Podcasts about usda ars

Dr. Kevin McPhee is a pulse crop breeder at Montana State University. He's been there for just over eight years after building a similar program in pulse crop breeding at North Dakota State University. Prior to that, he was working on pulse crops with the USDA ARS based in Pullman, Washington. Together we discuss the pulse crop breeding program in Montana, including their goals for the program in pea, chickpea and lentils. He describes varieties they've released and what's in the pipeline that growers might want to know about for the future. “  What really separates the winter peas from the spring peas and gives them the advantage is when we have a dry year and there isn't the in-season moisture rains for the spring crop. With the winter peas already in the ground…they don't have to worry about planting them in the spring. That's one big advantage. And then they can take advantage of all of the winter moisture that's in the soil and any of the spring rains that occur. They flower a month ahead of the spring types. So they're well on their way before we get into the heat of the summer and the potential dry conditions, and that's where they shine.” - Dr. Kevin McPheeThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Kevin McPhee, a pulse crop breeder at Montana State UniversityDiscover new pulse crop varieties that are being introduced and the benefits they offer producersExplore major advantages offered by winter peas that may benefit producers looking to be more water efficientGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

In this episode, Dr. Tim Widmer, Plant Pathologist and former USDA ARS scientist and National Program Leader joins host Matt Kasson to discuss his 2025 APS Fellow Award, his career as a federal researcher focused on biological control and emerging pathogens, and his more recent role as USDA ARS program leader. He discusses the challenges that service-minded scientists face in today's changing political and funding landscape, while encouraging those that are able to pursue federal positions to do so help shape the future of agriculture and plant health. Show Notes Dr. Tim Widmer's USDA Under The Microscope Interview: https://www.ars.usda.gov/oc/utm/so-much-depends-upon-a-strong-green-bough-the-vital-importance-of-plant-health/ Dr. Tim Widmer's ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Timothy-L-Widmer-37720758 This episode is produced by Association Briefings (https://associationbriefings.com). Special Guest: Tim Widmer.

Show Highlights: Discover Damien Lepoutre's story of Geosys and AgTech evolution. [03:50] How early weather-data-sharing evolved from static maps to dynamic updates. [08:32] Challenges of providing unique value to the customers of a proprietary solution. [12:20] What made acquisition by Land O'Lakes a strategic fit as an exit strategy for Geosys? [20:37] Excess capital and overvaluation mistakes to avoid for post-acquisition investor confidence. [26:47] Why did Geosys prioritize people over government funding for R&D? [31:28] Explore Geosys' model of goal alignment in their NASA and USDA–ARS-funded R&D. [37:47] Damien Lepoutre's life after Geosys as a strategic consultant for deploying digital tech in ag. [41:01] To contact Damien Lepoutre, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/damien-lepoutre/, or email him at ASDICLLC@lepoutre.cloud. If you are interested in connecting with Joe, go to LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemosher/, or schedule a call at www.moshercg.com.

Podcast: Bites & Bytes PodcastEpisode: Tracy Brunet on the Realities of Modern Ranching: From Land to Legacy to TechPub date: 2025-04-23Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this compelling episode of the Bites and Bytes Podcast, host Kristin Demoranville sits down with Tracy Brunet, cattle rancher, Canadian Ag media powerhouse, and host of The Impact Farming Show. Broadcasting from her family farm in Southeastern Manitoba, Tracy opens up about the realities of modern agriculture, including land pressures, succession planning, tech adoption, and how family farms are quietly being squeezed out. Together, Kristin and Tracy examine how smart farming and digital innovation are reshaping the industry, for better or worse. They also unpack the rising threat of agroterrorism and cyber-physical attacks, as well as what happens when farm automation goes wrong. This isn't your typical farm chat; it's real talk about the challenges and resilience of today's producers. Whether you're in ag, food, or tech, this conversation is packed with insights on business, legacy, and safeguarding our food system. Tracy's passion for farming is contagious, and her straight-shooting perspective on the future of agriculture will leave you thinking long after the episode ends.

[RE-UPLOAD FROM DEC. 8, 2021]In this episode Zsofia talked with Dr. Inga Zasada, nematologist with the USDA-ARS based out of Corvallis, OR. We chatted about how Inga was inspired by her scientist parents and growing up in Alaska and Oregon to want to become a biologist. She also talked about her unusual path to nematology, including being a Peace Corps volunteer on the Maltese Islands for 2 years where she had to learn on the job. We chatted about her graduate education at North Carolina State University and UC Davis and then working for the USDA as a nematologist.Watch this episode on YouTube here!You can follow Bug Talk on Instagram and Twitter @bugtalkpodcast, and YouTube @bugtalk6645

In this special rerun episode of The Poultry Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, we revisit our conversation with Dr. Michael Rothrock Jr., from USDA-ARS, who discusses his work in pre-harvest food safety and its impact on poultry systems. He shares insights into microbial ecology, soy-free diets, and the critical role of the microbiome in food safety and bird health. Gain valuable knowledge on how feed composition and environmental factors influence poultry production. Listen now on all major platforms!"The whole picture starts with the ecology; it influences everything, even feed additive effectiveness."Meet the guest: Dr. Michael Rothrock Jr. is a USDA Research Microbiologist with over 19 years of experience. He specializes in molecular microbial ecology and food safety microbiology. With a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Arizona State University, Dr. Rothrock is on the Scientific Advisory Board for the OECD - Cooperative Research Program.What you'll learn:(00:00) Highlight(01:34) Introduction(02:44) Pre-harvest food safety explained(04:12) Insights on pastured systems(05:07) Diets and microbiomes(07:06) Feed ingredients and pathogens(10:24) Role of microbial ecology(14:04) Closing thoughtsThe Poultry Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast is trusted and supported by innovative companies like:* Kemin* Kerry- Poultry Science Association- Barentz- Zinpro- Anitox- BASF

In this episode of The Dairy Podcast Show, Dr. Lina Castano-Duque from USDA-ARS explores the critical role of predictive models in managing mycotoxin outbreaks in US corn. She discusses the key environmental factors, soil conditions, and insect pressure that drive fungal growth and toxin production, such as aflatoxins and fumonisins, which impact feed quality and herd health. Listen now on all major platforms!"Planting in highly acidic soil increases the probability of a mycotoxin outbreak."Meet the guest: Dr. Lina Castano-Duque is a plant pathologist at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) within the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). She serves as a permanent scientist at the Food and Feed Safety Research Unit, located at the Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans. She holds a Ph.D. in Botany and Plant Biology from Penn State University and specializes in predictive modeling, fungal interactions, and crop pathology.What you'll learn:(00:00) Highlight(01:28) Introduction(06:55) Mycotoxins & fungal growth(09:55) Fungal species(11:38) Mycotoxin outbreaks(14:28) Mycotoxin production(23:28) Risks of mycotoxins(26:28) Final three questionsThe Dairy Podcast Show is trusted and supported by innovative companies like: Volac* Priority IAC* Adisseo- AHV- Protekta- Natural Biologics- Berg + Schmidt- dsm-firmenich- AGRI-TRAC- SmaXtec- Scoular- ICC

What's going on with the recent funding cuts to barely & hops research, and how does that affect your brewery? Special Guests: Alicia Adler, Ashley McFarland, and Scott Dorsch.

