Southern Research and Outreach Center

SOUTHERN RESEARCH AND OUTREACH CENTER

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SROC AT 100

Friday, September 6, 2013

FROM THE DIRECTOR

CELEBRATING A CENTURY OF SERVICE TO MINNESOTA’S AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY

Center has thrived because of its people

The University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca celebrates its 100th birthday with an open house set for Friday, Sept. 23.

The event, which runs from 3 to 8 p.m. at the campus off Old Hwy. 14, will feature a display of historical photos representing SROC’s history and its contributions to agriculture for the past 100 years.

A brief program will be held at 5 p.m. A free picnic dinner will be served from 4:30 to 7 p.m. and University of Minnesota mascot Goldy Gopher will greet visitors.

Other highlights will include a corn shucking contest, aqua robotics and live llamas, pigs and calves. There will be wagon tours and horsedrawn trolley rides, 4-H activities for youth and maroon and gold M wear and gifts available for purchase, along with the opportunity to sample and purchase meat and cheese from the University of Minnesota Country Store.

Visitors can bring garden or field plant samples for on-the-spot diagnosis of weed, insect and disease problems.

The event will be held rain or shine.

By FORREST IZUNO

nimble and responsive to the needs of the consumers of our research and outreach, as well as forward thinking and adaptive to the changes in consumers and our clientele.

In 1913, we began life as an experiment station with a focus on demonstrating solutions to immediate production problems. Today, we have resident worldclass faculty conducting research and outreach on a broad spectrum of basic to applied agriculture-related topics including animal and crop production, biofuels, the environment, nutraceuticals, animal welfare, soil ecology and the challenges of providing for the basic needs of humans given increasing constraints over the next 100 years. We have come a long way and have a long and interesting future ahead of us.

In appreciation of all your support over the years, we’d like to thank you and invite you to help us celebrate our past, and our future, at our Open House Centennial Celebration at the SROC from 3 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 19.

As the University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center (SROC) celebrates its 100th birthday this year, I would be remiss if I did not thank all of you in our past and present who have helped us become what we are today. With your continued support, we look forward to a second century of serving the community, the region, the state, the nation and the world.

Institutional longevity is not an insignificant accomplishment. Neither buildings nor land possess the characteristics necessary for longevity. It all boils down to people … past employees who dedicated their time and energy working to build what the institution is today and current employees working to ensure a productive and relevant future.

With great appreciation for the efforts of those who came before us, as well as for all current employForrest Izuno is a University of Minnesota professor ees, I can say that the SROC is an institution that has in bioproducts and biosystems engineering and the not only survived, but thrived, over the years because head of the Southern Research and Outreach Center of our people. We have accomplished this by being in Waseca.

l a i n n e t n e C

Southern Research and Outreach Center 100 Years Strong A special project of the Waseca County News 213 2nd St. NW, Waseca, MN www.wasecacountynews.com Publisher/Editor Julie Frazier Managing Editor Suzanne Rook Media Consultant Kristie Biehn Advertising Design Kelly Kubista, Jenine Kubista, Naomi Kissing, Nikkie Gilmore, Keeley Krebsbach, Paul Ristau Page Design Tony Borreson Cover Design Naomi Kissling Southern Research and Outreach Center: 100 Years Strong is distributed to subscribers and readers of the Waseca County News at no additonal charge.

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Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC at 100

PAGE 3

SROC through the years 1910s

The main office of the Southern Minnesota Research and Outreach Center in Waseca was previously a home, but was converted years ago. (Suzanne Rook/Waseca County News)

Visionaries

In 1910, Minnesota farms produced food for their families with the hope that enough surplus food could be sold to exchange for salt, sugar, clothing and hardware. By then, horses had replaced oxen as farm power units. But anything a horse’s pull could not accomplish required hard work.

Markets were uncertain, roads muddy, farm families isolated, and agricultural information limited.

But changes came fast.

Tired farmers wondered: Was there a better way?

In 1911, the Legislature appropriated funds to establish two agricultural production demonstration farms — one in northern Minnesota and the other in the southern part of the state. In August 1912, the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents purchased 246 acres of land 1/2 mile to the south and west of Waseca on the edge of the city limits. The Southeast Demonstration Farm and Experiment Station began operations in 1913.

Albert Hoversten, a University of Minnesota grad, was employed as farmer. The demonstration farm was organized with a mission of demonstrating the correct principles of crop rotation, good livestock management and desirable farm equipment.

In 1919, R.E. Hodgson was appointed superintendent. He served until 1960.

Work done by SROC researchers puts faculty members at the top of their fields

By MARIANNE CARLSON seven resident faculty members be properly balanced between and Natural Resource Sciences,

mcarlson@wasecacountynews.com

The signs say Southern Research and Outreach Center and carry the distinctive University of Minnesota logo.

Tucked into a lush, quiet corner of Waseca, the rows of white, aluminum-sided outbuildings surrounded by fields of corn and other crops look like much of the rest of southern Minnesota, making it easy for passersby to blow on past.

But on the campus, founded 100 years ago, there’s a lot going on.

The research center, which began in 1913 as the Southeast Demonstration Farm and Experiment Station, is home to

as well as a varying number of graduate students.

The seven faculty members represent six Twin Cities campus departments: Agronomy and Plant Genetics, Animal Science, Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, Horticultural Science, Plant Pathology and Soil, Water and Climate and continually work on a variety of agricultural-related research projects — everything from crops to land use to pest management to animal nutrition and management.

According to its website, “a fundamental philosophy that guides SROC research principles today is that land use and research programs must

Albert Hoversten was employed as farm food and value-added produc- Minnesota Agricultural Experimanager, serving as first Superintendent tion systems, and integrated ment Station and University of of Station from 1913-18. (Photo courtesy of with enhanced economic and Minnesota Extension.

Southern Research and Outreach Center) social values across the landscape.

See VISIONARIES on 4 “As an era of change with new challenges is ushered into today’s agricultural industry, Congratulations on your 100th Anniversary! stacking value on the landscape by developing multiple uses for Waseca plants and animals, while maintaining a focus on a balanced agricultural system, becomes socially and economically desirable.”

SROC, a part of the University of Minnesota, works with five other Research and Outreach Centers across the ndcu state as well as the University’s February 2014 ww w College of Food, Agricultural

Southern Research and Outreach Center

PAGE 4

SROC AT 100

Friday, September 6, 2013

“”

We are a scientific community whose mission is to conduct innovative basic and applied research for broad dissemination and education in the areas of agricultural production, human health, renewable energy and the environment.

- Southern Research and Outreach Center Mission

Visionaries

From Page 4

OTHER RESEARCH & OUTREACH CENTERS

Its mission “is to conduct innovative basic and applied research for broad dissemination and education in the areas of North Central Research and Outreach Center — Grand Rapids agricultural production, human health, Northwest Research and Outreach Center — Crookston renewable energy and the environment.” Rosemount Research and Outreach Center — Rosemount Southwest Research and Outreach Center — Lamberton West Central Research and Outreach Center — Morris

Balancing it all

It’s all a balancing act, Forrest Izuno, University of Minnesota professor and head of SROC, said.

Scientists and faculty members at SROC work to help farmers maximize and maintain production on their land and at the same time try to foresee future issues and find solutions that are both relevant and can be modified, Izuno said.

