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Mike Howell (00:08):
The Dirt with me, Mike Howell. An eKonomics podcast where I present the down and dirty agronomic science to help grow crops and bottom lines. Inspired by ekonomics.com, farming’s go-to informational resource I’m here to break down the latest crop nutrition research, news, and issues. Helping farmers make better business decisions through actionable insights. Let’s dig in.
(00:39):
Well, hello again everyone. Welcome back to The Dirt. It’s into March now and it’s warming up around my house. Temperatures are warming up. The grass is getting a green tent to it. It won’t be long before we have to start mowing the yard. The pollen is out in full force and my allergies are killing me this time of year. But I got to thinking what we could do a good podcast episode on, and today I thought we would talk about how to fertilize our yard. Everybody wants to have that good green yard, but everybody hates mowing that yard. We have Dr. Eric Miltner with us today. He’s going to help us go through how to properly fertilize your yard, what we need to consider on that. I first met Eric about 12 years ago. We both worked with Agrium Advanced Technologies and Eric was one of our turfgrass people. Had a lot of fond memories and learned a lot while I was working with Eric. Eric, if you will, tell us a little bit more about yourself and what you do.
Eric Miltner (01:27):
Sure. Well, first of all, thanks for having me, Mike. I think hopefully this will be a lot of fun. I’ve been looking forward to it since we first talked about it a few months ago. So before I joined Agrium, I spent 17 years in the university system research extension teaching first at Utah State University, then at Washington State University, and then I moved into the industry working for Agrium fertilizer manufacturer. We had a turf and ornamental group there as well as the larger agriculture group. We were then sold to Koch Agronomic Services. Spent about six years with Koch, really still doing the same thing, and then we were sold once again in 2020 and became Allied Nutrients. And then I spent about the next three years or so with Allied Nutrients. And basically what our business did is we manufactured enhanced efficiency fertilizers, so sulfur coated fertilizers, polymer coated, stabilized nitrogen products. And for us, we were geared primarily towards the turf and ornamental industry.
Mike Howell (02:23):
Okay, Eric. Well, we sure appreciate you taking a few minutes and visiting with us today. And let’s go ahead and get it kicked off. I guess that my first question for you is why do we want to fertilize our lawns? We know why we fertilize row crops. To make them more productive and make more fruit that we’re going to be selling, but when we fertilize our lawn, doesn’t that mean we’re going to have to mow it more and all of that kind of stuff. Why would somebody want to fertilize their lawn?
Eric Miltner (02:44):
It sure does mean we got to mow it more. Yep. But there are a lot of great reasons to fertilize your lawn. A lot of people do it. They want their lawn to be green, they want it to look lush and healthy, but it goes way beyond appearance because for many of us, we want our lawns to be a functional space too. Maybe we have kids that like to go out and run around and play and having a nice turf there provides some padding. A fun place to play. Better than bare ground for sure. But it goes way beyond that because turf develops really dense fibrous root system. That root system is constantly turning over. It’s incorporating organic matter into the soil and actually over time improving soil quality, which is something that we all talk about a lot now. There’s lots of great reasons to fertilize your lawn. With that root system, it serves as a great filter. Not just for anything that you might put on your lawn, whether it be fertilizers or anything else, but any general urban water runoff that makes it to your lawn, that turf environment provides a great filtering effect.
Mike Howell (03:42):
Okay, Eric. Well, you mentioned that you were with extension and I was with extension for several years as well. And one of the most common questions I always got was how much fertilizer do I need to apply in my yard? So I’ll just throw it out there at you just like that. How much fertilizer do I need to put in my yard?
Eric Miltner (03:58):
I will give the standard extension answer Mike, and I’ll say it depends.
Mike Howell (04:03):
Perfect answer.