Winegrowing regions in Washington State have many unique challenges from salty soils, to low organic matter, to nematodes. Devin Rippner, Research Viticulture Soil Scientist with USDA-ARS and his colleagues at Washington State University are developing a research vineyard to study soil health building practices. They are testing a variety of management strategies including adjusting irrigation volume to correct for salt build-up, mowing for weed management, compost applications and synthetic fertilizers, and different cover crops. The team is tracking the cost of each practice and will ultimately evaluate wine quality in the coming years. Taking a deeper dive into the future of soil sampling, Devin explains X-ray CT imagery. He has used this technology to evaluate the structure and organic matter from soil columns and aggregates. X-ray CT imagery has also been used to evaluate the impact grape seeds have on tannin flavor profiles. Resources:         80: (Rebroadcast) The Goldilocks Principle & Powdery Mildew Management 90: Nematode Management for Washington Grapes A workflow for segmenting soil and plant X-ray CT images with deep learning in Google's Colaboratory Devin Rippner, USDA ARS Functional Soil Health Healthy Soils Playlist Red Wine Fermentation Alters Grape Seed Morphology and Internal Porosity Soil Health in Washington Vineyards Vineyard soil texture and pH effects on Meloidogyne hapla and Mesocriconema xenoplax Washington Soil Health Initiative Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript [00:00:00] Beth Vukmanic: Wine growing regions in Washington State have many unique challenges from salty soils to low organic matter to nematodes. [00:00:13] Welcome to Sustainable Wine Growing with the Vineyard Team, where we bring you the latest in science and research for the wine industry. I'm Beth Vukmanic, Executive Director. [00:00:23] In today's podcast, Craig McMillan, Critical Resource Manager at Niner Wine Estates, with longtime SIP certified vineyard and the first ever SIP certified winery, speaks with Devin Rippner, Research Viticulture Soil Scientist with USDA ARS. [00:00:41] Devin and his colleagues at Washington State University are developing a research vineyard to study soil health building practices. [00:00:49] They are testing a variety of management strategies, including adjusting irrigation volume to correct for salt buildup, mowing for weed management, Compost applications and synthetic fertilizers and different cover crops. The team is tracking the cost of each practice and will ultimately evaluate wine quality in the coming years. [00:01:08] Taking a deeper dive into the future of soil sampling. Devin explains X ray CT imagery. He has used this technology to evaluate the structure in organic matter from soil columns and soil aggregates. X ray CT imagery has also been used to evaluate the impact that grape seeds have on tannin flavor profiles. [00:01:28] Now let's listen in. [00:01:29] Craig Macmillan: Our guest today is Devin Rippner. He is a research soil scientist with the USDA agricultural research service. He's based out of Prosser, Washington, and he's also an adjunct in the department of crop and soil sciences with Washington state university. [00:01:46] Devin, thanks for being here. [00:01:48] Devin Rippner: Absolutely. Pleasure to be here, Craig. [00:01:50] Craig Macmillan: You are on the leadership team of the Washington State Soil Health Initiative. I think it's a pretty cool little program. Tell us what it is and what it's all about. [00:01:59] Devin Rippner: Yeah, absolutely. So the Washington State Legislature allocated funding to study soil health and soil health building practices in a variety of agricultural systems and so to access that money a number of groups put in competitive proposals at the Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center, we put in a proposal to study soil health in wine grape systems. [00:02:24] Originally, we actually had it in juice grapes as well, but we were not able to get enough funding for both. Juice grapes are actually a big product out of Washington. [00:02:32] Craig Macmillan: I did not know that. That's interesting. What varieties? [00:02:34] Devin Rippner: Mostly Concord? [00:02:36] I'm less familiar with it. It's something I would, I would like to work in cause they have different constraints than wine grapes. [00:02:41] Ours is focused on wine grapes, but there are systems looking at tree fruit, at potatoes, at small crane cropping systems. There are a variety of systems that are being evaluated. [00:02:54] Craig Macmillan: I looked at a flyer that kind of outlined some of the ideas and issues around , the Wine Grape part. Can you tell us a little bit about that? [00:03:01] Devin Rippner: we have fairly unique soils. We have pretty alkaline soils here in Washington. We're on the arid side of the Cascades. So think Reno rather than like Seattle. we tend to accumulate salts. We also have very coarse textured soils. So a lot of sands to sandy loams or loamy sands. Very little clay. [00:03:23] We have typically under 10 percent clay in a lot of the grape growing regions of washington. we also have low organic matter, because it doesn't rain much here. There has never been a chance for a lot of plants to grow. And so we just have never really built up organic matter. So we typically have about, let's say, maybe 1 percent to 2 percent organic matter in our soils. [00:03:44] That's about half a percent carbon to 1 percent carbon, which is typically it's pretty low for a lot of soils. [00:03:50] Craig Macmillan: It is. [00:03:51] Devin Rippner: those are some of, some of the like unique challenges around soil health. There's also problems with pests. Haven't had too much of an issue with Phylloxera. That's changing. [00:04:01] There are a variety of nematode pests that cause problems in grapes here. When you plant a vineyard into an old vineyard, you're basically putting baby vines into a place that might have a bunch of pests that aren't a big deal for really mature vines. [00:04:14] But as soon as you put a baby in that environment, it does not thrive. [00:04:18] Finding ways to deal with nematode pests, things like that over time , is really important. So those are kind of the things that we are, we are looking at, at our site. [00:04:27] Craig Macmillan: What kind of practices are you investigating to address these things? I hadn't really thought of that about it till now, but nematode is a good one. that's a tough pest. [00:04:37] Devin Rippner: funny thing is this is a long term site, right? So, so our practices for those will really come later. I had a nematologist that worked for me. And she evaluated our soils for for the pathogenic nematodes for wine grapes, and we don't really have them but the thing is they build over time, right? [00:04:52] Just because there might be a few in that soil But when they start colonizing the grape roots over time, they can become problematic We functionally have a rootstock trial at the end of all of our experimental rows and, and rootstocks have been found to be very effective at preventing nematode problems or decreasing the severity of nematode problems. [00:05:13] We will be able to kind of look at that with our rootstock trial. [00:05:17] Craig Macmillan: Do you have any of the GRN stocks in that? [00:05:19] Devin Rippner: We don't, so we have own rooted vines and then we have Telekey 5c 1103p 110r. Let's see then I think St. George [00:05:30] I'm trying to remember what, what the last one is. It's escaping me right now. I apologize. [00:05:34] Craig Macmillan: Well, no, it's all right. Some of the more common root stocks, basically the ones that are very popular. [00:05:39] Devin Rippner: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [00:05:41] The reality is that a lot of the like vitis rupestris, vitis riparia, , they are less prone to nematode parasitism. Than Vinifera. , that's the reality of it. [00:05:50] Craig Macmillan: Yeah. Less susceptible. I think it's probably the best way to put it. Nothing's bulletproof when it comes to this, this problem. [00:05:57] Devin Rippner: And Michelle Moyer in Washington has been doing a lot of work with this, with Inga Zasada, who's a USDA scientist. And their, their results are really cool. They're finding that when you try to fumigate, it helps for a little while, but the rebound is bad, and it's just easier to just use rootstocks. [00:06:15] Craig Macmillan: Yeah. Talk to me a little bit more about, you said salinity can be an issue [00:06:19] Devin Rippner: Yeah, [00:06:20] Craig Macmillan: So here's the, the back and forth on that. You would think that a, a coser, your textured soil salinity would be less of an issue, but you don't get the rain to take advantage of that. Is that , the issue here? [00:06:30] Devin Rippner: 100%. That's exactly it. We build up layers called caliche layers, which are evidence of a lack of water moving downward. [00:06:38] So it's, it's really evidence of water moving down and then back up due to evaporation. We get big buildups of carbonates in our soils and carbonates are a type of salt. [00:06:48] So as you apply other chemicals, Salts, a salty irrigation water , we tend to build up salts in our soils. A lot of our irrigation water comes from the Yakima River or other rivers in the area, columbia River. But there are places where people are on deeper wells and they are seeing salt accumulation in their vineyards. [00:07:06] And it's, it's really challenging to deal with. [00:07:09] Craig Macmillan: Do you have any strategies that you're looking at? Anything you're trying out? [00:07:13] Devin Rippner: at our site over time, we're going to look at higher irrigation volumes versus lower irrigation volumes and seeing if that will change the accumulation of salt at our site. , that's kind of the main experiment around that with our soil health vineyard. [00:07:27] Craig Macmillan: Obviously you're doing this with some pretty salty irrigation water and you're comparing that to less salty water. At one site, you're only gonna have one type of water, right? [00:07:36] Devin Rippner: Right. That's not something that we'll be able to do, but one of the interesting things is we are applying compost and. Our compost can be pretty salty. [00:07:45] So we'll, we'll be getting compost. That'll be kind of four decisiemen per meter. I I'm sorry to use those units and so that, so that is salty. [00:07:54] Craig Macmillan: Yeah, it's salty. [00:07:55] Devin Rippner: Young grapevines, if they grew only in that, they would really struggle. It's over the, the two deciSiemen per meter kind of threshold for grapevines. That's something where we're, you know, we are using clean irrigation water, but some of our amendments coming in can be saltier. [00:08:10] When we have kind of a, a low and high irrigation treatment, we can evaluate the salt accumulation in the root zone. From that particular amendment, right? [00:08:19] Craig Macmillan: What about other types of fertilizer? Are there organic fertilizers or something like that that might be less of a salt contributor than let's say a traditional nitrate based fertilizer? [00:08:28] Devin Rippner: As it turns out, at least for us, we don't apply. a massive amount of nitrogen to our grapevines, so we're often applying between 20 and say 60 pounds of N per year which is not a lot compared to say corn or, tree fruit or, or hops or things like that. [00:08:45] And so we, we don't, Exactly. Expect to see a buildup of, of those salts over time. Honestly, some of the organic amendments end up being saltier than our fertilizer. [00:08:55] That's something when we do a high and low for irrigation, we will be able to look at the accumulation of, of nitrates and things like that. [00:09:02] Cause in our arid environment, you do get accumulations of nitrate, which is kind of funny. [00:09:06] Craig Macmillan: Yeah, that's interesting. You also mentioned the soil pH, alkalinity. What, what's going on there? How bad is it in different spots? What can you do about it? I, I'm fascinated by this because like when you look at viticulture, you have like a lot of knobs on the mixing board, right? You got a lot of sliders and, Soil , you can't slide it very well. It's like very hard to make changes to soil over time. [00:09:33] Devin Rippner: it is. [00:09:33] Craig Macmillan: very slow and very difficult. So I'm very interested in , this issue here. [00:09:39] Devin Rippner: It's funny at our site, the soil pH isn't too bad. It's about 8. Across the board, from the, from the top that so, so we've been measuring from the top of the soil down to about 90 centimeters. About three feet. We do see a pH tick up in our sub soil, but still it's, it's around the eights. [00:09:56] We actually have a lot of carbonates in our soil. There's only more organic carbon in the top six inches of our soil. And from that point on, most of our carbon is in the form of carbonates. [00:10:06] Which is kind of unique. And so once you get down to like 60 to 90 centimeters, so two to three feet in the soil, functionally, 90 percent of the soil carbon is carbon from carbonate. [00:10:16] So dealing with that in the region there's wide variation, so people that are planting into old wheat ground where they've used a lot of ammonium based fertilizers or urea, the pH can be in the fives. And then I, I mean, I've measured soil pH is up to about 9. 8 around here. So, so quite high. [00:10:35] Those soils are hard to deal with. So these are carbonate buffered systems. So to try to lower the pH, you basically have to get rid of all the carbonates. And that is not really feasible. We do see in some of the vineyards that we work in. And again, a lot of this data is preliminary. [00:10:51] I'm trying to get stuff out right now. Getting the vineyard set up has been a massive undertaking. And I've been lucky to work with a great team to, to get it done, but it has taken a lot of my time. [00:11:01] Um, but we, we do see seasonal fluctuations with irrigation. So soils might start off with a pH around eight drop over the course of the growing season into the sixes and then as they dry down for winter time. So we cut irrigation. The pH will start to rise back up as the carbonates move from the subsoil to the surface. [00:11:21] Craig Macmillan: Interesting. Interesting. Let's talk about your vineyard. If I understand correctly, you have a research vineyard there in Prosser that you are building from scratch or have built from scratch. Is that true? [00:11:30] Devin Rippner: Yes. . It is a new vineyard to study soil health building practices. We just finished our second season. And we were very lucky. Vina Matos which is a company out of Portugal. They mechanically planted it for us. [00:11:45] Scientist, so it's, it was, yeah, it was a bit of an undertaking. Even now I've gotten a lot better on a tractor than I was. And, you know, I like to run, like, I'd like to do x ray stuff. And then I'm out there on a tractor, like, yeah, doing stuff. It's a unique challenge. [00:11:59] So we do have a vineyard manager Dr. Liz Gillespie is the vineyard manager. , she honestly does most of the tracker work. I only sub in when she's down with an illness or something like that. [00:12:09] It's been a team effort for the last couple of years. [00:12:12] Craig Macmillan: What are you doing in there? You've talked about a couple of topics, but, and how big is this, this vineyard? [00:12:17] Devin Rippner: It's not that big. It's about 4. 