Latest / The Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast / Episode 30 | Your Dollars at Work for You - IL NREC
Transcript
- Episode 30 | Your Dollars at Work for You - IL NREC 00:00:06:03 - 00:00:31:05 Todd Gleason This is the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast, episode 30. Your dollars at work for you. The Illinois Nutrient Research and Education Council, or NREC. I'm University of Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason. The executive director for NREC is Julie Armstrong. We'll talk with her today along with research manager at NREC, Shani Golovay, and NREC chairman and Illinois farmer Jeff Kerwin. 00:00:31:11 - 00:00:39:02 Todd Gleason Let's start with Julie Armstrong. Thank you for being with us. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do it in NREC? 00:00:39:05 - 00:00:57:17 Julie Armstrong Absolutely. So I have been in the role of the executive director of Illinois and NREC since 2015. Since that time, we have hired a research manager and that's Dr. Shani Golovay, Shani lives in the Greenville, Illinois area. 00:00:57:19 - 00:01:06:29 Julie Armstrong So between the two of us, we manage the day to day operations of the of the council and provide support to our, 13 member board. 00:01:07:01 - 00:01:13:17 Todd Gleason Shani Golovay is with us. I'm wondering, Shani, if you can tell us what managing the day to day operations of NREC, or 00:01:13:17 - 00:01:17:08 Todd Gleason the Nutrient Research Education Council is like? 00:01:17:10 - 00:01:22:02 Shani Golovay I coordinate the research aspect of NREC because we're a checkoff. 00:01:22:02 - 00:01:51:19 Shani Golovay We get the $0.75 for every one ton of fertilizer. And that goes into, an account that we then use to fund research on water quality and nutrient loss in the state of Illinois. One of my jobs, and I think the most fun part of my job is I get to go out and talk to farmers and growers and farm managers and people in the ag industry and ask them what kind of research they would like to see that. 00:01:51:22 - 00:02:12:21 Shani Golovay What kind of research are you interested in in terms of nutrient loss? What do you not know what is the piece that's missing? What research do we need to be doing in Illinois to help you make better decisions? I take that information back to the board. The board is also gathering information. And then from that we make an RFP, a request for proposals. 00:02:12:24 - 00:02:26:18 Shani Golovay And we put some priorities in there that ask those specific questions to researchers so that then researchers can apply for proposals based on questions that real Illinois farmers and growers have. 00:02:26:20 - 00:02:54:05 Jeff Kerwin I think it's really important to understand that we are the only state in the United States that has a, checkoff, if you will, or a contribution, from our the checkoff dollars to that goes to nutrient education research and trying to understand what goes on in the state and what's going on and how to deal with some of the ideas and things to put some research behind it. 00:02:54:05 - 00:03:05:29 Jeff Kerwin So, I think it's, you know, we are unique in that aspect that we do, provide our self funding. Some of the maybe answers to the, a lot of the questions that people have. 00:03:06:05 - 00:03:18:07 Todd Gleason That's Jeff Kerwin, he's a farmer from south of the Quad Cities in Illinois and serves as the chairman of NREC or the Nutrient Research Education Council, Julie Armstrong as the executive director. 00:03:18:07 - 00:03:29:03 Todd Gleason And I think this is pretty important to you. We've heard the word checkoff twice. This really isn't a checkoff. It's an assessment. Can you tell me about the differences here? 00:03:29:10 - 00:03:40:14 Julie Armstrong Absolutely. So, we are funded by a 75 cent per ton, assessment on fertilizer that is sold in the state of Illinois. So that is paid by the farmers. 00:03:40:17 - 00:04:04:21 Julie Armstrong It is collected through the retailers. And so that's an important part of that relationship. Engaging all of production agriculture through our whole production, chain. And it's fascinating. It works a lot like a checkup checkoff is a little bit different, in that it's an assessment and we're not managed by some of the checkoff goals, but, that funding brings in, on average, somewhere between three and a half and $4 million annually. 00:04:04:23 - 00:04:16:13 Todd Gleason We'll get back to some of that funding in just a moment. Jeff, I would like to ask you how you think your farm has been influenced by NREC and the research that's done by the organization? 00:04:16:16 - 00:04:30:12 Jeff Kerwin Oh, it's, it's been a really good, tool for me. We've implemented things like a bio reactor and, do cover crops on our farm and learning about them, which any time you learn, you're always asking questions. 00:04:30:12 - 00:04:53:06 Jeff Kerwin And I think what's unique for me and my role is that I hear the questions from the farm community, and then that's questions that we issue every year in an RFP to for researchers to look at and answer some of these questions, because obviously, part of the strategy is for us to implement some of these, the cover crops and, and things like that that we need to do on our farms. 00:04:53:06 - 00:05:08:23 Jeff Kerwin And there's a lot of questions about it, and there's a lot of concerns about managing management through it. And so this is a great way for us to ask the research community to look at these questions and provide us some answers and solutions so that ultimately it can be a success. 00:05:08:26 - 00:05:20:05 Todd Gleason And I don't know whether you'll have an answer for this question or not, but do you like cover crops or the bioreactor one or the other better as an option, or do you think both need to be deployed? 00:05:20:10 - 00:05:52:08 Jeff Kerwin You know, I think, that's a good question because I think ultimately they need to be used together. What we see is that, you know, you can't remove all the nitrate. You can't remove things in a bioreactor 100%. You need to couple that with a cover crop or some, you know, other management tools as well too. You know, it's kind of all a system that if you can provide a lot of different things into that system, the total goal is a much greater reduction in those removals. 00:05:52:10 - 00:06:09:00 Todd Gleason So, Julie, Jeff, discuss some of the things that are on the farm. I'm wondering how those move through NREC to the farm and what those concepts look like early on, and then what what kind of research and then how you deploy them. 00:06:09:04 - 00:06:21:18 Julie Armstrong One of the biggest priorities for the council, really, since the inception back in 2012, was making sure that we were able to stay nimble and also to be responsive to a rising need. 00:06:21:19 - 00:06:43:01 Julie Armstrong So, you know, we we do a lot of ongoing research on things like four R management practices. So right place, right time, right form, right placement. And those have been ongoing for a long time. And then we went into cover crop pretty pretty hot and heavy as those were becoming, a a good option for managing nutrient loss. 00:06:43:01 - 00:07:11:15 Julie Armstrong But a lot of what happens is on an annual basis, we reach out to farmers, we reach out to our member organization partners. We talked to our friends in the environmental community. And then really talk about what are some emerging needs. So it could be that somebody in southern Illinois, wants to know more or feels like there's a need to know more about what's happening to nitrates, in a cover crop system where we have a freeze and thaw. 00:07:11:15 - 00:07:28:16 Julie Armstrong And is it causing issues with opening up channels that we could be losing nutrients, through those channels? And it may not be something that we would have ever thought of, or that a research with a researcher would have thought of. But then we were able to do some ground truthing and find that there really is a need to understand that. 00:07:28:19 - 00:07:59:07 Julie Armstrong The we found some researchers who were interested in that type of work. They put in a proposal, and now we are two years, into looking at what the impact of that might be. So that really being able to be responsive, listening to what the farm community needs. Because ultimately the goal of NREC is to have a peer reviewed science that can help, answer the questions about what really are the best management practices for managing nutrient loss in the state. 00:07:59:09 - 00:08:25:00 Julie Armstrong And we really focus on it in in three different ways. I mean, obviously, the environmental side of it is important. We want to make sure that we are reducing the nutrient load that is leaving our state. But we also really want to look at it from an agronomic and, and, economic standpoint, we know that farmers run businesses, farmers especially, you know, in the, in the current climate are running on tight margins. 00:08:25:00 - 00:08:34:05 Julie Armstrong So we don't want to put things in place that cut into their profit margin. So we want practices that work from an agronomic, economic and environmental. 00:08:34:05 - 00:08:47:04 Todd Gleason You mentioned that you want peer reviewed work. What kind of organizations typically apply for the grant money that NREC puts forth? 00:08:47:06 - 00:08:54:10 Julie Armstrong Primarily, you know, probably 95% of our research is done through universities. 00:08:54:12 - 00:09:23:16 Julie Armstrong We obviously have a great partnership with the University of Illinois. You know, being a land grant and it being where a lot of those experts are, we also work with Illinois State University. This year we have a project at Western Illinois, which is the first time we've had a chance to partner with them. We work closely with the folks at SIU in Carbondale, and, we actually have a project that's done in McLean County, Illinois, but that is done by, Doctor Shalamar Armstrong, who is at Purdue. 00:09:23:21 - 00:09:28:17 Julie Armstrong So we really try to to focus. Most of our work does go through university researchers. 00:09:28:19 - 00:09:33:11 Todd Gleason And finally, how does NREC decide its key areas of investigation? 00:09:33:13 - 00:09:53:02 Julie Armstrong So each year our, we have our council, which is made up of 13 members, that are all appointed from different organizations. And then we also have a research committee that consists of the majority of the board, plus five additional farmers that represent, the geographic diversity of the state. 00:09:53:05 - 00:10:12:08 Julie Armstrong And so each year we start by putting together a list of priorities. So we really go through what are the things that we're currently looking at. What are the things that are on the horizon? What are things that have arisen as questions or as as things that we need to to do more investigation on? We send out a RFP, which is a request. 00:10:12:08 - 00:10:40:04 Julie Armstrong Request for proposal, that goes out and then we evaluate the proposals that come back and really evaluate based on the merits of the program, but then also, of course, on the funds that are available. So, you know, we we bring in about $4 million every year. And since 2013, which is our first year of funding, we have funded over $26 million worth of nutrient research. 