News

Registration
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Southwest Research & Outreach Center
23669 130th Street
Lamberton, MN 56152
Registration Fee: $40
Registration is due by Wednesday, March 25th

Join us for fun, hands-on after-school workshops where kids become scientists—exploring agriculture and the environment through seasonal activities, experiments, and games! Open to all youth in grades 1-5. Dates include November 4, 11, 18 afterschool to 5:30 pm at the SW Research and Outreach Station, 23669 130th Street, Lamberton MN 56152. This is a FREE event!

Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Strock Appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of “Agricultural Water Management” Section in Agriculture (ISSN: 2077-0472).

The SWROC is featured in the UMN Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics Summer 2025 Issue of Gleanings.  

The SWROC will be selling used equipment and vehicles via an online auction hosted by Kerkhoff Auction and Real Estate. The auction is open until Tuesday, March 4, 2025 at 4 pm. A preview day will be held Tuesday, February 18 from 1 - 3 pm at the SWROC. For more information call Jeff @ 507-430-1820 or Mark @ 507-430-6149

Regular visitors to the Southwest Research and Outreach Center (SWROC) website may notice a new look to the reported weather data. In September, the SWROC joined several other ROCs partnering with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to join and collect data for the Minnesota Ag Weather Network (MAWN). This project upgrades the ROCs’ current weather stations with advanced technology that is standardized across the MDA’s network and provides current weather updates every 15 minutes.

Preliminary yield results from the 2024 variety trials are now available at varietytrials.umn.edu for the following crops: spring wheat, winter wheat, winter rye, winter triticale, barley, and oats. The annual report including all crops and finalized data will be published later this year.

The UMN Southwest Research & Outreach Center (SWROC) near Lamberton hosted over 40 local 1st through 5th graders Tuesday, July 30 and Wednesday, July 31 for the Bell Museum Summer Camp program. The camp immersed students in science and nature with hands-on investigation, games, creative projects, and guided outdoor exploration

The 2024 planting season was off to a good start, and then much-needed rains came. Not only did the rains halt planting progress, delay in spring fieldwork also possibly derailed the best-laid plans for the season’s weed control.

Read more about this year's planting season and weed concerns on the Farm Progress website.

Hot and dry. Those words describe the 2021 growing season here at the Southwest Research and Outreach Center, as well as across much of Minnesota. 

Redwood County, where the SWROC is located, spent much of the summer in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s moderate and extreme drought categories, with portions of the county reaching extreme drought levels at the end of July. 

While the drought’s impact can only be seen as a negative for most corn and soybean growers in the region, the dry growing season presented exciting research opportunities for Professor Jeff Strock, who conducts drainage water quality research at the SWROC.