1 acres. , [00:12:20] Craig Macmillan: that's, you know, for research, that's good. [00:12:22] Devin Rippner: yeah, yeah, it is good. We functionally have a business as usual. So we call it our Washington 2021 standard. So it's kind of what growers just do. So that's spraying undervined for weed control and then just let resident vegetation pop up where it may and mow it down. [00:12:39] Most people don't spray or till , their tractor rows. They just. Kind of let it go. We don't get that much rain. You end up selecting for annual grasses it's actually a pretty good weed composition for a tractor row. So then we start building from there. [00:12:52] One of our treatments is what if you just mowed everywhere, right? The goal is to select for annual grasses everywhere over time. [00:12:59] And then we have another treatment where we're mowing everywhere. But we're applying compost for fertilization. Our other treatments get synthetic fertilizers for fertilization, and then we have our compost treatment where we're mowing. [00:13:12] Then we have an undervined cover crop, so that's like our cover crop treatment. [00:13:16] We're curious about undervine legume cover crops. So we have a short subterranean clover that , we've seated in to hopefully eventually start adding nitrogen to the system and, and hopefully we'll be able to back off on more of the synthetic fertilizers over time in that system, but we'll let the vines guide us, right? [00:13:35] Craig Macmillan: What species of clover is that? [00:13:37] Devin Rippner: I'm not sure the exact, so it would be like Dalkey. [00:13:39] it's a clover that basically has low flowers and shoots seed downward. And so , that allows it to replant itself really effectively. [00:13:47] The flowers tend to be below the foliage. So we won't have to worry about mowing them down too badly. , they stay low. And so that's why we selected that. just to try to keep the flowers low and keep foliage away from our vines. [00:14:01] Craig Macmillan: Anything else? [00:14:03] Devin Rippner: Yeah, so then we have our aspirational treatment, which is kind of a mix of the subterranean clover cover crop. And then we have compost fertilization and then kind of breaking the full factorial. We're actually changing what's in , , the tractor row. We're planting an intermediate wheatgrass. [00:14:20] We started with crusted wheatgrass. It's so funny with these experiments. , we seeded in crusted wheatgrass a couple of times and just did not take it's not very effective for competing against other weeds, and it's not very good with traffic. And so now , we're seeding in intermediate wheatgrass. [00:14:35] , it is more traffic tolerant and is more weed tolerant. So we're hoping that we'll be able to outcompete all the other annual grasses and just have kind of a perennial grass cover crop. [00:14:46] Craig Macmillan: Is it on these courses? So is this camp is compaction less of a problem? I would think. [00:14:53] Devin Rippner: We do have some compaction. That we've seen out there. Certainly mechanical planting can cause some extra compaction. It, it takes a lot of force to, you know, rip a giant hole in the ground to drop the vines into. And so we do see some compaction from that. [00:15:06] We have taken bulk density cores from all over the vineyard. And we're hoping to see changes over time in that compaction. So we've done bulk density course from under vine and then in the tractor row. And so we're hoping that over time, these various practices will alter the bulk density, hopefully lower the bulk density in the tractor row. [00:15:27] Craig Macmillan: And then I'm assuming that you're also keeping track of costs for these things. [00:15:32] Devin Rippner: yes, we have been keeping track of costs. We are keeping track of the hourly labor , for mowing. Honestly, we've, we've purchased some undervine mowers and , we have really struggled to find a good solution for our young vines. [00:15:45] We're going to, Purchase another one soon. The biggest thing is that if you have a swing arm on it, it's got to be gentle enough that it, it'll push out of the way , with a bamboo stake in the ground. [00:15:55] And a lot of the existing swing arm mowers for orchards and vineyards it takes a lot of force to move that swing arm. [00:16:03] It's been a real challenge for us. So, so we ended up having people go out with weed eaters, which is super expensive and is actually something that some vineyards do either biodynamic vineyards in the area that they'll send people out with weed eaters to go control the weeds under vine. [00:16:17] I don't want this to be just like a hyper specialized science experiment. If we're sending people out with weed eaters, it sounds a little bit ridiculous, but there are folks in the industry that do it. So it's not. It's not that ridiculous. [00:16:28] Craig Macmillan: It's not that ridiculous. It's legitimate. [00:16:31] Whatever tool that you can make work, depending on the size of your vineyard and depending on what your conditions are. But yeah, you're in row mode. That's going to be an issue until these vines are mature to no doubt about that. I hope you still have a vineyard after knocking down these bamboo stakes. [00:16:44] You don't have like real results yet. You've only just gotten started. [00:16:47] Devin Rippner: We've only just gotten started you know, some of the results that we got were prior to our planting, there were no differences among our treatment blocks for our treatments across the site. So that's nice kind of starting at a, a pretty even baseline. [00:17:03] We're going to track the changes over time. Honestly. I hate to speculate, we don't have the data for it yet, but we've been applying, our synthetic fertilizers based on our like compost mineralization rate. And one of the things that's pretty obvious when you walk out there is that weed competition is brutal for young vines. [00:17:23] So where we're spraying with herbicide under the vines, there's less weed competition. Those vines are just bigger., [00:17:28] we're going to up the amount of fertilizer that we apply next year to try to, like, get around that. And it's one of the challenges at our site is that for long term research, we have to manage our vineyard in a way that kind of limits how many comparisons that we can make. Functionally, two out of our three rows are buffers. It just eats up an enormous amount of space and I'm, I'm hesitant to start putting other treatments into those areas. Like, oh, what if we vary the fertilizer rate to see what the effect is with relation to mowing, right? [00:18:01] So can we get over the weed pressure by, Applying more fertilizer. One of my main takeaways is that a lot of the recommendations that you might get for like, for conventional management won't necessarily work if you're trying to change your system [00:18:16] That's where, you know, growers are going to have to play around and understand that if they're mowing under vine, there is going to be more weed pressure and those weeds take up nitrogen. [00:18:27] You may have to fertilize more. I mean, that, that's just a consequence of, of weed competition. [00:18:32] Craig Macmillan: yeah, yeah, yeah. That's interesting. And in irrigation water too, [00:18:37] Devin Rippner: Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. They use a lot of water. There's no doubt about it. [00:18:42] Craig Macmillan: Which actually brings me back to the clover. I planted crimson clover in my yard once and I irrigated it and it was really pretty and I actually put two and a half foot, three foot high risers off of my lawn sprinklers to get a sprinkler high enough that I could keep growing it. And I was able to grow it up to about three feet tall and it was gorgeous. It was absolutely amazing. But it does make me wonder if, what's a subterranean clover? It's a low growing clover, but how much effect does irrigation have on it in terms of making it taller or taller? [00:19:13] Devin Rippner: That's a good question. I haven't looked into it that much. I consulted with some colleagues here. Who've done work with a variety of cover crops, and they were the ones that recommended the subterranean clover. It has a short stature and part of it is because of how it flowers and seeds, it can't get that tall because it's, it pushes its seeds into the ground. [00:19:32] And so there's no real benefit for it getting taller because then it will be farther away from where it needs to put its seeds. [00:19:39] That's a real concern. I mean, I've learned so much by , having a vineyard gophers, voles, rats, mice, they can be problematic. Right. And if you have a tall cover crop, that's getting into your vines, like that's an easy pathway up. [00:19:52] Keeping the, those undervine weeds and cover crops short is really important. [00:19:58] Craig Macmillan: Yeah. It's also really important for the success of your predators. [00:20:01] Your barn nows and whatnot. They can't really do much when things are tall. So keep going, keep good luck. You're in it. You're in it now, Devon, [00:20:09] Devin Rippner: Oh, yeah. No, that's what it feels like. I feel like I jumped into the deep end of a pool, but didn't realize it was so deep. And so, yeah, I'm learning. [00:20:17] Craig Macmillan: Because prior to a few years back, cause you were, you were at Davis and you were at the Oakville station. Is that right? For a little while. [00:20:24] Devin Rippner: I pulled some samples from Oakville, but no, I was mostly on main campus. I'm a soil chemist by training. Grapevines are relatively new for me. I worked for Andrew McElrone, who , does some great work a lot of my previous work did not involve grapes, and it was mainly, like, tomatoes or other annual crops, and often, like, pretty lab based stuff. [00:20:47] And so this has been a real deep dive for me to do something different. [00:20:53] Craig Macmillan: which is an excellent transition to some of your work which you did at other crops, but you also did some other interesting things related to vines and to soil. And that is x ray CT imagery. You were the first person to introduce me to this concept. I I had no idea I guess I should say X ray micro CT imagery. What, what are the exact terminology? What is it? What can it do? What can we learn? [00:21:20] Devin Rippner: Thanks for bringing this up. Let me just try to keep it simple and I'll build out from there. Just like a doctor's office where you can get an X ray you can actually X ray soils. And plants and look inside of them. X ray computed tomography is where instead of just taking one x ray, maybe you take 1000 x rays as the sample is slowly moving. And what you end up with is the ability to make a three D reconstruction of that sample. Where you're able to look inside of it. [00:21:50] Materials that absorb x rays look different than materials that don't absorb x rays. And so you're able to start Teasing apart structures that are inside of plants and soils [00:22:01] There's different levels to that. Humans have X ray computed tomography done on them, right? You can go in and have that procedure done to look inside of you. It's very much like an MRI there are some tools that it. look at very big volumes. And then there are some tools that look at very small volumes. [00:22:19] That's where there's the x ray microcomputed tomography is looking at very small volumes. And a lot of times those instruments they're low often located. With synchrotrons. So a synchrotron is a particle accelerator that moves electrons at about the speed of light. And then as they're going at the speed of light, , it bends them, it shifts the path of the electrons. [00:22:43] And in doing so , Theory of relativity says that when you have a big shift , in the direction of these electrons they must lose energy. And so they lose energy as the brightest light that we know of in the known universe. And so some of that light are x rays and those x rays are very tunable, and there's a lot of them. [00:23:03] And so we can basically focus on a really tiny area. And still have a lot of x rays. That lets us look at really small things and still have like good contrast and be able to image them relatively quickly. This field is advancing quickly. I know it sounds pretty crazy to talk about x raying soils and plants and things like that. [00:23:23] But the reality is these x rays can also be used to identify elements. And so you can do elemental speciation. So you can be like, Oh, all of the phosphorus there is as phosphate rather than some other form or it's calcium phosphate, not magnesium phosphate. That's called x ray adsorption, near edge structures. [00:23:42] That's how people do that. A long time ago, these instruments used to be unique. You do like a tomography and then you do like these Zains do elemental information, but those things are converging. Now it's possible to do like x ray CT and also do elemental analysis and speciation on the same sample. [00:24:01] in 100 years, that may be how we do our soil testing is you literally have one of these instruments on the back of a tractor. You pull a soil core. You do a quick scan and you say, here's our structure. We can also see the organic matter inside of the soil column. And then by inference from the outer edge of the soil column, we can get What elements are there and what form they're in and then make predictions on their availability. [00:24:27] Were very far from that, but that's like the vision that I have in my head is that at some point, , these will be sensors that people can just use in the field. Will they use an enormous amount of energy? Absolutely. Technology has, shifted in my lifetime and a lot of things that have seemed absurd in the past are now commonplace. [00:24:47] Craig Macmillan: What kinds of things, and it can be other crops as well, but in particular, there was one you did with, I think, grape seeds. Those are the things that can do what, what have you actually. Zapped [00:24:59] Devin Rippner: Yeah. [00:24:59] Craig Macmillan: a better word. [00:25:01] Devin Rippner: You know. [00:25:01] Craig Macmillan: mind here. Okay. So [00:25:03] Devin Rippner: Yeah. So I work with a lot of folks at different national labs. So the Pacific Northwest National Lab is a lab I work at a lot. And we've done a lot of imaging of soil cores and they're big soil cores. So three inches by 12 inch soil cores and to look at soil structure and we're working on segmenting out organic matter from them. [00:25:22] That's something that was not previously possible, but with modern neural networks and deep learning, we can actually train. Neural networks to identify specific compounds in the soil and identify them. We've done it with soil columns. I've done some work with soil aggregates. [00:25:38] So we can look at very small things as well. I've looked at grape seeds, so we had a little study where working with some folks at Davis they pulled out grape seeds, before, during and after fermentation, functionally, and we looked at how the structures of the seeds were changing. [00:25:58] The idea here is that grapeseeds provide a lot of tannins and they're not necessarily like the best tannins for wine, but they do provide a lot of tannins. [00:26:07] People have always wondered like, why do grapeseeds kind of supply a constant amount of tannins during the fermentation process? And as it turns out, it's because the structure of the seeds is changing during fermentation, [00:26:18] They start cracking. And so the internal structures become more accessible during fermentation. [00:26:23] And so that's what we were seeing using x ray tomography is these internal changes that were happening inside of the grape seeds that could potentially promote tannin extraction. [00:26:32] Craig Macmillan: That is fascinating. That explains a lot. I'm just thinking through, Tannin management. The date currently is in the beginning of November 2024. So we're just wrapping up a harvest here in the Paso Robles, central coast area. And so I've been thinking a lot about tannin management last couple of months on behalf of my friends who make wine, not myself. That's not entirely true. Is there a practical application to that in terms of like timing or conditions or things that would contribute to the, the cracking breakdown of these seeds that you identified? [00:27:05] Devin Rippner: We weren't able to go like that in depth and it's some, it's an area that I would like to build on. But the idea is that. The fermentation is a pretty harsh environment. You have a massive change in pH. Microbes are working hard. You have the production of ethanol, which allows the extraction of different compounds. [00:27:24] The seeds are seemingly being modified during fermentation. There needs to be more work done in this area in terms of seed tanning management. We now have kind of a, the more physical. Explanation for why those cannons are coming out of the seeds. [00:27:39] If you are able to pull your seeds earlier from fermentation, I mean, that's like a ridiculous thing to say, but you know, [00:27:45] Craig Macmillan: no, I mean, winemakers are very clever there's a lot of techniques that have become more prominent, I think, in the last 10, 15 years in terms of things like pressing off early, so getting your extraction fast and then finishing out the fermentation off of skins, off of seeds, you know, that's one way that you can do it really using seed maturity as a major