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Mike Howell (00:08):
The Dirt with me, Mike Howell, an eKonomics podKast where I present the down and dirty agronomic science to help grow crops and bottom lines. Inspired by eKonomics.com farming’s go-to informational resource, I’m here to break down the latest crop nutrition, research, news, and issues helping farmers make better business decisions through actionable insights. Let’s dig in.
(00:40):
Well, hello again, everyone. Welcome back to The Dirt. It’s getting awfully close to my favorite time of the year, and if you don’t know that, that’s Thanksgiving and I really enjoy this time of year. I love to get around the dinner table and partake of all this good food that we’ve been growing all year and then sit back and watch a little football in the afternoon.
(00:58):
Now, if you’ve been following the dirt for very long, you’ve probably seen our last two episodes that we end the seasons with talking about the Thanksgiving here in the United States. Today, I thought we would change that up just a little bit and go north of the border. Talk a little bit about the Canadian Thanksgiving and some of the similarities and maybe the differences between the two holidays.
(01:17):
To help me do that, I’ve got Lyle Cowell with us. Lyle has been on The Dirt many times and want to give him just a second to reintroduce his self to our listeners for those that may not have heard Lyle before. Lyle, welcome back to The Dirt.
Lyle Cowell (01:28):
Thanks for having me, Mike. It’s always great to be part of this podcast. I learned something from you every week when I listen to the podcast and I enjoy being on it. Who am I? Lyle Cowell. I work with Nutrien as the Canadian agronomist up here in Canada, covering both the prairies as well as Eastern Canada and the good agronomy of NPKS fertilizers that Nutrien makes.
Mike Howell (01:48):
Lyle, let’s jump right in and start talking a little bit about Thanksgiving and some of the differences. We’re getting close to the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States. That’s always on the fourth Thursday of November each year, so I know Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving a little bit earlier. When is the Canadian Thanksgiving?
Lyle Cowell (02:05):
Mike, we celebrate Thanksgiving in October. We celebrate it on the second Monday of October is the official Thanksgiving. Now, a lot of us gather for our Thanksgiving supper on Saturday or Sunday or whatever, but the official holiday that is a day off for us is on the Monday of the second week of October.
Mike Howell (02:25):
That makes sense. It’s basically a harvest celebration and the Canadians are going to finish their harvest a little earlier than down in the States just because of the colder climate and they have to get things out a little quicker. Is that the main reason it’s celebrated in October?
Lyle Cowell (02:37):
In some sense, it is. The date for Thanksgiving has changed over the years. For many decades, it was actually in November. However, they ran into a conflict with Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day is on November 11th and there was sometimes a conflict in dates. So finally, I believe in the late 1950s, Parliament decided that we would just move it to October and it was a nice fit to have it. We always hope it’s near the end of harvest. Sometimes that doesn’t work out.
(03:07):
There’s usually a lot of harvest still in the field and remember, in Eastern Canada, some of the corn almost always is going to be out as well as in Manitoba. For a lot of our other crops, we hope to have it done. Some years we’re done, sometimes we’re not. Sometimes we’re just thankful that we might get harvest done.
Mike Howell (03:25):
And that’s the same way here in the States. A lot of people are finished, but there’s always some crops still in the field at Thanksgiving.
(03:31):
Lyle, if you will, talk a little bit about the history of Thanksgiving in Canada. When did it get started and why did it get started?
Lyle Cowell (03:37):
Well, in Canada we have a bit of a mingled origin of our Thanksgiving, not that story of the first Thanksgiving that you would have in the United States. There’s evidence of Thanksgiving suppers shared by First Nations people well before Europeans arrived and certainly, the sharing of food with First Nations and the first Europeans arriving. Stories of Frobisher, one of the first explorers in Canada, having what would be considered a Thanksgiving meal and then variations of that end of harvest Thanksgiving meal over the course of early centuries started to become formalized in the late 1800s and into the 1900s. Everybody loves a holiday and it was finally enacted as a federal holiday in the late 1950s.
(04:21):
So what we think of as Thanksgiving now really started in the late 1950s. Our friends and neighbors to the south have certainly influenced the type of Thanksgiving we have in terms of having that holiday and gathering of family, making a holiday of it, having a football game on TV, CFL football, and sharing somewhat similar meals, really.
(04:42):
Well, I guess I don’t know what you have for a Thanksgiving meal, but I envision that it might be quite similar meals.
Mike Howell (04:48):
Our Thanksgiving is, and for our listeners, you can go back and listen to this. On our first season we did quite an in-depth analysis of what’s on different people’s Thanksgiving table, but on my table we’re going to have turkey and ham. We’re going to have dressing. We’re going to have all kinds of different vegetables and plenty of desserts and way too much food. And we’re all going to partake way too much. Is that similar to what you have in Canada?
Lyle Cowell (05:10):
It is. The turkeys tend to have a demise at Thanksgiving. Often Turkey or other foul, chicken sometimes or others, and it’s very often ham and sometimes both, as you said. Dressing, gravy, fresh vegetables from the garden, a lot of salads as well. Something that always makes me think of Thanksgiving is jello salad. I don’t know if that’s a common thing, but a jello salad is formed in a mold of jello with various fruits embedded in the jello. A bit of a weird tradition, I think, but I think that’s on a lot of the tables as well. And as you said, too much fruit.
Mike Howell (05:45):
We have things like that, but I think of that as filler and there’s way too much other good stuff for me to indulge in many salads on Thanksgiving. I can skip right on by the salad line and get into the good stuff.
Lyle Cowell (05:55):
I’m with you. I’m with you. I’m with an extra helping of potatoes and gravy will be my dessert.
Mike Howell (06:00):
There you go, and we can’t talk about Thanksgiving without mentioning sweet potatoes. We’re definitely going to have sweet potatoes. I don’t know how I forgot about the sweet potatoes when I mentioned the food we have. Do y’all have sweet potatoes in Canada?
Lyle Cowell (06:11):
Not very often. We have it occasionally. I’m not sure if we even know how to cook them properly because we just don’t eat them very often. It’s not a common thing on our table at Thanksgiving or actually any time of year. Lots of potatoes but not sweet potatoes. And then, I could say, the conventional vegetables, carrots, peas, the things that are harvested out of our gardens or harvested from the store sometimes, I guess. We have a big garden at our home and it’s usually the vegetables from that garden.
Mike Howell (06:37):
We try to use a lot of our homegrown vegetables as well. There are a few things that we can’t grow down here in the South that we have to import, but most of what’s on the table is going to be stuff we grew right here in the garden.
(06:47):
Lyle, we know a lot about the foods and that’s what a lot of people think of for Thanksgiving, but there’s also a lot of other traditions and things that go along with Thanksgiving. What kind of traditions go along with Thanksgiving up in Canada?
Lyle Cowell (06:59):
To me, the most important is the gathering of family. I have two kids, they’re both married. I have one grandchild and the highlight in Thanksgiving for me is to see family. Just to have that gathering around the table. So seeing the family. For many, attending a church service related to Thanksgiving. Quite often… We do have CFL football, Canadian Football League, and there’s always a game on if you’re a fan. Sometimes the weather is quite nice even into October and quite often have that chance to just spend some time outside, go for a walk, see the harvested fields, that sort of thing. It’s often a good time just to spend some time outside.
Mike Howell (07:35):
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(07:52):
Now, Lyle, you mentioned football and here in the US, that’s a big thing. There’s always going to be a couple of football games on that afternoon. I’m a little disappointed. Mississippi State and the school up north always have a football game Thanksgiving night and they have changed that this year and they’re not playing on Thanksgiving Day. So I don’t know what I’ll occupy my time with Thanksgiving night, but I figured that you would say y’all were going to watch a hockey game being from Canada. Do you not have hockey on Thanksgiving or do y’all still watch football on Thanksgiving?
Lyle Cowell (08:24):
Oddly enough, football’s getting towards the end of the season there, so an afternoon football game is probably more likely to be watched. Certainly, hockey is a big deal here. It is our sport and I’m not going to overstate the importance of football to us because let’s face it, you probably have more fans at a college… Well, certainly, have more fans at a college game. Maybe even some of your high school games than we would have at a CFL game, but the CFL league is still important to a lot of Canadians and that’s a bit of a tradition for a lot of people to do that.