“We are constantly looking for the optimal production system,” he said.

“But what is the optimal system today may not be the optimal system tomorrow. Everything around is constantly changing so we must change with it.

We have to prepare for everything from market demand and disease to changing climate and weather patterns.”

A lot has changed since SROC was founded — both at the center, in farming and at the grocery store.

“You don’t last 100 years if you don’t change,” Izuno said. “Sometimes that can be difficult, but we have to be nimble enough to change directions.

Each faculty member at SROC has an area of expertise and Izuno said they are “a true interdisciplinary team that understands the values and constraints of the other team members.”

Scientists and faculty members at SROC as well as the other five research centers in Minnesota are experts at coming up with solutions to specific problems, but as time passes, society wants and needs change. As a result, SROC operates with one objective in mind.

As society’s demands have changed, the scientists at SROC have had to be more than just flexible, they have had to be extremely creative, Izuno said.

“We do a tremendous amount of

SROC hosts its 100th Anniversary Open House on Sept. 19 at the campus off Old Hwy. 14. Izuno said the annual open house is a perfect example of community outreach.

“This is a hands-on learning opportunity for people in the community,” Izuno said. “They will be immersed in the world of agriculture and ag research. research that leads up to the boxes of All of their senses will come alive.” people’s favorite products finally being stacked neatly on the shelves in the grocery store,” Izuno said.

Although there is the perception Part of the faculty’s job at SROC, acthat agriculture production is politi- cording to Izuno, is to sift through all of cally driven, Izuno said, it is actually the research and come up with solutions the consumer who dictates what ends to problems that haven’t yet become isup on grocery store shelves. sues.

“Every time you make a choice at the “The trick is to get ahead of the grocery store you are expressing what it curve,” Izuno said. “Our job is to figure is that you value,” Izuno said. out what is going to happen 10 years from now based on the information from the past, the trends that we are seeing now and use them to create solutions The research conducted at SROC decades into the future. We believe the helps create unbiased information — best decisions are made based in science. facts that farmers and agriculturists can That information can be used to make use to make informed decisions, Izuno a plan. If you plan ahead you can make said. adjustments along the way. Our goal is “We help answer the whys and hows,” to stop being reactionary and practice Izuno said. being visionary.”

Looking to the future

Outreach

VISION & VALUES We are committed to contributing to sustained social and economic development, the wise use of natural resources, and an enhanced quality of life in communities across Minnesota, the nation and the world, through integrity, visionary leadership, and high quality scientific research, education and outreach.

Our work will be characterized by vibrant exchange and collaboration at all levels. It will be both currently relevant and futuristic, utilizing the best technologies and methodologies in the ongoing pursuit of knowledge and truth.

We will effectively and efficiently apply our resources and strengths to make the greatest contribution within the overall framework of the goals of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and the University of Minnesota.

Source: University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center

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Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC at 100

Staying Relevant Common threads remain from past research while SROC looks to the future

By MILES TRUMP

mtrump@wasecacountynews.com

Tillage and nitrogenmanagement research

The University of Minnesota’s Southern Research and Outreach Center is a hub of Tillage research agricultural research.

Gyles Randall never planned to research In the early years, increased agricultural the complexities of tillage production was the focus of all activities, when he moved to Waseca according to the university’s website. Its rein 1972. search mission has since evolved to look at It took him all of about ways to improve technology and practices two weeks to learn that that impact food production, human health, tillage – which Randall renewable energy and the environment. defines as a soil disturFrom hybrid corn to growth hormones bance that prepares the in cattle to runoff in our area’s waterways, Randall land for the next crop – here is a look at a few of SROC’s research was what he needed to be projects of the past that remain relevant and working on at the University of Minnesota topical today.

An example of reduced tillage. (Photo courtesy of SROC)

Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca.

“People were interested in doing tillage research to see if we could get by with much less tillage, less aggressive tillage, and still maintain good crop production,” said Randall, a soil scientist and professor emeritus at SROC. From 1972 to the mid-‘90s, Randall and others compared the performance of various tillage practices and conducted a number of tillage studies for corn, soybeans and continuous corn in Waseca. They compared how those tillage systems interacted with herbicides and fertilizer management, he said.

See STAYING RELEVANT on 6

PAGE 5

SROC through the years 1920s The original flock of sheep at Waseca consisted of about 20 ewes.

Superintendent Albert Hodgson reported, “The small flock of Shropshire sheep maintained at the experiment station has returned the largest percentage of profit of any class of livestock. They have been handled strictly as a market proposition although they are all registered. Throughout the spring and summer they trim the lawn at the experiment station which would otherwise require the work of several men. They glean in the field after the crops are cut and in the winter are fed corn silage and soybean straw.”

As management improved, the flock became more prolific and by 1926, the station flock of about 40 registered Shropshire ewes attracted buyers for all the surplus animals.

As the mission and focus of both the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and the university changed over time, name changes and land acreage increases were made in order to better accommodate specific needs and the services provided.

In 1925, the Southeast Demonstration and Experiment Station became the Southeast Experiment Station.

Harvest time 1928 (Photo courtesy of Southern Research and Outreach Center)

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PAGE 6

SROC AT 100

Friday, September 6, 2013

Staying Relevant Moldboard plowing, a tillage system where the soil is turned over, was the method of choice for most of the acreage at the time, Randall said.

But the agricultural industry was looking at less aggressive tillage systems that left some plant residue on the soil surface that would ultimately result in less runoff, he said.

The issue at hand was the runoff of the area’s fertile soil from the landscape to nearby streams and rivers. With the loss of soil into waterways came the loss of crops’ yield potential and the greening of lakes, Randall said. Sediments in water ways also clouded streams.

With the research results, Randall and other researchers provided farmers with the background information to use improved tillage systems.

Along with its environmental impacts, the information gave farmers the tools to grow their crops more efficiently and economically.

“We developed a number of fact sheets and information articles that demonstrated where these reduced tillage systems work well, where they did not work so well, and if they did not work well, what were the problems?” Randall said.

“It was pretty well recognized, especially in the Corn Belt, the work that we did,” Randall said. “Now it’s very difficult to find any moldboard tillage at all out there anymore.

Farmers have changed their system and they recognize that it’s a better system for the future.”

Nitrate management research

In the late 1970s, Randall and other researchers at SROC were conducting a study that measured how certain crops contributed to the amount of nitrate that got into waterways.

From Page 5

Traditional corn breeding research

An old photo showing corn hybrids, including Minhybrid 301, which was distributed from the Waseca station, according to its website. (Photo courtesy of SROC).

Plants take in nitrate through nitrogen fertilizer, which is applied to Minnesota crops more than any other fertilizer. The nitrate is mobile and soluble, so it moves through the area’s fine textured soils and drains through the tile lines, ending up in the nearby waterways, such as the Le Sueur, Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. It eventually flows into the Gulf of Mexico, Randall said.

The problem with nitrate in water is that it can get into drinking water through aquifers and cause health problems, and even death, in babies. It also affects the natural biological activity of streams, Randall said. Also, when nitrate runoff drains into the Gulf of Mexico, it creates a hypoxic area that kills fresh fish and shellfish, an issue

that’s still relevant today.

“Farmers need nitrogen, but they know they’re also contributing to the nitrates in the river systems,” Randall said.