Eric Miltner (04:05):
There are really a lot of factors to consider. Factors like climate. Where do you live? How long is the growing season? What kind of grass are you growing? And that’s a really critical one is to understand the species of grass you’re growing. Down in the deep south where Mike lives, we have a couple choices. We might grow Bermuda grass. That’s a grass that really likes a lot of nitrogen. First of all, when we talk about fertilizing turf, we talk about rates in pounds of nitrogen or pounds of nutrients per thousand square feet versus pounds per acre. Bermuda grass … To have a really healthy Bermuda grass lawn, we might want somewhere between four and six pounds of N per thousand square feet annually. On the other hand, if we have a Zoysia grass lawn, we really probably don’t want much more than two because if you put too much nitrogen on Zoysia grass, that actually makes it really thatchy and becomes less healthy. So it’s really important to dial in on the species. If we’re in the northern US and we’re growing Kentucky bluegrass or Tall fescue, for most places, we probably want to be somewhere between two and four pounds of N per thousand square feet.
Mike Howell (05:05):
Okay Eric, you mentioned N. What about P and K? Are there general recommendations for P and K as well?
Eric Miltner (05:11):
There are. In general, we think on an annual basis of applying N, P and K at a ratio of maybe four to one to two or three to one to two. Just like with row crops, soil testing could be a really important tool because it’s important to know what’s in your soil, what’s there. We always like to think of fertilization as supplemental nutrition. It’s really important to remember that. The soil is there to provide the basic nutrition and what we’re doing is supplemental to that. So important to know what’s in the soil to begin with. Another thing to add, a lot of states have a restricted phosphorus use on lawns. Depending where you live, you might go out looking for your fertilizer and you won’t find anything with phosphorus in it because it’s disallowed unless you can substantiate by soil test that you’re phosphorus deficient.
Mike Howell (05:56):
Eric, I’m glad you mentioned soil testing. That’s something we’ve spent a good bit of time talking about on the program here. And it works the same way in turf as it does in row crops. The only way to really know what’s in that soil is to get a good accurate soil test and see what your nutrients are deficient in.
(06:11):
Bring the trends from the field to your field. eKonomics features the latest crop nutrition research, tips, and tools to help keep your soil and bottom lines as healthy as possible. See it all at nutrien-ekonomics with a K .com. Eric, we also like to talk a lot about the four R’s. One of those R’s that we like to talk about is the right time. When is the right time to start applying these fertilizers for the different turfgrasses and do they all need to be applied at the same time or do we need to apply them at different times of the year?
Eric Miltner (06:43):
Great question. And again, that one comes back largely to climate. Let’s start in the south. Let’s start with Mike’s yard. If he’s growing a warm season grass, we all know that those grasses go dormant over the winter. They turn brown, get that straw color. They’re not growing, they’re not dead, they’re just sitting there dormant. They start to green up in the spring and the important thing to remember is to fertilize when the grass needs it. Fertilizer when the grass can use it. For Bermuda grass, Zoysia grass, centipede, those other warm season grasses, we want to fertilize … Maybe think about that first application late March, April, May, depending on where you’re located. The farther south, it’s greening up earlier. You get up into the Atlanta area where I live and it might green up a little bit later than where Mike is for instance. So when the grass starts to green up. And then those grasses, their peak growth is going to be in the middle of the summer late June, July, August, and that’s when they’re going to have the greatest nutrient demand. Then that’s going to taper off as we get into September into the fall.
(07:40):
By contrast in the northern US it’s the same but a little bit different. Cool season grasses like Bluegrass and Fescue, they have a growth spurt in the spring and then they slow down midsummer because they’re under heat stress and then they pick back up again in the fall. A lot of people will tell you, me included, if you’re only going to fertilize a cool season grass one time during the year, I would do it in the fall. Do it maybe around Labor Day. The reason is because you’re going to help that grass recover from the summer stress. Fall is a really important time for root growth and then that plant is going to be ready for the stresses of winter. Then in the spring, we usually get a big growth spurt anyway, even if we don’t fertilize. And so if you’re only going to fertilize one time a year, do it in the fall. If you’re going to fertilize a couple of times a year, fall and spring. Then if you really want to be diligent and fertilize more, we can slice and dice into even smaller pieces than that, but that fall and the spring for cool season grasses are the most important time.
Mike Howell (08:38):
Now, Eric, in row crop production, we talk about split application of nitrogen primarily to eliminate a lot of these nitrogen losses that can occur there. Do we have the same thing in turfgrass or is that something that we don’t have to worry about as much?
Eric Miltner (08:51):
No. We do because similarly, we don’t want to apply too much at once because the plant can only take up so much at any one time. Typical recommendations are don’t apply more than one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet at a time. And that’s a really general recommendation because here it comes back to four Rs again. And that depends on the fertilizer source. There are a lot of great slow and controlled release fertilizer technologies out there that allow you to apply at a rate higher than that knowing that those nutrients are going to meter out and last a much longer period of time. We have products in the turf market that are engineered to last anywhere from four to six months, and with the right fertilizer, you could potentially make one fertilizer application a year at a much higher rate. You might apply two or three pounds of event at a time, but that’s an exception. As a standard practice, we’d stick to that pound of N at a time recommendation.
Mike Howell (09:44):
Now, Eric, we’ve talked a little bit about N, P and K and how those differ depending on where you are. Another nutrient that we spend a lot of time talking about these days is sulfur. Since the inaction of the Clean Air Act years ago, we don’t have the free sulfur in the environment that we used to have and we’re seeing sulfur deficiency being more and more prevalent. Is that something you’re seeing in turf as well?
Eric Miltner (10:04):
We do see it a little bit in turf. I don’t think it’s as prevalent as we’ve been seeing it at row crops, but I also think that we haven’t been looking at it as hard. But we do see some sulfur deficiencies in some places. Yep.
Mike Howell (10:16):
Okay. What’s your recommendation on sulfur if we start seeing sulfur deficiencies or if we need to make a sulfur application?
Eric Miltner (10:22):
I would stick to the soil test recommendations that you get on your soil in your area, because that could vary quite a bit.
Mike Howell (10:29):
Okay. What about micronutrients? Are there any specific micronutrients that turf really needs?
Eric Miltner (10:35):
Without a doubt, we see some micronutrient issues sometimes. We see this in particular in an alkaline soils as pHs get up above seven and a half or a little higher. The most common deficiencies we’ll see is iron. We see this in high pH soils. Other ones, maybe manganese might be the most second common micronutrient deficiency .but a lot of times we’ll see lawn fertilizers that come standard with iron in them or maybe a couple other micros. But I would say it’s not necessary just for general use all the time. I think when we see deficiencies or we know we have high pH soils, then it’s something to keep an eye on. But let me throw one more thing in there though, Mike. When we get into professional turf situations, golf courses, maybe sports fields, we see it fairly common that those managers will especially make spray applications of iron just to enhance color really. We could do that and get more color out of the turf, and maybe even with using less nitrogen if that’s something that we want to do. Iron can provide great color, especially when applied foliarly and it’s very commonly used. And micros in general are more commonly used, especially on golf courses and really high input turf.
Mike Howell (11:46):
Right. Well, Eric, you touched on two things in that answer that brought up more questions. One thing you mentioned was the soil pH, and we’ve talked a lot about the importance of pH. And I know that certain types of grasses like to have that pH lower. Certain types prefer a higher pH. Can you talk about the importance of pH just a little bit?
Eric Miltner (12:03):
Sure. In general, we like to shoot for pHs in the turf environment, maybe somewhere between five and six and a half ideally. On the slightly acidic side we get beyond those bounds and we start to have nutrients become potentially unavailable, just like happens in row crops. We tend to shoot for that area. It’s rare to see pHs below five, but it does happen. I would look at five as being a low point. We say six and a half ideally, but if it gets up to seven or seven and a half in most situations we’re probably okay. But important to watch that pH especially over time and if it’s moving, be ready to do something about it if you need to.