(08:53):
It’s a mixed bag in what people like to do. In the end, I think the most important thing that whatever people are doing, that they’re doing it with friends and family and that’s the big deal for me.
Mike Howell (09:01):
That’s exactly right, Lyle. I have fond memories of growing up and that was one of the few times a year I got to go to my grandparents’ house and we’d get up and go hunting in the morning and let everybody get the food ready and we’d always make it home in time for lunch that day, but a lot of fond memories. Getting to be out and spend time with family on Thanksgiving. Really enjoyed those times. Seems like now, everybody wants to come to my house for Thanksgiving and that’s okay too. We can bring everybody in here and have a good meal together.
(09:28):
Another thing that a lot of people associate with Thanksgiving and the day after is all the Christmas sales. I think you’ve mentioned when we were getting ready for this that y’all hit that a little bit early and a little too early for all the Christmas sales to go on.
Lyle Cowell (09:40):
It is. Probably just in the past decade, the stores here have shifted a lot of their sales to the same day the Black Friday that you would have in the States. Before that, probably Boxing Day was the biggest sale day for Christmas, but stories have really shifted that momentum towards Black Friday season to add sales to it. Black Friday is not really associated with a Thanksgiving season whatsoever. Thanksgiving remains the focus of that type of season.
Mike Howell (10:07):
I think we lose track of Thanksgiving because of the Christmas holiday and people are already so excited about buying stuff for Christmas and getting all their Christmas shopping done. We really don’t take time to pause and think what the real meaning of Thanksgiving is. I think we lose sight of that.
Lyle Cowell (10:21):
It can be, and let’s be honest, it’s the same here. Sometimes we have to remember why we celebrate these holidays, be it Thanksgiving or others, and not just thinking of it as just the day off. I think we do generally a pretty good job of that in Canada with Canadian Thanksgiving, partly because it’s not associated with any other particular event or time of year. In some sense, I do appreciate that part of our timing of Thanksgiving.
Mike Howell (10:46):
Now, Lyle, something else I wanted to touch on just a little bit. In getting ready for this episode, you mentioned fall suppers and that was a new term to me. Now, before we get into that, I’m going to ask you a question. Me and my youngest son have this debate quite often. I ask him what he wants for supper or what he wants for dinner and he’ll say, “Well, it’s only 11:30 or 12:00. We can’t eat dinner yet.” And I say, “Supper comes later on in the day. This is dinner. That’s what we’re going to eat at noon.” We always call the evening meal supper around my house, so that sounded like the same way you do in your part of the world.
Lyle Cowell (11:19):
It’s exactly true. When I tell someone from another province that it’s supper time, they probably know I’m from Saskatchewan. In fact, I’ve had that exact comment that supper, you must be from Saskatchewan. And yeah, we always call our evening meals supper. Growing up, dinner was something you had at noon, lunch was something you had, I don’t know, at 10:00 or 3:00 or bedtime. It’s variable across Canada and obviously, across the States. To me, dinner is when it’s going to be a fancy meal at a restaurant that you’re going out for dinner. I can’t bring myself to call it dinner. It’s supper to me.
Mike Howell (11:54):
I agree.
Lyle Cowell (11:55):
So we can have supper together, Mike.
Mike Howell (11:58):
Anytime. Open invitation. So tell me about the fall suppers. That sounded really intriguing.
Lyle Cowell (12:03):
Don’t call it fall dinner. It’s fall suppers. It’s almost like a Thanksgiving supper. It’s a giant meal and it’ll be served usually by a local church, sometimes by a community association and you’ll pay your maybe 15 or 20 Canadian dollars and just have a massive meal. And it’s served usually in a church hall or in a community hall and there’ll be some foods that you may have never seen. So we’ll have turkey and ham, but I like to see some pierogis and cabbage rolls and all the other things. Homemade buns and potatoes and gravy and the whole thing.
Mike Howell (12:37):
All right, now hold on a minute, Lyle. You got to back up. You said pierogis. That’s a new one on me.
