Chancellor's Pre-Game: Ohio State
Curt Bright
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11/04/2024
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Chancellor Bennett talks about things on campus with Derek McLean, the Dean and Director of the Agricultural Research Division.
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- [00:00:00.000]Welcome back. Countdown to kickoff. Today the Huskers taking on the Ohio State Buckeyes but first
- [00:00:06.620]our chance to sit down as we do every week with the Chancellor from the University of Nebraska
- [00:00:10.500]Lincoln, Rodney Bennett, always good to see you. You know what Greg I am so glad to hear you say that
- [00:00:15.840]I've had so many people across the state of Nebraska tell me how much they enjoy our little
- [00:00:22.860]interaction. I mean, when I'm with you I feel like I'm like a somebody famous. Stop. No. I'm serious
- [00:00:30.580]I'm serious I'll give you an example: Tracy Carlson. You know Tracy Carlson, caterer here in Lincoln
- [00:00:36.260]stopped me the other day and she said I listened to the broadcast with you and Greg
- [00:00:41.360]she said y'all do such a great job and I said are you serious she said I absolutely am serious I
- [00:00:47.640]said well Greg just makes everybody look good, or in this instance sound good. I will take the
- [00:00:52.840]compliment. So shout out to Tracy Carlson. Good for Tracy. Fall break this week, chancellor. Students got a
- [00:00:58.420]chance to take some time off talk about the camp what happened on the campus and do you get. Well
- [00:01:02.980]it was a wonderful fall break and as you know the weather in Lincoln has just been spectacular.
- [00:01:07.840]You're welcome to all of our listeners, brought that up from Mississippi with me, but the fall
- [00:01:14.120]break weather has been spectacular and I think it's just a great time of the year for students
- [00:01:18.640]to have a little bit of a break you know go home and see mom and daddy and grandparents
- [00:01:22.820]and get some good home cooked meal and get laundry done and all the things that they need to do on
- [00:01:28.040]fall break but also to perhaps get a little bit ahead as the end of the fall semester is sort of
- [00:01:34.220]bearing down on us. So, I'm glad that our academic calendar includes these little breaks for just a
- [00:01:40.140]little reset. The chancellor does not get a fall break. I'll need to talk to President Gold about
- [00:01:46.940]that going forward, but the chancellor does not get a fall break. I was very fortunate this year
- [00:01:52.800]that I was able to spend some time with a good friend of mine, and my wife Temple's, and a good
- [00:01:59.860]alumna of UNL, Ruth Jerdis, who runs the Auburn Agency Crop Insurance out of Auburn, Nebraska.
- [00:02:09.580]She visited a good number of her customers during fall break and she invited the old
- [00:02:15.940]chancellor to ride along with her. So, I got to see some amazing farm operations, got to do
- [00:02:22.780]a little bit of combining, got to really visit and enhance some relationships with key members
- [00:02:28.640]of our ag and natural resource community, but also people who really love first the state of
- [00:02:34.660]Nebraska, but then who also love the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. So, I think that was a very
- [00:02:41.540]worthy use of my fall break, and I'm so grateful to Ruth and her family and for the invitation to
- [00:02:48.880]just call me up and say, "hey, I'm going to do this. Would you like to join me?" So,
- [00:02:52.760]it was a great way to spend fall break. Fantastic. You brought a guest with you today.
- [00:02:57.280]Joining us is Derek McLean, the Dean and Director of the Agricultural Research Division here at UNL.
- [00:03:02.660]Talk about some of that work. Derek, welcome. Thank you, Greg. It's great being with you
- [00:03:06.780]here today and with Chancellor Bennett. Let's talk about your role here at UNL.
- [00:03:10.700]So, as Dean and Director of the Ag Research Division, I'm housed in the Institute of Ag
- [00:03:15.540]and Natural Resources, and I oversee all research programming and initiatives that
- [00:03:20.300]are really related to agriculture and natural resources.
- [00:03:22.960]And I also oversee our statewide platform in greater Nebraska that includes our three
- [00:03:26.960]research education extension centers.
- [00:03:30.360]Fantastic. Can you give us some examples of that work?
- [00:03:34.100]And what are some highlights that have happened recently?
- [00:03:36.480]Absolutely, Greg.
- [00:03:37.720]Through our dedicated and innovative faculty, staff, students, and partnerships, we can
- [00:03:41.840]help address, and we are working on, the grand challenges of global food and water
- [00:03:45.560]security by working to answer questions important to Nebraska and the world.
- [00:03:49.380]One place this is occurring is at the Eastern Nebraska Research, Education and Extention Center, up near Mead, Nebraska.
- [00:03:52.720]We have a food and water research extension and education center up near Mead, Nebraska.
- [00:03:57.460]And there, thanks in part to some real generous donors, we opened this last summer the Klosterman
- [00:04:02.480]Feedlot Innovation Center.
- [00:04:04.500]Now the Klosterman Feedlot Innovation Center is a new facility, and it is among the largest
- [00:04:08.700]research feedlots in the world.
- [00:04:11.320]And it is designed to present unique opportunities for teaching, outreach, and public-private
- [00:04:16.740]partnerships.
- [00:04:17.740]We're really planning to leverage this with our private
- [00:04:19.680]partnerships to do really new and innovative and bold things. This is a bold investment and the
- [00:04:25.620]center includes commercial scale open air and covered pens, allowing researchers to ask important
- [00:04:30.640]questions and understand the variables that impact performance and the environmental impact of cattle
- [00:04:36.420]in very varied settings and under different conditions. It also boasts a 240 head feeding
- [00:04:42.180]facility that will allow researchers to use precision techniques to study the outcomes of
- [00:04:46.880]various feeding protocols, measure emissions, and study the various uses for precision feeding
- [00:04:51.840]technology already on the market and develop new potential avenues to address those issues we're
- [00:04:58.860]facing in the cattle industry. It's a key component of the university's Beef Innovation Hub, which aims
- [00:05:04.480]to advance support and communicate continuous improvement of beef production, economic vitality,
- [00:05:09.900]and natural resources stewardship through innovative, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary
- [00:05:15.240]research, education, and extension.
- [00:05:16.860]Wow. Exciting stuff. How else is the university research looking toward the future in ag?
- [00:05:22.840]Greg, one other area is really in precision agriculture. And we've just really started
- [00:05:28.780]a new initiative called the Nebraska Future Ag Research and Management Systems, that we're
- [00:05:34.200]calling NFARMS. That's a University of Nebraska-Lincoln initiative to create and develop innovative,
- [00:05:40.940]precision, and digital agricultural tools, strategies, and collaborations. NFARMS is
- [00:05:46.840]a real-world testing environment. It's really a "test bed" where researchers can objectively
- [00:05:51.920]evaluate new technologies and take risks that farmers might not be able to on their own
- [00:05:57.600]facilities and their own systems. This allows for advancements to be made in a timely fashion
- [00:06:03.600]for faster adoption in agriculture operations. Up at NREC where NFARMS is located, we have
- [00:06:09.800]3,000 acres for crop production. Therefore, NFARMS operates on a scale that far exceeds
- [00:06:15.940]anything available.
- [00:06:16.820]At any other university for precision ag research and is comparable to real-world production
- [00:06:22.340]conditions. This is the type of public-private partnership that leverages our facilities
- [00:06:27.580]for greater impact. Our goal is to create a digital ag innovation ecosystem where we
- [00:06:33.600]co-create and co-develop new tools with industry, both startups and established partners.
- [00:06:39.880]Fantastic. Chancellor, it's so exciting to hear this research that we know goes on on a daily basis, but
- [00:06:46.800]It really is a wonderful opportunity for the state of Nebraska and for the university system
- [00:06:52.340]in Nebraska. And I'm very proud of the work that Derek leads and all of our faculty and staff,
- [00:06:58.400]whether it's the end farms that Derek walked us through just a second ago,
- [00:07:03.320]the Klosterman Feedlot Innovation Center over in Mead, and all of the other initiatives that
- [00:07:10.020]we have throughout the Institute and our CASNR program. You know, one of the things that we talk about
- [00:07:16.780]and that we believe and that we've been committed to now for more than 155 years
- [00:07:21.740]is our foundation in agriculture and natural resources. And under my chancellorship,
- [00:07:28.600]certainly we are not going to stray away from that very real commitment, both in letter and
- [00:07:36.820]in spirit. A lot of times as chancellor, I talk about the things that we are prescribed to do
- [00:07:41.860]because state law might say it or board policy may lead us to do it. And so,
- [00:07:46.760]those are sort of the letter at which we ought to be operating. But then there's the spirit,
- [00:07:51.960]you know, because no policy can address every nuance that comes up at a Big Ten, R1,
- [00:07:59.080]flagship land grant university. So, our people have really embraced the spirit of the work that
- [00:08:05.260]we do and the spirit in which we see ourselves as leading the country in agriculture and natural
- [00:08:12.840]resources. And we take that work seriously, Greg. And I'm so proud
- [00:08:16.740]of all of our employees, our students, our community members, our alumni,
- [00:08:21.200]the philanthropic community who are helping us to accomplish this goal every single day.
- [00:08:27.320]And as chancellor, I'm very fortunate to be able to lead such an initiative.
- [00:08:31.960]Fantastic. Chancellor, always good to see you. Derek, thank you so much for coming
- [00:08:35.000]and being part of the show today. Thank you. We've got the Big Ten Blitz coming up next.
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