variable in your pick decision is another one that I've seen people really draw to. [00:28:09] I remember people crunching on seeds and going, yeah, that's mature. Now I'm seeing people reject a pick date based on that. [00:28:17] Like we were going to wait for these seeds to mature fully before we pull because of, because of these issues with a seed tannin. So just knowing that I think is fascinating. [00:28:28] And if we can put some time and pH things on that, that would be really cool. Are you going to be using this technology with the with the research plot for anything? [00:28:36] Devin Rippner: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we [00:28:39] already have started that. We've already started down that route. Shortly after planting we collected soil cores from, , the vine row. And then from where the, the planter tires were functionally running just to look at changes in bulk density. So like kind of how compressed the soil is and then trying to get at changes in porosity. [00:28:58] We looked at these cores relative to , a field next door. That has had very relatively little disturbance in the past, like 4 to 10 years. It's kind of variable but has had less disturbance than say, like, right after planting a vineyard mechanically. Some of the things we see are you know, when you mechanically plant a vineyard, the bulk density , in the vine row is much lower than where the tractor tires are running that intrinsically makes sense. [00:29:26] And they're kind of both different than a place that's been no till or low disturbance for four to 10 years. Some of the things that are most interesting, and, and again, this is preliminary, it's got to go through peer review. . But when we look at the CT scans, you can actually see where worms have been moving, [00:29:45] In these, like, low till and no till plots or this field that has just not really been disturbed. [00:29:51] , so worms are actually making sizable holes in the ground, and those holes contribute to the porosity in these, like, low disturbance soils compared to these very disturbed soils. And that was a really interesting thing to visually see. You can see the worm castings in the scan. [00:30:10] I don't know if you've ever seen worm castings before, but they kind of, they're these little, like, kind of football shaped Things that are all clumped together our soils don't really aggregate. [00:30:20] We don't have enough organic matter and we don't have enough clay. And so that's like driving force behind aggregation in our soil seemingly is worm castings. For me, that was just mind blowing. [00:30:31] I was not expecting to see that. I think I was expecting to see a lot of roots or like root channels and they're there, but the worms are like following these roots and root channels around. [00:30:41] I'm a very visual person. And so when I do CT stuff, it's like, Oh, wow. Like I can see it with my eyes. If I can't see it with my eyes, it's hard for me to believe. But when I see it with my eyes, , it's believable. [00:30:52] Craig Macmillan: We've done a number of interviews recently around so the microbiome and just soil biology kind of in general, , is that gonna be part of your analysis as some of these projects go forward? [00:31:03] Devin Rippner: Yeah, absolutely. So we've done something called phospholipid fatty acid analysis. [00:31:09] So that gives us an idea of kind of, The microbial consortium that's there right when we sample phospholipids don't really stick around in soils. They're quickly degraded. We would like to do some sequencing challenges. We don't have a microbiologist on the team. And, and so we would, we would have to pay for the sequencing. [00:31:28] And even then sequencing is really interesting because, you could be like, oh, we did say 16 S-R-R-N-A sequencing. And that's like, that's a particular like region or a particular type of sequencing that is, that only picks up on say bacteria. [00:31:47] Whereas if you want to see fungi, maybe you need to do something called ITS sequencing. And so unless you do like all of the sequencing, you can get an idea of what's happening to the bacterial communities or the fungal communities. But unless you do all of them, it's really hard to get a more holistic picture. [00:32:05] And then, a lot of the sequencing that we do or is done we're missing things. If the regions analyzed aren't big enough, like we can be blind to specific things that we know are there. And so things like my understanding is that fungal mycorrhizae can actually be hard to detect by sequencing. [00:32:21] And so even if you visually see them in the roots by staining, you may not pick them up by sequencing. It is a challenge. Now, I, you know, I think that certainly studying the microbiome and understanding its relationship , with vine performance and soil health is, is crucial and is really, you know, one of the things that it's kind of the Holy grail [00:32:41] Craig Macmillan: Yeah. [00:32:43] Devin Rippner: We're trying to get there. [00:32:44] Craig Macmillan: We're trying to get there. That is definitely the message, but it also, there's definitely the potential. I think that there's a lot of people working on this. I think we're going to get there. It's, genomics is so big. I've talked to people that are like, at some point we, we, we will probably be able to get down to species, so we will know the bad actors from the good actors, we'll get a sense of what the real ecology is. [00:33:05] That's a decade plus away still, but we're going there. Right? We're we're gonna figure it out. We're gonna figure it out at some point. We're gonna get there. [00:33:14] Devin Rippner: Yeah, I agree. And there's, there are some techniques. There's some really cool techniques. So Jennifer Petridge at Lawrence Livermore lab does a lot Carbon 13 labeling of root exudates. So she basically gives plants, she treats them with carbon 13, enriched CO2. And then she looks at how much of the carbon 13 is then incorporated into the DNA of microbes to try to get at how well associated they are with plants. [00:33:41] I think that work is just incredible. And there's some folks at Davis that are, are working that in that area as well. That's kind of the stuff that gets me really excited to seeing when people are trying to really tie it into what's feeding on root carbon, , who's getting these exudates, things like that. [00:33:59] , that to me is one of the, One of the ways that we'll be able to, like, get at these questions is to, to start differentiating, the bulk soil microbiome from like the, the real rhizosphere associated microbiome. [00:34:11] Craig Macmillan: so you got a lot going on. You got , you got a bunch of different things happening. What's the path ahead look like for you? [00:34:17] Devin Rippner: Sure. So, and with with the soil health vineyard. I mean, I'm very excited to keep that going. We'll do another large sampling event in 2027 or 2028. We'll start making wine from our grapes. Not next year, but the year after that. So we'll be excited to see how our different management strategies influence our wine. [00:34:40] The wines that come out of the vineyard, or the wines made, made from the grapes that come out of the vineyard. So those are some of the things , I'm most excited about with regard to the vineyard. [00:34:50] Otherwise, I have a lot of data that I need to process and get out. That's something that's next. [00:34:56] I, I'm collaborating with some folks from the University of Illinois in Berkeley lab to look at changes to the Moro plots in Illinois over time. So that's the oldest agricultural experiment in the United States. The plots there have been in experimental treatments for 149 years. [00:35:15] And the reason I'm involved is because vineyards can be very long lived things, right? I mean, there are vines in California 100 years old. [00:35:23] This is one of the few experiments to me that's like comparable to what we see in vineyards. And so I'm really curious about, you know, how do, how do management practices influence soil structure, microbiome, the metagenome, the metabolome, things like that, on these century long timelines. [00:35:43] That to me is like some of the really interesting questions. If you have a vineyard for, for a century, or if you want a vineyard for a century, what do you need to do? How do you make that work? Knowing that it's going to take 20 years to have your vineyard be profitable. [00:35:57] I mean, you're already on a different timescale than annual crops, right? yeah. And so it's just like, how, how do we make our, our vineyards as sustainable and long lived as possible? Because , that, that initial investment is huge. It is so much money. [00:36:13] Craig Macmillan: I think that's really great. I think coming up with findings on other crops, but with practices that could be transferable is really great. You know, we don't need to be in our little grape silo. All the time. And in fact some of the soil microbiome stuff have been with interviews with people that had no connection to vineyards whatsoever. And it was great. The things that they were learning, they were absolutely transferable to this crop as well. That hasn't gotten that kind of attention. Grapevines are tough little suckers, really from an evolutionary standpoint, they're pretty rugged and so we can kind of get away with a lot just because of that. [00:36:48] And now I think the margin for error is less and less, especially when we get into tougher and tougher sites like you're talking about and different conditions, especially if you've farmed it for a while and things have changed. Being able to look at other, other systems and see what's there. [00:37:03] What is one thing that you would tell growers around this topic of research? [00:37:09] Devin Rippner: vineyard is very informed by grower practices. We have a grower board that like helps us make decisions. A message that I will say is like science is science and science is often pretty, you know, Like straight laced and rigid because it must be. know, We're going to find things and those results hopefully will be interesting. [00:37:27] But it's not the be all and end all . of science and research. Growers continuing to try innovative things push the boundaries of what they think is possible is really how we get progress. And I am hopeful , once this vineyard is more established to start going back out and working with growers. [00:37:48] When I first started in Prosser, I sampled from probably 40 different vineyards around the state just to get an idea of what the soil properties were like. And we've done some, some experiments with that. Some of our results are that permanganate oxidize oxidizable carbon. So this POC C classically it's been called active carbon. [00:38:08] There's some new research that suggests that it's, that's maybe a misnomer and it's really, often plant derived carbon. [00:38:15] It seems like there are some effects from that, that suppress disease. And I think that , that's an area where growers can really kind of play around and see if there's , waste from their vineyard and applying it to their vines trying to look at what that does to their, POC C values and also try, just getting in trying to look at some of the past issues that those vines may have and see if there's any decreases. [00:38:41] A lot of observational science is really important. I like hearing from growers that, yeah, I did this thing and it looks like it made a difference. There's a lot of value in that and, and I don't discount like grower knowledge in any way, shape, or form. Like it is deep knowledge growers know things that I don't, and I find that out all the time. [00:39:02] I value those observations. They they give me guidance on how I want to do my work. And we do try to incorporate that stuff into the soil health vineyard. Over time we are going to have to figure out like, You know, can we sustain funding for a vineyard for, say, 50 years if all we're doing is like a cover crop, some compost, and then a mix? [00:39:23] That seems like it's maybe not the most sustainable thing. Science requires that type of stuff, but it's just not that sustainable. So finding ways to make use of our, border rows and stuff like that is going to be important. And a lot of the research that we do is going to be informed by grower observations. [00:39:39] Craig Macmillan: Yep. Yep. Exactly. Where can people find out more about you and your work? [00:39:44] Devin Rippner: Sure. So you can look me up online. Devin Rippner a lot of stuff will pop up. There's a USDA website that has a listing of my publications and things like that. I also have a personal website. So those are some places to, to check out my work. [00:40:00] I try to make sure that my stuff is open access and usable. So, like the deep learning code, the image segmentation code that I co developed for X ray ct work is now being applied to like other types of imaging on. So people are using it at hops and a variety of other things on. [00:40:18] So that code is online. Like you can find it it's associated with my papers. You can play around with it and try it with your own stuff. Mhm. And, and, and that's a big thing for me is like open data. I, I love sharing a lot of the, the data that I have and the code that I have so that people can, repeat what I did. [00:40:35] Look me up online and yeah, you'll be, you can find that, find those resources. [00:40:40] Craig Macmillan: we will have links to a lot of that on the show page. So please visit the show page and check this stuff out. I was really happy to hear you use the word repeatability. [00:40:49] Devin Rippner: Yeah, [00:40:50] Craig Macmillan: Yeah. And I also was really, it's hard. it's very, very hard and it's often overlooked. You know, the, , the scientific methods we know today was all built around the idea of repeatability. That's how you demonstrate whether something's real, real, or if it's only real under certain conditions, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that's really great. I'm glad you're doing that. [00:41:08] Well, I want to thank you for being on the podcast. This is a Devin Rippner. He is a research soil scientist with USDA agricultural research service and an adjunct position with the crop and soil science department at Washington state university. Really fun conversation, Devin, lots to think about. I will be following this closely. Or annually, probably [00:41:31] Devin Rippner: Cool. [00:41:31] Yeah. [00:41:32] Craig Macmillan: these things are slow. I'm not going to be checking every week. But I just think it's really cool project and is real inspiration. And I would love to see the same kind of thing replicated in other places. [00:41:41] Devin Rippner: Great. Thanks Craig. That was really fun. [00:41:43] Beth Vukmanic: Thank you for listening. [00:41:49] If you enjoyed this podcast, Vineyard Team has a couple of in field tailgate meetings coming up this year that you won't want to miss. [00:41:56] The first is on February 20th in Paso Robles, and it is a dry farming grower around table. Now you don't need to be a dry farmer to enjoy this event. There'll be a number of different growers here talking about their experiences, trials, challenges, and successes. [00:42:13] The second event is on March 12th, and it is Grazing as a Sustainable Practice for Vineyards, taking place in Los Olivos, and we hope to have some adorable sheep on site. [00:42:24] Make sure you check out the show notes for links to Dev lots of research articles, plus, sustainable wine growing podcast episodes, 80. The Goldilocks principle and powdery mildew management, 90 nematode management for Washington grapes, plus a whole healthy soils playlist. [00:42:42] Now for the fine print, the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the USDA ARS. As such, the views, thoughts, and opinions. Presented by the speaker do not constitute an official endorsement or approval by the United States Department of Agriculture or the Agricultural Research Service of any product or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. [00:43:14] If you liked this show, do us a big favor by sharing it with a friend, subscribing, and leaving us a review. You can find all of the podcasts at vineyardteam.org/podcast. And you can reach us at podcast@vineyardteam. org. [00:43:28] Until next time, this is Sustainable Wine Growing with the Vineyard Team.   Nearly perfect transcription by Descript

In this episode, Dr. Lisa Castlebury, Research Mycologist and Leader of the Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory with the USDA ARS and Director of the U.S. National Fungus Collections, joins host Matt Kasson to discuss her long career with the U.S.D.A. A.R.S. and her lab's role in identifying foreign and domestic plant pathogenic fungi and managing over a million accessions housed in the U.S. National Fungus Collections. She also reflects on her early experiences growing up in Illinois and being part of some of the earliest fungal DNA-based studies in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Show notes USDA ARS Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory official website: https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-area/beltsville-md-barc/beltsville-agricultural-research-center/mycology-and-nematology-genetic-diversity-and-biology-laboratory/ USDA ARS Employee Profile: Lisa Castlebury : USDA ARS (https://www.ars.usda.gov/people-locations/address/?person-id=10294) Dr. Lisa Castlebury's Google Scholar profile: ‪Lisa A. Castlebury - ‪Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iGCZIKsAAAAJ) This episode is produced by Association Briefings (https://associationbriefings.com). Special Guest: Lisa Castlebury.

In this episode of Two Bees in a Podcast, released on December 17, 2024, Dr. Jamie Ellis and Amy Vu welcome Dr. Gabriela Quinlan—a Research Ecologist with the USDA ARS who is currently based in North Carolina—to talk about winter bees. This episode concludes with a Q&A segment. Check out our website: www.ufhoneybee.com, for additional resources from today's episode. 