00:10:40:06 - 00:10:56:06 Julie Armstrong So we're we're excited and happy, and we really feel like that money is making an impact. And we really appreciate the commitment from Illinois farmers and also from Illinois retailers on making sure that those funds are available and that we can really help move that needle. 00:10:56:06 - 00:11:01:17 Todd Gleason Hey Shani, I know that there's a report that's released every year. This one, I think, came out in the summer. 00:11:01:17 - 00:11:08:06 Todd Gleason So it was about research that's already happened that in 2019, I believe what's inside that report? 00:11:08:11 - 00:11:27:14 Shani Golovay Some of the more interesting or more exciting data that we have from this year is Lowell Gentry study, looking at fall and spring nitrogen rates. We also have two studies, both at the University of Illinois and ISU and Purdue, looking at cereal rye in front of corn. 00:11:27:14 - 00:11:47:17 Shani Golovay That, again, was a direct question from growers. What about these cover crops in front of corn? How do I manage it? Is am I getting a yield reduction. And so we have some really good three and four year studies looking at different options for cereal rye in front of corn. And if you want to do it. What ways can you do it. 00:11:47:19 - 00:12:13:25 Shani Golovay We also have some good, really solid numerical data about the loss of nutrients in tile lines. When you have cover crops. So we pretty consistently have a 40% reduction in nitrate loss when you use cover crops. And that is a really good number to know. That's a really great number that we can use in the strategy and use to help encourage people to put out some cover crops. 00:12:13:25 - 00:12:25:03 Todd Gleason So is there an ongoing place that producers can find this kind of information? Is it all just in the summary or do we find it on a website? How do producers get hold of it? 00:12:25:05 - 00:12:35:24 Shani Golovay If you go to our NREC website, you can see each month we try to put out a investor insight. So we try and go up. 00:12:35:26 - 00:13:02:19 Shani Golovay We go to the University of Illinois, we go to ISU, we go to Western, we go to Carbondale, and we find out what the researchers are excited about with our own research. And we either do videos or we do a one page summary of, hey, this is what Carbondale found about hairy vetch, or this is what, Andrew Margenot is doing a really interesting study with, struvite. 00:13:04:04 - 00:13:32:02 Shani Golovay Or this is what Shalamar Armstrong found when he radio labels cover crops. And so we put out these one pagers on the NREC website, and we send them out to. If you want to sign up for those, we'll send them to email. And we try not to bother people. So it's once a month and then we post them on Facebook and Instagram so that you can so that people can get information in terms of not overwhelming. 00:13:32:02 - 00:13:38:13 Shani Golovay But when we get really great insights like that, we try and get them out in a one page format that people can understand. 00:13:38:18 - 00:13:50:16 Todd Gleason Jeff, I'd like to wrap up with you today. What advice, if any, would you give to farmers that would like to adopt new conservation practices but just aren't sure how they should get started? 00:13:50:18 - 00:14:02:09 Jeff Kerwin I, you know, strongly encourage them to talk to the retailers about it, talk to the to any you know, all the research, you know, Illinois NREC has a website with all the research catalog on it. 00:14:02:09 - 00:14:25:10 Jeff Kerwin So if you have specific questions about certain things, I mean, we looked at, you know, some of the projects that we're looking at right now, we're looking at, the corn that, maybe reduces the amount of nitrogen that it's, it's need in the year. And in working with that, we're working with bioreactors. We're working with saturation buffers with WASCOBs on a farm. 00:14:25:13 - 00:14:47:17 Jeff Kerwin You know, how how do these aid into that strategy? We also do a lot of work with the cover crops and management and watershed scale cover cropping to try and figure out, you know, to find some of that. We look at different fertilizer techniques, stripe till versus broadcast. And so there's a lot of different things that we're looking at, and research is ongoing on it. 00:14:47:17 - 00:15:09:16 Jeff Kerwin And so I think it's important to, you know, to ask those questions. And, and look at websites and, and, and, you know, personal experience, you know, talk to farmers that are doing it and, you know, trying to answer the questions because ultimately they're the ones that are starting to master, you know, how to manage through some of these things because they are some, you know, especially with cover crops are some challenges. 00:15:09:18 - 00:15:19:12 Jeff Kerwin So we have cover crop guys, you know, and I have seen that available. So there's a lot of tools out there, I guess is what I would say to, to look at and work with. 00:15:19:18 - 00:15:23:11 Jeff Kerwin You have Shani and Julie. Thank you so much for joining us on our podcast today. 00:15:23:17 - 00:15:23:29 Shani Golovay Okay. 00:15:24:00 - 00:15:24:28 Julie Armstrong Thank you so much. 00:15:25:00 - 00:15:25:18 Jeff Kerwin Thank you. 00:15:25:22 - 00:15:41:29 Todd Gleason Jeff Kerwin is a farmer and the chairman of Illinois NREC, Shani Golovay is the research manager there. And Julie Armstrong serves as the Illinois Nutrient Research Education Counsel, or NREC, executive director. I'm the Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason.