Roger Becker - A Weed scientist of another flavor
Good day, and welcome to the University of Minnesota Extension Cropcast. I'm your host, Dave Nicolai, with University of Minnesota Extension. I'm a field agronomist located at Farmington, Minnesota. I'm along here with my cohost, doctor Seth Nave, University of Minnesota Extension Soybean Specialist. And in the studio today, we have a very special guest, Seth.
Speaker 1:We have doctor Roger Becker, University of Minnesota, agronomist working in the weed science area. And, this is a good opportunity to have both of you here today. I feel like I'm surrounded by both gentlemen that have originated in the great state of Iowa. And speaking of that, I think we're gonna turn it over here to Roger to talk a little bit about his background, where he started his, academic, schooling from, and how he got here to the University of Minnesota. So welcome, Roger.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, Dave. Thank you, Seth. Boy, I just wish I had Dave's voice, but that never will happen. So here we go. Yes.
Speaker 2:I I I grew up in Iowa, Southwest Iowa to be exact, on a diversified farm, and everybody went to Iowa State. That's just what you did. Folks did, but everybody in the family is going to Iowa State. So I followed along and that just shaped my by chance here in various projects, various jobs, and one thing leads to the next and ended up in weed science, kind of a circular way of getting there. But worked in on some projects like Walter's Soybean project at Iowa State as an undergrad.
Speaker 2:And that got me some field research experience that got me into a Monsanto internship after I got out with my bachelor's degree because because they needed somebody to look at soybean growth regulators they were playing with at that time. And that my manager at that time was a weed scientist, and he got me into grad school. We had too many too many brothers going back to the farm, so I had to go do something else. And, turned out to be weed science, which I didn't know was a thing when I was younger. And I was a 4 h kid like many of us in Extension.
Speaker 2:That shaped my view of Extension in a very positive way. And, so I've always been very keen on extension. And I actually was an extension associate at Iowa State in my graduate days, quit getting my PhD while I did the National Pest Site Impact Assessment work. And also some of the first certification training for farmers on their licensing. Got out of that school and went off to work for Monsanto and worked in Eastern Iowa and partly sometimes in Illinois as product development.
Speaker 2:And for various family career things, there was an interest in getting into metropolitan area. And you get a land grant university, which the University of Minnesota is in a land grant at a at a major metropolitan area. There's not that many of those around. And when the job opening came up to for WE scientists, sure, I'll do that. I'm kind of an Ollie Strand for the old trimers, but not I can't fill his shoes.
Speaker 2:But there was a good group of weed scientists that people in the field know here at the time that I kind of filled in his slot.
Speaker 1:You know, at the risk of being too invasive, and you'll we'll get the context of this question, About what year now you you can elucidate here to to what you feel comfortable with. About what year did you start here at the University of Minnesota after leaving Monsanto?
Speaker 2:It was 87 that I came to the University of Minnesota. Groundwater bill was passed, and, part of my job was doing extension work on herbicides in our surface and groundwaters. And Ollie Strand had done the forage work from the weeds standpoint. We had a very solid ARS group here with Gordon Martin and Craig Schaeffer on the university side and Neil Martin in extension at that time, a real solid forage group that I also was, tasked with working with that group, on weeds in forages.
Speaker 3:So I was gonna Dave asked my question. I was trying to get at this date, but I was gonna be a little bit more diplomatic about it. I I was gonna ask it this way. What what herbicides were you working with at, in Iowa when you were with, with
Speaker 2:Well, This thing called Roundup. Actually my Iowa State days before going so I worked as an intern in Monsanto in 76. And this glyphosate was bouncing around in my graduate days. And when I was working for Monsanto, it was a very lucrative product in perennial markets, higher value markets, but it was a hard fit for agricultural markets because in $19.80 it was $80 a gallon. In $19.80 I didn't do the math to find out what that'd be today.