Starting in 1977, Randall and researchers at SROC studied the issue with a cluster of tile draining research plots that allowed them to test various fertilizers applied to crops throughout the year and measure the cause-andeffect relationships of those treatments. They did that by collecting the water from those experimental plot tile lines and measuring the nitrate concentration in the water.

While they mainly measured nitrate, the research also included measuring phosphorus, bacteria and pesticides.

What researchers found were the two crops that contributed

most of the nitrate to the area’s rivers: Corn and soybeans. What nitrate the corn didn’t contribute to the waterways, the soybeans’ residual leftover nitrate did the next year, Randall said.

Randall and others turned the research into a listing of best management practices for nitrogen use in south central Minnesota, which were distributed to farmers by educators, extension services, scientists and consultants. It impacted several other groups of people, as well as the environment.

“We (gave) the information that was helpful to dealers and to the consultants, and to other educators to prove that information and guidance to growers,” Randall said. “It was helpful to the policy people, the politicians as well as the state department

who had jurisdiction over the waters and nutrient concentration in water.”

“It would be a national impact, too, as far as the problems down in the Gulf of Mexico,” Randall added. “So it’s farreaching.”

SROC’s first step into traditional corn breeding started not long after the turn of the century.

H.K. Hayes, a famous agronomist and geneticist, arrived at the University of Minnesota in 1915 convinced that inbreeding and crossing were the most productive methods to improve crops, according to SROC’s written history. Farmers and others initially dismissed his ideas, said Gregg Johnson, an associate professor at the university’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Along with Robert Hodgson, the head of SROC (then known as the university’s Southeast Demonstration Farm and Experiment Station), Hayes began testing a series of inbred corn lines that would become the foundation for the university’s corn breeding program, according to the university’s website.

“The increased yields of corn made possible by hybrid seed and disease control has been one of the most productive accomplishments of the University of Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station,” SROC’s website states.

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Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC at 100

PAGE 7

SROC through the years 1930s By 1930, there were 122.7 million people in the U.S.with farmers representing 21 percent of the labor force. There were 6.3 million farms with an average size of 157 acres.

“When the land for this station was purchased, it was so cut up by ponds, sloughs, and mud holes that only the irregular patches of higher ground could be farmed,” University of Minnesota Chief of Agronomy and Farm Management Andrew Boss said in 1935.

“The intention was to make this a drainage and farm management demonstration Some tiling was done and combined with dry weather and the general lowering of ground water levels, this has made it possible to cultivate almost every foot of land except in very wet seasons,” said Boss.

Some researchers called the Southern Experimental Station a “mud hole,” or when it rained a lot, a “sea of mud”. But that was as planned because the university researchers intended to reclaim the land through drainage.

They tapped ponds with tile lines, cut through high ground to the south and eventually had the site thoroughly tiled.

A group of cows at the Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca. (Miles Trump/Waseca County News)

Staying Relevant

From the time the experiment station originated, all corn grown in Minnesota was openpollinated, resulting in a more sporadic mix of corn yields.

“There’s no way really at that point to predict or have any idea how well that crop was going to 7do next year,” Johnson said.

After 1920, corn research became a major focus of the Southeast Experiment Station.

Instead of using open-pollination techniques, Hayes, Hodgson and other researchers singled out desirable corn plants to breed together in an effort to improve the crop.

“What farmers would do is, when they harvest it, they would sort of in their mind take notes, ‘Well that plant looks good, or that ear was really good,’ and they would take the corn off of that plant and then they would store that to plant next year,” Johnson said. “And what Hayes was saying was, ‘No, it’s gotta be more deliberate than that. We’ve gotta take a good one and a good one, and sort of cross them so that it creates a hybrid.”

“The goal of traditional breeding is just to

find improved varieties that have higher yield potential, disease resistance that would be desirable, all those kind of things,” SROC scientist Tom Hoverstad said. “That’s been going on for hundreds of years.”

In the 1930s, test plots were planted by university personnel and arranged throughout southern Minnesota to show farmers the benefits of the hybrid corn seed. Eventually, the university sold hybrids to farmers — Hayes crossed promising corn inbred lines with another inbred line from Illinois to create the first Minhybrid ‘301’, which was distributed from the Waseca station, according to the written history — before working with the Minnesota Crop Improvement Association, which further developed the seed and distributed it to farmers.

“That was the real start of significant yield improvements and grain quality and such,” Johnson said of the research. “We really led the way for some innovative change in how we grown corn.

When you get up into that sort of 60s, 70s, now you had people … here that focused more on

From Page 6 management of that species, so they can manage that species at a much higher level now because of that work that was done in the ‘20s.”

bST Research Some of the first research on bovine somatotropin (bST) – otherwise known as growth hormones in cattle – in Minnesota was conducted at SROC in Waseca.

Hugh Chester-Jones, a professor of animal science at SROC, was smack dab in the middle of it, researching with other scientists how two different genetic lines of cattle Chester-Jones responded to a range of growth hormone during a U.S. Food and Drug Administration study in 1986.

See STAYING RELEVANT on 8

The Corn Harvest Crew in 1930 at Southeast Experiment Station. (Photo courtesy of Southern Research and Outreach Center)

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SROC AT 100

Friday, September 6, 2013

Staying Relevant

“Basically the impact was just to get information on daily injection of growth hormone, of bST,” Chester-Jones said of SROC’s study. “I think it was just one of the sites of information that we were gathering at the University of Minnesota to help producers understand.”

Part of the research included a field study on commercial farms in southern Minnesota.

The research in Waseca used bST from American Cyanamid, one of the companies working to develop a growth hormone product at the time.

“We were excited because it was something new,” ChesterJones said. “It was a team effort across Minnesota.”

Cows naturally produce a certain amount of the protein hormone in the pituitary gland. In the ‘80s, Monsanto, another large pharmaceutical company, had high-powered scientists who began reproducing the hormone in a laboratory setting in an effort to increase the efficiency of cows’ milk production by injecting them with it.

During the study, ChesterJones and other scientists in Waseca found an increase in milk production, he said, and the two genetic lines of cattle didn’t seem to respond differently to the product. It was Monsanto that launched the first growth hormone product,

From Page 7

called Posilac, in 1994 after receiving FDA approval. When the product went to market, it used twice the dosage (25 milligrams) that was used in SROC’s FDA study, ChesterJones said. The result was an average of probably a 5- to 10-percent increase in daily milk production from cattle, he said.

There also was some controversy surrounding the research at the time. The university spent time holding meetings around the state trying to educate people on the science of the product while a group from Minnesota protested the research. Some farmers thought the product would affect those who consumed the milk. That’s not the case, Chester-Jones said. The FDA has ruled that milk and meat from cows treated with bST are safe for human consumption.

These days, bST is used less frequently in cattle, ChesterJones said. A Department of Agriculture survey in 2007 reported that 17 percent of the nation’s dairy cows were receiving it, according to a New York Times article.

Because a cow injected with bST channels more nutrients, it requires more feed, ChesterJones said. Still, bST has its place as a management tool producers can use to improve An example of soil erosion. (Photo courtesy of SROC) milk production.

In the early years, increased agricultural production was the focus of all activities. Its research mission has since evolved to look at ways to improve technology and practices that impact food production, human health, renewable energy and the environment.

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Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC at 100

PAGE 9

SROC through the years 1940s

Forgotten Research

Poppies were planted, cultivated, hand weeded, harvested and weighed in 1941 as part of a USDA test conducted at the Southeast Demonstration Farm and Experiment Station. (Photo courtesy Southern Research and Outreach Center)

Although the numbers of farms had decreased, the average number of acres per farm increased.

Jean Lambert arrived in Minnesota in 1946 and was responsible for soybean improvement work. Lambert eventually developed nearly 20 soybean varieties adapted to Minnesota. In fact, the Hodgson variety, released in 1974, was named after Bob Hodgson in recognition for his early work on soybeans.

Cattle herding began expanding in 1940 and by 1945, the herd consisted of 40 purebred and seven grade Milking Shorthorns. By the mid 1940s, milk production was at 7,440 pounds with 279 pounds of milk fat — very little progress sine the original cattle project was established. The Milking Shorthorn project was officially dropped in 1944.

The remainder of the W.G. Ward farm was acquired in 1940, increasing the station by 351 acres. The land cost $40,000.

In 1941, an additional land purchase, bringing the station to 598 acres. A portion of land was set aside for the Southern School of Agriculture which admitted its first students in the early 1950s.

SROC experiments with hemp, narcotics had little impact on modern agriculture, but adds to the depth of center’s commitment to exploration

By JESSICA BIES

jbies@stpeterherald.com

While most of the research performed at Waseca’s Southern Research and Outreach Center is well-known, there are a few projects undertaken by its scientists that have had less impact.

But that doesn’t make them any less interesting.

Hand-written notes, penned by R.E. Hodgson, superintendent of the Southeast Demonstration Farm and Experiment Station (as SROC was once known), sometime in the early 1940s show that researchers in Waseca once grew poppies — commonly

‘HEMP FOR VICTORY’ Find this story at wasecacountynews to watch the now-controversial U.S. propaganda film, “Hemp for Victory.”

used for the production of opium — as well as hemp.

Not only is the growth of both plants now illegal, it was frowned upon in the ‘40s, when SROC planted fields of each one.

Opium could be used to make “demon drugs,” including heroin. Hemp is a plant similar to marijuana that University of Minnesota researchers have since proven that

industrial hemp cannot be used to produce highs.

Yet both took root in Waseca. And Hodgson took careful notes of their cultivation.

Growing poppies in Waseca “During World War II, the Army needed large amounts of narcotics and the usual sources of supply were uncertain,” Hodgson wrote. “Someone in Washington wanted to find out where poppies could be grown in the U.S.”

See FORGOTTEN RESEARCH on 10

Visitors Day, the photo above is of the 1945 event, has long been celebrated at SROC. (Photo courtesy of Southern Research and Outreach Center)

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PAGE 10

SROC AT 100

Friday, September 6, 2013

Researchers at the Southeast Demonstration Farm and Experiment Station in Waseca were asked by the USDA to plant poppies, even though it was illegal to do so for much of the 1940s. Then superintendent R.E. Hodgson described the day the seeds went into the ground as a windy one. (Photo courtesy Southern Research and Outreach Center)

Forgotten Research

Opium was distributed by the American commanders to their subordinates. It was given to the villagers to pay for information about enemy movements and was used for money to pay for chicken, egg, rice, salt and more. It had replaced Japanese currency and British silver.

From Page 9 Gregg Johnson, University of Minnesota associate professor of agronomy, said the Army might have use opiates, derived from poppies, as painkillers, but there’s little documentation to support that claim.

Opium played a large role in World War II, though it wasn’t used heavily by American troops. It’s market was centered in Asia and it was traded heavily between India, Persia and China.

But during World War II, opium trade routes were blocked and the flow of the narcotic from India and Persia was cut off.

Fearful of losing their opium monopoly, the French encouraged Hmong farmers to expand their opium production.

They knew that opium could be substituted for wages and partly for food for conscripted labor in China and was in high demand. The British had hired contractors to ensure a regular supply of opium to laborers working on the Ledo Road, which connected China, Burma and India and was used heavily by

U.S. troops during the war.

When American troops and U.S. Engineers arrived in the area in 1942, they finished the road, hoping to re-establish land supply routes to China blocked by the Japanese.

Opium was distributed by the American commanders to their subordinates who used it for different purposes. It was given to the villagers to pay for information about enemy movements and opium was also used for money to pay for chicken, egg, rice, salt and more. In fact it had replaced Japanese currency and British silver.

Back in the U.S., the opium market was considerably smaller. Congress had banned the smoking of opium in 1905 and in 1909, the first federal drug prohibition bill passed, outlawing the importation of opium and creating a black market for the drug.

See FORGOTTEN RESEARCH on 11

Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC at 100

PAGE 11

The day selected for the planting was windy, so that each planter had to carry a wind guard and keep the dustlike poppy seed from blowing away. It required about half an acre to accommodate the variety test and it looked odd to see eight men crouched down by pieces of burlap, moving lowly up and down the field.

- R.E. Hodgson, superintendent of the Southeast Demonstration Farm and Experiment Station

“”

Forgotten Research Before the war, the Narcotics Bureau had made attempts regulate the growth of opium in the U.S. A California seed company asked the bureau for permission to commercial produce poppyseed in 1941. Many immigrants from Central Europe and Czechoslovakia especially often grew poppies in their kitchen gardens.

The state of California had its own narcotics law, but it had no provisions in it covered the cultivation of the opium poppy.

Eventually it decided that farmers could grow the plants if permitted.

Still, a series of investigations began and the USDA worked with the Narcotics Bureau to determine what brands of poppy actually contained morphine and how much.

In 1944, the Commissioner of Narcotics began recommending that narcotic agents burn poppy fields, whether farmer’s had state permission to grow the flowers or not.

It was during this time that University of Minnesota researchers began growing poppy in Waseca — under the close supervision of the USDA and the Narcotics Bureau.

The work was overseen by Dr. Elmer Ausemus, a USDA chemist based in St. Paul who at the time

was considered on of the nation’s top narcotics experts.

According to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, the research was intended to provide baseline samples for future opium testing. Hodgson’s notes suggest that it the research could have also been used by the Army.

He describes the planting of the opium at the demonstration farm: “The day selected for the planting was windy, so that each planter had to carry a wind guard and keep the dust-like poppy seed from blowing away. It required about half an acre to accommodate the variety test and it looked odd to see eight men crouched down by pieces of burlap, moving lowly up and down the field.”

Hodgson wrote that the poppies were planted, cultivated, hand weeded, harvested and weighed. The ripe stems lay in piles for a week or two and then the USDA sent a man from Washington to make sure it was burnt and destroyed once the research was completed, his notes say.

grow hemp in the U.S. since the 1970s, but the government has long recognized its usefulness as an industrial product, once predicting that all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees needed to be cut down.

In the 1940s, the government even began encouraging its cultivation.

Hemp for rope, lubricating oil, shoe material and other materials was in such short supply during World War II that the U.S. government temporarily re-legalized hemp so farmers could grow it for the war effort.

“Hemp for Victory,” was a black-and-white U.S. propaganda film made during World War II, explaining the uses of hemp and encouraging farmers to grow as much as possible.

And in Waseca, researchers were asked to do the same.

“Hemp growing was another government war project,” Hodgson wrote. “There had to be a variety test of course and the station was urged to grow a field of hemp as encouragement to local farmers.”

Planting the hemp was easy and it grew well. But because of its weight, it was hard to mow and harvest, Hodgson noted.

“Mowing was tough on men, It has not been legal to

Hemp fails to turn a profit in southern Minnesota

From Page 10 horses and machinery, but when the order came to turn the stuff over, there was near rebellion,” Hodgson wrote in his notes.

The cost of labor eventually drove hemp prices through the roof, Hodgson wrote. The government had already begun to build hemp factories in South America and soon it was discovered that it was more costeffective to ship production down south. “[The factories] were used two years when someone discovering that the fiber grown in Minnesota was costing twice as much as [fiber] from Mexico and South America,” Hodgson wrote. “The hemp industry of the North Star State collapsed.”

SROC through the years 1950s A survey of 28 counties in 1944 documented an ongoing concern about the high school dropout rate among rural school age youth in southern Minnesota. Several reasons were cited, specifically that high schools were not equipped to offer vocational and agricultural training to rural youth and that the regular nine-month term overlapped with active farming schedules.

Legislative action in 1949 provided funds for the establishment of the Southern School of Agriculture, serving 38 counties. The purpose was to to train students “for a wider understanding of crops, livestock, soils … and the fundamental understanding of farm management.” The school, which enrolled its first class in January 1953, operated on a six-month basis between September and March and consisted of two terms.

Operation of the school was closely coordinated with the Southern Experiment Station and some staff even had dual responsibilities in teaching and research.

An additional 20.75 acres of land was purchased from E. and V. Ward and W. and R. Papke and E.F. and Ethel Johnson in 1950.

Antigen lab, circa 1956. (Photo courtesy of Southern Research and Outreach Center)

121 3rd St. NE · New Richland Phone: 507-465-3320 www.cornpalaceagcenter.com

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SROC AT 100

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Graduate student Annie Doberstein is working on a phytonutrient project, to determine how different types of fertilization can grow broccoli with more or fewer cancer-fighting components.

(Suzanne Rook/Waseca County News)

Cultivating a Cure

By JENNIFER HOLT • jholt@wasecacountynews.com

In recent years, scientists at the Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca have worked to determine what they can about foods that may help prevent cancer.

SROC scientists are working with researchers at the Hormel Institute in Austin, the Masonic Cancer Center in Minneapolis and other researchers on the University of Minnesota campus.

At SROC, the growing method of several types of vegetables is being tested to determine whether the end products’ cancer-preventative properties can be manipulated. On the other side of the research, how vegetables are metabolized in humans is also being tested.

See CULTIVATING A CURE on 13

SROC is contributing to the fight against cancer through joint ventures with regional medical research organizations

Congratulations on your 100th Year Southern Research and Outreach Center!

Residential, Commercial, Janitorial, Water and Fire Loss

ServiceMaster of Waseca Business: 507-835-4799

Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC at 100

PAGE 13

SROC through the years

A lot of the work we do leads to new questions.

Some of the work is repeated over three seasons to get a more universal answer, then that experiment is done, but then we analyze the results and have a new question to answer.

- Nutriceutical team member Charlie Rohwer

“”

Cultivating a Cure

Scientist Charlie Rohwer has worked at SROC for five years as part of the nutriceutical research team.

Nutriceuticals is a term that combines the words nutrition and pharmaceuticals and is used to describe the dietary supplements derived from plants that may have benefits to the body. “(The work) is ever-changing,” said Rohwer.

“If you go down a path that is not fruitful, you change it. We’re working on some things now that hasn’t been done before.”

Scientists at SROC are working largely with the brassica family — cabbage, turnips and broccoli — studying the potential to enhance the plants’ phytonutrients, the natural chemical that helps protect plants from germs, fungi, bugs and other threats. Specifically, they have their eye on glucosinolates, which have been linked to the prevention of prostate, esophageal, colorectal and breast cancer.

Glucosinolates often make vegetables bitter, so researchers are studying how they can change that by how the vegetables are grown. Researchers are also finding out if they’re important to human health.

From Page 12

Rohwer said evidence suggests glucosinolates are important, but the scientists haven’t yet found a definitive answer. The research, they believe, will show them what the suspect is true.

Some of the things Rohwer and SROC scientists have experimented with is colored netting, colored plastic mulch, shade and fertility treatments to see if they impact the growing process.

Take ginger, for example: SROC found the spice doesn’t necessarily need shade to grow as previously thought.

Ginger contains [6]-gingerol, which is what makes ginger pungent and spicy. Evidence that the [6]-gingerol can help prevent skin cancer and reduce nausea has researchers trying to determine how to apply that information to humans by growing ginger with more [6]-gingerol.

“A lot of the work we do leads to new questions. Some of the work is repeated over three seasons to get a more universal answer, then that experiment is done,” Rohwer said, “but then we analyze the results and have a new question to answer.”

See CULTIVATING A CURE on 14

1960s environment growing/finishing units were Deane Turner, principal at the school, built in 1967 to allow for more extensive became superintendent of the Southern year-round swine research.

School and Experiment Station following In 1969, the Southern School of Bob Hodgson’s retirement in 1960.

Agriculture evolved into the University Ed Frederick became superintendent of Minnesota Technical Collegein 1964, and quickly established a strong Waseca (prior to its final renaming as cooperative relationship with the state Legislature that later helped secure funding the University of Minnesota-Waseca) sharing land for physical with the newly improvements to named Southern the station. During Experiment Frederick’s tenure, Station. Also that two 30-foot year, Legislative Harvestor silos action called for were built on the phase-out of the South Farm, a gift Southern School from A.O. Smith of Agriculture and and a direct result for creation of a of Frederick’s close technical college. relationship with The new college industry partners. and the Southern Following Experiment Station the closure of Ken Miller and John Krough display two were established the South Farm of the center’s calves. The year was 1961. as separate in 1964, two (Photo courtesy of Southern Research and administrative units. new controlledOutreach Center)

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Scientists at the Southern Research and Outreach Center are working largely with the brassica family which includes broccoli to potentially enhance the phytonutrients in the pants. Specifically, glucosinolates, which have been linked to the prevention of prostate, esophageal, colorectal and breast cancer. (Suzanne Rook/Waseca County News)

Cultivating a Cure The ginger work done at SROC, for example, has led researchers to start growing ginger with zero shade (they previously used 50 percent shade) but now that they’re not using shade, they need to determine if they need more fertilizer, for example.

Graduate student Annie Doberstein is working on a phytonutrient project to determine whether different types of fertilization impact the quantity of cancer-fighting components found in broccoli.

What she’s looking for is glucoraphanin and methylselenocysteine, which have different ways of reducing cancer cell formation or reversing the formation.

“We haven’t seen the impact yet directly on a large scale,” Rohwer said. “We’re constantly finding things (about how the plants impact humans) but no survey has been done yet to see

if they do.”

Another one of Rohwer’s ventures is his work with hops, an ingredient normally found in beer.

In 2010, SROC developed a program that focuses on the genetics and growing habits of hops, which Rohwer said have also been linked to fighting cancer or reducing its prevalence, though there isn’t a lot of evidence to support that notion.

There is more evidence, however, that suggests hops can prevent metabolic syndrome, heart disease and diabetes and may also help osteoporosis.

The hop breeding is a longterm project. It will be at least nine more years before scientists have a new hop variety to release.