In this episode of Two Bees in a Podcast, released on December 3, 2024, Dr. Jamie Ellis and Amy Vu welcome Dr. Mohamed Alburaki—a research entomologist at the Bee Research Laboratory with the USDA ARS in Beltsville, Maryland—to talk about his publishing(s) on the status report of honey bee diseases in the United States from 2015-2022. This episode concludes with a Q&A segment. Check out our website: www.ufhoneybee.com, for additional resources from today's episode. 

As I did in my spoken intro to this episode, I want to begin this blogspot with a clarification. The interviews that have made the two parts and episodes with Dr. Lengnick were done in early June. You may know that beginning September 24 the rain from Hurricane Helene began to come through the area where I live, which is in Black Mountain, North Carolina, just east of Asheville, North Carolina. The primary impact of that event occurred on the night of September 26-27. It was devastating and in many places it was catastrophic. I posted Part 1 on September 24, the day the rain began. It is just now that I am able to post Part 2. My original intention was to post this episode a week after posting Part 1. Because both of these interviews on Resilient Agriculture directly speak to the issues that bear on the impact of Hurricane Helene, Dr. Lengnick wanted to make sure that you, my listeners, understood that these interview were made 3 months prior to the impact of the hurricane and not as a response to it. However, some reflection in light of the ideas and principles of Resilient Agriculture upon the event of Hurricane Helene needs be provided. Dr. Lengnick has graciously agree, when the time is more appropriate, to return for a third interview, especially to speak about her understanding of the idea of bouncing forward rather than bouncing back. We will look forward to that interview. In this episode, Laura talks about her experiences in having be active in promoting Resilient Agriculture for a while now, she speaks about the importance of stories to the promotion of Resilient Agriculture and tells us some stories, and she provides a very helpful list of things we non-agricultural folks can do to participate with and in Resilient Agriculture. Dr. Lengnick is the author of Resilient Agriculture: Expanded and Updated Second Edition: Cultivating Foods Systems for a Changing Climate. This book will be the basis for these interviews. Laura is the founder and principal of Cultivating Resilience which works with organizations of all kinds to integrate resilience thinking into assessment, operations and strategic planning. Trained as a soil scientist, Laura has 30 years of experience as a researcher, policymaker, educator, activist, and farmer. She has broad federal policy expertise gained through work as a U.S. Senate staffer, a USDA-ARS researcher, and a lobbyist advocating for sustainable agriculture in the U.S. Congress and was a lead author of the 2013 United States Department of Agriculture's report, Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation. You can learn more about Cultivating Resilience and Laura here: cultivatingresilience.com The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.

“Invasive sorghum aphid: A decade of research on deciphering plant resistance mechanisms and novel approaches in breeding for sorghum resistance to aphids” with Drs. Somashekhar Punnuri, Karen Harris-Shultz, Joseph Knoll, and Xinzhi Ni. Sorghum is an important crop in the United States, grown for grain, forage and bioenergy purposes. However, its production is facing several challenges due to abiotic and biotic factors, with aphids emerging as a significant pest in last decade. Once considered a minor pest, sorghum aphids have become a major threat to sorghum cultivation due to susceptible varieties and insufficient pest management strategies. In this episode, Dr. Somashekhar Punnuri, an associate professor from Fort Valley State University; Drs. Karen Harris-Shultz and Joesph Knoll, research geneticists with USDA ARS; and Dr. Xinzhi Ni, a research entomologist from USDA ARS, share their insights on current research efforts and new methods to combat sorghum aphids. Tune in to learn more about: ·         What characteristics sorghum aphids have ·         How sorghum aphids reproduce ·         What resistance mechanisms sorghum has ·         What the current efforts are in breeding aphid resistant sorghum varieties ·         What the challenges are in aphid management in sorghum If you would like more information about this topic, this episode's paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.21301 This paper is always freely available. Contact us at podcast@sciencesocieties.org or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this, don't forget to subscribe. If you'd like to see old episodes or sign up for our newsletter, you can do so here: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/. If you would like to reach out to Som, you can contact him here: Punnuris@fvsu.edu https://ag.fvsu.edu/members/profile/view/63 If you would like to reach out to Karen, you can contact her here: karen.harris@usda.gov https://www.ars.usda.gov/people-locations/person?person-id=43959 If you would like to reach out to Joe, you can contact him here: joe.knoll@usda.govhttps://www.ars.usda.gov/people-locations/person?person-id=48564 If you would like to reach out to Xinzhi, you can contact him here: xinzhi.ni@usda.gov https://www.ars.usda.gov/people-locations/person?person-id=35259 If you would like to reach out to Sarah Chu from our Student Spotlight, you can find her here: sarah.chu@tamu.edu X: https://x.com/weedysarahchu Resources CEU Quiz: https://web.sciencesocieties.org/Learning-Center/Courses/Course-Detail?productid=%7bDF51FF70-9397-EF11-8A6A-000D3A350361%7d  Transcripts: Coming soon Sorghum Checkoff: https://www.sorghumcheckoff.com/our-farmers/insects-weeds-diseases/insect-control/sugarcane-aphid/ “Biological and genetic features of introduced aphid populations in agroecosystems” published in Current Opinion in Insect Science: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2018.01.004   Sorghum aphid reporting tool: https://www.myfields.info/ Thank you to our volunteer Om Prakash Ghimire for regular help with the shownotes and other assets. Thank you to Cole Shalk from 12twelve Media for the Audio Processing on today's episode. Field, Lab, Earth is Copyrighted by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

USDA-ARS cropping system agronomist Dr. Garett Heineck shares the results of a peaola (peas and canola) and garbola (chickpeas and canola) intercropping project on the Palouse. Resources: Cook Agronomy Farm LTAR: cafltar.org USDA-ARS Northwest Sustainable Agroecosystems Research Unit: ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/northwest-sustainable-agroecosystems-research/ Wilke Research and Extension Farm: extension.wsu.edu/lincoln-adams/agriculture-2-farm-stress-suicide-prevention/wilke-research-and-extension-farm/ Contact information: Dr. Garett Heineck, cafltar.org/about/people/, garett.heineck@usda.gov Episode transcription: smallgrains.wsu.edu/wbp194

In this episode and the next I interview Dr. Laura Lengnick about resilient agriculture. Resilient agriculture is a step beyond sustainable agriculture and is being developed as a correction to industrial agriculture and in response to climate change. Dr. Lengnick is the author of Resilient Agriculture: Expanded and Updated Second Edition: Cultivating Foods Systems for a Changing Climate. This book will be the basis for these interviews. Laura is the founder and principal of Cultivating Resilience which works with organizations of all kinds to integrate resilience thinking into assessment, operations and strategic planning. Trained as a soil scientist, Laura has 30 years of experience as a researcher, policymaker, educator, activist, and farmer. She has broad federal policy expertise gained through work as a U.S. Senate staffer, a USDA-ARS researcher, and a lobbyist advocating for sustainable agriculture in the U.S. Congress and was a lead author of the 2013 United States Department of Agriculture's report, Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation. You can learn more about Cultivating Resilience and Laura here: cultivatingresilience.com  

