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D2 Thursday, March 7, 2019 — West Central Tribune — Willmar, Minn.
MN MILLENNIAL FARMER Lowry area farmer generating unique opportunities through online fame
By Jared Rubado Forum News Service LOWRY – Each morning before the sun rises and each night after it sets, fifth-generation farmer Zach Johnson is hard at work. With more than 2,500 acres of soybeans and corn to tend to, the full-time farmer goes through his day-to-day routine each season. What makes him different from the next farmer is he has a camera in his hands at all times. Johnson has branded himself as the “MN Millennial Farmer” and holds a media presence that aspiring content creators would dream of having. He has more than 215,000 subscribers on YouTube and 53,000 followers on Instagram. Johnson lives with his wife and four kids three miles west of Lowry, about 56 miles northwest of Willmar, in Pope County. The farm has been in business for over a century, and he has been the manager of the estate for the past 13
LOWRY: Page D3 Zach Johnson poses with his 100,000 subscriber plaque in front of his farming equipment.
Jared Rubado / Forum News Service
West Central Tribune — Willmar, Minn. — Thursday, March 7, 2019 D3
LOWRY From Page D2
years. He and his dad work full time while employing one part-time Lowry resident and three to four seasonal workers. “My goal is to do a good job of managing it. I don’t have any set goals, like having 100,000 acres or anything like that,” Johnson said. “I just hope I’m a good manager. Hopefully I grow the farm and do it ethically, too. My goal is not to go drive the neighbors out of business. I want to manage a successful farm and get along with everybody while I do it.”
Sticking up for farmers
Some of the obstacles facing Johnson have been from people outside the farming community. With recent concerns about how farming could have a negative impact on the environment, farmers are getting backlash for what they are putting into the ground. He strived to take a stand. That’s when he became known as the “MN Millennial Farmer.” “I wanted to stick up for farmers,”
Johnson said passionately. “I’ve read so much negative stuff on farming. I would never say that everything we do is perfect or that farmers never do anything wrong, but if you’re worried about clean water, so am I.” Johnson is very passionate in his efforts to justify the work of farmers. His YouTube channel started as a way to educate not only the farming community about what he does and how he does it, but also teach people outside agriculture about the kind of life he leads. Johnson’s creative itch carried all the way to the spring of 2016 when he launched his YouTube channel, with modest goals of connecting with other Zach Johnson / Instagram @mnmillennialfarmer farmers and providing educational videos. Roughly 18 months later, he found Zach Johnson takes a GoPro selfie on May 14, 2017, in his tractor out that what he had could be way more.
The channel blows up
Johnson took a calculated approach to his self-branding. By calling himself the “MN Millennial Farmer,” he automatically garnered attention. Johnson’s channel initially showed little growth.
LOWRY: Page D4
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Zach Johnson stands on the side of the tractor he used to film his viral “Combine Karaoke” video.
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D4 Thursday, March 7, 2019 — West Central Tribune — Willmar, Minn.
Instagram @minnesoyta
Zach Johnson poses in his tractor before heading out to tend to his soybeans.
LOWRY From Page D3
Then in September 2017, he went from 7,000 subscribers to 12,000 overnight. By the end of his harvesting season, he had reached the 30,000 mark. “There was a video called ‘Gearing up for Harvest,’” Johnson said. “I whipped out my GoPro. I was getting the combines ready and took a walk around the grain bin. I did a quick edit and uploaded it and it just took off.” Johnson set a goal to have 100,000 subscribers by the end of 2018. He more than doubled it. He has captivated and built his audience for almost three years by doing one thing: being himself. “I never saw this coming, if I’m being honest,” he said. “I think people come to my channel to see how I do things and if they get to know me as a person along the way, that’s awesome. I’m glad I can be that guy.” For a year and a half, Johnson did all of the recording and editing alone. Now, one of his main supporters – his wife, Becky – will edit and upload the videos to YouTube while he’s out recording another.
New opportunities
Johnson was ready to go to work on his fields last September when he received a phone call. A plant manag-
er in Benson, where Johnson sells 90 percent of his corn, was tasked with finding farmers who were comfortable speaking in front of a camera. The “MN Millennial Farmer,” with over 215,000 YouTube subscribers, was the first guy on the list. The call was about setting farmers up with a camera crew to speak about the work they do and why they do it for a television feature for Grey Duck Vodka, owned by former Minnesota Viking linebacker Chad Greenway. “They just took video of me talking about what I do with my family farm,” Johnson said. “It was the MN Millennial Farmer selling his corn to Chad Greenway. When we were done I asked them if they wanted to do anything more with it. I wanted to make connections.” Johnson’s efforts paid off once again when he received another phone call two weeks later asking if he would like to shoot a video with Greenway for Johnson’s channel. “Umm, yeah. Duh,” Johnson said with enthusiasm. “He flew up here and we did what we did. He’s a really genuine, down-to-earth guy.” Greenway, linebacker selection to the NFL Pro Bowl in 2012 and 2013, still helps out on his mother’s farm in South Dakota.
LOWRY: Page D5
Special to Forum News Service
Zach Johnson, left, and former Minnesota Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway pose in front of a tractor in the middle of shooting a video for Johnson’s YouTube channel.
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From Page D4
More unique videos
The connection to Greenway wasn’t the first time a considerable opportunity has fallen into Johnson’s lap. The website www.agdaily.com approached Johnson with an idea in the fall of 2017. He was offered $300 to make a video for the AGDaily YouTube channel where he would perform a karaoke bit in his combine as a spoof of the “Carpool Karaoke” bit created by CBS late night talk show host James Corden. “I wanted to do this video with somebody I could be stupid on camera with,” Johnson said. “I called my brother Mitch and we bounced some ideas off each other and we thought
we could make it better than what the AGDaily guys were thinking. I didn’t run it by them and I just did it the way I wanted to do it.” The video consists of Zach and Mitch sitting in a combine driving through Zach’s fields. The audio swiftly changes to the popular hip hop song, “Turn Down for What,” by DJ Snake and Lil John. The brothers danced in the small cab of Zach’s tractor in a way that only two, middle-age guys from smalltown Minnesota can shake it to one of the most popular rap songs of 2013. Zach and Mitch shot another karaoke video to the tune of the once-popular song, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” by Queen. AGDaily was thrilled with the footage. Their team edited it and put it on the AGDaily YouTube channel.
Johnson was able to add the videos to his own channel with the AGDaily logo on it. “I was really happy with how they turned out,” he said. “I can’t believe the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ video has more views than the other one. The other one is way funnier.”
The future of his brand
Johnson’s plan for the future is to keep doing what he’s done to be successful. He wants to keep growing his channel and connecting with more farmers. Through his connections with Greenway, he might get some assistance in doing so. “There’s two guys behind the scenes on the media side that I talk to fairly frequently,” Johnson said. “They told
me they have about 30 influencers working with them right about now. I’m guessing most of them are professional athletes. Probably not a ton of farmers.” Johnson has been invited to a private party at Lord Fletcher’s Old Lake Lodge on Lake Minnetonka in the Twin Cities through his tie-ins with his social media people. “They told me that Chad and his Grey Duck guys, along with the pro athletes, were all going to be there and they said they wanted me down there for that. I’ll fit right in,” Johnson said jokingly. “I’m going to meet some great people. Just meeting Chad and doing what I’ve already done with him is unbelievable. Now I just have to buy a suit.”
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D6 Thursday, March 7, 2019 — West Central Tribune — Willmar, Minn.
Buffalo Lake area farmer wins national recognition for soil health
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Brian Ryberg of Ryberg Farms in Buffalo Lake won a national award from the Soil Health Partnership.
doing,” he said. The Ryberg operation also uses cover crops and interseeding. Farmers new to such practices should consider “taking 40-acre field, an 80-acre field, whatever you’re comfortable with. Try something,” Ryberg said. “And work with people who have tried it. It (trying it yourself) won’t be a train wreck if you have someone to help mentor you.” Improving technology and equipment makes it easier for farmers to implement strip till and other soil conservation practices. “But it’s the mental concept that can be hardest to overcome,”Ryberg said. Ryberg Farms’ greater emphasis on soil health has been beneficial, he said. “It’s working for us,and we’re excited about where we’re headed,” he said. More information on Ryberg Farms: https://rybergfarms.com/
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By Jonathan Knutson Forum News Service BUFFALO LAKE – Brian Ryberg and Ryberg Farms are relatively new to some farming practices that promote soil health. He’s also a fairly new member of the Soil Health Partnership. But Ryberg, who farms with his wife, Sandy, at Buffalo Lake, has taken well and quickly to both. He received the Soil Health Partnership’s “Super Sprout” Award at the 2019 Soil Health Partnership Summit Jan. 15-16 in St. Louis. The award honors him as a first-year member of the organization who “has jumped right into active involvement” with the group, according to the Soil Health Partnership. The award recognizes him for holding a field day, valuing collaboration, working with other members in the group to gain and share knowledge, advocating cover crops and continuing to seek out practices that are best for his farm. Once, because of those farming practices, “We were kind of the strange ones in the neighborhood,” Ryberg said. “But the mentality is changing, and people are seeing the benefit of it.” The farmer-led Soil Health Partnership, an initiative of the National Corn Growers Association, describes its mission as fostering transformation in agriculture through improved soil health, benefiting both farmer profitability and the environment. More than 140 working farms in 14 states are enrolled in the organization. Ryberg Farms transitioned to strip tillage five years ago and now raises corn, soybeans and sugar beets in 22-inch rows. It’s believed to be one of only a very few area farms with striptill sugar beets. “We jumped right in with 100 percent strip-till from the beginning. It went well for us, but there were a few days I wondered what the heck we were
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West Central Tribune — Willmar, Minn. — Thursday, March 7, 2019 D7
GET CONNECTED
Midwest states show progress in rural connectivity
By Jenny Schlecht Forum News Service Precision agriculture experts talk about a lot of possibilities for technology in agriculture. Things such as sensors for irrigation and plant health could help farmers keep on top of their crops and stretch their resources. But in many places, implementing such technologies will take something farmers have no control over — the availability of fixed or mobile broadband connections. According to a report from the American Broadband Initiative — a federal initiative aimed at improving accessibility of internet connections — more than 92 percent of the U.S. population had access to fixed land-based broadband in 2016. However, of the 8 percent remaining, 80 percent are in rural America. “This is more people than live in the states of New York or Florida,” the report said. Midwestern states, however, rank high in their access to internet service. A U.S. News and World Report ranking in January said Iowa and North Dakota were the top two states for internet access, and South Dakota and Minnesota also made the top 10. Efforts are underway regionally and
nationally to improve access for rural areas. But at the Precision Ag Summit in January in Jamestown, N.D., representatives from two of the companies that have helped expand access to high-speed internet addressed the main need they see for technology in agriculture: getting service to “the last mile.”
Reaching ‘the last mile’
According to the Pew Institute, broadband adoption grew rapidly from 2000 to 2010, but growth has been more sporadic since then. Institute data says 70 percent of households in suburban communities had broadband access as of Jan. 10, 2018, followed by urban communities at 67 percent. Rural communities lagged, at 58 percent. In North Dakota, Dakota Carrier Network, made up of independent broadband companies, has invested $100 million per year for more than a decade in putting in infrastructure, said Todd Domres, director of sales and business development for the network. The collaboration of the companies has allowed for broadband expansion in the state in a way that most other places have not seen, he said, explaining that other states have “pockets” of service that North Dakota has almost statewide.
Also heavily invested in expanding services in much of the Upper Midwest is Midco, which serves cities in a five-state, mostly rural area. “It’s very exciting to have what we have,” said Justin Forde, senior director of government relations at Midco. Much of the conversation at the Precision Ag conference centered on how having fiber connection at a house doesn’t help
CONNECTED: Page D8
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A map of Midco’s fixed wireless expansion was part of Justin Forde’s presentation at the Precision Ag Summit on Jan. 22 in Jamestown.
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D8 Thursday, March 7, 2019 — West Central Tribune — Willmar, Minn.
CONNECTED From Page D7
much when the technology someone is trying to use is in the far corner of a field. Domres said North Dakota is “within seeing distance” of having no gaps in coverage. Whether that takes months or years to accomplish will depend on continued investment and emerging technologies. “I think you’ve got the hard part done,” with existing technology, he said. Forde said Midco sees “fixed wireless” as part of the solution. Fixed wireless involves beaming coverage through the air, and Forde said that its speed, reliability and affordability make it a viable option. Additionally, he said, it can be deployed even in the dead of winter, at a time when trenches for fiber-optic cable can’t be dug. Fixed wireless already is available in large portions of the Red River Valley and will be expanding into other parts of the Midco service territory, he said. Forde said it’s important, also, for customers or potential customers to let companies in their area know about gaps in coverage. The map is changing rapidly, he said, and that information can be vital for a company determining needs.
Fixed wireless involves beaming coverage through the air. Its speed, reliability and affordability make it a viable option. on current rural broadband initiatives and programs and to remove barriers to broadband deployment. Sens. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have signed on as original co-sponsors. Hoeven, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee, announced the Fiscal Year 2019 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriation Bill, which Congress approved Feb. 15. It provided $550 million for a rural broadband loan and grant pilot program targeted to areas that lack access to broadband service. Efforts also are underway in states. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s spending plan includes money to bring broadband access to rural Minnesota in two years. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem announced plans to close the “broadband gap” during her first State of the
Justin Forde, senior director of government relations at Midco
Todd Domres, director of sales and business development for Dakota Carrier Network
State Address. In Montana, Senate Bill 239 would exempt property taxes on fiber optics installed by utilities for five years. After that, the tax value would be phased in at 20 percent a year over five years. Domres said that it’s also important to temper expectations for future connectivity. Much is made of the coming 5G ultra high-speed mobile broadband.
However, Domres said that’s something rural American will have to live without. “NFL cities” and larger metro areas might get it, but it won’t come to smaller communities. In North Dakota, he said perhaps Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks and “maybe Minot” will get 5G. In smaller communities and rural areas, “it just won’t happen,” he said.
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For many companies, the cost of expanding into rural areas, where there are few paying customers and often many geographic challenges, has played a part in keeping them from expanding. Government assistance remains an important part of the equation. “Over the past several decades, federal partnerships have been especially important for deployment in high-cost rural areas, where the unique challenges of geography, population density and deployment costs may make it unprofitable to expand or operate networks – creating significant gaps in rural broadband coverage,” the American Broadband Initiative report said. The report suggests some gains can be made in streamlining processes for permitting, using federal property for expansion of commercial services and making federal funds go farther through better collaboration. In addition to the recommendations made in the report, other federal efforts are underway. U.S. Sens. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., recently introduced the Office of Rural Broadband Act, which would create an office to coordinate with other federal agencies to maintain information
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Sustainable bioenergy from native prairies on abandoned agricultural lands (non-irrigated and no additional nitrogen), moderate treatments resulted in almost twice the yield and soil carbon storage and – if the plants were converted into bioenergy to displace fossil fuels – it would result in twice the greenhouse gas savings; ► compared with the moderate treatment, the more intensive treatment (irrigation and 14 g/m2 of nitrogen) had 30 percent lower greenhouse gas savings, 10 times greater nitrate leaching and 120 percent greater loss in plant diversity. “Our results indicate that different intensification levels have different environmental benefits and costs,” said Yi Yang, the lead author of the study and now a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. “Our study suggests that optimizing multiple environmental benefits requires sustainable intensification practices appropriate for the soils, climate and plant species of a region.” Compared with corn ethanol, researchers found biomass yield from the best performing native prairie grasses was moderately lower (six tons per hectare versus the average corn yield of eight tons per hectare in the U.S.). However, researchers found that because of lower nitrogen use and larger amounts of soil carbon storage, the native prairies would result in higher overall greenhouse gas savings when converted to bioenergy. “Growing high-diversity prairie grasses and all the related prairie flowers on abandoned agricultural lands and using them for bioenergy
University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences
can restore the ecology for wildlife and ultimately improve Earth’s climate by helping displace fossil fuels,” said lead researcher and CBS faculty member Clarence Lehman. Further studies in other regions with different soil characteristics and climates should be conducted to expand these findings. Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research program and the Global Climate and Energy Project.
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University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences In an ongoing effort to discover the ideal conditions to grow alternative biofuels that offer more environmental benefits, University of Minnesota scientists applied their research on native prairies in the Upper Midwest to understand marginal lands – particularly abandoned and degraded agricultural fields. “Native, perennial grasses and abandoned fields have been proposed as a way to increase the environmental benefits of biofuels. First generation biofuels, such as corn ethanol, require intensive use of nitrogen fertilizers and take land away from food production. We wanted to see if prairie grasses might prove to be a better crop,” said lead researcher David Tilman, professor in the College of Biological Sciences and director of the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. Another potential benefit of perennial grasses is tied to their deep root systems. According to researchers, deeper root systems – as opposed to those seen in annual crops like corn – are able to store large amounts of carbon below ground that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. However, because perennial grasses on marginal lands can have low yields due to less fertile soil, researchers examined ways to maximize growth of the grasses without negative effects on the environment. In the 10-year study published in Nature Sustainability, researchers utilized 36 plots at an abandoned agricultural site in the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve to plant 32 species of prairie and savanna plants that are native to Minnesota. In 2007, researchers divided the plots into several groups and assigned them a combination of two treatments: water addition (i.e., irrigated or non-irrigated) and nitrogen fertilization (i.e., 0 g/ m2, 7 g/m2, 14 g/m2). Over the next decade, researchers found that: ► moderate treatments (irrigation and 7 g/m2 of nitrogen) had the best biomass yields and soil carbon storage, while having negligible effects on the stability, diversity and nutrient loss to groundwater; ► compared with the control
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D10 Thursday, March 7, 2019 — West Central Tribune — Willmar, Minn.
New Census of Ag release delayed
Shutdown affects several other surveys, too
► Census of Aquaculture: response deadline extended to March 22.
By Jonathan Knutson Forum News Service U.S. agriculturalists already have waited five years for the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Now they’ll wait a little longer. They’ll also have a few more days to complete several surveys, The widely followed 2017 Census, the only or most comprehensive source of information on many aspects of U.S.
► Irrigation and Water Management Survey; response deadline extended to March 8. NASS says that anyone who received, but no longer has, a form for one of these survey should phone 800-7279540 from 7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. ET to receive a survey code and then respond online at www.agcounts.usda.gov. NASS representatives may telephone farmers to collect information, as well.
the most recent Census of Ag. The shutdown — during which NASS was not able to collect, date or issue reports — affected several other reports, too. They are: ► Row Crop County Agricultural Production Survey: response deadline extended to Feb. 19.
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