(calm synth music) - Hello and welcome to "Farm Connections."

I'm your host, Dan Hoffman.

On today's episode, we meet with Emily Krekelberg of the University of Minnesota Extension, to talk about the COMET program and what it offers to those struggling with mental health issues.

Then we sit down with local farmer and Minnesota corn grower, Jim O'Connor to discuss the effects tariffs and our trade policies are having on farmers at the local level.

All here today on "Farm Connections."

(jaunty country music) - [Announcer] Welcome to "Farm Connections" with your host Dan Hoffman.

- [Narrator] "Farm Connections" premier sponsor is Minnesota Corn.

- [Announcer] Programming supported by Minnesota Corn, working to identify and promote opportunities for corn growers, enhance quality of life and help others understand the value and importance of corn production to America's economy.

(bright music) - [Narrator] Additional support from the following sponsors.

- [Announcer] Programming supported by R&S Grain Systems, a family owned business, serving its customers for 50 years with leading designs in the manufacturing of grain handling equipment and grain storage systems.

You can call in for a quote today.

- [Announcer 2] Programming supported by EDP Renewables, North America, owner-operator of Prairie Star and Pioneer Prairie Wind Farms in Minnesota and Iowa.

EDPR wind farms and solar parks provide income to farmers and help power rural economies across the continent.

- [Announcer] Mower County Farm Bureau Association, a KSMQ broadcast sponsor, advocates for agriculture based on the policies and beliefs of its members.

It's dedicated to making the voices of its members stronger.

You can learn more about membership benefits at fbmn.org.

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

- Welcome to "Farm Connections."

We're in rural Dodge County with a University of Minnesota Extension educator by the name of Emily Krekelberg.

Emily's gonna talk a little bit about mental health today.

- Dan, pleasure to be back.

- Likewise!

You're so energetic and really bring a nice message to a very difficult subject.

What can we do about mental health in the context of rural Minnesota?

- Yeah, you know, Dan, I really appreciate you saying that.

That has always been my goal in my work is to make conversations about stress and mental health more approachable for everybody.

And one of the ways we've been able to do that recently is with our new COMET training that we have taken from the High Plains Research Network in Colorado.

- So what does COMET stand for?

- COMET stands for Changing our Mental and Emotional Trajectory.

So it kind of sounds like a crazy sci-fi novel, but it's really all about meeting people where they're at and just engaging with them in an intentional conversation to hopefully help turn their day around and change their trajectory from a place of vulnerability back to a place of wellness.

- Well, change is important, especially if we're going down the wrong trajectory or path.

Tell me how the mental and emotional kind of mix together.

- Yeah, so I like to think of our mental and emotional health like a tag team, right?

So our mental health is really about what our brain is doing.

So our brain takes in information and helps us process it.

And then our emotional health is really what informs how we respond to that information.

So when we are under stress or something is wrong with either mental or emotional health, that's where we might respond inappropriately or say something that we wouldn't normally say because that tag team is just not working together the way it should.

- How do I know when I've got a situation that I need help with?

- Well, the number one thing I tell people is that we're all experts in being human.

So I always remind people to just listen to your gut.

Most people can tell something is wrong because they just simply feel it.

And that can be the hardest thing to do, is to tell yourself, "Yep, I'm not feeling okay."

But that is the very first step.

- Well, oftentimes it's hard to do introspection.

So what can I do around me to my friends, my colleagues to make sure their emotional and mental health is good?

- Yeah, absolutely.

You know, I find that helping others can be a great way to help our own mental health as well.

And a big thing we talk about in COMET and in a lot of the mental health work I do is simply just talking to people.

I think we sometimes are really afraid of saying the wrong thing or not knowing what to say.

And I have found more often than not, just saying something is more helpful than saying nothing.

- So being not present, not saying anything is a stronger bad signal than at least trying.

- Absolutely.

- Well, you gave a great training today and there was a large number of rural Minnesota people here and they really seemed to get a lot out of the program.

What's your goal with the program?

- Yeah, so like I said, COMET training comes to us from the High Plains Research Network based in Eastern Colorado.

And the whole program was developed for rural and farming communities where, you know, everybody kind of knows everybody.

You at least know people on an acquaintance level and we all have been there where we're at the grocery store or the bar or somewhere and we see somebody we know and we can just tell something's wrong.

And I know I've been there where I walk away from that situation and in the pit of my stomach, I just feel horrible, thinking, "I should have said something, but I didn't know what to say."

So that's my big goal and the goal of COMET, is to give you that courage to feel like you do have something you can say and you should have that conversation.

- You should at least step forward and ask how is somebody?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- How would I word that, Emily?

- So of course we say, "How are you?"

to say hello, very, very often.

And so what I like to do is, after I've said that, I will just say it again and then I add one extra question word on the end.

