Announcing two premiere field crop programs for 2024
Good day, and welcome to the University of Minnesota Extension, University of Minnesota Cropcast. I'm your host, Dave Nicolai, University of Minnesota Crops Educator. Along with me is my co host, doctor Seth Nave. Seth is a extension soybean specialist here at the University of Minnesota and we have a couple of guests that we're gonna be introducing here in just a little bit. Doctor Bob Cook, extension endomologist, in the soybean area, and he'll talk about some of the aspects of things that he's starting new here in terms of Institute of Ag Professional Programming, field school.
Speaker 1:And also we have another guest, Liz Stahl, my coworker. She is a University of Minnesota Extension Educator in field crops located at Worthington, Minnesota. But before we jump into that, Seth, we made a little bit of progress here in terms of our planting and and crops, and I would say probably better than a little. Actually, fairly impressive, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I think, you know, living in the little microcosm that I'm in here, it seems like nothing really moved over the last week. But I think there was there was some areas that really, caught up and got between some storms. I think mostly that crop report reflects what happened that previous week, and it may not it may not have gotten registered because the timing of the report, between the 2. But certainly, all crops but soybeans ahead of schedule or ahead of the average, historical average.
Speaker 2:So I think we're we're looking really good. And, the way I read the report is that farmers just made hay with the good weather, and they did everything they could. And they just ran out of time to get the soybeans planted, and so it shows that shows that they could really get a lot done, when they, had a had an opportunity, and hopefully, we'll get a break. The the weather forecast has not been that great, so hopefully, things will turn around just a little bit.
Speaker 1:I think you're right. We're we have some good weather in there. Made a lot of progress. Windy conditions, sunny conditions, and so forth. So we look forward to that.
Speaker 1:At the same time, we are always concerned about getting the correct information out here to help farmers and maybe making those planning decisions, pest control decisions, and, you know, weed control decisions. And so with that, in Extension, we've developed a program in terms of technology that involves, the Internet, involves webinars, Zoom, and try to stay up to date and really current. And so we've asked Liz Stahl to stop you in a little bit and talk to us a little bit about what we've had to do in the past in providing that information and what we've kind of switched to a little bit more since post COVID in terms of providing that information. So, Liz, do you wanna talk a little bit about our programs in terms of, Intervet webinar, strategic farming, field notes, and and so forth. But give us a little background maybe briefly about yourself, but also more importantly about what we've done in the past and where we're going now.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. Sure. Thanks, Dave. Yeah. Like you said, I'm a extension educator in crafts.
Speaker 3:I work out of the Worthington Regional Office in Southwestern Minnesota. And as you know, you know, one of our key objectives is always trying to figure out how to get our research based information out to our audiences, and that's really what, where we came out up with this strategic farming program. And like you said, just a little bit of history about that. You know, everybody's kinda used to the the local meetings that we have. We had our little traveling road shows, you know, and we still do, you know, these local programs.
Speaker 3:But, you know, there's only so many of us out there, and everybody's got busy schedules. And plus it's really nice to bring in experts from outstate as well to different programs. So that's kinda where the strategic farming program, really came from. And we actually started that in 2020, but it was before COVID. You know, we were ahead of the curve.
Speaker 3:We got this all done before everything kinda hit the fan, but we, switched to an online format, again, because we wanted to expand our reach, wanted to be able to get experts from outstate, and, you know, throughout the state, involved in this program. And it's really been a great way to get this information out to people. It it's targeted towards farmers, but also everybody who works, with farmers as well. And we just also get a lot of people that are just interested in keeping up to date on agriculture and what's going on. But the strategic farming program, we've really got that divided into 2 different series.
Speaker 3:We have the Let's Talk Crops program that goes on over winter. Those are a little longer sessions. We have those last an hour. You know, about half the time is with presentation, and the other half is with discussion. And then, well, that just wrapped up here for the winter season.
Speaker 3:Now here we're into, of course, the growing season. We'll we're launching the field notes program, and that goes on throughout the growing season. That's a little shorter format. It's more of a podcast format. We do have that every Wednesday mornings that goes from 8 to 8:30.
Speaker 3:Everybody again is welcome to join in. You just register one time for the whole series. You're registered for the whole program. There's no cost to join. And, again, this really focuses on really timely, relevant, useful information, any issues that pop up during the growing season, that that go on again.
Speaker 3:So, and and, again, we take questions from the audience. That's what's really nice joining live, with this program is that you can get your questions answered live in the discussion part. But then also if you're not able to join live, those are all recorded. So we do have those recordings available online as well.
Speaker 1:So give us some examples a little bit. I think the wintertime programs are a little bit more scripted. We prepare and so forth in advance. But what are some of the topics, you know, personnel here? Seth is involved with that.
Speaker 1:But, you know, going with a with a Zoom format and a webinar allows us to pull in people from experiment stations, neighboring states, as well with that, you know, where the the field notes is a little bit more in terms of current of what's happening out there. But maybe some examples, examples of, topics, speakers, people that we've had and and people we intend to have.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's a great question. We've had, for example, I'm just thinking right at the top of my mind, I'm thinking of weed management. Of course, we have Devlin Serangi. He's our extension weed specialist.
Speaker 3:Has a wealth of information, but, again, it's really nice to bring in other experts. So we've had, like, doctor Joe Eichle, from NDSU highlighting, we were hitting on, okay, how to make your pesticide applications most effective. We've had, doctor Faye Yang, you know, talking about his work with European corn borer and corn rootworm, you know, with the resistance issues, herbicide resistant weeds. That's always a huge thing, as well too. And recent research on, you know, how that those issues are expanding.
Speaker 3:Pest management. You know, we have doctor Bob Cook, of course, as well. He's talking soybean aphids and how resistance management, you know, that's just a key player, and we're losing tools. So that's been a topic of some of these discussions. And, of course, you know, Seth has talked about, a lot of his work too with biologicals.
Speaker 3:That was a real popular, program as well too. So it's really a wide ranging topic, set that we have. Nutrient management is always a big hit too, that we talk about. So, again, like you said, the strategic farming, let's talk crops, those are a little longer sessions. We can take a little deeper dive, but it's still more informal.
Speaker 3:And then the field notes, you know, that again, it's just kinda hitting those issues that people should be looking out for, you know, based on how the season is is playing out or planning ahead. So, again, it's a little more timely information, but, again, very informal format as well.
Speaker 2:So when when does the field notes, program start? What's and what's the schedule?
Speaker 3:So May 8th, that'll be our launch here this year. And again, that goes from 8 to 8:30. So, again, we just ask people to register. You just need to register one time, and that registers you for the whole season. If you're not able to join live at any point in time, you can pull up that recording.
Speaker 3:It's in a podcast format for the field notes, and that's posted shortly, within hopefully a day or 2 of the live session. And what's also nice too, we we write up articles on this too. So if maybe you're not able to listen to the podcast or the live session, we'll have those posted on our Minnesota crop news to a nice little summary of each session.
Speaker 1:So that's every Wednesday morning. Correct?
Speaker 3:Yep. Every Wednesday morning. And, like, again, it starts May 8th here, and it it will go, through August. There's maybe 1 week or 2 where we take off during the growing season due to, like, a holiday, or something or when a lot of our, you know, experts are all at one big event. But, again, should be, every week through throughout the end of August.
Speaker 2:So May 8th is tomorrow. Who is your guest tomorrow?
Speaker 3:So we'll have, doctor Dublin Sarangi, and I believe we also have Bob Cook too. Doctor Bob Cook as well to talk about insect pests, And, yeah, launch off and see what to to look out for.
Speaker 2:And so we we need to make sure and let people know how to reach, reach us for the, for the registration. So easy way, just to Google extension and then strategic farming, or what what's the easiest way to to reach us reach a link to, to register for the for the course of this meeting?
Speaker 3:Yep. Yeah. It's really easy. It's just a z.umn doteduforward/strategicdashfarming. That's where registration is available at, and all the recordings will be there.
Speaker 3:And I did see, Bob take a look at, Sorry. We have Bruce Potter on on Wednesday. You know, that will be our first session kinda looking at what what's going on here for the year. And I know I'm, for example, I've been helping out with, monitoring for black cutworm. I'm guessing he might be talking about some of that.
Speaker 3:What those insect surveys are are showing and and the armyworm. So, again, a lot a lot of neat work here is, again, we prepare for what to look out for the season.
Speaker 2:And I I forgot that we weren't live here. I thought we were really big time, and I was thinking we were live on on television all over Minnesota here. But that so by the time this airs, folks can probably catch the, catch the rewind version of this and and at least watch the recording of that first one by the time, we've we've launched this particular podcast.
Speaker 1:If people wanna go back and look at past strategic farming from this winter, they can go back on that on that website, I believe, and and look those up. But certainly, the growing season, a lot of emphasis and integrated pest management. Weed control. I remember a year or 2 ago, we had some really popular programs on herbicide injury. You know, and say, for example, misapplied herbicides and so forth and how plants recover.
Speaker 1:So we try to keep up with that information, but also provide timely things when it comes to this early season weed control, and we'll be talking about that. So, and and we solicit input from our listeners too, an opportunity. There's questions and so forth. So it's kind of a listener based program to some extent too as far as, information.
Speaker 3:Well, that's right. That's one nice thing too. When you register, you get a chance to put in what your questions are, you know, based on different topics. So that's where we base a lot of the program, who we line up on the topics as well. And then, of course, during the live sessions, people can enter in their questions, and they can get get that addressed live as well.
Speaker 2:It's a good example of, you know, the the trade offs between live programming that's more planned out and and and, organized and and structured, versus these online offerings. Because, you know, for many different reasons, what you're offering here, Liz, is you've got a program that you can listen to live. You can listen to a recorded version or in many cases then will have a written version of a summary of that as well. So you've got 3 different types of audiences just based on learning style and time of availability and things like that, that that could take part in the same program. And
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's really, you know, amplify the reach of this program and the ability to get our research based information out to people. Like you said, you know, when we started out with just the meetings, You only hit people that a lot of times are in the local area that could make it that day, you know.
Speaker 3:And then now we've done it online, but then not everybody, you know, wants to or is able to attend live. So we've got the written format. And like you say to the recordings, you can listen to those at midnight, whatever time of day you wanna listen as well too that works out for you.
Speaker 2:And the other the other nice part is the diversity of audience because I'm able you know, if I'm a panelist and I get to take a look at all the other invitees or everybody that's participating. And I can see I can see we've got long time, crop consultants and agronomists. We've got we've we have sometimes, we have, other professionals. We have faculty from other universities join on. We've got a lot of local, folks, and then there's even a handful of international people join each one just to kinda get a flavor for what's what's happening in in Minnesota.
Speaker 2:So it's it's an opportunity for people to join, really broadly and and from a lot of different backgrounds.
Speaker 1:And you don't really need a your computer in terms of a desk base. You can do this, you know, if you can have Internet capability with your phone and so forth, if you're out and about, situations whether you're there or know in the tractor cab. As we close this out, any other things you want to mention about that? I know we've had some sponsors for some of these programs in the past in in terms of that. So that's certainly helped out there, and we'd like to get the word out about that too as well.
Speaker 3:Yes. Definitely. This program, you know, we we, are so appreciative of our generous sponsorship from the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council and the Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council. They've been really great at supporting this. They're seeing the value and impact that it's having on their members.
Speaker 3:So again, we really appreciate, their sponsorship of this program. And that allows us to be able to offer this program at no cost to our to anybody who attends.
Speaker 2:And, of course, we really appreciate when those organizations can help, pass the word about these things and and publish calendars for us and and help get their their membership involved with us too. So it's the monetary support's really important, but also engaging with those other other organizations. And and so, we'd be happy to chat with other folks as well.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you. Most definitely. Liz, we appreciate that you are stopping by and and so forth. And I don't know if you had any last word or last sentence.
Speaker 3:No. I I just hope if anybody has not participated yet, I hope you check us out. You can just do a search on the Internet, Or, again, it's real easy. It's just z.umn.eduforward/strategicdashfarming. You can check out all what we've done in the past, and hopefully, we will, see you joining with us live this year.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. We're We're going to switch over a little bit and talk about some other types of training and programs, we have at the University of Minnesota. Some of these had a little bit of a pause, obviously, from COVID and some other personnel changes, but we are bringing back the best of the best. And so to help lead us in that area, we looked for the best, and we found the guy, doctor Bob Cook, extension entomologist in soybeans. And and so, Bob, tell us a little bit about what you said yes to here recently and a little bit more about the program in terms of working with Ag professionals across the state of Minnesota.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Thanks, Dave. So this new responsibility of mine, it's as the director of what we call the Institute For Agricultural Professionals. And this institute, I I see it as kind of providing a framework or platform to facilitate all, our extension specialists and extension educators to get their information out to what we call the agriculture professionals. So generally speaking, we're not targeting the farmers, but we're targeting the people that are interacting with and educating farmers.
Speaker 4:So we're looking at consultants, agronomists, seed in chemical retailers, agency staff, other extension folks, people like that.
Speaker 1:So there's an event, I think, that you're going to be dealing with here. One of your first duties and so to speak in this position and that's the University of Minnesota Field School. Tell us a little bit about that and what it is and and and what it is and and who's attending.
Speaker 4:Right, Dave. So this is like you said, it's the field school for agricultural professionals, and it's an event that's going to occur on campus. The the main thrust of this event is to provide hands on interactive training. So it's, you know, we kinda limit the size of the event, the number of attendees, and we cover the the various, sub disciplines related to crop production. You know?
Speaker 4:So agronomy, entomology, plant pathology, weeds, soils. And, again, the main goal is to, get the attendees out in the field in a lot of cases and and get their hands dirty. You know, be it learning how to stage crops or identify different weeds and, herbicide modes of action based on injury, identifying insects. We have some sessions that'll occur in teaching laboratories. But again it's not lecture style.
Speaker 4:It's hands on and interactive.
Speaker 1:And when is it?
Speaker 4:This is gonna be at the end of July, July 30th and 31st.
Speaker 1:And it'll be on Saint Paul campus.
Speaker 4:That's right.
Speaker 1:Here at the University of Minnesota in in terms of that. And, Seth, you participated in this for a number of years. What are your reflections on on the intent and the type of audience that you've, had a chance to do some education with?
Speaker 2:Well, it's I you know, this is a really it's it's both fun, I think, as a as a as a lead in in presenting some of this information, but, also, I think it's you can I think a lot of the fun is related to the fact that the people really enjoy themselves and really appreciate the opportunity to dig in? And in the past few years, we've been kind of taking a 2 day approach to it where the first day tends to be a little bit more basic information and and is is provides the real the real basis for all the other learnings that that need to occur in these field things. And so I I spent a lot of time doing staging with with, folks for soybeans, for instance. And so Jeff Colter and I share, a stop where he does the same thing in corn. We stage soybeans all the way from ve all the way through r 6 or r 7 depending on what we have in the field.
Speaker 2:We've got a range of maturities. We plant we plant soybeans every couple weeks. Dave was out yesterday planting, some plots for us so that we can have a range of these maturities and just walk everybody through. And I think what's maybe this is an example of the kind of thing that we get with this program is that both the old seasoned veterans that have been coming around for 25 years and have been maybe independent crop consultants or in fields all the time, all the way to these brand new graduates, with bachelor's degrees in environmental sciences that have never been in a soybean field in their lives but are working in some sort of an agricultural setting. They all really appreciate this getting out and and taking a soybean pulling a soybean plant up and counting true leaves and trifolates, and looking for pods, and and, staging those soybeans.
Speaker 2:And and Jeff and I can walk them through the stages and tell them why those stages are important and activities that are happening then and what, you know, what types of things that the farmers are looking for at these various stages. And and it's it's just a really great, great experience. And I think I just wanted to throw out my particular one because I think it it kinda highlights, you know, the the the type of things that we do on that first day. But and and the fact that we can do it at Saint Paul campus obviously is convenient for us, but it really offers great facilities for for the overall program because we can take 10 steps out. We're out in the field.
Speaker 2:Otherwise, we've got laboratories, where folks can do, identify, weeds. They can do, pathology type work, and other other, hands on classroom type
Speaker 1:I want to elaborate a little bit about the organization of this, Bob, and and I've been involved with it for a number of years, more years than I want to count. But, nonetheless, this is a 2 day situation. Our first day typically is hands on activities for everybody involved in some of the core areas. And and I think Seth mentioned that growth and development, weed science, herbicide mode of action, endomology, and this year went in soils and some things with Anna Katz in terms of cover crops, and we looked at that. And then we have a lot of breakout sessions where people can do electives, the the second day on that situation.
Speaker 1:So it really involves a a a 2 day opportunity on that. Is is that format been successful, do you think? You know, it's having people having a choice to some some extent on the situations, but as well as, making sure that they have to print basic principles down?
Speaker 4:Yeah. I think based on feedback that we've received from attendees that it it's a pretty solid format. Right? That first day providing that kind of core curriculum, that foundational knowledge that, you know, everyone should know. And then the second day, letting folks kinda choose their own path to take a deeper dive into particular areas that are, you know, of more interest to them or maybe areas of weakness for them where they need a little bit more, training to get up to up to speed on things.
Speaker 1:I might mention here in terms of if people wanna dive into this a little bit more about what we're doing, here in terms of specifics, 1st day and and second day. If you just go on on the Internet and just search for University of Minnesota or U of M field school for Ag Professionals. Okay? So put that in there. U of M Field School for Ag Professionals.
Speaker 1:You'll get our our homepage, and it describes that much more, in detail. We also promote it through Minnesota Crop News as well. So, and and direct mailings, and and we have some, a lot of industry partners in this as well.
Speaker 4:Right. Yep. And and Dave, I just wanna add, you know, that that this is a 2 day event. We talked about those 2 days, and you can register for the 2, or there is an option to register for just one day if, you know, if somebody only wants to or only can't attend either the 1st or second day. Speaking of registration, you know, as Dave said, you can find the website by, you know, a simple search online, and there's a discounted registration rate until the end of May.
Speaker 4:You know, so you may wanna consider taking advantage of that, saving a little bit on the cost and, securing your spot. Because again, we are limiting the registration to ensure that we can, you know, keep kind of smaller group sizes when we're rotating around and maybe visiting Seth Seth Nave's plots, you know, we to to keep it, you know, more interactive and not not being too large. But registration will then continue after that as well.
Speaker 1:We're getting to some field school diagnostics, Seth, and and I know that you do some things out there in terms of teaching and and information, but kind of the what if scenarios. And if if if, there are situations that happen, whether it's weather related, hail, etcetera, but also replanning. And and we've talked about some of those things, you know, besides, you know, the traditional just growth staging.
Speaker 2:And I I was gonna mention this. I'm glad you brought it up because I I'm overly focused on the things that I'm involved with here, but there's a whole bunch of other things. But I think these, the crop diagnostics is really interesting, and I think people that haven't attended would really appreciate the little story behind it, is that this allows folks to come and see, you know, 10, 20, 30 different unique scenarios that would that would pop up in in a corn or soybean or alfalfa production field, or small grains for that matter. And without spending years looking for those things across fields, we've got them all right there. So we've replicated many different kinds of, you know, goof ups and failures of various kinds as well as environmental problems.
Speaker 2:And we quiz folks on those. They can go out to these little miniature fields, we call them, and they can actually walk around and try to identify the problems within those. And then we, as instructors, play role play a little bit, in many cases, the farmer, and give them maybe a little bit of background and pretend that we, you know, we planted this on May 30th or and, you know, and then we got a, you know, 4 inch rain afterwards, or we did or didn't get our herbicides applied quite like they were supposed to be applied on the label. And and then the the participants need to try figure out what the issue was. It was herbicide related?
Speaker 2:Was it was it, some sort of applicator error? Was there a planting problem? Was there, you know, did we have gophers in the field or what? What what was the problem? And so, again, it allows allows these participants to spend an hour out there and learn, you know, you know, come across things that that may take several years for them to encounter naturally in the environment.
Speaker 1:One other popular thing I just want to highlight real quickly here is our University of Minnesota Herbicide Injury. This was started by Doctor. Jeff Gonzales a number of years ago. It was very popular. One of the most popular things we do and our present weed scientist, Doctor.
Speaker 1:Devlin Serengi, is continuing that. But you know, we'll have 14, 16 different modes of action out here on multiple crops and weed species and so forth. And and, you look at the response of applying these herbicides. So that is a big issue with, ag professionals and diagnosing, you know, is it this or is it that and so forth. But, you know, you can provide pictures and so forth, but it's there's nothing like having the real thing.
Speaker 1:And I think that really has been a popular part and we're gonna do it again.
Speaker 2:I think that's worth price of admission just, for that. It's in in and of itself. I mean, to be able to come across all those different herbicide mode of actions and and all the various symptomologies, that that are provided for those. Again, these are things that would take would take an ag professional many years to come across naturally. So I think it's it's a really, really and it's really fascinating to look at what's going on.
Speaker 2:And, obviously, we've got a lot of herbicides going on. We've got a lot of combinations out there. So this this is a real life scenario that plays out every year across Minnesota.
Speaker 1:Bob, what a couple other things that you wanna mention that are part of the field school for this year?
Speaker 4:Yeah. Well, I just wanna highlight, you know, what what we've talked about here so far are just a few of the sessions that are gonna be offered. The first day, there's 4 different core sessions each an hour and a half long, and then the second day, there there's 9 sessions to choose from. And in the attendees will be able to take up to 6 of those 9 throughout the course of the day. You know, we've talked about a few of those.
Speaker 4:Some of the other sessions that'll be offered include identification and management of alfalfa and forages, small grains growth and development. There's a session on sampling for soil fertility. You know, kind of best best practices for collecting that sample. And then we've actually made arrangements with folks in the soil lab where we can do a little tour there and kind of see what happens with those samples when they get sent to the university. And then on the tail end, what do you do when you get that report back?
Speaker 4:How do what how do you make sense of that and implement that in your, you know, management of your fields? So I think it's a a really exciting, selection of courses that we've got lined up for this year's field school, some great instructors. And, I think it's gonna be a a real nice event that I hope folks will be willing to, come and come to Saint Paul and and take advantage of. We've got arrangements made at a couple hotels in the Roseville area for, people that are coming in from, a farther distance if they wanna, know, be able to spend the night.
Speaker 1:Great.
Speaker 2:Is there a Twins game going on?
Speaker 4:This year, we did not make arrangement for that, but we'd have to check the schedule to see
Speaker 2:If there's one schedule, we need to we need to know what folks are gonna do after hours and what their spouses are gonna do while they're here. So
Speaker 4:Yeah. Maybe the twins or the the Saint Paul Saints.
Speaker 2:There's always something to do here, so I think, should should make a plan for it.
Speaker 1:Well, if the twins can keep winning, I think there might be of interest there. That's for sure.
Speaker 2:So, the field school is just one part of what you're doing with this new responsibility for Institute of Ag Professionals. Is that correct? So what what what are the other, moving parts in in this new job of yours?
Speaker 4:That that's right. Under the umbrella of the Institute for Ag Professionals, we've got the field school that we just talked a lot about. In addition to that, there's the, CPM short course or crop pest management short course in December, which is in collaboration with the, Minnesota crop production retailers. And that's a large event in Minneapolis. The the format is certainly different from the field school where this is more of a lecture style education, and we've got, I don't even recall the number of sessions, but it it's it's a,
Speaker 1:It's a high number.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Quite quite a list of sessions that folks can choose from, and some of those are more general interest topics with keynote speakers, to more detailed deep dives into specific areas. And, we we generally try to bring in a good number of speakers from out of state, to to focus on specific topics. And that's gonna be the 2nd week of December. And then the, the 3rd event that we, put on is called the research updates for Ag Professionals and that occurs typically in early to mid January.
Speaker 4:And this is, an event that historically had, you know, 6 or so locations around the state that we would travel to, and we'd have probably 4 or 5 different disciplines being presented. And it it kind of lived up to its name. Research update. So these extension specialists were providing updates on on the latest research related to whatever topic it is, you know, or I was attending that presenting on, you know, updates related to soybean insects. And then, you know, folks from the other disciplines.
Speaker 4:This last year. Some modifications were made where we reduced the number of in person sites and added on, some virtual sessions, and those are kinda split out by by disciplines. You know, pest management, agronomy, soils, and fertility.
Speaker 2:So So that's a a work in progress. I think
Speaker 4:there's
Speaker 2:probably some some changes to that programmatic, layout coming. I think it's it's just a good example of how folks' time is is very, you know, limited for folks, and so they have to. A opportunities. They could go to nearly a meeting every day in the wintertime. And so we know that, we're we're just part of a whole range of things that they can take part in.
Speaker 2:And so we need to provide them high quality content and provide it at a time in a place that they can they can take part in. And if that's gonna be online or if it's all in person, if it's gonna be all within counties or or regional meetings, we have to figure out how to how to meet meet the our clientele where where they are at at any time. So that's that's on us, and some things are things are changing just a little bit. But I think overall, we're not we're not trying to get rid of anything that's been working. Certainly, we're just tweaking around the edges and make things even better.
Speaker 1:With all of these programs, you know, we're offering certified crop advisor CEUs, American Society of Agronomy, for all the things that you're doing in terms of field school, research updates, etcetera. And I think, Liz, even for our strategic farming, especially during the wintertime, we're able to offer CEUs to that. So we're we're very supportive of the certified crop advisor program as well. Any other things that you wanna talk about here, kind of close things out, Bob, at this point?
Speaker 4:No. I think we touched on most of it. Again, you should be able to find, the websites for these different events, you know, just by, you know, googling or searching, University of Minnesota, Institute for Ag Professionals, or field school.
Speaker 1:Even if you just wanna type U of M, field school for Ag
Speaker 4:Professionals.
Speaker 2:Or extension. Hey. Why don't we send people to that extension website?
Speaker 1:You can do that. Either way, it'll it's amazing what the search engine will will be able to find there and and and that type of thing. So thank you, Bob, for stopping by, and talking to us a little bit about Institute of Ag Professional Programming. The the centerpiece here field school coming up on July 30, 31st. Make sure that you have an opportunity to register here.
Speaker 1:Certainly, you take advantage of some of those cost savings here by the end of the month of May. Thanks to Liz Stahl. Again, Liz, for coming by and talking about, some of our online programming, an opportunity, to be convenient and helpful for not only ag professionals, but for growers across the state in terms of that. And we're again, we're launching now this summertime, their field notes program, very timely. A lot of land grant universities do this.
Speaker 1:We think ours is one of the best, of course, in terms of every Wednesday morning. Anything else, Seth? Otherwise, I think we're done. For we appreciate that an opportunity with us. So thanks for attending today's version of University of Minnesota Extension, Cropcast, and we look forward to visiting with you again in the future.
Speaker 1:Have a good day.