Brendan A. Niemira, Ph.D. is a research microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA's ARS) in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, and a graduate of the University of Chicago and Michigan State University. His research develops and validates cold plasma, pulsed light, radiofrequency energy, and other nonthermal food processing technologies. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed research articles, book chapters, and critical reviews, is the co-editor and author of a well-regarded reference text, and holds one patent. Dr. Niemira is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and a past member of the IFT Board of Directors. He currently serves on the Educational Advisory Board for the Food Safety Summit. A member of IFT, the International Association for Food Protection, and the American Society for Microbiology for more than 20 years, he also serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Food Protection and Applied and Environmental Microbiology. He received the 2016 U.S. Department of Defense Award for Excellence and the 2020 Federal Laboratory Consortium Technology Transfer Innovation Award. In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak with Brendan [22:52] about: The definition of cold plasma technology and how it can be used in the food industry to improve microbial safety The strengths and weaknesses of different forms of cold plasma Types of food for which cold plasma can be used to successfully decontaminate, and why it works best for certain food types Comparisons between cold plasma technology and other thermal and nonthermal decontamination techniques Why cold plasma technology has not yet been scaled up for widespread industry use, and for what applications commercialization could be achieved Factors that affect the energy costs of different cold plasma generation methods The possibility of adapting cold plasma technology to inactivate viruses in foodservice environments Human occupational health and safety considerations in the generation of cold plasma Takeaways from a workshop and session on root cause analysis that took place at the 2023 and 2024 Food Safety Summits, respectively Other research areas Dr. Niemira is working on at USDA-ARS to advance food safety. News and Resources NewsDraft EU Act Would Require WGS Analysis for Foodborne Illness Investigations [5:45]Study Finds GRAS Carcinogenicity Data are Adequate, but Could Use a Standardized Approach [8:57]USDA-FSIS to Begin Routine Monitoring for HPAI in Dairy Cows Under National Residue Program [15:00]Researchers Offer New Tool to Identify Top Microbial Threats to Infant Foods [18:28] ResourcesSUBSCRIBE to Food Safety Magazine and/or FSM eDigestFood Safety Magazine Webinars Sponsored by: CINTAS We Want to Hear from You! Please send us your questions and suggestions to podcast@food-safety.com

In this episode, Jeff and Becky welcome Dr. Jay Evans from the USDA-ARS Beltsville Bee Lab. Jay shares his vast experience and insights into honeybee research, focusing on the critical issues affecting beekeepers today. From his beginnings studying ants to his current role in bee research, Jay offers a fascinating perspective on the complexities of bee health and the collaborative efforts needed to tackle these challenges. Jay discusses the importance of viewing the colony as a whole system, emphasizing the impact of viruses, mites, and environmental stressors on bee health. He highlights the current research on how bees behave when they're sick, and how understanding these behaviors can help in managing colonies more effectively. The conversation also touches on the significance of climate and weather changes, particularly how warmer late falls can negatively impact bee health by extending their active season. Listeners will learn about the ongoing efforts to find new treatments for Varroa mites, with Jay detailing the promising research into new chemicals that could provide beekeepers with more effective options. He also talks about the importance of collaboration in research, with different experts bringing their unique skills to tackle various aspects of bee health. This episode is a treasure trove of information for beekeepers of all levels, offering practical advice and updates on the latest research in the field. Tune in to hear from one of the leading voices in bee research and gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and solutions in modern beekeeping. Listen today! Websites we recommend! USDA-ARS Beltsville Bee Research Lab: https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-area/beltsville-md-barc/beltsville-agricultural-research-center/bee-research-laboratory/ Beltsville Bee Disease Diagnostic Service: https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-area/beltsville-md-barc/beltsville-agricultural-research-center/bee-research-laboratory/docs/bee-disease-diagnosis-service/ Honey Bee Health Coalition: https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org The National Honey Board: https://honey.com Honey Bee Obscura Podcast: https://honeybeeobscura.com 2 Million Blossoms - The Podcast: https://2millionblossoms.com   ______________ Betterbee is the presenting sponsor of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global offers a variety of standard and custom patties. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode!  Thanks to Bee Smart Designs as a sponsor of this podcast! Bee Smart Designs is the creator of innovative, modular and interchangeable hive systems made in the USA using recycled and American sourced materials. Bee Smart Designs - Simply better beekeeping for the modern beekeeper. HiveAlive offers a unique supplement with seaweed extracts, thyme, and lemongrass, proven to maintain low disease levels, increase bee populations, boost honey production, improve bee gut health, and enhance overwinter survival.  Check out their new HiveAlive EZ Feed Super Syrup this fall! Visit www.usa.hivealivebees.com and use code "BTP" for a special discount. Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their support. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com Thank you for listening!  Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Faraday by BeGun; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; A Fresh New Start by Pete Morse; Wedding Day by Boomer; Christmas Avenue by Immersive Music; Red Jack Blues by Daniel Hart; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott. Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC Copyright © 2024 by Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode of Two Bees in a Podcast, released on July 16, 2024, Dr. Jamie Ellis and Amy Vu welcome Dr. Pierre Lau—a research entomologist/ecologist at the Pollinator Health in Southern Crop Ecosystems Research Unit which is part of the USDA ARS—to talk about the research paper, “The nutritional landscape in agroecosystems: a review on how resources and management practices can shape pollinator health in agricultural environments.” This episode concludes with a Q&A segment. Check out our website: ufhoneybee.com, for additional resources from today's episode. 

Hello there!In this episode of The Poultry Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Dr. Michael Rothrock Jr., a USDA research microbiologist, continues his discussion on poultry food safety, focusing on environmental stressors and the importance of early gut microbiome establishment. Dr. Rothrock explores how feed additives and antimicrobials impact poultry health and highlights the role of AI and machine learning in advancing research. Don't miss this insightful episode packed with valuable knowledge for poultry professionals."Different feed components are meant to support the host or modulate the gut microbiome. Early intervention is crucial." - Dr. Michael Rothrock Jr.Meet the guest: Dr. Michael Rothrock Jr. is a research microbiologist at USDA-ARS in Athens, Georgia, specializing in microbial ecology and food safety microbiology. With extensive experience in pre-harvest poultry food safety, Dr. Rothrock focuses on understanding pathogen prevalence and the impact of feed components on poultry health.What you'll learn:(00:00) Highlight(00:00) Introduction(01:43) Feed Components and Gut Microbiome(02:34) Monitoring Feed and Pathogens(06:42) AI and Machine Learning in Poultry Research(08:01) Importance of Extensive Data(08:34) ConclusionThe Poultry Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast is trusted and supported by innovative companies like:* Cargill* Kerry- Anitox- Kemin- BASF

This episode introduces Dr. Olivia Landau, a new research weed scientist with the USDA-ARS Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research in Pullman, Washington. Resources: USDA-ARS Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research: ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/whgq/ Pacific Northwest Herbicide Resistance Initiative: pnwhri.org Contact information: Dr. Olivia Landau, olivia.landau@usda.gov, 509-335-6264 Episode transcription: smallgrains.wsu.edu/wbp186

Hello there!In this episode of The Poultry Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Dr. Michael Rothrock Jr., a USDA research microbiologist, discusses pre-harvest poultry food safety. Dr. Rothrock explores the impact of feed components like soy and corn on pathogen prevalence and highlights the importance of establishing a healthy gut microbiome in poultry. Tune in to gain valuable insights into improving food safety in poultry production."Predictive modeling reveals a higher probability of salmonella in chickens fed corn during the brood stage." - Dr. Michael Rothrock Jr.Meet the guest: Dr. Michael Rothrock Jr. is a research microbiologist at USDA-ARS in Athens, Georgia, specializing in microbial ecology and food safety microbiology. With extensive experience in pre-harvest poultry food safety, Dr. Rothrock focuses on understanding pathogen prevalence and the impact of feed components on poultry health.What you'll learn:(00:00) Highlight(01:25) Introduction(02:51) Microbial Ecology in Food Safety(03:31) Pastured Poultry Research(04:35) Soy-free Diets and Pathogen Prevalence(06:03) Impact of Corn in Feed(09:27) Importance of Microbiome Modulation(13:56) ConclusionThe Poultry Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast is trusted and supported by innovative companies like:* Cargill* Kerry- BASF- Anitox- Kemin