So I might say, "Dan, how are you?"

You tell me.

And then I go, "But Dan, how are you really doing?"

And that simple way of just asking that question with one extra word at the end has really opened up a lot of great conversations for me personally.

- What happens when somebody spills some big, overwhelming problems?

- You know, that can be really hard.

And I know that that's a common concern is that we maybe can't fix everybody's problems.

And what I tell people, if you don't know what to say, that is what you can say.

Say, "I don't even know what to say right now, but I'm really glad we're talking about this."

"I'm glad you trusted me with this."

- Great advice.

And I like what you just did.

Affirmation.

- Yeah.

- I just shared something with you and I really was worried about trust and you said, "Thank you for sharing with me."

Right?

- Yeah, absolutely.

Very important to validate and acknowledge that what that person is going through and feeling is very real and that talking to you about it is really good and courageous for them to do.

- So when you're working with somebody and you find out there's some big stuff, there's some problems, there's some challenges, and you still don't feel adequate, you open the door, you talked about it, reflected back and forth.

Are there other resources or other phone numbers, an email or a website?

- Yeah, so we're really fortunate in the state of Minnesota to have a lot of resources for our farmers and rural communities, more so than many other states, which I'm very grateful for.

So through our Department of Agriculture and our state legislator, we do have three farm counselors that are available to help farmers.

There's a Farm and Rural helpline that is available and there's also a ton of resources from Extension.

If you visit our website: extension.umn.edu and just search "coping for stress," you'll find a wide variety of resources on everything from box breathing to garden yoga and everything in between that you can do for stress.

- Well, fortunately we have Minnesota Extension educators, but there's not as many as we need.

So for example, if I can't reach one or I don't know where to find an Extension educator, are there other resources, other people in the community I can reach out to?

- Yeah, so every county does have an Extension office.

So whatever county you live in, in the state, you should have a county office that you can always contact for help and resources.

And if you're especially looking for help and support for mental health, you can always contact your county public health as well, - Possibly the clergy?

- Oh yes, clergy is a great resource.

There may be counselors in town as well, and certainly today, now in Dodge County, we know we have some COMET-trained folks that could probably be resources as well.

- You've leveraged yourself.

- I've tried to.

- In addition to clergy, there might be farm management instructors, even the elevator manager or the feed delivery person.

- Sure.

And veterinarians as well.

I have done a lot of work with our veterinarians in the state on having these conversations and, you know, they see and deal with a lot.

- How neat that is because the day the animals aren't doing well, they're sick, there's medication, there's production drop, the farmer isn't feeling too great and the vet might be able to detect that?

- Yeah, absolutely.

I think, you know, vets are really on the front lines of not just what's happening with the livestock but with the farmer as well.

- So again, that website?

- Website is extension.umn.edu - And you're going to have more training throughout the state, perhaps?

- Yes.

So if you visit that extension website and search for the word COMET, you should find a listing of all of our upcoming trainings.

- Neat.

Emily, you've certainly done well in your career.

What advice do you have to some people that might be just starting, whether it be male or female, they're just starting and looking around saying, "Is there a place for me in agriculture?"

- Yeah, you know, and I tell them to find your place, right?

You may think your place doesn't exist yet, then make that place.

I have been very fortunate throughout my career in that my position did not always exist in Minnesota and with Extension and I was able to, you know, really find a path that brought me to this role and has helped me do this work.

And so I tell people, you know, there is more room outside of the box than in it.

So that is where you should be doing your thinking.

- Great advice.

Thank you.

- Thank you, Dan.

- Stay tuned for more on "Farm Connections."

- For today's segment, what we're gonna talk about is making nutrient management decisions.

With the uncertainty in prices, both from the fertilizer side and the crop side, there's been many questions from growers on how to best manage your nutrients to try to make sure you're getting the most out of your overall investment.

Within the University of Minnesota, our research, we've been extensively looking at different things to try to fine tune where and when certain nutrients are needed.

Two of one's nutrients that we've been putting a lot of emphasis on have been phosphorus and potassium, and these are nutrients that are easy to determine where you need them based on a soil test.

So we get into years with a lot of uncertainty on prices.

If you have a soil test, that can go a long ways in determining where and how much of a nutrient that might be needed.

Phosphorus, for example, one of the things that we've been really looking at, a lot of our research has been to focus it on looking at a risk assessment of what would happen if I didn't apply phosphorus.

And if we look at situations where we get into high to very high soil test.

So a brace soil test of 20 or above or an Olsen or 15 above, we know that there's a very low probability at that point in time, that the phosphorus that we're applying with fertilizer is actually going to be needed by the crop.

