Soil Health Summit: Welcome and Scope

IANR Media Author

11/22/2021 Added

42 Plays

Description

Recorded Friday, November 19, 2021.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:04.360]Thank you all for coming today.
[00:00:06.690]Very, very grateful to all of you,
[00:00:10.590]those that have agreed to be on the program
[00:00:14.030]and those of you that are joining us
[00:00:17.270]for interaction as we go through the day.
[00:00:20.400]And I understand that there are some folks online,
[00:00:23.420]so welcome, and thank you for joining us in that manner.
[00:00:27.440]We're gonna start today off with some comments
[00:00:30.790]by vice president of agriculture,
[00:00:33.710]for the NU system and IANR vice chancellor
[00:00:37.020]of Institute of Ag and natural resources
[00:00:39.450]and the guy that I work closely with
[00:00:43.370]and who does my annual evaluation, Dr. Mike Boehm.
[00:00:48.823](applause)
[00:00:49.763]Thanks, Ron
[00:00:50.596](applause)
[00:00:51.890]Well, one thing Ron Yoder doesn't need
[00:00:53.720]to worry about as a key partner of Mike Boehm
[00:00:56.460]is his annual evaluation.
[00:00:59.065]Um, let's give it up for Ron Yoder,
[00:01:00.960]an amazing colleague.
[00:01:02.555](applause)
[00:01:03.388]Thanks, Ron.
[00:01:04.680]And thanks to all of you who are here in the room,
[00:01:07.500]and those who are joining us virtually.
[00:01:10.450]We'll get the number of registrants
[00:01:13.970]and let you know,
[00:01:15.545]somebody's already asked that question,
[00:01:17.560]but this is an important day for us.
[00:01:19.820]And thanks for making your way to Lincoln or joining us
[00:01:23.920]for the day to talk about a critical topic, soil health.
[00:01:30.210]We have, I have,
[00:01:32.890]we at the institute have long before me,
[00:01:35.700]talked about how critical it is
[00:01:38.110]as we think about producing food,
[00:01:40.480]fuel, feed and fiber for a growing world,
[00:01:43.640]and doing that sustainably, taking care of our soil,
[00:01:47.980]taking care of our water for the next generation.
[00:01:51.850]Doing it in a way that takes care
[00:01:53.760]of the people who produce our food,
[00:01:56.090]doing it in a way that ensures that the land is fertile,
[00:02:01.380]that the top soil is,
[00:02:03.470]is there for the next six generations
[00:02:08.300]that will be coming to the people's university,
[00:02:10.360]asking questions, Lisa, about,
[00:02:12.600]you know, what to do and how to do it better.
[00:02:16.070]The secret in the sauce in Nebraska is really the people.
[00:02:21.491]Well, we have a lot of smart people at the Institute,
[00:02:24.200]our faculty are world-class,
[00:02:25.730]our staff, long standing commitments,
[00:02:29.250]decades of service, our students, our change makers,
[00:02:33.240]and really making a difference today
[00:02:35.500]and they're tomorrow's leaders,
[00:02:37.420]but it's our producers,
[00:02:38.750]it's the citizens of the state that open your farms,
[00:02:41.980]your ranches, your watersheds,
[00:02:44.240]it's the partnerships with things like the NRDs,
[00:02:47.410]the natural resource districts, nowhere else in the country
[00:02:51.750]are they common sense enough
[00:02:53.980]to look at their natural resources based on watersheds.
[00:02:59.370]Mostly it's county lines or geographic districts,
[00:03:02.150]some dotted line on a map somewhere,
[00:03:04.870]where integrated systems thinkers in Nebraska.
[00:03:08.290]And today is an opportunity for us to dive
[00:03:11.230]into this complicated topic.
[00:03:14.070]I think some of you know,
[00:03:16.530]last week on KRVN, I talked about this platform today.
[00:03:20.930]I'm a plant pathologist,
[00:03:23.610]but I spent decades studying soil microbes
[00:03:27.540]and how soil microorganisms engage with plant roots
[00:03:31.670]and plants to actually influence what that plant does.
[00:03:37.090]And when you think about the soil,
[00:03:39.770]we think about the soil biology, that's where my head goes.
[00:03:43.310]We think about soil chemistry, we think about soil physics.
[00:03:47.880]And then we think about environmental changes
[00:03:51.700]over what? Over time.
[00:03:55.210]So as a scientist who studies plant roots
[00:03:58.130]and microbe interactions,
[00:04:00.300]you go down and you look at that plant root one day,
[00:04:03.910]under one set of conditions and you study it.
[00:04:07.250]What do you know?
[00:04:08.083]You know about that plant with those microbes at that time
[00:04:12.600]under those conditions.
[00:04:14.700]And it's people like some of the folks that we have here,
[00:04:19.070]Charles, where are you, Charlie, thank you so much
[00:04:23.540]for your time, the plots that you had
[00:04:25.930]at Haskell Ag lab that are still there.
[00:04:28.010]40 years of looking at longitudinal studies,
[00:04:31.300]that's what gets us from one little moment in time
[00:04:35.350]to look over time, to develop generalities and thoughts.
[00:04:39.520]Of course, as we think about our cropping systems,
[00:04:42.760]the producer, the corn, the beans, the livestock influences,
[00:04:48.810]the surface that moves down into the soil profile.
[00:04:53.200]You have to think about water,
[00:04:55.290]you have to think about management practices.
[00:04:58.210]All of this is interconnected and today
[00:05:00.610]as an opportunity to unpack some of this.
[00:05:03.050]And so with that, I'd like to thank Keith,
[00:05:06.320]thank the members of the governor's soil task force,
[00:05:10.040]soil health task force that came out with a report,
[00:05:13.320]to Charlie who's idea eventually came out,
[00:05:17.250]I think in May in a meeting with Ron and me
[00:05:20.340]that resonated with both of us
[00:05:22.090]and to you, Ron, thanks for picking it up and carrying,
[00:05:25.260]no pun intended, the water on this under the soil.
[00:05:28.870]I would like to introduce a colleague
[00:05:30.990]and a friend Dr. Doug Steele, Doug's back there at table 31.
[00:05:35.570]Can't miss him, Doug is an amazing agricultural leader.
[00:05:39.940]He works at something called,
[00:05:41.870]the association of public and land grant universities.
[00:05:44.940]He's based in Washington, DC.
[00:05:47.430]He happens to be coming to the finest place to hunt.
[00:05:50.430]And so he's here in Nebraska.
[00:05:53.760]Didn't have any luck yesterday,
[00:05:55.270]but we'll see what he does later today I guess.
[00:05:58.560]Doug is the vice president
[00:06:00.420]for agriculture and natural resources
[00:06:02.800]and through Doug and through the APLU,
[00:06:05.470]Doug's connected and helps connect places like IANR
[00:06:11.770]to 130 additional organizations
[00:06:15.670]that care about what we're doing.
[00:06:17.050]So it's an amazing national network,
[00:06:19.710]actually goes into Canada as well.
[00:06:22.290]So with that, I hope you have a great day.
[00:06:24.560]Thanks for being here, thanks for everything that you do.
[00:06:26.970]And I hope you get a lot out of this conference.
[00:06:29.620]I look forward to visiting with you, Ron.
[00:06:34.960]Thank you, Mike.
[00:06:38.500]As we get started here,
[00:06:40.549]let me just look at your tent card
[00:06:44.250]and on there is a URL
[00:06:46.930]and it will take you to a site where,
[00:06:49.824]you can visit that site.
[00:06:51.650]And we will use that throughout the day to,
[00:06:53.950]each one of you can put your input into that.
[00:06:56.950]It will be collected here.
[00:06:59.144]It will be in many cases projected up on the screen.
[00:07:02.360]So it will be the way that a group that size,
[00:07:05.520]can each one of you will have a voice
[00:07:07.990]and we can interact throughout the day via this URL.
[00:07:12.800]So, now might be a good time to start.
[00:07:17.125]A few minutes we'll,
[00:07:18.110]be asking some questions that you can put your input
[00:07:20.840]into that website.
[00:07:22.780]And David Veteran, Boone McAfee,
[00:07:24.840]and I can proudly chant, we are number two.
[00:07:30.011](indistinct chatter)
[00:07:33.920]Someone, some individual called the bar to Cincinnati,
[00:07:37.680]whoever he was.
[00:07:39.050]I'm not sure whether they were talking about the Cincinnati
[00:07:41.320]in Ohio or whether it was another one,
[00:07:44.240]but said, man has only a thin layer of soil
[00:07:47.570]between him and starvation.
[00:07:50.570]And that is really a good true comment
[00:07:55.550]that I think all of us can take to heart.
[00:07:59.120]But I think most folks, maybe not the ones in this room,
[00:08:02.780]but most folks think of soil as dirt.
[00:08:05.480]As a matter of fact, if you are a soil scientist,
[00:08:07.560]you have to correct people when they say dirt
[00:08:10.350]and point out that it's really soil.
[00:08:13.740]That dirt is only soil out of place.
[00:08:18.300]And it's much like water,
[00:08:19.930]in that we take it for granted that it will always be there,
[00:08:24.180]in sufficient quality and quantity to meet our needs.
[00:08:29.440]And unfortunately,
[00:08:30.350]as we look back over the experiences of man,
[00:08:33.500]and there are many that indicate that is not so.
[00:08:37.050]And that's why we're gathered here today
[00:08:38.790]is to talk about the state of soil health in Nebraska
[00:08:45.270]and in the broader context of the great plains
[00:08:48.850]in the United States.
[00:08:50.900]And also talk about what a complex system it is.
[00:08:55.480]How the different components play together very, very much.
[00:09:01.540]And it's very important to understand each component
[00:09:04.360]and how those components interact
[00:09:06.690]and hence the makeup of our second panel.
[00:09:11.420]Now, I got to thinking about this
[00:09:12.960]because I ran across, er,
[00:09:16.580]who knows why?
[00:09:18.600]I didn't find any other ones,
[00:09:20.070]but I ran across one of my four H achievement certificates.
[00:09:27.120]I don't have any of the ribbons, I don't have any thing
[00:09:29.830]but these three
[00:09:31.570]and that very first four H project that I ever did,
[00:09:36.670]more years ago than I can care to remember was
[00:09:39.770]in soil and water conservation.
[00:09:42.620]And that set me on a path toward a career
[00:09:47.560]in soil and water engineering, soil and water conservation.
[00:09:52.600]Now I will admit there was a detour into civil engineering
[00:09:57.060]where soil is looked at only as a building component.
[00:10:01.000]So we talked about soil strength in other words.
[00:10:04.180]What can you do to get the maximum strength out of soil?
[00:10:08.510]But it was a breath of fresh air when I went
[00:10:10.910]to graduate school and I returned to my roots in agriculture
[00:10:14.170]and took soils courses where they treated soil
[00:10:18.890]as a living, breathing organism, which it really is.
[00:10:22.900]So that's a lot of what we're going to talk about
[00:10:26.140]in the morning session today.
[00:10:27.730]We're going to look at what are the,
[00:10:30.110]what's the status today of soil?
[00:10:33.320]The health, what is the health of soil in Nebraska?
[00:10:36.720]And take a look at those parts
[00:10:40.080]of the complex system that we need to understand,
[00:10:43.380]to make sure that we have a very resilient system.
[00:10:48.800]Some of you may be suggesting, well.
[00:10:53.800]We don't have unhealthy soils.
[00:10:57.480]We get upwards of 300 bushels of corn per acre
[00:11:01.550]in some cases, our soil must be pretty healthy.
[00:11:04.480]And I would agree some of our soils are healthy
[00:11:07.510]and some of our soils are not very healthy.
[00:11:10.330]So that's part of what we're gonna talk about today is,
[00:11:13.593]how can we go to the point at which we have soils
[00:11:20.680]that indeed harvest a very long future,
[00:11:25.040]where we can sustain our very,
[00:11:28.700]very productive agriculture in Nebraska,
[00:11:31.860]and we can continue to feed the people of the world.
[00:11:38.660]So, one other quick comment that I wanted
[00:11:40.570]to make was relative to INR.
[00:11:44.560]We have recognized this as something that is very important
[00:11:49.590]to Nebraska, Nebraska agriculture Nebraskans,
[00:11:53.780]and we have over the past 10 years,
[00:11:56.200]been assembling an integrated team,
[00:11:58.690]taking a holistic approach to how we address the system
[00:12:04.390]of soil, water, crops, grasslands, ecosystems.
[00:12:12.410]Hiring talent in each of the areas
[00:12:15.890]that can study a particular component
[00:12:18.970]and then bring that back together in an integrated way.
[00:12:22.670]We've, in a quick count today did this morning
[00:12:25.450]over the past 10 years,
[00:12:26.580]we've hired 23 faculty members strictly in soil and water.
[00:12:32.140]Another 32 in crops and grazing lands.
[00:12:36.230]And in that I was not counting those people that are working
[00:12:39.720]in precision agriculture, be it crops,
[00:12:42.450]be it livestock or the people that are working
[00:12:45.660]in data sciences and statistics.
[00:12:48.600]So we have been putting together this team
[00:12:52.670]that we think can approach the very important questions that
[00:12:56.620]are pressing our society today
[00:12:59.920]about resiliency, sustainability.
[00:13:04.200]We are at the moment, as a matter of fact,
[00:13:06.510]both positions are currently
[00:13:08.420]in an active search hiring two individuals that
[00:13:11.590]are specifically, their job...
[00:13:14.849]Their position descriptions will say that they
[00:13:16.680]are working in soil health.
[00:13:18.750]One of those will be a faculty member
[00:13:21.230]in agronomy and horticulture in that department.
[00:13:24.160]Which that individual will have a teaching
[00:13:26.260]and extension appointment
[00:13:28.110]because that's what we've heard is needed.
[00:13:30.880]The second position will be our integrated,
[00:13:34.440]our water and integrated cropping systems team called Wix.
[00:13:38.910]That is a statewide extension educator who will work
[00:13:42.130]in the soil health area
[00:13:44.140]and will help integrate across all
[00:13:46.910]of these other positions that I mentioned.
[00:13:49.170]We'll bring individuals together
[00:13:51.810]and we'll serve it largely as the outreach person
[00:13:57.540]for soil health within that Wix team.
[00:14:01.750]And I should say that that team is a member.
[00:14:04.892]There are 30 extension educators on that Wix team
[00:14:07.890]and a similar number of tenure line faculty members as well.
[00:14:18.810]So I asked them to put the agenda up.
[00:14:21.780]I'll look over here, so I'm turning my back to you.
[00:14:25.640]Just a quick journey through the agenda today,
[00:14:30.030]we are extraordinarily fortunate
[00:14:31.890]to have Jerry Hatfield with us today
[00:14:35.340]to warm us up, Jerry, get us to light our fire.
[00:14:40.840]And we'll be talking about his knowledge and it is extensive
[00:14:46.890]of the components of soil health and how they come together
[00:14:51.420]to ensure that we have a healthy soil.
[00:14:54.350]And I will say a few more words
[00:14:56.190]about Jerry when I introduce him here in a moment.
[00:15:00.390]We then have the two panels that I've alluded to.
[00:15:03.790]The first panel is a status check of how healthy
[00:15:06.940]are our soils in Nebraska.
[00:15:10.130]And we have four individuals who have a great deal
[00:15:14.220]of experience, actually working the soil
[00:15:18.670]and can tell us their observations,
[00:15:21.630]working the soil, working cropping systems.
[00:15:24.960]The second panel is a little more scientific
[00:15:28.610]but we're not talking
[00:15:30.730]about extensive scientific presentations here.
[00:15:34.960]I put this panel together at the suggestion
[00:15:37.960]of some others that we will ask these people
[00:15:43.580]to help us understand the complex system
[00:15:47.280]that I've been talking about.
[00:15:48.870]So Umberto Blanco will approach it from a soil physics,
[00:15:52.460]from a physical perspective, Michael Kaiser,
[00:15:55.520]from a soil chemistry perspective,
[00:15:58.260]Virginia Gene who's with ARS,
[00:16:00.800]will talk about the biology of the soil system.
[00:16:03.850]And Andy Sucre has more than 20 years making measurements up
[00:16:07.870]at our Eastern Nebraska research and extension center
[00:16:10.950]about what happens at the soil atmosphere interface.
[00:16:15.360]What is coming off of the soil
[00:16:17.670]when you have that microbial activity.
[00:16:21.240]Then we're gonna do a very quick, what have you heard?
[00:16:24.660]I'll ask a few questions,
[00:16:26.230]you'll be able to see what the other participants
[00:16:30.290]in the room are thinking
[00:16:32.885]in using this interactive app that I've asked you
[00:16:35.120]to log into.
[00:16:37.720]And then in the afternoon, it's your turn.
[00:16:41.940]We're going to have two sessions that
[00:16:43.470]are structured very much the same,
[00:16:46.060]but we're going to ask you at table discussions
[00:16:49.250]to come up with some answers
[00:16:52.070]to these questions that we've put up there
[00:16:53.980]and we will put up there.
[00:16:55.670]And we ask that you designate
[00:16:58.860]at least one person from your table to enter these,
[00:17:02.980]to enter the feedback from the table
[00:17:04.780]into the interactive app.
[00:17:06.140]And we will look at that on the screen
[00:17:09.130]and we will have a time for interaction,
[00:17:13.670]either online or with the roving mic.
[00:17:18.770]And then in the last half hour,
[00:17:22.150]we will in an interactive way,
[00:17:24.770]talk about some prioritization of going forward.
[00:17:29.240]What are some of the things,
[00:17:31.004]that we at the university can do and should be doing?
[00:17:35.520]And what are some things that
[00:17:37.140]are needed beyond the walls of the university?
[00:17:41.520]So we will then wrap it up with some comments from our,
[00:17:45.160]I've asked our two moderators,
[00:17:48.130]I don't know if I did ask them, but I'm asking them now,
[00:17:51.530]to keep some mental notes throughout the day.
[00:17:56.350]And I have asked Jerry as well for them
[00:17:58.860]to each give two or three minutes
[00:18:00.320]of their comments of what they've heard
[00:18:03.430]throughout the day.
[00:18:04.760]And we will then wrap up and I would like to take,
[00:18:08.700]if I have a moment or two, I do.
[00:18:12.840]Usually do this at the end of the day,
[00:18:14.560]and I will do it again.
[00:18:15.660]But it's often by the end of the day, people are leaving.
[00:18:19.890]These kinds of things do not happen without the hard work
[00:18:24.030]of a lot of people.
[00:18:25.840]And the people that
[00:18:27.010]are often the ones that make it work the best
[00:18:31.040]are the ones that are least noticeable.
[00:18:33.560]So, Mike Cam back there on the camera,
[00:18:36.550]Mike always does a fantastic job.
[00:18:39.999]And Alisa Ruba who has made sure that every detail
[00:18:44.750]has been taken care of,
[00:18:47.770]including bringing me a mic when it appears that,
[00:18:50.840]my mic is not working.
[00:18:53.060]So with that, and by the way, was Jesse in the room.
[00:18:57.940]Anyhow, Jesse Brophy, there she is, Jesse.
[00:19:01.270]And then with Jesse in the back of the room,
[00:19:03.940]there is Crystal Powers and Crystal is taking care
[00:19:07.150]of all of our technology related to the interactive app.
[00:19:12.350]We've done this in a few other venues.
[00:19:14.690]It has worked extremely well
[00:19:16.570]and as I said, it gives everyone an opportunity
[00:19:19.400]in a larger group like this, to have a voice,
[00:19:22.040]it gives everyone an opportunity to interact.
[00:19:24.750]And then it gives everyone the opportunity to see,
[00:19:27.620]what other individuals are thinking and what they're saying.
[00:19:32.840]So I see you're already on there.
[00:19:35.530]So please go on your mobile device
[00:19:38.090]or your computer and tell us who you are.
[00:19:53.631]So you can see on the graphic, on the screen,
[00:19:58.008](indistinct chatter)
[00:19:58.880]who your table mates are.
[00:20:01.910]And I am, oh, I was gonna say,
[00:20:05.190]I'm very pleased to see that you,
[00:20:07.270]you all have us out numbered here in education and research
[00:20:12.250]and you still do so we'll, we'll go with that.
[00:20:16.087](indistinct chatter)
[00:20:17.630]Second question is, there you go.
[00:20:21.150]So just drop a pin where you call home.
[00:20:39.150]Okay. Where are our next interactive question?
[00:20:44.200]As the prelude to visiting with our panelists?
[00:20:50.260]It's up there on the screen,
[00:20:51.530]why is soil health important?
[00:20:53.490]And this will come up as a word cloud.
[00:20:56.000]So we wanna see, what words you use
[00:20:59.690]to describe why soil health is important.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Soil Health Summit: Welcome and Scope

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments