Latest / Conservation Stories / Cotton, Cattle, and Conservation: Research and Resilience with Todd Baughman

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Cotton, Cattle, and Conservation: Research and Resilience with Todd Baughman · Conservation Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker A: FOREIGN.
• 0:05
  Speaker B: Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of Conservation Stories. This is your host, Hilary Timmins Sims, here again. And Conservation Stories is a podcast brought to you by the Sand Hill Area Research Association. SARA we, as you know, love to feature people that are doing great things across the high plains and we've got some repeat guests now that we've been around for about a year. Todd Bowman is back again with us and we're going to talk some more about what's happening out at the AgriLife Research center out there just north of the airport, just north of there. So people remember it wasn't too many episodes ago that we were catching up with you on your new position out there, which isn't too new anymore. But you came after J. Roy Moore retired and we talked some about what the goals are for those centers that are across Texas. And so I'd like for us to dig down and do a little more on specific things that are going on out there and research that I think people will be interested in learning about because this is, this is our tax dollars at work in some cases, but also your land grant university. So some of it is actually even mineral money coming from oil and gas. So anyway, so give us a little overview and you just start wherever you want.
• 1:33
  Speaker A: TODD well, I mean obviously we're the same as the producers in the area. It's been a, it's been a blessing of a summer so far, both the rainfall and the temperatures. I think we've maybe two or three days that hit 100 so far this summer. So and I was telling people even last week, you know, because this week obviously is the first really, I guess, continuous high temperatures that we've had all summer, which again is a plus. But if you look at our nighttime temperatures are still holding cooler compared to last year. And I think, I think that's a big key when we get hot is what those nighttime temperatures, because giving that plant some rest in the evening, which last year, that three weeks in August we didn't have, and I think that was the nighttime temperatures were as big a detriment as those hundred degrees during the day.
• 2:22
  Speaker B: That's interesting. And you know, for folks that maybe aren't plant enthusiast, give us a little bit of why is that important for those plants?
• 2:31
  Speaker A: So basically, you know, if that if it stays hot at night, well, during that heat during the day, that plant has to transpire basically just like we sweat, if you think of it that way. And so that's how it cools itself off. Well, a lot of times at Night, if it cools off, it doesn't have to stay in that high transpiration rate. But if it stays hot at night like it did last summer, that plant basically keeps basically sweating, if you think about it, all night. Kind of like we did last year.
• 2:59
  Speaker B: Exactly, exactly.
• 3:00
  Speaker A: And so that's just an increased use of water stress on the plant that it's not putting into those bowls and resources. And I think if you look at last year, kind of our results, our bowls ended up being smaller, our seed count was lower, and a lot of our grades were lower because it couldn't put it into the development of that bowl because it was just trying to survive those temperatures.
• 3:21
  Speaker B: Yeah, just like that. That plant has just only so much energy. And when it's spending all that energy trying to cool itself off 24 7, which is one reason why grapes do so well here, is because we have that desert type. Hot during the day and cool at night now, it was miserable. I remember that last summer thinking, I mean, this is so odd because you could always go out after, you know, sunset and walk and it would be cool.
• 3:52
  Speaker A: Oh, I tell people when I first started out here as the extension peanut specialist, that. That I thought this was the greatest place in the world because I grew up in southwest Oklahoma and then worked off the cap in Vernon and. And I got up here and I was like, it cools off at night, and in the morning you wake up and it's cool. And I said. And I got kind of blamed last year for bringing that weather with me when it ended up being.
• 4:16
  Speaker B: Are you getting. Are you getting any of the. Not the blame, but the respect for the rain.
• 4:22
  Speaker A: I think. I think a center director always takes the blame and none of the credit.
• 4:27
  Speaker B: So there you go. I drove through that part of Oklahoma that you're talking about on Sunday, coming back from visiting family. And what a beautiful part of the country, though. And even into Collingsworth county there, right as you cross over from Oklahoma into Texas. And just everywhere is so green. Yeah, I've been so surprised. And then we have recently also gone into New Mexico, and if it's green between Roswell, New Mexico, and Plains, Texas.
• 5:00
  Speaker A: It'S had some rain and has been a good summer.
• 5:03
  Speaker B: It has been a good summer. It has been. It has been. So what are things you think looking like then? The rain has been timely and helpful and you feel like it's cooled off and. So how are cotton. How's cotton looking?
• 5:22
  Speaker A: I mean, I think a lot of our crops, especially on the station and some of the crops that I've seen driving around, you know, just look exceptional. The one concern I was telling somebody the other day, I had opportunity to fly in during the day, and there is some cotton out there that's got, when you get out over the top of it, that's got some skips in it that obviously is going to create some concern. But, you know, one of the great things about cotton and why we grow it in this, it has such an ability to compensate.
• 5:48
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 5:49
  Speaker A: Both from stressful periods, skips, those types of thing. And so, you know, the hope is with the weather we had that it'll compensate for some of those issues because. And I'm sure you remember it was not. It was not a fun start to the season. It's been a great June and July, but the. The May to the first part of June was not fun at all.