Speaker 2:But so a lot of the work was looking at reducing rates and trying to get the cost down by by optimizing the actual rate of the product. And it was the less stress, more yield days, Lasso and Duo. And some of the colleagues I grew up with were working in that other company, Cibagaygi. And I was in Monsanto. We'd meet out in the field and we had we had interesting, friendly discussions on less stress, more yield.
Speaker 2:And that's all that's all. Now we have Acetylchol. And then we worked a lot on those kind of products, actually. And we worked on experimentals that were called imidazolodones in those days as well. And we had a thing called bronco, which was Roundup lasso mix.
Speaker 2:Because no till, my my actually my graduate days was a very strong move to no till, especially in southern Iowa. And it fit very well for that erosion prone area. And Bronco was a good product fit for that time for that kind of a situation.
Speaker 3:So why did Monsanto stick with this western theme with his his naming? What's the history behind these?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I was the naming guru for all of those products, but there was Lasso and Roundup and Bronco and
Speaker 3:And and it continued for a long time. And I just didn't know if there was a reason behind it or or if it was just the theme that they got stuck on and couldn't get out of it. Now we have made up names instead.
Speaker 2:Yes. I think it was the people in in positions at the time. It was a thing. So did
Speaker 1:you feel that you had a chance to come here to the University of Minnesota? And I wouldn't say to get off of the annual weed train, but you certainly got a caught another train here on perennials. And, you know, I was making light of the fact about invasive questions here, but invasive weeds. But, how did that happen? Or did it was that a was that a choice that you made?
Speaker 1:Or was that just one of those things that came along and you grabbed a hold of it?
Speaker 2:Well, I actually used to wear cowboy boots when but until I realized it was hard to get across the Iowa State campus and those things. So I would adapt to tennis shoes. But I grew up with livestock and, beef and dairy operation. And a lot of work with forages and forages tend to be perennials. And I actually worked in in my graduate.
Speaker 2:My PhD was working with a perennial weed hemp dogbane, which is very problematic in in that corner of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa at the time. And we had the no till movement with some perennial weeds that were still adapted to that kind of a tillage regime, lack of tillage regime. So I did work with perennials before. So So I have kind of an aptitude for that. I a lot of my life's been corn and soybeans, though.
Speaker 2:Before I came here, it was very much corn and soybeans. And most of the work in extension when I in the Iowa State tour was corn and soybean farmers. Talking to Seth's dad, possibly.
Speaker 3:You probably did.
Speaker 1:So,
Speaker 3:He had he had, purple toes in the spring from, you know, spring, spilling that lasso on his,
Speaker 2:and his boots. My dad actually used Ramrod, in banding banded operation and, which was a predecessor to LASSO, more of an irritant for skin. 1 of the the first acid analyt that really moved into the corn area. But So
Speaker 1:I should back up. I'll just re ask this a little bit. So when when you came to Minnesota, did you have a choice or is this something that was quite a, you know, in your genes, so to speak, of of of going to this perennial to be a, I guess, you could say somewhat of an outlier from all these industry people.
Speaker 2:Well, I I think it was the Ollie Strand if for those that knew Ollie. He he did the oddball weeds, which Minnesota has a lot of and some of the because they have the boreal forest in the northeast, and there's weed species there that you only see up in the corner of Washington and Maine and Minnesota, really. And, so he did all these very interesting things with perennial. Many of those are perennial weeds. And the foragers that work on are perennials, and perennial systems tend to have perennial weeds.
Speaker 2:There's a weed. I always say there's a weed for every occasion. You just do the same thing long enough, and there's a weed that'll be happy in that environment. So the perennials are what I kind of gravitated to.
Speaker 1:But there was something else here that you were doing at the same time. I don't know if you you remember. And I was thinking about some of our canning crops.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh.
Speaker 1:Specifically, you know, sweet corn. So I remember when I came to university and so forth, they'll say, oh, yeah. There's Roger Becker over there. He's a sweet corn guy. So tell us about that.
