Jodi DeJong-Hughes scraped and picked at soil with her knife Thursday as she walked through a pit in a corn field at Spring Water Acres farm south of Melrose.
The regional extension educator with the University of Minnesota Extension was looking for evidence to back up a lecture she gave earlier in the day to a group of farmers, agronomists and service representatives visiting Stearns County from Ukraine.
DeJong-Hughes handed a clump of soil to one of the Ukrainians to show it had been compressed by heavy equipment passing over the field.
"You have a really deep wheel track over here," DeJong-Hughes said. "Then you have another one over there."
The group of 17 traveled from Ukraine to Wisconsin, then Minnesota and North and South Dakota to learn about soil health, specifically, soil tillage, cover crops, fertilization and precision farming, said Roman Grynyshyn, the group leader and interpreter. He's also the founder of Travelite, a touring company that leads tours for agricultural and medical professionals.
In Stearns County Thursday Grynyshyn's group heard from experts with the Stearns County Soil & Water Conservation District, which hosted the visit, as well as Extension staff and two farmers.
Grynyshyn's Upper Midwest Agricultural Expedition drew a lot of interest in part because Ukraine will soon allow the sale of certain types of farmland that previously couldn't be sold, Grynyshyn said.
So Ukrainian farmers who previously had to rent land from a number of stakeholders will have a chance to buy more farmland, he said. And they may be more inclined to invest in that land with the soil health practices they're learning about in Minnesota.
Ukrainian farmers learning a lot from American Midwest
Like much of the American Midwest, corn and soybeans are common crops in Ukraine. The eastern European country that borders Russia is also the largest producer of sunflower seeds in the world.
Roman Gorobets grows corn and soybeans in Ukraine on a farm called FE Astra. He's been focused on learning about different types of fertilizer on the trip to the upper Midwest.
"We learned a lot, because we've been told a lot about strip till technology," Gorobets said. He may make changes to his farming practices at home following his lessons in the U.S.
At the start of the day, DeJong-Hughes gave a presentation on tillage and how no-till or strip tillage practices can support soil health and reduce erosion. Tilling is a practice of digging or overturning soil to prepare it for planting, and it also breaks up helpful aggregates in the soil.
The group also visited Janske Farms near St. Augusta. Cows mooed and a drone whirred overhead while Daniel Janske talked over the basics of the farm operations. The Janske family has been using cover crops for four years on their 4,000 acres and this year only tilled 5% of their land. They also keep milking cows, finishing steers and chickens.
Cover crops are planted in the off season and help enrich the soil and prevent erosion.
A 'shift from the conventional practices' for Ukrainian farmers
The Ukrainians walked out to a field growing canning peas and wanted to know the progression of everything that preceded the peas. Last fall the Janske's harvested corn there, then they mulched it and planted a cover crop. They tilled the ground once a few weeks ago and the peas were coming up Thursday.
"Our yield has increased," Janske said about the impact of cover crops and limited tillage.
But it hasn't been 100% success, he said. "You're going to have your bumpy roads."
At Spring Water Acres, the Ukrainians picked co-owner Dustin Frieler's brain about his use of fertilizers on 4,000 acres of corn and soybeans.
Frieler has also grown oats as a cover crop to improve soil health. He scooped out a pit in a field where he used cover crops on one half and not the other and strip tillage on one half and not the other. This allowed the group to see the benefits (such as more earth worms) on a cross-cut of soil.
The Ukrainian farmers are looking at these practices to help their land cope with harsh years, as last year was very dry, Grynyshyn said. "They are trying to shift from the conventional practices to something like water conservation and soil health development."