The agricultural department at SMSU has several major areas of study including ag business, agronomy, and ag education. SMSU also has ~50 acres of crop land donated by a local alumni and farmer which we routinely use for hands-on student learning. Summer 2024 will be the tenth field season since the SMSU research plots were established and the 6th at our current – and permanent – location. These plots are primarily used by SMSU students for experiential learning, and since I started at SMSU (in 2020) and became the plot manager, I have expanded the use of these field plots in SMSU coursework. My primary goal as plot manager is to fund/develop ag literacy for all plot visitors.
In the 2022-23 academic year, the SMSU research plots was utilized by 50-75 unique undergraduate students. In 2023-24, the plots were utilized by ~55 unique undergrad students. While the unique number of student/plot interactions changes based on what courses are offered, and enrollment, this 50-75 range is ~1/20th of the fulltime undergraduate SMSU student body. As such, these plots can be used to help augment/enhance student learning for ag focused students, and at the least, help introduce non-ag students to agriculture. This brief introduction for the non-ag students is generally superficial at first, but it can help lead to a greater understanding and appreciation of what types of jobs and activities are involved in modern farming. While agriculture focused majors are by far the most common type of student that interacts with the SMSU research farm, I have been able to extend the utility of the plots to other majors and student organizations. These include:
Biology and Environmental Science majors: who have used the plots for insect collection and for soil health labs. When I introduce biology students taking SMSU’s Entomology course (Spring odd years) to the field plots, I am able to introduce them to the basics of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), the value of natural enemies in soybean systems, and show them examples in the field.
Culinology, Business, and Political Science majors: who have used the field plots to develop the Mindful Meals program (https://www.marshallindependent.com/news/local-news/2022/02/food-for-thought/) in which crops are grown at the research plots, turned into homecooked meals in the SMSU kitchens, and delivered to food insecure children + families on the weekends. While this news article is from 2022, the program has continued, and will continue into the 2024 growing season. Over the lifetime of the Mindful meals program (Est. 2022), over 1500 meals have been served to local families.
DECA: a business focused student organization consisting of foreign students, who toured the plots as a group activity and learned about US agriculture along with previously funded MNSRPC projects (Utilization of drone technology as a tool to enhance the agricultural learning of future agriculture professionals in the 2022 funding cycle)
Various dorm events: In which several SMSU RAs took their floor and close student friends to the field plots to learn about them as well as how students can use them. Majors included graphic design, Culinology, agronomy, and ag communication.
I have also had a variety of non-student visitors to the research plots in the 2023 growing season including:
85 people for the SMSU field day held in July
~20 people including MN congressional reps Michelle Fischbach (SMSU’s regional rep, MN 7th District) + Pete Stauber (MN 8th district) along with numerous other staffers of the congressional Western Caucus visited for the plot tours
~15 people from local USDA-NRCS offices for the presentations of a student led cover crop demo plot project
~10 People from the general public not affiliated with SMSU but just interested in Ag and asked for a plot tour
While all of these plots visits may or may not be directly soybean related, I never know where the conversation during a plot visit will go. Having active soybean research on hand I can show off and talk about is always a benefit, especially given the economic importance soybean holds in Southwest MN.
SMSU is a teaching university, and as such, the primary responsibilities of both PI’s is that of an educator. For the ag students, ~33% of them actively farm, and another ~33% have some sort of close familial connection to farming (such as occasionally helping out during planting or harvest). The last ~33% are interested in agriculture for its career opportunities and job prospects. With the farming/farming-adjacent students, I have found most cannot communicate the why of whatever ag practice they are conducting in their field. Said another way, they often know how to operate the machinery, and at the very least drive the grain cart, but they often aren’t brought into the decision making process on why they perform one management practice over another. The proposed research methods are heavy on visual and hands-on learning opportunities, and while somewhat obtuse and hard to quantify, one of the main objectives of this project is to help students put their own words to management practices either performed or observed. In addition, with data-driven approaches becoming more prevalent in agriculture, it is essential that future data scientists understand the specifics of agronomy. Thus, another objective of this project is to familiarize future data scientists with agronomy and ag business.
While this proposal is primarily written to enhance the educational opportunities and experiences within the SMSU agriculture program, my first objective in the next section is research aligned. The order of objectives and goals listed in the next section does not represent their relative importance to me, but rather I have structured the grant as such for clarity purposes. It is easier to present the research project first, how it will be achieved, and then describe how the project will further student learning at SMSU, rather than presenting them in the opposite order. Said another way, GOALs 1 and 2 will provide the learning opportunities that GOAL 3 is focused on.

GOAL 1 : Describe/demonstrate how different K fertility levels can impact plant health, NDVI values, and final yields.
OBJECTIVE : Using NDVI sensors in conjunction with differing K fertilization rates, the impact of K sufficiency will be quantified throughout the season with NDVI values and eventually be correlated to season total yield.

GOAL 2: Topology approach to data analysis.
OBJECTIVE : Using persistence homology, the mapper algorithm, as well as traditional statistical methods, perform exploratory data analysis on data collected by NDVI sensors, yield data, and K fertilization rates.

GOAL 3: Provide hands-on learning/training opportunities in agriculture to SMSU students.
OBJECTIVE : The vast majority of field work and data collection will be accomplished by SMSU students, and be used in coursework (both ag and data science focused courses) throughout the academic year.

While the focus of this grant is centered on student education, the preliminary results of this project will be shared with the local farming community during the annual SMSU agronomy field day. Last summer, this event was attended by ~85 local farmers and business representatives. SMSU agronomy was able to showcase the type of research it was conducting at the farm, and how the plots are used to supplement student learning. In fact, we even had the students present their projects! In total, six student speakers detailed to the other 84 attendees how they utilized the research plots over the previous year. Not only did they develop their public speaking skills but their presentations helped reinforce the value the research plots have to the SWMN area.
I also believe a major strength of this student managed project is that it will fund and introduce SMSU students to specialized equipment (NDVI sensors). NDVI sensors have drastically decreased in price over the last decade and this grant will allows SMSU students to better understand NDVI with experiential learning. Much of the NDVI research in field crops is still being conducted and while researchers are starting to understand correlations between NDVI values and crop health/yield, implementation of this information on a farm scale has not yet been attained. Introducing students to the advantages and disadvantages of NDVI sensing will help them understand the advantages and limitations of technology in farming as they hit the job market. This project will synergize the growing popularity of sensors in precision farming with hands-on student learning needs, and provide the images and data I need for future assignments in the agronomy courses I teach.
As mentioned, SMSU agriculture students will be able to use the plot as an educational tool to learn various aspects of soybean growth and development. Data generated from the field plot will be used to provide at least 6 different learning opportunities:
AGRO 132 Crop Production + Lab: This class is the equivalent of an “Agriculture 101” class and is required by all ag majors at SMSU. As such it averages ~20 students each fall semester. For one lab, students will go to the field and make observations on how varied K-rates influence the incidence of chlorosis. This lab is pretty low stakes but we primarily use it to introduce freshman students to the research plots and get some initial hands-on experience on a farm site if they do not have that already.
AGRO 212 Grain and Forage Crop Management: This class is required by Agronomy and Agriculture Solutions majors, and averages around 11 students every other fall. The material covered in this course is the most agronomist centric of the agronomy courses and focuses on the production of corn, soy, and alfalfa and topics such as optimal planting rates, best fertilization practices, and genetic traits that impact production. This course covers these crops to a greater detail than any of the other agronomy courses. The field plots of this trial will be used in conjunction with other funded projects as part of a field trip to the research plots. Photos taken of the fertility plots and personal experiences will be used and communicated in future lectures as well.
AGRO 341 Principles of Pest Management + Lab: This class is required by Agronomy and Agriculture Solutions majors, and averages around 9 students every fall. This class goes to the SMSU field plots every week to create scouting journals, and collect pests for a curated collection as part of a semester long project. The soybean + weed treatment of this project will provide an interactive demonstration of how weeds actively impact yield and time series data from the weed only treatment will help demonstrate how quickly weeds can outcompete a soybean field if allowed to canopy. Finally, the low treatment rates of K fertilization will provide hands-on learning opportunities when it comes to identifying K deficiency in soy.
AGRO 390 Precision Ag: This class is required by Agronomy, Agriculture Solutions, and Ag Ed majors. As such it averages ~20 students each fall semester. This course covers precision agriculture tools including variable rate technology, equipment auto-guidance, remote and on-the-go sensing, and gets into the mechanisms of how these tools are utilized. The major assignment in this class is when students get a chance to fly the SMSU drone, take photos, and develop a project/answer a question using the ImageJ program. Fig. 2 is an example of one such student project. This proposal will create a time series of soybean growth at different K rates with associated NDVI values and give students “hands-on-experience” in analyzing remotely sensed data to make conclusions. Furthermore, they would be free to use the soybean plots while they are still standing to develop their own semester project. Finally, with the funding of the NDVI sensors this project will fund, students will be able to get first-hand experience with a NDVI sensor, their benefits and shortcomings, and how to interpret that data.
AGRO 454 Experimental Design in Agriculture + Lab: This class is an Agronomy major elective offered every other spring and averages around 10 students when offered. I’m also actively proselytizing this course to the Biology and Environmental Science department and expect a greater and more diverse enrollment in the future offerings of this course. In this class, students use real world data to learn about experimental design in typical agronomic test plots including assessment of insecticide sprays, the need for replication and blocking, and eventually are able to run an ANOVA to interpret findings from the field. Each week, students analyze a new dataset, and the NDVI time series data this proposal will generate, will provide ample opportunities to answer a variety of crop production questions. This will also demonstrate the many ways in which viable data for statistical analysis can be collected (Drones and NDVI sensors).
DATA 100 Introduction to Data Science: This class is a first course in data analysis, which introduces students to traditional data science techniques such as linear regression, A/B testing, hypothesis testing, etc. The data collected from this project will be employed in this class to teach students these traditional analysis techniques.
Finally, depending on how the results of this project come out, the PI will explore/pursue leading a CCA training session to communicate the strengths and weaknesses of NDVI analysis in crop production.

Updated August 20, 2024:
At the moment soybean NDVI data collection continues. No data analysis has been done yet. No problems in planting, fertilizing, or herbicide application has happened.

Large amounts of moisture early season led to some herbicide damage (Sonic) but damage was localized to a single block and shouldn't impact the rest the analysis.

The primary manner in which this project will positively impact MN soybean farmers is via education and demonstration. Agriculture students at SMSU are the future crop scouts, consultants, and product sales service that our MN soybean farmers rely on, and as such, training investments made in today’s agriculture students, will pay major dividends once these students hit the job market. All agronomy students at SMSU need to complete an internship by the time they graduate. At the end of the semester they give a presentation on their learning experiences. One of the more common themes in these presentations is how technologically advanced farming is becoming, be it in precision planting, the use of specialized sensors to detect weeds (See and Spray? type systems), or even just using drones to scout 100s of acres at a time.
Farming is becoming more technologically advanced and as an ag educator, it is my responsibility to introduce all types of students to farming, especially as ag is becoming more interdisciplinary. R&D requires both software and mechanical engineers to write code, and develop the machinery for the agro-machines and agro-sensors of the future, especially within the area of precision agriculture. Marketing professionals are needed to communicate the value of newly developed and developing technologies. Ag professionals/consultants are needed to bridge the research to grower gap that can sometimes occur when communicating the results of scientific research. Ag competent lawyers are needed to voice and pursue the interest of farmers. While this list of jobs is brief and certainly not conclusive of all shareholders within the ag-community, representatives from any ag-related job will be better prepared to do their job, and do it well, if they are simply provided an opportunity to go out to a farm, get their boots muddy, and experience how the work is done. Funding this grant will help us achieve these goals.