Soil Health Summit: Status Check Panel

IANR Media Author

11/22/2021 Added

22 Plays

Description

Recorded Friday, November 19, 2021.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:04.440]I think Craig Derrickson likely needs no introduction
[00:00:07.730]in this crowd,
[00:00:08.563]but he warrants an introduction
[00:00:11.610]because he has had a very distinguished career.
[00:00:15.410]As many of you know,
[00:00:16.890]he recently retired as the state conservationist
[00:00:20.530]for NRCS here in Nebraska.
[00:00:23.600]And that was after 35 years of federal service.
[00:00:27.500]He began his career as a soil scientist,
[00:00:31.410]actually working for the University of Nebraska
[00:00:33.380]in his early career.
[00:00:36.880]He spent seven years with the university
[00:00:39.590]on various soil and water conservation projects
[00:00:43.000]here in the Lincoln area,
[00:00:44.190]and also in Western Nebraska, Crawford.
[00:00:46.950]That's pretty far Western Nebraska.
[00:00:51.850]He then advanced through the NRS system
[00:00:56.140]as district conservationists,
[00:00:57.900]state resource conservationist,
[00:01:00.480]assistant state conservationist,
[00:01:02.670]and regional technology coordinator.
[00:01:05.410]2002, he moved to the NRCS National Office in DC
[00:01:11.160]where he assisted with rulemaking
[00:01:13.150]and policy development conservation programs
[00:01:16.840]as part of the 2002 Farm Bill.
[00:01:20.470]After several years there,
[00:01:21.880]he was elected as a state conservationist
[00:01:24.810]in Pennsylvania in 2006.
[00:01:28.060]Many of you are familiar with the Chesapeake Bay
[00:01:31.310]and how polluted it was
[00:01:32.620]and the effort that the states in the drainage basins
[00:01:36.400]that drain into the Chesapeake Bay made an effort.
[00:01:40.440]He was very active in the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay.
[00:01:48.160]He returned to DC then
[00:01:49.790]as the NRCS' Deputy Chief for Programs.
[00:01:53.610]And then in 2010,
[00:01:55.320]he came here to Nebraska,
[00:01:57.160]returned in Nebraska as a state conservationist.
[00:02:01.180]In 2020, he was recognized
[00:02:03.560]as the Outstanding State Conservations of the Year
[00:02:07.010]by the National Association of State Conservation Agencies.
[00:02:12.750]So thank you for being here today, Craig.
[00:02:16.240]Thank you.
[00:02:17.320]Moderating this panel,
[00:02:18.560]which is a distinguished panel with lots of experience.
[00:02:22.440]I think you can probably keep them headed
[00:02:24.710]in the right direction.
[00:02:25.580]At least we're going to hope so.
[00:02:27.470]So please introduce them.
[00:02:30.360]All right. Thank you, Ron.
[00:02:31.680]And I would just say that, you know,
[00:02:35.110]this topic of a soil health is near and dear to my heart
[00:02:39.540]and to many of the people in this room,
[00:02:42.290]certainly to these panel members.
[00:02:44.270]And as I look across the audience here,
[00:02:46.640]I see people who have a lot of interest in this topic.
[00:02:49.950]So I'm really excited to hear the discussions today.
[00:02:53.280]And this panel has a lot to cover in the next hour.
[00:02:57.060]So I'm not going to say much more than that.
[00:03:01.410]I would begin by just reminding everyone
[00:03:04.640]that this panel during this hour
[00:03:08.450]really has two focuses and objective we want to accomplish.
[00:03:13.710]And Ron touched on these earlier,
[00:03:15.530]but the first is to help all of us here as attendees
[00:03:20.360]gain a better sense of the current condition of our soils.
[00:03:25.160]And Jerry Hatfield did an excellent job
[00:03:27.570]of describing some of the parameters
[00:03:30.340]that matter in that determination.
[00:03:33.550]And then secondly, to learn from the panel members,
[00:03:37.290]their recommendations on what actions are needed
[00:03:41.540]to sustain, improve the health of our soil systems.
[00:03:46.810]So I look forward to hearing that.
[00:03:49.210]And we're really fortunate to have
[00:03:50.890]such an outstanding panel of experts
[00:03:54.410]to be here with me today.
[00:03:56.340]They have a recognized expertise in conservation systems,
[00:04:02.220]in production agriculture, in agribusiness,
[00:04:05.970]and in soil and water conservation research.
[00:04:08.580]So you have a great panel here.
[00:04:11.420]I'm going to introduce each of them.
[00:04:14.970]And I would ask that you just hold your applause
[00:04:17.340]till the end, and then we'll give them a round of applause.
[00:04:20.840]So I'll start with Paul Jasa down here.
[00:04:24.570]Paul is a university extension engineer
[00:04:27.470]with many years of experience in developing
[00:04:30.340]and conducting educational programs
[00:04:33.330]related to crop production that improve profitability,
[00:04:37.910]build soil health, and reduce risk to the environment.
[00:04:43.410]And Paul has become one of the best sources of information
[00:04:46.940]in the Midwest, if not nationally,
[00:04:49.610]on no-till planting systems and equipment
[00:04:53.120]to protect and to build the soil.
[00:04:56.570]Next, I want to introduce Angela Knuth.
[00:05:00.030]Angela farms with her husband Kerry and their two sons
[00:05:04.390]in the Mead, Nebraska area.
[00:05:07.050]And the focus of their farm is on quality production
[00:05:11.280]by adopting new technology, implementing data analytics,
[00:05:16.430]pursuing sustainable farming systems
[00:05:19.530]and introducing traceability into the supply chain
[00:05:23.400]at the farm level.
[00:05:25.200]And the Knuth farm joined
[00:05:27.140]the National Soil Health Partnership Program in 2017.
[00:05:32.030]So we look forward to hearing from Angela.
[00:05:34.630]Here beside me is Keith Berns.
[00:05:38.000]Keith combines over 20 years of no-till farming experience
[00:05:43.240]with 10 years of teaching agriculture and computer science
[00:05:49.030]in rural Nebraska.
[00:05:50.920]In addition to his farming operation,
[00:05:53.380]he co-owns and operates a Green Cover Seed,
[00:05:57.510]one of the major cover crop seed providers
[00:06:01.320]and educators in the United States.
[00:06:04.560]I would also like to add that Keith served
[00:06:06.760]as Chairman of the Nebraska Soil Health Task Force
[00:06:11.450]that was charged with developing a report
[00:06:15.200]and a strategy and action plan for Nebraska
[00:06:18.660]after the passage of LB243
[00:06:21.970]in the 2019-2020 legislative year.
[00:06:26.440]So we're really glad to have him here.
[00:06:29.200]Down on the end is Charles Shapiro.
[00:06:32.590]Charles is a University of Nebraska Emeritus Professor
[00:06:36.750]of Agronomy and Horticulture
[00:06:39.090]at the Haskell Ag Lab near Concord, Nebraska
[00:06:42.560]in Northeast Nebraska.
[00:06:44.620]Charles has significant experience
[00:06:47.160]in crop nutrient management
[00:06:50.040]and in managing nutrients for increased profit
[00:06:53.100]for the producer.
[00:06:55.000]Charles' research worked included
[00:06:57.990]native fertility of the soil resource
[00:07:01.470]and nutrient credits available from a variety of sources.
[00:07:06.140]Charles was also a member
[00:07:08.160]of the Nebraska Soil Health Task Force
[00:07:11.920]and contributed much to the development of the report.
[00:07:16.030]So now help me give a warm welcome to this group of experts.
[00:07:19.661](applause)
[00:07:24.810]And we'll have the opportunity
[00:07:27.500]to allow each of the four of them
[00:07:30.370]to make some sort of brief opening comments,
[00:07:33.210]before we go directly into the questions
[00:07:36.210]that we've prepared.
[00:07:37.260]And our short game plan for this session is
[00:07:41.200]we're going to have three questions.
[00:07:43.160]We'll ask them each to raise spawn to.
[00:07:46.510]And then we'll save about 15 minutes at the end
[00:07:49.810]to try to get some more interaction from all of you.
[00:07:53.220]So I would ask you to be thinking about questions
[00:07:56.513]that we want to ask, jot them down.
[00:07:59.890]We won't take questions while they're speaking.
[00:08:02.050]We'll save the questions for the end.
[00:08:04.050]And we'll try to have plenty of time to do that.
[00:08:08.070]So just to begin for myself,
[00:08:10.630]you know, in thinking about
[00:08:12.640]preparing for this discussion today,
[00:08:16.110]and then all of the things that have happened in time.
[00:08:20.260]And I suppose I sort of framed those
[00:08:22.540]within the timeframe of my career and my working experience,
[00:08:26.380]but it's just really interesting to think
[00:08:31.450]about all of the conservation work,
[00:08:34.660]the soil erosion control,
[00:08:36.830]the work in more sustainable systems
[00:08:39.810]that has happened in the last 30 to 35 years.
[00:08:43.350]And so I know all of the speakers today are going to touch
[00:08:47.460]on these sort of things.
[00:08:48.620]And Jerry in his own words said this,
[00:08:51.960]but we think of the soil
[00:08:54.480]as a living and life-giving substance.
[00:08:58.580]And it's one that we can't survive without.
[00:09:01.690]And as the world population
[00:09:03.910]and food production demands continue to increase,
[00:09:08.000]keeping our soils healthy is going to be one of the things
[00:09:11.310]that becomes critical to future life and such civilizations.
[00:09:16.650]And so in fact,
[00:09:18.260]we believe that improving the health of our soils
[00:09:22.240]is probably the most significant conservation objective
[00:09:27.620]that we have for the future going forward.
[00:09:31.160]So without further ado,
[00:09:33.700]I'd like to just go down the panel here
[00:09:35.980]and ask each of them to make a few brief comments.
[00:09:39.760]And then we'll begin with question one after that.
[00:09:43.860]So I'll start here with Keith.
[00:09:44.693]Yeah, sure. Thank you, Craig.
[00:09:46.020]Good morning, everybody.
[00:09:47.490]Excited to be here to join everybody,
[00:09:49.240]to have this discussion about soil health.
[00:09:51.820]I want to take my comment time,
[00:09:53.500]and it's been mentioned,
[00:09:55.240]the Healthy Soil Task Force that I was on.
[00:09:58.370]I do want to mention that we do have copies of this report.
[00:10:01.720]There was thousands of hours of work that went into this.
[00:10:05.280]There are copies of the report over here on this table.
[00:10:07.720]So if you don't have one, I would encourage you to grab one.
[00:10:10.860]A lot of what we're talking about here today
[00:10:13.510]is going to be addressed at least in part in here.
[00:10:17.180]It was a report that had not only the task force members
[00:10:21.180]of which Charlie was a member.
[00:10:23.500]We've got some other members.
[00:10:24.540]Lisa here. Mike and Ray Ward back there.
[00:10:28.260]There's other people in the room that contributed
[00:10:30.160]very heavily to this.
[00:10:32.170]All of these topics are going to be touched on in here.
[00:10:34.340]We don't have a lot of the answers in here.
[00:10:36.580]We probably had more of the questions,
[00:10:39.128]but that's where we have to start.
[00:10:40.520]We have to have the right questions to answer.
[00:10:42.970]And so I really appreciate the university,
[00:10:45.530]Ron, and Mike, putting this together,
[00:10:47.990]because it's going to help us get to some of the answers
[00:10:50.730]for some of the questions that were laid out here.
[00:10:52.670]So I would encourage you,
[00:10:54.080]if you haven't grabbed one of these copies, to get one.
[00:10:56.960]Look at it, not during our panel, of course,
[00:10:59.460]but later on. Right.
[00:11:00.680]Take a look at it. And it may help put
[00:11:02.910]some additional things into perspective for you.
[00:11:05.640]All right. Thank you, Keith. Angela?
[00:11:08.440]I'm Angela Knuth.
[00:11:09.273]I firm with my husband and two sons, like was mentioned.
[00:11:12.200]Can you hear me?
[00:11:13.520]Yeah, just speak a little louder, if you can.
[00:11:15.424]Sorry about that.
[00:11:16.257]And I guess my contribution to today would be
[00:11:19.700]our journey as a farm family.
[00:11:22.786]I started off with my husband and his father.
[00:11:25.610]We were full conventional till.
[00:11:28.020]2005, we moved to strip-till,
[00:11:32.187]and we made that migration to no-till.
[00:11:35.440]And we had, in 2020, our first field certified organic.
[00:11:40.610]And then we had a second field just this August.
[00:11:43.560]I would say that
[00:11:44.520]what Jerry said was very informative and in a true,
[00:11:49.990]I would say, at the farm level.
[00:11:51.380]We don't think the same way that Jerry does.
[00:11:53.950]And that's a very, very huge reason
[00:11:57.210]why moving to soil health is such a problem
[00:12:00.900]for farmers in general.
[00:12:03.570]You have to take care of the farmers' financial books
[00:12:06.480]before he's gonna ever talk to you
[00:12:08.330]about soil health.
[00:12:12.150]All right. Thank you, Angela. And, Paul?
[00:12:14.760]Thank you, Craig.
[00:12:16.400]When it comes to my comments,
[00:12:19.320]one thing I want to say is things are constantly changing.
[00:12:22.290]And when I started at the university many years ago,
[00:12:24.700]I was the young engineer studying equipment.
[00:12:27.810]And the early days of the reduced tillage,
[00:12:30.290]conservational tillage,
[00:12:31.123]no-till was like, say, fuel and labor.
[00:12:34.150]That was 1981.
[00:12:35.570]I established a set of plots and a little grant
[00:12:37.410]that we're going to compare tillage systems,
[00:12:39.630]that the little three-year grant.
[00:12:41.730]And the three years, it says,
[00:12:43.057]"Hey, I finally figured out it's more than equipment.
[00:12:45.170]It is a systems approach to crop production,
[00:12:47.010]systems approach to the soil."
[00:12:49.070]That little three-year grant ended.
[00:12:50.570]Those plots are still going.
[00:12:52.120]We just had harvest number 41
[00:12:53.670]out of Rogers Memorial Farm in those plots.
[00:12:56.130]And so I've learned a lot,
[00:12:57.710]but again, things are constantly changing.
[00:12:59.770]And it doesn't change overnight.
[00:13:02.500]Three years before I started seeing the benefits,
[00:13:04.310]no-till really started seeing after five years,
[00:13:06.780]started using cover crops.
[00:13:09.530]First couple of years, I'm like,
[00:13:10.363]"Why in the world am I doing it?"
[00:13:12.290]10 years later, it's like,
[00:13:13.127]"Why I'm not doing it on more acres?"
[00:13:15.250]Again, things change, but it changes slow
[00:13:17.560]when you think about the ag system,
[00:13:19.450]when you think about the soil system.
[00:13:21.450]So it does take some time. Stick with it.
[00:13:24.450]Thank you, Paul. Charles?
[00:13:26.580]Yeah. Thank you.
[00:13:28.018]There are a lot of faces in the room
[00:13:29.410]that I've known over the years.
[00:13:31.470]And I don't know if I'm the oldest one in the room.
[00:13:34.730]My friend, Dick Weise, who, over 90
[00:13:37.690]probably have a better retrospective than I would.
[00:13:39.710]But from my seat, I'm going to look at things
[00:13:44.150]from the nutrient management perspective.
[00:13:47.880]I've always looked at a field basis or a farm basis.
[00:13:52.130]And I haven't looked at the aggregate of the whole state.
[00:13:56.130]And as Jerry said, and others will say,
[00:13:59.790]it comes down to the individual field or partial field.
[00:14:03.210]And that's where we're gonna make decisions.
[00:14:06.170]So I would just emphasize that we come down,
[00:14:11.380]whether it's your farm or somebody else's farm,
[00:14:13.410]that we look at that with an open mind.
[00:14:16.580]Soil health, I appreciate the definition,
[00:14:20.000]but I think if we're going to use a medical model,
[00:14:23.400]you know, if we have a heart problem,
[00:14:24.720]we have to focus on the heart.
[00:14:26.930]And so our job is to find out where that limiting factor is.
[00:14:32.650]You know, it may be difficult.
[00:14:35.150]But we do have tools out there to help us assess it.
[00:14:39.160]In the past, we've worked with commercial programs
[00:14:43.950]as well as NRCS and the university,
[00:14:45.810]which helped us do some quantitative assessment.
[00:14:49.040]And from there, we can make management decisions.
[00:14:53.890]Thank you, Charles.
[00:14:55.330]Okay. So moving forward right into our first question
[00:14:59.640]as just a little bit of verbiage
[00:15:02.670]to kind of set the stage for this first question.
[00:15:06.000]And I touched on this a little bit earlier.
[00:15:08.480]You know, I recall in 1985,
[00:15:12.740]when we first had
[00:15:14.020]conservation compliance and mandatory requirements
[00:15:17.760]for producers to apply conservation practices,
[00:15:22.510]to reduce soil erosion,
[00:15:24.680]and just the footprint that left us to go forward
[00:15:29.080]for the generations that we now have.
[00:15:32.310]And then in the 1990s,
[00:15:35.200]we began more of a movement of a no-till systems
[00:15:39.500]and people learning how to use that system,
[00:15:43.040]not only to protect their soil,
[00:15:44.580]but to improve the bottom line, reduce fuel, reduce energy,
[00:15:48.260]reduce the cost of equipment.
[00:15:50.080]And then most recently in the past decade or more,
[00:15:53.710]we've had this movement centered around soil health
[00:15:57.210]with a lot of interest in cover crops
[00:15:59.470]and other diverse and sustainable rotation.
[00:16:03.400]So my question for the panel to respond to is,
[00:16:07.800]and we'll just go down the line,
[00:16:09.110]starting with Keith first on this one is
[00:16:12.100]with your unique perspective and experience,
[00:16:17.170]how would you describe the current condition of soil
[00:16:20.500]on our farms?
[00:16:21.520]So what is your perception
[00:16:23.700]of the general health and condition of the soil
[00:16:27.390]on our working agricultural lands? Keith?
[00:16:31.810]Yeah, that's a great question, Craig.
[00:16:33.730]To me, it's kind of a mixed bag.
[00:16:35.210]I see a little bit of everything.
[00:16:37.220]I see people doing great things.
[00:16:39.170]I see people just kind of maintaining what they're doing.
[00:16:42.370]And I see others who've got a lot of work to do.
[00:16:45.030]I really appreciated what Jerry said about,
[00:16:48.410]you know, Nebraska and the irrigation.
[00:16:50.580]I really see that in that
[00:16:52.910]the more that they're dependent upon water,
[00:16:56.200]I think they tend to do a better job with soil health,
[00:16:59.240]particularly with no-till, maintaining cover.
[00:17:02.200]The better the irrigation,
[00:17:04.653]you know, the further east they are
[00:17:05.860]where they don't have to worry about,
[00:17:07.210]you know, holding that water quite so much.
[00:17:10.290]I tend to see, you know, more tillage
[00:17:12.753]than I tend to see less emphasis
[00:17:15.040]on soil health practices for whatever reason.
[00:17:17.560]But I think a lot of it does have to do
[00:17:19.240]with water management.
[00:17:20.890]And we see this in our area.
[00:17:23.220]We live just south of Hastings.
[00:17:25.470]And the better the guy's well,
[00:17:28.410]probably the less they are really...
[00:17:30.520]And again, this is a pretty big general rule,
[00:17:33.000]but the less they're concerned about holding that water.
[00:17:36.700]When we first started no-tilling
[00:17:38.050]back in the late '80s and through the '90s,
[00:17:40.000]it was all about water.
[00:17:41.380]Saving that moisture,
[00:17:42.310]but we were primarily dry land,
[00:17:44.670]to save that water.
[00:17:45.620]So I do see a mixed bag.
[00:17:48.750]I see it getting better, but pretty slowly.
[00:17:51.870]And I see, you know, pockets,
[00:17:53.990]you know, where you'll have a pocket
[00:17:57.000]where there's a lot of people doing no-till.
[00:17:59.340]And I think Nebraska leads the nation
[00:18:01.800]in the number of acres under no-till adoption,
[00:18:04.280]which is great.
[00:18:05.113]It's a testimony to Paul and to a lot of the other people
[00:18:08.380]that have really showed that those systems work.
[00:18:12.350]But even at that, we still have a lot of acres.
[00:18:14.740]It could adopt some of these practices.
[00:18:16.930]So I'm encouraged to assemble what I see,
[00:18:20.880]but at the same time, I'm encouraging people
[00:18:24.380]to continue keeping up where others have gone.
[00:18:27.700]All right. Very good. Let's hear from Angela.
[00:18:31.030]As far as with the irrigation, I totally agree with that.
[00:18:34.530]Irrigation is an insurance policy for us.
[00:18:40.590]You just turn it on and the crops grow.
[00:18:43.880]But for our soils,
[00:18:45.940]we have seen with the move
[00:18:47.810]from conventional to strip-till to no-till.
[00:18:52.790]We've been along with that.
[00:18:54.770]We've been taking soil samples every year.
[00:18:57.740]And we have seen organic matter go up,
[00:19:01.270]but like Jerry said, it does vary throughout the year.
[00:19:03.690]So we're not sure if that's an indicator
[00:19:06.270]that we're moving in the right direction.
[00:19:09.040]But I guess the main point is
[00:19:11.340]we do see still a lot of tillage going on,
[00:19:16.040]and I don't know how you change a farmer's mind.
[00:19:19.570]A lot of that is that's because what they've always done.
[00:19:23.260]And maybe they aren't stepping out and going to,
[00:19:28.960]you know, conferences like this, reaching out.
[00:19:32.600]On our farm, we've made it a practice for quite some time
[00:19:37.260]to go out and find people to help us
[00:19:42.573]outside of our nucleus on our farm.
[00:19:45.470]So we'll get consultants when we did the no-till.
[00:19:48.050]Oh, excuse me.
[00:19:48.883]The strip-till. We found a consultant
[00:19:50.950]to help us implement that.
[00:19:52.870]Going to the organics,
[00:19:55.550]we've found consultants for that
[00:19:58.040]because a lot of us farmers actually don't know
[00:20:00.820]how to farm for soil health.
[00:20:03.020]We know how to farm for yield.
[00:20:04.940]And if that means more water and more nitrogen,
[00:20:07.470]that's what we're going to do to get that yield.
[00:20:09.740]So for us, just broadening our horizons,
[00:20:13.710]coming to conferences like that,
[00:20:14.990]we are also involved with a network that's nationwide
[00:20:19.310]that has...
[00:20:21.140]It has academia.
[00:20:23.370]It has the business,
[00:20:25.720]is all of that coming together with farmers.
[00:20:27.930]And we've learned so much from that outside group.
[00:20:31.010]And we've made so many connections.
[00:20:33.245]Thank you, Angela. Paul?
[00:20:36.100]They both inferred things have changed.
[00:20:39.300]They both mentioned things that are educational challenges,
[00:20:41.980]where someone had an extension.
[00:20:44.130]'85 Farm Bill, Dr. Albert Nikki and I did a lot of work
[00:20:47.360]on residue management,
[00:20:49.080]just absorb raindrop impact or reduce crusting,
[00:20:52.320]reduce erosion, reduce runoff.
[00:20:55.070]At that time, we didn't understand soil health.
[00:20:57.410]We are thinking only about components.
[00:21:00.400]And, yes, absorbing that raindrop impact was important.
[00:21:03.080]But actually the problem was not raindrop impact.
[00:21:06.990]The problem was lack of infiltration
[00:21:08.480]when the water got there.
[00:21:10.000]If they didn't soak it, it was gonna run off.
[00:21:11.870]It was gonna run off.
[00:21:12.703]It was going to carry soil with it.
[00:21:14.490]And so again,
[00:21:15.323]when you start thinking about systems approach,
[00:21:16.770]we've changed a lot over the years.
[00:21:18.470]That's where soil health has really moved
[00:21:20.060]to the forefront on that.
[00:21:21.850]But when it comes to the state of where we're at now,
[00:21:24.300]as Jerry showed, there's estimates here in Nebraska,
[00:21:27.490]we've lost more than half of our organic matter.
[00:21:30.060]Well, that didn't happen overnight.
[00:21:31.380]That was 100 years, 150 years,
[00:21:33.560]depending where you're at in the state.
[00:21:35.360]And again, when you try to recover the system,
[00:21:37.910]it's not going to happen overnight either.
[00:21:39.230]It's going to take some time to rebuild it.
[00:21:41.280]And so again, like Keith says,
[00:21:43.410]we are one of the leaders for no-till acres
[00:21:46.710]across the nation.
[00:21:48.030]But there's a lot more that needs to be done.
[00:21:50.310]And too often, it's because, in my opinion, it's tradition.
[00:21:55.230]Grandpa did it this way. Dad did it this way.
[00:21:57.040]My landlord expects me to do it this way.
[00:21:59.490]And some of those people aren't quite willing to,
[00:22:03.640]I'd say, make the leap to something that's new and different
[00:22:06.270]because tradition is hard to beat.
[00:22:08.210]But at the same time,
[00:22:09.070]we have to start thinking about
[00:22:10.400]how inputs technology area has changed
[00:22:14.090]such that we don't have to do it the old way.
[00:22:16.720]We're doing other things the new way.
[00:22:18.170]Why not do soil health a new way as well?
[00:22:21.420]Thank you. Charles?
[00:22:23.760]Well, I got a really thank Paul
[00:22:25.680]for changing from a machine orientation
[00:22:28.900]to looking at the whole system where soil was important.
[00:22:32.290]You know, as an agronomist,
[00:22:34.160]we always thought the engineers were too narrow.
[00:22:37.413](laughter)
[00:22:38.260]Anyway, if we look at the big picture,
[00:22:41.820]I think we have to step back and see that things do change.
[00:22:46.110]All the other panel members have mentioned that.
[00:22:48.650]But let's take manure management in this state.
[00:22:52.730]When I first came here in the late '70s,
[00:22:56.890]the extension publications,
[00:22:58.120]one of them published by your friend, Albert,
[00:23:00.470]talked about, you know, maximum disposal rates,
[00:23:03.580]how much manure can you put on a land
[00:23:06.000]without getting soil problems or things like that.
[00:23:08.770]And now 40, 50 years later, farmers and livestock managers
[00:23:14.840]are putting on the right manure rate pretty much.
[00:23:18.190]And they have plans.
[00:23:19.290]And we have a whole set of programs
[00:23:21.620]to manage the manure better.
[00:23:23.950]And so I think, you know, we have to look at this
[00:23:26.950]from the long-term perspective.
[00:23:28.770]And one thing to do that,
[00:23:30.690]I think we should ask our ag economists or policymakers
[00:23:35.650]not to look at year-by-year economics.
[00:23:41.162]You know, I've said this many years.
[00:23:42.770]People in the audience know broken record,
[00:23:44.680]but if we looked at rotations and cover crops
[00:23:47.530]over 10-year period,
[00:23:48.910]look at the present value of that
[00:23:51.930]as compared to just every year,
[00:23:54.220]I think we might be able to stimulate some
[00:23:57.880]or wake some people up to the fact that...
[00:23:59.770]You know, it takes five years or six years
[00:24:03.380]for this to implement.
[00:24:05.190]And then you will get a benefit as a researcher
[00:24:09.560]and the three-year perspective.
[00:24:11.350]You know, sometimes it's not significant different
[00:24:13.740]after three years.
[00:24:14.610]You know, if you look at the organic carbon
[00:24:16.260]and it's 1.05 versus 1.0,
[00:24:19.530]your statistics say non-significant.
[00:24:22.430]But if it's a trend, you know, 10 years down the line,
[00:24:26.130]when the difference is 0.25,
[00:24:28.400]and you know, bingo, you get an asterisk next to the number.
[00:24:31.610]Then all of a sudden, the light bulb goes on.
[00:24:33.940]So I think the long-term perspective,
[00:24:37.260]patience is what we need to think about as we approach this.
[00:24:43.380]Thank you, Charles.
[00:24:45.100]So as we move into question two,
[00:24:47.800]I just want to thank everybody for helping us stay on time.
[00:24:51.780]There's not a lot of time
[00:24:52.940]for these experts to address all of these questions
[00:24:57.070]and the time that we have.
[00:24:58.240]But thank you for that.
[00:25:00.210]So for question number two,
[00:25:01.720]and again, noting the substantial progress
[00:25:05.120]that our producers in Nebraska have made
[00:25:08.020]and noting that in the last 10 years
[00:25:10.750]we've had this sort of green movement.
[00:25:12.810]I think Jerry said with cover crops
[00:25:15.890]and a more diverse crops,
[00:25:17.950]a more diverse crop rotations and working
[00:25:21.400]towards implementing soil health management systems.
[00:25:25.580]And I say that with a bit of emphasis
[00:25:28.380]because soil health management systems overall
[00:25:32.240]are more than just planting cover crops.
[00:25:35.340]And I don't say that to try to diminish
[00:25:37.680]just what the use of cover crops are.
[00:25:40.290]But I think there's a lot of evidence
[00:25:41.900]about the need to try to move to a system's approach.
[00:25:45.560]So my question for the panel members,
[00:25:48.450]and, Charles, I'll start down at this end,
[00:25:51.010]at your end this time and work back is,
[00:25:53.780]from your experience,
[00:25:55.940]what are your recommendations for best measures,
[00:26:00.200]the most practical activities to encourage farmers,
[00:26:04.210]to adopt, to help sustain or improve
[00:26:07.820]the health of our soils?
[00:26:15.150]When I think about that question,
[00:26:17.380]you know, I either can go broad or narrow.
[00:26:20.360]And I'll start off with,
[00:26:25.660]one, getting your erosion rate down.
[00:26:27.280]This is just repeating exactly what Jerry said.
[00:26:30.650]And then move to the nutrient management,
[00:26:33.940]since that's kind of my field.
[00:26:36.400]I should have mentioned it.
[00:26:37.440]The last question, you know,
[00:26:38.650]our NRDS have a fantastic database of nitrogen use
[00:26:42.900]where they have phase two, three areas.
[00:26:46.040]And I don't know, five, six years ago,
[00:26:48.970]Patricio Grassini and his colleagues analyzed that data.
[00:26:53.150]And so we know that on average,
[00:26:55.180]there's a lot of extra end going on our fields.
[00:26:58.220]And one might say,
[00:26:59.670]how does extra end connect with soil health?
[00:27:03.940]You know, it's just the cost to the producer,
[00:27:05.960]but does it actually affect any of those functions
[00:27:10.330]that Jerry had up on his list?
[00:27:12.350]And there is some evidence,
[00:27:13.730]and maybe Humberto in some of the people
[00:27:15.390]in the next panel go in more depth.
[00:27:17.100]But in our long-term study
[00:27:18.980]that the vice chancellor mentioned earlier,
[00:27:21.160]we have noticed a slight decrease in the soil organic carbon
[00:27:26.510]in part of the profile where we've had our higher end rates.
[00:27:30.440]And what happens...
[00:27:32.280]I'm not saying this is broadly true on every acre,
[00:27:34.930]but when you have a lot of extra end,
[00:27:36.890]it's like putting a little more gas in the car system
[00:27:40.070]and you're going to cook the organic matter a lot quicker.
[00:27:43.960]And Jerry said, you know,
[00:27:46.543]it's the result of input and output.
[00:27:49.830]And so if you burn up...
[00:27:51.350]We all want microbiological activity.
[00:27:53.990]But if we have too much microbiological material,
[00:27:56.970]we're just sending up into the atmosphere more CO2.
[00:28:00.280]And then when we break down the organic matter,
[00:28:03.330]we don't have the structure,
[00:28:05.010]and then boom, boom, down the line,
[00:28:06.810]we lose some of the gains that we think we are building.
[00:28:10.680]So answer your question, Craig,
[00:28:14.340]take a soil tests,
[00:28:15.460]follow, you know, our recommendations for nitrogen.
[00:28:18.610]All right. Thank you, Charles.
[00:28:19.680]Let's hear from Paul.
[00:28:21.270]When it comes to helping boost the system,
[00:28:24.770]I don't know if you noticed it on Jerry's slides
[00:28:26.730]when he showed the Memorial plots,
[00:28:28.150]as well as the Missouri plots,
[00:28:29.890]he had several different cropping rotations there.
[00:28:32.500]The bottom one degraded the system.
[00:28:34.460]The most was continuous corn, and it comes down to it.
[00:28:37.620]It's a monocrop.
[00:28:38.980]We're only feeding the soil system
[00:28:41.270]with one food source in my opinion.
[00:28:44.100]And so it was (indistinct) days coming out of there.
[00:28:46.470]As you throw it in the crop rotations,
[00:28:48.000]or you throw in cool seasons in crop,
[00:28:49.387]you throw in other things,
[00:28:51.400]that's what we need to do to help build that system.
[00:28:53.950]And again, that's where we're not doing it
[00:28:56.010]in our cash crops.
[00:28:57.100]We're going to do it in our cover crops.
[00:28:59.000]But get some other roots out there,
[00:29:00.620]some other things growing out there,
[00:29:02.620]to help feed that soil system.
[00:29:04.780]And again, it's to feed that system year round.
[00:29:06.680]It's not just from May to October,
[00:29:08.840]or whatever when a cash crop is growing,
[00:29:11.340]because that soil system has to eat year round.
[00:29:14.060]And again, so when it comes
[00:29:15.100]to encouraging others out there
[00:29:16.620]is to look at their crop rotation
[00:29:18.870]and don't farm the farm program so much.
[00:29:21.410]Farm the soil and build that soil health.
[00:29:25.278]Thank you, Paul. Angela?
[00:29:26.830]I'd agree with Paul.
[00:29:28.560]The reality of the situation is that it's very hard
[00:29:31.360]to convince your farmer husband
[00:29:34.650]to have a longer rotation
[00:29:36.220]when it financially doesn't flow as well as corn after corn.
[00:29:39.640]So that's the number one obstacle
[00:29:42.630]I'm facing with trying to get longer rotations.
[00:29:45.670]We did, 2013, start planting wheat.
[00:29:50.920]And so that's opened up the rotations
[00:29:53.120]so that we can get covers in August,
[00:29:56.360]whereas with corn and soybeans,
[00:29:58.750]you know, it's September at their earliest.
[00:30:01.800]So the challenge of a longer rotation is very real.
[00:30:05.160]And then finding markets that we would...
[00:30:07.340]I would love to get into smaller grains,
[00:30:08.980]but they just don't compete for, you know, the price
[00:30:13.030]with corn and soy beans.
[00:30:14.210]So how do you tell your farmer husband or your bank
[00:30:17.610]that, "Well, we're farming for soil health
[00:30:20.550]and we might not make our payment this year.
[00:30:23.760]That just doesn't flow very well."
[00:30:25.300]So we we've actually went outside
[00:30:28.260]to an unconventional financing
[00:30:36.380]so that we could start opening up.
[00:30:39.560]Especially with the organics,
[00:30:41.100]we're having to learn more about the covers
[00:30:45.530]and other markets out there.
[00:30:47.390]So we've been forced in that direction,
[00:30:49.210]but in order to do that,
[00:30:50.660]we've had to go find alternative financing
[00:30:54.110]that helps understand that this is not 12 months.
[00:30:57.670]This is three years, five years.
[00:31:00.700]Thank you. Keith?
[00:31:03.123]You know, a lot of times people ask me,
[00:31:05.150]what's the most important principle of soil health,
[00:31:07.840]you know, of the five principles of soil health?
[00:31:09.620]And that's a little bit of like asking,
[00:31:11.210]you know, what's your favorite child?
[00:31:13.210]You know, 'cause they're all important.
[00:31:14.690]But as I think about that,
[00:31:16.510]I think maybe not the most important,
[00:31:18.280]but I think the first one that has to be handled
[00:31:20.350]is you got to keep the soil covered.
[00:31:22.730]Because if you don't keep it covered,
[00:31:24.170]you know, it's going to wash away.
[00:31:25.840]It's going to blow away.
[00:31:27.020]It's going to get too hot.
[00:31:28.610]And so a lot of these other practices,
[00:31:30.530]whether it be nutrient management or anything else,
[00:31:32.840]the diversity, they just don't work as well
[00:31:35.440]if that soil is bare and uncovered.
[00:31:37.360]So my encouragement to people would be,
[00:31:40.460]you know, try to maintain as much ground cover as you can,
[00:31:43.300]to reduce the impact of that raindrop
[00:31:45.300]to help the infiltration,
[00:31:47.420]and then implement the other ones,
[00:31:48.880]you know, the diversity
[00:31:49.900]and keeping the living roots out there,
[00:31:52.640]and minimizing disturbance.
[00:31:53.840]So those all will come along,
[00:31:56.010]but if we can't keep it covered,
[00:31:57.930]it's going to be a real struggle.
[00:31:59.530]And from a real practical standpoint,
[00:32:01.630]you know, for people that are in the corn-soybean rotation,
[00:32:05.220]because you know, let's face it,
[00:32:06.490]that's the reality of where we are
[00:32:08.270]for a majority of the state.
[00:32:10.280]If you're doing nothing else,
[00:32:12.380]you know, the easiest place to start
[00:32:14.600]is to start using rye as a cover crop,
[00:32:17.050]plant it after corn and before soybeans.
[00:32:20.010]It's really quite simple. It's pretty cost-effective.
[00:32:23.530]It's easy to do.
[00:32:25.310]A lot of people think that
[00:32:26.840]they don't have time to plant a cover crop.
[00:32:29.170]But we've still have guys planting cereal rye right now.
[00:32:32.220]There's no reason that you can't be planting cereal rye,
[00:32:35.600]unless your ground is just completely frozen.
[00:32:38.640]So it's easy to do.
[00:32:40.030]It's fairly easy to manage in the spring.
[00:32:42.380]You don't have the nutrient tie-up issue
[00:32:44.760]that you have with corn coming into rye.
[00:32:47.050]So that's the place to start
[00:32:48.560]as a relatively easy one to manage.
[00:32:51.190]And it kind of gets people's feet wet
[00:32:54.080]with using cover crops and some of these.
[00:32:56.420]And Jerry said it really well.
[00:32:57.730]You know, it is a system.
[00:33:00.070]Paul has demonstrated that at the Rogers Farm,
[00:33:02.371]and personally I think every farmer,
[00:33:04.920]at least in the Eastern part of Nebraska,
[00:33:06.780]should be required to go to the Rogers Farm.
[00:33:09.210]It's really a great teaching tool,
[00:33:11.670]but a lot of people had never been there.
[00:33:13.410]Some people have never even heard of it.
[00:33:16.340]And that's too bad
[00:33:17.530]because they could learn a tremendous amount.
[00:33:20.070]But that's an easy place to start.
[00:33:21.640]And it gets people going
[00:33:23.300]and gets them thinking about the system.
[00:33:25.880]I love the saying that my friend, Steve Groff has said.
[00:33:29.850]Said, "Cover crops makes a good farmer better
[00:33:32.600]and a bad farmer worse."
[00:33:34.800]And the point of that is if you don't manage cover crops
[00:33:38.610]as part of the whole system, it will hurt you.
[00:33:41.700]And a lot of guys have seen that.
[00:33:43.200]They've tried putting the cover crop out there,
[00:33:44.840]changed nothing else.
[00:33:46.610]They see reduced crop yields.
[00:33:48.150]They see more equipment issues or problems.
[00:33:50.650]And they just throw their hands up and say,
[00:33:52.007]"Well, see, I told you it wouldn't work."
[00:33:53.540]And then they give up on it.
[00:33:54.700]And they tell all their neighbors, "It's a stupid idea."
[00:33:57.320]We see that happen a lot.
[00:33:59.110]It's because they didn't manage it
[00:34:00.810]as part of the whole system.
[00:34:02.340]And so if you're not a good manager,
[00:34:04.630]you're going to probably struggle to make
[00:34:06.490]whether it's cover crops or implementing no-till
[00:34:08.690]or diverse rotation, whatever the practice is,
[00:34:11.770]you're going to really struggle at trying to do it.
[00:34:14.030]But the good managers will figure out how to do it
[00:34:16.400]and make that system really work,
[00:34:19.200]and then make it more profitable as well.
[00:34:22.230]All right. Thank you, Keith.
[00:34:23.490]And just a comment
[00:34:25.960]as we get ready to head into our third question here.
[00:34:29.040]I appreciate Keith's comments
[00:34:31.350]on the basics of keeping the soil covered
[00:34:34.010]and tying that to what Jerry said earlier
[00:34:37.440]about the amount of erosion that we have.
[00:34:39.570]I think many people here know that we've done a lot
[00:34:43.840]with our conservation and cropping system
[00:34:46.150]to control sheet and rill erosion.
[00:34:48.550]But we're still seeing some incredible soil loss
[00:34:52.150]from heavy spring rains
[00:34:54.100]from a concentrated flow and gully erosion.
[00:34:57.330]So maybe there'll be some questions
[00:34:58.840]or discussions about that later on.
[00:35:01.200]So my third and final question
[00:35:03.640]for the panel to respond to
[00:35:05.760]essentially deals with where do we go from here.
[00:35:09.540]And there are plenty of recent studies and surveys
[00:35:14.580]to suggest work is needed in areas
[00:35:18.160]such as these public policy on soil health,
[00:35:21.650]identifying more soil health champions,
[00:35:25.020]targeting research to farms and farmers' needs,
[00:35:30.250]increasing the availability of key technology equipment,
[00:35:35.510]seeds, or increasing on farm technical assistance,
[00:35:40.570]and then improving the consistency of the messaging
[00:35:43.820]that goes out to farmers and the public on this topic.
[00:35:47.310]So my question for the panel is...
[00:35:50.660]And I'll start with Keith this time
[00:35:51.827]and go back the other direction.
[00:35:54.000]What are just your top two recommendations
[00:35:57.280]for this audience
[00:35:59.040]to achieve greater adoption of soil health practices
[00:36:03.360]and soil health systems
[00:36:05.520]to ensure a future of healthy soil for our country?
[00:36:09.480]So we'll begin with Keith.
[00:36:11.440]Sure. Well, can I just say yes
[00:36:12.830]to that whole list of things?
[00:36:14.351](laughter)
[00:36:15.184]Because, yeah, those are all important.
[00:36:17.140]And you know, in a lot of those, again are listed in here,
[00:36:19.580]there was a lot of time and effort
[00:36:21.290]put into some really good recommendations here.
[00:36:24.040]So I'm going to pull mine kind of out of this.
[00:36:25.910]So nothing convinces a farmer to adopt a practice,
[00:36:30.070]like seeing another farmer do it
[00:36:32.010]or seeing it, you know, actually in practice
[00:36:34.660]out in the field.
[00:36:35.820]Again, I'll go back to the work that Paul has done
[00:36:38.050]at the Rogers Farm.
[00:36:39.380]I think one of the things would be to have a Rogers Farm
[00:36:42.940]in every region of Nebraska,
[00:36:45.640]or a Rogers-type farm in every region of Nebraska,
[00:36:48.620]because what Paul is doing at the Rogers Farm,
[00:36:51.630]here just outside of Lincoln,
[00:36:53.600]is a great showcase for this part of the state.
[00:36:55.930]But it's not going to mean very much
[00:36:57.400]to the Southwest or to the Panhandle,
[00:36:59.590]or even the north central.
[00:37:01.170]And so we need these.
[00:37:02.810]In the Task Force report,
[00:37:04.120]we call them proving grounds to where,
[00:37:07.310]if we had these regional proving grounds where,
[00:37:10.440]whether it be extension, or whether it be NRCS or the NRDs,
[00:37:15.220]or combination, you know,
[00:37:17.410]ideally a combination of all those,
[00:37:20.059]to do really good demonstrations
[00:37:23.430]of how these soil health practices work
[00:37:26.420]so that a farmer doesn't have to risk their own livelihood
[00:37:30.200]in trying something that may seem kind of crazy
[00:37:32.410]or kind of off the wall.
[00:37:34.890]But they can go and see how it worked,
[00:37:36.750]and they can learn from what's happening there.
[00:37:39.610]But again, to do it within the system of what works
[00:37:43.380]in that agro region.
[00:37:44.770]And so some areas are going to be
[00:37:45.940]much more heavily livestock base.
[00:37:47.980]You know, we haven't even really talked
[00:37:49.270]about the grazing aspect and rangeland,
[00:37:52.390]but there's a lot of soil health improvement we can do
[00:37:54.870]on rangeland as well.
[00:37:56.360]And so, you know, if you have something like this,
[00:37:58.230]you know, up in the Sandhills or the North Central,
[00:38:00.710]it could definitely focus more on that.
[00:38:02.400]So the setting up
[00:38:04.010]of more of these regional demonstration centers
[00:38:07.100]where farmers and ranchers can go in
[00:38:09.750]and see these practices in action.
[00:38:13.610]And then the second thing that I would say,
[00:38:15.500]and I probably kind of got out ahead of myself.
[00:38:17.830]That's my last question.
[00:38:19.260]Start with something.
[00:38:20.500]Start small. Start with something.
[00:38:22.670]If you're a corn-soybean guy,
[00:38:24.020]you know, planting cereal rye ahead of soybeans
[00:38:26.510]is a really easy place to start.
[00:38:28.670]But take a small field,
[00:38:30.670]and just have it be your practice field.
[00:38:32.380]You know, everybody can afford to fail on a small scale
[00:38:35.810]because that's how you learn.
[00:38:37.970]But if you're afraid to fail, even on a small scale,
[00:38:40.820]you're never going to really learn.
[00:38:42.340]And you're always going to have the same questions
[00:38:43.950]year after year.
[00:38:45.090]You know, take a small area and plant hairy vetch
[00:38:48.530]after your soybeans.
[00:38:50.890]We planted hairy vetch last year.
[00:38:53.310]And we let it grow till the end of May.
[00:38:55.240]We didn't plant corn until the 1st of June,
[00:38:57.210]which, you know, most people would really panic about that.
[00:38:59.650]But organic producers do it all the time.
[00:39:02.290]220, 230 pounds of nitrogen we produce.
[00:39:05.880]Now a lot of times,
[00:39:06.740]people go, "Well, that's not worth the sacrifice."
[00:39:09.420]With the price of nitrogen right now,
[00:39:11.640]you know, 100 pounds of nitrogen produce is getting
[00:39:14.010]people's attention.
[00:39:14.890]So try that on a small scale, a small area,
[00:39:17.920]and see how it works.
[00:39:19.140]It's not always going to work,
[00:39:20.240]but you're always going to learn.
[00:39:21.880]All right. thank you, Keith.
[00:39:23.390]I'm going to give you this for the next round.
[00:39:25.760]Your mic is...
[00:39:26.593]No. Your's just going in and out.
[00:39:28.790]So we will go to Angela next.
[00:39:30.880]I would second everything that Keith said first.
[00:39:33.720]And then we would like to see the programs.
[00:39:39.320]Well, crop insurance (indistinct).
[00:39:40.720]Give it to Angela. Yeah.
[00:39:42.311]I think we're all kind of cutting out.
[00:39:43.750]Crop insurance.
[00:39:45.160]Turn that on.
[00:39:47.010]It went red on us. They're okay.
[00:39:49.840]Testing.
[00:39:50.673]Yeah, that was good.
[00:39:52.250]Crop insurance needs to get up to date.
[00:39:54.946](laughter)
[00:39:57.270]Just hold your lapel closer, right?
[00:40:00.270]It was working.
[00:40:01.460]Hello. Yeah. That's good.
[00:40:07.260]So right now, when you have a cover growing
[00:40:11.520]in the spring,
[00:40:12.440]you have to terminate that
[00:40:14.690]so many days before you can plant in,
[00:40:16.280]or your crop insurance won't cover it.
[00:40:19.070]So things like that need to be updated.
[00:40:21.370]Farmers probably need to get paid for soil health
[00:40:25.490]because they follow the dollars.
[00:40:27.600]And if they're not going to get paid for it,
[00:40:30.587]the adoption's going to be very slow
[00:40:33.150]until they see the improvement
[00:40:37.090]and get that payment via better yields with less inputs.
[00:40:42.410]And the other thing we'd like to see is to help...
[00:40:46.520]We need more small grains or some alternative markets.
[00:40:51.950]That's going to help us implement
[00:40:53.960]the soil health practices a lot better
[00:40:58.420]because we're making money at the same time
[00:41:01.700]as improving the soil health.
[00:41:03.070]So markets and updating...
[00:41:06.060]Well, as well as the banking system.
[00:41:08.250]The bankers, you know, it's 12 months. And that's it.
[00:41:11.560]And we need someone to help us walk through.
[00:41:14.200]We shouldn't have to carry the whole soil health burden
[00:41:17.710]to getting us where we need to be.
[00:41:20.360]All right. Thank you, Angela. Paul?
[00:41:22.874]And it's built a little bit on Angela said is,
[00:41:25.660]you know, the banker, perhaps the landlord, perhaps dad,
[00:41:29.300]whatever, is a short-term.
[00:41:31.970]It's what they're interested in.
[00:41:32.940]That's what they're thinking about.
[00:41:34.900]Charles pointed out earlier,
[00:41:35.950]sometimes 5 years, sometimes 10 years.
[00:41:38.530]I also want to say to the entire operation,
[00:41:41.200]it's not just this acre of corn.
[00:41:43.730]Maybe this acre of corn now is going to get a cover crop
[00:41:46.160]after corn harvest.
[00:41:47.570]And now I can graze that cover crop
[00:41:49.400]because I got past your rangeland
[00:41:51.690]that needs rest or recovery.
[00:41:53.960]I might've gave up a little bit here
[00:41:55.320]because of the cover crop.
[00:41:56.410]But (indistinct) now all of a sudden, it's worth more
[00:41:59.510]because it had the recovery time.
[00:42:01.280]And so again, we've got to think the broad stroke over time.
[00:42:05.420]And again, I know too many cattlemen,
[00:42:07.860]at the first green spring
[00:42:08.897]and the spring calendar turned out there,
[00:42:11.400]they're out there until the snow is flying
[00:42:13.350]'cause then they bring them in and start feeding hay.
[00:42:16.040]Well, again, if I got cover crops,
[00:42:17.700]I got grazing to put in there,
[00:42:19.120]I've got some relief here in the corn.
[00:42:21.860]I got some...
[00:42:23.100]Think the entire farm operation.
[00:42:25.350]Don't just think that one little acre.
[00:42:27.710]Now conversely, though,
[00:42:29.730]put the fertilizer on (indistinct),
[00:42:30.662]they're going to think that one little acre.
[00:42:32.260]And Jerry showed that as well.
[00:42:33.670]You know, here's the soil here.
[00:42:35.250]Here's the field. Here's the watershed.
[00:42:38.509]It's pretty hard to integrate all that
[00:42:40.430]and keep that banker happy,
[00:42:42.030]keep the landlord happy, keep whoever else happy.
[00:42:44.910]So again, that's the challenge we have.
[00:42:48.930]Okay. And Charles?
[00:42:50.930]Yeah, I would agree with everybody.
[00:42:53.240]And I'd go back to what Keith mentioned in here.
[00:42:56.720]There are a number of recommendations
[00:42:59.580]that cover pretty much what everyone here said.
[00:43:02.740]Now as a scientist,
[00:43:04.310]I got a PhD from this institution
[00:43:06.930]and I worked my whole career in extension.
[00:43:09.460]And I never took a course on how you get people to change.
[00:43:14.750]And that basically is a description of my job
[00:43:17.990]as an extension person.
[00:43:19.550]You know, and my wife's a social worker.
[00:43:22.140]She's trained in helping people change,
[00:43:24.530]but we're not.
[00:43:25.500]And I don't think Paul had a course in that either.
[00:43:28.640]But over the years,
[00:43:30.380]we kind of learned some things during the '80s.
[00:43:33.860]During the farm crisis,
[00:43:35.120]I went to a lot of tours and people changed back then.
[00:43:38.720]And I always asked him, "What made you change?"
[00:43:41.210]And the farmer, sometimes it was the man/woman,
[00:43:44.440]they'd say, "If I didn't change,
[00:43:47.520]I would have killed myself,
[00:43:48.760]or I would have left farming."
[00:43:50.340]And so a lot of times,
[00:43:52.660]you know, that big weight is what makes people change.
[00:43:55.710]That's not good.
[00:43:56.640]We have to figure out a better system
[00:43:58.190]than having a big weight on your shoulders.
[00:44:02.250]I read this book a few years ago.
[00:44:03.980]Many of you probably may have seen it,
[00:44:05.787]"Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations" by David Montgomery.
[00:44:09.780]I don't really agree with his prescription for the future,
[00:44:12.450]but he does an excellent job of documenting
[00:44:15.660]how the human race has screwed up soil all over the world
[00:44:20.720]all over time.
[00:44:22.040]Going back to the fertile triangle,
[00:44:24.060]growing potatoes in Ireland.
[00:44:25.900]You name it. If we're there for more than 100 years,
[00:44:28.940]the soil suffers.
[00:44:31.270]And so now we have a chance to not repeat history.
[00:44:35.990]And so maybe what will help people is,
[00:44:38.100]you know, read a book like this,
[00:44:39.690]understand that we're only here
[00:44:41.170]for brief flicker of an eyelid,
[00:44:43.820]but our kids, the next generation,
[00:44:45.800]they're going to have to grow food.
[00:44:47.310]And we need to make sure that we use
[00:44:50.440]the wisdom of other people's mistakes to allow that.
[00:44:55.690]All right. Thank you, Charles.
[00:44:56.960]So now we have an opportunity for some questions.
[00:45:00.480]Are they going to be on the screen, Ron? Okay.
[00:45:09.790]Okay. So the first question is,
[00:45:12.650]can you comment on the importance of forest
[00:45:15.660]and prairie landscapes to the agro ecological systems?
[00:45:21.720]So maybe rather than asking each of you,
[00:45:25.100]let's just take volunteers to respond to that.
[00:45:29.740]Or I may have to call (indistinct).
[00:45:30.758]Paul, (indistinct).
[00:45:33.590]Oh, I'll throw that in.
[00:45:35.830]Again, when I talk about diversity,
[00:45:37.230]put other things out there.
[00:45:38.640]There's a lot of people looking at soil health
[00:45:40.530]saying that the forest and prairie health,
[00:45:44.150]or prairie landscapes,
[00:45:45.860]it's the perennial.
[00:45:47.460]That's making those systems a huge positive.
[00:45:50.800]And we think about
[00:45:51.720]how our prairie soils here in Nebraska were developed.
[00:45:54.810]It was the perennial, something growing,
[00:45:56.690]taking that carbon dioxide that's free,
[00:45:59.890]the sunlight that's free,
[00:46:01.330]and putting in a biological form, putting into the soil.
[00:46:04.180]That's where I like those kinds of systems.
[00:46:06.340]But then to come back to Angela's comments about,
[00:46:09.010]can we make money?
[00:46:10.420]Well, if we're thinking about current farm system,
[00:46:14.560]the cattle producers out there
[00:46:15.630]don't have a lot of farm programs they can sign up for.
[00:46:17.620]The crop producers do.
[00:46:19.160]Why would you have grass for cattle?
[00:46:20.650](applause)
[00:46:21.483]Again, we got to look at policy changes.
[00:46:23.680]We've got to look at how can we change things like that.
[00:46:27.070]Forest, there's a lot of commercial forests out there.
[00:46:30.270]But they need to be managed.
[00:46:31.390]It's just like crop production.
[00:46:32.630]We have to manage it.
[00:46:34.610]Okay. Anyone else here want to touch on.
[00:46:37.180]Angela had a comment. (indistinct).
[00:46:39.722]I was just going to say, for diversity...
[00:46:42.630]Looking for diversity, the thing...
[00:46:47.290]Maybe I'm not (indistinct).
[00:46:52.410]On our operation, we are looking to diversify
[00:46:56.630]more vertically and with animals.
[00:46:59.410]And, you know, permaculture is something
[00:47:01.410]that's been coming up more and more,
[00:47:03.440]and that does use, you know, the smaller brush trees
[00:47:08.100]with your nuts.
[00:47:09.920]And then you graze your smaller animals underneath it,
[00:47:14.050]like with chickens...
[00:47:15.550]And now (indistinct).
[00:47:17.770]Anyway, so I think there's a place for it,
[00:47:19.690]but again, you know, it has to be developed
[00:47:22.510]and it's not yet.
[00:47:23.670]And I don't know where you would get the funding
[00:47:26.530]to help do that.
[00:47:27.590]I know in the United States,
[00:47:30.210]there are private networks that are looking at that.
[00:47:33.930]So it's definitely out there.
[00:47:36.470]Okay. Let's hear from Paul.
[00:47:37.900]And then the next question is actually for you, Angela.
[00:47:40.890]So go ahead, Keith.
[00:47:43.690]Just a quick comment.
[00:47:44.710]You know, a lot of the problems that we have in agriculture
[00:47:47.170]because we're farming some grounds
[00:47:49.060]that probably really just should be grazing lands.
[00:47:53.300]And if we were to convert those back
[00:47:55.110]and take the income off of cattle,
[00:47:57.060]instead of trying to do crop ground,
[00:47:58.730]a lot of those problems could be addressed.
[00:48:02.560]Okay. I think we'll just go to the next question.
[00:48:05.590]If that mic doesn't work well,
[00:48:07.060]I might have you share your microphone with Angela.
[00:48:09.880]So Angela, the next question is,
[00:48:12.020]and the others may want to respond to this also,
[00:48:14.490]but what was the financial motivation for you to change
[00:48:18.360]from conventional to strip-till and then to organic?
[00:48:24.570]Well, for strip-till...
[00:48:29.700]For strip-till, it was to lower the cost of machinery costs.
[00:48:34.950]And we were targeting our inputs.
[00:48:37.720]We were putting in right into the furrow there.
[00:48:40.800]So we were saving money on the input costs.
[00:48:44.280]Organic, you have to go with the price.
[00:48:46.550]You know the price of the commodity is what,
[00:48:49.620]you know, a farmer.
[00:48:50.960]I think that's the first low-hanging fruit. You chase that.
[00:48:55.370]Unfortunately in the soil health,
[00:48:57.240]part of it actually just kinda,
[00:48:59.410]you're not forced into it,
[00:49:01.580]but you have to, you know, get, you know...
[00:49:06.670]whenever I say,
[00:49:07.550]you have to learn a lot about cover crops.
[00:49:09.478]And no-till is something we're doing.
[00:49:13.680]Not all organic farmers are doing that,
[00:49:16.040]but that is not good for the soil
[00:49:19.800]to be that intensive in tilling.
[00:49:21.280]So the financial motivation is, you know,
[00:49:27.180]it's always there.
[00:49:29.040]You're either trying to decrease your inputs,
[00:49:32.770]or you're trying to find a better market.
[00:49:36.020]So those are the financial motivations.
[00:49:39.230]Okay. Either Paul or Charles,
[00:49:41.520]anything to add to that?
[00:49:42.890]Okay. We'll go on to the next question.
[00:49:44.780]And we have one.
[00:49:51.420]Okay. So preferred cover crop mixes?
[00:49:55.630]Keith, you probably have more experience
[00:49:58.030]with this one than others.
[00:49:59.700]You want to begin our discussion on this?
[00:50:02.150]Yes.
[00:50:03.247](laughter)
[00:50:04.920]Thank you.
[00:50:06.694]I mean it...
[00:50:08.290]Just this cutting green and then red.
[00:50:11.180]You know, it really depends.
[00:50:12.780]It all depends on what your goals are.
[00:50:14.670]It depends on the timeframe when you're planting them.
[00:50:17.320]It depends on what the next crop is going to be.
[00:50:21.100]And so when people ask us about a cover crop mix,
[00:50:23.660]the first thing that we ask is always,
[00:50:25.540]what do you want to try to accomplish?
[00:50:27.280]Because it's going to be completely different mix.
[00:50:29.090]If you tell me with nitrogen prices,
[00:50:31.370]I need to get 150 pounds of nitrogen out of this.
[00:50:34.750]That's a whole different mix.
[00:50:36.410]And if you tell me, "Hey, I'm really worried about erosion.
[00:50:39.410]I need to have cover
[00:50:40.610]on this field well into July and August
[00:50:43.360]so I don't lose my soil from,
[00:50:45.830]you know, a big rainstorm in the summer."
[00:50:47.880]So those are two completely different mixes.
[00:50:49.780]So, yes, we prefer cover crop mixes when possible.
[00:50:55.440]But it really depends on what's out there.
[00:50:57.860]And I will say this too,
[00:50:59.110]you know, because sometimes we appreciate diversity
[00:51:01.370]so much that people feel bad this time of year.
[00:51:03.920]If all your planting is right there,
[00:51:05.290]there's no shame in planting just cereal rye
[00:51:08.240]this time of year.
[00:51:09.200]It's the only thing that makes sense.
[00:51:10.900]You'd be foolish to be throwing other things in there
[00:51:13.060]just to say that you planted a five-way mix.
[00:51:15.740]Nothing wrong with planting cereal rye
[00:51:17.390]if it's the only thing that makes sense.
[00:51:19.550]But if you're planting sorghum sudan
[00:51:21.080]by itself as a cover crop in July,
[00:51:24.080]you've really left a lot of benefits on the table
[00:51:26.840]'cause you missed out on that diversity.
[00:51:28.970]Okay. Anyone else want to comment
[00:51:32.020]on that question?
[00:51:34.070]Again, I'll throw it back in thinking
[00:51:36.404]about the crop rotation, the Rogers Memorial Farm.
[00:51:39.050]We love wheat out there
[00:51:40.170]simply because we can put more cover crop seed,
[00:51:43.320]more diversity cover crops after wheat.
[00:51:46.090]And so again, we always start thinking about that.
[00:51:48.530]Then I got a lot of producers say,
[00:51:49.987]"Well, I can't make money on wheat."
[00:51:51.910]Well, again, if I got livestock and I can graze the cover,
[00:51:54.920]pay attention to herbicide restrictions, things like this,
[00:51:57.970]then I'd get the cover out there
[00:51:59.380]and pick up some extra that four-legged livestock.
[00:52:02.260]For me, it's the soil livestock feeding the soil itself.
[00:52:05.510]But again, we start thinking about about
[00:52:07.760]how it spreads workload as well.
