Minnesota West and Worthington High School students take turns to make a round on the digger as it preps ground for plantin the District 518 Land Lab north of the Worthington Learning Center Thursday morning. April 25, 2024. Tim Middagh / The Globe

This story was written by Samuel Martin, Reporter, for The Globe (dglobe.com). It is republished with permission. The Globe Article >

The plot of land will be used collaboratively by ag students from both schools from spring planting into fall harvest

WORTHINGTON — Students from Minnesota West and Worthington High School met Thursday morning to plant soybeans and corn at the new Land Lab just north of the Alternative Learning Center.

Purchased by the ISD 518 school board this past November, ag students from both schools will collaboratively plant, monitor and conduct various experiments and studies on-site. From the spring planting season into fall harvest, students will participate in and learn about planting depth studies, growth and emergence, weed identification, soil experiments, harvest and field estimates and product stock integrity.

Minnesota West ag instructor Jeff Rogers said that while the collaboration was the school district’s idea, he and assistant ag instructor Dusty Neugebauer were excited by such a prospect.

“When they purchased the land, the board members contacted us and asked if we would be willing to be a part of Worthington Senior High School’s ag program and try to convert this to some education opportunities for our students,” he shared.

“We gladly accepted that. The vicinity to the college for us to be able to use and utilize an ag lab is perfect for us. We certainly wanted to collaborate with the high school to put some experiments and labs out here for our students. We’re kinda just the guiding features to help them.”

Neugebauer added that Minnesota West students are excited not only to work on farmland but to work alongside high school students collaboratively and inform students not familiar with agriculture with one of the region’s biggest economic fields.

“They love it,” Neugebauer said. “The college students from our end are very excited about being able to put something together, put some boots on the ground, get out in the field and do what we’re doing. When we come and present some ideas to the high school students, they have a lot of good questions.

"Most of our students are from the farm on the college level (and) they’re going into ag but a lot of them from the high school are not from the farm. That helps us to act and interact and get the kids that haven’t grown up on the farm with the kids that have and try to understand (that) we live in rural America where farming is our biggest business and way of life in Nobles County. To get those kids connected is huge.”

Worthington High School ag teacher Katie Christopher said the part of the project that she is looking forward to the most is the hands-on aspect and equipping students with vital information as they prepare to enter the workforce.

“I love that students get to be out here,” she said. “For some students, they’re farming with their families so they might be learning skills or technical knowledge that they can provide or bring back to their farm. For other students, this may be their first time in a tractor or seeing the process of planting. I love just allowing them and getting them to experience it all.

"We have a lot of agricultural jobs around here so having a knowledge or a background in agriculture is really important and crucial. There’s just so many jobs in the agriculture field and even if they’re not farming, knowing this process is very important.”