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Mike Howell (00:08):
The Dirt with me, Mike Howell, an eKonomics podKast 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.
(00:32)
Let’s dig in.
(00:32)
Well, hello again, everyone. Welcome back to The Dirt. Glad everybody’s tuning in again this week. Most of the time, we talk about agronomy and soil fertility related issues but we don’t venture off and talk about other things related to agriculture as well. Today, we want to talk a little bit about animal agriculture and some issues that’s going on with animal agriculture today. To help us do that, we have Brianna Elliot with us today.
(01:01)
Brianna, welcome to The Dirt.
Brianna Elliot (01:02):
Yeah, thanks for having me, Mike.
Mike Howell (01:03):
Brianna, if you will, introduce yourself to our listeners and let them know what you do.
Brianna Elliot (01:08):
I’m Brianna Elliott, the project lead in the Technology Access Centre for Livestock Production here at Olds College. Within the TACLP, we are part of the Olds College Centre for Innovation where we have various focus areas but obviously, ours is livestock production.
(01:21)
We support the livestock industry’s technology needs, focusing on production efficiency, health welfare, environmental sustainability. We offer expertise, facilities, testing services, training, access to emerging start-up technologies, facilitating the adoption of new technologies through field testing and improvement in a farm-like condition. A lot of field scale validation.
Mike Howell (01:40):
Brianna, I know you’re involved in a lot of research there and one of the topics that you’ve mentioned that you’re working with is related to animal health and welfare. Talk a little bit about animal health and welfare, what exactly those terms are referring to and some of the research that you’ve got going on in those areas.
Brianna Elliot (01:56):
Like I said, we cover those few areas, animal health and welfare being one, but we bring that focus into all the projects we do as obviously, it’s a key component to any livestock production research is ensuring their welfare.
(02:07)
One of the main project focuses I have right now is enhancing the climate change resiliency and environmental sustainability in the livestock industry through this innovative technology and rotational grazing practices project that we’re working on, down at our satellite area that is about 308 acres that was donated back in 2016, I believe. The area was quite degraded when we received it, so the whole project revolves around improving that land.
(02:30)
We had received funding through NSERC, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and specifically through the Applied Research and Technology Partnership grant.
(02:38)
The main research themes were, number one, improving the productivity and environmental sustainability in team and native pastures in Western Canada and, two, was developing and remote carbon monitoring technologies with the potential to increase rancher success in carbon credit programs.
Mike Howell (02:53):
I do have a little bit of background in animal agriculture, and one of the first things that I did when I started to work was work on a research farm and we did a lot of grazing experiments and things like that, and you mentioned rotational grazing and that was one of my first jobs.
(03:07)
We were working in the winter forages of ryegrass here in the south and we would go in and set up fences and put the cattle in there and every day, I had to go move those cattle from one pen to the next and rotate through that pasture. Is this the same type of work?
(03:20)
Obviously, you’re not looking at winter forages up in Alberta, Canada. I think that would be a snowball up there during the winter, but tell us a little bit more about the rotational grazing system and how that works.
Brianna Elliot (03:30):
Yeah, very similar. Our technicians and summer students spend every day out there moving the cattle around, rain or shine.
(03:36)
The portion of land that I had mentioned, the 300 acres, is separated into eight different paddocks of both tame and native pasture land. Originally, when we received the land, it was in annuals but we’ve converted majority, other than there’s a 15 acre piece left of annuals, but the rest is into perennials now. That’s a mix of grass and legumes, legumes primarily being alfalfa and sainfoin in that.
(03:55)
We rotate the cattle. There’s a herd of approximately 60 every year that go down there currently and stay from about June 1st until almost snowfall we wean down there.
(04:04)
Each paddock, depending on the field, is broken down into about one to two-day grazing periods and then we measure the forage in each paddock before we move them in there and utilize some of that technology, the rising plate meter, which I can talk a bit about more later, but we utilize technology to accurately measure the amount of biomass available for the cattle and do the calculations based on their weights so that we can move those around without overgrazing.
(04:27)
Our goal is the take 50, lead 50 for the tame pastures and more along the lines of leave 75% on the native because we are trying to give that a little bit less intense grazing, so we use more of an adaptive multi-paddock grazing system is what that is. It’s not a firm in stone. So if we get the moisture, if the grass is looking better, certain areas feel are a little different, we do change it as we go along.
Mike Howell (04:47):
If you would talk a little bit about some of the benefits of rotational grazing… I know that has been around for a long time, but I see very few producers that are actually taking advantage of that and that’s probably because of the increased labor and time that it takes to make this work. But what are some of the benefits to that? Why should a producer consider doing that?
Brianna Elliot (05:05):
Many benefits, productivity being number one. You have to balance the ecological sustainability with the economic viability. That’s the bottom line of it all.
(05:13)
Looking at the cattle productivity, ensuring that their health is number one and we’re getting those pounds put on those calves and keeping those body cushion of those cows throughout the season.
(05:23)
And then the impact on the forage stand itself. I’m seeing the productivity levels when you’re rotating it like that increased substantially.
(05:29)
Also, looking at the composition of those stands. Huge effect when you’re managing that properly and not overgrazing certain areas.
(05:35)
And then with both of those, having the cattle on there and managing your grass better, you’re getting that soil health impact.
(05:41)
Definitely seeing the positives there and we’re measuring that in a number of different ways with some of our technologies as well as partnerships with some of the other Applied Research Associations doing the biological testing on the soil. Quantifying it is very important also.
Mike Howell (05:54):
What about fertility on these rotation paddocks? Can you get by with less fertility? Does it require more nutrients or how does that work?
Brianna Elliot (06:01):
We could definitely get by with less.
(06:03)
We are frequently soil sampling to ensure that we have what we need there but I’m finding once the cows are on there, it’s very minimal fertility needed. We are maintaining some of the really older grass stands that needed a little extra help but I suspect long term, it’s going to be very minimal fertility.
(06:17)
But I will say that definitely soil testing and understanding what you have to work with is the key. You will see the positive impact of the animals on the land through their manure and like I said, more productive grass, it’s going to give you more productive soil, having that ground cover there.
Mike Howell (06:32):
And you’ve mentioned this more productive grass and you mentioned the sliding plate. Talk a little bit more about that and let our listeners know what you’re talking about with that sliding plate and how you’re measuring these forages.
Brianna Elliot (06:41):
The rising plate meter is a piece of technology that we brought in on New Zealand from Jenquip.
(06:45)
What that utilizes is a rod that has a monitor on it and a disc plate system that slides up and down and compresses the forages. With that, it can give us an accurate reading of what the biomass is in kilograms per hectare of dry matter, so that we can take those samples and utilize it from every different paddock, to understand what the forage levels are.
(07:05)
Our main work with that started out with actually just calibrating it to our forages up here in Canada. Out in New Zealand, obviously, they have a lot of different species. Most of our work has been around grasses so far and more growing out towards more legumes. It’s a little bit more complicated when you get those mixed grass stands, but we’re pretty happy with how it’s been working for us.
(07:24)
Our students have taken a lot of forage samples to ensure that it’s accurate.
Mike Howell (07:29):
You mentioned the 50/50 rule and I’m assuming that you’re measuring it when the cattle go in and you don’t want to take more than 50% of that leaf matter off at any one time. Talk about why you do that and the importance of that.
Brianna Elliot (07:39):
Those leaves that we’re leaving there are solar panels for those plants to grow. So if you’re not leaving enough, they’re not able to keep producing how you want them to. And then nutritionally, you’re getting the best for your cattle there as well. When we’re going in and only taking 50 of that plant, it gives it plenty opportunity to recover.
(07:53)
We’re seeing this especially in these drought conditions. You can tell when we’re treating our paddocks nicely, the surrounding fields that where other people are grazing it down quite a bit, they’re not quite as green as what we have on ours.
Mike Howell (08:05):
How much potassium should you be applying? What’s the best form of nitrogen for sandy soils? Should you be applying sulfur? Sometimes, you just got to ask an agronomist.
(08:15)
eKonomics has an entire team of agronomists ready to answer all of your questions for free. Find your answers with the Ask an Agronomist feature at nutrien-ekonomics with a K.com.
(08:28)
You also mentioned soil health and sustainability and that’s stuff that we talk a lot about on The Dirt. What benefits are you seeing in terms of soil health?
Brianna Elliot (08:35):
Overall, the biologicals that we’re seeing in those soils are significantly increased our overall fertility and our nitrogen levels, our phosphorus levels, like all our macros, are very, very high in that. So the productivity is significantly increased.
