The Land-Grant Water & Cropping System Educator – Insights, opportunities, and challenges

Nathan Mueller; Nebraska Extension Water & Cropping Systems Educator Author

11/13/2023 Added

22 Plays

Description

Nebraska Extension has 23 Water & Cropping Systems Educator positions. Gain insights into the roles of an accountability region educator. Learn about opportunities to work with an educator to integrate your research, teaching, and outreach. Nathan will share successes and challenges in working alongside stakeholder groups and university faculty to deliver on the land-grant mission.

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[00:00:00.750]The following presentation
[00:00:02.220]is part of the Agronomy and Horticulture seminar series
[00:00:05.790]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:00:08.310]Good afternoon everyone.
[00:00:09.143]Welcome to the Agronomy and Horticultural Seminar.
[00:00:14.060]We have the pleasure today
[00:00:15.180]of introducing Dr. Nathan Mueller.
[00:00:17.280]He's an extension educator
[00:00:19.080]on water and cropping system area.
[00:00:22.770]He's originally from Fremont, Nebraska.
[00:00:24.390]He got his bachelor's and master's here at UNL,
[00:00:27.780]and then he moved to K-State
[00:00:31.080]for his PhD working in nitrogen management
[00:00:34.020]in wheat and no-till corn systems,
[00:00:36.000]and also with liquid,
[00:00:37.980]started on foliar fertilization
[00:00:39.810]in high yielding irrigated corn.
[00:00:42.510]So he joined UNL,
[00:00:44.280]and he's actively involved in all extension.
[00:00:48.930]I would say social media also has his crop edge website
[00:00:53.820]that pretty much all of you really know.
[00:00:55.430]I was asked not to say too much about him,
[00:00:58.230]because he will have like a little game for all of us.
[00:01:01.710]So anyway,
[00:01:03.030]that's why it's a little bit weird, my introduction.
[00:01:05.010]But yeah, we'll have time at the end for questions as usual.
[00:01:08.100]So just raise your hand at the end
[00:01:09.373]and we can hand the microphone
[00:01:11.100]for all the online audience.
[00:01:13.320]So with that, the floor is yours.
[00:01:16.440]All right, thanks, Guillermo.
[00:01:19.020]So welcome everybody
[00:01:21.000]to the Friday afternoon agronomy seminar.
[00:01:24.060]Very happy to join this.
[00:01:25.080]This was what I consider my home department.
[00:01:27.090]I did my bachelor's and master's here.
[00:01:29.760]So when thinking about my talk,
[00:01:32.820]I thought about going into content, agronomic content
[00:01:35.940]that I share with farmers
[00:01:36.960]and I said, wait a minute, let's talk about working together
[00:01:40.890]and how we can work together in the land grant system.
[00:01:42.987]And so the title of my talk is
[00:01:44.610]the Land-Grant Water and Cropping Systems
[00:01:46.380]Extension Educator.
[00:01:47.250]I really wanna cover three things.
[00:01:49.590]Insights, opportunities and challenges.
[00:01:52.290]Okay.
[00:01:53.225]So I'm gonna treat you a little bit like
[00:01:55.620]my typical farmer audience.
[00:01:57.810]Low tech interaction has worked out really well for me yet.
[00:02:01.500]So Aaron, one of my colleagues introduced me to this.
[00:02:04.040]So I have a scratch card.
[00:02:05.340]Everybody loves scratch cards,
[00:02:06.540]especially when there's money involved.
[00:02:08.640]Today, the money involved is one penny, though.
[00:02:10.590]So don't get too excited.
[00:02:12.690]So essentially I'll have five questions
[00:02:14.400]that'll be a pre and post seminar.
[00:02:18.750]So that's what's in front of you.
[00:02:21.480]Some people like to know where we're going though, too.
[00:02:23.730]Okay, so besides the scratch card,
[00:02:25.140]if you want a big picture overview
[00:02:26.520]of where we're going in the talk.
[00:02:27.990]A little bit about myself,
[00:02:29.220]we'll cover insights into Nebraska Extension system
[00:02:32.670]as well as the specific water and cropping systems,
[00:02:35.340]extension educators, opportunities
[00:02:37.500]and successes that I've had in this role.
[00:02:39.780]But also challenges.
[00:02:41.160]And then I'm not gonna just address challenges
[00:02:42.960]without coming up with or coming up
[00:02:44.850]or mentioning suggested solutions.
[00:02:47.250]So I'll give us some ideas of maybe
[00:02:48.720]how we move forward in terms of integrating better research,
[00:02:52.350]teaching and extension.
[00:02:53.820]So Charlie will appreciate this.
[00:02:56.760]I have two outcomes or impacts that I want from the top.
[00:02:59.910]So there you'll see on the top right,
[00:03:02.460]here's the seminar,
[00:03:03.720]I wanna have increased awareness of the audience
[00:03:07.260]of what a WCS Extension Educator is and does.
[00:03:10.860]And then I hope that you will take some of this information
[00:03:13.740]and decide to reach out to one of our extension educators.
[00:03:17.640]We have qualified new educators.
[00:03:19.890]You can reach out to me,
[00:03:21.150]introduce yourself, that's fine.
[00:03:22.680]But we have 10 new crops educators
[00:03:24.990]since 2020, the start of 2020.
[00:03:27.630]So there's a lot of new folks in the system,
[00:03:29.160]which means there's also a lot of new opportunities.
[00:03:33.990]Okay, so grab out your scratch cards.
[00:03:36.210]I encourage you to work with your neighbor,
[00:03:37.920]so I essentially put enough for four people.
[00:03:40.560]So work with one other person on the scratch card.
[00:03:43.320]Whoever does the scratching gets to keep the penny, though.
[00:03:46.530]Okay?
[00:03:48.300]So for those of you who are online,
[00:03:52.800]I have a Qualtrics link there.
[00:03:54.720]So it's go.unl.edu/pre-seminar.
[00:03:58.860]Also the QR code.
[00:04:00.990]For in the room, scratch cards.
[00:04:02.490]Online, Qualtrics.
[00:04:06.570]So I'll pause just a second
[00:04:07.920]for those online to get out their phones if they're sitting
[00:04:10.410]at their office or home office or typing that in.
[00:04:14.280]It's mobile friendly, so you can do it on your phone
[00:04:16.880]or your iPad too, if you're joining from online.
[00:04:24.420]Okay, first question, that's why I asked
[00:04:26.940]not to be introduced too much.
[00:04:28.890]Nathan's geographic accountability region is either
[00:04:31.800]A, Saline County.
[00:04:32.970]B Gage, Jefferson, and Saline counties.
[00:04:35.550]C, Southeast Nebraska.
[00:04:37.020]Or D, statewide.
[00:04:39.450]So grab that penny, mark, A, B, C, or D.
[00:04:42.330]If you get it right, there's gonna be a star.
[00:04:46.230]If you get it wrong, no star.
[00:04:49.050]For those of you online, you just pick A, B, C, or D.
[00:04:52.620]We'll go over these same questions at the end
[00:04:54.360]and I'll give you the answers online.
[00:04:55.770]So the advantage, if you're in the room,
[00:04:57.510]you get a find out if you were right or not
[00:04:59.340]from the get go.
[00:05:02.160]Five bucks.
[00:05:12.360]These are quick hitting, so make a choice.
[00:05:14.040]There's no downside to getting these wrong.
[00:05:15.900]I collect them, but I don't have your names on 'em,
[00:05:17.640]so I don't know how well you did or not.
[00:05:19.140]So there's no pride involved here.
[00:05:21.690]It's just for me to kind of know
[00:05:23.100]where I started and where we ended.
[00:05:25.770]Question number two.
[00:05:27.150]Water and Cropping Systems Extension Educators
[00:05:29.550]work with which of the following partners?
[00:05:32.010]Local NRDS.
[00:05:33.314]USDA-NRCs.
[00:05:34.740]Local commodity associations.
[00:05:36.420]Or all of the above?
[00:05:56.160]Going once.
[00:05:58.020]Going twice.
[00:06:01.380]Question number three.
[00:06:02.640]Nathan is known as a regional expert
[00:06:04.680]in which of the following areas?
[00:06:07.080]Weed and management and pesticide use
[00:06:09.780]B, pasture management and plant ID.
[00:06:12.270]C, winter wheat and soil fertility.
[00:06:13.860]Or D, sorghum and sunflower management.
[00:06:30.390]Right?
[00:06:31.223]Question number four.
[00:06:33.660]Water and Cropping System Extension Educators
[00:06:36.330]are weekly reporters for USDA during the growing season
[00:06:40.410]for which of the following?
[00:06:41.820]Crop progress and conditions.
[00:06:43.440]Noxious weeds.
[00:06:44.490]US drought monitor.
[00:06:45.600]Or water quality.
[00:06:47.160]What report do they fill out weekly for USDA?
[00:07:14.650]Okay, we're gonna move on.
[00:07:15.810]Last question.
[00:07:17.100]Five questions at the beginning.
[00:07:18.180]Five at the end.
[00:07:20.190]There are how many Nebraska Extension
[00:07:23.310]Water and Cropping Systems Accountability Region Educators
[00:07:27.330]or regions in Nebraska?
[00:07:28.920]23, 24, 37 or 11?
[00:07:47.730]I have to ask.
[00:07:50.430]And I asked, I started this a couple years ago.
[00:07:52.680]I was down in Fairbury giving a required pesticide training.
[00:07:55.800]So the farmers have to take the training every three years.
[00:07:58.110]And they have to sit through the whole training.
[00:08:00.210]But I made the deal.
[00:08:01.043]If anybody got all five right
[00:08:02.970]at the beginning, they could leave.
[00:08:06.420]Thought that was really safe until Fairbury
[00:08:08.367]and one person got all five right.
[00:08:10.590]And I had to break the news,
[00:08:11.700]and said actually, I can't let you leave.
[00:08:13.440]I'll get in trouble with the Nebraska Department of Ag.
[00:08:16.170]So I no longer offer that.
[00:08:18.090]At my trainings, I offer,
[00:08:19.260]if you get all five right
[00:08:20.700]at the end of the training, you get to leave.
[00:08:25.920]So you can set those aside.
[00:08:27.180]We'll come back to those at the end of the seminar.
[00:08:28.860]Same thing.
[00:08:29.693]I'll show a new Qualtrics forum for those online
[00:08:32.310]to answer the same five questions at the end.
[00:08:35.970]So a little bit about myself.
[00:08:38.070]Originally from the Fremont or Hooper area,
[00:08:40.560]if you know Jordan Larsson,
[00:08:41.670]she also is from Hooper
[00:08:43.230]and we know if you're from Hooper,
[00:08:44.430]if you say it wrong, which is Hooper.
[00:08:46.200]Okay.
[00:08:47.100]So grew up on a family farm there.
[00:08:50.220]Actually the farm started in 1872,
[00:08:53.820]1 year actually before things started here
[00:08:55.890]at the farm on East campus in 1873.
[00:08:58.380]So long history of crop production in my family.
[00:09:01.980]My cousin is the one currently running the operation,
[00:09:04.200]as well as my dad and two uncles.
[00:09:06.060]So grew up on a farm background, we had a dairy
[00:09:09.450]as well as the row crops.
[00:09:11.310]I was deciding what to do and I liked the crops
[00:09:13.350]a lot more than the dairy.
[00:09:15.210]I thought there might be a little bit more free time
[00:09:17.640]in the agronomy world than in the dairy world.
[00:09:20.190]So that's the direction I went here.
[00:09:22.470]I did my bachelor's and master's here at UNL.
[00:09:27.180]My undergraduate was in agronomy with a minor in soils.
[00:09:30.390]My master's was kind of on the environmental side
[00:09:32.940]with Wagon Train watershed,
[00:09:34.140]looking at non-point source pollution
[00:09:36.690]in the watershed just south of Lincoln.
[00:09:38.130]And my major advisor was Martha Mamo,
[00:09:40.170]now the department head.
[00:09:41.550]So I worked with her,
[00:09:42.930]then went and worked for
[00:09:44.370]the Indiana State Department of Ag
[00:09:46.200]in soil conservation in northwest Indiana,
[00:09:48.990]covering 11 counties.
[00:09:51.000]Pretty much from Lafayette up to Chicago
[00:09:53.520]while my wife went to Purdue.
[00:09:54.570]We finished there, did my PhD at K-State in Soil Fertility,
[00:09:58.230]with Dorivar Ruiz Diaz in Micronutrients.
[00:10:01.018]As well as kind of the interactions of weeds
[00:10:04.200]and nutrient or nitrogen cycling.
[00:10:06.600]So kind my background.
[00:10:08.310]After my PhD, I was an extension specialist,
[00:10:10.800]like many of you in the room.
[00:10:12.360]So I covered the whole state of South Dakota
[00:10:13.890]for a number of crops,
[00:10:15.210]as well as the variety testing program.
[00:10:17.040]Those were kind of lumped together, which was great.
[00:10:19.170]Having technicians and equipment right away,
[00:10:21.780]but it was also a heavier lift right away.
[00:10:24.000]So was up there, had the opportunity to move back home.
[00:10:27.480]Really enjoyed the extension part of my research
[00:10:30.360]and extension role, interacting with producers.
[00:10:33.180]As an extension specialist,
[00:10:34.530]I had a lot more time wrapped up in technicians
[00:10:37.440]and grad students than I envisioned
[00:10:39.120]and not as much time with farmers.
[00:10:40.770]And so the a hundred percent extension role here
[00:10:43.200]back in Nebraska is what I moved to in 2014.
[00:10:47.220]Actually where I grew up in Fremont,
[00:10:49.920]covering Dodge in Washington for Ag technology.
[00:10:52.830]So it was really partnered with Joe Luck in BSE.
[00:10:55.830]Then in 2015, we'll talk about,
[00:10:57.450]we changed the structure
[00:10:58.830]of extension and moved kind of from the ag agent model
[00:11:02.610]to accountability regions, general cropping system.
[00:11:05.430]Still did a lot with ag technology.
[00:11:08.250]And then for essentially since 2014 to 2019 was in Fremont.
[00:11:12.150]And now I'm down in Wilbur covering Saline,
[00:11:14.430]Jefferson, and Gage County,
[00:11:16.170]if you're wondering counties.
[00:11:17.100]And we'll cover that a little bit more.
[00:11:18.270]Saline, Jefferson, and Gage County
[00:11:20.160]for cropping or water and cropping systems
[00:11:22.980]from 2020 till now.
[00:11:26.250]So that covers essentially where I'm from.
[00:11:28.140]The diploma in the middle is degrees,
[00:11:29.790]and the the suitcase or the briefcase
[00:11:32.400]was jobs or roles.
[00:11:35.910]So some insights into my role.
[00:11:38.730]I am gonna send out, ask for a request.
[00:11:41.640]I think it would be fantastic.
[00:11:43.890]We have weekly crops calls or biweekly crops calls.
[00:11:47.100]And then monthly here in the winter.
[00:11:48.480]I think it would be great for an extension specialist,
[00:11:51.090]maybe even someone with research teaching to join our group
[00:11:54.270]of extension educators who meet regularly
[00:11:56.460]to explain a little bit more about their roles.
[00:11:58.440]I think context and understanding
[00:12:00.150]how people spend their day, what they spend it on,
[00:12:02.340]makes it a lot easier to be an understanding team member
[00:12:06.330]in what the demands are of different roles in our system.
[00:12:09.180]So that's kind of why I decided to go
[00:12:11.790]and cover some of the things today.
[00:12:14.460]So context of extension, let's rewind back to 1914.
[00:12:18.540]We have the Smith-Lever Act
[00:12:19.680]that provided federal support
[00:12:21.840]for land-grant universities
[00:12:23.220]to establish Cooperative Extension,
[00:12:25.200]which is now called Nebraska Extension.
[00:12:27.600]Okay.
[00:12:28.511]The three main things
[00:12:30.150]that cooperative extension goals
[00:12:31.860]initially were vocational learning, agricultural learning,
[00:12:35.550]and home economics.
[00:12:37.260]Okay.
[00:12:38.093]Fast forward now to 2023.
[00:12:39.990]Nebraska Extension has eight program areas.
[00:12:43.200]We have 93 counties in Nebraska.
[00:12:44.910]We have 83 county offices
[00:12:46.950]and as of my count, we have 157 educators
[00:12:50.880]spread around the state in those eight program areas.
[00:12:53.880]Okay.
[00:12:55.080]We also have additional statewide educators.
[00:12:57.030]Some of those are housed in departments here.
[00:12:59.160]For example, like Chris Proctor's role.
[00:13:02.760]And then we also have local assistants
[00:13:04.650]descending on the program areas.
[00:13:06.210]So for example, 4-H, well-known aspects of extension.
[00:13:10.380]For example, in Saline County,
[00:13:11.700]we have a county paid 4-H assistant
[00:13:15.480]that money routes to UNL and then UNL pays her.
[00:13:17.970]So it's a county funded position.
[00:13:20.220]So that's where we have quite a few assistants
[00:13:21.900]in different program areas.
[00:13:22.860]So in terms of educators in those eight program areas,
[00:13:25.710]rural prosperity,
[00:13:27.240]which is really rural vitality
[00:13:29.100]is another way to look at that.
[00:13:30.450]We have 11 educator positions there.
[00:13:33.120]Food, nutrition, health and nutrition education program.
[00:13:36.390]We have 22 and 5.
[00:13:37.800]Early childhood, we have 14
[00:13:40.530]4-H youth development, we have 48 educators.
[00:13:42.870]And then what I'm still dealing with educational wise
[00:13:46.470]and awareness wise with local constituencies,
[00:13:49.320]they still think of most people in extension
[00:13:51.900]as the ag agent.
[00:13:53.220]Ag agent no longer exists in the Nebraska model per se.
[00:13:56.778]It really is represented by actually four main areas.
[00:14:00.510]So we have our livestock system educators,
[00:14:02.280]there's 16 of those.
[00:14:03.840]Horticulture, landscape, environmental systems, 14.
[00:14:07.260]Ag profitability, 4,
[00:14:08.580]And then water and cropping systems, 23.
[00:14:10.530]So regularly, I get beef questions to me,
[00:14:12.960]ag economic questions,
[00:14:14.610]and then I politely refer them on
[00:14:16.980]to my colleagues to answer their questions.
[00:14:18.690]And I hope that my colleagues in horticulture
[00:14:20.790]would also send the agronomy questions to me,
[00:14:22.890]which they do.
[00:14:24.000]So a little bit different structure.
[00:14:25.590]And so we're still educating our audiences
[00:14:29.040]about the change in structure since 2015.
[00:14:33.480]So besides learning a little bit about yourself,
[00:14:35.700]I'm gonna spend just a little bit of time
[00:14:37.320]talking about some of my colleagues.
[00:14:39.180]So there is, on that scratch card question, there is 23
[00:14:43.380]water and cropping system educator
[00:14:45.720]accountability regions in the state.
[00:14:48.647]I love these PDFs.
[00:14:51.000]These are updated regularly.
[00:14:52.530]We also have an interactive map at epd.unl.edu.
[00:14:56.700]That's essentially our directory.
[00:14:58.590]Just like you have a faculty directory on your
[00:15:01.230]agronomy and horticulture department website.
[00:15:05.730]In terms of new educators though, since end of 2019,
[00:15:09.030]we have 10 new accountability region educators.
[00:15:12.360]Okay, and a lot of those are just in the past,
[00:15:14.220]probably year.
[00:15:15.270]We also have created five new statewide educator positions.
[00:15:18.750]And those are new.
[00:15:20.430]Five of those positions
[00:15:21.480]are new since the end of 2019 as well.
[00:15:23.970]So some of you might recognize some of the faces on here,
[00:15:27.240]some of them might be new to you.
[00:15:29.430]One of my requests is, you know,
[00:15:31.350]look at our directory.
[00:15:32.400]I'll talk a little bit about the directory here.
[00:15:34.530]Reach out to some of these folks
[00:15:36.480]that you maybe haven't met yet.
[00:15:38.580]I'm sure they would love to talk to you
[00:15:40.980]about what they're doing locally,
[00:15:42.330]and maybe even some opportunities obviously,
[00:15:44.190]to work with each other.
[00:15:45.990]So for example, my background,
[00:15:49.740]we'll talk a little bit about winter wheat,
[00:15:51.240]but my background's soil fertility.
[00:15:52.800]Okay, so I do a lot of programming
[00:15:54.960]with extension specialists in that space.
[00:15:57.210]Also work on winter wheat.
[00:15:58.770]So my colleagues will refer,
[00:16:00.180]or some my fellow crops educators
[00:16:02.730]will refer wheat questions
[00:16:04.290]from their accountability regions.
[00:16:05.940]Same thing.
[00:16:06.773]If I get a pretty technical question
[00:16:08.670]on irrigation pumping on an irrigation system,
[00:16:12.090]I often refer that to Steve Melvin,
[00:16:13.980]and he's in Nance, Merrick, and Hamilton.
[00:16:16.890]So that happens pretty regularly.
[00:16:18.720]We lean on each other's background
[00:16:20.610]and expertise in the system.
[00:16:23.160]Same thing.
[00:16:24.240]If I had an ag technology question,
[00:16:26.952]I might refer that actually to our statewide
[00:16:29.550]digital ag extension educator,
[00:16:31.530]Dirk Charleston, if it was something
[00:16:33.000]that I wasn't familiar with.
[00:16:34.080]So we're the front door at the local level.
[00:16:37.140]In terms of traffic,
[00:16:38.730]we can cover this Q and A,
[00:16:40.620]I'm not sure what you get as extension specialist,
[00:16:43.020]but I'm about to 450 one-on-one questions
[00:16:45.990]from clientele this year.
[00:16:47.490]Last year was about at 600.
[00:16:48.960]So pretty much have a call every day from a producer,
[00:16:52.470]usually in Saline, Jefferson, Gage,
[00:16:53.820]but when it comes to winter wheat,
[00:16:56.250]we'll talk a little bit more about that reach there.
[00:16:59.970]So we have tons of people.
[00:17:01.680]What's really interesting, we'll talk about it
[00:17:03.300]for grad student committees,
[00:17:04.470]but quite a few of our extension educators
[00:17:06.570]have PhDs like myself.
[00:17:08.310]And so a huge opportunity, even if they don't,
[00:17:11.563]but to easily, with the graduate school
[00:17:13.680]to submit some easy paperwork
[00:17:15.570]to be a part of graduate committees.
[00:17:17.670]So it's something I've definitely enjoyed
[00:17:19.590]and I think some of my colleagues would
[00:17:22.350]enjoy the opportunity, too.
[00:17:23.910]So again, we've had educators that have probably been here
[00:17:26.550]for, oh, almost, you know, 25 years.
[00:17:30.420]And then again, people that are just starting.
[00:17:34.950]So on our extension directory with the epd.unl.edu,
[00:17:38.910]there's a little bit of background about each of us.
[00:17:41.627]Our contact information,
[00:17:43.110]and then right at the bottom here,
[00:17:45.330]subject matter keywords.
