Staton to Retire from MSU Extension
Published: Friday, April 26, 2024
You may have read his articles in the Exchange or attended a field day where he was the speaker. You may have also run into him at a farm safety camp or during a farm visit. However you encountered Mike Staton, a Michigan State University Extension educator, chances are that you probably learned something very useful.
An Extension educator for 35 years, Staton said the past 13 years—in which he served as MSU's chief soybean educator—were the most rewarding of his career. That's because he and colleagues were able to "move the needle" on several topics important to soybean growers. Among those topics are planting dates, planting rates and reducing harvest losses.
An Allegan County native, Staton grew up on a 165-acre cow-calf farm near Otsego. After graduating from Michigan State, he worked for one year as an energy conservation technician with the Kalamazoo Conservation District. Then, in 1989, he accepted a job as an Extension agriculture agent in Gratiot County. He filled similar roles in Bay, Berrien, Van Buren and, finally, his home county of Allegan.
After 35 years in Extension, Staton will retire on May 1, thus opening a new chapter in his life. While Extension work is near and dear to his heart, Staton and his wife Amy also want to travel, volunteer for good causes, and attend artisan craft shows. Mike is also considering such lofty goals as learning how to speak Spanish or, as a tribute to his late mother, learning how to play a certain musical instrument.
The 66-year-old has always been partial to Southwest Michigan, where the agricultural landscape supports a variety of orchards, vineyards, vegetables and row crops.
Staton found a niche with soybeans. In 2011, MSU leaders recognized there was a need for a statewide position to educate growers about the oilseed crop, so they partnered with the Michigan Soybean Checkoff to fund a full-time position. Staton, who was based in Allegan County, was chosen as the person who would take on that responsibility.
With the soybean educator position, Staton said he was able to focus on one topic and produce educational materials, organize meetings and field days to address those pertinent issues.
"That has been very, very rewarding," Staton said.
As an example, Staton conducted 12 soybean harvest equipment field days that instructed growers about the proper timing for harvest. At one mid-September field day in Edwardsburg, Staton asked the farmers if they would harvest soybeans with the conditions being what they were—immature-looking.
"Not a hand went up. Nobody," he said. "And we started running the combines, and sure enough, the beans came off at about 15%, maybe 15.5%. It really surprised everybody.
"And then we asked them at the end of the meeting: Well, what do you think now? Should you have been in here? Not everybody's hand went up, but a lot of hands went up."
That field day served as evidence that growers can harvest soybeans sooner than once thought.
"Too often, we wait for every leaf to drop and every plant to be dried and dead looking," Staton said. "That's usually too late."
Another soybean harvest field day highlighted a different message—that driving the combine at a slower speed, along with one quick adjustment to the reel position, could save up to 2 bushels per acre.
"I think of all of the field days, that's probably the one that we probably have moved the needle on is reducing harvest losses," Staton said.
His education didn't stop with the field days. Staton wrote articles summarizing the research and shared them with MSU Extension News as well as farm newspapers, like the Exchange, and other media. Through those articles, Staton was able to reach a greater audience.
Staton said he and colleagues also made a difference in farmers' understanding of optimum planting population. Surprisingly, the research from nearly 70 field trials over seven years showed that less is actually more.
"Our highest planting rate was 160,000," said Staton. "Our lowest planting rate was 80,000. We compared four different planting rates for 67 trials. What we found was just remarkable, that dropping 100,000 seeds per acre was the most profitable of those planting rates. The 160,000 was never the most profitable. It was just always the least profitable."
An additional lesson was that the plots with 160,000 seeds per acre had the highest occurrence of white mold, and that reducing planting rates is a very effective way of reducing white mold pressure.
The research also showed that growers can have a $100 increase per acre in net income from lower planting rates (100,000 versus 160,000 seeds per acre).
Staton worked with MSU agronomist Manni Singh to show that farmers can plant soybeans earlier than once thought.
"We may not gain yield potential by planting earlier, but we don't want to give up the planting windows if those opportunities are there," he said. "That's one thing that has changed. There's more acceptance among farmers to plant soybeans earlier. In some cases, farmers are planting soybeans before they plant corn now. That was unheard of when I first started 35 years ago. Corn was always planted first, and soybeans were planted after corn was done. That has changed drastically, not just in Michigan but across the country."
Outside of his work with soybeans, Staton said he enjoyed organizing and hosting farm safety day camps for 9- to 12-year-olds in Berrien County. Lessons on lawn mower and tractor safety, and how to properly use a fire extinguisher, among other things, were all well received and garnered support from local farms and fire departments.
"Besides the soybeans, I would say the farm safety work was probably the most rewarding," Staton said.
Over the course of his tenure with MSU Extension, Staton has hosted approximately 200 educational meetings and field days, written an estimated 170 news articles, and made roughly 600 on-farm visits.
Retirement will require a new routine, but Staton said he and Amy are looking forward to the change of pace. They plan to travel to national parks and volunteer their time for local causes. Amy is skilled at making crafts, so you can expect to find Mike accompanying her to various artisan shows.
Staton said he also wants to fix up his house and pursue two longtime goals: learning how to speak Spanish and learning to play the piano. His late mother encouraged him to take on that challenge.
The position of MSU Extension soybean educator will be filled by a person familiar to most farmers in southwestern Michigan. Eric Anderson, currently MSU's field crops educator who is based in Centreville, will become the new statewide soybean educator starting on May 2.
Looking back, Staton said he will miss the personal interactions with people and working in a position that involves continuous learning. As he prepares to step down, he feels confident that he delivered on the Extension mission of helping people improve their lives through education.
Reflecting on his 35-year career, Staton said he feels proud that he was able to provide recommendations that were always backed by sound research.
"That's one of the things I probably liked most about my career," he said. "I knew that any recommendations I made were unbiased and research-based. Man, that gives you a good feeling."
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