“We realize that releasing a single variety is not the pinnacle of achievement in breeding

From Page 13

hops. The university has been breeding barley, apples, flowers, wheat, etc. for decades at least, and they’re not done yet,” Rohwer said. “There’s always a new or different challenge to be dealt with. We haven’t been able to secure external grant money for any hop research, but as the industry grows and demands more answers, we’ll continue to seek funding.”

The samples, Rowher said, are ready for if and when the time comes.

“It’s fun to be able to do research on things that I find interesting,” he said. “And it’s fun to be able to tell people about the research. In the long run if things develop, it’s fun to think I might have been part of it.”

Reach reporter Jennifer Holt at 837-5446, or follow her on Twitter at @WCNjennifer

Congratulations on 100 Years of Education & Service to the Agricultural Community!

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Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC at 100

PAGE 15

Making Weight

Devi Pangeni and Dr. Kim Jin Soo work to get a nursing sow on the scale. The weight and percentage of body fat are key to maximizing a sow’s productivity. (Suzanne Rook/Waseca County News)

By SUZANNE ROOK

srook@wasecacountynews.com

It’s shortly after 11 on a Tuesday morning as Sam Baidoo checks in on his graduate students.

The two, using thick pieces of plastic about two feet across, try to box in a particularly pig-headed sow, encourage her to turn around and step on the scale.

Her weight, says Baidoo, is everything.

And it has nothing to do with looks.

Pigs that are too lean are no more desirable than those who are fat, says Baidoo, a University of Minnesota assistant professor of swine nutrition and management based at Waseca’s Southern Minnesota Research and Outreach Center.

Maintaining a pig’s body weight is key to a pork producer’s success, says Baidoo, who has been in Waseca for nearly 15 years. Those with too low a percentage of body fat are less fertile and less

likely to carry offspring to term. Those with too much fat will have trouble producing milk to feed their piglets.

Both can pose big problems for the nation’s pork farmers.

Sows reduce a farm’s efficiency when they don’t reproduce on schedule, carry to term, or can’t nurse their babies. When they’re not producing, they’re a financial burden. And that can increase costs which can be passed on to consumers.

Forget the cute, pink little piggies with curlicue tails. Pigs, to Baidoo and the pork producers his research benefits, are a commodity. Plain and simple.

Pigs are big business in Minnesota, the nation’s third largest pork producing state with about 15 million hogs, behind Iowa (with about 30 million) and North Carolina (about 16 million). It ranks second in the value of hogs that farmers sell for processing into meat products.

In 2011, according to the Minnesota Pork Pro-

SROC swine research helps increase pork production, efficiency of agricultural operations

It’s numbers like that which underscore the imducers Association, hog production in the state was a $2.47 billion business. The total economic genera- portance of Baidoo and SROC’s research on swine. tion of those hogs was $6.9 billion, according to the MPPA. See MAKING WEIGHT on 16

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SROC AT 100

Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC through the years 1970s As environmental awareness increased in the 1970s, the issue of tillage began to play a role in soil stewardship and conservation goals. Farmers were more interested in moving toward tillage implements that left more residue on the soil surface.

Normal Borlaug, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work on increasing wheat production in developing countries, wrote and described his first experiences conducting research on small experimental plots in Waseca.

“The important role the Southern Experimental Station (as it was once called) has played in the development of the American agriculture that contributed to a better work in which to live,” he said.

The 1972 purchase of 232 acres of land from K. and J. Priebe, at a cost of $145,000, brought the total university land holdings in Waseca to approximately 850 acres.

Sam Baidoo, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, measures a sow’s percentage of body fat. Sows are more efficient and productive when they’re neither too fat or to lean. (Suzanne Rook/Waseca County News)

Making Weight

Feed and weight

Pigs are, well, piggy. At birth, they’re about 3 pounds, but quickly pack on the weight, gaining an average of 2 pounds per day. A 5 1/2-month old pig typically weighs 280 pounds.

But it’s not just how much pigs eat that determines their weight — it’s the type of food.

For two years, Baidoo has devel-

oped and tested a liquid feed mixture that allows the animal to utilize their feed more efficiently, as well as grow faster and more uniformly.

That could translate to a big cost savings for the pork producer.

The feed, a mixture of corn, soybeans, vitamins and minerals also includes agricultural byproducts.

In this case, it’s leftovers from the ethanol manufacturing process, a move that reduces expensive ship-

From Page 15 ping costs for SROC’s supplier, Guardian Energy in Janesville.

Baidoo said other agricultural products can also be used in the feed mixture, including whey or non-potable water left after the manufacture of breakfast cereals.

“We have to find a way of looking at alternative feed that humans cannot use,” he said. “But we have to find a way that’s acceptable to the animal.”

The system SROC is testing, he said, is commonly found in Europe, but is only now taking root in America.

SROC researchers verify its efficiency by collecting the pigs’ feces in colostomy bags. The dried samples, tested in the Waseca lab provide information about the nutritional value was derived from the feed.

See MAKING WEIGHT on 17

Congratulations on your long tradition of education.

GETTING THE WORD OUT True to its roots as a resource for farmers, Baidoo and SROC’s other faculty members regularly share their research.

Baidoo works with the extension services at the National Pork Board and trains its advisors in southern Minnesota. In turn, advisors train producers.

Faculty members also teach at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities’ St. Paul campus and oversee graduate students who travel to SROC during the school year but stay in Waseca during their summer breaks.

Visitors Day, which is open to the public, includes tours of the facility and its work. This photo is dated 1970. (Photo courtesy of Southern Research and Outreach Center)

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Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC at 100

PAGE 17

A feeding system being tested at Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca uses agricultural byproducts, leftovers from the ethanol manufacturing process. (Suzanne Rook/Waseca County News)

Making Weight

Baidoo says his research shows the system is about 10 percent more efficient than feeding pigs dry food. He estimated the feeding system could save a pork producer with a 1,000-pig farm — the size of the average U.S. swine farm — about 80 tons of feed per year. That translates to a savings of about $9,000 annually, he said.

Swine under duress First there was a push for free-range chicken, now it’s pigs, animals raised in large areas which allow them to move about freely.

And while it seem logical that

pigs raised in those conditions would be what humans characterize as “happier,” studies show free-range pigs are under more stress than those raised in small, individual sow stalls common in the U.S., says Baidoo.

In groups, the animals must create a hierarchy which leads to tension and fights.

Those in sow stalls have also been found to be more productive and wean more piglets per litter.

Sow stalls, which restrict the animal’s movement, are illegal in Sweden and the U.K. They’ve been banned across the European Union, except for the period from weaning of the previous

From Page 16 litter until the end of the first four weeks of gestation, according to the Compassion in World Farming website. They are being phased out in certain parts of the U.S. and in New Zealand, and there is a voluntary industry agreement to phase out their use in Australia. Increasing consumer pressure has already gotten a number of food producers to phase out the stalls, citing the animals’ welfare.

Despite the research, which show a higher level of cortisol, an indicator of stress, in free-range pigs, consumers are pushing producers in that direction.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant is allowing Bai-

doo to study how to manipulate sows in group pens to achieve the same results as the less stressed pigs in the sow stalls.

The other white meat Consumers drive the marketplace. And when consumers demanded a tasty, but leaner product, pork producers needed to react.

To do so a pig’s diet is monitored to ensure they’re gaining muscle, not fat.