Speaker 2:Well, that's part of my not not being able to say no. The Hort department, Leonard Hertz was weed scientist that was going was at the meetings when I first started going to the North Central and the WSSA. And when he retired, they moved that position to molecular work in the department of hort and kinda stepped away from the weed science part of it. And some really good collaborators, Vince Fritz and Bill Hutcherson and, Carl Rosen and others were around, that were really fun to work with. And I like sweet corn.
Speaker 2:So they they kinda got me into playing with some of those crops and corn so sweet corn and peas are biggest processing crops. Have a lot of tails to a field corn and soybeans. As far as the herbicide spectrum and dicot and monocot tolerance and the way those things work, they're just a little more sensitive. But I could bridge with my previous knowledge and and do those and help out, and it was just it was fun to work with the processors.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I should I should clarify. You were really working with the weed science side on the on the sweet corn. Obviously, not the, the breeding, but everything that goes on on that particular crop, any other canning crops.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We did Yeah. We did some fun stuff with the crop architecture. Because sweet corn, they're breeding for the corn that you eat. They weren't breeding for structure, stature, and architecture like the field corn people.
Speaker 2:So the the the genotypes were just all over the board and just fascinating as a weed scientist was looking at those with when, Green Giant at the time had a sweet corn breeder down in Le Seur. And we they showed us the the plots and all the varieties and we thought, well, let's we looked at the architecture and competition of those different archetypes. And actually one of the most competitive was one of the shorter varieties because it had the leaf architecture and width and angle that actually gave you very good ground cover. And apropos, we have the shorter field corn lines now. That whole thing is going full circle, very upright leaves and field corn, but it'll be interesting to see where that field goes.
Speaker 2:You can do a lot with crop competition.
Speaker 1:You know, I guess going going forward to there, you you, specialize in more recent years to some of these what I would call, and I'll use that term again, very invasive in in terms of that. I know there's a lot of concern and and there's quite a bit more activity on our Minnesota Department of Agriculture, taking notice and and trying to do what they can from a regulatory standpoint. But you have developed the relationship so that it's, you know, educational, but your audiences, are people that are in in government services, soil conservation as as well. It's it it goes beyond your typical farm audience.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I, when I landed there, one of the opportunities was water quality, which is very active. The Department of Ag is very active and one of the best water monitoring programs in the country. And we worked with some of the advisory boards on that group. And also with the, purple loosestrife was put on the noxious weed list in the late 80s.
Speaker 2:And it was the 1st real non ag focused weed. And all of a sudden the state of Minnesota had a lot of property that needed to be managed for noxious listed weed. And, at that time we didn't have biocontrol, so we were doing some herbicide screens and things. But that got me into bio control with the Department of Ag, Serene Serena dar Dharma, Serena Vassum was the Department of Ag, Biocontrol liaison there, and he was really active and got Dave Ragestell and I involved on purple loosestrife. Dave Ragestell moved on to Texas A&M, an entomology department head.
Speaker 2:But he he really got me involved in biocontrol in a big way, here. And biocontrol got me into a lot of the invasives in. Once you're playing with purple loosestrife, you're kind of in. And we have, over the years worked with leafy spurge, the knapweed complex, and worked for almost 20 years on garlic mustard with biocontrol agents, which we might be able to get a release in 2025, by the way.
Speaker 3:So tell us, I think biological control is just kind of a big general blanket, thing that I think a lot of us throw around as a term and loosely. And I don't know that people really understand all the implication implications of it. So walk us through maybe an example, maybe some of the insect species you looked at and how you identified those and how you identified them as potentials, and then as species that you would look at and then imports and, releases and certifications. Just tell us all the com walk us through the whole complications involved with with the with one one species.
Speaker 2:Sure. What I'm talking about is classic it's called classic biocontrol. There's actually a lot of biocontrols used in higher value crops now that are insects and just to a lesser degree disease oriented. But what I'm talking about is a classical biocontrol which tends to fit the, non crop things where you have a perennial species that's in the habitat that just tends to be there for a long period of time. And purple loosestrife would be a good example.
Speaker 2:It was, we work with a group called CABBI. It's just an acronym that has no name to it officially now. It's CABBI and that's it. And a lot of our weeds came with our our forefathers that came from Europe. In my case, in many of our cases of the group sitting here, they were European people that came and they brought their weeds with them.
Speaker 2:And, so it just so happens in that you go to the places where the weeds came from to look for some of the natural predators or diseases that might be there that help keep those populations in check-in their native state. So for us, CABBI has locations around the world, but the Delamont Switzerland group is a group that does a lot of the European scouting. And a guy named Bernd Blossie, who is at Cornell now as a faculty member, he was a student, at the time getting his PhD. He's from Europe, and he was working on purple loosestrife. And that's that repeats itself.
Speaker 2:Esther Gerber did a lot of the work on the garlic mustard in Europe. Got her PhD with Baird, as it turns out, as that whole situation progressed, which is the sidelight. People you meet for you, younger people listening, they will come back in your life, and you build these connections that will go places that you you can't foresee. But it's it's very fascinating and very productive and positive the way that goes.
Speaker 1:You know, I I suppose when you started here, it wasn't something necessarily in all these years where, every year, you were just handed a a large amount of money. I mean, you had to be innovative, grants and other things. So a little bit about, you know, financial because this isn't like it's a totally industry sponsored. I mean, obviously, there are certain companies that are involved in, you know, weed control in in pastures and rangelands, but, you had to keep an eye on the income and outgo to fund a lot of these activities. Correct?
Speaker 2:Yes. And it just so happens in Minnesota. In after I landed, they had this environmental trust fund passed, and that has an environmental component, the LCCMR. And, MitPC, the Minnesota Terrestrial Invasive Plant Pest Center, is at the University of Minnesota now. That's all an evolution of that funding that goes towards environmental concerns and causes.
Speaker 2:And that's turned out to be a very lucrative source for us on bio on classic biocontrol. Things like the and we had Auri, a URI, did some of the funding for the sweet corn work. And we have a lot of opportunities in Minnesota with public support that helps beyond the industry, but also pastures and and prairies and things like that. We also had some industry support over the years. As as you get a mix, It helps you get things done.
Speaker 2:And I always kinda look for the near term solutions. You have some long term efforts, but at the older extension side of me wants to look at the near term. That tends to be softer money as you guys both know that that you you can get from more local sources.
Speaker 1:So when you started here, let's just talk a little bit about extension. Who were some of your your coworkers here and and through the last number of years and so forth? And how did that all work together? It was very much of a team atmosphere.
Speaker 2:Yes. When I landed, we still have Bob Anderson was still here, in ARS. We still had the weed science unit, which he retired. Then Doug Buehler came, who's moved through the ranks and is now admin in Michigan State. But, Don Wise, the late Don Wise, who unfortunately just passed away recently, was here.
Speaker 2:And Dick Barra and some of the legendary people that you guys are revisiting with with dicamba issues in soybeans did a lot of that preliminary work way back on those kind of efforts. So the old the old guard was still here. Don Weiss was kind of the middle of that old guard and the guy named Jeff Gonzales, who I actually roomed with at Iowa State. He we both were an extension with Viven Jennings and Dick Faucette in those days. And Jerry DeWitt did the IPM program just started, which is still ongoing.
Speaker 2:And we still have people like Bruce Potter here that are part of that IPM effort. But, and Bev Durgin, now our dean of extension, she was the small grains person, Jeff Gonzales, the corn and soybean, and they were hired just just a year ahead of me in 80 in 86. I came in kind of filling, Ali Strand's position in 87. And, Charlotte Eberlein, who's, was here, excellent researcher, great presence in the Weed Science Society as well, Went off to Idaho, for family reasons as well as professional and worked in the potato groups in in Idaho. And actually got into extension admin in Idaho.
Speaker 1:So those are a wide range of of names of of of people here. Obviously, very active. Our newest member, the Weed Science, that you were instrumental in the in the hiring process as doctor Devlin Sringer. Tell us a little bit about your your relationship and how that all happens.
Speaker 2:Well, so yes. I got to be chair of the how do we replace Jeff Gonzales, which is no small task. And so you send out the feelers. And this guy named Devlin Shringi, who many of you have met in Minnesota now, he's got a presence. And, you never know when you hire somebody, but I had the sense that this guy is gonna be a good extension person.
Speaker 2:And by golly, I think he's filling those shoes. He has that aptitude and interest for doing extension. He has the scientific credentials and ability to do to do research that you need in the department. But the extension side, that personality that you can go out and and be effective with people, that's a harder read. And I think Devlin's done very well.
Speaker 2:He is Jeff Gonzalez's replacement. He's the corn and soybean specialist in Minnesota. Bev is still doing small grains. Even though she's our dean of extensions, she still gets out and does that. And and Devlin, I think we're in good hands with him.
Speaker 1:You know, this is a good opportunity really to think also about the methodology when you have done extension work in the past. Obviously, I shouldn't date you, but you go back to the era of what I would call the overhead projector crowd. Alright? And maybe you wanna explain that for some of the younger people in the audience. But, you know you know, where where do we come from and where we are and and where we're gonna go in the future, to provide this, you know, this level of education?
Speaker 2:Well, look, I so I'm a strong believer in extension, and this is a chance to put the little extension hat on. Extension's about educating and for youth, it's about leadership and development. And you still see that strong presence with the 4 h programs in Minnesota, which is developing our future leaders. FFA does so Future Farmers of America is another group that is and for the kids in rural as well as in the urban. I'm a farm kid, but I'm sitting in the urban setting here, and I see amazing things happening with extension, through youth programs in the metropolitan area as well.
Speaker 2:So I see extension has a vital role as we move forward in the future and people with programs like what you guys do, the outreach, the connection of the university with with the Greater Minnesota, is key.
Speaker 3:So to maybe drag this out a little bit and maybe play devil's advocate, you know, the industry really takes over private industry really takes over a lot of the roles of extension and would like to educate their producers, for, you know, for them, and they do a very nice job. And it's part of part of the package that they can offer their clientele is to to to educate and provide them with technical information and education. So how does extension how does a modern extension fit in with the modern corporate world that we have today and and the changes, especially relative to the changes that you've seen in the in the commercial world, in during your tenure here?
Speaker 2:Well, one big thing that's happened is everybody's aware is everything's consolidated. There was a phenomenal there was like, I don't know, what, 30 or so companies easily when I started in in, agricultural chemicals and also beyond egg chemicals and now there's just a handful. And, that's kind of resonates about the whole ag industry. And I I think the thing that's still lacking is somebody that can bridge between all the different groups. Industry does things together in some respects but they all have their separate needs and entities and securacies that they need to have as well.
Speaker 2:And I see extension as the bridge for that people that can be the go between and also the reality check people. And also the ties to the more diverse groups of the people that these companies want to have as their clients. They don't have, they have boots on the ground, but maybe not to the extent that Extension does. So there's a very active role for Extension.
Speaker 3:And and certainly, you've had a history of educating, decision makers. And so you've testified and done a lot of work behind the scenes with with with, you know, regulatory agencies. How do you see Extension's role in kind of that other side of our educational piece? Is that something that we can continue or should continue or will continue? What do you what do you think about them?