[00:17:46.770]So that's a searchable feature in this directory
[00:17:49.530]for clientele, saying, hey,
[00:17:51.330]I want somebody to talk soil health.
[00:17:53.340]Who comes up?
[00:17:54.173]Or if I wanna talk soybean gommage,
[00:17:55.555]I don't know if that's in there, Justin, but it could be.
[00:17:58.410]Right?
[00:17:59.243]And you would populate up in this keyword search.
[00:18:01.980]And so if you're looking at your area of research
[00:18:05.550]and teaching and extension, you'll be able to search
[00:18:08.280]a lot of our educators and see
[00:18:09.660]who kind of focuses in that area as well.
[00:18:11.970]And then it populates what counties they cover.
[00:18:14.130]So you can see down there in red,
[00:18:15.870]Saline, Jefferson, and Gage County,
[00:18:17.550]just south and west of Lincoln here.
[00:18:21.240]So we talked at our WCS hub meeting.
[00:18:25.080]Some of you I know were there on Tuesday downtown
[00:18:27.750]about what's your research impact statements.
[00:18:29.940]That was one of the sessions which I really appreciated.
[00:18:32.550]So we have the same thing as extension educators.
[00:18:35.190]The current impacts or outcomes that we have
[00:18:37.920]as water and cropping systems extension educators,
[00:18:40.410]there's five of them.
[00:18:41.520]First is improving profitability
[00:18:43.020]and sustainability of farm operations.
[00:18:45.060]Reduce environmental risk associated with crop production.
[00:18:48.244]Encourage resource stewardship of natural resources.
[00:18:51.540]Enhance resiliency of cropping systems
[00:18:53.400]to climate variability.
[00:18:54.720]And last, expand consumer awareness
[00:18:56.430]of Nebraska crop production systems.
[00:18:58.140]So hopefully most of you in the room, I guarantee you,
[00:19:01.680]some of your work is gonna fall within
[00:19:03.750]one of those five impact areas for the most part, right?
[00:19:06.343]I see some nods in the room.
[00:19:07.950]So hopefully there's already overlap
[00:19:09.840]in terms of what you're teaching
[00:19:11.820]or research goals or impacts are.
[00:19:14.280]As well as the same ones that we have in extension.
[00:19:16.680]And so there's already common ground to lean on
[00:19:19.680]and pursue opportunities to work with each other.
[00:19:25.530]Day-to-day tasks and things that,
[00:19:27.780]how do we get to those five outcome areas,
[00:19:30.390]have impact, measurable outcomes in those five areas.
[00:19:33.300]So these would be, I would say are the nine tasks
[00:19:36.900]that are in our job description
[00:19:38.190]as water and cropping systems extension educators.
[00:19:40.530]So innovation and technology and programming.
[00:19:44.370]So today we're on Zoom.
[00:19:46.350]I also have Qualtrics.
[00:19:47.460]I also have a hard copy scratch card right?
[00:19:49.560]So we're using a whole bunch
[00:19:50.490]of different technologies, okay?
[00:19:52.650]Collaborative learning with farmers.
[00:19:55.080]I get reached out to a lot by researchers on campus.
[00:19:57.870]Hey, I need a farmer in this type of scenario
[00:20:00.690]that might have soybean cyst nematode at a high number.
[00:20:03.420]Do you have a location?
[00:20:04.320]A farmer you might know.
[00:20:05.550]Okay.
[00:20:06.383]So there's some of the collaborative learning
[00:20:08.580]that I bring to the table in terms of farmers
[00:20:10.680]and networking I have that I can bring
[00:20:12.300]to people on campus.
[00:20:14.190]We have local geography that we serve.
[00:20:16.140]Those accountability regions, those 23 across the state.
[00:20:18.960]But we also,
[00:20:19.860]there's an expectation that we work together
[00:20:22.800]with people across the university system to encourage
[00:20:26.730]and have statewide engagement,
[00:20:28.530]especially in our different focus areas or backgrounds.
[00:20:32.670]Number four, multidisciplinary teams
[00:20:35.940]to translate the latest research-based information.
[00:20:38.820]I think that's one of the successes.
[00:20:40.740]But also one of the challenges that we'll talk about.
[00:20:43.339]In entrepreneurial practices.
[00:20:46.800]Just like you, everybody's talking about budgets
[00:20:49.110]in the extension world.
[00:20:51.000]How do we fund things?
[00:20:52.230]How do we offer what historically
[00:20:54.300]may have been free programs?
[00:20:55.680]They have never been free,
[00:20:56.760]which I preach, it's Charlie's comment.
[00:20:58.830]They may have been sponsored
[00:21:01.020]by some of our partners, or fee-based.
[00:21:03.900]But there is a kind of a view
[00:21:06.390]from some of our constituents
[00:21:07.830]that historically those have been free.
[00:21:09.450]And that probably was the wrong messaging.
[00:21:11.670]Somebody had to pay for it.
[00:21:12.810]So number six is partnering
[00:21:15.360]with research faculty and action-research, okay.
[00:21:18.750]And how we've relay that,
[00:21:20.670]we currently have quite a few people
[00:21:23.400]with some on-farm research
[00:21:24.630]looking at cover crops and nitrogen.
[00:21:26.970]That's action-research.
[00:21:28.290]If you're looking at phenotyping plants, for the most part,
[00:21:33.030]that's probably not gonna be
[00:21:34.620]probably the best fit for some of
[00:21:36.540]what I would consider our normal action-research.
[00:21:38.610]That might be the spider cam phenotyping
[00:21:41.790]that's going on up at Eastern Nebraska Research Center,
[00:21:45.480]or at Innovation campus.
[00:21:48.270]Seven, professional extension scholarship.
[00:21:50.280]Best management practices.
[00:21:51.720]So guess what?
[00:21:52.860]Some of that is right here.
[00:21:53.970]Pre and post tests.
[00:21:54.930]I'm looking at learning,
[00:21:56.340]I'll probably follow up with a survey six months from now.
[00:21:59.100]Ask Kay in the department to share.
[00:22:03.360]Not only looking at situational awareness,
[00:22:06.480]programming, looking at the impact of that program,
[00:22:09.060]and then reevaluating.
[00:22:10.230]Right, that whole process of programming.
[00:22:12.420]Professional development.
[00:22:13.830]I'll be spending actually just next week
[00:22:15.780]at the American Society of Agronomy Conference
[00:22:17.700]or Tri-Societies,
[00:22:19.260]exactly on that, on the content side.
[00:22:21.480]And then number nine is supporting youth programming
[00:22:24.150]in the area of crops and water.
[00:22:28.860]So some other insights, some partnerships
[00:22:31.380]that we have at the local level across the state.
[00:22:34.140]We're very fortunate here in Nebraska to essentially
[00:22:38.340]coordinate the US drought monitor, US wide.
[00:22:41.100]I was recently in Hawaii.
[00:22:42.420]And guess what?
[00:22:43.290]There was no waterfall at the waterfall
[00:22:44.970]that we were supposed to swim under
[00:22:46.440]because they're in a drought.
[00:22:47.610]Okay, and the US drought monitor
[00:22:49.350]monitors drought conditions in Hawaii
[00:22:51.870]from here in Nebraska through coordination.
[00:22:53.670]So I provide local weekly reports
[00:22:56.700]if I have think something's changed.
[00:22:59.130]And so then the drought authors take that into consideration
[00:23:02.250]as well as their other data layers
[00:23:04.680]to update this map each Thursday.
[00:23:07.410]Well, it's updated on Tuesdays,
[00:23:09.120]and it's released on Thursdays each week.
[00:23:11.820]Okay.
[00:23:12.750]Weekly USDA Crop Reports.
[00:23:14.700]So those are the ones
[00:23:15.840]that you receive released on Monday afternoons each week
[00:23:18.360]that people in the marketing world in agriculture look at,
[00:23:21.810]'cause it looks at what are the conditions of the crop
[00:23:24.270]each week throughout the growing season.
[00:23:26.040]So I submit every Monday morning what I rate
[00:23:30.600]all of our crops in Saline, Jefferson, and Gage county.
[00:23:33.150]And then my colleagues do the same across the state.
[00:23:35.220]We're probably one of the largest groups
[00:23:37.110]in Nebraska submitting those reports.
[00:23:38.700]But FSA and some other people do submit
[00:23:41.100]local reports as well.
[00:23:42.660]And so we get a statewide average.
[00:23:45.150]That really came in handy.
[00:23:46.920]What's going on now with the drought?
[00:23:49.680]FSA, Farm Service Agency, is asking us
[00:23:52.620]for grazing loss assessments.
[00:23:54.030]They're asking now after the fact.
[00:23:56.370]Right?
[00:23:57.203]You know, 'cause grazing season was
[00:23:58.200]April 15th to October 15th.
[00:24:00.270]But I actually used my weekly pasture
[00:24:02.940]and range condition numbers over the past four years
[00:24:05.820]to try to get at maybe what the grazing loss was this year.
[00:24:09.810]We also have local working groups.
[00:24:11.280]So that's actually Nebraska Extension.
[00:24:13.560]USDA-NRCS,
[00:24:15.240]and the Natural Resource District
[00:24:16.920]meet yearly in those NRDs to look at priorities
[00:24:20.730]in terms of conservation and cost share.
[00:24:22.500]So I have had an influence saying, hey,
[00:24:25.500]if you want less atrazine in the streams,
[00:24:27.810]maybe have some incentives for alfalfa and wheat.
[00:24:30.510]We don't use atrazine in those two crops, right?
[00:24:33.120]That's a herbicide that we use in corn production.
[00:24:35.220]So there's been some influences
[00:24:37.080]that we can have there at the local level.
[00:24:39.660]We also partner with NRD quite a bit
[00:24:41.820]on some of their trainings in our phase two
[00:24:44.040]or three areas, which are high groundwater nitrate areas,
[00:24:47.370]to partner with them on education.
[00:24:49.110]And then we also work
[00:24:50.610]with our local commodity association.
[00:24:52.230]So in my area we have a local Corn Growers Association
[00:24:55.500]that represents the three counties.
[00:24:56.790]They have a corn plot each year.
[00:24:59.460]They have what I would call a tester
[00:25:01.320]that shows up repeatedly through the plot.
[00:25:03.810]Not true replication, but they asked me to analyze that
[00:25:07.080]and help 'em put together with a report.
[00:25:08.730]So simple things like that.
[00:25:12.540]Okay.
[00:25:13.373]That kind of moves from insights into some of what
[00:25:16.680]water and cropping systems educators do,
[00:25:18.780]who we are, where we're located.
[00:25:21.270]Some of the contributions we make
[00:25:23.880]and partners we work with.
[00:25:26.910]I wanna talk a little bit about some opportunities
[00:25:28.920]and successes I've had.
[00:25:30.000]I've now been in this role
[00:25:30.870]almost for nine and a half years,
[00:25:32.250]which is crazy how time flies.
[00:25:35.160]So I started to take a look just at my numbers.
[00:25:38.040]I've been here almost 10 years,
[00:25:39.330]it'll be 10 years this coming June.
[00:25:41.970]And so these are my numbers of through my program reach
[00:25:45.690]of contacts I've had with learners.
[00:25:48.360]Okay.
[00:25:49.260]So what's a learner and contacts?
[00:25:51.570]Contacts would be if a farmer comes to a program,
[00:25:56.250]let's say alfalfa and wheat expo,
[00:25:57.690]that Bob that you've spoke at,
[00:25:59.580]that would be one contact.
[00:26:00.900]If they come to another program a month later,
[00:26:03.330]that's a another contact, right?
[00:26:05.100]It's a separate engagement.
[00:26:06.630]So some of these contacts might represent the same person
[00:26:10.140]multiple times through the year
[00:26:11.490]through different extension programs.
[00:26:12.960]So started in 2014, halfway through the year,
[00:26:16.640]it was just under a thousand
[00:26:18.510]and have steadily grown my reach,
[00:26:21.090]I think strategically trying to work smarter, not harder
[00:26:25.530]to almost about 3500 this year.
[00:26:28.260]Okay.
[00:26:29.093]And so that's not standalone my programming
[00:26:31.470]that's working with everybody I work with.
[00:26:34.440]So some of these are the crop production clinics
[00:26:37.230]that Chris and staff here
[00:26:38.610]in the agronomy department coordinate.
[00:26:41.160]But I help identify speakers, help host a local room.
[00:26:44.910]So the 30 people in that room that I spoke to,
[00:26:48.390]in terms of the agronomy that would be, you know,
[00:26:51.540]those contacts or those learners.
[00:26:53.100]So don't think that this is,
[00:26:55.290]this is Nathan Mueller's contacts,
[00:26:56.880]this is Nathan Mueller's contacts through Nebraska Extension
[00:27:00.420]and the university system, right?
[00:27:06.240]So the summary of that last slide.
[00:27:08.130]It takes time, right?
[00:27:10.620]And it takes time to build relationships.
[00:27:13.003]Probably the impact that I've had in terms of
[00:27:18.270]changing what's happening on the farm
[00:27:19.890]that might have a positive impact on their environment,
[00:27:22.650]on their bottom line, on their profitability,
[00:27:24.990]on their sustainability, are usually producers that
[00:27:27.720]contact me or attend our programs regularly.
[00:27:30.390]Right, so I have a sustained relationship.
[00:27:32.340]I know their name, I know what they look like, they call me,
[00:27:35.340]they text me, very few walk in the door anymore.
[00:27:38.220]They want me to come out to their farm, to their field.
[00:27:41.370]So building trusted relationships has probably been
[00:27:44.580]the number one way that I've actually expanded
[00:27:47.100]my reach over time.
[00:27:48.810]And because they trust somebody, they talk to
[00:27:51.300]another farmer at coffee and then that farmer calls me.
[00:27:54.450]And so there's indirect reach that I get
[00:27:57.630]through sustained relationships with local producers.
[00:27:59.940]So one thing that I usually like to use,
[00:28:04.620]and I started doing this in 2018,
[00:28:08.460]is the same thing you guys,
[00:28:09.990]Justin talked about earlier this week.
[00:28:11.790]That situation awareness, talking to producers, agronomists,
[00:28:15.360]what are your needs, right?
[00:28:17.367]And so one way I do that indirectly though, people call me
[00:28:20.550]with a couple hundred questions a year
[00:28:22.680]and if I capture all that information why they called,
[00:28:25.740]what their question was,
[00:28:27.780]then I have essentially a very good situational awareness
[00:28:30.840]of what the needs are locally.
[00:28:32.850]So when I work with my staff
[00:28:34.590]in the three counties I cover,
[00:28:35.850]and you can see that's in yellow,
[00:28:36.900]that's my accountability region there at the bottom
[00:28:39.510]is I have in Microsoft Teams
[00:28:41.340]a essentially live client tracking sheet.
[00:28:44.490]So that staff and a phone call comes in,
[00:28:47.610]the grower might have a question on safety
[00:28:51.030]of grazing sorghum now,
[00:28:53.580]with these freezes coming up with prussic acid
[00:28:55.890]for example.
[00:28:56.790]So the support staff in Jefferson County
[00:28:59.370]would put in the tracking sheet.
[00:29:00.300]And then I call that grower when I have time.
[00:29:02.610]'cause when I was at a conference all day on Tuesday,
[00:29:05.280]I'm not gonna be able to call anybody back.
[00:29:06.750]But then they know that they're gonna get responded to.
[00:29:09.270]It's a way to make sure that I don't miss anybody,
[00:29:12.060]'cause before I did this, when it was phone calls,
[00:29:14.070]text and emails,
[00:29:15.390]sometimes I missed somebody in getting back to.
[00:29:17.580]So it's also accountability for me.
[00:29:19.620]But it's also tracking.
[00:29:20.490]So we ask when they, what date they called,
[00:29:23.010]what county they were in, who the contact person was
[00:29:25.350]that took that call.
[00:29:26.670]Could be me directly.
[00:29:29.400]Who they were,
[00:29:30.330]their contact information, whether it's phone or or walk-in.
[00:29:36.150]And then I have another one on there,
[00:29:38.790]how many minutes it took me,
[00:29:41.070]and then when I got back to them.
[00:29:42.480]So I can count of how much time like a lawyer,
[00:29:44.940]how much time I spent one-on-one with clients.
[00:29:47.790]And so once I got in the habit of this, it really wasn't
[00:29:49.860]that time consuming.
[00:29:50.790]Initially, it was trying to figure out a system.
[00:29:53.160]So if I look over the past three and a half years,
[00:29:55.680]I've worked one-on-one with clients,
[00:29:57.399]roughly over 1800 people.
[00:30:01.320]Or contacts, I should say.
[00:30:02.520]1800 contacts, one-on-one.
[00:30:04.500]When I add that up, that's been 462 hours
[00:30:08.250]over the last three and a half years.
[00:30:09.450]If I look at my time commitment, my biggest program in terms
[00:30:13.020]of a time commitment is not putting on a local program
[00:30:16.590]or coordinating with the agronomy department
[00:30:18.600]for CPCs or anything.
[00:30:21.300]It's at least five, six weeks of my year is one-on-one time.
[00:30:26.220]Okay.
[00:30:27.437]And usually some of those minutes
[00:30:28.920]come with site visits, not just one-on-one.
[00:30:32.280]Some of those minutes are then saying,
[00:30:34.140]hey, I don't know your answer.
[00:30:36.480]And it's always best
[00:30:37.740]to say if you don't know, you don't know.
[00:30:39.480]And then I'll get on the phone and call Darren Redfearn.
[00:30:41.400]'cause it's a forage question.
[00:30:42.330]I'd say that's my most frequent call
[00:30:43.650]to a specialist lately is Darren.
[00:30:46.320]And so then I talk to Darren, then I call the grower back.
[00:30:49.140]Okay.
[00:30:49.973]And the reason I do that,
[00:30:50.806]'cause a lot of times
[00:30:51.639]versus just refer 'em to the specialist is
[00:30:53.790]because I need to learn myself, right?
[00:30:55.980]I'm always learning.
[00:30:57.000]And that's the one thing, as one of my Gallup strengths.
[00:31:00.330]My number one thing is a learner.
[00:31:01.980]And so I really appreciate the job
[00:31:03.510]'cause I'm learning every day something new.
[00:31:06.270]Mostly 'cause of grower questions.
[00:31:07.680]So I've reached essentially 11 other states
[00:31:11.130]and four other countries.
[00:31:12.630]I do get referrals.
[00:31:14.640]I've had somebody call from South Korea
[00:31:16.260]wondering what the conditions were in Nebraska for crops.
[00:31:18.990]So I've had a group that wanted
[00:31:20.790]to do a podcast from England before.
[00:31:22.740]And so all sorts of things come our way.
[00:31:25.890]So I can then also,
[00:31:27.120]if you haven't used the UNL mount builder,
[00:31:28.950]which is available to everybody,
[00:31:30.390]it's a great tool.
[00:31:32.250]If you're looking at contacts,
[00:31:34.200]if you're an extension specialist.
[00:31:35.460]So these are, my number one counties
[00:31:37.500]are Saline, Jefferson, and Gage.
[00:31:38.970]But I have a lot from Lincoln,
[00:31:40.440]and some of the other roles where I filled in interim
[00:31:42.420]because of vacancies.
[00:31:46.350]Meeting clients where they are.
[00:31:48.930]I think things have changed a lot just generationally.
[00:31:53.220]Also time commitments.
[00:31:54.330]I have very few farmers walk in the door
[00:31:56.910]at the Saline County office.
[00:31:58.320]Usually it's 'cause they wanna check out something.
[00:32:00.750]I've bought locally, a soil probe, a hay probe,
[00:32:03.870]some other things that they might regularly wanna check out
[00:32:05.910]for free so they don't have to go buy one.
[00:32:07.800]Right?
[00:32:08.633]That's the main reason to walk in,
[00:32:09.900]or else they email, they call, or they text.
[00:32:12.960]Okay?
[00:32:14.850]The other way is websites.
[00:32:17.700]And this was something that I really created out
[00:32:20.120]of a little bit of animosity
[00:32:21.660]from South Dakota State.
[00:32:23.453]I had to put everything through the SDSU extension website
[00:32:26.340]and I'm like, I wanna have my own website.
[00:32:28.050]And they're like, no.
[00:32:28.980]So the first thing I did actually a week before
[00:32:30.690]I started here at UNL in 2014
[00:32:33.240]was I started a website.
[00:32:34.680]So I built this from scratch on my own,
[00:32:37.380]or paid for the domain name for dot com
[00:32:39.330]and dot org for Crop Tech Cafe.
[00:32:42.300]So I've had this since 2014.
[00:32:43.650]It's one of three water and cropping system educator blogs.
[00:32:48.528]Bruno and his group had one,
[00:32:51.240]and then Jenny Reese has one as well.
[00:32:53.100]Okay.
[00:32:54.900]I've had roughly in the time since I've started it,
[00:32:57.420]almost about 30,000 Nebraska users,
[00:33:00.570]8,000 Nebraska users.
[00:33:02.220]On average, they're about two minutes, which is about right.
[00:33:04.320]Usually most of the stuff I write
[00:33:05.790]and put on here as a blog post, anyway.
[00:33:07.830]It's about 500 words.
[00:33:10.345]In a given year it's about 10,000 users in the US,
[00:33:14.940]and about 2000 in a given year of Nebraska users.
[00:33:18.900]So over time, some people come and go,
[00:33:22.164]but it's been a great tool.
[00:33:25.440]And I was talking to some people earlier,
[00:33:28.020]I really look at it as the spoke on a wagon wheel.
[00:33:31.380]So whether I'm having a program or hosting a program
[00:33:34.080]or wanna get information out quickly, it's a central place
[00:33:36.840]to share all that information
[00:33:38.130]and put it in one place for stakeholders.
[00:33:41.760]Each of our 83 offices have their own county
[00:33:44.520]extension websites as well.
[00:33:46.230]And it was a lot for me to manage multiple websites
[00:33:49.170]and work with multiple staff
[00:33:50.370]to update the same thing on three different sites.
[00:33:53.250]And so I decided to say, I'm gonna have one site
[00:33:55.470]in my three counties I cover,
[00:33:56.880]you're gonna refer,
[00:33:57.750]your county website's gonna refer to mine.
[00:33:59.970]So that's how I personally decided to operate.
[00:34:02.340]I try to work smarter, not harder.
[00:34:03.900]So when I write a blog post,
[00:34:05.340]that ends up going out to about 5 to 700 growers,
[00:34:08.130]depending on their interest using MailChimp.
[00:34:10.740]I also post it on three Facebook pages, my Twitter account,
[00:34:13.440]which has about 1800 followers.
[00:34:16.170]And then all the local newspapers get that as well
[00:34:19.050]as then some of those get turned into one minute
[00:34:20.760]radio recordings as well.
[00:34:22.530]So I tried to do a thing once,
[00:34:24.390]but then amplify that in terms of reach.
[00:34:30.210]So if you keep up with the news, this has been in the news,
[00:34:34.830]I'd say over the past 5 to 10 years.
[00:34:37.110]The expert model's dead, which always hurts me, right?
[00:34:39.900]As being a university employee,
[00:34:41.880]and I hope it does you too.
[00:34:43.710]I don't think it's dead.
[00:34:45.660]What I found out when I moved back here,
[00:34:47.850]there's a lot of private industry agronomists
[00:34:49.710]that got degrees from UNL,
[00:34:50.970]got master's degrees from UNL
[00:34:52.590]or other states that are very good agronomists, right?
[00:34:55.140]Working with our farmers, okay.
[00:34:57.000]So they were trained, taught here.
[00:34:59.237]I might work with that agronomist
[00:35:01.110]and then he might work with a hundred farmers, okay.
[00:35:03.057]And so that sometimes, that's harder, hard to capture.
[00:35:07.170]But they do a good job on corn soybeans for the most part.
[00:35:09.480]But we're always here as a what?
[00:35:11.370]Third party.
[00:35:12.203]Unbiased third party to verify
[00:35:15.030]what's going on in private industry.
[00:35:16.620]One of the niches I found
[00:35:18.240]after working with wheat
[00:35:19.410]in Kansas and South Dakota was
[00:35:21.390]a lot of the local agronomists here
[00:35:22.680]in eastern Nebraska didn't have a background on wheat.
[00:35:24.417]And so I viewed it as a niche
[00:35:25.860]or an opportunity to start programming in the area.
[00:35:28.920]And Keith Lewin, who was a great extension educator, said,
[00:35:32.430]Nathan, you're never gonna get farmers to plant wheat again.
[00:35:35.340]And I'm still trying and I'm moving the needle a little bit.
[00:35:38.100]So I need to remind Keith
[00:35:39.960]that I've moved the needle a little bit.
[00:35:41.250]So started this in 2016.
[00:35:42.930]Really started with the grower setup
[00:35:44.010]called three agronomists.
[00:35:45.330]They didn't know, but someone said
[00:35:46.410]you might know something about winter wheat.
[00:35:48.390]So that was that first situ awareness phone call
[00:35:51.120]that really started this programming.
[00:35:52.590]So I started what's called
[00:35:54.330]the Winter wheat works initiative.
[00:35:56.880]Have lots of different resources from videos to websites
[00:36:00.180]to in-person programs to social media, you name it,
[00:36:03.690]to helping with the agronomy department.
[00:36:05.100]Cody Creech and Amanda Easterly
[00:36:07.380]host and put on local variety trials.
[00:36:10.320]It's really to assist farmers
[00:36:11.910]and agronomists in diversifying their crop rotation
[00:36:14.520]to reduce risk from climate variability
[00:36:16.380]and agronomic challenges.
[00:36:17.310]That was one of the outcomes.
[00:36:18.510]Remember the job was
[00:36:19.710]how do we deal with climate variability?
[00:36:21.355]And wheat's one of those.
[00:36:22.188]So one of my favorite quotes I've gotten so far in working
[00:36:24.960]with this came in 2021.
[00:36:27.180]He goes, Nathan, I wanna let you know
[00:36:28.920]I used some of your information
[00:36:30.060]from last year's expo and harvested my best wheat
[00:36:32.930]in 50 years of farming.
[00:36:34.500]Average bushel was 97 with one field going 105.
[00:36:37.680]I'm retiring, so a good way to go out.
[00:36:39.450]So that was a farmer from Lancaster County.
[00:36:41.910]So I've kept track of my reach.
[00:36:43.470]All the counties in yellow are farmers that I've worked with
[00:36:46.230]with winter wheat questions.
[00:36:47.790]Okay.
[00:36:48.810]Over the past, what, seven years now?
[00:36:50.730]So there's still niches.
[00:36:53.100]Everybody finds your niches in terms of research as well.
[00:36:56.310]That would be what I would consider
[00:36:57.480]one of my extension niches
[00:36:59.010]that I think was a good call.
[00:37:02.190]One thing when I was preparing for this, I was like, oh man,
[00:37:04.560]we're talking about engagement
[00:37:05.760]and how many people in the agronomy horticulture department
[00:37:07.890]have I worked with over the past nine years?
[00:37:10.080]So I went to the website,
[00:37:11.490]some of you are no longer faculty here,
[00:37:14.340]have retired, have passed on.
[00:37:17.520]But I just started to look in.
[00:37:19.290]Roughly in the extension programming world, about 24 faculty
[00:37:24.900]that have helped me in some way in terms of extension,
[00:37:27.360]even if they don't have an extension appointment themselves.
[00:37:29.820]So Amit, Steven, Nevin, Chris,
[00:37:31.830]and Jennifer in terms of wheat science
[00:37:33.537]and and pesticide training.
[00:37:35.250]Javed, Laila, Bijesh, Guillermo, Richard Ferguson,
[00:37:38.160]quite a bit.
[00:37:39.240]Even Charlie Shapiro before and, and Charlie Wartman,
[00:37:41.670]but also Nicholas lately on soil fertility.
[00:37:45.090]Working there,
[00:37:45.923]and that's one of the teams
[00:37:46.920]that I interact quite a bit with
[00:37:48.510]just 'cause of my background in soil fertility.
[00:37:50.490]But I've also worked with Umberto and Ray.
[00:37:53.340]Caro.
[00:37:54.720]There's a new soil health exchange that just started,
[00:37:57.840]which I think was a great idea
[00:37:59.100]that's being led by faculty here in the department.
[00:38:02.100]Worked with winter wheat,
[00:38:03.060]Cody, Amanda, Katherine, and Devon.
[00:38:05.670]And then pasture and range,
[00:38:06.960]I get a lot of those questions.
[00:38:08.130]So Darren and Jerry.
[00:38:09.510]And then a few others.
[00:38:11.040]Patricio, Ishmael, and others
[00:38:14.880]for some extension programming.
[00:38:17.310]When I look at teaching faculty,
[00:38:19.320]I've worked probably the most with Andrea
[00:38:21.390]and that's because she reached out to me.
[00:38:23.340]Okay.
[00:38:24.173]So that's what I meant.
[00:38:25.006]I want you to reach out to educators, too.
[00:38:26.700]Sometimes it should really go both ways.
[00:38:28.980]So I've worked with Agronomy 204 for a number of years.
[00:38:32.130]She uses short videos I put together online.
[00:38:35.340]I've also come in person in class,
[00:38:37.350]but we've really gone to short videos
[00:38:38.910]and she had just asked me to update
[00:38:40.230]those for this coming year.
[00:38:41.490]That's what I like to do.
[00:38:42.570]I've also worked to work with Anne
[00:38:44.220]on a freshman kind of orientation class, I guess,
[00:38:47.670]on careers.
[00:38:48.503]So I just actually met with a girl, last name was Weber.
[00:38:53.520]Just about opportunities and jobs and careers in Extension.
[00:38:56.973]I've worked with Don and Leah in the past on some things.
[00:39:00.180]And then the other one would be faculty
[00:39:01.980]through graduate student committees that I've been on.
[00:39:04.380]So I worked with Joe Luck, Trenton, Franz, Bijesh,
[00:39:07.740]Gary, and Laila.
[00:39:08.820]So a couple different departments represented there.
[00:39:11.130]My goal, at least as an educator is
[00:39:13.380]to be on one committee at a time.
[00:39:15.240]So that's been strategic,
[00:39:17.580]but those have been super valuable to me.
[00:39:20.130]Cause what am I doing?
[00:39:21.030]I'm keeping up on the latest research.
[00:39:22.740]That's the best way as an educator to get the play by play
[00:39:26.130]as things are going on.
[00:39:28.200]Research faculty through grants.
[00:39:30.120]We applied for one of the UNL Grand Challenges proposals
[00:39:33.180]called Weather Ready Farms
[00:39:34.350]over the past two years.
[00:39:35.760]Just barely missed it, year one and year two.
[00:39:38.820]And that's okay.
[00:39:40.080]We learned from our failures too,
[00:39:41.550]which was a topic earlier this week.
[00:39:43.290]But met a lot of new faculty through that effort
[00:39:46.650]that I think will be really valuable down the road
[00:39:48.690]in terms of discussion and future partnerships.
[00:39:51.810]So.
[00:39:52.680]And then interactions.
[00:39:54.360]I've been on a hiring committee here, so met some people
[00:39:57.690]through that search committee.
[00:40:00.030]And then I'm also an advisor on the Dalby prairie,
[00:40:02.580]which is down in Gage County,
[00:40:03.750]which is center for grasslands,
[00:40:05.880]land that UNL is down there.
[00:40:07.260]I'm on that.
[00:40:08.160]And then I had a great opportunity.
[00:40:09.630]The agronomy club reached out,
[00:40:11.250]which I was a member of years ago back in 2021.
[00:40:15.210]And I was surprised.
[00:40:16.770]I had nine students that night
[00:40:18.300]in the UNL agronomy department or club,
[00:40:20.700]and one of the nine knew about jobs as WCS educators.
[00:40:25.320]Okay.
[00:40:26.153]And we've had a lot of vacancies.
[00:40:27.180]So that hurt me a little bit.
[00:40:28.013]I was like, oh, good thing I came, right?
[00:40:30.720]And so most of all, our positions are filled, finally,
[00:40:33.600]which is great,
[00:40:34.938]but we know there's gonna be always positions coming open.
[00:40:38.550]So we'll talk a little bit about student recruitment.
[00:40:41.730]I've worked with eight other departments
[00:40:44.910]mostly in the Institute of Ag and Natural Resource,
[00:40:47.220]and about 38 other faculty.
[00:40:48.630]Mostly in entomology,
[00:40:50.100]plant pathology, biosystems engineering,
[00:40:52.950]natural resources, ag econ.
[00:40:55.590]So things related to crops and water.
[00:40:59.520]So I add that up.
[00:41:00.353]It was about 36 overall.
[00:41:01.950]So my network's grown.
[00:41:03.540]That's take, 9 or 10 years
[00:41:05.130]and guess what?
[00:41:06.060]I still have room to grow, right?
[00:41:08.520]So I'm gonna switch gears from kind of opportunities
[00:41:11.700]and successes to challenges.
[00:41:13.590]But I also wanna make sure that I talk about solutions
[00:41:16.920]or connections to solving some of those challenges.
[00:41:19.980]How we put this puzzle together
[00:41:21.960]of research, teaching and extension.
[00:41:25.684]So one of the ones I just mentioned, which is why I had
[00:41:27.660]that slide right before this.
[00:41:29.550]Vacancies.
[00:41:30.780]At one point,
[00:41:31.613]I think about two, three years ago we had eight
[00:41:33.840]of our 24 water and cropping systems positions were vacant.
[00:41:37.410]So a third, okay.
[00:41:38.670]That left a lot of pressure on the remaining what,
[00:41:40.500]16 of us, right?
[00:41:41.970]In terms of coverage and recruitment.
[00:41:44.640]Actually, a colleague of mine's gonna be presenting at ASA,
[00:41:47.190]and Ag Industries is dealing with this as a whole,
[00:41:49.740]is number of qualified applicants applying
[00:41:53.040]has not gotten any easier.
[00:41:55.080]And we've dealt with the same thing in terms of
[00:41:57.720]vacancies in our water and cropping systems role.
[00:42:00.180]So I think in terms of recruitment,
[00:42:02.460]awareness is probably the step one.
[00:42:04.620]Making sure our undergraduates know
[00:42:06.690]Charlie Stoltenow is here, Dean of Extension.
[00:42:09.600]We've launched the in the extension instructor role
[00:42:13.560]as an extension educator.
[00:42:14.850]So essentially you can be hired
[00:42:16.140]with a bachelor's degree in the area that we're looking for.
[00:42:19.620]And then during the first couple, I think,
[00:42:21.630]three to five years, five years,
[00:42:24.270]you would work on your master's during that timeframe.
[00:42:26.850]So, in the past it's been a master's required,
[00:42:29.550]PhD's just been bonus.
[00:42:32.220]And so I think that allows us
[00:42:34.260]to maybe broaden our scope of who we have.
[00:42:36.450]There's a lot of people with a lot of experience too
[00:42:39.210]that have a bachelor's degree
[00:42:40.230]that could be working at the local co-op
[00:42:41.760]that might be interested in the community since we're spread
[00:42:44.310]across all 93 counties and 83 county offices, so.
[00:42:49.590]In terms of how we do that,
[00:42:51.330]I know Chancellor Bennett recently I think met
[00:42:54.540]with department heads and talked,
[00:42:55.890]'cause it came up on Tuesday,
[00:42:57.540]of experiential learning,
[00:42:59.310]was something I think four department heads mentioned
[00:43:01.440]at the end of our WCS hub earlier this week on Tuesday.
[00:43:06.210]And so I wanted to touch a little bit on that.
[00:43:07.950]I think as educators,
[00:43:09.000]I think there's more opportunities for more of us.
[00:43:11.640]And so this, I need to encourage my colleagues
[00:43:13.350]to be on those graduate student committees
[00:43:16.410]'cause I've really enjoyed those.
[00:43:17.910]But also being on search committees and departments.
[00:43:20.760]I think that's an another great way
[00:43:23.460]for educators to meet different faculty and departments,
[00:43:26.160]and form those initial connections.
[00:43:29.160]There's no reason that extension educators can't help create
[00:43:32.220]content for your classes.
[00:43:33.900]Now teaching that class
[00:43:36.210]and having a teaching appointment,
[00:43:37.290]that's a whole other different thing.
[00:43:39.630]But it would be an example of Agronomy 204,
[00:43:41.610]where I'm giving 10 short videos
[00:43:44.160]on winter wheat production as a part of her class.
[00:43:46.500]And guess what, that's helpful for me
[00:43:48.240]because the audience in her class
[00:43:50.490]is pretty much at the level of farmers
[00:43:52.650]that I'm working with.
[00:43:53.790]And so it's dual purpose for me.
[00:43:55.500]But if you ever need like, case studies,
[00:43:58.200]exam questions, right?
[00:44:00.840]I get 450 questions a year.
[00:44:03.210]I guarantee you some of those could be great case studies
[00:44:05.610]or questions in your classes, right?
[00:44:08.340]So I think that's an opportunity.
[00:44:10.020]Andrea Base just added class field trips,
[00:44:12.420]a part of Agronomy 204 this past year.
[00:44:14.130]I love that.
[00:44:14.963]Had about 25 students come to Gage County
[00:44:17.820]and look at certified seed production of oats
[00:44:20.010]and winter wheat with a farmer down there.
[00:44:22.530]And I also had his crop advisor come,
[00:44:24.810]who was just a recent grad here
[00:44:26.606]from UNL Agronomy department as well,
[00:44:29.460]as his crop advisor.
[00:44:30.630]So that was great.
[00:44:31.830]So I think those are opportunities
[00:44:33.090]in terms of experiential learning for people
[00:44:35.460]with teaching appointments to connect with educators,
[00:44:37.800]especially in and in and around Lincoln.
[00:44:40.380]I haven't had this happen too often,
[00:44:42.030]but I would love it.
[00:44:43.410]If there's grad students or undergrads
[00:44:44.910]that want a job, shadow extension educators.
[00:44:46.830]I guarantee all my colleagues are gonna say yes.
[00:44:49.350]Yep, come spend a day with me.
[00:44:50.880]Okay.
[00:44:51.720]And then I think that's opportunity then for recruitment
[00:44:55.530]for fulfilling those future vacancies
[00:44:57.240]that we might have in WCS positions, so.
[00:44:59.940]Lots of opportunities there to deal with that challenge.
[00:45:03.000]Fiscal challenges, we have those too
[00:45:07.500]as Extension educators, just like you do as teaching
[00:45:10.170]and research, if those are your appointments.
[00:45:14.010]We have to pay our own way, right?
[00:45:16.590]So if we wanna offer a program that costs $2,500, right?
[00:45:20.910]We have to come up with that 25 talent.
[00:45:22.980]That might be through sponsors, it might be through writing
[00:45:25.680]that program in-person program into a grant
[00:45:28.620]working with you.
[00:45:30.120]It might be charging a fee.
[00:45:32.970]There's a whole bunch of different models.
[00:45:34.290]And so I think in terms of fiscal challenges,
[00:45:38.520]one of the main things I view as an opportunity
[00:45:41.880]is more and more grants.
[00:45:44.880]My wife works for USD NIFA.
[00:45:47.100]There's always usually an outreach
[00:45:49.230]or an extension component
[00:45:50.550]that they expect in grants anymore.
[00:45:52.500]And so as extension educators, hey,
[00:45:55.020]if you need an outreach
[00:45:56.550]or an extension component to your research,
[00:45:58.410]it fits with our farm audience here in Nebraska.
[00:46:03.210]Finding $2,500 in a grant to put on a program
[00:46:08.130]would be a perfect way for us
[00:46:10.050]to come up with the funds
[00:46:11.340]instead of asking our same commodity board sponsors
[00:46:13.770]over and over and over.
[00:46:15.120]And my concern is we're gonna lean on the people.
[00:46:17.340]If we're short of money internally,
[00:46:18.720]you know, we're gonna lean on what?
[00:46:20.190]Our external partners more.
[00:46:23.331]If we start competing
[00:46:25.680]all with the commodity boards even more
[00:46:27.750]and it's not coordinated, I don't think
[00:46:29.880]that's in our best interest.
[00:46:31.710]So I think coordinating more so
[00:46:35.730]with those granting agencies
[00:46:37.140]as a system is gonna be pretty important.
[00:46:41.640]So connection opportunities that we'd love
[00:46:44.910]to have be a part of in the future.
[00:46:46.170]We just had our Water and Integrated Cropping Systems
[00:46:48.540]Hub Conference, that was for everybody.
[00:46:50.400]Research, teaching and extension.
[00:46:51.990]We just had that Tuesday
[00:46:53.970]down at the Graduate here in Lincoln.
[00:46:55.290]That's the second year we've had that.
[00:46:56.700]I think we had about 118 people there that day.
[00:46:59.010]I was on the planning committee.
[00:47:01.260]Coming up,
[00:47:02.093]Nebraska Extension Fall Conference.
[00:47:03.270]If you have an extension appointment, we want you there.
[00:47:06.210]That's gonna be November 15th in Kearney.
[00:47:09.990]And then we have regular monthly and biweekly crops calls
[00:47:13.170]and so you can join those.
[00:47:14.490]I've had a number of faculty,
[00:47:16.230]actually just recently I referred to Dirk,
[00:47:18.510]who's one of the new program leaders saying, hey,
[00:47:20.880]this person would love to share some
[00:47:22.380]of their research in 15 minutes with the group.
[00:47:25.410]And I think that's a great opportunity.
[00:47:27.750]One thing I love and I'll highlight a story,
[00:47:29.850]but hosting annual department research updates
[00:47:32.820]or resources, which the groups are calling
[00:47:35.370]in-services for WCS educators.
[00:47:37.170]Tamra Jackson-Ziems just mentioned those today
[00:47:40.110]in our crops call this morning.
[00:47:41.730]So etymology and pathology will have updates as well.
[00:47:44.760]It's now new in 2023, wheat science.
[00:47:46.950]So it's essentially a lot of
[00:47:47.847]the extension specialists saying,
[00:47:50.100]here's the latest information we have on our research,
[00:47:52.230]here's the slides.
[00:47:53.790]Here, use our slides.
[00:47:55.350]We're training you to use our slides,
[00:47:57.060]use 'em at your programs.
[00:47:58.380]And so I'm gonna show you the information I've given back
[00:48:00.780]to Tamra on years that I've done that in the past.
[00:48:03.450]So it benefits her, and she gets numbers, too.
[00:48:05.700]Okay.
[00:48:07.080]New department affiliate program.
[00:48:08.970]Amit just bothered me on Tuesday again.
[00:48:12.450]The reason I haven't gotten into it,
[00:48:14.040]it's just been on my to-do list
[00:48:15.390]and it keeps floating around 10 spots to do
[00:48:17.787]and it keeps staying at 10.
[00:48:19.320]So it's on my list to do yet.
[00:48:20.760]I think that's a great opportunity.
[00:48:22.440]I looked at other departments
[00:48:24.090]and some of my colleagues are on the entomology,
[00:48:26.640]pathology department.
[00:48:27.630]I didn't see anybody yet on agronomy and hort,
[00:48:29.670]and maybe it just hasn't been updated
[00:48:31.260]or Amit's been waiting for me to apply,
[00:48:33.300]and so it's my fault.
[00:48:35.490]So I think that's great.
[00:48:36.810]Best management practices for research extension,
[00:48:40.470]teaching extension teams.
[00:48:41.700]We just talked about this quite a bit
[00:48:43.470]on Tuesday at that WCS hub.
[00:48:45.870]But remember educators are your faculty colleagues, too.
[00:48:48.900]Not tenure track, but we're still faculty.
[00:48:52.110]Build the team first was something
[00:48:54.330]that I took away from the first session
[00:48:56.490]that I was on the panel for.
[00:48:58.440]Before you're chasing the grant.
[00:49:00.360]It's really hard to cold call somebody
[00:49:01.950]and get 'em to say yes
[00:49:03.000]and on-board when you've just reached out to 'em
[00:49:05.160]for the first time to be on a grant.
[00:49:06.960]Not a bad way, but I think the better way is
[00:49:09.240]to hopefully have a relationship with that person first.
[00:49:11.970]Build a team around that.
[00:49:14.037]And one of the things I loved, one of the speakers in
[00:49:17.370]that first panel said, functionality
[00:49:19.290]of the team is the engine that drives ambitious science.
[00:49:22.590]That was what one of the speakers said that morning.
[00:49:24.600]I love that.
[00:49:25.557]And then one of the things
[00:49:27.000]that came up was provides rewards
[00:49:28.620]and incentives into collaborative teams.
[00:49:30.150]So if you want somebody to help you find research locations
[00:49:33.780]for your research, throw in some money.
[00:49:36.660]So they could have a local extension program too,
[00:49:38.850]in that grant proposal, right?
[00:49:40.350]That would be incentives back
[00:49:41.490]to the educators to do some work for you.
[00:49:43.410]But they're getting something back.
[00:49:44.910]Okay.
[00:49:47.760]Research extension, teaching engagement challenges.
[00:49:51.600]Talk a little bit about that.
[00:49:54.780]Research and outreach opportunities.
[00:49:56.790]One of the things that the trainers
[00:49:58.620]that came to that conference on Tuesday was on,
[00:50:01.050]what's your research impact statement, right?
[00:50:03.690]I love that.
[00:50:04.590]So in terms of that, just remember
[00:50:06.780]that publishing your paper,
[00:50:07.860]and I've been an extension specialist professor before.
[00:50:10.410]Publishing your paper is not the last step
[00:50:12.720]to getting your research out.
[00:50:14.310]Okay.
[00:50:15.270]I guarantee you, almost guarantee you,
[00:50:18.120]none of the farmers I work with have a subscription
[00:50:20.580]to the agronomy journal and are reading your peer reviewed
[00:50:23.640]journals that are published.
[00:50:24.840]Okay.
[00:50:25.673]So the next step is what we're here for is educators,
[00:50:28.710]a hundred percent extension.
[00:50:29.760]My job is to translate your research and hand it
[00:50:33.570]and move it on to your target audience.
[00:50:34.857]And in this case, our target audience in my role
[00:50:37.530]are farmers and agronomists.
[00:50:38.940]So if you have a new manuscript that's just been accepted,
[00:50:43.260]or as soon as you can share that,
[00:50:45.000]or even if you have preliminary data
[00:50:46.440]you're willing to share year one, year two,
[00:50:48.630]let us know, right?
[00:50:51.390]I could write a CropWatch article on it,
[00:50:53.910]I could write a 500 word blog post.
[00:50:55.890]I've done that.
[00:50:56.730]News columns, farmer email.
[00:50:59.010]Also notified educators,
[00:51:01.110]if you're interested in your research being presented.
[00:51:02.880]Most of the time all the programs I have
[00:51:05.130]reaching, helping reach 3000 people,
[00:51:07.620]a lot of times I'm asking people
[00:51:09.630]to come speak for me.
[00:51:10.770]I would say, Bob, actually this last year,
[00:51:12.450]I appreciated that.
[00:51:13.470]Bob said, hey,
[00:51:15.000]I'll speak at the alfalfa wheat expo on this topic.
[00:51:18.750]So it's great to reach out to educators saying, hey,
[00:51:22.170]I would love to speak at a program.
[00:51:23.430]Do you have something that's a fit coming up
[00:51:25.620]in the next year?
[00:51:27.090]So love for it to go that way as well.
[00:51:30.570]So an example, because I was in the soil fertility area,
[00:51:34.920]Tim Shaver, Charlie Shapiro, Charlie Wartman
[00:51:37.980]had done a phosphorus paper back in 2018,
[00:51:40.830]which I knew about
[00:51:41.970]'cause I was on the initial team
[00:51:43.080]kind of looking at some of our Neb guides.
[00:51:45.660]So I turned that into two blog posts
[00:51:47.250]called Phosphorus Management Proficiency
[00:51:50.460]Continuous Corn, Part 1, Part 2.
[00:51:52.800]So essentially took that publication
[00:51:56.221]in Soil Science Society of America,
[00:51:58.140]turned into two blog posts,
[00:51:59.730]had what, 1600 views
[00:52:01.590]between those two posts
[00:52:03.090]and then almost another 800 in emails
[00:52:05.580]opened up between those two.
[00:52:07.110]Right.
[00:52:07.943]And then I know I had some calls of people
[00:52:10.200]on that article right after.
[00:52:13.080]So there's a really good example, if you have a manuscript,
[00:52:15.930]a paper you just got accepted, you think it's gonna have
[00:52:18.030]a direct applicability to farmers here
[00:52:19.980]in southeastern Nebraska, reach out to me.
[00:52:22.140]I'd love to get that information out.
[00:52:23.820]It's really hard for me to keep up on all
[00:52:26.070]the research that's happening here.
[00:52:27.360]It's just a big department
[00:52:29.190]and I'm not, I'm guilty
[00:52:31.050]of not checking the peer reviewed journals
[00:52:32.940]that I do have access to as UNL faculty
[00:52:34.950]as much as I should.
[00:52:37.380]So success story with Tamra.
[00:52:39.360]Any of you familiar with fungicide resistance
[00:52:41.700]in frogeye leaf spot in Nebraska here?
[00:52:44.430]So that's the group 11 for FRAC code.
[00:52:47.220]So if you spray that group 11 to control frogeye leaf spot,
[00:52:50.010]which is a foliar fungal disease,
[00:52:51.540]we're not gonna get very good control anymore.
[00:52:53.760]Okay.
[00:52:54.593]Farmers need to know that
[00:52:55.426]because they're spraying fungicide and soybeans
[00:52:58.560]and they need to know about maybe using
[00:53:00.240]some other modes of action.
[00:53:01.440]So what Tamra did, rewinding back to 2020,
[00:53:06.720]was they asked us educators to collect lease samples.
[00:53:09.570]I did, I think I had five in Saline,
[00:53:11.040]five in Jefferson, five in Gage.
[00:53:12.780]They collect it all, looked at resistance,
[00:53:14.610]they then had an in-service on that information in 2021.
[00:53:17.850]I then shared those slides that Tamra did in that in-service
[00:53:20.940]with educators at 12 pesticide trainings.
[00:53:24.870]I reached 261 attendees.
[00:53:26.880]I had 179 evals from 13 counties.
[00:53:29.940]And then I was able to share that data back,
[00:53:32.730]plus all the quotes that I got of how surprised they were,
[00:53:35.850]or they didn't know,
[00:53:37.020]or that they needed to change
[00:53:38.580]how they were gonna manage
[00:53:39.540]frogeye leaf spot with fungicides.
[00:53:41.370]So that work that Tamra put in to train us
[00:53:43.350]to deliver those slides, I then can share
[00:53:45.090]that information back with her as an extension special.
[00:53:47.520]So she can share it in her annual performance too,
[00:53:50.850]and re-inform her program.
[00:53:53.520]Okay, we're back to scratch cards.
[00:53:56.790]So get those back out.
[00:53:57.660]If you're online, real quick,
[00:54:01.230]it's go.unl.edu/postseminar.
[00:54:06.660]So we're gonna start on question number six in the room,
[00:54:10.020]complete it with the same person, and I'm gonna ask you
[00:54:12.240]to leave these on your table.
[00:54:13.770]So just when you leave the room, leave them here.
[00:54:17.970]So again, those online go.unl.edu.
[00:54:20.490]This time it's postseminar.
[00:54:22.890]And you can use your phone
[00:54:23.940]or hang right there.
[00:54:27.990]Again, go.unl.edu,
[00:54:29.910]post slash postseminar.
[00:54:33.000]So Nathan's geographic accountability region is.
[00:54:38.970]If you walked in late, just join somebody next to you.
[00:54:41.970]If you weren't here at the beginning of the scratch cards.
[00:54:43.830]Or Qualtrics, take the second half, it's fine.
[00:54:55.380]Nathan's geographic accountability region is
[00:54:57.480]this time I'll share what the answer is.
[00:54:58.920]What was the answer for those of you that got it right?
[00:55:02.940]C, Gage, Jefferson and Saline counties.
[00:55:05.850]Yep, C.
[00:55:07.080]Okay.
[00:55:08.850]Question number seven.
[00:55:10.650]Nathan is known as a regional expert
[00:55:12.180]in which of the following areas?
[00:55:23.402]A.
[00:55:26.550]Yep.
[00:55:27.720]If you notice, the star's not exactly in the middle.
[00:55:30.540]They created this for college students,
[00:55:32.610]so you can just scratch a tiny little area
[00:55:34.290]and see where the star was at.
[00:55:35.700]That's why the star's not in the same place every time.
[00:55:37.740]That's intentional actually on the scratch card.
[00:55:41.280]Yeah, it's smart.
[00:55:43.830]Okay, question number eight.
[00:55:46.200]Water and cropping systems educators work with
[00:55:48.450]which of the following partners.
[00:56:01.380]Okay, survey says D.
[00:56:04.380]All the above.
[00:56:06.930]Question number nine.
[00:56:08.670]Water and Cropping System Extension Educators
[00:56:10.680]are weekly reporters for USDA for this
[00:56:14.430]during the growing season?
[00:56:22.230]One's a little trickier
[00:56:29.365]The answer is B.
[00:56:31.590]Crop progressing conditions.
[00:56:32.790]However, we do provide some information
[00:56:35.580]on the drought monitor,
[00:56:36.540]but it is not weekly.
[00:56:38.460]Okay.
[00:56:39.293]And also drought monitor is not USDA directly.
[00:56:45.600]Question number 10, how many accountability regions
[00:56:48.480]are there for our Water and Cropping System Educators?
[00:56:51.540]37, 24, 23 or 11?
[00:57:00.180]Answer is C.
[00:57:02.550]So 37 is, if you look at that map I showed you, that was all
[00:57:06.840]of our accountability region educators
[00:57:08.670]and statewide educators.
[00:57:10.260]37.
[00:57:11.370]23 is how many we have,
[00:57:12.780]and then 11 is actually what Iowa State has.
[00:57:16.260]Okay.
[00:57:17.093]So I feel pretty fortunate at 23 versus 11, so.
[00:57:22.260]That's all I have for you.
[00:57:23.400]I know I ran a little long, I didn't practice,
[00:57:26.250]I never practice my presentations ahead of time anymore,
[00:57:29.010]like at all.
[00:57:29.843]It's a really bad habit on the timing side, so thanks.
[00:57:36.420]We open the floor for questions.
[00:57:42.210]Yep.
[00:57:44.400]I don't like standing behind podiums.
[00:57:46.260]That was hard for me.
[00:57:47.460]I wanted to walk around.
[00:57:49.140]Nathan, thank you -- Oh, it's just for
[00:57:51.060]the people online.
[00:57:52.050]That's why.
[00:57:53.580]Thank you for presenting
[00:57:55.260]and thanks for coming home to present.
[00:57:57.270]So my question relates to,
[00:58:01.020]as you have a lot of extension educators across the state,
[00:58:05.760]but you also have a bit of ground truthing
[00:58:08.880]about the needs.
[00:58:10.650]How much engagement are you getting in terms of
[00:58:14.100]providing concrete suggestion with positions and with needs
[00:58:18.630]and gaps as a whole, as either 23 WCS educators,
[00:58:23.400]and how does that work?
[00:58:25.620]Yeah, so kind of how it works, quite a few
[00:58:29.520]of our WCS educators have inherently worked
[00:58:33.390]with a smaller subset of specialists.
[00:58:35.820]So we might have some pathologists by training
[00:58:39.000]that then work a little bit more
[00:58:40.650]with the pathology extension specialists.
[00:58:42.540]So the information does come back that way.
[00:58:46.590]A lot of it comes out in
[00:58:48.180]our biweekly crops calls when we start
[00:58:50.010]reporting what's going on locally.
[00:58:51.480]So that's a good way,
[00:58:52.380]if you're looking at situational awareness and needs.
[00:58:55.260]I think there's some opportunities to improve that.
[00:58:57.750]We're gonna have our first meeting here in November,
[00:59:01.320]where all the crops educators in southeast Nebraska
[00:59:03.810]are gonna start meeting regularly to talk about
[00:59:06.210]what are the needs for a region of the state
[00:59:08.550]and then be more intentional about our programming
[00:59:11.130]and probably also partnering on the those needs that we see.
[00:59:15.690]It's probably not as coordinated as it as it could be.
[00:59:18.330]And there's not really, I would say a formal mechanism
[00:59:21.030]to collect all that situational awareness
[00:59:23.460]and needs assessment at the local level.
[00:59:25.800]Bringing that back to the departments,
[00:59:27.360]it's, I would say, just kind of meetings,
[00:59:30.450]informal discussions, things that just happen to come up
[00:59:33.630]with the faculty that we regularly interact with.
[00:59:36.300]So I think that's opportunity, especially with new educators
[00:59:38.940]to form a lot of new relationships
[00:59:41.700]but also expand on the ones we have,
[00:59:43.290]paint maybe in a little bit more purposeful way.
[00:59:45.840]Yeah, so
[00:59:50.820]Charlie, great job.
[00:59:52.320]I really appreciate that very much.
[00:59:53.850]Just to follow up, you know the system, I came out of,
[00:59:56.760]all the crops type people,
[01:00:00.690]every week from May through July,
[01:00:03.330]every week met and then all of the,
[01:00:06.720]they called them agents there,
[01:00:08.280]were on that phone call at 9 o'clock,
[01:00:11.460]no, 8 o'clock Tuesday morning for an hour and a half.
[01:00:14.880]And then that rolled right into the newsletter
[01:00:17.310]that went out later that week.
[01:00:18.780]We also had a meteorologist on,
[01:00:21.390]which was really kind of cool,
[01:00:22.470]'cause they could give a week's forecast
[01:00:24.690]and it worked really great for the external.
[01:00:26.670]However internal, then people could actually plan
[01:00:30.600]the work schedules for their crews
[01:00:33.030]to know we better get out there in the next 48 hours
[01:00:36.090]to get done what we're gonna do,
[01:00:37.230]or we can wait.
[01:00:39.030]And so I just want that whole idea
[01:00:41.070]of making it much more formal,
[01:00:42.630]or I shouldn't say formal,
[01:00:43.620]but boy, inclusive
[01:00:45.390]because the specialists,
[01:00:46.710]they were learning what's going on in the field
[01:00:49.260]at the moment, and also what the recommendations were.
[01:00:52.290]If you see this, this is what we need to do,
[01:00:54.990]get the educators out there.
[01:00:56.760]This is the word.
[01:00:58.020]And so I just wanna really encourage you
[01:01:00.810]along those lines.
[01:01:01.860]Secondly, a comment.
[01:01:03.240]I sat with the acting administrator
[01:01:05.970]for FSA yesterday for an hour,
[01:01:09.720]and he was very complimentary to the work
[01:01:12.870]that the educators, and all of extension,
[01:01:15.060]but the educators and what they're doing out there
[01:01:18.180]for FSA in the education in collecting the information.
[01:01:22.500]Third comment, I heard you say free checkout,
[01:01:25.170]that's sponsored checkout on the probes.
[01:01:27.240]I did say, there was no free,
[01:01:29.190]there's no such thing as free.
[01:01:30.930]Just so I had to tease you.
[01:01:32.310]Thank you very much.
[01:01:35.370]And I guess I'll leave it there.
[01:01:37.350]But anyway, thank you very much.
[01:01:41.940]I do have another question.
[01:01:44.068]Let's let.
[01:01:48.510]This is kind of a a two part question,
[01:01:51.180]but you talked about having 10 short videos.
[01:01:55.830]How long are those, before you answer,
[01:01:57.750]how long are those?
[01:01:58.950]Do other people do that,
[01:02:00.870]and is there a list of those?
[01:02:03.630]Hmm, yeah, so good questions.
[01:02:06.030]Each of those were about three to six minutes
[01:02:08.610]that I made those 10 for Agronomy 204.
[01:02:11.610]Those are also on my winter wheat page
[01:02:13.680]on that Crop Tech Cafe.
[01:02:16.320]Yes, there's other videos
[01:02:17.520]that extension educators and specialists do.
[01:02:19.440]One of our big efforts, that I'm not currently
[01:02:22.290]working on, is called In-field Observations.
[01:02:25.080]Those are regular short videos
[01:02:26.730]that we share on social media
[01:02:27.990]throughout the growing season.
[01:02:29.040]Amy Timmerman's one of the leads on that.
[01:02:31.167]And so yes, we do have videos in other ways.
[01:02:33.720]In terms of central places.
[01:02:36.420]In-field is, I know some other educators
[01:02:39.600]might do some short videos or things,
[01:02:43.860]but I would say In-field would be the more universal
[01:02:47.400]or commonplace that those are shared.
[01:02:49.140]But.
[01:02:50.136]Access In-field through CropWatch?
[01:02:51.750]Yep, yep.
[01:02:52.980]And CropWatch is
[01:02:54.210]our main extension agronomy outreach website.
[01:02:58.110]So a lot of things, my link to my blog's there,
[01:03:00.960]our CropWatch Podcast that Eric Hunt
[01:03:03.000]has took over and done a great job with.
[01:03:05.310]So we do have regular things coming out,
[01:03:06.840]plus all the great CropWatch articles
[01:03:08.400]that are, reminder, are peer reviewed
[01:03:10.470]by two other people.
[01:03:11.610]That's a little bit different than my blog
[01:03:13.050]where I can just write it quick and push it out.
[01:03:15.540]So.
[01:03:17.850]Quick.
[01:03:18.690]Yeah.
[01:03:19.523]Nathan, couple comments.
[01:03:21.150]One is from Mattea, and one from Tamra.
[01:03:23.850]Okay.
[01:03:24.683]Both saying good job.
[01:03:25.770]And Tamra wants to thank you for the recognition
[01:03:29.040]of our fungicide recognition project.
[01:03:32.550]Yep.
[01:03:33.600]We have a question from Steve Olsen.
[01:03:36.540]Oh, I know Steve, yeah.
[01:03:38.360]Would some of the multidisciplinary
[01:03:40.470]research teams work with the On-Farm Research Network
[01:03:46.050]to add additional information to farmer based research?
[01:03:51.060]Could they? Yeah.
[01:03:51.960]Actually, the proposal you just asked me
[01:03:56.730]to be on is on nitrogen management
[01:04:00.300]in corn and wheat,
[01:04:02.370]and there was a lot of outreach material
[01:04:06.060]that's gonna be a part of that grant proposal.
[01:04:09.210]For those of you don't know Laura,
[01:04:10.440]that would be a great statewide educator to meet.
[01:04:12.780]She's fantastic and she's been our coordinator, really,
[01:04:16.450]amplified or made our system more efficient
[01:04:19.500]by having more capacity as a coordinator
[01:04:21.540]On-Farm Research,
[01:04:22.440]and she's continued to build the website.
[01:04:24.780]And Steve, I know Steve's familiar
[01:04:26.130]with On-Farm Research, so she's always adding new tools.
[01:04:29.220]I'm sure she has some in the works, knowing her.
[01:04:32.700]So yes, Steve, we'll continue to work on that.
[01:04:35.550]Yeah.
[01:04:38.100]My question a bit related to this, you know.
[01:04:40.140]You mentioned that you have this nice spreadsheet
[01:04:43.500]tracking all the topics.
[01:04:44.580]So if you need to highlight that,
[01:04:46.080]I know that you have all the topics,
[01:04:48.180]but if you need to say in the last year,
[01:04:50.460]we are having more questions towards nitrogen.
[01:04:54.090]Digital lag, you know, those things are,
[01:04:56.070]if you need to identify one or two key topics
[01:04:59.010]that maybe we are not addressing,
[01:05:00.840]or you're having more questions
[01:05:02.013]that we should be taking a look to?
[01:05:03.510]Yeah, no, that's a good question.
[01:05:05.010]So I have analyzed that
[01:05:06.480]besides making that county map of who called from where.
[01:05:09.600]I also do a pie chart of kind of,
[01:05:11.910]I have 10 kind of categories
[01:05:13.440]I categorize most of those questions into.
[01:05:16.080]I haven't really compared it year to year looking back.
[01:05:19.500]I do look at it at the end of each year
[01:05:20.970]just to see what the demands were
[01:05:22.500]kind of to direct future talks for the coming year.
[01:05:25.530]So I'll analyze it soon
[01:05:26.850]and say these are some things I need to get in front
[01:05:28.560]of growers this winter at programming.
[01:05:31.230]In terms of changes, it's somewhat biased,
[01:05:33.630]because it's heavily inflated.
[01:05:35.280]About a third of those are small grain questions
[01:05:38.130]in the eastern half of the state.
[01:05:41.190]I don't know if the demand's gone up,
[01:05:42.810]it's just a lot of those come to me.
[01:05:44.640]So it looks like a big piece
[01:05:45.840]of the demand if you looked at the data.
[01:05:47.820]But in reality, it's skewed in that way
[01:05:51.060]'cause I'm getting calls from all over.
[01:05:52.920]But that I could totally look at that.
[01:05:54.690]So I'll put that on my to-do item
[01:05:57.390]if something's tracked different, but yeah.
[01:06:00.120]But I have that type of data
[01:06:01.380]or could go back past couple years,
[01:06:03.570]and re-look at that.
[01:06:04.440]Besides.
[01:06:05.273]I think we have time for more question.
[01:06:09.690]Nathan, you mentioned a couple of things.
[01:06:13.530]One, fiscal related issues,
[01:06:18.180]how you sort of divide your time up,
[01:06:20.880]but you also mentioned experiential learning.
[01:06:25.410]What are your thoughts in terms of leveraging what you do,
[01:06:29.430]whether it's videos,
[01:06:31.080]and the county agent to have a touchpoint with schools
[01:06:35.670]around you, high schools around you?
[01:06:38.550]Yeah, so one of the nine things
[01:06:41.460]in our job description in terms of a task
[01:06:43.680]is support youth programming
[01:06:45.270]related to crops and water.
[01:06:46.620]And so a lot of times our 4-H educators
[01:06:50.400]lead those efforts,
[01:06:51.233]but we're plugging in, so for example, locally
[01:06:53.940]we have the Saline County ag siting, or ag festival,
[01:06:56.340]which is all the schools in Saline County.
[01:06:57.660]So we have over 300 kids there
[01:06:59.970]and I'm on the crop when soils stop.
[01:07:03.900]And then we also have Earth Festival,
[01:07:05.910]which is fifth graders from three counties.
[01:07:07.740]So a couple hundred ways that too.
[01:07:11.160]We also have a program called Connecting the Dots,
[01:07:14.220]which is fantastic, and it's about giving
[01:07:16.800]high school students the opportunity
[01:07:18.000]to explore careers all in one day.
[01:07:19.890]So I've been a part of that effort.
[01:07:23.340]Dirk Charleston, our digital ag educator,
[01:07:26.610]working on something right now.
[01:07:27.443]I bought a four wheeler with funds I had,
[01:07:29.550]but he's leveraging that four-wheeler to talk about
[01:07:33.240]being able to bring that around to high schools
[01:07:35.310]and talk about precision ag
[01:07:37.500]and nutrient management to also expose people
[01:07:39.930]to that career through that mechanism.
[01:07:41.970]So we're actually presenting on that at ASA.
[01:07:45.020]Dirk is, and I'm a co-author,
[01:07:47.880]he did 99% of the work.
[01:07:49.350]He just used my four-wheelers so far,
[01:07:51.030]but, so no, it's totally something
[01:07:53.910]at the high school level,
[01:07:56.386]and it's gonna be more of a collaborative effort.
[01:07:58.230]'cause a lot of times some of our other program areas
[01:08:00.450]have more touch points with youth,
[01:08:01.980]and then us as crops educators get brought in.
[01:08:04.350]Cause we're supposed,
[01:08:05.610]right now, it's we support versus necessarily direct.
[01:08:08.400]So it's kind of a collaborative effort with people
[01:08:11.340]that touch on youth more.
[01:08:13.200]I would at least personally, most of mine is adults,
[01:08:16.770]but that does vary by crops educator in the state
[01:08:19.650]that enjoy and have more time spent with youth.
[01:08:22.140]So it's kind of just a little bit of preference.
[01:08:25.440]Well, thank you Nathan.
[01:08:26.490]Yeah. Unfortunately,
[01:08:27.323]we've run out of time,
[01:08:28.560]but he will stay a little bit around for some questions.
[01:08:32.100]But just to keep it on time, we thank you again
[01:08:35.430]for the presentation and the questions.
[01:08:36.832](audience clapping)

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The Land-Grant Water & Cropping System Educator – Insights, opportunities, and challenges

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