Experimentation on Nebraska Farms for Sustaining Soil Health Management

FERNANDA KRUPEK Author

04/06/2023 Added

36 Plays

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Graduate Research Assistant and Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

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[00:00:00.810]The following presentation
[00:00:02.250]is part of the agronomy and horticulture seminar series
[00:00:05.169]at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
[00:00:08.190]Welcome everyone.
[00:00:09.390]Thanks for being here for the agronomy
[00:00:11.550]and agriculture seminar series.
[00:00:13.650]It's nice to see full room for our speaker
[00:00:17.220]today, Fernanda Kupeck.
[00:00:19.770]She's a PhD candidate here in our department.
[00:00:24.017]I have the pleasure to introduce her.
[00:00:26.940]She will be presenting about experimentation
[00:00:28.980]on Nebraska farm for sustaining and soil health management.
[00:00:33.690]She grew up in Sao Pablo, Brazil.
[00:00:35.880]She receives her bachelor's degree
[00:00:37.440]in University of Sao Paulo
[00:00:38.820]and her master's in University of Florida.
[00:00:41.370]And then she started here at the Agronomy Department
[00:00:46.680]and she's been advised by Dr. Andrea Basche.
[00:00:50.460]She's looking to understand the biological
[00:00:52.110]and ecological processes that governs
[00:00:54.323]soil health and management practices.
[00:00:57.450]She has an impressive records of peer review publications,
[00:01:00.240]presentations at scientific meetings, extension events,
[00:01:03.900]as well as involvement as a teaching assistant.
[00:01:08.400]In her career, she has received more than 20 awards
[00:01:11.190]recognizing her excellence in research
[00:01:13.740]and extension activities.
[00:01:15.780]And she's also involved in many of the leadership activities
[00:01:22.618]within the department on the national level
[00:01:25.076]within the societies.
[00:01:26.850]We can mention among those awards,
[00:01:28.530]the Gerald Motor Award in 2021
[00:01:29.903]and the 2022 Extension Education Publication Award
[00:01:33.690]awarded by the American Society of Agronomy.
[00:01:36.911]Let's give them warm welcome and the floor is yours.
[00:01:43.736]Thank you.
[00:01:46.097]Thank you.
[00:01:47.040]Go ahead.
[00:01:47.873]Yeah, for those that are the first time in the seminar,
[00:01:50.730]we have the presentation and we can have a round
[00:01:53.310]of questions at the end and for those that are online,
[00:01:55.440]they can pose the questions in the the chat.
[00:01:59.791]Thank you.
[00:02:00.791]Thank you Guillermo for the introduction
[00:02:01.797]and good afternoon everyone.
[00:02:03.870]Thank you for giving this time here and being with us.
[00:02:07.050]For those joining us online, thank you for being with us.
[00:02:10.470]I am very grateful for this opportunity to be here today
[00:02:14.190]sharing with you some of the learnings
[00:02:16.087]from my PhD projects over the last four years
[00:02:20.100]here in Nebraska.
[00:02:21.150]So I'll be glad to take any of your thoughts, comments,
[00:02:24.270]feedback that you might have at the end
[00:02:25.860]of this presentation.
[00:02:28.020]So this is the agenda I'm suggesting for us.
[00:02:30.360]I'll start with a brief introduction of our project
[00:02:33.510]background and then I'll spend most of the time
[00:02:36.207]in one of the most recent and exciting projects
[00:02:40.110]I'm working on which involve in that interviews
[00:02:43.110]with farmers to understand the influence
[00:02:45.720]of social and information that works on farmers' response
[00:02:48.720]to sustaining soil health management.
[00:02:51.000]So it's a fairly different type of data to work on,
[00:02:54.570]both from a data collection and analysis standpoint,
[00:02:57.990]but very important, right?
[00:02:59.370]To understand the human dimensions
[00:03:01.110]of agricultural decision making,
[00:03:03.510]hopefully to help us to achieve
[00:03:05.460]long-term sustainability goals.
[00:03:07.590]And then I will also briefly show you
[00:03:09.930]some of the multi-year on farm research work
[00:03:12.630]that we have been doing,
[00:03:14.160]looking at the effect of management practices
[00:03:16.680]on soil and agronomic responses.
[00:03:18.990]But for the sake of time,
[00:03:20.610]I won't be able to cover that in detail.
[00:03:22.740]But if you are interested,
[00:03:24.330]I invite you to join my defense seminar,
[00:03:26.610]which is right around the corner in this same room
[00:03:29.670]on April 12th where I'll be talking more in detail on this
[00:03:33.660]multi-year on farm research project.
[00:03:36.210]And at the end I'll bring some summary,
[00:03:38.310]what we have learned so far
[00:03:40.380]and how that might support your work.
[00:03:43.740]So I think this is my first time presenting to a broader
[00:03:46.590]audience, both in our department in the college in general.
[00:03:50.070]So I wanna start this presentation sharing with you
[00:03:52.830]a little bit of my first experiential
[00:03:55.230]learning opportunities in life
[00:03:57.060]and what motivates me to work in agriculture
[00:04:00.000]in our food system.
[00:04:00.990]So you're seeing here pictures in our farm operation
[00:04:04.440]in Brazil on the top with my cousins
[00:04:06.690]during harvest operation and the bottom with my father.
[00:04:10.620]And this is where we would spend the majority of vacation
[00:04:13.620]time in Brazil, which is December, January,
[00:04:16.170]experiencing agriculture in a rural settings.
[00:04:19.260]But then the rest of the year I would grow up in an urban
[00:04:22.920]center, Sao Paulo, for you who might be aware,
[00:04:25.650]is a 12 plus million population city.
[00:04:28.800]As you can imagine, we were restricted by land area
[00:04:31.860]on how we grow our crops
[00:04:33.480]and my parents started this home garden
[00:04:35.430]and my sister and I, we would grow our own fruits
[00:04:37.890]and vegetables during the year.
[00:04:39.630]So having this opportunity to experience agriculture,
[00:04:42.960]both urban and rural settings is what motivates me
[00:04:46.175]to enjoy and join studying agriculture.
[00:04:51.060]And if you ask me to draw this last 10 years of my life
[00:04:54.770]in a piece of paper,
[00:04:56.370]I would probably bring you this paper here.
[00:04:59.010]So imagine that you are giving a piece of paper now
[00:05:04.050]and ask to draw your entire career.
[00:05:06.160]And this is the activity I was recently part of,
[00:05:08.730]the Preparing Future Faculty program here at UNL.
[00:05:11.414]And I shared this with you, as you can tell,
[00:05:14.040]I need to improve a lot of my drawing skills.
[00:05:16.470]But I shared this with you because at the end of this
[00:05:19.500]activity we had to work on our why statement.
[00:05:22.470]So thinking on our why rather than our
[00:05:24.840]what and what we really want in a better world
[00:05:27.480]for those that we serve.
[00:05:28.860]And this is my why, to explore opportunities for advancing
[00:05:31.980]practical knowledge and technical skills
[00:05:33.968]so that leaders are equipped to promote
[00:05:36.030]sustainable food system.
[00:05:37.950]So hopefully you are going to see this
[00:05:40.470]why throughout my presentation today
[00:05:42.720]and why this opportunity here at UNL was very exciting to me
[00:05:47.010]because I joined in 2019, the Resilient Cropping Systems lab
[00:05:52.920]led by my great advisor, Dr. Andrea Basche,
[00:05:56.100]to work on the on-farm research network
[00:05:58.590]as part of this Nebraska Soil Health initiative.
[00:06:01.980]So there was a total of 17 studies
[00:06:08.190]that were assigned back in 2016 or 17.
[00:06:11.880]And farmers, they were required to conduct
[00:06:14.940]a five year on-farm research and demonstration
[00:06:17.610]of soil health management.