Speaker 2:I think that's absolutely essential. The various groups I've worked with pollution control and DNR and Department of Ag and Department of Health, various groups over the years. A lot of effort with Department of Ag and DNR, and they're both really interested in, the kind of input that extension personnel can give. People that can integrate the research knowledge with the applied implementation needs, kind of know the history, kind of know the longer term needs and can also bridge with industry. Our our state agencies do a very effective job of getting industry input as well and environmental groups as well as the university, and others that have expertise.
Speaker 2:So as as part of the mix, I think that that extension and the University of Minnesota, in addition to extension, have a strong role in.
Speaker 3:Do you think there's I I guess, you know, the political side of this is that, you know, we're in a a climate now where there's a lot of of, and I think it's always been the case, but farmers are very suspicious over the regulators, of course. And, do you think that we could play an increasingly important role in helping helping those regulatory agencies better understand the farmer perspective? Is is that part of the role as well in in educating, you know, and imposing those positions? And maybe that was part of your answer before, but just wondering about if you have any other thoughts maybe.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it absolutely is. The the agencies are interested in the farmers are their clients as well. There are and they they and the ag has such a vital role in the economy of the state of Minnesota. And farmers are stewards of the land and want to be stewards of the land. So I I think they're they look for a win win, if you will, of how to get those things done.
Speaker 2:There there are some environmental concerns that need to be addressed. And farmers have or look like forever green programs here, for example. There's things going on that can help move that direction as well as just the things that we do for nutrient management, pest management, fine tuning that. That was the whole IPM umbrella way back in the seventies when that started late seventies on the IPM effort of the federal state program. So, yeah, definitely, there's a role to play, and the agencies aren't the enemy.
Speaker 2:They they want they have to they have to kind of thread the needle, if you will, for all the needs of all the different groups and that's where the things happen, where everybody gets together and tries to work it out.
Speaker 1:You know, we're closing in here on the conclusion of our podcast today, but, do you want to look down the road here to the future a little bit as from your perspective in in what are some of the and I'll I'll just specifically talk about weeds here. From a weed science situation, what are the challenging weeds that you see, that we're gonna have to take note of and and deal with and manage whether it's in a a non crop setting or in a in a even in a field crop setting that could be of concern to producers and so forth in the next in an oh, I don't know, next 5 years here that are on the horizon.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the that's the interesting thing about our work is, you can get really stressed out if you really take these seriously because there's always I always say there's a weed for every occasion, back to that premise. And if you do the same thing long enough, often enough, there's gonna be something that's happy in that. The goal would be to get a very diverse kind of a system for the landscape that there's no one species that tends to dominate. That's gonna be challenging. Growing up on a farm, I chased my brother around on a cultivator all summer.
Speaker 2:2 rural cultivators, if you will. And so you're trying to think how if the weeds get enough resistance to enough chemistries and you have to go back to some other means of control, how do you do that? You can't collate all that anymore as things have integrated vertically. But lo and behold, technology, there's amazing things happening with artificial intelligence and robotics and AI and little robots that run around. And and we're also, in the field, you know, all day long, all night long, cutting little weeds out or spray technologies that are very targeted.
Speaker 2:And on the invasive side, broader side, it'll it'll fit that market first. There are very interesting things happening with the CRISPR technology and some of the DNA and technologies that could could really move things like the classic biocontrol challenges that we face today forward. So I it's it's gonna be fun. I'll retire here soon, and it'll be fun to sit on the deck and watch all this technology evolve because I'm it's it's just optimistically there's going to be a lot of fun things happening that you I never imagined a
Speaker 3:few years ago. So you use the words, you are a tech no optimist apparently, and you think there are silver bullets coming to bail these farmers out. That's what I'm hearing in your message.
Speaker 2:I think there'll be things that we can't foresee coming. There'll be challenges as well. Believe me, there will be some interesting challenges as we all know as as farming has changed so much. But there are some diversity of things we can get on the landscape that are coming and I think there will be some new opportunities for end use things that are that'll happen. It it things go forward and backwards, forward and backwards.
Speaker 2:Eventually, you do move ahead. And I, you know, I am optimistic that things will be moving in a good direction down the road.
Speaker 3:How about a new chemical solution? I'm gonna I'm continuing to push on this one, Dave. How about a new modes of action? Is this is this something that we're gonna see in our lifetime? Or are we still gonna are we gonna just have to run everything we've got clear to the absolute end on every single one of these modes of action?
Speaker 2:We would so if you asked me that when I landed here you'd say we're using up some of the imidazenone sulfonylureas and then glyphosate. We're using that up in a hurry. There's new ones come along, but that is slowing down. I would defer to Devlin actually on the corn soybean market because he's more in tune with it now. But there the it is slowing down.
Speaker 2:The the number of new things you can find is slowing down. But there are some interesting technologies that they're looking at with, plant manipulation. I actually am the guy that lived through all the a lot of the money that was used in applied things moving towards molecular. And in the eighties, that was in nineties, that was very new and you weren't seeing immediate outcomes. And, so I I wasn't thinking too highly of that moving all the a lot of the money that they did anyway into that.
Speaker 2:But you're starting to see those rewards, like the the genes that the the technology they use to get the vaccines for COVID, for example. That was possible because of the kind of technology that's also at play in the ag markets. And there are things that could be done with sprayable materials and modifying herbicides or the way they work that that we don't really have a good handle on yet but have great opportunities. So again, techno optimistic as you might put it.
Speaker 3:Awesome. I I I love it. I'm I'm so stuck in my own little negativity bubble that I'm really glad to find optimists out there that really see see a bright future for us.
Speaker 1:I I really like to talk about something other than waterhemp nowadays. So I do appreciate having you around and having you here. So and even if we have to talk about some really old fashioned things like Canada thistle, You know, it was here in a field bindweed, you know, going back into 30 40. It's still here, Roger.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And and you know what? I think some of it's gonna be here even after you retire. So I think there's there's job opportunities for for people coming here.
Speaker 2:There's permanence on the weed side, and there's opportunities for the people side to deal with that permanency that weeds are gonna give us.
Speaker 3:And it's, I think for your discipline, I think the beauty of this challenge is that it's it's academically more interesting because, you know, 30 years ago, it was you basically had to be a herbicide physiologist or plant physiologist or herbicide chemist if you really wanted a future, you know, maybe 40 years ago. But then we we worked on, as you said, on the gene side. But now we're back to this more complicated, you know, the ecology, weed ecology, plant ecology, management of all these things. It's Dublin's many little hammers. And I think it's, from an academic standpoint, it's just a lot more interesting.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, farmers don't like stuff that's interesting academically. They want good answers. And so it's that's one strong dichotomy we have here.
Speaker 2:Yes. And I would just ask the farmers, including my dad still sitting on the farm at 98, to just be patient. That's hard to do when you're paying the bills. We understand. But, we're extension can't is that integrative group that can take the different technologies.
Speaker 2:Extension's key role is to take the different technologies to bring new new, new solutions, I guess, to problems that we have.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And some of those technologies don't, necessarily, add income for any of those companies, like a cultivator, for instance.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 3:You know, promoting use of a cultivator, rotary hoe, or even even some of these other things that are, other other weed management strategies aren't necessarily very en vogue by the by the corporate world because those things don't make them much money. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you very much for stopping by, Roger. You know, we're not gonna let you out of here until we do this again and we'll have some other things that we can certainly talk about. We do appreciate though spending some time with this today for this version of the University of Minnesota Cropcast. So the our guest today has been doctor Roger Becker, University of Minnesota Weed Scientist here in the Department of Agronomy. I'm Dave Nicolai with University of Minnesota Extension, a regional Extension Educator in field crops and my co host is Doctor.
Speaker 1:Seth Nave, University of Minnesota Extension Soybean Specialist. So thanks again for tuning in and we look forward to visiting with you next time at another, version of University of Minnesota Extension Cropcast.