Lyle Cowell (12:42):
What’s a pierogi? If you’re from Western Canada, you will know what a pierogi is. Pierogi is a bit of dough and inside is usually potato, potato and cheese variations of what a pierogi might be inside. It’s a bit like a dumpling, I guess, in that sense. It’s simply some dough folded over an inside. It can be boiled or fried. You can usually finish it off in some butter and onions or bacon. It’s a traditional food from the Ukrainian community in Western Canada. The same as cabbage rolls.
(13:12):
The cabbage rolls here come in two varieties. What I think of as a Ukrainian cabbage roll. They’re small and will be filled often with rice or tomatoes. The cabbage roll that I grew up with would be with sour cabbage and inside would be ground beef and tomatoes, that sort of thing. So those are two ethnic foods. The small ones from the Ukrainians, the big ones I guess probably a German origin that are almost always on the table for a fall supper and sometimes for a Thanksgiving supper as well.
(13:40):
Now these fall suppers, usually it’s a community event. So unlike a Thanksgiving, which is a family event, a gathering of family. This is a gathering of community served by volunteers to raise a little money for the local church or community club. There’ll be anywhere from two to 600 people attend a fall supper and usually, you don’t just go to your local fall supper, you go to yours and then you go to the neighboring towns and some people make a whole tour out of this.
(14:05):
They tend to be one a weekend over the course of time. It’s actually a bit of a rural tradition that survives in a lot of the urban areas in Western Canada. There’s lots of fall suppers in the bigger cities as well. Like I say, it’s a bit of a Thanksgiving for the community. Usually start after Thanksgiving through October and into November. You can eat a lot of food at a fall supper, I tell you. People pile it high on their plates there.
Mike Howell (14:27):
Lyle, that sounds like my kind of deal. I’m going to make a note on my calendar to get up there. Can’t do it this year, but I’ll try to make it up there next October and we’ll just go from town to town and partake of the fall suppers.
Lyle Cowell (14:38):
You bet.
Mike Howell (14:39):
I can really get into that.
Lyle Cowell (14:40):
We’re actually starting to see in our local area some Americans come across the border. And another tradition I think we have in rural Western Canada is we had our first two sets of American goose hunters show up at our door just yesterday looking for permission to hunt. I think that that’s almost a tradition that we experience here in Western Canada is fall hunting. I don’t personally hunt. It’s already a season started for deer and they’ll eventually be seasons for moose and deer. But like I say, we see a lot of Americans come across the border to shoot ducks in Canada, geese and snow geese. Things that actually I wouldn’t eat. But nevertheless, like I say, we had a really nice pair of fellows stopped by yesterday from Idaho and had a nice chat with them and they were going to go lay out in the barley stubble in the cold and try shoot some geese.
Mike Howell (15:27):
Lyle, if you’re scared to eat a goose, I don’t know if you can make it in South Mississippi or much less across the border into Louisiana. You just learn not to ask what’s in it. You just eat it and enjoy it.
Lyle Cowell (15:37):
Well, these snow geese, they stop in Saskatchewan to fatten up a bit on the refuse of barley and peas and other crops. But man, they just finished flying a thousand miles and landed here eating grass in the tundra. They don’t taste very good.
Mike Howell (15:53):
I understand, and then they’ll fly another thousand miles and come down my way and people will still be chasing them down here.
(16:00):
Lyle, we’ve talked a lot about Thanksgiving and the fall suppers, the traditions, and the history. Anything else you think we need to mention about Thanksgiving before we wrap this episode up?
Lyle Cowell (16:09):
Well, it’s an important time of the calendar in terms of celebrating what we have to give thanks for and a lot of that is related to agriculture, finishing harvest. We hope to be finishing harvest or close to harvest whether harvest is good or bad. It always does feel good to have it wrapped up for the year. It doesn’t mean the end of the agricultural season in Western Canada, in particular. After Thanksgiving, we often try to get some fertilizer on for the next year’s crop before things freeze up. Usually, by the end of October, our soil will be starting to freeze, so we have a couple of weeks there after Thanksgiving to band some fertilizers, spread some ammonium sulfate, whatever, control some weeds.