[00:06:19.410]What I mean by soil health management systems,
[00:06:21.748]practices that maximize biodiversity
[00:06:24.840]like crop rotation, organic amendment,
[00:06:27.480]crop and livestock integration,
[00:06:29.550]practices that minimize soil disturbance
[00:06:32.190]like the use of no-till,
[00:06:34.530]or practices that maximize continue living roots
[00:06:37.620]like the use of cover crops.
[00:06:39.870]Each of those 17 farmers, they were testing different things
[00:06:44.550]because they had a chance to select
[00:06:46.710]what are those management treatments
[00:06:48.270]that they were interested in.
[00:06:50.040]So I will keep that in mind because as you can imagine,
[00:06:53.250]there's a lot of complexity going
[00:06:54.840]on considering that each of those fields,
[00:06:57.360]they were able to select what treatment
[00:06:59.520]they wanna to study and how them I look like in the field.
[00:07:03.030]So farmers had to choose two
[00:07:04.832]contrasting management comparisons.
[00:07:07.590]So one, a common practice to them and a second one,
[00:07:12.600]a management that was intended to improve soil health.
[00:07:15.900]And most of them had cover crops in some capacity,
[00:07:19.691]but they also included different species comparisons.
[00:07:23.845]Some of them had grazing components or crop rotation.
[00:07:28.320]In terms of data collection, that was also part of the UNL
[00:07:33.240]on-farm research annual reports.
[00:07:36.150]We had information on agronomic management form,
[00:07:39.690]which includes all the information that farmer,
[00:07:42.360]the decisions they made throughout that growing season,
[00:07:45.680]cash crop, yield monitor data,
[00:07:48.158]and also soil health assessments
[00:07:51.030]that you and our extension and also NRCS helped us
[00:07:55.134]to work on that, collect that data.
[00:07:58.920]I have been talking a lot about soil health.
[00:08:01.680]I know some in the room here already know that term,
[00:08:04.950]but I was wondering if,
[00:08:07.170]how often do you hear soil health as part of your
[00:08:10.149]interactions with your clientele, your stakeholder group?
[00:08:14.280]So if you can please take the time to scan this QR code
[00:08:18.150]and we'll take you to the question
[00:08:20.190]or you can go to Slido.com
[00:08:22.710]and the password will be soil health.
[00:08:25.440]So if you can please take,
[00:08:27.780]I will give a couple seconds here.
[00:08:30.630]Just wondering, how often do you hear the term soil health?
[00:08:38.910]No.
[00:08:41.100]Okay, we are getting some results already.
[00:08:44.340]We have a couple options here.
[00:08:46.590]It seems a majority says often, 67%.
[00:08:53.550]Yeah, that's what I was expecting.
[00:08:57.150]And yeah, soil health is a popular topic, right?
[00:09:01.620]And some of you have already seen this definition
[00:09:07.440]and that really emphasize soil function, right?
[00:09:11.460]And we know that water cycling is a big component
[00:09:14.670]of soil health.
[00:09:15.930]And you are seeing this picture here
[00:09:18.273]from my very first field visit
[00:09:21.540]when I joined the program in Nebraska.
[00:09:24.210]And you are seeing here a fence line
[00:09:26.070]separating two different management, right?
[00:09:29.310]On the right hand side you have crop residue
[00:09:34.043]without cover crops, on the left hand side,
[00:09:36.818]cover crops during the wintertime.
[00:09:40.170]And as you might recall in 2019 when this picture was taken,
[00:09:44.790]we had several flooding events
[00:09:47.580]that happen in the state, right?
[00:09:49.789]And you see water on the surface on the right hand side.
[00:09:53.340]So that might tells us that the soil on the right hand side
[00:09:57.000]in those portions of the field might not be functioning
[00:10:00.210]as we would expect in regards to this water cycling, right?
[00:10:04.350]So the point I wanna make here today is
[00:10:06.510]that soils has its context, it's inherent capability,
[00:10:11.550]but then the way we manage and the land use on top of it
[00:10:15.450]is its function expression of its health.
[00:10:19.830]And I really like to bring some analogies.
[00:10:24.060]Why I am saying this, because cover crops are
[00:10:27.030]not new, right?
[00:10:27.863]I recently got some final records
[00:10:30.750]as part of a birthday gift, which I love it.
[00:10:33.450]But I remember growing up and my parents
[00:10:35.665]simply getting rid of those, and I was,
[00:10:40.228]why that is happening, right?
[00:10:41.460]And then the same applies to cover crops
[00:10:44.940]and many other practices that are known
[00:10:46.950]to support soil health.
[00:10:48.570]Those practices are not new, right?
[00:10:51.210]So there is this reviving of those practices
[00:10:55.140]and part of it is because of many legislative movements
[00:10:59.340]across the country supporting research
[00:11:02.880]and also synergistic partnership for large scale adoption
[00:11:06.900]of soil health management practices.
[00:11:08.910]You are seeing here this map from 2019,
[00:11:12.300]I'm sure a data version will have way more things going
[00:11:16.140]on across the country and it's exciting to see this support
[00:11:22.113]that soil health is gaining over time.
[00:11:24.960]But when we look at the actual adoption,
[00:11:28.470]you are seeing here at table with a couple practices,
[00:11:31.470]we have a capacity and the current adoption.
[00:11:34.680]And when we average across those practices,
[00:11:38.340]we still see that adoption is low,
[00:11:41.130]less than 14% of the current US land capacity
[00:11:45.053]is adopting those practices,
[00:11:48.210]which bring us to this question,
[00:11:51.856]relates to to the human dimensions, right?
[00:11:54.630]What are some of the motivations of farmers
[00:11:57.390]to continue adopting those practices
[00:12:00.257]even with our monetary incentive, right?
[00:12:03.060]I mentioned that the farmers that were part
[00:12:05.699]of the Soil Health Initiative,
[00:12:07.620]they were under Equipped contracts within NRSCS
[00:12:10.470]and the question is, will they continue those practices
[00:12:14.640]after those five years conservation programs, right?
[00:12:18.810]So the persistence here or the continued use
[00:12:22.860]is very important.
[00:12:24.330]And what is motivating this part of the research
[00:12:27.540]that I'm working on,
[00:12:28.680]we are partnering with a faculty in the Agricultural
[00:12:32.520]Education Leadership and Communication Department,
[00:12:35.100]Dr. Taylor Ruth,
[00:12:36.690]and we are developing this framework you are seeing here,
[00:12:39.750]which considers different theories
[00:12:42.349]to understand human dimensions and how we make decisions,
[00:12:46.950]which as you might expect, a very complex topic, right?
[00:12:51.180]So you are seeing here in different colors,
[00:12:53.940]different theories, those theories, they have been studied,
[00:12:58.110]they have been revised for decades.
[00:13:00.540]And help us to understand how humans make decisions.
[00:13:03.660]So you are seeing here on top farmers' affiliative network,
[00:13:08.280]how that influence their general beliefs,
[00:13:11.040]their attitudes towards soil health,
[00:13:13.078]their willingness to join those conservation programs,
[00:13:17.760]and you are seeing here the persistence or this adoption
[00:13:21.510]aspect that we are interested in looking at.
[00:13:24.600]So this framework is very complex
[00:13:28.110]and but there are three main research questions
[00:13:30.540]that we are interested in looking at.
[00:13:33.450]The first one, how social and informational networks
[00:13:36.750]influence farmers to sustaining use
[00:13:39.000]of soil health practices.
[00:13:40.950]A second one, the aspect of weather,
[00:13:44.220]how weather variability facilitate
[00:13:46.650]or hinder farmers sustaining use of soil health practices.
[00:13:49.604]And third one, how do farmers respond
[00:13:53.040]to different communication interventions
[00:13:55.410]related to soil health?
[00:13:57.060]For the sake of time,
[00:13:58.440]I will focus today in this first research question,
[00:14:02.250]which look at the social and informational networks.
[00:14:05.760]But if you're interested,
[00:14:07.129]another plug here for the Great Plains Conference
[00:14:10.890]will be talking more in detail on the role of climate
[00:14:14.340]as a motivating factor for behavior.
[00:14:17.662]So in terms of data collection and analysis,
[00:14:21.060]like I mentioned, it's a different type of data, right?
[00:14:24.120]So think about field experiment or your lab experiment
[00:14:27.720]where you need to decide on the treatments, replications,
[00:14:31.650]what samples to collect, when to collect.
[00:14:34.200]The same applies to qualitative research.
[00:14:36.460]There are some things that we need to take into account
[00:14:39.930]to make sure that the research process
[00:14:43.029]has been done in a systematic way.
[00:14:45.210]So I'm showing here some of the main points
[00:14:48.030]of the methodology.
[00:14:49.440]First, this research needs to undergo human subject approval
[00:14:53.490]by the UNL Institutional Review Board.
[00:14:56.580]In terms of sampling, we are interested in farmers
[00:15:00.210]who are part of the soil health initiative
[00:15:02.250]because they have been part of this program
[00:15:04.320]for five years adopting those practices.
[00:15:07.410]And we are interested in that persistence aspect
[00:15:09.990]that I mentioned in the previous framework.
[00:15:13.035]We are conducting, well, we conducted
[00:15:16.470]semi-structure in-depth interviews.
[00:15:18.960]Those interviews lasted from one and a half to two hours.
[00:15:23.160]We ask questions, several questions to farmers
[00:15:26.430]related to sources of information, knowledge exchange,
[00:15:30.690]their experience with on-farm research
[00:15:32.760]and conservation program.
[00:15:34.410]And we we also have some meeting observations
[00:15:37.560]and project documents that I'm gonna summarize here today.
[00:15:41.310]And in terms of validation process,
[00:15:43.830]again to make sure we are conducting the research in a
[00:15:46.470]systematic way, we use three different validation process,
[00:15:50.430]which the research suggests we use at least two.
[00:15:53.850]In this case we're looking at peer debriefing,
[00:15:56.700]member checking and audit tribes.
[00:16:00.240]So okay, giving some of the results here.
[00:16:04.140]The way we present results is looking at themes.
[00:16:06.930]What are some of the common themes that emerge
[00:16:09.600]out of those conversations with farmers?
[00:16:12.180]And I'm gonna highlight here today
[00:16:14.190]five different teams as it relates to farmers,
[00:16:17.430]social and informational networks.
[00:16:20.100]The first one, land tenure.
[00:16:23.220]Those interactions that farmers have
[00:16:25.230]between landowner and land tenant,
[00:16:28.440]especially when we think about different motivations
[00:16:31.770]and the beliefs related to soul health.
[00:16:33.780]This play a role on farmer's social informational networks.
[00:16:39.000]There is also perceived acceptance.
[00:16:41.190]What farmers think other will think of them
[00:16:43.890]if they adopted or not certain practices.
[00:16:46.770]This is something that they also mentioned
[00:16:49.080]during the interviews.
[00:16:51.750]Family farming tradition,
[00:16:53.490]the style of farming or food production
[00:16:56.310]carried by previous de generation.
[00:16:58.380]This is something that they also take into account
[00:17:02.010]when making decisions related to soil health practices.
[00:17:06.180]Co-learning, all the educational approach involve sharing
[00:17:10.410]soil health knowledge and experiences,
[00:17:12.750]not only among farmers but also among
[00:17:14.970]other agricultural stakeholders,
[00:17:17.010]that is also very important.
[00:17:18.990]And finally, on farm research experimentation
[00:17:22.230]and adaptive management.
[00:17:23.940]So the opportunity to have hands-on learning experiences
[00:17:27.750]on their farm operation,
[00:17:29.670]and in particular this project that had a very specific
[00:17:34.260]aspect which was an extension involvement
[00:17:36.997]with federal conservation programs.
[00:17:40.470]So what I'm gonna do now, for each of those five themes,
[00:17:45.090]I'm gonna bring some quotes,
[00:17:46.950]what the farmer said during those interviews
[00:17:49.080]so you can have an idea on what they mean
[00:17:51.510]by each of those things that I'm presenting here.
[00:17:55.320]So first, land tenure.
[00:17:57.840]We know that about 40% of the US land
[00:18:02.340]involves some sort of land owner and operator agreements.
[00:18:09.030]So we would expect that yes,
[00:18:11.280]land tenure is something very important in their decisions
[00:18:15.240]of adopting soil health practices,
[00:18:17.460]particularly when we talk about short
[00:18:19.980]versus long-term rent agreements.
[00:18:22.170]So this is very important and some of the farmers mentioned,
[00:18:26.310]you were seeing a quote here,
[00:18:28.380]those relationships might be some type of antagonist, right?
[00:18:32.730]They have different motivations,
[00:18:34.650]different beliefs relates to soil health
[00:18:37.860]and this play a role on their decisions.
[00:18:42.240]There is also this other farm here
[00:18:44.370]who are thinking about renting part of their land
[00:18:48.960]and they said we are looking for a person
[00:18:52.620]that will honor that rental agreement.
[00:18:54.870]And that rental agreement includes adding cover crops
[00:18:58.080]as part of the system.
[00:19:01.560]And even though the majority said that there is
[00:19:04.920]some challenges, right?
[00:19:06.090]When you were talking about those relationships,
[00:19:08.760]this last quote here shows us
[00:19:11.410]there has been more opportunities on those interactions
[00:19:14.850]to talk about soil health and make sure
[00:19:17.700]they can have mutually beneficial goals.
[00:19:22.830]Perceived acceptance is another theme that I mentioned.
[00:19:25.451]So while farmers think others will think of them,
[00:19:29.483]there is one thing that the farmer mentioned here.
[00:19:33.550]It's all about farming more ground faster,
[00:19:36.750]being the first one in the field
[00:19:38.640]and the first out of the field in the fall.
[00:19:41.040]So this perceived acceptance that the farmer described here
[00:19:46.590]and something that they point out
[00:19:49.680]how that affect the young generation of farmers, right?
[00:19:53.082]How is that perceived acceptance
[00:19:55.470]being passed through other generational farmers?
[00:20:00.510]There is this other farmer who instead of saying
[00:20:03.180]perceived acceptance, term this "cost of perception."
[00:20:07.410]So you are seeing here as perceived as different,
[00:20:10.740]weird and bad.
[00:20:11.760]So there is a perception and there is a cost to me,
[00:20:14.850]is what the farmers said.
[00:20:16.380]So and this effect also how they select different practices.
[00:20:20.790]So this farmer mentioned for example, no till,
[00:20:26.310]the crops following no till might not look nicer
[00:20:29.280]early in the spring, that's what this farmer said.
[00:20:32.100]And there is this cost of perception
[00:20:34.170]on how they decided on not adopting certain practices.
[00:20:38.490]And then interesting it seems that this pressure
[00:20:43.440]among the community is not as strong
[00:20:46.830]among farmers who have more integrative systems.
[00:20:50.250]For example, crop and livestock.
[00:20:52.260]You are seeing here this quote, this farmer mentioned,
[00:20:57.247]"People calling out and planting
[00:20:59.070]when you think the ground is too wet
[00:21:00.660]but we have cattle and the cattle is making us money
[00:21:04.648]so we don't feel that pressure to get out in the field
[00:21:07.884]when others think we should be out."
[00:21:10.380]So there is this also aspect, the perceived acceptance,
[00:21:14.340]was not as strong among farmers
[00:21:16.260]with more integrative systems.
[00:21:20.040]Family farming tradition.
[00:21:21.912]Remember the analogy I made with vinyl discs
[00:21:25.410]at the beginning?
[00:21:26.640]A lot of those practices, they are not new, right?
[00:21:29.160]And that is what the farmer mentioned here,
[00:21:31.275]except for technology and time
[00:21:34.500]and the fact that we are able to learn fast,
[00:21:36.970]except of that, all those things have already been done.
[00:21:41.280]So we're not new practices.
[00:21:43.470]We also see farmers mentioning aspects for example,
[00:21:47.310]when the family immigrated from Germany
[00:21:49.830]brought some practices for example, sweet clover,
[00:21:53.730]planting oats and rotating.
[00:21:55.800]This other farmer here mentioned
[00:21:58.560]how the dad had some rye, had cattle, hogs and sheep.
[00:22:04.140]So when we ask a farmer, what are some of the soil health
[00:22:07.500]practices they have tried
[00:22:09.090]or would like to try in their field,
[00:22:11.220]a lot of them made this connection with previous generation
[00:22:15.600]of farming tradition,
[00:22:17.310]which was very strong among this group of farmers.
[00:22:21.494]The other aspect, co-learning.
[00:22:25.690]A lot of, in this team farmers mentioned
[00:22:29.670]the importance of early adopters.
[00:22:32.160]How those influence influence their decisions
[00:22:35.070]and opportunities to learn with them.
[00:22:37.230]And as you can see in this quote here,
[00:22:39.747]the farmer is mentioning how that one-on-one interaction
[00:22:43.590]with other farmer, learning from each other,
[00:22:46.650]people doing their own experiment
[00:22:49.020]and learning from each other is very important.
[00:22:53.250]And there were, some of our interviews,
[00:22:56.400]they had extension and also consulting roles
[00:23:00.780]in addition to their farm operation.
[00:23:02.790]And this co-learning theme
[00:23:04.320]was very strong among that group of farmers.
[00:23:07.620]And you are seeing here another quote of farmer mentioning
[00:23:11.400]the importance of also sharing the challenges, right?
[00:23:14.820]The struggles, how we learn from each practice,
[00:23:17.790]so in this particular one,
[00:23:19.710]looking at how cover crop termination timing
[00:23:22.421]might affect subsequent cash crop pest and diseases.
[00:23:28.050]So how we share that with other farmers,
[00:23:30.690]the learnings that we had in our field.
[00:23:33.540]And then this last quote here,
[00:23:35.487]there is importance of meeting farmers where they're at,
[00:23:39.090]they are in their learning process, right?
[00:23:41.160]Some farmers, they are more systems thinkers,
[00:23:43.830]they look at the whole farm approach management, others no.
[00:23:48.270]So how do we reach farmers where they are
[00:23:51.180]in their learning process?
[00:23:52.260]There is a lot of communication strategies
[00:23:55.050]to approach those farmers.
[00:23:57.867]Okay, another activity we did with a group of farmers
[00:24:03.240]was during the 2020 On Farm Research Network annual meeting,
[00:24:07.560]if you recall, this meeting had a special soil health
[00:24:10.770]and cover crop focus update.
[00:24:12.810]So farmers who were part of the soil health initiative
[00:24:15.990]came to this event, some of them.
[00:24:18.750]And we also had a broad audience, right?
[00:24:20.413]Those that were part of in general of the UNL
[00:24:23.750]On Farm Research Network.
[00:24:25.380]So in that year, we did an activity with farmers
[00:24:28.880]where we gave them this decision making mapping exercise.
[00:24:34.950]So you're saying here we gave this piece of paper
[00:24:37.980]that have different circles numbered from one to five
[00:24:41.610]and you see decisions about my operation at the center.
[00:24:45.690]And you see here at the bottom different, oops, sorry,
[00:24:50.970]you see here at the bottom different groups of people.
[00:24:53.603]So what we did, we asked farmers to rate how influential
[00:24:59.220]those groups of people are on their decision.
[00:25:02.130]Both general farm decision but also decisions
[00:25:06.270]related to soil health.
[00:25:07.710]So those groups of people placed closer to the center
[00:25:12.014]of the circle we're seeing as having stronger influence.
[00:25:18.180]So sharing with you the results here,
[00:25:20.970]you see both overall in soil health related decisions,
[00:25:24.929]the different groups.
[00:25:26.550]Remember that the closer to the center, higher influence.
[00:25:31.110]Look at those groups here,
[00:25:33.630]those were ranked by those farmers
[00:25:36.390]as groups of people having the largest influence
[00:25:39.660]on their decision.
[00:25:40.830]Both soil health related and overall farming decision.
[00:25:44.610]So other farmers in the community, family members,
[00:25:49.140]crop advisor, consultant, extension,
[00:25:51.960]conservationists within NRCS.
[00:25:56.010]So remember the last point of the teams
[00:25:59.730]that I wanna bring to you relates
[00:26:01.410]to on-farm experimentation and adaptive management.
[00:26:04.890]So you were seeing here some of codes
[00:26:07.380]related to the importance of few days.
[00:26:09.840]How that brings more, again, that co-learning opportunity,
[00:26:13.037]farmers interacting with each other,
[00:26:15.720]interacting with agricultural stakeholders.
[00:26:18.420]And how that can help other farmers
[00:26:21.690]who might not be adopters at least give it a try
[00:26:24.770]on some of those practices, right?
[00:26:26.517]And this is what you are seeing here
[00:26:28.470]on the second quote where the farmer mentioned
[00:26:31.410]that a neighbor farmer mentioned
[00:26:33.750]pretty much due to that field days,
[00:26:35.940]they were going to give it a try to cover crops.
[00:26:39.600]So again, seeing the role that early play
[00:26:43.886]on those decision makers in around their community.
[00:26:50.160]In terms of the soil health initiative,
[00:26:52.350]remember that this is a very unique aspect.
[00:26:54.810]We are partnering, UNL Extension with NRCS
[00:26:58.047]and this farmer here bring some very interesting quote.
[00:27:02.303]Some of the information that they were already seeing
[00:27:06.180]anecdotally, they were able to bring
[00:27:09.240]what the farmer is saying, real science.
[00:27:11.580]So we are able to have results, analysis,
[00:27:14.370]and prove things that they have been seeing
[00:27:18.030]already in their field.
[00:27:21.030]Also in terms of experimentation,
[00:27:22.980]there is a lot of trial and error, right?
[00:27:25.230]And this farmer here mentioning, you need to do first
[00:27:28.230]on a small scale.
[00:27:29.460]So farmers feel comfortable with those practices
[00:27:32.460]to apply later on A larger scale.
[00:27:35.940]And this last quote here,
[00:27:37.200]I really like it because show that the farmers
[00:27:40.680]value the importance of long-term research.
[00:27:43.233]That is something we think is important.
[00:27:45.780]And seeing farmers mentioning we need to have 3, 4, 5 year
[00:27:50.880]On farm research so we are able to,
[00:27:53.250]that's when we gain the most,
[00:27:55.020]that's when we are able to prove that certain practice
[00:27:59.160]perform and how the practice perform in a challenging,
[00:28:02.670]in a normal, in above average year.
[00:28:05.430]So this farmer here mentioning the importance
[00:28:07.890]of long-term on-farm research.
[00:28:11.250]In terms of that five year on-farm research summary
[00:28:14.400]for those fields that were part of the initiative,
[00:28:17.280]remember that I mentioned the majority of them,
[00:28:19.862]they had cover crops in some capacity, right?
[00:28:22.890]So those are the fields you are seeing here, sorry.
[00:28:27.930]Ouch.
[00:28:30.120]Okay so this is the, each of those lines showing
[00:28:34.237]some of the treatment comparisons
[00:28:37.050]that the farmers were doing in their field.
[00:28:39.420]And we were able to track yield and soil health impact
[00:28:43.140]over that five years.
[00:28:44.400]So for example, you're seeing here yield impacts,
[00:28:47.940]it can be neutral the majority of the time.
[00:28:51.120]We also had positive impact on corn and soybean
[00:28:54.390]and small grain yield but also negative impact.
[00:28:57.660]And in terms of soil health impact,
[00:28:59.940]we see here either neutral or positive impact.
[00:29:03.720]Again, all this information,
[00:29:05.430]we were able to compile reports every year,
[00:29:08.460]so if you're interested in looking at,
[00:29:10.320]they are all available online.
[00:29:13.830]So up to this point I share with you things
[00:29:17.700]related to farmer's network.
[00:29:19.890]And then now I wanna focus on those three studies
[00:29:22.860]that I mentioned to you that I'll focus more in detail
[00:29:26.100]during my defense seminar.
[00:29:28.050]But I wanna briefly bring here
[00:29:30.090]because one of the topics that came out of those interviews
[00:29:33.630]were related to soil health testing.
[00:29:36.060]So this is one way that farmers can learn about soil health
[00:29:41.280]because it's not only about the network
[00:29:44.190]but some of sources of information, right?
[00:29:47.070]And soil health testing
[00:29:48.390]was something that farmers brought up.
[00:29:50.730]So for example, you are seeing this quote,
[00:29:52.620]a farmer mentioning how they compare the traditional soil
[00:29:56.550]testing with some other new commercially available tests
[00:30:00.030]to see special in terms of fertilizer recommendations,
[00:30:03.360]how that play.
[00:30:04.650]But there is also farmers mentioning,
[00:30:07.350]when we talk about saw health testing,
[00:30:09.210]that this is a evolving work, right?
[00:30:11.430]There's a lot of things to learn,
[00:30:13.920]a lot of research that needs to be done
[00:30:15.810]to understand better how saw health testing works.
[00:30:19.980]And this farmer here mentioning
[00:30:22.050]that they are waiting for in order to invest more time
[00:30:26.280]and resources on soil health testing.
[00:30:28.380]But they acknowledge that it's important
[00:30:30.900]that the industry is trending on that direction.
[00:30:35.070]And again, this last quote here,
[00:30:37.320]the farmer mentioning in terms of soil health testing,
[00:30:41.017]"Can we know how much we need to apply?
[00:30:43.680]Not applying excess, not applying insufficient
[00:30:46.770]but the right amount of nutrients
[00:30:49.410]so that the biology of the soil can work as well."
[00:30:55.230]So soil health assessment.
[00:30:57.720]We want to link a management to outcomes, right?
[00:31:00.437]So those farmers were testing different management
[00:31:03.930]because they were expecting some outcomes.
[00:31:06.240]That outcomes can be profitability, biodiversity,
[00:31:09.750]resilience against dry conditions,
[00:31:12.900]different management interest there.
[00:31:16.110]But we cannot for every management expect the same outcomes
[00:31:21.330]because there are some intervening factors.
[00:31:24.360]For example, climate geology, durations,
[00:31:26.790]soil texture, right?
[00:31:28.140]So we cannot expect the same management
[00:31:30.570]to give the same outcomes
[00:31:32.040]because of some of those intervening factors.
[00:31:35.370]And that's where assessment comes, those physical,
[00:31:39.360]chemical and biological properties.
[00:31:41.790]But they are not the end to themselves, right?
[00:31:44.400]They are just a way to link management to outcomes.
[00:31:49.170]And that's where a lot of the progress
[00:31:51.750]has been done over the last year.
[00:31:53.640]How we are able to link this management to outcomes
[00:31:57.450]through this soil health testing.
[00:31:59.783]And this is one thing that we look at as part of my program
[00:32:03.330]as well, which like I mentioned,
[00:32:05.370]I'll be presenting more in detail during the defense,
[00:32:08.130]but what we did, we look at physical,
[00:32:10.980]chemical and biological properties
[00:32:13.230]from farm available soil health testing.
[00:32:15.840]We selected 10 of those fields
[00:32:18.030]that were part of this initiative.
[00:32:20.070]And like I mentioned before,
[00:32:21.218]those fields were testing different practices, right?
[00:32:24.690]Because if primarily had a chance to choose
[00:32:26.820]what treatment comparison.
[00:32:28.080]So you are seeing here a list of things,
[00:32:30.660]for example, cover crop, species,
[00:32:32.640]crop and livestock integration, cash crop rotation,
[00:32:35.850]and there was also differences in terms of field history.
[00:32:39.540]Some of those fields,
[00:32:40.740]they were adopting cover crops for the first time.
[00:32:43.830]Some of those fields, they were adopting for over 12 years.
[00:32:47.790]The same applied to tillage,
[00:32:49.350]some of them are doing strip tillage,
[00:32:51.480]some of them have been no till for over 20 years.
[00:32:54.810]So as you can imagine, there's a lot of challenge in terms
[00:32:58.020]of how we look at this data,
[00:32:59.820]how we make sense of this, how we analyze it.
[00:33:02.580]And one of the way we have done
[00:33:04.680]is to create those indexes that you were seeing here.
[00:33:07.770]So think about putting each of those fields in a scale
[00:33:10.554]from less to more diversified
[00:33:13.026]or ecologically intensified it in terms of crop diversity,
[00:33:17.520]years of cover crop use, years without soil disturbance,
[00:33:21.330]organic amendment, and crop and livestock.
[00:33:23.970]So we apply all this classification index
[00:33:27.420]to a series of physical, chemical, and biological properties
[00:33:32.610]that are available in soil health assessments.
[00:33:35.400]Some of them were part of the protocol
[00:33:37.890]the NRCS developed to look at water infiltration,
[00:33:41.040]for example, water content, fog density.
[00:33:43.920]But there are also some other properties
[00:33:45.810]that are available on the Haney test,
[00:33:48.540]Some of you might be familiar,
[00:33:49.800]this is a commercially available test
[00:33:52.470]that also includes some calculations
[00:33:55.260]in terms of fertilizer recommendation.
[00:33:57.840]So I just wanna point out those calculations
[00:34:00.690]are still evolving, right?
[00:34:02.160]But we were able to look at the most recent one up to 2020.
[00:34:08.550]So I will show details on of the results of this
[00:34:11.754]in a couple weeks.
[00:34:13.440]But I just wanna share what we have learned on this project.
[00:34:17.640]First that cover crop,
[00:34:19.620]when we look at on those different indexes
[00:34:21.870]that we look at, cover crop HAD the greatest impact
[00:34:27.120]on change in soil properties
[00:34:28.740]that are closely related to carbon-nitrogen dynamics.
[00:34:32.430]We also observed that those fields that were adopting
[00:34:36.870]cover crops for long-term, at least eight years
[00:34:40.470]were the ones that had the highest,
[00:34:42.720]the greatest biological activity.
[00:34:44.970]And that result in potential synthetic fertilizer
[00:34:48.570]and economic savings,
[00:34:50.250]especially on those fields adopting cover crops.
[00:34:52.620]So when we consider organic nitrogen pools
[00:34:55.597]in fertilizer recommendations, that was what we were seeing.
[00:35:01.470]All right, when we talk about soil health implementation,
[00:35:04.740]this is context specific, right?
[00:35:06.900]You are seeing here this quote, a farmer mentioning
[00:35:11.190]that cover crops has been working well
[00:35:13.410]in some challenging stereotypes
[00:35:15.810]and made the yield less variable.
[00:35:18.900]But this farmer also mentioned
[00:35:20.550]that cover crops are not a blanket operation.
[00:35:24.450]So this means that every year we need to make adjustments
[00:35:27.990]depending on the weather,
[00:35:29.370]depending on the goals of each farmer.
[00:35:32.790]And I like this quote here
[00:35:34.440]that the farmer mentioned that cover crop,
[00:35:36.690]there are so many options within the cover crop spectrum
[00:35:40.410]to customize to each farm and ranch scenario.
[00:35:43.830]So this motivates us to look on another project
[00:35:48.180]you are seeing here where we wanted to compare,
[00:35:51.660]manage soils to a reference state
[00:35:54.120]and investigate those relationships with crop yields.
[00:35:58.050]So remember all those farmers
[00:35:59.820]part of the Soil health initiative,
[00:36:01.350]we selected four of them for this project
[00:36:04.500]because those four fields,
[00:36:06.150]they had a cover crop versus no cover crop comparison.
[00:36:10.020]And we also identified a reference site.
[00:36:13.269]Those were grasslands heights
[00:36:15.720]adjacent to each of those farmers' field.
[00:36:18.840]And we look at two different things that I'm showing here.
[00:36:22.080]First, soil health,
[00:36:23.580]how that is related to a reference state.
[00:36:26.340]This is some work that has been started
[00:36:29.160]here in our department by Dr. Mahar John,
[00:36:32.070]so what we did, we calculated relative soil health,
[00:36:35.578]basically looking at soil property values
[00:36:38.210]for cover crop and the no cover crop
[00:36:40.118]and how that relates to the reference soil.
[00:36:44.619]And also in terms of sampling,
[00:36:46.800]we get questions from farmers,
[00:36:48.660]how should we sample for soil health?
[00:36:50.520]So this is also something we did in this study.
[00:36:53.400]We look at how sampling intensity
[00:36:57.270]affect the role of management differences,
[00:37:01.509]looking at cover crop, no cover crop and reference soils.
[00:37:07.650]So what we have learned,
[00:37:08.910]and I'll share again our detail as part of the defense,
[00:37:12.090]but reference soils,
[00:37:14.280]they were able to capture those trends in soil health
[00:37:17.100]potential across soils and on farm characteristics.
[00:37:20.437]And we were able to see the cover crops
[00:37:23.430]reduce the gap in soil health
[00:37:25.200]between the managed field, which was the no cover crop site
[00:37:29.400]and the reference soils which were our grasslands heights
[00:37:32.466]in the short term, here we were looking at three years,
[00:37:35.850]that's when we sampled those fields
[00:37:38.370]when they have been adopting cover crops for three years.
[00:37:41.520]And we also look at the greater difference
[00:37:43.830]in water infiltration management
[00:37:46.110]between reference and no cover crop sites
[00:37:49.080]due to higher sampling intensity.
[00:37:51.840]So again, looking at high sampling intensity
[00:37:56.370]and we also need to make sure we frame soil health metrics
[00:37:59.430]relative to a reference state.
[00:38:03.090]And then the last study I wanna show here
[00:38:06.000]is in terms of carbon and nitrogen dynamics.
[00:38:08.550]So we know there's a lot of conversation going
[00:38:11.310]on in terms of participation in a carbon economy, right?
[00:38:15.150]All those payments for ecosystem services,
[00:38:17.398]even though it was something we didn't ask farmers
[00:38:20.760]during this interviews, they brought up that.
[00:38:23.890]And there were kind of mixed feelings
[00:38:26.040]among that community of farmers.
[00:38:27.690]So some of them demonstrating some frustration
[00:38:30.930]because they have been adopting those practices
[00:38:33.273]for longer term and and they were not eligible
[00:38:36.390]for some of those programs.
[00:38:38.070]But there are also farmers showing
[00:38:40.260]that some of those programs, they are good in some way,
[00:38:44.730]shape or form, you just need to see what works in your farm.
[00:38:48.870]So we were looking in this last study
[00:38:51.720]in terms of how carbon and nitrogen
[00:38:54.355]associated with different soil organic matter fractions
[00:38:57.630]responded to three years of cover crop.
[00:38:59.820]So we look at the same fields,
[00:39:02.040]those four fields that were part of the previous study.
[00:39:04.896]In this one we were looking more specific on carbon
[00:39:09.303]and nitrogen within each soil organic matter fraction.
[00:39:12.360]So you're seeing here example of our experimental design
[00:39:17.220]in the lab, how we did this fractionation in the lab
[00:39:20.700]and how that relates to different
[00:39:22.830]soil organic matter fractions.
[00:39:24.330]So I know it's a lot of information here,
[00:39:26.910]but thinking about that as your checking
[00:39:29.670]and savings account,
[00:39:30.690]we were extracting different soil matter fractions,
[00:39:33.715]two main ones, particularly particulate organic matter
[00:39:38.880]and the mineral associated organic matter.
[00:39:41.190]So your checking account is your particulate organic matter.
[00:39:44.760]So that plan derived soil organic matter,
[00:39:47.700]whereas the savings account
[00:39:49.830]is your mineral associated organic matter.
[00:39:51.990]So thinking about that carbon-nitrogen that is distorted
[00:39:56.580]and protected against microbial decay.
[00:39:58.740]So this is what we did as part of this study
[00:40:01.980]to look at how carbon and nitrogen
[00:40:04.650]within different soil organic matter fractions
[00:40:06.840]respond to cover crop adoption.
[00:40:10.320]And I'll share more details on my defense.
[00:40:12.660]I hope by this time you're all convinced
[00:40:14.670]that you should join as well.
[00:40:17.130]But what we learned in this particular project is
[00:40:20.317]that soil minelogy is very important,
[00:40:23.130]especially for stabilizing cover crop for the long term.
[00:40:27.537]We were able to see the systems with increased perenniality,
[00:40:31.980]those reference sites,
[00:40:33.960]they were the ones that were able to store
[00:40:35.880]most of the carbon nitrogen
[00:40:37.380]within soil organic matter fraction.
[00:40:39.510]However, in the short term, for the cover crops,
[00:40:42.690]we're not able to see improvement in carbon-nitrogen,
[00:40:47.485]particularly in more protected soil organic matter.
[00:40:51.064]Thinking on that, checking that savings account
[00:40:54.810]that I mentioned in the previous slide.
[00:40:58.170]So what have we learned from crop, soil,
[00:41:03.097]Social science research?
[00:41:06.210]First, cover crops had the most weight on soil properties
[00:41:10.800]and can reduce fertilized use,
[00:41:13.110]particularly farmers adopting that in the long term.
[00:41:16.230]So thinking about this is not a one year return
[00:41:19.050]on investment, right?
[00:41:19.950]We were thinking about practices that might accumulate
[00:41:23.310]benefits relatively low over time.
[00:41:26.685]Cover crops closed the soil health gap,
[00:41:29.580]but on farm experiments must be sampled intentionally.
[00:41:33.182]Carbon dynamics are very complex
[00:41:35.820]and cover crops might not increase in the short term.
[00:41:39.210]And finally, the social networks and sources of information
[00:41:43.200]that I started my presentation today,
[00:41:45.240]which are very critical in farm decision making.
[00:41:48.180]And what I wanna bring here, closing this presentation
[00:41:52.530]with a couple of other studies
[00:41:55.020]that has been already published
[00:41:56.430]looking at social networks, how they are important.
[00:41:59.700]So you are seeing here,
[00:42:02.222]some of you might be familiar with the research
[00:42:07.080]and extension programming in North Dakota,
[00:42:09.420]and I'm quoting here some of the information
[00:42:11.880]from the abstract of those research papers.
[00:42:15.150]So network-based approach have been proving successful
[00:42:18.960]in encouraging on farm adoption
[00:42:20.640]of soil health building practices.
[00:42:23.400]This other study here where they look at farmers in Oregon
[00:42:27.960]responses to climate change.
[00:42:29.915]How central individuals and entities,
[00:42:33.240]particularly beginning farmers,
[00:42:35.370]they can act as bridge linking different groups of people.
[00:42:39.561]There's other study here looking at the role that crop
[00:42:43.830]advisors and certified professionals play
[00:42:46.740]as conservation intermediate.
[00:42:49.020]So they can facilitate adoption of practices on the field.
[00:42:53.520]So how can we work together
[00:42:55.020]with this group of people and certified professionals?
[00:42:59.130]And finally, collaborative research as a boundary work.
[00:43:03.180]This study here, very interesting,
[00:43:05.340]they look at some of the factors that facilitates
[00:43:08.400]success of those collaborative research,
[00:43:11.700]very similar to what we did
[00:43:13.020]as part of the soil health initiative.
[00:43:15.000]So you're seeing here some of the main aspects
[00:43:17.850]that they mentioned.
[00:43:18.750]Having mutual beneficial goals,
[00:43:20.760]making sure that the groups of people
[00:43:23.430]have mutual beneficial goals,
[00:43:25.740]share ownership of the collaborative research process,
[00:43:28.635]build trust, which is something that takes time, right?
[00:43:32.785]Integrating knowledge and institutional alignment.
[00:43:36.420]So this is some of the research that has been already
[00:43:39.780]published I think was really nice to bring
[00:43:42.060]what those other groups of people
[00:43:44.100]have been researching and can help understanding
[00:43:47.880]our group here in Nebraska.
[00:43:50.040]So I wanna finish my presentation here,
[00:43:52.350]sharing what we have learned,
[00:43:54.060]how that might support your work.
[00:43:56.970]First, the importance of co-learning
[00:43:58.800]and peer learning opportunities, right?
[00:44:00.570]That was something that the farmers brought very important,
[00:44:04.110]they learn from each other, one-on-one interactions.
[00:44:07.020]So this is very important.
[00:44:08.160]How can we support more co-learning,
[00:44:10.560]peer learning opportunities?
[00:44:12.757]Also long-term and multi-location on farm research
[00:44:16.950]coupled with a small plot research.
[00:44:19.110]So for this particular initiative, we did not have,
[00:44:21.900]we didn't include a small plot research,
[00:44:24.240]but the farmers mentioned the importance
[00:44:26.130]of long-term on farm research.
[00:44:28.170]So studying those practices 2, 3, 4, 5 years,
[00:44:31.380]how that is important.
[00:44:33.180]Also educational opportunities for future generational
[00:44:36.540]farmers and agriculture stakeholders
[00:44:38.820]and how can we leverage networks of trusted professionals
[00:44:42.960]to meet the technical, social and experiential assistance
[00:44:46.470]needed related to soil health.
[00:44:48.654]With that, I would like to thank you so much for your time
[00:44:53.100]and being here today
[00:44:54.120]and I'll be glad to take any questions or comments
[00:44:56.880]that you might have.
[00:44:57.990]Thank you.
[00:44:58.950]Thank you Fernanda
[00:44:59.783]for the presentation and we'll open the floor.
[00:45:02.430]So if you wanna say question,
[00:45:04.650]we can pass around the microphone.
[00:45:12.480]That was very nice.
[00:45:14.102]Thank you.
[00:45:15.000]I'm curious, the average size
[00:45:16.980]of the farmers in your survey
[00:45:19.410]compared to the average size of farms in Nebraska.
[00:45:22.800]Do you know what that comparison is?
[00:45:26.340]So the average farmers working with us
[00:45:29.835]as part of this ON Farm Research,
[00:45:32.430]they were around 80 to 120, 150 acres field farm.
[00:45:41.640]For their total farm.
[00:45:44.640]Oh, okay.
[00:45:46.353]We haven't asked that.
[00:45:48.455]I mean in terms of the amount of land
[00:45:50.970]that they work on, that's a great question.
[00:45:55.789]We do not include that as part of the interviews,
[00:46:01.020]but I would assume they might be considered
[00:46:04.980]small, medium size, small,
[00:46:09.180]medium size farmers here in in Nebraska.
[00:46:13.470]You're welcome.
[00:46:21.540]If I understood your
[00:46:24.150]group of farmers correctly, they all have been in a program
[00:46:28.710]for three to five years working with these things.
[00:46:32.295]Do you think this created a natural bias in the results
[00:46:38.160]compared to a random selection of producers out there
[00:46:43.620]and how that would influence results
[00:46:46.070]in terms of identifying important points
[00:46:49.073]for increasing the use of cover crops
[00:46:52.830]and other soil health improvement methods?
[00:46:55.590]Yeah, this a very important question.
[00:46:58.533]When we talk about qualitative research,
[00:47:01.680]one of the points that is often emphasized
[00:47:05.490]that we cannot generalize
[00:47:08.040]sometimes the results in qualitative research, right?
[00:47:10.500]Because we are working with a specific group of farmers
[00:47:13.647]that there is this boundary work in this group of people.
[00:47:18.720]I agree, certainly we could have interviewed other farmers,
[00:47:22.500]the ones that have not been in conservation programs,
[00:47:26.850]but I wouldn't say biased in terms of the research aspect
[00:47:32.850]because we were very interested in getting rich descriptions
[00:47:36.930]of their experiences of this group of farmers.
[00:47:40.170]But certainly interviewing others
[00:47:42.904]could bring different perspectives to to our results.
[00:47:46.710]But certainly the results might not be generalizable
[00:47:50.872]across the country or even across the stage.
[00:47:58.770]Look, from my experience,
[00:48:02.850]what I've seen is that human beings
[00:48:04.500]take decisions in terms of one interest or another, right?
[00:48:10.830]So this is common.
[00:48:12.390]So what I'm seeing is that as farmers profit
[00:48:16.770]is a main driver for our farming operation decisions, right?
[00:48:22.050]But my question is those farmers have another incentive
[00:48:28.033]for being there in the group
[00:48:31.500]and for practicing soil health sustainable practices.
[00:48:39.963]Could you identify another one apart from profits or?
[00:48:45.561]Yeah, no,
[00:48:47.185]we know that profitability is certainly important,
[00:48:51.420]but it's not only the only thing, right?
[00:48:53.618]There's so many other motivations
[00:48:56.670]on how farmers do different practices.
[00:48:59.940]So it could be, for example,
[00:49:03.750]they have in in this program for five years,
[00:49:06.628]did they develop the habit of having those practices
[00:49:10.500]as part of their operation or not?
[00:49:12.360]Because a lot of them,
[00:49:14.252]you can hear from very contrasting ideas,
[00:49:17.730]some farmers would say that, for example,
[00:49:19.890]cover crops would pay,
[00:49:21.300]others would say that cover crop would not pay.
[00:49:23.670]And both of them might be right in their scenario
[00:49:26.490]in their farm operation
[00:49:28.170]and how they are managing those practices, right?
[00:49:30.990]So I think it's very, profitability is part of the equation,
[00:49:35.910]but it's not the only one.
[00:49:37.110]And there are many other motivations that farmers have.
[00:49:40.067]In this group of people, for example,
[00:49:42.690]there are other motivations to be part of this program
[00:49:46.050]and adopting those practices.
[00:49:49.200]And of that answer exactly your question,
[00:49:52.230]you're interested in a different, yeah,
[00:49:55.350]feel free to follow up with you.
[00:49:59.490]Just to follow up on that question.
[00:50:01.594]I know in your study you had a lot of cover crops involved,
[00:50:05.700]but I was wondering if there was a cover crop
[00:50:07.710]which was like a cash cover crop.
[00:50:10.632]Do you have any of those involved in your study
[00:50:14.130]that might give some financial incentive
[00:50:15.960]to the farmers and that might change their, you know?
[00:50:20.006]Yeah, there were some farmers
[00:50:22.500]who were part of the rotation they included example Ryan,
[00:50:27.930]they were using zero right harvest
[00:50:30.360]as their seeds for production.
[00:50:33.690]And that could help yes, to alleviate some of their costs.
[00:50:36.840]And it's interesting, this comment you make
[00:50:38.670]because another, it reminds me one aspect of the interview.
[00:50:42.540]I remember one farmer mentioning that when you are more,
[00:50:46.530]you are using more integrative approaches in your farm,
[00:50:49.560]like integrating livestock, adding cover crops,
[00:50:52.560]rotating cash crop, you make the farm sometimes
[00:50:57.750]less reliance on external, right?
[00:50:59.610]Farmers, they rely on a lot of people, seed providers,
[00:51:03.480]fertilizer providers, machinery providers,
[00:51:06.030]so this farmer in the interview was mentioning
[00:51:08.520]that when they integrate more things in their farm,
[00:51:11.760]the flow of information, the flow of good,
[00:51:18.990]it chains on their farm.
[00:51:20.370]So yeah, some of them they had,
[00:51:22.661]they used it right and they were harvesting that seed.
[00:51:30.630]I've got the microphone.
[00:51:32.717]Okay.
[00:51:34.063]Did any of the farmers
[00:51:35.483]in your survey have seed corn?
[00:51:37.950]And the reason I ask that is because of early harvesting,
[00:51:41.490]it would seem to permit the opportunity for cover crops
[00:51:45.060]and perhaps even livestock grazing.
[00:51:47.490]Yeah, yeah, that's a good question.
[00:51:51.120]I don't think they, they had for seed corn,
[00:51:55.380]but there was one farmer who was looking at early
[00:52:01.080]and lay maturity soybeans.
[00:52:03.630]That was the only aspect that I remember at farmers
[00:52:06.117]who were interested in looking
[00:52:07.770]at how they can adjust their cash crop growth
[00:52:11.190]so they can integrate more cover crops
[00:52:13.800]and have more growth time window for cover crops.
[00:52:17.880]But I don't think seed corn was there.
[00:52:23.589]Fernanda, that was a great presentation.
[00:52:25.290]Thank you very much for putting all these together.
[00:52:28.410]And I have two questions actually.
[00:52:31.380]The first one is, how challenging was for you
[00:52:34.860]as a PhD a student to work like you know,
[00:52:37.683]in crop production,
[00:52:40.230]I mean soil science and then like take some part of your
[00:52:45.300]work and immerse yourself in social science.
[00:52:49.140]How difficult was from like, you know,
[00:52:50.910]you get trained like heavily on doing like quantitative
[00:52:54.480]research and then going into qualitative research.
[00:52:57.690]So that's my first question.
[00:52:58.920]The second one is, what is the next step for this project?
[00:53:03.060]What is NRCS envisioning for these?
[00:53:05.790]So after getting like these results that you know,
[00:53:08.250]are very promising and the farmers
[00:53:10.950]were really actively involving these,
[00:53:13.020]so there's these co-development,
[00:53:15.030]like there is the new trend of doing research
[00:53:17.550]with the community, so what is the second phase of this?
[00:53:20.520]So thank you.
[00:53:22.140]Thank you, thank you Carol for the questions.
[00:53:27.120]Yeah, I remember finishing my master program in Florida,
[00:53:31.290]had only experience with small research,
[00:53:33.750]was doing everything on agricultural research station
[00:53:37.050]for the university and then suddenly came to Nebraska
[00:53:40.020]and had those large fields working,
[00:53:43.620]adopting those practices.
[00:53:46.020]It was very challenging, a very learning opportunity for me.
[00:53:50.250]I really enjoyed that aspect
[00:53:52.980]because it challenged me so many ways.
[00:53:55.710]And since the beginning I had interest in extension.
[00:54:00.562]And I think a lot of the work in extension
[00:54:03.185]we really need to understand this human aspect of it.
[00:54:07.500]So I remember one of the very first meetings
[00:54:11.280]with Andrea and Darren, I mentioned that interest
[00:54:14.189]in extension and adding a social component as part of this
[00:54:20.400]project and we got to connect with the right people, right?
[00:54:26.010]So then we, that's how we contacted Dr. Taylor Ruth
[00:54:30.240]in the agricultural leadership and education department
[00:54:33.510]who has been instrumental in guiding me
[00:54:36.510]on how to do those analysis, right?
[00:54:38.460]It's completely different type of data.
[00:54:40.230]We are talking here about a hundred pages of transcripts,
[00:54:44.100]how we make sense of that.
[00:54:46.470]So I also attribute to Dr. Ruth to guiding me
[00:54:51.270]and mentoring in this process as well, has been critical.
[00:54:54.740]And the second question, next steps.
[00:55:00.030]Actually, I think there is already,
[00:55:02.010]the next steps are under way.
[00:55:04.140]We have Grace and other student in our department here
[00:55:08.880]working in a kind of a second evolution
[00:55:13.260]of this initiative, right?
[00:55:14.970]There are new farmers who enroll
[00:55:18.840]or consider as part of this.
[00:55:21.060]I think in this project they're also looking
[00:55:23.490]at adding the research station component to the research.
[00:55:27.840]But I think a lot of the learnings we had through this first
[00:55:31.530]interaction of this project
[00:55:33.420]has been guiding some of the conversations
[00:55:35.520]that interim advisor in with NRCS have been
[00:55:41.430]designing other collaborations with farmers
[00:55:44.340]in across the state.
[00:55:46.680]Thank you.
[00:55:48.642]I promise it's the last one.
[00:55:50.612]Okay.
[00:55:52.140]Within your research,
[00:55:53.130]how would you characterize the farmers?
[00:55:57.300]Like the operation?
[00:55:58.650]Do you have irrigation?
[00:56:00.090]No irrigation?
[00:56:02.190]Another main variable there that could have affected
[00:56:09.136]the responses in the interview
[00:56:12.720]or their decisions for cover cropping or?
[00:56:18.420]Yeah, in terms of operation we had
[00:56:24.677]the majority was irrigated, but we also have some dryland.
[00:56:29.700]Because the majority, if you look at the map at the end
[00:56:32.400]with the ones that were included in the reports,
[00:56:35.460]they were either central or eastern Nebraska.
[00:56:37.980]So majority, we had some irrigated, some dryland.
[00:56:43.500]In terms of aspects of the farmer community,
[00:56:47.439]we had a good mix.
[00:56:49.020]Some of them are early adopters of those practices.
[00:56:52.860]They have been doing that for years.
[00:56:55.230]Some of them they were trying for the first
[00:56:57.840]time, cover crops.
[00:56:59.190]So I think there was a good group there
[00:57:02.310]of those that are ready into it.
[00:57:04.710]And those are the farmers actually
[00:57:06.330]that didn't want to add a no cover crop
[00:57:08.640]as part of their treatment comparison.
[00:57:11.880]And we also have farmers who are doing
[00:57:14.880]that for the first time, and those are the ones that agree,
[00:57:17.587]"Okay, I want to have a no cover crop check
[00:57:20.430]because this is a common practice to me."
[00:57:23.163]So think that would be the main aspect I would bring.
[00:57:36.000]Very good presentation.
[00:57:37.530]I know you mentioned that important aspects of farmers
[00:57:42.960]looking to extension folks and so forth for guidance.
[00:57:46.471]But my question is, there's a tremendous industry
[00:57:50.430]within Nebraska with farm advisors
[00:57:53.610]and whatever you might wanna call them,
[00:57:56.220]is there, do you get a feel that there is enough training
[00:58:00.030]for those people to be able to pick up
[00:58:03.780]upon this kind of research
[00:58:05.492]and start incorporating it in their advice
[00:58:09.601]and guidance to growers?
[00:58:12.210]That's a great question.
[00:58:14.610]And in fact, couple weeks ago
[00:58:18.600]I was actually in DC with the Tri Society,
[00:58:23.040]the agronomic crop and soils
[00:58:25.290]advocating for research funding.
[00:58:27.990]And the Farm Bureau is a high topic right at this moment.
[00:58:34.290]And we were discussing that with some of the legislators
[00:58:37.080]as well, how can we have that as part of the Farm Bureau?
[00:58:41.850]We need workforce development,
[00:58:44.010]we need to make sure that we have enough training
[00:58:48.510]on those groups of people,
[00:58:50.130]especially now looking at those carbon markets,
[00:58:52.984]how they're gonna sample those fields
[00:58:55.290]and absolutely the the training is in need,
[00:58:59.580]absolutely, I agree.
[00:59:03.580]Okay, thank you Fernanda.
[00:59:04.950]We are on time to finish.
[00:59:06.893]So I'll just give a round applause.
[00:59:09.811]Thank you.
[00:59:10.867]Your presentation.
[00:59:13.690]And a reminder from next week we have
[00:59:16.020]as our guest speaker Dr. Eduardo Santo,
[00:59:18.938]associate professor in microbiology
[00:59:21.270]from the university, from Kansas State University,
[00:59:23.910]who will be presenting about novel technologies
[00:59:25.950]for monitoring infield
[00:59:28.740]and farm scale greenhouse gas emissions.
[00:59:30.870]So you're all invited from next week in this at 3:30.
[00:59:34.470]Thank you.
[00:59:39.360]Did you have question on the chat?
[00:59:41.594]No.
[00:59:44.505]Great presentation.
[00:59:46.693]Thank you. Thank you.
[00:59:48.450]How about the time? How that works?
[00:59:50.263]Perfect.
[00:59:51.112]Nice job. Thank you.

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Experimentation on Nebraska Farms for Sustaining Soil Health Management

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