Latest / The Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast / Episode 64 | Register for the Ag & Climate Conference
Transcript
- Episode 64 | Register for the Ag & Climate Conference 00:00:05:19 - 00:00:29:03 Todd Gleason This is the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast, episode 46: Register for the Ag and Climate Conference. Coming up, I'll tell you more about the end of the month conference to be held in Peoria. 00:00:29:05 - 00:00:50:09 Todd Gleason There's a new conference coming to the Peoria Civic Center at the end of the month of July. I think you might find of interest. This is the North Central Agriculture and Climate Conference. Hans Schmitz is with Purdue University, and I called to ask him just exactly when and how this conference will take place. And for that matter, why 00:00:50:12 - 00:00:56:16 Hans Schmitz July 31st and August 1st, we've got the North Central Agriculture and Climate Conference. 00:00:56:18 - 00:01:34:25 Hans Schmitz Our tagline is connecting research, extension, and outreach. I wanted the tagline to be bringing the ACC to the Big Ten, but apparently it was too nuanced of it, so I couldn't get it, held up. But yeah, it's a pretty exciting conference. We, got some initial grant funding from NTAE, the National Technologies for Agricultural Extension, and we're able to supplement the cost with some American Association of State Climatologist funding. 00:01:34:27 - 00:02:03:22 Hans Schmitz Which really made our registration fees, extremely affordable for the conference. But, we started out by thinking and brainstorming what kind of speakers did we want to make sure? The, the whole audience could experience for general sessions and making sure that those individuals would be things that people would be interested in hearing about, or people people would be interested in hearing from. 00:02:03:24 - 00:02:44:13 Hans Schmitz So we were pretty delighted to get Eric Snodgrass, who's the principal atmospheric scientist at Nutrien Ag Solutions, to keynote the conference and kick off the conference. First thing after the welcome on July 31st, Eric Snodgrass will be speaking. The social science panel was a big, big ask and a big get. We're really glad to have Linda Prokopy from Purdue, Chloe Wardropper here from University of Illinois, and J. Arbuckle from Iowa State, coming in that afternoon at 3:15 to panel with us and discuss current social science research into agriculture and climate. 00:02:44:15 - 00:03:16:01 Hans Schmitz And then David Kay of Cornell is the National Extension Climate Initiative person, and he is kicking off day two on August 1st at 8:30, discussing national and global initiatives in climate and research and extension. We do have breakout sessions, and we had a call for abstracts for those breakout sessions. We had, oh, somewhere around 25 submitted for 12 potential sessions. 00:03:16:04 - 00:03:35:25 Hans Schmitz But, we didn't really have to turn anyone away because we do have a poster session as well. So we've got, 12 different breakouts over six time periods across the two days, as well as a session at the end of day one and displaying, those 14 or so posters that we were able to accept. 00:03:35:26 - 00:03:37:02 Todd Gleason Again, that's Hans Schmitz. 00:03:37:02 - 00:04:04:13 Todd Gleason He is lead conservation cropping agronomist at Purdue University and helping to organize the Ag and Climate Conference, which will take place at the end of this month in Peoria. He mentioned that Eric Snodgrass from Nutrien Ag Solutions and Draggable meteorologist will be keynoting and kicking off that event. I speak with Eric each and every Friday for my closing market report on Illinois Public Media. 00:04:04:13 - 00:04:15:01 Todd Gleason It's at Will AG .org online, and I asked him this past week what it was he expected to discuss at the end of the month in Peoria. 00:04:15:01 - 00:04:27:13 Eric Snodgrass Honestly, Todd, it's it's a lot of what we just discussed. Now, it'll be a course put into broader context, but I just want to know if there are discernible and important trends for U.S. growers to understand about what's changing. 00:04:27:16 - 00:04:46:00 Eric Snodgrass Then we better have a discussion about it, better understand what the potential for best practices is. And I'm going to focus a lot on precipitation. So precipitation variability is going to be top of mind in my talk. Plus the risk, future risk of severe weather events and what that looks like. So I've got a lot of great content that's going to be a good one. 00:04:46:02 - 00:05:06:01 Eric Snodgrass You will walk out with useful statistics and statistics. I think that you could use, you know, if you're putting together a longer term plan for your operation that, could be incorporated into that. So we want this conference to be something where folks walk away with more than just, hey, I got a great meal, I got to hear some good speakers, but I got to hear some good information that I can take back to my operation. 00:05:06:05 - 00:05:23:15 Todd Gleason Now, on that note, I was thinking about interviews that I have done in the past, as it's related to, these larger events that have been taking place clearly, for some time now, rain events that is, larger, usually further apart. Not this year, which I think is also interesting, but the. 00:05:23:16 - 00:05:24:10 Eric Snodgrass Yeah. 00:05:24:10 - 00:05:36:08 Todd Gleason But but what impacts that has, for instance, on logistics, and in this case it was about mitigation, particularly as it's related to, to logistics in the northwestern Corn Belt. 00:05:36:08 - 00:05:48:14 Todd Gleason And the example they used was if we're going to build a new rail bed to export, because we can out of the PNW, the Pacific Northwest, how how high should that rail bed be? 00:05:48:15 - 00:05:48:19 Eric Snodgrass Right? 