Life-saving education protects future generations of farmers
About one-third of all farm accidents involve children. Hazards include tractor rollovers and incidents with grain bins, manure pits, fire, toxic gases and more.
Training and using safety equipment are two top ways to reduce the danger.
Extension delivered farm safety education to more than 1,000 people in 2025, including 4-H youth who live on farms or visit farms. Jeff Scherbring is one of the community members with safety experience who volunteered at a Winona tractor safety education day. He’s the sales manager at Kalmes Implement Co., which also donated the use of the equipment. Andrew Green is one of the young people who learned important, potentially life-saving, lessons.
Emily Krekelberg, an Extension educator with family members who have lost limbs, said, “When I deliver farm safety programs to youth and adults, my family’s story gets their attention right away, and then I can focus on education that can save someone’s life or limb.”
Highlights
- RSDP impact: Supported by a CERTs Seed Grant, Project FINE helps local immigrants learn about clean energy.
- Extension specialists and educators are addressing nitrate water quality issues in southeastern Minnesota through Nitrogen Smart education for farmers, support for alternative crops and land uses, and well water education.
- U of M Farm Family of the Year: The Groth family (2026)
- Master Gardeners led Winona County’s Learn & Grow With Us Garden Tour, introducing participants to five unique gardens with education stations, a plant scavenger hunt and prizes.
- Minnesota Master Naturalist training: Instructor Sara Holger combined a “Big Woods, Big Rivers” biome course with field trips and activities focused on the Driftless area.
- People don’t have to be mental health professionals to support friends, neighbors and colleagues in times of need. But they may not know how. Extension helped bridge this gap by providing in-person Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory (COMET) training in St. Charles and Winona.
Winona County office
Extension has 14 regional offices supporting all 87 counties in Minnesota.
Winona County partners with Extension to deliver practical education and research you can use at home, at work and in your community. More about Extension in our county.
About the Minnesota 87 project
Spend time in any Minnesota county, and you will almost certainly encounter University of Minnesota Extension. Our faculty and staff, volunteers, participants, alumni and partners are woven into the fabric of rural, urban and suburban Minnesota life. This project showcases Extension in action through photos, stories and a sampling of the many ways Extension has touched the lives of people in every county.