigs live up to their pedigree, the Comparts have developed a proprietary feed program. “We sell a high percentage of our market hogs into our own branded pork program, then we work with other cooperative farmers that use our genetics and use our feeding program which we developed through 17 years of nutritional research,” Jim said. “We worked with nutritionists from Hubbard Feed to develop a proprietary feeding program that maximizes the genetic potential in our purebred Compart Duroc animal.” Today the Duroc breed is popular once again and the Comparts are reaping the benefits of their loyalty to the breed and the decades they invested in elevating it to new levels. “Just because it’s Duroc pork doesn’t mean it’s going to be high quality. A lot of people want to get involved with Duroc now, but it takes many, many years to develop,” Jim said. “We bred our animals in a very scientific way for 20 years to get to the point that we have today. A lot of the corporate genetic programs don’t have pedigrees to track, and they’re not willing to spend 20 years to develop them. So for them to compare their percentage Duroc or a Duroc that they bought somewhere to our Compart Duroc — it’s like comparing a Model T to a Ferrari. That’s why we call it Compart Duroc.”

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On any given day, Natasha Frost is taking orders, catering events or determining new menu items for her Mankato restaurant, Wooden Spoon. But one day in the spring of 2019, plans changed after receiving a phone call from Sheri Sander-Silva, the Executive Director of Feeding Our Communities Partners (FOCP). “We have a load of chicken here that needs to be offloaded by the trucker,” Sheri said. “It’s more than we can handle ourselves, but we don’t want it to go to waste.” The catch? The shipment included 3,000 pounds of raw meat. Natasha quickly accepted the challenge. To make sure the food could be put to use, Wooden Spoon shut its doors for a week, and Head Chef Brigette “Chef B” Rasmussen donated her time to ensure all of the chicken was cooked in a short amount of time. “We thought this was a one-off situation,” Natasha said. “We thought, ‘Oh, this can’t happen all the time.’ “Then, we got another call the following week. And so started our path to food recovery.” Natasha and Brigette started asking questions and talking to the right people in the community to find gaps in a “broken system” of food distribution. With the resources of a commercial kitchen and the passion to serve, they were looking for a way to make a difference. Eventually, through their partnerships with community organizations like MY Place, Echo Food Shelf, and FOCP, they founded the South

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