So it's one of the things to watch out for is that a lot of growers put a large emphasis on phosphorus when it comes to nutrients, particularly for corn production, that if you have a soil test indicating that you should have sufficient levels in the soil itself, that you shouldn't be too concerned about applying a low to no application in some of those fields, and you should still have a high chance of getting maximum yield potential.

One of the things with potassium on the other hand is that we start looking at that is that while we can use the soil test for assessing where it's needed, is that a lot of times, growers seem to prioritize it lower than phosphorus.

And many times I think that's a mistake, looking at a lot of our data with situations, particularly in dry years, where we see a stronger response to that particular nutrient.

So it's one of the things, if you're looking at trying to assess what nutrients you need, particularly for corn production, we know that nitrogen is gonna be number one because we know that we get a large response to that.

Then use your soil test for phosphorus and potassium, prioritize those based on what your soil test is.

And then we look at other nutrients like sulfur and zinc, zinc being one we can use a soil test as well to see where it's needed being.

Some things that we wanna start thinking about, depending on certain circumstances within the soil.

So again, prioritize what you need, look at where you might be able to cut to make sure you're getting the maximum out of your investment.

- Welcome to "Farm Connections."

We traveled to Austin, Minnesota to the Hormel Institute, and today we're privileged to visit with Jim O'Connor.

Welcome to our show, Jim.

- Well, thank you, Dan.

- Do you farm nearby?

- I do.

Blooming Prairie, Minnesota.

- What kind of farm is it?

- Corn, soybeans.

And we also have some swine finishing barns.

Multiple generations.

My son and son-in-laws and the grandkids are all involved.

- How many family members right now?

- (exhales) Boy, they keep adding, they keep having babies.

- Wonderful.

- 11 grandkids, I guess and the three boys.

And we have some hired help as well.

- Well, it's challenging being a farmer anytime, but it's certainly challenging at a time when the world isn't always friendly towards our country.

What are you doing about that?

- Well, doing what we can, I guess the US Grains Council, which I've served as a delegate for eight, nine years now, and I served on the board for a term.

And US Grains Council is working in countries.

We kinda say it's 365 days, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

There's always a light bulb on.

And we're working in all these different countries to build relationships and those relationships are usually technical advice and maybe some policy advice with government officials in these other countries.

So we build that relationship and the whole idea is that, well, even after, you know, administrations come and they go and they change, and those relationships, we hope will transcend whatever political climate there is.

- Really important.

And that stability to our farmers is important.

When you think about all the things you've done with corn growers or the US Grains Council, what's the most important?

- Well, again, back to those relationships.

I've had the privilege of hosting different delegations on our farm: Taiwan, the Philippines, Columbia, different countries that have been there over the years and they wanna see and they wanna know just how our grain is produced.

They wanna understand the family farm concept and we're happy to open our doors for that.

- What happens when a foreign person comes onto your farm?

What do they see, what do they feel and how do they leave different than when they came?

- Well, one of the interesting things that we can provide is my son Patrick has taken on the manager role and I've gotten him involved in a couple of these, adventures, call it, and he went out to the corn dryer and pulled the sample right out of the corn dryer and you know, he's holding it and they can hold it in their hands and they can touch it.

They feel it and say, "Well, we want this corn."

Well, oftentimes the corn they get, because it's gone through several different handling, you know, whether it's the trucks, the barges, the ships, oftentimes the corn they get has had some damage and stuff like that.

So we kind of do our best to bridge that gap.

- When you get to that level, what questions do they have for you?

- Well, it's kind of unusual.

It's kind of like what you'd expect.

We're providing food stuff, you know, corn and distillers grains, also ethanol and corn byproducts, sorghum and barley.

So these are your different countries, different products that we represent.

And the questions they ask are basically, how is it grown?

And quality concerns come up quite often.

And then if there's any political upheaval, they'll ask about that.

- Jim, what I'm guessing when they see that product on your farm, when they say they want that product it's because they see how good it is, how clean it is.

What can we do to make sure that the product you produce on your farm is actually what they receive on shipment?

- Well, it's all about grade.

You know, if what's on our farm is, it always seems like it's number one yellow corn and what they're buying and sometimes is number three yellow corn.

So along the way, there are blending and there are different handling procedures and whatnot.

So we kind of work through that.

Every year, there's what the Grains Council calls is a corn quality rollout.

And so this last one, I think they took samples of over 500 different elevators, different destinations, points of origin, and without, I mean, pretty much all those samples come back at number two or better yellow corn.

So we present these reports to them and we usually have a couple of farmers that'll go into these countries and then some staff people and present, so they know this is what we have as far as the quality of our corn that we can ship to them.

- If they're buying US number three grain, they're probably paying less than US grade number one.

- Well, absolutely, you know, this has come up in quite a few of the different meetings I've been on is, well, what grade are you buying?