• 6:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, and that's. I mean, it seems like we never had. Never have a perfect season. But, you know, for people that don't know, cotton is part of that, the same family as hibiscus. And I don't know if anybody's noticed this year just how well hibiscus have done, which is one reason if you are planting a hardy hibiscus, you should have one in your. In your yard because they just do so well here. And you can kind of see how it mimics some of that. That same traits of cotton. And you can tell this is why we. Why we grow cotton here.
• 6:44
  Speaker A: Yes, most definitely. It's. And so. So, yeah, I just. I think the crops got a lot of promise. You know, we still need some help to finish this thing out, but. But it's definitely a lot more positive. And it's been the last three years. Yeah. And I guess I keep looking at it, maybe a tough start and a great finish. So.
• 7:00
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good way to put it. If we. If it just doesn't rain all through harvest.
• 7:03
  Speaker A: Yes, exactly.
• 7:05
  Speaker B: So what kind of cotton are y' all doing on the farm this year?
• 7:08
  Speaker A: Oh, so we've got just a tremendous amount. I guess the first thing that's probably the most exciting for me, for the center as the director, is so last year we put in approximately 20 acres of drip that we've got under research production this year. And then we're. We're in the process of completing another 50 acres of drip that'll go into research for next year.
• 7:29
  Speaker B: Great.
• 7:30
  Speaker A: So. So that's an exciting. Both from a research standpoint, a labor standpoint, and obviously, you know, doing the benefits of saving much water as we can for the future of the center. So that's an exciting part, I guess, to kind of start, you know, we've got a lot of fertility projects, cropping systems projects, with two of our side or actually three of our scientists, Katie Lewis, Joseph Burke and Wayne Keeling, they've got that all the way from Lamisa to Lubbock to halfway. Looking at various systems, how fertility impacts that I attended yesterday. Katie and Joseph are part of a regenerative ag project. They're having a meeting yesterday and it was neat because there's research scientists from throughout the state of Texas, also from Oklahoma and from Kansas that are part of that project.
• 8:26
  Speaker B: Right.
• 8:27
  Speaker A: And. And it's also neat because we had animal scientists, cropping systems people, extension people, some people that were doing some drone technology.
• 8:44
  Speaker B: So, yes.
• 8:44
  Speaker A: Some modeling of those types of systems. So kind of a, you know, as I introduced them, you know, not only a diverse group from a geographical standpoint, but a diverse group from a scientific standpoint. Yeah. And you know, that to me, when you look at those types of systems, that's the same kind of systems and decisions that growers are having to deal with. And so seeing some of the neat information, Donna McAllister with Texas Tech and Andrew Wright, who's at our center doing some of the economic analysis, I was about to ask.
• 9:18
  Speaker B: Oh, that's so great. I'm glad to hear that. And you know, I think that you would think this wouldn't be. Why is this exciting? Well, so often a lot of research has been so siloed, you haven't gone cross discipline all the time, you know, or there haven't been as much farmer involvement, which is one thing we love about NASA acres, you know, is that it's that farmer led, what do you need? Type of question, you know. And so I love to see that we're pulling in this holistic look at something that, you know, regenerative kind of is this catchphrase. Now it's kind of a, I don't know, it's this overarching term for things that maybe still need to be defined a little better. But I'm excited that for the fact that we need to know what the impacts are, you know, because there's always going to be, you know, consequences for everything that we do. And as much as we can figure out what the impacts are going to be, the better off we are.
• 10:25
  Speaker A: Oh, most definitely. And obviously we all know the, you know, part of that, a big part of that program. And we all realize the struggles we have with, with trying to manage cover crops in this region compared to, especially as you get to the rain belt of the east. But then looking at are there additional benefits that, that possibly, you know, can help us from other ways? And then obviously having the animal science part of that, you know, can we recruit some of that maybe lost yield that we have from that cover crop through introducing animal agriculture into that system.
• 11:00
  Speaker B: And you know, I mean, this is, this is something that Lacy has been doing on her farm. And they did the research with Veronica Acosta Martinez at USDA Research. They're across from. On fourth kind of across there from Tech, and they did soil, I think, starting in 2017 when she introduced her cattle. So for people that aren't aware, this is not something that traditionally and there has been some like, fear of the mismanagement of running cattle on row crops has caused like compaction of the soil. And there's some issues that, you know, it. The way it was managed didn't do a great job. But Lacy, pardon me, she, you know, did a lot of that, what we would refer to maybe as mob grazing, where you're not leaving them there too long, you know, so they traced even the DNA of those microbes and what they found, you know, was just the increased in soil water moisture holding capacity as her health of her soil improved. You know, so they were able to do cover crops when maybe you couldn't if you hadn't introduced cattle. Plus also not having to pay for a synthetic fertilizer.
• 12:16
  Speaker A: Yes. And you know, of course, of course, you know, growing up in southwest Oklahoma and working in the rolling plains, I'm used to, you know, it's primarily cattle, but, but diverse cattle operations that, that kind of run the gamut. And that's part of the thing that I'm talking to some people out here that like, I kind of just grew up with just naturally thinking about, that people don't think about is there's ways to introduce grazing to your system and you never own the cattle.