(16:47):
It’s always a few things to still do in the field before the snow comes. It’s a bit of a lull. Often, harvest is wrapping up just before you want to do some of that other fall work. It’s important time for our agricultural customers and especially for the rural communities that serve them. It’s really great to think about. It’s good to give some thought to our similarities and differences across the border, even though it’s a different time of year and some differences, it speaks to our similarities too between Canada and the States.
Mike Howell (17:15):
Lyle, I couldn’t agree more and I want to encourage everybody. As you’re having your Thanksgiving meal, whether that’s dinner or supper or even if you call it lunch, have that Thanksgiving meal and remember the farmers that are putting their life out there so that you do have this food to eat. Look around on that table and I bet you can’t find anything that didn’t originate on the farm at some point in time.
(17:35):
These farmers work tirelessly often from before sunup to after sundown and all of that just to feed this population around the world. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the farmers.
(17:45):
Listeners, we really appreciate you tuning in to this edition of The Dirt and if you will, stick around for just a couple of moments and we’ll be back with segment 2.
(17:53):
Listeners, I hope you enjoyed the first segment of today’s show. If you did, please take a minute and give us a rating on your favorite podcast channel or app and give us some feedback as well. We want to hear from you to help make the show even better. And don’t keep it to yourself, please share these episodes with coworkers, family, friends, anyone you think may benefit from the information we’re sharing here. Don’t forget to visit our website, nutrien-dash eKonomics.com, to help find the latest crop nutrition news and research information, as well as market updates, a growing degree day calculator, a nutrient use calculator, a rainfall tracker, and much, much more. It’s all at nutrien-eKonomics.com.
(18:38):
Most episodes of The Dirt are now available for CCA credits. Visit our website and click on the agronomics tab to find these CCA credit opportunities. And if you have a question, you can ask one of our agronomy team members. Simply ask your question and one of us will get back with you. Thanks for listening. Now, segment 2 of The Dirt.
(19:02):
Well, listeners, welcome back for segment 2. If you’ve been joining us this season, you know we’ve been touring around the country visiting different research centers associated with our land grant universities. It’s also going to be our last episode today. This is our Thanksgiving episode where we call it a year and get ready for next year.
(19:18):
Everybody wants to go back home for Thanksgiving. I know that’s my favorite thing to do is get back home. We talked with Lyle earlier in the episode. We talked about spending time with family, so we’re going to go back home and speak to some family. I grew up on a Mississippi State research farm. That’s how we started this series was with the Mississippi State research Farm and we’re coming home and Darrin, I guess you’re as close to family as anybody else. We’ve known each other for what, about 20 years.
Darrin Dodds (19:43):
Going on 25 now.
Mike Howell (19:45):
It’s been a long time. For our listeners, Darrin, introduce yourself to everybody and let them know who you are and what you’re doing now.
Darrin Dodds (19:51):
Yeah, I’d be glad to. I’m Darrin Dodds and currently, I’m the associate director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, which is a big long title to say. I work with all of our research farms and facilities throughout the state of Mississippi. Have a long history here at Mississippi State. Mike and I knew each other back when we were both young and had more hair than we do now. Illinois native. I came to Mississippi to go to graduate school and fell in love with Mississippi State and never left. I have been a student here, a staff member here, a faculty member here, a department head here and now, an administrator in our ag experiment station here.
Mike Howell (20:26):
Darrin, we’re glad you never left. We’ve really enjoyed your time here and hope you’re hanging around for a while longer. But let’s get in and talk about the research farm we wanted to spotlight today. Which farm are you going to be talking about?
Darrin Dodds (20:37):
The one I’ll talk about is one that everybody on our campus knows. It’s the North Farm. The proper title of that facility is the R.R. Foil Plant Science Research Center and it is the farm that is located at the north edge of our campus. Mike, you’re familiar with our facilities, but just so many reasons that that facility is valuable to us here at Mississippi State.
Mike Howell (21:00):
A lot of blood, sweat and tears have been shed out there on that farm.
Darrin Dodds (21:04):
Amongst other things, for sure.
Mike Howell (21:06):
I’ve spent my fair share of time out there during my stand on campus. Darrin, tell us a little bit about the history of the farm and what goes on out there.
Darrin Dodds (21:14):
That farm has been there for many, many years. It’s about 750 acres out there. There is any form of soil within reason that you would like. We have everything from sand that’s got a CEC of about two or three on it out there to some clays that’s got a CEC somewhere north of 30 and everywhere in between. But really, what makes that facility so valuable to us is this proximity to our folks here on campus.
(21:42):
The office I’m sitting in right now, I can hop in my truck and within five minutes be at that farm. There are other universities in the country that have that luxury, but we recognize that luxury and that facility is used a tremendous amount because of that.
Mike Howell (21:57):
Darrin, that’s a great location, a lot of great stuff going on there. Tell everybody a little bit about the types of research that’s going on out there at the North Farm.
Darrin Dodds (22:05):
Just from a cropping standpoint, if you went on to that farm today, you would see everything from ornamentals, turfgrass, soybean, cotton, corn. There’s some alfalfa out there, believe it or not. There is a little bit of grain sorghum out there, peanuts out there, have some wheat out there from time to time, have some tea out there of all things. There is aquatics research that goes on out there and really, not on the farm proper but right off of the farm, probably since the last time you’ve been here, Mike, has been a tremendous amount of construction go on out there.
(22:43):
They are adding onto our super computing capabilities here at Mississippi State and that new building is located at the edge of that facility and part of the power substation that powers that is located on our farm. In the computing world, we’re already pretty well known for our super computing capabilities and this new building that’s under construction now will simply add to that.
Mike Howell (23:04):
Darrin, I had not heard about that new construction. I can’t wait to get up there and visit that. I’ll be up for the short course here in the next couple of weeks and hope to get by there and see what’s going on.
(23:13):
Darrin, all of these research farms have something that they’re particularly proud about, some big monumental action that’s going on over the course of history. What all has happened there at the North Farm that you want to brag about a little bit?
Darrin Dodds (23:25):
Probably the biggest, I guess, internal, I would say, claim to fame is one of the things that we really pride ourselves on here in Mississippi State is the number of graduate students that we educate and train here. And because of the location of that facility and the proximity to campus and all the resources that are out there, I’m not even sure I could fathom a guess of how many graduate students that are now like yourself that were once part of our programs that are now out working, really, all over the world that have went through that facility. I would venture to say it’s well into the thousands of students over the last 50, 60 years.
(24:04):
When I think back to the almost 25 years I’ve been here, just the sheer number of students that we’ve been able to take out there and help educate them and help train them and help get them into the ag workforce, if you will, that’s probably the biggest thing. From a research standpoint, there has been so many different kinds of research out there. I probably wouldn’t even do it justice. It’s everything from basic agronomy, soil fertility, weed control, entomology, any kind of irrigation research you can think of. Within reason, anything you can think of from a field research standpoint has went on at that facility.
Mike Howell (24:39):
Darrin, I know at one time there used to be a winery up on top of the hill. Are they still growing grapes and making wine up there?
Darrin Dodds (24:45):
There is, so that was the A. B. McKay Enology Laboratory and we no longer grow grapes there. It’s interesting you ask about that. Where some of those grapes used to be, today our farm crews are out there putting up some high tunnels that were donated from a company in California. Part of that is about to start being used for a student-run farm on our campus basically to give our students in horticulture and landscape architecture and these other areas some hands-on experiential learning opportunities out there.
(25:18):
That building itself, Mike, if you’ll recall, if you’ve ever been to Amsterdam or the Netherlands, reminded you of that area in Europe. I’ll be honest. It was kind of an oddity on our campus. You’d pull up and it was this white building with the brown boards and the brown trim and didn’t really fit. We’re actually about to renovate that facility here in the next few months. So it’s always been able to house some small groups out there, but our goal for that is to expand those capabilities where we can have, say, 75 to 100 people out there and basically redo the entire outside.
(25:51):
Our university florist is now located in the basement of that facility. We moved from the center of campus. Mike, you make me think about the thing that particular building is really known for, even by the non-ag people, is the view that it has of the farm we’re talking about. I’ve told everybody that that view is the best view in Oktibbeha County, the county that we’re in. It’s on a very large hill and you can see the entire farm from that facility. If you go out there any given day, there’s people out there in hammocks from the trees, just relaxing, people walking their dogs. Very common to see the ROTC guys and girls running that hill. It is a massive hill and it tends to separate the one from the ones that don’t. That building is still there, but like many other things on our campus, about to undergo some pretty substantial renovations.
Mike Howell (26:38):
Darrin, I know the farm has changed a lot over the years. The last time I was there I couldn’t believe how much things had changed from when I was out there doing work. And I’m sure things are going to change again before long. This is the final question for this episode and it’s one that I’ve asked everybody that I’ve had on the program this year.
(26:54):
We know the face of agriculture is changing. We’re seeing new technology. We’re having to deal with losing land to rural encroachment. All kinds of things are changing and we know these farms are going to have to keep changing to keep up with the pace of agriculture. Where do you see these farms going in the next 50 years and what are they going to have to change in order to keep up with this pace of agriculture?
Darrin Dodds (27:13):
A couple of things come to mind there and some things I’ve even seen at our own facility. For those that may or may not be familiar with Mississippi State and Starkville where we’re at. Relatively speaking, Starkville is a pretty small rural community. We’re about 25,000 people when the students aren’t here and we’re two and a half hours from Memphis, and two and a half hours from Jackson, and two and a half hours from Birmingham. We’re just out here, in some respects, in the countryside.
(27:41):
In the 20, almost five years I’ve been here, we’ve seen our community grow. We’ve seen new businesses come in and apartment complexes come up and we’ve seen them come around our facilities. And while they haven’t really cut down on the capacity of our facilities, I was speaking with the director of our experiment station just the other day, what we do see is because all of the concrete that now surrounds us and you think about drainage and rainfall and all these things. There’s a creek that runs through the middle of that farm that drains a good bit of the north side of our town and our community and all that. And 10 or 15 years ago, you never saw that creek eclipse its banks and get out into the fields that we do research on. And now, in the spring and even in the early summer, not uncommon after a heavy rainfall event to see that water pushed up over the banks into our fields.
(28:30):
Some of that, to your point, as a figment of urban encroachment around us and there used to be other areas that water would go and it’s the same amount of water being funneled down a smaller space and we’re paying the price for that a little bit. I will say in light of that, where I see us going, we’ve built new irrigation ponds down there that are surface ponds fed by natural rainfall and have plans to implement new irrigation systems to address some of the potential water shortages and limited water with respect to agriculture that is seen not just in Mississippi but throughout the world, so that’s really exciting.
(29:04):
We have a tremendous amount of drone research going on at that facility. We just actually bought three brand new spray drones here. We have the one on order that’s about a 15 gallon takeoff payload. It’s north of a 400 pound plus payload takeoff weight that a lot of that work will be done at that facility. We have about a 2,500 square foot greenhouse going up at that facility today. It’s about a $1.25 million investment. So in my mind, the future for that facility is so bright and I got to give credit to those that have made the decisions before I came into this office. But there have been strategic investments made with respect to infrastructure and you think about you don’t decide to build a greenhouse today and you don’t decide to put in irrigation systems that are several million dollars today. Those have been planned for for a number of years and we’re seeing those come to fruition. And really, all of that does is secure the place of that research facility in the future of our ag programs here at Mississippi State.
Mike Howell (30:02):
Well, Darrin, we sure are excited about what’s going on there at Mississippi State. I know I’m always excited to get to come back. I won’t be there for Thanksgiving, but I will be back the first week of December for the annual row crop short course. If anybody’s listening in is going to be there that week, stop by our booth and come by and say hello. I would love to visit with you.
(30:20):
Darrin, we appreciate you jumping on and visiting with us today about the experiment station.
(30:25):
Listeners, we really appreciate you sticking with us for season 3. If you’ve missed any episodes, now would be a good time to go back and catch up on those because we’re going to be taking a break. We’ll be coming back the first week of March with brand new episodes for season 4. Can’t wait to get season 4 kicked off.
(30:41):
Until the end, I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving, a merry Christmas, and a happy new year. Want to see everybody back the first week of March for new episodes. Until next time, this has been Mike Howell with The Dirt.
