Farmamerica Program Highlights Opportunities in the Agriculture Industry for Southern Minnesota Students

Hundreds of middle school students from three different school districts in southern Minnesota had the chance to explore various agriculture career opportunities during Farmamerica’s Ag Career Exploration program. Held on May 1 and 3, students from the Waseca, Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva, and United South Central school districts participated in the event.

The program featured ten different businesses from the agriculture industry, with students rotating every 20 minutes to hear from professionals at each career station. The initiative, free for schools to participate in, aimed to introduce students to the diverse career paths within agriculture.

“We tried to really cover the Minnesota career wheel,” said Kari Wadd, program coordinator for Farmamerica. “We’ve got Bushel Boy representing food and ag, SummersRidge Vet Clinic covering animal science, Crystal Valley here with their precision ag department and with their drones and implement, and then the ethanol plant — Guardian Energy — next door here in Janesville, Ag Management Solutions where they do the marketing, and Dotson Manufacturing here.”

Wadd, who grew up on a farm in Waseca, emphasized the importance of showcasing agriculture opportunities to students who might not be familiar with the industry. “Just showing them, that truthfully, everything somehow leads back to the ag industry, whether it’s food or materials,” she said. “It’s just nice to showcase or help introduce these kids and help them understand that all these different industries still have that ag tie.”

One of the stations was run by Josiah Dahlgren from Mankato-based Dotson Iron Castings. Dotson manufactures parts for various machinery, including John Deere equipment. At the station, students participated in an activity called “foundry in a box,” where they made small medallions with the Dotson logo.

“I thought foundry work seemed kind of interesting, and I didn’t know if it was manual labor or just kind of sitting on a spot and checking parts,” Dahlgren said. “Then I went on a tour, and I saw big giant sparks fly, and I was like you know what, that’s pretty cool.”

The event also featured USC eighth graders Urrijah Nieto and Paul Romano, who were familiar with foundry work from their TikTok feeds. Nieto’s favorite part of the day was the sprayer drone demonstration by Jason Leary from Crystal Valley Cooperative. “The drone was fire,” Nieto said. “The technology part is interesting to me, because I’m a little bit of a gamer.”

Leary highlighted the importance of educating potential future employees and customers about the technology used in modern farming. “I think it’s important for educating what might be our future employees, future customers, and telling our story of how we’re using technology and trying to do a better job of farming,” he said. “It’s something fun and exciting for them to see that they might have seen other places and relating it back to agriculture.”