• 12:46
  Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. And I. And that's something. So when we were farming in Lamb county, that's something that we were introduced to in that area because it was, it's common, much more common there. You know, it's closer to feedlots than we were in Terry County. And so we just weren't as accustomed to seeing cattle in using any kind of rotation. But we, we had, you know, some cowboys that were bringing their cattle out and then still Brent Cokers, our farmer out there, that leases are a great farmer. And you know, just the increase, the decrease in Input cost. And then the way that he manages that cattle, it brings in more. It brings in more income. It does, yeah.
• 13:31
  Speaker A: And so, so, you know, and there's, and there's just so many ways, you know, it doesn't have to just be a stalker. It may be just given somebody a short period graze their heifers or their, their red cows on, you know, they. They either maybe run out of forage where they're at, and they're looking for someplace to hold these cattle till their place recovers or whatever. So there's, so there's. There's a whole gamut of things that can fall into that. And you never own the cattle. That doesn't mean you can't own the cattle and not.
• 14:00
  Speaker B: Right.
• 14:00
  Speaker A: Potential benefits there.
• 14:02
  Speaker B: Right. But if you don't want to mess with it, because a lot of times that's like the farmer and The Cowman.
• 14:06
  Speaker A: Yes, 100%, you know.
• 14:09
  Speaker B: Ye. So what I like about the idea too is it also makes a pathway for maybe a younger person who wants to get into agriculture. They don't have to own the land. They can maybe work with a larger group of farmers and be a mutually beneficial. And then you got somebody that gets to stay behind and stay here and bring in that next generation.
• 14:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, most definitely. And you know, the cattle industry is, you know, interesting from top to bottom. You know, there's brokers out there that put cattle together for you, you know, guys that can help you find guys like you were saying that.
• 14:47
  Speaker B: Right.
• 14:47
  Speaker A: For a place. So there's, there's a lot of opportunities in that. The other thing you bring up, and it was kind of interesting when I started out when some of the first no till wheat went into the rolling plains. And that's one of those keys you talk about compaction from the cattle and that sort of thing. And unfortunately, we learned some hard lessons through some of that. But, you know, the keys were one, you know, if it's wet, you pull the cattle off or you concentrate them into a smaller area. And then the second thing was making sure to leave enough forage at the end because, you know, traditionally, if guys were going to plow that ground afterwards, People make fun of me, but I use. The term that I grew up with was called lizard lick, where basically it looked like, you know, there was basically not a blade of wheat out there when it was done.
• 15:38
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 15:38
  Speaker A: And you know, but you plowed it so it broke up that compaction layer. And we learned with no till, you had to leave some of that. So you had to Pull those cattle off a little earlier and let that grow back before it, you know, died off in the summer. So that, that, that straw and that root mass would kind of help break up that compaction. And if you did those two things, you didn't see a real compaction issue from those cattle. So, you know, there's ways to manage, you know, and basically any system we talk about, there's ways to manage through some of those issues.
• 16:14
  Speaker B: So, and I hope that people can see, like, you know, that aren't involved in ag, that may be listening and they haven't turned us off by now. But I, you know, how thoughtful you have to be in this, in the process of what you're doing on your land, you know, and, and even more so when you add in some of these more complex systems of production that you really have to be, one thing is going to cause a consequence and you're going to have to figure out how you're going to offset for that. And so I know a lot of people, you know, I've, I've heard people be, why don't farmers all farm regeneratively? And people don't understand the whole process, you know, and it is a little frustrating to me sometimes to hear people make assumptions about that farmers are making bad choices, you know, or choices that are impacting, you know, urban people in a negative way because they don't care, you know, and the truth is they do care. And then, and so it's frustrating to me to say, you know, you wouldn't go to knock another business owner and say, hey, we want you to do something so that you lose money every year because we think it's better for everybody.
• 17:36
  Speaker A: Yeah. And that just doesn't work.
• 17:38
  Speaker B: It makes sense. Right.
• 17:39
  Speaker A: And I think, yeah, if you turn that around and kind of put that in, whatever their situation is, they wouldn't be supportive of that.
• 17:45
  Speaker B: Well, let's just cut your salary down by 10% and see how that works, you know, and so I hope that people will listen in and we're talking about these things because ag impacts our economy so so much. People don't recognize that, you know, if you have a whole, you know, I don't really, I need to look to see what the impact, especially in Lubbock is, you know, that it's, it's. People can't buy new cars, people don't come in and spend money, you know, buying nice clothes for school, going back to school or, you know, I mean, it's, it's things that just are going to impact all of our, all of our businesses here in Lubbock.
• 18:28
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. You know, I mean, I have no idea how, you know, it's called the Hub City for a reason.
• 18:34
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 18:35
  Speaker A: I don't know how big an impact the outside communities have on exactly like you're saying on Lubbock, but a tremendous impact that, that when we're not profitable in the ag world, impact that besides just those local communities that it impacts.
• 18:52
  Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. Hey, friends, I'm excited to tell you about NASA. NASA Acres, which is part of the Earth Science division of NASA, is coming to our area. They're coming here because they want to learn about how we farm and they want to see if there's ways that they can help us. So NASA Acres is a project that we've been partnering with for several months now and they will be here for ag tours October 6th, 7th and 8th. And we will be in Terry County. We will be heading then up to Cress and over to Morton. We're going to be in a lot of different places. We're going to put that agenda up on our website. On the homepage, you can see where we are. And if you want to come by and just see what NASA, what do they have to do with agriculture? We would love for you to meet these folks. They want to meet you. They want to talk about maybe how you can participate and have remote sensing information available for your farm. This is a farmer led effort. So if you're an ag ag business or if you're a farmer, come out and just kick the tires on what it might be like to partner with NASA on an ag project.
• 20:04
  Speaker A: You know, growers, you know, I always refer to them as, as the first environmentalist. You know, they want to do things that are sustainable because, you know, they want, you know, yes, they want to make a profit this year, but they understand they need to make a profit 10 years from now.
• 20:19
  Speaker B: Exactly.
• 20:20
  Speaker A: You know, the other thing is, obviously it's a tremendous economic benefit to the United States. I often wonder, you know, because of the strength of agriculture and how we kind of take it for granted, how many other things can we do because we're so successful in agriculture? You know, I mean, I think it's less than 10% are directly involved in. Agnes.
• 20:42
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 20:43
  Speaker A: You know, if we weren't as successful at that, that would have to be a higher percentage.
• 20:48
  Speaker B: Well, and for people to understand too that, you know, we had some farmers here from Poland just recently and they were expressed a little bit of surprise about how much they're ahead of us. In innovation. But their half of their farm equipment is subsidized by the eu. So when you're talking about, you know, or, or even like building. So like one of them in particular, they just built the equivalent of like a $500,000 storage and the EU paid for 250,000 of that. Now it, it required a lot of paperwork, but it was worth them hiring someone to do that paperwork for a couple of years, you know. And so that is not something that we have here. No, no, we do not have that. We have, we have crop insurance and so that does help recover from loss. But you don't have, you do not have the investment of the government of the United States in developing a lot of this innovation or saying, hey, we're going to cover half of the cost of that million dollar cotton stripper. That's the, you're, you're not on the real even playing field, you know, and at the same time, to that, that end they of course they have wonderful soil there. They're in some cases, you know, their yields versus yields where we are like 17 times, but their prices are higher too. You know, what they're getting paid for their commodities. And so, you know, we are, we are definitely in a different position than a lot of other countries, you know, are. And so, you know, it's kind of on the back has kind of been the burden of a lot of this innovation and you know, progress has been on the back of the grower and that's why agri life is so important.
• 22:43
  Speaker A: Oh yeah. And I think for a lot of reasons, you know, obviously as the, as the increased cost to be able to farm, you know, everything that we can do to help make sure as many of those decisions have some, some information to assist with that. Because you know, because you know, I think we've learned especially in the, I'd say the new world, you know, information is so valuable.
• 23:09
  Speaker B: Yes, yes.
• 23:10
  Speaker A: And you know, I think even looking back to me, even as a young scientist and extension person, a lot of that I think I took for granted. But, and that's probably been an interesting thing in my career is how that information level has changed.
• 23:27
  Speaker B: Yes. And you know, it's almost like though there's too many avenues, you don't know which one to pick. You know, you used to pick up the newspaper and that's all you needed. And it's so not that way anymore. I was thinking about an event that happened in April for the partner of ours. We didn't, I didn't found out until yesterday and I thought, how am I going to, what do I need to do to stay on top of this? And I realized I need to read about 25 or 30 newsletters a week. And that is a lot of time.
• 24:03
  Speaker A: Oh well. And you know, you just can't, you know. And I kind of had this conversation with my daughter the other day. We both suffer from add same and exactly what you're talking about. You know, when I was her age, you know, say something would pop in your head. Well, there you'd either have to go to encyclopedia or go to the library.
• 24:26
  Speaker B: Yeah. And if you've got something pops in your head all the time.
• 24:29
  Speaker A: Yes. And, and now you have an automatic outlet for that thought.
• 24:33
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 24:34
  Speaker A: And so it's a lot easier, I would say, for it to be more severe for that generation. That was the generation I used to think. It was just my parents made me non add, but it was really. You didn't have that.
• 24:46
  Speaker B: You just didn't have it. You didn't. Yeah, well. And I, I think of ADD as kind of like a super power or kryptonite. It just depends on how you, you know, how you use it, you know, but, and, but we have the tools now that we, you know, you and I didn't have growing up. You just like got put in the class with the kids that were, you know what I mean? Like, you just were slow and you just couldn't keep up, you know what I mean? When really your brain was working about 10 times faster than everybody else's.
• 25:11
  Speaker A: Yes, exactly.
• 25:12
  Speaker B: So you just, it's a, it is an interesting way of life.
• 25:18
  Speaker A: And so I think part of our job in research also is as much information as there is out there, there's a lot of it that's not good information.
• 25:28
  Speaker B: Oh, it's so true.
• 25:29
  Speaker A: You know, I've heard so many stories lately about, you know, a lot of the AI technology.
• 25:34
  Speaker B: Oh my goodness.
• 25:35
  Speaker A: You know, and you end up. And of course, I'm a weed scientist by training, so I hear the stories about, you know, a guy types in an AI and gets recommended a herbicide that's not even labeled for that crop and could potentially kill the crop.
• 25:48
  Speaker B: Right. Yes. Right. Well. And you know, and I think that's one reason why, because it's not going to go. And it to me is the same thing as, as add. It's can it can be a superpower or if you don't know what it's not capable of, it's kryptonite because will hallucinate is what they say. And you'll just give you. It just makes something up.
• 26:12
  Speaker A: Yes, exactly. So, so, you know, so, so, so while we're getting bombarded for information, I think our help is to help producers work through some of that information.
• 26:22
  Speaker B: So do you guys have a newsletter that people can, can add to their daily reading or some kind of way? How do you get your information out to the farmer?
• 26:33
  Speaker A: A lot of ours is done directly. We have meetings throughout the year that, that a big percentage of my faculty participate in. So a lot of it's through or I guess maybe I would say the initial introduction is through those types of systems.
• 26:52
  Speaker B: Right.
• 26:53
  Speaker A: I mean a lot of our scientists do put one pagers together that oftentimes they pass out at those types of meetings. And then for me, and I think for a lot of us, then you develop that one on one relationship with that producer. And so, and then you know, he calls you, you know, the other great thing about, about the system that we're in and I would say that that Texas extension has stayed strong. We have county agents in every one of the, the county.
• 27:22
  Speaker B: Right.
• 27:22
  Speaker A: So obviously they're available and, and you know, as I tell people, you know, you can contact them and if you're not for sure then they can help you get in contact with one of us. That, that can help you. So, so in a lot of ways, you know, I guess we're still old fashioned.
• 27:39
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 27:40
  Speaker A: In the ways that we interact with people.
• 27:43
  Speaker B: But you know, that's that to me is that is the strength of. And that's that we lost, have lost for some so a couple of decades and seeing going back to that of this is someone that I can trust, you know, and we, I love that about extension. That's what I love about NASA Acres is its relationship type, you know, of development. And I think even as we've had, you know, when I grew up, you know, your, your county agent stayed there, his career, you know, and as people move around more, you don't have the time, you know, and so you be able to connect those to those researchers that like Katie Lewis. She's lived here forever, you know what I mean? So there's, there's people that, you know, people can know and trust to get that information from.
• 28:39
  Speaker A: Yeah. You know, and the key, and I think the reason we've been successful, you know, and I guess some people could argue with me or whatever, but you know, we're one of the, if not the only one of the only non biased sources of information. You know, everybody else, you know, has some kind of, you Know, I guess chip in the game, per se.
• 29:03
  Speaker B: Right. Well, and that's why it's important for Agri Life to be funded. You know, it needs, because if you, if you don't get the funding that you need and you have to go to different organizations to get that funding, then it becomes, and it comes in calls into question, you know, So I mean, that's why I would say like it's a very important thing for, for us to be able to fund AgriLife in a way that you get to maintain that, you know, hey, you know, because I think you can, you're, you're willing to say yes this works or no, it works, doesn't matter who funds it.
• 29:37
  Speaker A: Right, exactly.
• 29:38
  Speaker B: You know, but it really keeps that level of, you know, removing that question from the table when you get to do provide that, you know, research.
• 29:48
  Speaker A: No. And you know, a couple of areas that I think about from that standpoint. You know, we've got several faculty members, Wayne Keeling, Pete Dortray, Ken Legay that are working on a lot of the new technologies in cotton. The one I think about is the Accent Flex which is going to have a. It's been developed to allow basically a corn herbicide to be applied pre emergence on cotton.
• 30:13
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 30:13
  Speaker A: Hopefully will be out next year.
• 30:15
  Speaker B: Okay. So, so I'm just going to repeat that for the layman. That means you got something that can kill your weeds before you put your, before your cotton comes up. You can put this out, but normally it's been used on corn, but you now can use it and it won't impact your. It was not going to kill your cotton seed. So your cotton can grow through that and that prevents. And for people that are concerned about the use of chemicals, when you are able to create something that is. So it's got a high purity rate and it is so effective you use less of it.
• 31:04
  Speaker A: Yes. And I mean this year is a prime example. You know, with all the rain we had, you know, you might end up having to retreat two or three times where having something like this technology up front gives you a better window to make sure that post application is timely. And so, so, you know, they're looking at the best ways to use it, you know, and in some cases, you know, not, you know, maybe even this doesn't fit the situation as well.
• 31:32
  Speaker B: Right.
• 31:33
  Speaker A: You know, or, you know, if this is what you're doing, this may not necessarily be the name, you know, I think about, you know, like as you move into corn country where growers are using those already in corn they may not want to use that technology as much because it's so important for moon corn. As we get south where we're not growing corn, this is going to be a herbicide that's probably never been on that land before.
• 31:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Because what happens is that actually plants are smart.
• 32:05
  Speaker A: They're very smarter than.
• 32:07
  Speaker B: They're very smart and they evolve, they go, ooh. That we can figure out. They become resistant to chemicals.
• 32:17
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 32:18
  Speaker B: And so it's important to continue to research. But I mean, I think that that's something that people need to understand too that are concerned about GMOs. And at some point I'm going to have a GMO specialist on here, so we can really dig into that. Because the, the truth is, is that plants are doing this in nature all the time. What they're doing in the lab, they're, they're cross, you know, genetic even. Like they're just saying, hey, that's a good idea. I'll take that idea from this plant and put it in this plant.
• 32:48
  Speaker A: Yeah. And you know, I mean a lot of people are concerned about, you know, foreign GNA DNA.
• 32:56
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 32:57
  Speaker A: DNA, because that's what GMOs are created from. But just like you said, in nature that's happening even from traditional breeding, you know, triticale.
• 33:07
  Speaker B: Exactly.
• 33:08
  Speaker A: Man made cross of wheat and rye.
• 33:10
  Speaker B: Yes, yes.
• 33:11
  Speaker A: So, you know, both of those plants together are foreign DNA for each other.
• 33:15
  Speaker B: Well, and a lot of vegetables that we eat, those are their man made. They, they were not original. I think broccoli being nice to have a list of those kind of vegetables that people are things that people are eating, accustomed to and then see them as good for them. That were actually two separate species of plants that were combined.
• 33:37
  Speaker A: Yes, yeah, exactly. So, yeah. So you know, tangelos.
• 33:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, good. Yeah, there you go.
• 33:45
  Speaker A: So.
• 33:45
  Speaker B: Yeah, right. So.
• 33:46
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So there's a lot of those things. Yeah, ye, that when you think of it that way, you know, and, and, and it's, and it's been such a tremendous benefit to us. You know, you know, we've gotten through a lot of issues. You know, people that remember before Bt cotton and how bad bollworms and budworms were and were resistant to chemicals and how many times we were having to spray for those.
• 34:15
  Speaker B: Yes, yes. Hey friends, here on the high plains, we have got a chance to work with NASA's develop project. The focus is cover crops using satellite tools to identify things like when they were planted and how they're managed and how can we build real research to see what value they bring or maybe they don't bring. So if you're a farmer, you're planting cover crops, we'd love your help. A short form will be sent to you with some basic information like your planning date, termination date, maybe the years that you had cover crops. Your information is going to stay protected, but it'll make a really big difference in showing what cover crops are really worth having in our region. If you want more information, want to be part of this, you can visit sara-conservation.com we'll have some information there. And you can also reach out to me@contact Sarah Conservation.com and I would be happy to put your name on the list. Thank you very much. You know, there was a report that came out last year, we were at a conference and a woman wrote a report, you know, on how dirty the cotton industry is. And particularly she mentioned to me how our area. And I thought to myself, you have no idea what it was like and where we are now. Oh, we have made so much progress in the reduction and the safety of chemicals that it's, it's astounding to me, you know, even from the time I was young, you know, and I think, you know, everything, like I've said multiple times, has a consequence. And so some of those production methods have brought, I think along with them cultural changes, you know, and good for good or bad, they're there, you know, and so I think that what, going back to what we were discussing, what I think started this rabbit trail, was the meeting that you had where you have all these researchers from all these different disciplines, disciplines in the room to look at every impact. I think that is so, so beneficial.
• 36:32
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And, and that was the other part that I was going to say. So a lot of the things that, and that's a, that's a good group to kind of transfer into this discussion is a lot of the things they're working on, I guess you would say maybe don't, from a corporation standpoint, don't have a sellable benefit. So if we didn't have these land grant systems to look into those questions right there, there's, there's not a corporation that's going to look into.
• 36:59
  Speaker B: Exactly, you know. Yeah. Because they're not going to spend money on research that they're not going to make money from.
• 37:04
  Speaker A: Exactly.
• 37:04
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Such a good point. That's such a good point. The benefit is always about the producer.
• 37:10
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 37:11
  Speaker B: That's what you're looking at.
• 37:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. And you know, and obviously, you know, with that Regenerative ag program. You know, a lot of that's looking at organic matter, you know, carbon sequestering, some of that stuff. And even though there are some groups trying to look at ways to monetize carbon benefits, they're not paying for this research either. So, so again, you know, for us to be able to benefit possibly in that in the future, we need this kind of research.
• 37:40
  Speaker B: Well, and it's very important for farmers to know the value of what they have.
• 37:45
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 37:46
  Speaker B: Because what you're looking at is someone else coming to you that wants to purchase from you. They want to tell you what the value is. And we have let, we have let industry set our pricing for a long time. This is an opportunity for the farmer to set that value.
