Owen Colline pointed out test plots for different cover crops during a tour of the SMSU agronomy field trials site near Marshall. Colline said plots of buckwheat and sorghum-sudangrass were doing well in this year’s dry weather.

MARSHALL — For agronomy students at Southwest Minnesota State University, learning means getting out into the fields.

On Tuesday, Owen Colline led a tour group through plots of land planted with different types of cover crops. Colline, an SMSU student and agriculture intern, said some of the “survivors” among the species of cover plants included oats, radishes, buckwheat and sorghum-sudangrass.

“It was a great experience to figure out how to do plot design, and also just to understand the management practices of doing cover crops,” Colline said of the plot project.

The fifth annual SMSU Agronomy Field Day event was held Tuesday afternoon, at the SMSU Agronomy field trial site and the Jon Knochenmus Center for Innovation north of Marshall. Members of the public had the chance to hear research presentations on a variety of agriculture topics, and toured research and vegetable plots planted by university students.

“One of the cool things that I really appreciate about SMSU is our internship programs. With a lot of the agriculture majors, students have to take an internship, and this gets them hands-on experience,” said Dr. Adam Alford, assistant agronomy professor at SMSU. Alford said the program also helps young people build their professional networks and skills.

Student interns were among the presenters at the Agronomy Field Day. Colline and Lynn Foster talked about their work as interns for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, doing tasks like status reviews for Conservation Reserve Program land.

“I’ve also gotten the chance to talk to a lot of producers about their operations, and I thought it was cool to get some hands-on learning from the farmer themselves – what they’re doing, what they’re interested in,” Foster said.

Both Colline and Foster were also working on the cover crop demo at the field trial site, they said.

Victoria Imafidor, an SMSU international transfer student from Nigeria, said planting and tending the field trial plots was an experience that taught her a lot.

“Being able to see what they actually do in the field was really hands-on for me,” Imafidor said. “Stuff I learned in class, I finally got to really understand what it meant by working on the farm.” In addition, she also saw firsthand how important it was to be able to calculate the amounts of herbicide needed for weed control, and apply it precisely.

Putting in the work at the research plots was fun, too. Imafidor said she was excited to learn to drive a tractor, and use a drone to monitor the crops. “That was like my favorite part, flying the drone around and taking pictures everywhere,” she said.

Part of the field trial site was also being used by Enactus at SMSU, said students Elaina Leach and Valerie Messner. The Enactus student organization is growing fruits and vegetables for the “Mindful Meals” weekend meal program.

“We serve families in the Marshall K-12 school system,” Leach said. “Throughout the week, we create the meal and then Friday evenings, we deliver it right to the doorsteps of students and their families in need.”

Messner said Enactus is also working on another major project, called “Enactus Compost Operations,” or ECO for short. Messner said students have been working to collect compostable waste out of the Marshall community, and help turn it into a quality compost product.

Over the summer, Enactus members are focused more on growing plants like squash, watermelon, tomatoes and zucchini that will be harvested and used as ingredients in the meal program.

SMSU student projects weren’t the only agricultural research in the spotlight on Tuesday. Audience members also heard updates on research being done by the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI), Ralco, and others in southwest Minnesota.

SMSU Provost Ross Wastvedt said it’s fortunate that SMSU has so many agricultural research opportunities and resources nearby. In addition to AURI’s research in Marshall and Ralco’s research at the Knochenmus Center for Innovation, organizations like the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council and the Minnesota Corn Growers Association also supported ag research.

“That proximity is such an opportunity for our students,” Wastvedt said.

“Agriculture is important to SMSU,” Wastvedt said. By participating in ag research, the university also hopes to make important contributions to the field.