Episode Number
64
Episode Show Notes / Description
The North Central Agriculture and Climate Conference aims to connect research, extension, and outreach within the agricultural community and will be held at the Peoria Civic Center from July 31 to August 1, 2024.
Explore efforts to reduce nutrients in Illinois waterways from agricultural runoff to municipal wastewater with host Todd Gleason and producers Rachel Curry, Nicole Haverback, and Emma Eldridge.
- Read the blog at extension.illinois.edu/nlr/blog
- Subscribe for updates
- Explore more about nutrient loss in Illinois at go.illinois.edu/nutrientloss
Transcript
Todd Gleason 0:06
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.
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. John 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.
Hans Schmitz 0:50
July 31st and August 1st. We've got the North Central Agriculture and Climate Conference. Our tagline is Connecting research, extension and Outreach. I wanted the tagline to be bringing the HCC to the Big Ten, but apparently it was too nuanced so I couldn't get it held up. But yeah, it did a pretty exciting conference. We got some initial grant funding from the National Technologies for Agricultural Extension and we're able to supplement the costs with some American Association of State climatologist funding, 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 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. 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 Prokop from Purdue, Chloe Wardrop from University of Illinois and Jay Arbuckle from Iowa State coming in that afternoon, June 315 to panel with us and discuss current social science research into agriculture and climate. And then David K of Cornell is the National Extension Climate Initiative person, and he is kicking off day two on August 1st at 830, 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, 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 section at the end of day one and displaying those 14 or so posters that we were able to accept.
Todd Gleason 3:36
Again, that's Hunt Schmitz. 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 agreeable 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. Said will ag dot org online and I asked him this past week what it was he expected to discuss at the end of the month in Peoria.
Eric Snodgrass 4:15
Honestly Todd it's it's a lot of what we just discussed now. It'll be, of course, put into broader context, but I just want to know if there are discernible and important trends for us grower to understand about what's changing that 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. 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 say, I got a great meal and got to hear some good speakers, but I got to hear some good information that I can take back to my operation.
Todd Gleason 5:06
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 yeah, but but what impacts that has, for instance, on logistics and in this case it was about mitigation, particularly as it's related to logistics in the Northwestern Corn Belt. 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 based on the size on on the duration and size of the rainfall events and the bat itself along with, of course, all the bridges? I mean, there's just a whole lot going on. Yeah.
Eric Snodgrass 6:00
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 and fuel and fiber. 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. So that's why I'm excited about the conference. We're going to talk about that kind of stuff.
Todd Gleason 6:42
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 dot org. 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 North Central. AG That's all one word. North Central AG Dot oh Ah Gene, He'll be kicking off the event on July 31st. One of the other things that Hon Schmitz, who we heard from earlier from Purdue, who's the lead conservation crop agronomist there and helping to organize this conference mentioned was the social side, and I wondered what that panel might take up. And he explored it with me.
Hans Schmitz 7:37
Yeah. So Jay Arbuckle and Linda Prokop 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 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. And one of the big research questions of the last few years has been in Wills nonoperating 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?
Todd Gleason 9:05
Interesting. We had that discussion with four farmers at the Cultivating Conversations Conference as it relates to non-operated landowners and how they talk with them. Some landowners, of course, and farmers actually never meet, right? It might be a farm management in the middle, for instance, right?
Hans Schmitz 9:28
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 yeah.
Todd Gleason 9:45
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?
Hans Schmitz 10:04
That's an excellent question.
Our 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. Not to say that they're not out there, but that's certainly a emotionally charged subject.
Todd Gleason 10:29
Who is this conference aimed at?
Hans Schmitz 10:32
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. 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 a 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 call is not for them.
Todd Gleason 11:26
Would you expect farmers and producers, landowners to be interested?
Hans Schmitz 11:30
We would love it if farmers, producers and land 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.
Todd Gleason 11:55
Again, this is in Peoria. It is at the Convention center. Is that correct?
Hans Schmitz 12:00
Yes, it is at the Peoria Civic Center.
Todd Gleason 12:03
If you'd like to register for the AG and Climate Conference, you can do so on the North Central ag dot org website. That's North Central AG. All one word dot 0rg. The AG and Climate Conference tab is at the top of the page. 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.
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.
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. John 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.
Hans Schmitz 0:50
July 31st and August 1st. We've got the North Central Agriculture and Climate Conference. Our tagline is Connecting research, extension and Outreach. I wanted the tagline to be bringing the HCC to the Big Ten, but apparently it was too nuanced so I couldn't get it held up. But yeah, it did a pretty exciting conference. We got some initial grant funding from the National Technologies for Agricultural Extension and we're able to supplement the costs with some American Association of State climatologist funding, 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 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. 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 Prokop from Purdue, Chloe Wardrop from University of Illinois and Jay Arbuckle from Iowa State coming in that afternoon, June 315 to panel with us and discuss current social science research into agriculture and climate. And then David K of Cornell is the National Extension Climate Initiative person, and he is kicking off day two on August 1st at 830, 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, 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 section at the end of day one and displaying those 14 or so posters that we were able to accept.
Todd Gleason 3:36
Again, that's Hunt Schmitz. 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 agreeable 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. Said will ag dot org online and I asked him this past week what it was he expected to discuss at the end of the month in Peoria.
Eric Snodgrass 4:15
Honestly Todd it's it's a lot of what we just discussed now. It'll be, of course, put into broader context, but I just want to know if there are discernible and important trends for us grower to understand about what's changing that 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. 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 say, I got a great meal and got to hear some good speakers, but I got to hear some good information that I can take back to my operation.
Todd Gleason 5:06
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 yeah, but but what impacts that has, for instance, on logistics and in this case it was about mitigation, particularly as it's related to logistics in the Northwestern Corn Belt. 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 based on the size on on the duration and size of the rainfall events and the bat itself along with, of course, all the bridges? I mean, there's just a whole lot going on. Yeah.
Eric Snodgrass 6:00
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 and fuel and fiber. 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. So that's why I'm excited about the conference. We're going to talk about that kind of stuff.
Todd Gleason 6:42
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 dot org. 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 North Central. AG That's all one word. North Central AG Dot oh Ah Gene, He'll be kicking off the event on July 31st. One of the other things that Hon Schmitz, who we heard from earlier from Purdue, who's the lead conservation crop agronomist there and helping to organize this conference mentioned was the social side, and I wondered what that panel might take up. And he explored it with me.
Hans Schmitz 7:37
Yeah. So Jay Arbuckle and Linda Prokop 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 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. And one of the big research questions of the last few years has been in Wills nonoperating 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?
Todd Gleason 9:05
Interesting. We had that discussion with four farmers at the Cultivating Conversations Conference as it relates to non-operated landowners and how they talk with them. Some landowners, of course, and farmers actually never meet, right? It might be a farm management in the middle, for instance, right?
Hans Schmitz 9:28
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 yeah.
Todd Gleason 9:45
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?
Hans Schmitz 10:04
That's an excellent question.
Our 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. Not to say that they're not out there, but that's certainly a emotionally charged subject.
Todd Gleason 10:29
Who is this conference aimed at?
Hans Schmitz 10:32
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. 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 a 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 call is not for them.
Todd Gleason 11:26
Would you expect farmers and producers, landowners to be interested?
Hans Schmitz 11:30
We would love it if farmers, producers and land 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.
Todd Gleason 11:55
Again, this is in Peoria. It is at the Convention center. Is that correct?
Hans Schmitz 12:00
Yes, it is at the Peoria Civic Center.
Todd Gleason 12:03
If you'd like to register for the AG and Climate Conference, you can do so on the North Central ag dot org website. That's North Central AG. All one word dot 0rg. The AG and Climate Conference tab is at the top of the page. 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.