• 38:06
  Speaker A: Right. And the other thing, and I think we probably talked about this a little time on the last podcast, I had a grower visit with me several years ago, you know, and we'll see it, you know, as government programs change and adapt based on the current administration, of course, you know, there's, you know, we're going to see different programs. And he made the point to me that I had never really thought of like he this in this way. He said, todd, we need your guys help to tell us what works and what doesn't work. And what he meant was, I think let's say the government's going to give me $5 for this practice. If it cost me 3, that's a benefit or it increases my yield. But if it costs me yield or it cost me $10 and they're only going to pay me 5, and we need you to help us answer that before I make that mistake.
• 38:57
  Speaker B: Yeah, you know, something I'm seeing through, like, you know, a lot of the, A lot of people know that there are a lot of banned words, right, that you can't use right now. So there's a lot of politically correctness right now. It's kind of strange that it's happening the way it is. But what I've seen is a lot of industry because so many of our, you know, end buyers, they're, they're international corporations and so they're not as much in flux on what their requirements are for their products. Right. And so what I'm seeing is this like where, like maybe the government isn't going to pay for it or doesn't want to have anything to do with it. They're not going to enforce it. Well, these companies still need it. And so to me, this is a really kind of a good way for a farmer to break away from some federal programs that might be based on some of these things that depending on what party's in control, they like it or don't, you know, but there's still a market for it. And so there's in fact we're recording today podcast with a guy in, in Canada who has set up a system for farmers to create their own type of here's, here's what we, we can offer you. And they're doing a direct, you know, there's nobody in between. And he said to me it, it almost looks like our stormwater conservation districts, you know, very farmer led, farmer focused. But there's no, the contracts are short term. They can get out of them. I mean there's so many more benefits for them because they're almost like these no strings attached payments for practices. And I think that bringing those kind of ideas into agriculture so that we're less dependent on what the whim of the government is at the moment.
• 41:04
  Speaker A: Oh yeah, no. And you know, you, you hear a lot of times about different situations like you're describing, you know, the other thing is, and I don't, I don't know where we're going to end up on it, but you know, there's been some push about, you know, marketing either certain commodities or certain practices along with those commodities to specific buyers. And again, I think that's where we can play a role in the land grant system just the same way. Well, is this is what you need if you're going to follow these practices.
• 41:35
  Speaker B: And that would be fabulous because I mean, so Lacey is J. Crew made. Well, pays for her. They pay a premium for so many bells a year. Whether they buy them or not. Somebody else can buy them, but she's going to get paid from them. It's a fantastic, it's very worthwhile. But you have these verification bodies that are coming in and doing what I believe agri Life could do, especially if you bring in the help of NASA where you have all the remote sensing data. What do you want to know that needs to be certified? We can certify it for you. And then you aren't winding up the buyers paying this certification body and the farmers paying them. You know, that is, that's a frustration to me. That's another way that the supply chain gets plugged up with, you know, people in the middle.
• 42:36
  Speaker A: Yes. You know, and unfortunately in agriculture it seemed like whatever we talk about, you have those struggles. You definitely have the struggles with I guess what we term the middleman.
• 42:48
  Speaker B: Yes, right, right.
• 42:49
  Speaker A: And how we get around that. I. I'm not smart enough to have that answer.
• 42:54
  Speaker B: I think we need. I mean, I think that we. We're living in a day and age where it can happen, you know, And I know what Lacey's seen is a lot of the mills are like, we want to work with you. You know, we. How can we work directly with the farmer? You know, and then that benefits our local cooperative, you know, pcca, that they're like, well, hey, if you buy from here, you are working with the farmer. Because that's who we are.
• 43:18
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 43:18
  Speaker B: You know. Yeah. It's a big organization, but we. We created it years ago so that we could do what you're asking for, you know.
• 43:27
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I think we all want it to happen faster than it ever does.
• 43:31
  Speaker B: Exactly.
• 43:32
  Speaker A: You know, I was. I was. Well, there were several things that I was hoping that. That would be a benefit coming out of COVID At the time, I was hoping we were making people more aware.
• 43:45
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 43:45
  Speaker A: Of their food source. The importance of their food source. You know, the part we didn't even talk about that I've. I've said for probably 20 plus years, is that agriculture in the United States is the key to our national security.
• 43:59
  Speaker B: Absolutely.
• 44:00
  Speaker A: It's not defense. And not to say defense is not important, but the reason.
• 44:05
  Speaker B: Agree. Yes, go ahead.
• 44:09
  Speaker A: Is the reason is because we've never had to worry about where our food comes from. And, you know, even if we had to cut some things off because of whatever reason, you know, negotiations with the company, war, whatever, we can still feed ourselves. We may not be able to get the diversity we'd like or that sort of thing, but. But we're not going to go hungry as a nation. And that has been a tremendous benefit that I don't think we talk enough about.
• 44:39
  Speaker B: No. And I don't think. And this is. I mean, I know that this is probably controversial, you know, but. But we spent a lot of money on defense, but really, that front line of defenses, if. If a. If an army moves on its stomach, how can we. I mean, to me, it is the foundation for defense. And so how. It would be interesting to me to see, like, maybe some money from defense needs to go to our. Our food system and making sure that we're shoring up every region so that were something to happen, we are immediately able to, you know, take care of, you know, the people right in our region, you know.