Baidoo said one method of controlling appetite is to incorporate fiber, which expands the stomach, into the pig’s diet.

The expansion also allows

nursing pigs to eat more, he said, while maintaining the farm’s efficiency. While lactating the animals are able to consume larger quantities than otherwise, helping ensure they’re not too thin and come into heat shortly after their piglets are weaned.

It’s important that sows (female pigs) are not only physically prepared for pregnancy, but come into heat three to five days after her piglets are weaned. If insemination isn’t then successful the pig may not again be ready for another three weeks. As harsh as it sounds, the delay has very real costs.

According to Baidoo’s calculation, the wait could cost up to

$70,400 a year for a farm of 550 sows.

Baidoo and his team are looking to find the proper ratio of fiber in the feed, giving one group of pigs unlimited access to fiber while the other does without.

SROC researchers are also looking at a phased feeding program for the swine in which the diet of pregnant sows changes each trimester to coordinate with the needs of the growing fetuses.

“This is where we have to understand the biology of the animal and use feed to manipulate the system,” said Baidoo. “When we transfer this to producers they become more efficient in their systems.”

PAGE 18

SROC AT 100

Friday, September 6, 2013

Through the beautiful older trees of SROC’s arboretum one can see the experimental fields where the center does its research for the benefit of rural farmers. (Jaci Smith/ Waseca County News)

Farmers in Mind SROC’s research follows one guiding question: What’s best for agriculture professionals?

By JACI SMITH

jsmith@faribault.com

It’s all about the farmer.

At first thought, it’s probably not surprising to discover the experts at the University of Minnesota’s Southern Research and Outreach Center are working for the benefit of farmers, not only locally, but worldwide.

After all, the organization that is celebrating 100 years of existence is nestled in the midst of prime agricultural land with hundreds of acres of its own, and was once paired with the now-defunct University of Minnesota-Waseca, which taught generations

of local farmers how to dig their toes into the soil and learn about the land.

But then you recollect that we live in a time where politicians in Washington can’t get a farm bill passed and that the focus of farming has shifted from production to sustainability, from family farms to commercial operations. You read about GMOs and BGH and bST and genetic hybrids Johnson and wonder if what you’re eating is safe.

Then, it would seem what SROC is all about is

much more clouded and complex.

There is certainly a balance to keep in mind, says Gregg Johnson, associate professor of agronomy and plant genetics at SROC. But the most important thing the 60-plus employees of SROC do on a daily basis is try and figure out how to produce the most food in the most efficient way possible.

And while that may not always be the most popular notion, it is a necessity.

What the numbers say Soon there will be more people on the planet than we can feed.

That’s not a decade or so in the future, it’s imminent.

The world’s population has exploded since the 1950s, from 2 billion to more than 7 billion today.

Meanwhile, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, usable cropland is disappearing at an alarming rate — we’ve lost nearly a third of our workable cropland worldwide in the last 40 years.

Worldwide grain reserves are half of what they were just 10 years ago, according to the FAO.

See FARMERS IN MIND on 19

Friday, September 6, 2013

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PAGE 19

SROC through the years 1980s

Farmers in Mind Closer to home, if the United States continues to grow at its current rate of about 1.1 percent per year, it will hit half a billion people by 2050. At that point, there will not be enough cropland to sustain our population — it takes a little more than an acre of cropland to feed a person and by 2050, available cropland per capita will be closer to 0.8 acres a person.

Economically, this would be a catastrophe as food represents one of the United States’ strongest exports. Less land to grow food means fewer exports, which means far greater trade deficits.

And that doesn’t take into consideration the impact on the national economy a shrinking ag industry would have.

Supplying the needs, not the wants At SROC, they look not just at fields, but at landscapes, and how different types of land and their uses can interact for the benefit of the farmer and his yield.

A project Johnson is currently working on provides an example.

From Page 18

At SROC, they look not just at fields, but at landscapes, and how different types of land and their uses can interact for the benefit of the farmer and his yield. It is in that primary goal of helping the farmer that SROC takes on projects like running corn hybrid trials featuring genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Amidst most cropland there’s always an acre or two — or more — where crops don’t grow well, in this case, soybeans.

So Johnson is working on developing perennials that will grow in those undeveloped areas but somehow also support the surrounding cropland. The solution? A hybrid willow tree kept in bush form, and native grasses that flower throughout the year

It is in that primary goal of helping the farmer that SROC takes on projects like running corn hybrid trials featuring genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. GMOs have been in the media lately because of the debate over the long-term health effects on humans eating food grown with GMOs. The difference between a GMO-plant and what the University of Minnesota and SROC have been doing for decades is simple.

For example, when the U develops a new kind of apple, as it did a few years ago with the release of the SweeTango, it takes different types and cross-polinates them. It does this over and over until it has just the right taste, texture and look.

But it only uses other apples.

GMOs can use any organism. So, if scientists find an organism that appears genetically resistant to corn worm, it takes that organism and essentially infuses the corn with it (think the DNA stuff from the movie “Jurassic Park”) so now you have a corn plant that naturally defends itself from the worm.

that will attract a predator of the soybean pest that can devastate crop yield. The predator comes to the area for the willows and the grasses, but is eventually drawn to the much tastier soybean pest.

Fewer soybean pests mean less pesticide use and a larger yield with the same acreage. Less pesticide use is better for the environment, but it is the higher yield that is the real goal of SROC’s projects. See FARMERS IN MIND on 20

An advisory committee was commissioned in 1982 with 15 charter members to “advise the Southern Experiment Station on research and related agricultural or other needs.”

A new dairy heifer facility was completed in 1983. It consisted of a loose-housing arrangement where heifers would wear a transponder that released as special latch on the feeder allowing for individual feeding trials.

The dairy project was seeing more results from the selection herd to where milk production peaked at 25,000pounds of milk — 11,000 pounds more milk than the control herd. Many high-producing cows were recognized by the Minnesota Dairy Herd Improvement Associations.

A top cow “Stephon Sue” was used for embryo transfer to produce three bull calves placed into study farms and one heifer that was sold at the 1985 Golden Gopher sale.

Crops and Soils Field Day 1980. (Photo courtesy of Southern Research and Outreach Center)

Congratulations on 100 years and we wish you continued success!

213 State St. N., Waseca 507-835-1430

PAGE 20

SROC AT 100

Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC through the years 1990s

Many of the Southern Research and Outreach Center’s projects are funded by a variety of grants, some from the federal government, others by private interests. (Waseca County News/Jaci Smith)

Farmers in Mind

Johnson said he’s aware of the criticism of GMOs but it doesn’t change the center’s goal: Improve yield. Help the farmer.

And the extent of the financing SROC receives by GMO proponents like Monsanto and Syngenta extends only to paying for those trials. Any suggestion of other types of studies like those that are currently inviting protests in other parts of the country would be frowned upon by both SROC staff and the U of M. The same holds true with the trend toward sustainability and community-supported agriculture. It’s not that anyone at SROC opposes sustainability. In fact, many of the outcomes the center gets on its projects include lessening agriculture’s impact on the environment.

An example: The center’s swine nutritionist is working on a way to deliver more protein in the feed. So he’s working with others to produce a feed crop with seeds that have more oil in it. That seed gets sold to the swine producer who gets a healthier

pig that’s eating more protein. The swine’s waste is used as manure to help grow the seed that will eventually feed the swine.