Mike Howell (12:43):
Well, Eric, you mentioned the sports fields and the golf courses. My oldest son was an avid football player. He finished up last year. But the football coach came to me several years ago and he said, “Your son tells me a little bit about fertilizer. Can you help us with the football field?” And I said, “Sure.” It was getting on over toward the end of May at that time. We were really behind the eight-ball. It was late. I helped him get some fertilizer applications made and we fertilized the football field like it was a hay pasture. We had really good green grass, we had a lot of green grass and they were mowing that grass sometimes twice a day. We had a lot of grass production there. The next year I went back to him, I said, “Hey, we got some more information here. We did a soil test. Let’s do it a little better this year.” He said, “We’re going to do it a lot better. We’re ripping it out and we’re putting in artificial surface this year.”
(13:31):
The main reason he was putting in the artificial surface is because there were about nine different sports teams playing on that one football field at a given time. Between practice and playing that many games a week on it it’s really tough on the turf. I got to thinking about that. Is there any management strategies we do different on sports fields or golf courses to help with the high traffic situations and things like that?
Eric Miltner (13:52):
This is a great topic and the first thing I’ll say is that I think most players, most managers, most sports field managers, most coaches would prefer to play on natural grass if they can because it’s just a nicer playing surface, it’s more cushioned. You want those grass stains. It’s how the game’s supposed to be played.
Mike Howell (14:10):
No doubt.
Eric Miltner (14:11):
But we get into situations like fields like what you’re talking about. Maybe intramural fields, say at colleges, fields in parks and leagues and things like that that just get a tremendous amount of traffic and it’s really brutal. And that traffic is really, really difficult to contend with because we get number one, just the basic physical injury to the grass. We also will have areas of soil compaction and everybody’s seen it. Between the hash marks, getting in their close to the goal line in football, goalmouth in soccer, all those kinds of things where you just see that really heavy traffic. Nutrition is a big component in managing that. Those areas, if we can provide a little bit better nutrition, especially nitrogen in those high traffic areas, it helps the grass to regrow from that injury. Potassium could also be an important one. That’s a really important nutrient in promoting the rigidity of plants and to make them tougher and to tolerate that traffic. In high traffic situations we need to keep a special eye on nutrition and it may not always be something we see in a soil test in fact. We might have adequate soil test numbers, but we know this is really high traffic. We need to provide a little bit more N, a little bit more K, maybe a little bit more calcium in those areas to help those plants to tolerate that.
Mike Howell (15:27):
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(15:50):
Well, Eric, the last question that I have for you, and last topic I have for today goes back to my extension service days. We’d get a lot of questions about how to properly fertilize your yard and making these applications. But one thing I always saw was a lot of over fertilization. A lot of people would buy a bag of fertilizer and they didn’t need the whole bag, but what am I going to do with what’s left? Let’s just go ahead and apply it. If a little bit’s good, a lot’s going to be better. And that leads to some other issues. It’s costing extra money. We’re getting too much product out there. We can actually have a detriment to the turf if we do that. Talk about what we need to do to make sure that we’re not over fertilizing and we don’t end up with runoff and getting these nutrients into our lakes and streams, getting it into the ditches or sewer drains, that type of stuff.
Eric Miltner (16:32):
Yeah. Again, the subject of the four Rs I think circles back around again. Right product, right rate, right location, right time. Right place is relatively easy. You put it where the green grass is. Okay. And if some of it goes over into your planting beds, that’s fine too. But keep it in the plants. Keep it on the soil. When we spread fertilizer onto any of our hardscapes, driveways, sidewalks, street just get your blower, blow it back into the lawn, sweep it back into the lawn and whatever. Because again, that grass acts as a filter. It’s really good at scavenging those nutrients. But if we put that where it’s going to go down storm drains, that’s definitely going to contribute to some water quality issues. And again, most states have laws that dictate that If you apply fertilizer to those hardscapes, you need to move it back into the landscape one way or another. I think that’s a really important thing to remember.
(17:26):
It’s interesting because now if you go into a big box store and buy a lot of the common lawn fertilizers out there, they’re in odd size bags. Any of us who worked in agriculture and fertilizer for a long time, we’re used to seeing maybe 50 pound bags of fertilizer. Especially in professional markets. A lot of times now we go to these kinds of stores, we see smaller bags of fertilizer and they’re bags that are sized to fertilize, say, a 5,000 square foot lawn or a 4,000 square foot lawn. And the idea there is to get just the right amount so we don’t have lots of leftovers. But yeah, just because a little bit is good doesn’t mean more is better. We put down too much fertilizer that cause as many problems as having not enough, and we do definitely want to keep it at the landscape and off the hardscapes.
(18:08):
Another thing I’ll say about these lawn fertilizers is I have always recommended in most situations that any fertilizer you apply to turf should be 50% or more slow release fertilizer. And you can see that by carefully reading the label, look at derive from statement to see what you’re getting. Now, a lot of times we don’t see that in some of these consumer products, but some of them get up in that realm. That’s important both from an environmental quality standpoint … Not having too much mobile nitrogen out there. But also from a plant health standpoint. Because if we can meter those nutrients out more slowly in time, you’re going to build a healthier plant and have fewer feast and famine cycles. So read your fertilizer label, pay attention to the rates, and back to your original question, if you can’t use the whole bag of fertilizer, see if you have a neighbor who wants it or roll it up and store and keep it until next time.
Mike Howell (18:59):
That’s right, Eric. As long as you keep it in a cool dry place, it’s going to be fine for next year.
Eric Miltner (19:04):
Absolutely.
Mike Howell (19:05):
Eric, we really appreciate you joining us today. Do you have any take home message you want to leave with our listeners before we wrap it up for today?
Eric Miltner (19:12):
Having a nice lawn and a nice turf area I think starts with fertilization. It starts with two things. Fertilization and water. And we know water is becoming more scarce resource too, but fertilization is really important. If you do a good job fertilizing your lawn, that’ll lead to using fewer herbicides, pesticides, things like that, because a good healthy plant stand helps to out compete weeds, tolerate insects, and in general tolerate any pests. So in my mind, it all starts with the good fertilization program and judicious and responsible watering.
Mike Howell (19:45):
Okay. Well, Eric, we really appreciate it. Listeners, I hope you enjoyed the first segment of today’s show. If you did, please take a minute and give us a rating on your favorite podcast channel or app and give us some feedback as well. We want to hear from you to help make the show even better. And don’t keep it to yourself. Please share these episodes with coworkers, family, friends, anyone you think may benefit from the information we’re sharing here.
(20:09):
Don’t forget to visit our website, nutrien-ekonomics with a K .com to help find the latest crop nutrition news and research information as well as market updates, a growing degree day calculator, a nutrient use calculator, a rainfall tracker, and much, much more. It’s all at nutrien-ekonomics with a K .com. Most episodes of The Dirt are now available for CCA credits. Visit our website and click on the agronomics tab to find these CCA credit opportunities. And if you have a question, you can ask one of our agronomy team members, simply ask your question and one of us will get back with you. Thanks for listening. Now, segment two of The Dirt.
(20:55):
Listeners, welcome back for segment two. We’re continuing our tour around North America, looking at different agriculture research stations. Today we’re going to be at the University of Georgia at the Tifton location talking with Dr. Glenn Harris. Glenn has been on the program with us a time or two before and we want to welcome him back. Glenn, if you will remind our listeners of what you do with the University of Georgia.
Glen Harris (21:16):
Mike, it’s great to be back with you. I’m an extension specialist for soils and fertilizers here in Tifton, Georgia. Work mostly cotton and peanuts, and I started in March of ’94, so I’m going on 30 years here right soon.
Mike Howell (21:29):
Glenn, we’re glad you’re with us today. I get the opportunity to visit a lot of agriculture research stations across the country and I always think the ones right here at home are the best, partly because I grew up here and they’re in my blood. If I had to pick another station that I would want to go to, it would be Tifton, Georgia, and I’ve probably spent more time at Tifton, Georgia than any of the others going back to my peanut days at Mississippi State. Y’all were always willing to help us out, and I remember our tours that we did over that way. I’d bring farmers over and y’all were always willing to help us out, show us the latest and greatest in research technology that was going on over there. Glenn, we’d like to take just a few minutes today and talk about Tifton and the history behind Tifton and why it’s so important to the farmers there in South Georgia.
Glen Harris (22:11):
As you said, Mike, this has been a great place to work for me. I’m not originally from this area, but they really welcomed me. It’s a real vibrant campus. It’s a large campus. And by the way, we did not call ourselves a campus until 2003 when we started undergrad teaching. We never had undergrad teaching here in Tifton. It was always on the main campus in Athens. Anyway, been working with the extension cotton and peanut teams and everything else, and the station has been here a long time. It was founded in 1919. In fact, we just had a 100 year celebration in 2019, so it’s been here a long time and people really know that. In fact, I had some growers one time, they said, “We got a question, we just call Tifton.” Like it’s a bunch of us just sitting here waiting for a phone call to answer their question about agriculture, so it’s pretty cool.
Mike Howell (22:56):
We appreciate y’all’s willingness to help out. It’s great to have that. So Glenn, talk a little bit about some of the history behind the station and some of your accomplishments over the years. I know there’s been a lot of developments that’s came out of Tifton.
Glen Harris (23:08):
Yeah. And I benefited from … When we had the a hundred-year anniversary they actually published a book on the history, which was really helpful because a lot of these things, if you don’t put them down on paper like that, they get lost. But yeah, it started in 1919. They were looking for a place to do ag experiments. It was really funded originally as the experiment station or as somebody told me one time is are they grown spearmint because it’s the experiment station.
(23:33):
But it was found an experiment station, and I thought it was interesting too. The book I’m telling you about. The intro was written by Jimmy Carter talking about his dad used to come here for field days so that’s pretty cool. It goes way back where started the experiment station, and of course we added the extension component. We were housed in a building called the RDC, Rural Development Center. For a long time, to be honest with you, we had a bit of an identity crisis because everybody identified us as experiment station or RDC and didn’t realize we were even University Georgia. But we are a full-fledged partner with our home base in Athens, et cetera. But that’s the history goes back and it goes back far enough too, talking about Jimmy Carter’s dad, I still know where they housed the mule. You think about it’s 1919 where they housed the mules on campus to do the plow and everything, so that’s pretty cool.
Mike Howell (24:19):
Right. A lot of history there. Glenn, tell us a little bit about what’s going on today there at the Tifton campus. What type of research can somebody expect to find over there?
Glen Harris (24:28):
We’re known for a few things really. And again, this campus has had some good guidance over the way. In the book you can look at all of our directors we’ve had and assistant teams, et cetera. And probably the two things we’re known most for … I’m biased of course, on the extension specialists are all housed. A lot of them are housed here. By the way we have … I think it’s eight departments in the college of ag are represented here. Obviously all your row crop type crop soils, your cotton, peanut, corn, soybean, all that. And forges have been another one. The extension cotton teams and peanut teams have all had a great history and have really stayed strong. Probably the other big thing is our breeding program. Especially grass breeding going back to Glenn Burton. Some people might recognize that name. He’s a world-famous plant breeder. And Wayne Hanna with USDA carried the torch and now we’re on our third generation with a new faculty. Well, he is not new anymore. Brian Schwartz. So peanut breeding, grass breeding, extension teams, and now precision ag. And we had some of that with Craig Queen and George Vellidis. And then now it’s being handed over to people like Simer Virk and Wes Porter and that kind of thing. So we got a pretty strong precision ag group too.
Mike Howell (25:39):
Okay. And Glenn, from my travels through the years over that way, I always remember the pecan trees and y’all always had a lot of research going on in pecans. And I think I remember peach tree research as well. Talk a little bit about that.
Glen Harris (25:52):
Yeah. And to this day, pecans still going strong. We have Lenny Wells is our pecan specialist, and we got pecan breeders. And people like Tim Brennaman also works peanuts, works diseases on pecans. So yeah, pretty strong pecan program. Peaches has probably dropped off a little. South Carolina is producing more than we are. We have a muscadine breeder here. And now if you didn’t know, the new thing is we’re pretty strong in blueberries. When tobacco went out, especially in that flatwoods region in southeast Georgia, they jumped on the blueberry thing. So we’re getting pretty well known for our blueberries and a lot of those researchers are here on the Tifton campus.
Mike Howell (26:26):
I’ll have to come by and visit the blueberries. I’m in Poplarville, Mississippi and we call that the blueberry capital of Mississippi. We have a blueberry festival every year. Always love the blueberries. May have to come get some tips from your part of the world.
Glen Harris (26:38):
I’m from New Jersey, southern jersey originally, and they’re pretty strong in blueberries. In fact, they all partner up and went to Michigan State, and I think Georgia’s partnered with Michigan. I think New Jersey’s partnered with New Zealand or somewhere. Anyway, that blueberries industry’s interesting too.
Mike Howell (26:53):
It is. So Glenn, what do you see as the future for the experiment station? You said it’s been there over 100 years now. Where’s it going to go in the next a hundred years?
Glen Harris (27:01):
We’ve been blessed with some pretty good leadership at the top to prepare us for that. Especially when we went by our first 100 years. That was definitely on their minds. Two key things I know that they’re focusing on is always getting new relevant faculty members and on average they hiring about three or four faculty members still a year. And then the other is infrastructure. Because with a campus this old, there’s bound to be some older stuff around and all that. So we’re really trying to both facilities and just equipment and trying to upgrade everywhere we can. In fact, we just put a new water system in for the campus. So anyway, I think we’re really poised to keep on going, adapt, and again, focusing on things like precision ag and plant breeding. I really see this campus staying on the forefront of ag for a long time. We’ve been able to stay relevant. That’s the thing. And part of that’s because of a good extension system being connected with the growers. We really value their feedback and try to keep getting them what they need.
Mike Howell (27:55):
That’s exactly right, and I think you hit the nail on the head there. If it’s not for the growers, none of these experiment stations would have any benefit. It’s all there to benefit those growers.
Glen Harris (28:04):
In fact, it’s interesting. This book I was telling you about, they could have easily left them out, but every so many pages, they have a spotlight of a prominent grower in Georgia and what the Tifton campus has meant to them, which was really a great idea. I know a lot of those guys and they’re great guys and been great University of Georgia and extension supporters over the years. That’s what it’s all about.
Mike Howell (28:25):
Glenn, one last thing. You mentioned the new faculty that’s coming on board and how that’s critical. That’s probably something we should have talked about at the very beginning, but how many faculty are on staff there at the Tifton campus?
Glen Harris (28:36):
Yeah, our assistant Dean Mike Taves, he does presentations and I’ve seen them. And according to Mike’s latest numbers, we have 640 employees on this campus. The campus itself is about 125 acres, but we have about 5,000 acres of research farmland within this area. So we got 11 different research farms. So we got plenty of opportunities for field research and other research. 82 scientists. I think that might’ve got as high as 100 at one point. But we’re rebuilding just like everybody else have gone through some budget cuts over the years since I’ve been here. But we’re rebuilding. The impressive thing, about 150 students. Most of those grad students here. Very international. Probably half of those grad students are international. And then we also employ about 150 student workers. Get most of those from ABAC, our sister school across the road. And that does include USDA. We have a strong USDA presence embedded on this campus. In fact, they just did a groundbreaking two days ago for a $40 million new USDA building going on this campus.
Mike Howell (29:37):
Okay. Well, Glenn, we sure appreciate you taking a few minutes to enlighten us a little more about the history there at Tifton and appreciate all the hard work that you and your colleagues have put in over the years.
Glen Harris (29:47):
Thanks, Mike. It’s been great being a colleague with you along the way.
Mike Howell (29:50):
Listeners, we appreciate you tuning in today. As always, you can visit our website. That’s nutrien-ekonomics with a K for more information on any of the topics we discuss here. Until next time, this has been Mike Howell with The Dirt.