• 45:24
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And, you know, and like I said, I go back to Covid, and while that wasn't a fun time, we were able to move through it because we did have, you know, we may not thought it was a consistent food supply, but when you really think about it, it was a consistent food supply supply through that system.
• 45:40
  Speaker B: Well, and you know, I know it did force some folks. I know that there's some folks that I've met here that moved from another state where they're like, hey, Walmart. Their whole refrigerator freezer section was just turned off because it wasn't there. And so they ended up, you know, renting some land and you know, like, we're never doing this again, you know, and so I think that, I mean, we're fortunate where we are because we have, you know, I mean, we got a lot around us, you know, and it's just second nature. But people that live in the cities, that's who need. We need to continue to educate and make people aware. I'd love for us to have a Lubbock county farm tour every year and let people from our, you know, that are living in Lubbock to get on a bus and hey, let's take you out and let's show you what's happening and why this impacts you. And you know, and I think people care. They, they want to know, you know, they want to know. And I think it'd be a great opportunity for us to showcase what we do.
• 46:41
  Speaker A: No, and, and so I guess, you know, part of that, that came out of that, I mean, I mean we all hear every day some type of advertisement about, you know, locally owned.
• 46:51
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 46:51
  Speaker A: It seems to especially be in the animal market. More so.
• 46:54
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 46:55
  Speaker A: But all these opportunities, you know, that you can buy somewhat direct from the farm. Like I said, I was hoping there would be a continued push for that. I think we have short term memories as Americans.
• 47:09
  Speaker B: Well, and you know, it's interesting. So a plug for one of, one of the people that we just love and that's Frontier Market in Plainview. And I think it has a lot to do with the culture, you know, and there the difference in the response of people in the Canyon and Amarillo area, they will have a 45 minute waiting line till they sell out. And in some instances they're not even coming to Lubbock anymore because the demand's not here. And so it's interesting to me that micro cultural differences and what creates that demand. And if people don't know about Frontier Market. So they're a great organization, they're great family owned company. And we have some podcasts not far back with them with Leighton, so find them on Facebook. Frontier Market out of Plainview. Great. They're growing some strawberries and all kinds, and then now they have the storefront. So it's a great. You know, but we've got to educate, you know, how do we make that cultural shift here in Lubbock to where people value that and are willing to, you know, make the extra effort not to go into United, you know.
• 48:29
  Speaker A: No, no. And I think it's a good point, you know, kind of circling back to, you know, that benefits the whole local economy much more so than buying strawberries from Mexico.
• 48:41
  Speaker B: Absolutely, it does.
• 48:42
  Speaker A: 100%. Yeah. But, you know, I guess the other thing, like I said, we always want it to move faster than it did. But you hope, you know, that. That in the future that will hopefully open up some opportunities for cotton to be the same way. Like you were saying with the J. Crew and Lacy.
• 48:58
  Speaker B: Absolutely.
• 48:59
  Speaker A: Those types of opportunities will continue to increase.
• 49:02
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 49:03
  Speaker A: In the next five or ten years.
• 49:05
  Speaker B: Exactly. Well, we haven't gotten very far on research, so you're going to have to come back.
• 49:10
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 49:11
  Speaker B: And we'll talk. Because I know you guys are doing some produced water, which. We are all about the produced water around here and how we can utilize that. And I know you guys are doing some research on that. I'd love to hear about that. And, you know, other things. There are a lot of other crops around here besides cottonwood. We are the cotton capital of the world, for sure. But we do have a lot of other. And we. And we're seeing, yes. You know, a return to grassland and a lot of things. So I'd love to hear some more about that, but I really appreciate you coming in and joining us. And we will. We'll get something back on the books and get you back.
• 49:47
  Speaker A: Yeah. I probably just need to pick one topic at a time and see what we're doing.
• 49:51
  Speaker B: Well, I think. I think we did, but then, I mean, you know, we just. We have a lot to talk about and I love for you to be here because, you know, part of really, our goal is to have a really nice mix of like, hey, a farmer is going to get something from this. But I hope that people that are living in town and never been around farmers can pick up something and learn something, you know, about. Wear their. Their clothes. Hopefully they're wearing natural fibers.
• 50:18
  Speaker A: Yes, ma'. Am.
• 50:19
  Speaker B: It's made better for your body and it's way better for the environment. So hopefully this will give them some. Something. Some new information, you know, that will help them make some good choices. So, friends, thanks for joining us again. And, Todd, you're. You guys have a website for.
• 50:39
  Speaker A: Yeah, I believe it's wonderful. Lubbock tamu.edu.
• 50:44
  Speaker B: Okay. All right. Well, we'll put that in the show notes, too, so people can go there and see. And we'll also put your contact information, and folks can give you a text or call, you know, if they've got questions. And, you know, like we've said before, the extension isn't just for people that are farming. It's for every citizen in Texas. And if you have a question about pretty much anything, AgriLife is there to help. So check out AgriLife, check out Frontier Market, our friends there in Plainview. And I hope that you will join us again for another episode of Conservation Stories.