A perfect, efficient cycle that gets healthier swine, cheaper feed and cheaper fertilizer.

Another example, this one one the center’s commitment to educating consumers about food as well: The center horticulturist is working on a project dealing with nutriceuticals, food-based medicine. The cabbage and broccoli family produces a chemical that has been shown to prevent certain types of cancers.

The center has embarked on a campaign to help consumers understand it’s better to eat the food that contains the chemical than to buy it in pill form in the pharmacy.

In the meantime, the center is trying to figure out ways to grow broccoli and cabbage that’s loaded with the chemical.

Educating the public on the benefit of eating more broccoli promotes health and wellness.

A unique collaboration started between the station and the Southeast Extension group. Collaboration field trials were focused on hybrid and variety testing, weed control, forages and soil nutrient management issues unique to that part of the state. This relationship. still active, proved to be highly successful and provided a new model for enhanced research and Extension/outreach programs.

Summer field tours were held for the first time in southern Minnesota in 1994 and focused on weed control and nutrient management.

Faculty numbers at the station increased significantly in the mid ‘90s, reflecting a new commitment to extend the university’s presence outside of the St. Paul campus.

The Southern Experiment Station became the Southern Research and Outreach Center in 1999, one of six research and outreach Centers strategically located around the state. Today, 926 acres are dedicated to research, outreach and extension activities.

From Page 19 In both cases, there are peripheral benefits — sustainable farming practices and promoting healthy eating — both big trends in food these days.

But they both also increase demand for the farmer.

Forrest Izuno, the head of SROC, is organizing a Long-Term Agriculture Research network. It’s goal is to produce enough food, fiber and energy to meet human needs.

Not human desires, Johnson said.

“We look at the whole picture. What are the risk factors? What are the strategies that gain efficiency? We also look at what helps the environment, what reduces the effect of farming on the land,” he said.

“But we’re not designing farming systems that improve water quality, for example,” Johnson said. “We designing farming systems to generate food.”

Reach Managing Editor Jaci Smith at 333-3134, or follow her at Twitter.com @ FDNJaciSmith

From the center’s earliest days, helping farmers and ag professionals has been a cornerstone at SROC. This photo was taken in 1992 at Ag Professional Day. (Photo courtesy of Southern Research and Outreach Center)

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SROC AT 100

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SROC AT 100

Friday, September 6, 2013

SROC researchers are studying how to limit the pollutants in pig manure, often applied as a fertilizer for crops, and whether they can devise an efficient way to convert the waste into fuel. (Suzanne Rook/Waseca County News)

From Waste to Profit

The subject of some of SROC’s most pungent research — pig manure — might turn out be quite lucrative

By SUZANNE ROOK

srook@wasecacountynews.com

In something akin to making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, Jun Zhu is working to help farmers turn hog manure into cash.

Specifically, Zhu, a University of Minnesota professor of renewable energy and environmental engineering, is studying ways to turn hog waste into a commercial fertilizer and a fuel he says is more efficient than gasoline.

“It gives farmers the opportunity to make extra dollars, said Zhu, a researcher at the Southern Research and Outreach Center. “They can sell hogs to make money and sell manure to make money.”

But it isn’t just about converting manure into

dollars. Zhu’s findings could help reduce pollution.

While Minnesota allows manure, a wellknown fertilizer, to be spread on fields, there are concerns about over-application. If too much is applied, it can’t be absorbed by plants and seeps into underground wells or runs off, contaminating local rivers, creeks and lakes, and posing a health hazard.

To minimize the risks, Zhu and his team are working on treatment techniques to modify the manure, reducing its nitrogen and phosphorus levels. Doing so, said Zhu, will allow farmers to get the benefits of manure without the risks.

See WASTE to Profit on 23

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Friday, September 6, 2013

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Waste to Profit “We need to make sure we have a handle on it because too much of either one causes polluting problems,” he said.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has guidelines for spreading manure in sensitive areas, limiting where and when the product can be applied.

“Manure can be a valuable resource or a pollutant. When properly managed and applied, manure supplies nutrients and improves soil properties,” according to a May 2005 MPCA document. “But when poorly managed and applied, manure can degrade water quality.

Some sites are more vulnerable to contamination of surface or ground water quality, including land near waters or near pathways to water.”

From Page 22

could be a boon to farmers — and the environment.

Zhu and his team are creating biohythane by extracting hydrogen and methane from pig manure. The fuel, says Zhu, would increase combustion efficiency, a measure of how efficiently a device uses fuel, by at least 30 percent. And, he said biohythane cuts greenhouse gases by 57 percent — all with little modification to gas-powered engines.

There’s no waste in the process, which uses a methane digester, since the effluent is converted into a fertilizer.

Zhu imagines that one day farmers will have small biodigesters on their farms, making biohythane on the spot to power their machinery.

“We want to develop a small, Another of Zhu’s projects efficient digester,” he said. “If

Renewable energy

you build a humongous digester it will cost too much.”

While Zhu doesn’t have a timeline for completing his research, he expects that politicians and energy companies may need to get involved in order to bring his ideas to fruition — provided he can develop an efficient method for creating the fuel. Even then, he said, costs may be too much for farmers to bear.

“In my opinion the energy companies need to work with the pork producers,” he said, “(saying) ‘We will install some equipment on your farm or at least chip in.’ There are benefits for all.”

His ideas seem to be a nobrainer given the finite quantity of fossil fuels.

“Fossil fuel is depleting. We need to change from a fossil

fuel-based economy,” he said.

“This needs effort from all sectors. We need to pull our resources together.

“If we realize this is important this can happen very soon.”

But it isn’t just fossil fuels that Zhu worries about. The world’s reserves of phosphorous, a fertilizer necessary for farming, are also dwindling. It’s estimated that the U.S. has 25 years worth of reserves. Russia and China have reserves expected to last 100 and 457 years, respectively, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but relying on foreign imports is always a tricky proposition.

If successful, Zhu’s work could change all that.

“We are trying to create environmental agriculture production that will be sustained in the long term,” he said.

A new swine research facility was completed in 2000 and a new finishing barn was completed in 2003. The facility allowed for numerous research projects ranging from nutrition to housing studies.

The soils program continued work in understanding cropping system fertility requirements. Research was also conducted to understand the role of micronutrients in enhance yield potential in corn and soybeans. The role of pH and lime applications was also studied. Specifically, they were testing new remote-sensing technology for assessing in-season nitrogen status in corn.

Forrest T. Izuno, current head of the Southern Research and Outreach Center, was appointed in 2001.

Swine nutrition and management is among many of the ongoing studies at Southern Research and Outreach Center. Associate Professor Sam Baidoo, pictured, oversees the program. (Suzanne Rook/Waseca County News)

Fossil fuel is depleting. We need to change from a fossil fuel-based economy. This needs effort from all sectors. We need to pull our resources together. If we realize this is important this can happen very soon.

“”

- SROC researcher Jun Zhu

Agro-Economics, Inc. Mark Bernard,

CPAg

Office: 507-465-3707 Cell: 507-340-2923 Fax: 507-465-3757 121 3rd St, N.E. PO Box 188 New Richland, MN 56072 mbernardagro@gmail.com

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SROC AT 100

Friday, September 6, 2013

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