00:05:48:22 - 00:06:00:02 Todd Gleason Based on the size, on on the duration and size of the rainfall events and the bed itself, along with, of course, all the bridges, I mean, there's just a whole lot going on. 00:06:00:07 - 00:06:21:03 Eric Snodgrass Yeah. And honestly, Todd, that's the way we should all be thinking about issues of climate science. Climate change and resilience is like, all right, logistically, what do we do to continue to be resilient and also to continue to protect the environment and also to make sure that our supply chain goes on uninterrupted so that we can continue to do the things that we do, which is supply the world with food, feed, fuel and fiber. 00:06:21:03 - 00:06:39:09 Eric Snodgrass Right. And so I think these things are the right approach. That's the right approach when you're going to study climate sciences. All right. We still have to we still have to grow a crop and get it out. And what are we going to be doing to ensure that Mother Nature and any sort of variability will be accounted for in our planning, and that is the right approach. 00:06:39:09 - 00:06:42:01 Eric Snodgrass So that's why I'm excited about the conference. We're going to talk about that kind of stuff. 00:06:42:06 - 00:06:59:25 Todd Gleason That's a portion of a discussion I had with Eric Snodgrass about the weather in broader context, as it's related to agriculture across the planet and current growing conditions. From Illinois Public Media's closing market report that airs each day on the home station and can be found at will AG.org 00:06:59:27 - 00:07:30:21 Todd Gleason However, in that moment, we were talking about the upcoming Ag and climate conference in Peoria. We're discussing here. You can get yourself registered for it at northcentral Ag. That's all one word: North Central AG dot o r g. He'll be kicking off the event on July 31st. One of the other things that Hans Schmitz, who we heard from earlier from Purdue, who's the lead conservation cropping agronomist there and helping to organize this conference mentioned was the social side. 00:07:30:21 - 00:07:37:10 Todd Gleason And I wondered what that panel might take up. And he explored it with me. 00:07:37:12 - 00:08:06:28 Hans Schmitz Yeah. So J. Arbuckle and Linda Prokopy and Chloe have all looked at what influences farmer adoption of certain practices. They've also studied the question, what people influence farmers? So, one of Linda's slides in particular, that she shows on a regular basis, shows whether it's a farmer survey. 00:08:07:01 - 00:08:37:19 Hans Schmitz And they ask the farmers, who do you listen to for advice or who do you trust, when making decisions for your operation? And it runs the gamut from, chemical dealers, crop consultants, family, neighbor farmers, governmental entities, conservation agencies. That kind of groundbreaking research came out about a decade ago, but it's been followed up upon quite a bit. 00:08:37:19 - 00:09:04:20 Hans Schmitz And one of the big research questions of the last few years has been, NOLs, non-operating landowners, how do you or should you influence their decision making to then change practices on the farms that they own, and how does the tenant landowner relationship influence those decisions? 00:09:04:22 - 00:09:20:04 Todd Gleason Interesting. We had that discussion with four farmers at the Cultivating Conversations conference as it relates to non operator landowners, and how they talk with them. 00:09:20:10 - 00:09:24:09 Todd Gleason Some landowners of course, and farmers actually never meet. 00:09:24:16 - 00:09:24:24 Hans Schmitz Right. 00:09:24:29 - 00:09:28:07 Todd Gleason Might be a farm management in the middle for instance. Right. 00:09:28:13 - 00:09:43:27 Hans Schmitz Oh absolutely. Yeah. Farm management companies definitely exist and play play a large role in mediating, groups of landowners and farmers, particularly on some larger scale acreage is. 00:09:43:27 - 00:10:03:25 Todd Gleason Yeah, that should be an interesting inverse, interesting conversation in itself, particularly if producers are there, and wanting it from my perspective to know to producers, are they okay with others influencing their landowners? 00:10:03:27 - 00:10:29:04 Hans Schmitz That's an excellent question. Are farmers okay with others influencing their landowners? That's that's a topic that, is currently a subject of some research. However, I haven't seen any conclusive results. No, not to say that they're not out there, but that's certainly a, emotionally charged subject. 00:10:29:06 - 00:10:31:29 Todd Gleason Who is this conference aimed at? 00:10:32:02 - 00:10:54:02 Hans Schmitz We developed the agenda that we would like to see with, an eye for inclusion of not just extension personnel and professionals, but also those that are at the Nexus of climate and agriculture, no matter your profession. 00:10:54:04 - 00:11:26:03 Hans Schmitz So if you happen to be in a conservation agency, you're thinking about climate and agriculture on a regular basis. If you happen to be, private consultant, private agronomist, and you're using climate and agricultural tools, this, conference is also for you. We are definitely not going to be telling anyone that is thinking about climate and agriculture at the same time that this conference is not for them. 00:11:26:06 - 00:11:29:23 Todd Gleason Would you expect farmers and producers, landowners to be interested? 00:11:30:00 - 00:11:54:23 Hans Schmitz We would love it if farmers, producers and landowners would be interested and, we would welcome them to attend and also provide input. We've got a couple of different breakout sessions that are less presentation based and more discussion based, and so we would love to have them in attendance, if they feel passionate about the topic. 00:11:55:00 - 00:11:59:13 Todd Gleason Again, this is in Peoria. It is at the convention center. Is that correct? 00:11:59:15 - 00:12:02:17 Hans Schmitz Yes, it is at the Peoria Civic Center. 00:12:02:19 - 00:12:17:27 Todd Gleason If you'd like to register for the Ag and Climate conference, you can do so on the North Central ag.org website. That's North central Ag all one word dot org. The Ag and Climate Conference tab is at the top of the page. 00:12:17:29 - 00:12:29:20 Todd Gleason You'll find then a place to register and the full agenda. You've been listening to the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction podcast from University of Illinois Extension. I'm Todd Gleason.