Minnesota Science
Vol. 44, No. 4
Only 'Real Farms' Do for Some Research
by Larry Etkin
The Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station conducts agricultural, water quality and crop varietal research at branch sites across the state. But that isn't always enough to give scientists the information they need to define "best management practices." BMPs tell farmers how to both maximize production or profitability, and minimize water pollution or negative impacts on our environment.
BMPs don't magically appear. They develop from branch station research at Crookston, Grand Rapids, Lamberton, Morris and Waseca. Other experiment station research sites at Cloquet, Rosemount, St. Paul, Staples and Westport, also yield new information.
But some research needs can't be met with even that variety of sites. They can only be met off-site, in the fields of cooperating farmers. Says soils scientist Gyles Randall, "We go off-station because a number of non-station problems exist there, particularly with water quality questions. We have to go where the problem is."
That was the only way Randall could develop his recommendations for avoiding iron chlorosis in soybeans. Experiment Station soils just were not deficient in that micronutrient. And agronomist Bill Lueschen developed his control recommendations for prickly smartweed, wooly lambsquarter and wild proso millet off-site. Those weeds just were not a problem in the branch station fields.
Water quality researchers especially need off-station sites in southeastern Minnesota, where wind blown silt soils are very different from Waseca's – the Southern Experiment Station – sandier, more organic, glacially deposited soils.
Researchers working with the Center for Agricultural Impacts on Water Quality have to work on all types of soils to find both the benefits to production and the risks to groundwater, posed by various crop management alternatives. That includes both "natural" fertilizers and agricultural chemicals.
"The unique thing about off-site plots is you go into a situation where the farmer has been using a system," says Center director Jim Anderson. "You can evaluate the system he has in place. You can evaluate what happens as you change that to different systems that you think, for one reason or another, may be more, or less, suited for the prevention of groundwater problems."
About 15 off-site plots are in place across southeastern Minnesota. Cooperating farmers are chosen because they have typical soils, have accessible and visible farms, and are good farmers with pretty good field management records. "It also helps to have a community leader" to get new techniques or recommendations widely adopted, says Randall.
But there are costs to working off-site, the major one being time. Managing a research plot off the experiment station can take four times as much time. Costs must also cover transporting people and equipment to the location.
Above them all is the cost in "communication" time. Much is spent in a project's beginning, seeking potential cooperating farmers and explaining a project's purpose and method. More time is invested keeping those farm families abreast of progress, responding to their questions, emphasizing their importance to the research.
"It's long distance farming," says Randall. It's long distance calls to plan cultivation, fertilization, spraying . . . every step of the way."
PHOTO CUTLINE: Not all experiment station research is on university farms. These soil filled cylinders are being removed from a private farm near Rochester. They will be analyzed in a laboratory for farm chemical residues.