[00:52:09.460]I mean, what's the combine doing in July,
[00:52:11.680]if you're a corn-soybean producer?
[00:52:13.280]Again, I started thinking machinery.
[00:52:16.730]Likewise, we had to start thinking about the entire system.
[00:52:20.660]Okay. I think we'll just go onto the next question
[00:52:23.640]because I'd like to cover as many as we can.
[00:52:25.230]Charles, did you want to touch on?
[00:52:26.630]I'll start on this one
[00:52:29.260]because I'll go back to the report.
[00:52:31.270]And one of the things in the report is
[00:52:33.960]to start an organization or some kind of association
[00:52:38.160]of producers who can teach each other
[00:52:40.380]and learn from each other.
[00:52:42.330]And if they had an organization like that,
[00:52:45.430]they could apply to the Corn Board for a grant
[00:52:47.680]or the Soybean Board or Wheat or Sorghum or whatever.
[00:52:51.460]And so there needs to be...
[00:52:54.100]You know, I'm an extension.
[00:52:55.110]So I love extension and they do great things.
[00:52:58.000]But, you know, they're not producers with producers.
[00:53:00.810]So there's always that supplementary or complementary effort
[00:53:06.360]where you have several organizations working
[00:53:08.800]to a common goal.
[00:53:09.830]So that would be my idea.
[00:53:12.120]Okay, let's just go down the line. Paul?
[00:53:15.330]Demonstration plots,
[00:53:16.390]Keith's already mentioned the Rogers Memorial Farm.
[00:53:19.520]My wife at the university,
[00:53:21.910]but that little three-year grant ended back in 1983,
[00:53:25.410]Dr. Albert Nikki and...
[00:53:26.440]at that time was Leo Lucas who was our Dean.
[00:53:29.370]We had a grant that lasted for five years
[00:53:33.180]where we went out and did...
[00:53:35.140]Let's take you as a farmer, what you're doing,
[00:53:39.490]can you no-till? Your skills, your abilities,
[00:53:42.380]your equipment, your neighborhood, whatever.
[00:53:45.460]We did that for five years.
[00:53:47.530]That was one of the best learning experiences
[00:53:49.410]for that individual farmer,
[00:53:50.627]and more importantly the neighbors.
[00:53:52.810]Again, I strongly agree with this in the neighborhood.
[00:53:56.140]The good news is since '83 through '89,
[00:53:59.870]you've got neighbors now doing it.
[00:54:01.990]Take a look around. Get organized. Get together.
[00:54:05.050]We got a lot of individual groups of farmers
[00:54:07.390]forming their own little farmer organization.
[00:54:09.940]We needed to do that a little bit more in organized manner.
[00:54:14.855]Angela?
[00:54:15.688]Yeah. They're actually doing that already
[00:54:17.620]more so in the organic space,
[00:54:19.510]that the farmers seem to share a lot more in the organics.
[00:54:23.340]And I think it's just because we're all looking for answers.
[00:54:26.990]We don't know how to farm that way.
[00:54:28.690]And it's the same with soil health.
[00:54:31.190]We don't know how to farm that way.
[00:54:33.040]So there's definitely education needed
[00:54:36.097]and how that comes together.
[00:54:38.060]I'm not sure,
[00:54:38.893]but not only do you need large groups to come together,
[00:54:42.140]but you also need boots on the ground
[00:54:45.060]looking at every situation on each field.
[00:54:48.926]Can you talk about the soil health partnership
[00:54:50.780]in a little bit?
[00:54:52.100]Yeah. They were great because they helped...
[00:54:56.360]They did handholding.
[00:54:59.030]You know, they did the soil tests for us.
[00:55:01.970]They talked to us about where the soils were at.
[00:55:04.240]They helped us plan what covers
[00:55:07.510]we were going to put on there.
[00:55:09.120]And my husband and I liked it
[00:55:10.403]because they threw in some cash.
[00:55:12.500]So those three elements right there were a big help.
[00:55:17.206]And we enjoyed being with them.
[00:55:21.707]And the soil health partnership
[00:55:23.430]that Angela's farm was part of,
[00:55:24.960]the Corn Board was a big part of that for many years.
[00:55:28.350]I think education was mentioned.
[00:55:30.390]I think commodity groups can have a big role
[00:55:32.270]in education of individual farmers
[00:55:35.280]that are members of their organization,
[00:55:38.410]as well as just encouraging them.
[00:55:40.320]And taking the people within the group
[00:55:42.520]that are doing some of these practices
[00:55:44.560]and matching them up with those
[00:55:46.080]who want to do some could be very helpful as well.
[00:55:50.040]All right. This should be our last question.
[00:55:51.770]We just have two minutes left.
[00:55:54.830]So how does ag policy and crop insurance
[00:55:58.940]impact soil health adoption?
[00:56:02.640]We have time for a couple of you to respond to that.
[00:56:05.570]Keith, do you want to go first?
[00:56:09.110]I generally get myself in trouble on questions like this.
[00:56:12.680]Right now, I don't know the crop insurance is
[00:56:14.870]helping soil health adoption.
[00:56:16.610]But I think it can. It certainly can.
[00:56:19.750]Crop insurance is the only insurance out there
[00:56:22.280]that everybody's kind of paying the same rate.
[00:56:25.582]You're not paying based on what kind of risk you are.
[00:56:28.260]If it could be changed to where people
[00:56:30.050]that had a lower risk of making a claim paid lower premiums,
[00:56:33.940]it would certainly help.
[00:56:35.100]Now there are some things coming through.
[00:56:37.150]If you use cover crops, you could get a $5 rebate.
[00:56:41.190]Again, that was kind of across the board.
[00:56:44.260]So I would like to see it change
[00:56:45.830]to encourage more of these practices
[00:56:47.740]because it is a big deal.
[00:56:48.890]It is a big driver
[00:56:50.510]and it is a tool that can be used to do this.
[00:56:54.140]As far as ag policy, you know, it can be good.
[00:56:58.030]It can be bad.
[00:56:58.863]It depends on where you're at in the spectrum.
[00:57:00.870]I do see more ag policy going towards conservation,
[00:57:04.240]soil health, and regenerative ag.
[00:57:05.960]There's a lot of that coming out of Washington.
[00:57:08.530]We'll see where that all ends up.
[00:57:09.573]All right. Let's keep going in. Angela?
[00:57:14.610]In the 36 months on the transitioning to organic,
[00:57:19.450]that taught us a lesson, as far as...
[00:57:22.890]It's for organic.
[00:57:25.160]It's like a purge of any chemicals residual in the soil.
[00:57:30.670]What's missing on that is farmers aren't educated
[00:57:33.780]on how to take that transition time
[00:57:35.910]when they're not getting that organic dollar
[00:57:39.230]to build those soils.
[00:57:40.530]And there's something that needs to be put in place there
[00:57:43.520]to help that farmer take that opportunity
[00:57:46.370]to build the soil
[00:57:47.300]because you can't just go into organics
[00:57:54.800]without having healthy soils.
[00:57:56.710]We found that out
[00:57:58.140]because you're going to be behind the eight balls.
[00:58:00.350]So I would like to see something for that
[00:58:02.070]as well as just in regular agriculture.
[00:58:04.830]If someone at farm is going to take a step
[00:58:07.150]to go towards soil health,
[00:58:10.850]then let's give him a little financial...
[00:58:14.980]That word keeps coming out my mouth.
[00:58:16.217](laughter)
[00:58:17.500]Help to build those soils,
[00:58:19.460]to get them on the right track, I guess.
[00:58:21.960]Thank you, Angela.
[00:58:22.793]Sorry about the alarm clock.
[00:58:24.690]Paul and Charles, real quickly, just.
[00:58:26.640]Just real quickly.
[00:58:29.080]As producers, farmers are not very good
[00:58:32.080]at patting their own back and sharing the word.
[00:58:34.470]And when it comes to effecting ag policy,
[00:58:36.320]we need to let them know what we're doing that is positive.
[00:58:39.550]The last few years, we've seen a lot more of that.
[00:58:41.760]The Soil Health Champions,
[00:58:43.200]people out there sharing what we're doing.
[00:58:45.770]And I say that because a lot of the ag policy is based on
[00:58:49.420]history or research that was done 50 years ago.
[00:58:52.310]Times have changed.
[00:58:53.390]And we got to let people know about that.
[00:58:56.130]Charles?
[00:58:58.310]Well, at the risk of being radical here,
[00:59:02.260]if the corn price is
[00:59:03.760]higher than what the market really would pay for corn,
[00:59:08.280]then that's the big inhibition
[00:59:10.160]for all the things that Angela is trying to do.
[00:59:12.100]So, you know, I know I probably get tarred and feathered,
[00:59:15.550]but if the corn price has to reflect what it's worth
[00:59:18.560]and not what somebody else wants to subsidize it.
[00:59:22.170]And that would drive more rotations
[00:59:25.710]and maybe other practices.
[00:59:28.350]All right, please help me give the panel
[00:59:30.590]a round of applause.
[00:59:31.486](applause)

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: Status Check Panel

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments