An ambitious farm and agribusiness tour in late July sponsored by Martin County farmers, the Fairmont Convention & Visitors Bureau and area businesses showcased the best of agriculture and its impact on the region.

And of course, the tour concluded with food, including plenty of pork, in Minnesota’s No. 1 pork-producing county.

The invitation-only Modern Ag Tour of Martin County featured eight stops, including a new hog facility, where attendees learned about the diversity of agribusinesses that support farmers. Stops included Devenish Nutrition, Hen-Way Manufacturing, Elm Creek Agronomy, CHS, Easy Automation Inc., a wind turbine farm and a new hog barn. The tour ended at Kevin Hugoson’s farm, where guests enjoyed a farm-to-table dinner hosted by From the Ground Up.

Invited guests included community and school leaders, local state and federal representatives, local county commissioners, bloggers, media and other local business representatives, says Wanda Patsche, a pork producer from Welcome and one of the event organizers.

“We have great story to tell,” Patsche says. “We wanted to acknowledge and celebrate modern agriculture innovations — many of them homegrown — in our county. We understand that people have lost their connection to the very people who feed them, and we want to help bridge that gap.”

Ag is big business in Martin County, with hogs topping the list. Martin is the No. 1 hog-producing county in Minnesota and ranks sixth nationally. With more than 150 hog farms in the county, nearly 2 million pigs per year are marketed from here. That’s enough meat to satisfy the pork needs of Chicago and Los Angeles combined, Patsche adds. The gross income generated in 2016 from the sale of Martin County pigs was just over $242 million.

The Fairmont Convention & Visitors Bureau was eager to participate in the event, too, recognizing that agriculture helps support tourism to the area.

“Tourism is economic development for us, bringing in more than $33 million a year in gross sales and providing 800 private-sector jobs,” says Stephanie Busiahn, executive director of Visit Fairmont.

Tour stops
Here are highlights from Martin County ag tour:

Devenish Nutrition, Fairmont. Even though its roots are in Belfast, Ireland, and it does business in 30 countries, Devenish employees often hear how it’s “that pig feed company in southern Minnesota.” It’s more than that, says Corey Penn, president of the North American unit.

“We’re a technology business and a feed company,” he says. Forty percent of its feed business focuses on poultry, 35% is swine and the remainder is ruminant. Research is a big component, too. Penn says a high percentage of staff hold research doctorates. At the Fairmont facility, there is a 1,200-pig nursery and a premix facility.

“We keep our research really commercial, very realistic,” he adds.

Hen-Way Manufacturing, Fairmont. Hen-Way is a homegrown agribusiness that started in farmer Lonnie Schwieger’s machine shed. When he transitioned from dirt lot to confinement hog farming in the 1970s, machinery and barns for that type of farming were nonexistent. So Schwieger designed and built his own barn. Then in 1982, he designed a wet feeder, which ended up becoming his company’s signature product at the time.

Since then, Schwieger continues to innovate. He expanded his shop more than once, the last time doing so to house a larger Mazak Super Turbo laser machine that cuts steel parts. The shop, which employs 31 people, also is equipped with a robotic welder.

Last fall, Schwieger installed a 175-kilowatt solar array system, which he fired up in February. A cost analysis study done prior to installation estimated a two-thirds reduction in his electrical bill. He started seeing that kind of savings this summer. He is thinking about adding a battery bank to store solar power.

“That could cut my electric bill in half again,” he says.

Elm Creek Agronomy and DuPont Pioneer Seed, Northrop. DuPont Pioneer rep Clair Schmidt explained that high-oleic soybeans, sold only by Pioneer, went into the ground for the first time in Minnesota in Martin County this growing season. Oil from the variety, known as Plenish, contains high levels of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, 20% less saturated fat and zero transfat when compared to commodity soy oil.

Around 150,000 acres of high-oleic beans were planted in the U.S. this year, with around 28,000 of those acres in Minnesota. An estimated 1.5 million bushels this fall are expected to be harvested. CHS offered a 45-cent-per-bushel premium for the high-end bean.

Tracey Wiemers of Elm Creek Agronomy talked about prescriptive soybean seed treatments. He can offer customized soybean treatments, based on what a farmer needs in each field. He uses specialized equipment that allows for up to seven treatments at a time.

Mike Lopau, a DuPont Pioneer Encira representative, talked about Pioneer’s Encirca precision ag service. About 40 weather stations are set up across Martin County that help provide precipitation and temperature data for the program, which in turn affects nitrogen applications and amounts.

Hog barn manure analysis data also get incorporated into the program.

“When I started doing this three years ago, every grower was putting on too much N,” he notes.

CHS, Fairmont. While making a circle trip around the facility with site manager Brandon Nordstrom, tour attendees learned that the facility, built in 2002 and staffed with 54 employees, takes in 50 million bushels of soybeans a year. Beans are trucked in 24/7 from 10 counties to be processed into meal for animal feed and soybean oil that will be further processed for food products.

High-oleic soybeans will be processed in the last half of November, he says, and shipped to Mankato to be refined.

Easy Automation Inc., Welcome. This agribusiness also was started by a hog farmer who, in 1986, designed a product for his farm — a kill switch to stop the hog feeder. Automating his feeder prompted farmer Mark Gaalswyk to expand automation capabilities in feed mills and on farms of all sizes. The company has three divisions — software, controls and equipment — and has 3,000 customers across the U.S.

Feed mill technology is so refined that Mark’s son, Chris, says that an operator can turn on and off 100 tons of 60 ingredients every three minutes. Scales can weigh ingredients down to hundredths of a pound. And with software, all ingredients can be traced back to their sources.

Trimont Area Wind Farm and Avangrid Renewables. The first phase of the project  came online in 2005. It had 43 landowners in the area partnering with Avangrid Renewables to build 67 wind turbines on 8,900 acres of land, producing 100 megawatts of renewable wind power. Since then, two additional projects were completed, bringing the total number of turbines to 162, says Corey Ebiling, one of the owners. Great River Energy purchases the electricity to provide the energy to its member electric cooperatives throughout the state.

The co-op buys wind rights, similar to companies purchasing mineral rights, he says. In 2003, landowners received $62 to %100 per acre when electricity sold for 2.5 cents per kilowatt. Companies building wind farms now are paying around 2 cents, he says. Most of the power generated here heads for Minneapolis.

Nick Tonne, a new hog barn owner, Fairmont. At age 19, Nick Tonne has made a major investment in pork production: He signed loans with the Farm Service Agency, the Rural Finance Authority and his local bank to build a state-of-the-art, 2,400-head, wean-to-finish hog barn. He entered a contract partnership with LB Pork Inc., to raise the pigs.

“We bring pigs here at 21 days of age, around 12 pounds, and they stay for six months, and then they are on their way into bacon,” says Lynn Becker, one of the owners with fifth-generation LB Pork. This barn is the newest one for LB, which supplies pigs to 33 sites in the area.

Tonne, a business management major at South Central College in Mankato, says it was his decision to take the plunge and get started in farming this way. With technology integrated throughout the new facility, he can stay in contact with operations around the clock. He can monitor feed and water consumption via an iPad or cellphone,, as well as and regulate barn temperature and other management parameters.

“I can monitor things while I’m in class,” he says. If numbers don’t fall within the programmed norm, he receives text or phone message alerts.

The feed system allows for feeding up to 14 different rations, all formulated based on weight. No hormones are added to the feed..

“We want to give the right diet at the right time, and not stress the animal,” he says. Pigs are checked twice a day, he adds, with his family helping when he is in class.

Hugoson Pork, Inc., Granada. The Kevin Hugoson family farm was the host site for a From the Ground Up farm-to-table dinner. Food served for the event began and ended with bacon —“ pig candy” for appetizers and chocolate-covered bacon before guests left the dinner tables. Featured foods, prepared by Sons of Butchers BBQ, included pig wings, smoked sausage, pork burnt ends, sweet corn, baked beans, pineapple coleslaw and cornbread. Additional guests joined the tour group here, bringing the total number of attendees to 150.

“The farm-to-table event allows ag and non-ag people to connect on an actual farm, partake in conversation and relax,” says Patsche. Another reason for the event is that it serves as a fundraiser for Project 1590, which formed to create community for the people who live near the intersection of Highway 15 and Interstate 90.

Last year, the first Ground Up event raised enough money through sponsorships to support local county FFA chapters by giving each $2,000, she adds.