South Dakota Ag Connection - CHS Foundation and LATI Partner in Precision Ag Sim Lab

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CHS Foundation and LATI Partner in Precision Ag Sim Lab
South Dakota Ag Connection - 10/19/2018

The CHS Foundation, funded by charitable gifts from CHS Inc., is excited to announce the continuation of a long-standing relationship with Lake Area Tech as part of the CHS Foundation's work to develop a new generation of ag leaders for life and cultivate university partnerships. Most recently, the CHS Foundation awarded a $50,000 grant to Lake Area Tech to assist in the development of a state-of-the-art precision agriculture simulation lab which will provide a unique, hands-on experience with precision ag equipment and better prepare students for careers in the ag industry.

The CHS Foundation grant gave Lake Area Tech a unique edge in precision agriculture education by helping develop a simulation lab and aiding with the purchase of eight student Viper 4 work stations and one instructional station.

"The CHS Foundation is dedicated to developing a new generation of ag leaders," says Nanci Lilja, president, CHS Foundation. "Through support of the Lake Area Tech precision ag program, we are helping students be prepared to make meaningful contributions to the ag industry."

Additionally, the grant leveraged other notable contributions of cash, in-kind donations and expertise to make the simulation experience for the student as real as possible. Thanks to these efforts, the precision agriculture simulation lab is also home to several Hawkeye spray simulators, Viper 4 Auto steer simulators, Precision Planting planter pogo sticks, John Deere work stations and a flow control station.

The notion of a simulation lab for precision agriculture has been a vision of the program for quite some time but became more of an urgency each year as students were asking for additional hands-on learning experiences.

"When you live in this part of the country, sometimes your opportunities are limited by Mother Nature," says Brian Olson, Ag department supervisor. "We were excited about pursuing a simulation lab much like other programs of study at Lake Area Tech have done to help with their training needs."

Lake Area Tech was notified they received the CHS Foundation grant and immediately put the wheels in motion so the lab would be ready for students' fall 2018 semester.

Olson continues, "The CHS Foundation is passionate about preparing the students for future careers in the ag industry. Providing the funds to purchase the high-tech simulators was a natural fit for them and actually ended up leveraging other donations which has made the lab an enormous asset to the Lake Area Tech Precision Ag program." The lab, of which some is mobile, will provide training for the Lake Area Tech students, high school ag students, and employees who are currently in the precision ag industry.

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