(08:48)
Our water holding capacity is tremendous or less compaction issues and we’re just not getting any of that erosion with all the ground cover production that we’re getting.
(08:56)
We’re also monitoring, like I had mentioned earlier, with the carbon sequestration and being able to measure that. We’re having an increase that we can’t quite share with all the exact numbers yet because the project’s not finalized but we are seeing positive numbers there for sure.
Mike Howell (09:09):
What about sustainability? We spend a lot of time and devoted several episodes to talking about sustainability, and want to remind everybody that we determined that sustainability means something different for everybody, whether you’re a producer or a consumer, but we always want to consider the economic impact on that and nothing is going to be sustainable if we can’t make a profit while we’re doing that. So there’s a fine line we want to balance there, but what are you finding in terms of sustainability in this project?
Brianna Elliot (09:34):
Yeah, I’ll go back to that line that I had said about the ecological sustainability balancing with economic viability. That’s something that, especially with all our applied research, we focus on the forefront with everything because if this is not going to pencil up for producers, we are not going to want to push it out to them.
(09:49)
We validate technology that we think is going to help the producers make money and be more sustainable, whether that is their healthier animals that they’re getting long term, whether it is they’re increasing their soil health that is going to keep paying them back day after day, year after year.
(10:03)
Having those management practices in place that are not only going to be helping, like I said, your animals but also your crops in your bottom line.
Mike Howell (10:09):
Brianna, you also mentioned some of the biological impacts on this. Can you talk a little bit more about the biological side?
Brianna Elliot (10:15):
Yeah. Within the project that we’re working on, we have partnered with AdvancedAg as one of our industry partners. We’ve been testing their soil biological product for two years now. Applying it both at seeding or at the start of grazing depending on if it’s an annual versus a perennial and then again mid-season. That is a product that’s made up of five different biological species and is to improve the soil health.
(10:37)
We’ve seen some pretty positive results with that and looking at growing out that program a bit. I think that’s a really hot topic on the industry right now is these biological products in both grazing systems and general crop land.
Mike Howell (10:48):
Everywhere we go, we’re hearing more and more about these biological products and trying to evaluate them and see which ones are working and which ones maybe need some more research before we can go to the field with those, but definitely a hot topic these days.
(11:00)
Anything else in terms of this project that you’re working on?
Brianna Elliot (11:03):
Another technologies that we’ve been utilizing is a lot of remote sensing.
(11:07)
For us, this is a good opportunity because we have really poor connectivity at this field in terms of cell service and it’s a remote satellite piece of land. We are not always down there. Being able to utilize some technologies and see if we can get them to connect and actually work for us, not us working for them because I think that’s how a lot of them are these days, these should be saving us time and making our lives easier.
(11:26)
A few of them that we were working with are electric fence monitoring systems because we have so much cross-fencing in these smaller paddocks. They’re both eight to 10 acres. We have a lot of these fields broken down into little pieces, so that means a lot of electric fencing, so I need to know if it’s working or if it’s not working, and these electric fence sensors have made my life a lot easier.
(11:43)
We’ve tried a few different ones through ICT as well as we’re currently using one from Gallagher and yeah, working very well.
(11:49)
Another remote sensing tech that we’ve been utilizing is the water level sensors through multiple different companies but just being able to know what our water flow is, if our water troughs are working. Obviously, welfare-wise, we need to have fresh water to our cattle. Knowing in real time if that’s working has been tremendous for us.
Mike Howell (12:06):
I really hope the kids don’t listen to this episode. Sometimes, they do. Sometimes, they don’t. But I did not realize that we had monitoring systems on the electric fence. My monitoring system is to send a kid out and grab it and see if it’s still working. I don’t need another investment. They can monitor my fence farming.
(12:21)
You also mentioned on monitoring the water supply and I know that’s critical, especially up in your area during the wintertime, and that’s something I’ve always been intrigued on.
(12:30)
Growing up in South Mississippi, we get some winter weather every now and then, and one of my worst memories as a kid is taking an ax and busting the water troughs open so that the cows could have something to drink and sometimes, it froze the water solid and we actually had to haul water in.
(12:44)
How do you overcome that in the extreme north and some of your winter conditions that you have? How do you provide fresh drinking water to these animals?
Brianna Elliot (12:51):
We know that problem all too well. The chopping of the water troughs is not the funnest job.
(12:56)
But there is a lot of new things coming on the market that are being able to not only tell us if those are freezing up, keep them from freezing, but also better manage the energy use with those. We can’t share too much on those yet but definitely have some new ones coming on the market.
(13:09)
We’re not doing a ton of winter grazing down at this site yet, but that’s in the next two years we will be for sure. We’re looking at setting that up but definitely the energy management around it is a key topic, being able to manage when that heat unit is being turned on and turned off based on what temperature is, so it’s not running all the time because this is all additional cost, so you want to be able to make sure that this is an economic option for everybody.
Mike Howell (13:30):
Brianna, we’ve talked a lot about this project, but I’m sure you’ve got other projects you’re working on. Is there anything else you want to talk about today?
Brianna Elliot (13:36):
Yeah. Another one that we’ve been working on for the last couple of years that we’re pushing out to producers now is the assessing of the accuracy of an on-farm rapid nitrate testing kit for forages.
(13:47)
We’ve been working with two different ones. Ruminants, particularly cattle, are high risk of nitrate toxicity when forage nitrate levels are high. That’s a major concern in Alberta with drought conditions with frost, with hail.
(13:59)
Recently, we’ve had quite a few hail storms go through there. So if we’ve got green feed crops that are being hailed out, we’ve got any crops that’s being hailed out that we want to see if we can salvage with grazing cattle, but these producers don’t have the time to send those tests away to a lab. So this is where these handheld devices are coming into play. Being able to walk into a field and test your crop within minutes, it’s definitely a game changer.
(14:20)
We tested two different kits, the NECi nitrate testing kit as well as the Horiba kit.
(14:25)
The NECi kit takes about 20 minutes and a little bit more cumbersome. So for the first phase, we were just comparing these two to see how accurate they were and their usability. We found that the Horiba came out on top just on how simple it was but they both were just as accurate if not more sensitive than a lab test. Definitely useful tool that we can use.
(14:43)
The Horiba test, in the second phase that we’re using, we’re moving forward and it’s just further validation.
(14:47)
We’ve partnered with Union Forage and Blue Rock Nutrition to able to get onto more producers’ farms and just make these available to producers. They’re all available online and on our website. We’ve also pushed out some educational videos on how to use these.
Mike Howell (15:01):
That’s some great information and we don’t really utilize that a lot down in my part of the world. Sometimes, we’ll have some extreme drought conditions and not end up with a corn crop, and we have some producers that want to go in and bale that corn crop up for hay in these extreme situations. That’s something we always need to worry about is the nitrate levels in that corn in the drought situation. Sounds like some technology that we could utilize down here as well.
Brianna Elliot (15:23):
You could for sure. And like I said, there are both available online and very accurate, so I definitely think it’s a tool that a producer should have in their back pocket and also just forage grazing associations. Any consultants really should have those available to their growers.
Mike Howell (15:35):
Brianna, we sure appreciate you taking time to visit with us today. A lot of useful information and things that are going on up at Olds College. Is there any closing comments you want to leave our listeners with before we sign off?
Brianna Elliot (15:46):
Nope, but just if you would like to keep up to date with what we’re working on at the college, you can look us up at oldscollege.ca under the Technology Access Centre for Livestock Production. We try and keep that pretty up to date and our contact information is in there. We always like to chat about what we’re working on.
Mike Howell (16:00):
Listeners, we appreciate you tuning in. We hope you got something out of this episode. I know I sure did.
(16:05)
I want to remind everyone to stick around for just a couple of minutes and we’ll be starting back with segment two here in just a moment.
(16:11)
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(16:33)
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.
(16:56)
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.
(17:14)
Now segment two of The Dirt.
(17:20)
Well, listeners, welcome back for segment two.
(17:22)
As you know, we’re continuing our tour around North America visiting different research farms, and we’ve talked about how important these research farms are for producers and how they get timely information from these research farms and help make them more profitable.
(17:35)
Today, we’re traveling to the State of Michigan in Michigan State University and to help us talk about one of these research farms we have Dr. James Averill.
(17:42)
Dr. Averill, welcome to The Dirt.
Dr. James Averill (17:44):
Hey. Thanks for having me, Mike, and excited to have a conversation with you.
Mike Howell (17:47):
If you will, before we get started, introduce yourself to our listeners and let them know what you do there at Michigan State.
Dr. James Averill (17:52):
Michigan State University’s a premier land-grant institution here in Michigan. It’s the one and only in the State of Michigan, and part of my job here at Michigan State University is I am the associate director for AgBioResearch here, and that is the research arm for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
(18:11)
Part of my job, it is to oversee what people often refer to as the ag experiment stations.
(18:18)
We have over 30 different centers across the state and on campus that we’re trying to move the needle in the science to help our ag and natural resource individuals and improve the productivity, as you talked about, with the farmers and ranchers here in Michigan and across the country.
Mike Howell (18:34):
Okay. Well, with over 30 experiment stations, I know that’s a full-time job for sure. We don’t have time to talk about all 30 of them obviously today. So tell us which one you’ve selected that we’re going to talk about and spotlight in today’s episode.
Dr. James Averill (18:45):
I’m going to spotlight our center down in Southwest, Michigan. It’s the Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center that’s in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Mike Howell (18:55):
Go ahead and tell us a little bit about that experiment station and what’s going on down there.
Dr. James Averill (18:58):
One of the things that we are very fortunate here in Michigan is that we have over 300 different ag commodities being produced here in the state, and we like to say we’re the most diverse ag state with plentiful source of fresh water.
(19:13)
Being down by Lake Michigan, this research center, we have a number of different commodities that are grown here 5hat research is being conducted on. That can be on the grape side, both from a juice grape to a wine grape to our apples and peaches and plums, blueberries and raspberries. We have had hops and then get into some of the forestry things with different types of trees and research plots with that to then our vegetables. That can vary from cucumbers, whether that’s for slicing in salads or for pickling, to tomatoes, different types of squash and the list goes on.
(19:51)
A very diverse research center that’s been around for about three decades now.
Mike Howell (19:57):
You mentioned blueberries and I was wondering if you were going to mention blueberries. I’m in South Mississippi and we grow a lot of blueberries down here and we always have to beat Michigan to the market. If we’re late and Michigan gets there first, we basically lost our market. So we will understand the blueberry system down here.
(20:12)
Dr. Averill, if you will, tell us a little bit about the types of research that’s going on. I know you’re doing research on different crops. What kind of scientists do you have there doing the research?
Dr. James Averill (20:21):
We have a couple different types of scientists.
(20:24)
We have our plant pathologists, we have several of them doing some pathology work and looking at some of the bacterial and viral infections of these different crops.
(20:33)
We have individuals there, your agronomist type of just let’s try new varieties and doing some breeding of things.
(20:42)
We have peach trees that we’re growing there that try to bring about new varieties that are more tolerant to the Upper Midwest and maybe more tougher from a climate standpoint, survive the winters and so forth a little better, to others that are moving in and utilizing technology, AI. We have a lot of work going on with drones and how to use them in the grape vineyards and applying pesticides to the vineyards and so forth.
(21:11)
Those are some of the examples of the research that we’re doing at that center.
Mike Howell (21:15):
We talked earlier about this research doesn’t mean anything if it’s not something that the farmers can benefit from. It’s all about doing research that the farmers are going to benefit from on their farm. Talk a little bit about why this research is so important to the farmers and what the farmers are getting out of this.
Dr. James Averill (21:30):
In part why I wanted to highlight this center today is we have some extension faculty that are based right out of this center.
(21:38)
They themselves are out there taking the science that’s being done at the center and sharing it with the farming community. Not only are they playing a role of an educator and helping making people aware of this research, they’re doing their own research too. They’re out sharing research as a whole that might be happening and helping advance the farming community, but they’re also listening to what the farmers need and bringing that back and doing some research to try to further advance them. That’s why I really wanted to highlight this center.
(22:08)
In addition, we have field days at this center and they’re there for some of the different commodities, and so that allows the area farmers to come in and look at things, whether it’s on the grape side with the viticulture field days too, or going over and start doing some of the smaller fruit or vegetables, they have field days for that. That allows the farmers to come in first hand, see what’s going on, go through the demonstration plots, or talk about that specific research.
(22:36)
And then on top of it, we host different commodity groups’ meetings at the center as it has that capability. They come there and then after the meeting they end up milling around, chatting with the staff or the faculty and hearing what’s going on.
(22:52)
There’s a number of ways we are getting the word out to our farmers to help move that needle for them and help them be more profitable, more efficient and so forth.
Mike Howell (23:01):
Dr. Averill, I’ve been to a lot of research farms over my career and it never fails. Anytime, I show up at one, somebody’s going to start bragging about things. This happened at the center and that’s one reason I wanted to have you on today. I know there’s been some significant contributions made to agriculture from these centers. Tell us a little bit about some of the stuff that’s happened in the past there at the research farm.
Dr. James Averill (23:21):
I think one of the big bragging that’s happened there in the past is the work that’s been done with the Peach Reading Program there in those peach trees.
(23:30)
We’re not like a Georgia and number one, in peaches but peach trees that are grown in Georgia are not necessarily tough enough for the Upper Midwest winters. And so we’ve developed some varieties that are just much more tolerant to the freeze that might happen in the springtime as they’re coming out and budding.
(23:51)
Having those couple of varieties that have come out of there have been very beneficial for the tree fruit industry in the Upper Midwest, not just Michigan, but across the upper Midwest.
(24:01)
Pretty proud of that work that’s been done there is probably the one that jumps out at me.
Mike Howell (24:06):
Dr. Averill, you mentioned peaches and that’s one crop that I have not spent a lot of time working on over the years. We do have a lot of peaches grown in my area, but I would imagine that that’s going to take a researcher a long time to get meaningful data off of peach trees. You can’t just go plant them every year. It’s going to be a long-term project.
Dr. James Averill (24:22):
Yes, that is very true.
(24:23)
We’ve had breeders on the tree fruit side here at Michigan State that that’s their whole career and towards the end of the career when they start to really see the benefits of their work.
(24:35)
At the Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center, Dr. Bill Shane is the faculty member that just retired that has done all that work for the peaches.
(24:45)
There’s even more varieties that show some further promise that we’re trying to make sure we keep going. We’re in that process of figuring out who’s going to take over that work and keep it going.
Mike Howell (24:55):
Well, Dr. Averill, I’m asking all of my guests this last question. We know that the face of agriculture is changing. You mentioned using the drones to make applications and things like that. Everybody’s faced with urban sprawl. The communities are getting closer and closer to our research farms and we’re going to have to make some adjustments on these farms to keep up with the pace of agriculture in these expanding communities. What do you see as the future of these farms and what are they going to have to do to change to keep up with the pace of agriculture?
Dr. James Averill (25:22):
That’s a really important question, an issue that we’re all worried about.
(25:26)
I think, and sometimes in agriculture, we don’t do a very good job of tooting our own horn and letting the general public know about the good that we are doing.
(25:36)
Sometimes, that picture that gets painted about agriculture is that nostalgic red barn and livestock out on pasture and rows of corn growing right there. That day and time has passed of the fifties, sixties, and seventies where you had a lot more people knowing and involved in agriculture.
(25:54)
We have fewer and fewer farmers today, but those farmers are bigger and we have a huge dilemma of how do we feed the growing world population. It’s no longer about being a farmer and putting some food on the table for your family, you’re putting food to table to feed the world.
(26:10)
I think from agriculture, we just got to keep advocating the good that we are doing and why we’re doing what we’re doing to help address some of that urban sprawl and that concern that we might have with people that don’t have that agricultural background and say, “Hey, we’re doing things in a sustainable way. We want this facility, this farm to be around for generations to come, and we are good stewards of the land, otherwise we wouldn’t be here and we got to keep doing that.” I think that’s some of the conversations that we just keep having to do.
(26:40)
A podcast like yours and others that are out there help spread that word about the value of agriculture and why we need it, because if we don’t have agriculture, we don’t have food. We got to spread the word about the importance of agriculture and having a sustainable and safe food for the world for decades to come.
Mike Howell (26:58):
Dr. Averill, we sure appreciate you taking a few minutes to tell us about your research farm there at Michigan State.
(27:03)
Listeners, we appreciate you tuning in this week. And as always, if you need more information on anything we’ve talked about today, you can visit our website. That’s nutrien-ekonomics with a K.com.
(27:15)
Until next time, this has been Mike Howell with The Dirt.