Well, and then they're kind of maybe a little embarrassed, they say, "Well, it's number three yellow."

It's like, well if you want better corn, buy number two yellow.

But then they'd have to pay more.

- Exactly.

I'm guessing that when they're on your farm and they touch your soil, they see your family.

Maybe even does Kelly make a meal sometimes for them?

- We have, we have provided treats.

One of the delegations was a little more interested in barley, so we provided some local grain belt produced in New Ulm, Minnesota.

So yeah, we try to treat 'em right and we try to treat them, kind of, the other countries I've gone to, they always treat us very well.

So we try to return the favor.

- Nicely done.

And after breaking bread with your family or again, walking on your soil or being on your farm, does the trust level change?

Does it elevate?

- I think so.

I was in Taiwan for two years in a row, in South Korea, and so some of the same people that I met with in Taiwan, they actually were on our farm last fall.

And so that really kind of builds on that relationship factor as well.

"I think I remember you from, you know, being in Taiwan."

And yeah, sure enough, it's fun.

At that level, it's fun.

- That is very fun.

Thank you for that great work you do.

You've taken some time away from your family, from your farm.

Can you tell us a little bit about the journey that you've done representing corn farmers?

- Well, I started out in the 1980s farming and our family farm goes back to 1858 in Minnesota.

So as long as the state's been a state.

Different generations do different things along the way.

They have different needs and because I have the family involved that I do, I'm able to give back to the industry and maybe help things out just a little bit for the future generations.

- So when you started, you were a local representative with corn growers or what was your role when you first started?

- Yeah, so I've always kind of had an interest in the organization and whatnot and I jumped right into the, I ran for the Research and Promotion Council Board and the gentleman that held the position was getting, he was kinda getting off.

And so we kind of talked about it and thought it'd be a good fit for me.

- Well, it certainly is, and when you bring local farmers' interests to that level, what happens?

- You know, we've had some meetings at our farm, with other neighboring and local farmers and you start talking about what it is that we do as an organization, whether it's Minnesota Corn or US Grains Council or National Corn Growers.

We do things that they can't do.

The individual probably doesn't have an interest in going to Washington DC and talking about our farming issues, but yet they sure certainly can, if they'd like.

The average local farmer probably isn't gonna have that opportunity to connect with somebody from Taiwan or South Korea or the Philippines, or Columbia for all that matter.

This last fall, we were able to give combine ride-alongs.

And that really gets into the fun, is that, but we share those experiences with, I guess, anybody that's willing to listen.

We also maintain a Facebook page and we have people from all over the world that are friends and following our Facebook page.

- Do you have a website or Facebook page or how can people learn more about your farm?

- Well, we do maintain a website, O'Connor Family Farms, and we also maintain a Facebook presence.

We have people from all over the globe.

We have people that are non-farming from the States.

We have landlords from the States that follow along what we're doing.

And I will say that Patrick, my son, is the one that's doing about 95% of the content, and so getting him involved in that level is kind of fun too.

- Well said.

Jim, just in conclusion, what's your hope, this lifelong career of agriculture and working with grower organizations, what's your hope that becomes of it?

- I always look at a sunset and I watch the color, the bright orange color, and that's a time of the day that I can reflect, and was it a good day or great day?

But I hope that future generations will have the same opportunities that I've been given.

I hope that I can maybe soften the blow for them a little bit so they can get started, maybe with a little hand up rather than having to just scratch it out on your own.

You know, every generation has had its challenges and future generations will have to step up to whatever their challenges are as well.

- Well said, Jim.

Thanks for joining us today.

- You bet.

Thank you, Dan.

- That does it for now.

I'm Dan Hoffman.

Thanks for joining us here on "Farm Connections."

(upbeat country music) (upbeat country music continues) - [Narrator] "Farm Connections" premier sponsor is Minnesota Corn.

- [Announcer] Programming supported by Minnesota Corn, working to identify and promote opportunities for corn growers, enhance quality of life and help others understand the value and importance of corn production to America's economy.

(bright music) - [Narrator] Additional support from the following sponsors.

- [Announcer] Programming supported by R&S Grain Systems, a family owned business, serving its customers for 50 years with leading designs in the manufacturing of grain handling equipment and grain storage systems.

You can call in for a quote today.

- [Announcer 2] Programming supported by EDP Renewables, North America, owner-operator of Prairie Star and Pioneer Prairie Wind Farms in Minnesota and Iowa.

EDPR wind farms and solar parks provide income to farmers and help power rural economies across the continent.

- [Announcer] Mower County Farm Bureau Association, a KSMQ broadcast sponsor, advocates for agriculture based on the policies and beliefs of its members.

It's dedicated to making the voices of its members stronger.

You can learn more about membership benefits at fbmn.org.

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

(calm synth music)