The goal of the NASA Acres Consortium is to bridge the gap between space and farms to create sustainable food systems now and in the future. Yu Jiang, Assistant Professor of Systems Engineering and Data Analytics, School of Integrative Plant Science Horticulture Section Cornell AgriTech explains how this group of researchers is using land-based robots to ground truth data from satellites and aerial imaging to create predictive models. The project aims to bring cost effective solutions for disease management, breeding, pruning, and more to farmers of all sizes.  Resources:         117: Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light 129: The Efficient Vineyard Project 191: CropManage: Improving the Precision of Water and Fertilizer Inputs 199: NASA Satellites Detect Grapevine Diseases from Space Convolutional Neural Networks for Image-Based High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping: A Review Deep Semantic Segmentation for the Quantification of Grape Foliar Diseases in the Vineyard Deep Learning-based Autonomous Downy Mildew Detection and Severity Estimations in Vineyards NASA Acres - applying satellite data solutions to the most pressing challenges facing U.S. agriculture Yu Jiang Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  Our guest today is Yu Jiang. He is an assistant professor of systems engineering and data analytics in the School of integrative plant science horticulture section at Cornell agritech. Thank you for being on the podcast   Yu Jiang  0:12  Thanks Craig for having me for these podcasts.   Craig Macmillan  0:15  I found out about you, because you're connected to the NASA acres Consortium, which is doing a bunch of really cool stuff for all kinds of crops around the world and winegrapes turning out to be part of it. What is what is NASA acres,   Yu Jiang  0:28  So I got to adopt the some of the official description about a NASA acre so our audience can better understand what's our mission and what's our approach. So NASA acres consortium is commissioned under NASA Applied Sciences program, and brings the value of Earth observation technology down to earth. NASA acres consortium established the march 2023 And then led by Dr. Alissa Witcraft from the University of Maryland. NASA acres is NASA's second consortium devoted to strengthening food security and agriculture, followed by the success of NASA harvest, a global focus a consortium but this time, NASA Acers specifically emphasizes on the US own agriculture land in NASA acres, we bridge the gap from space to farm and adaptation to impact to gather with US farmers, ranchers, and other agri food system decision makers who are charged with addressing the most pressing challenges to sustainable, productive, resilient agriculture now and in the future. to ensure our missions, NASA acres utilize a consortium structure to bring together a geographically, semantically and personally diverse group of agriculture actors, and partners from both public and private sectors collaborated within a model that matches ivory cultures own highly dynamic and diverse needs, and flexible partnerships and rapid actions on tools in NASA acres that will help ensure that a satellite based Earth Observations applications are user driven and free for all the preppers we envision .   Craig Macmillan  2:25  a huge mission. There's a bunch of different technologies that are involved here. And you're involved in a bunch of them. One that I'm particularly curious about was we had a guest on the podcast from Cornell Katie Gold, she was working with hyperspectral imaging and the detection of plant stress, but as a plant disease. And that's the that's the sky. Right? That's the information coming from satellites or whatever. You are the boots on the ground person. Is that right?   Yu Jiang  2:49  Yes, correct. I'm on the ground, I'm doing the groundwork.   Craig Macmillan  2:53  All right, we're literally grounding. So as far as that project goes, I understand that you're using robots and with sensors and artificial intelligence and whatnot to detect and predict disease spread. You tell me more about that.   Yu Jiang  3:09  For my account of a personal program, and the involvement of with NASA acres, you know, project, we bring in new, especially ground robots, we use various internet of of things, sensing network technologies, that we can offer the information as the ground truth matterments that many of these you know satellite or Earth observation data streams can use to try and various models for prediction, or estimation of various things of interest. And disease is definitely one of the biggest things for the ineyard management's currently adding in the future.   Craig Macmillan  3:50  Absolutely. If I understand what this work is on the ground as its ground truthing what the hyperspectral imaging is telling us is that right?   Yu Jiang  4:00  Roughly yes, if you can see there, all the current paradigm of doing remote sensing work. Most of the time, people are really focusing on the modeling, or how we can find the best and model to link or connect the hyperspectral signals collect data from, you know, satellite based or airborne based imagery systems, we use the ground truth data collected by a human on the ground. And these have been proven very successful in the past to produce various models that we are using right now including weather forecast, but with the very rapid and unprecedented climate challenges, and also the induced disease pressures. We are kind of lagging behind with the speed or pace we need to develop new models to tackle these problems. And that's a reason we want the robot to do so so that we can catch up with the disease. This can Have a fashion or progression speed, but also offer new tools for our viewers to use for their management decision making.   Craig Macmillan  5:08  So tell me about the robots, what are the robots doing?   Yu Jiang  5:12  So we developed a customized robot called the phytopathobot short for PPP. So basically phytopathology there's, my colleague, Katie Gold right is a scientist, that who really work on plant disease, and the bot is just the short name for the robots. And we put these two together, and basically just shows we integrated the kind of advantages offered robotic or automation systems with the new AI capability. So this robots can really bring the human experience and intelligence to all the fields that can do for example, if you see scouting recommendation, or some other, you know, checking functions that otherwise currently we have no human resources to do so for every single farm at the present time.   Craig Macmillan  6:06  Right? Is it fair to say that the training part would be described as artificial intelligence? Or should we call it neural network hearing? Or what would be the appropriate technical term for that part of it? Because I have a question about that.   Yu Jiang  6:17  Yeah, I think, broadly speaking, is a part of the artificial intelligence.   Craig Macmillan  6:23  Okay.   Yu Jiang  6:23  And that is more off the AI application for agriculture.   Craig Macmillan  6:28  What's happening is there's cameras then or there's some kind of a, either hyperspectral, or there's something that's getting information that's mounted on the robot, right?   Yu Jiang  6:40  Yes, correct. Our robot is currently equipped in ways both RGB multispectral thermal and the hyperspectral sensors, which many more on the road.   Craig Macmillan  6:52  And then you get readings. And then you know, human, I would assume says yes, this is disease, or yes, this is not. And then over many, many iterations, then the artificial intelligence learns what that is. And then it can be autonomous, you can send it out and it'll find it on its own, identify it on its own.   Yu Jiang  7:14  Yes, so I would see the autonomy is achieved at two levels. First is all the AI system for disease identification and quantification. We have a twin various models, with the expertise from our like, it's 30 plus year career technicians. And now we just a brand Hey, spray into the AI system that we can rely on to detect the disease in the field, specifically for a grape downey and powdery mildews at the moment. But at the same time, we also train the AI systems to guide the robots, autonomously navigating in the vineyard. is much more like the similar technology Tesla or other you know, EV car manufacturers are using for autonomous driving, but now just say, equipped those technologies with this ag robot that can do with autonomous navigation in vanguard in alternative in many of the different fields for agriculture purposes.   Craig Macmillan  8:14  the future of this technology, or the robots gonna continue to be a part of it, or are we going to be at a point where we're relying solely upon the aerial or orbit based imagery?   Yu Jiang  8:26  That's a great question. And I actually want to set up some of the context. information for our audience,   Craig Macmillan  8:33  please.   Yu Jiang  8:33  So yeah, the robots we kind of referred to here, actually those intelligent, you know, agent that can perform certain tasks in your backyard, or do the actual right to do all these operations, like a spring harvesting, you know, picking samples, all these, then when we consider how are we going to strategically and effectively deploy those robots? That's a big question is not a trivial because each robot at the current, you know, time would cost roughly 50,000 to $60,000. I think for many of the large farms, or wineries, the company will be able to afford that. For many of the small to medium sized farms, these can be a barrier for them to adopt the latest digital technology, which I hate, you know, that part as technologist. So one of the possibility is actually linked to the NASA acres project and the mission is a how we can use all sorts of information that can be affordably available to the growers to really use that for decision making. And a while of the concept we propose here is to make a closed loop joint training system that can connect the proximal sensing from the robots and other drone systems, we use the Earth observation data offered by federal agencies such as NASA, so that later all the growers can really enjoy, you know, using a very low cost or affordable platform offered from NASA or NASA acres consortia to make decisions on their individual farms. But largely training, the costs of a training such a model is taking over by large growers, largely, you know, stakeholders and some sort of a, you know, public and research institute that can balance the way or how the disadvantages you know, community can't adopt the latest technology.   Craig Macmillan  10:44  That is fascinating. You mentioned tasks, what kind of tasks are you talking about?   Yu Jiang  10:49  The current account of the PPP robots can do two tasks. First thing is for disease recognition, and the qualification, as I mentioned, for downey, and powerdy, and then now PPP can also generate a map right after the scanning off your vineyard, where those disease really severely infected your plants right now. And we working in progress try to use these PPP derive the map to correlate with the satellite maps or hyperspectral imaging so we can get so we can find which hyperspectral signals gone and correlated with diseases infection on the ground. And this is especially important for crops like grapes because of manual for the disease, or occurred from the bottom of the canopy, or the side of the canopy, where many off of the you know, satellite or Earth observation systems may not easily see at the beginning. But those signals will be embedded in the hyperspectral signatures.   Craig Macmillan  11:55  Got it. Okay. So I could get a map that would allow me to spray pesticide a fungicide very, very targeted way is kind of where we're going with this.   Yu Jiang  12:06  Yes, correct. I'm actually gonna just share some other ongoing effort here. Also, while also my colleague Dr. Devika Daughtrey from plants, Plant Pathology at Cornell agri tech, who identified the use of the UV, as treatment, powdery mildew or Downy Mildew for our grapes. And our account of ongoing efforts is to synchronize that map generated by PPP and the transfer to the UV robots. So now UV robots are gonna rely on that map to apply the UV treatment to balance the power usage and the hopefully to also maximize the contents of the disease spreading in the vineyard.   Craig Macmillan  12:52  That's really exciting. I understand the USDA also has some some role in this technology or related technologies.   Yu Jiang  12:59  Yeah, you ask the actually is a big partner of the whole team, especially for the grape genetics research unit, here in Geneva, New York. And we have a very multidisciplinary team, I will see I can see is from like a plant breeding to genetic to plant pathology now, including myself from engineering and robotics. And we also have about informatics, and we some colleagues from other universities on economy and marketing. So the whole team's efforts is back to a systems engineering approach, I would say. So when we look at the whole production, right, it's not just that, yeah, we have this robot that can do proceed and spray or deliver the UV treatment can solve all these questions. It's just hard to imagine that simple. So then we when we look at the whole agriculture production system, we started with the best plant material. And if we started with the building a candidate or a successful candidate data, usually just to make the rest of the whole production management much easier than ever before.   Craig Macmillan  14:14  Yeah, absolutely.   Yu Jiang  14:15  That's where, you know, all the scientists on the team really excited about how we can breed a new plant materials that have more like a natural resistance to plant the disease or maybe other stresses so that later on the in season management, it can be much more easily, you know, controlled or conducted by the growers. That Castile enable sustainable, you know, agriculture while maximizing the profitability for many of the growers in the future.   Craig Macmillan  14:45  I understand that one of the projects you've worked on had to do with phenotyping. So if I'm reading plants, there's a particular trait that I want and there's a particular expression of that trait that I want, whether it's disease tolerance or drought tolerance or salt tolerance. answer whatever it is, but that aspect of plant breeding is very difficult and takes a long time traditionally, and takes a high level of expertise. What is this idea of high throughput? phenotyping? What's that all about?   Yu Jiang  15:13  If you can have a think about the whole history of plant breeding, all the way you treat the back to mon Tao, we are human phenotyping is the best way, we just go to the field, plant and various plant materials, and just watch their performance in the field and find the best suitable for us. Right? So so then we recognize the traditional breeding, it becomes a numbers game, the more we test, the higher the possibility, we're going to find something, going t obe suitable for us, right? So we say it's a matter of who can email you this account of a traditional breeding way that requires the highest throughput phenotyping. Because the more you testing in the field, the higher the possibility we got to get something successful, and how to evaluate in the field is the biggest question right now. And that's where the high throughput plant phenotyping plays a vital role to address that bottleneck. So instead of for a breeder, to raw, only, you know, hundreds of 1000, you know, testing materials, the now can run, you know, 10,000, or even 100,000 in a year. That's how we hope to speed up the entire breeding cycles.   Craig Macmillan  16:25  So tell me the details of the tech of the details of the so I get some, I breed some plants, I've got some seeds, I'm gonna plant some seeds, right, I've got genetic recombination, now we gotta cross. How does this technology actually play a role? I put a bunch of plants in front of it, or how does it work?   Yu Jiang  16:46  Yep, so So in my understanding, there are actually two different paths ways to use that. One is along the traditional ways, as we just described, basically, we just find the best performancer from the field, right, and the system would just behave like a human in the field, we just find the tallest one, then we just a mirror the height of the plants in the field using the AI system with the robot, or if we want find more disease resistance is more like a what the PPB is helping right now, go to the field check a differente. And though gene all types off with a group of eyes, and then we find the least the infection as the candidate for the next one, right, this is a more like a traditional way. But now the second pathway is even more exciting is through the genetic studies. So once we kind of forget these phenotypes, especially there are differences, we have many different ways now can sequence them to understand their DNA markers and sequences, so that we will be able to work with the bell informaticians, to find which genes are associated with the phenotypic trees have a desire. Okay, so certain genes in my show, okay, the high disease resistance always associated with certain region in your DNA, and that's very likely being the gene or the region really control the resistance right to that particular disease. And if we ran multiple of these experiment, we get more and more as a candidate of Regents, and lead her on instead of keep running the field of trials, which still consume a lot of resources and the timing, because you need to wait until the plants are mature, and, you know, go through the entire season, we can now rely on those genetic, you know, information to identify the next around of a candidate, if the content of those gene regions is very likely, they're gonna have some, you know, resistance to certain disease. And that's another whole pathway, in my opinion, to facilitate the cultivar development in the future.   Craig Macmillan  18:58  And what is the role of AI in that?   Yu Jiang  19:00  So AI, please several rules there. So first, is to help the phenotyping itself, right. So basically, in the past, we sent a large group of it, you know, people go to the field and check the planet, hide diseases, infection, fruit size, you name it. And now we can just use, you know, robots to take images or even our cell phone to take an image. And then the AI will just mimic a human behavior to identify Oh, where the plant is, how tall the plant is, what's the number of leaves within that image or a number of a fruit fruit the size, a little versus, you know, trees and AI definitely now, at least, that being comparable with human performance for many of these tasks. And the other way is actually, to use AI as another tool to make a better prediction of relationship between the phenotypic trees and their genetic variants, right as we discuss for the second impassively is basically made to find that the association between genetic and phenotypic variants, and the AI also now plays a vital role to help us to find those relationships. It goes beyond traditional statistics human developed, and the find many interesting and hidden relationships that are currently statistic based approach cannot find.   Craig Macmillan  20:24  Wow, that's amazing. There's a couple of other things that that I that I was researching you that I noticed that were very, very, like practical right now, today, please, can I have some kind of technologies. One is improving the efficiency of pruning grapevines? And then I think I read this right, using facial recognition, AI technology to recognize powdery mildew infections. I would love to know about those two things, because those are two things that I would if I had it, I would use it today.   Yu Jiang  20:51  For sure. Let's start with the disease part. Yeah, cuz that's just allow what we just discussed why we developed that tool is basically a request actually, from my colleagues from the breeding and genetics slide. Okay. So in the past, my colleague, Dr. Lance Candle-Davison, at the USDA ARS develop a protocol that can use a one centimeter leaf disk as an assay to evaluate the disease progression, on the group leaf tissues, and then later on that can help him as a pathogen geneticists, to find the genes related to the disease resistance to powdery and downy mildews. But the challenge is, in the past, we have to train a bunch of, you know, technicians and the postdocs, even some of the other grad and graduate students at Cornell, to sit in front of a optical microscope and put the sample on our eight turn to like a tax 100x. And then manually identify how the pathogen really grew in the past a couple of days during the experiment, right, and then counted the number of a hyphal, which is a particular organ of the pathogen being grown, right. And then at the end of the day, they turn all these numbers back, and they will be able to run some quantitative genetic analysis, try to find the relationship. And I tried to once to be honest.   Craig Macmillan  22:27  Okay, yeah, I spent a lot of I spent a lot hours with a dissecting scope. So I hear you Isn't that fun?   Yu Jiang  22:34  Well, I want to see, for the first a couple of new samples. Yeah, it's it's a new experience for anyone, right? And if it's like, oh, yeah, I get that. After trial, you know, 10 samples. I'm done today. I don't want to see the front end of the microscope that day. And don't ask me to do this again. Right. It's quite tedious. And as a person, you'll feel fatigued very quickly. Yep. Very quickly, because you need to, to be super concentrated on what are you observing right now? And then also make the columns in your brain? I don't know how I did that. But I did. But after 10 samples, no, no more?   Craig Macmillan  23:16  Yeah. Yeah.   Yu Jiang  23:17  So that's the motivation for us to consider how the AI system can really help us, right? Because basically, what do we want the AI to do is giving you know, an image? Can you tell me? Which part content of the hypho And then tell me how I mean, how many of these hyphos are within that image? That's all right. So it's very much like the facial recognition technology we're using every single day. So our smartphone or maybe other security checking, you know, systems, right? And that just to give us motivation, hey, why not? Let me just build the robot and some of the AI tools that we can automate this whole process. So later on, instead of asking our students to do that very tedious work of observing the dissecting microscope, we will be able to allow them to do more intelligent work, how to find or improve the approval from the genetics, the perspective or the breeding perspective, rather than letting them doing this repeated and boring work. And that's the whole motivation here. And that's a reason why we can't have a proposed out method and that really got some success and to speed up that process. And now, just want to share with you in the past the year 2023 Last group, by using this technology was able to find a 60 more quantitative trait, a low sigh, which you can see there are data that gene regions related to certain, you know, phenotypic traits. And here in this study, that's more for the powdery mildew resistance. just named as single year, his team found 60 More as compare with, we fund probably 40 In the past four decades.   Craig Macmillan  25:08  Wow, wow, that's fantastic. There's so much here. There's so much stuff going on in it, as I have guests on that are working in these areas. It's just is it every day, I'm just learning so much new stuff, but I can't let you go without talking about pruning. I just, I just have to know about that I've I pruned a lot of grape vines personally, and I've trained people and you know, and there's, there's this, well, I'll just break it down for you. Pruning grape vines is an art form. And I don't care what kind of Trellis I don't care what kind of grape, whatever it is. And even if you're mechanized, that you gotta tune this thing up, and you got to collect data, and you got to figure out how this is gonna work. And when you have vines that are being pruned, you're trained, every single time somebody that I've been working with, usually above me was like, do these people really know what they're doing? Because they can't screw it up. Right? So now, is this going to help me? I mean, this is do you have technology? That's gonna help me you? I mean, I need this help.   Yu Jiang  26:02  Yes. Also, simple answer is A Yes, yes. And yes. So we are developing actually, the technology for the broader pruning a system for both apples and grapes as perennial crops, because they do need this type of technology to help based on my personal experience in the past three years, with both the pruning for apples and pruning for grapes, I share your burden Craig, it's not only you, but as an observer, and both the person who did the pruning, okay, using the knives, I have a strong feeling, I don't know what I'm doing.   Craig Macmillan  26:44  Right?   Yu Jiang  26:44  Right, I have a lot of criteria being you know, taught, say you need to find a branch that thick or that long, then you need to cut to certain lengths or just a cut them entirely, so that you can have new shoots coming with more healthy groups and the more productive grooves in the year. But to be honest, and once you get into the field, maybe perhaps the first several you keep that in mind. And then otherwise, oh, yeah, I just feel like these two needs to be cut. Don't ask me why I just feel that way. Right. And this is a kind of shows the non uniformity among the workforce. If I'm a beginner, I have less experience, I gotta be low in my working efficiency, I am going to create more problems, and rather than more success pruning, for the management, and obviously, the more counter for trend and people needs to be you know, pay them more because they have those experiences. So that all comes through the labor shortage issue, then it's just really hard to find those skilled people. So in my group, we kind of develop we are developing new 3d imaging technologies. Oh, wow. Yeah, that can get the very high fidelity of the 3d models of your grape vines and the apple trees in the field. And then once we get to some models, we can extract the skeleton is much more like how human described that, oh, yeah, that's my skin, and then I have to shoes and how they grow. And then we just be able to do that in a granular detail with all the needed information, like what's the diameter, or what's the length for each of these branch. And then due to all we can, based on our predefined the pruning criteria, to decide where are the cutting points, so that either a person or maybe a machine, or maybe a robot in the future, can go to the field directly cut based on the information we already get. Yeah, and the good thing is now with this whole kind of a new approach, instead of based on our existing you know, criteria, we can also form all different sets of criteria to really prune it in whatever way we want because that's a digital system. It won't hurt anything rather than using some of the power from you right? And then we can count off a get a difference you though proven the vineyard to take a look which we better serve our purpose. And we are also working with some offer collaborators try to incorporate to the growth models for grape vine. Try to see with different pruning strategy how the group vine or apple trees gonna grow during the growing season. And how I mean for me differently you know, branch structures and maybe different fruits load and the distribution with a hope you know, if we know this information beforehand, we can let the universe to determine what might be the best strategy we want to do as the you Though time progress to the green season, so do you have much more information in advance? Rather than Oh, yeah, I got it just to do the pruning. But that's the best I can do.   Craig Macmillan  27:15  Right? Right, right. So it sounds like that could be kind of an iterative process, you have a robot go through, and you get your 3d model, and you bring it back. And then you develop an algorithm essentially, that says, Keep this, don't keep this keep this, don't keep this, cut it here, cut it there, then you could execute that. Exactly, basically, to the vine.   Yu Jiang  30:29  Yes. Correct.   Craig Macmillan  30:30  And then you could have it grow. And then you can come back the following year, and say, Okay, well, what happened? And you could refine that model over time.   Yu Jiang  30:39  Yes, correct. That that's exactly the concept called a digital twin. Wow. Yeah, we see is a product actually from NASA, used to use that for you know, making the Mars rovers or the moon rovers, because they need to simulate so many different things before they put the actual manufacturing, right. But now we want to adopt these concepts for agriculture, before we do any of the decision making on pruning or harvesting. We want to see how they progress in the digital world, because it just takes us so minimal cost, and then we can have better understanding which way might be the best, we want to move forward.   Craig Macmillan  31:20  Wow, that's really exciting stuff. This technology is probably still in its infancy, I would guess.   Yu Jiang  31:27  Yes. Correct. I mean, although now we have more and more 3d imaging technologies and even more like a loose AI driven approaches. But it still is early stage, we are having some challenges from the field. So that's a reason we are, working hard to make progress. And I hope to share more things, you know, in the coming years with the audience here and hopefully demonstrated to the grape industry someday.   Craig Macmillan  31:53  Yeah, absolutely. Keep going. We're out of time. But I want to what is it one thing you would recommend to grape growers around this kind of topic, these topics, I guess I should say,   Yu Jiang  32:05  Can I share two actually?   Craig Macmillan  32:07  Please yeah, to is great.   Yu Jiang  32:09  Why I really want to share with with all the growers as we are at the point where many of these digital technologies are being more and more available and affordable. So please keep your eyes and the for example, at Cornell, my extension program focuses on the digital agriculture trials for adoption short for data aims to fill in the gap between you know, the growers and the startup companies who deliver those new da tools for production management, and also tried to offer more knowledge base to our growers, they can learn and better use these tools by themselves. So this is very important, as many of these tools go and just a calming and you don't want to miss the opportunity offer using the best of the tool to shop yourself and make better management. The second thing I also really want to share with our audience here is pleased to share all these exciting lands from digital agriculture to our case, to younger generations who are working in your, you know, vineyard or winery. I'm a strong believer the best investment is always you know, for the future generations. If they got excited if the et buy in all these ideas and put more efforts to start, you know, learn and develop new technologies back to agriculture and the food sectors. I believe we're gonna have a sustainable and resilient agriculture in the future for sure.   Craig Macmillan  33:39  That is fantastic. Where can people find out more about you.   Yu Jiang  33:42  you can check on my labs website is a se a i r dot c a l s dot cornell.edu. I will provide you the link so that you can share with the audience.   Craig Macmillan  33:58  Fantastic. So our guest today with Yun Jiang. He's a system professor of systems engineering and data analytics in the School of integrative plant science the whole crypto section of Cornell agritech thank you so much for being on the podcast. This was really fun.   Yu Jiang  34:13  Thanks so much Craig for having me today and as my priority to share our ongoing efforts and research with the broader audience here for grapes. Thanks, everyone.   Transcribed by https://otter.ai Nearly perfect transcription by https://otter.ai

In this episode Ed talks with Dr. Mathew Helm of the USDA-ARS. The discuss Matt's work on P. maydis, looking at what makes the pathogen tick and how it gets past the corn plant's defenses. Additional Resources https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PHYTO-01-24-0037-R https://helm63.wixsite.com/website?_ga=2.171662944.1793805240.1715352898-2008700694.1713370106   How to cite the podcast: Zaworski, E. (Host) and Helm, M. (Interviewee). S3:E26 (Podcast). Castle Defense: A Deeper Understanding of Tar spot of Corn Part 2. 6/13/24. In I See Dead Plants. Crop Protection Network.

Title: (S3:E25) Castle Defense: A Deeper Understanding of Tar spot of Corn Part 1 In this episode Ed talks with Dr. Mathew Helm of the USDA-ARS. The discuss Matt's work on P. maydis, looking at what makes the pathogen tick and how it gets past the corn plant's defenses. Additional Resources https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PHYTO-01-24-0037-R https://helm63.wixsite.com/website?_ga=2.171662944.1793805240.1715352898-2008700694.1713370106   How to cite the podcast: Zaworski, E. (Host) and Helm, M. (Interviewee). S3:E25 (Podcast). Castle Defense: A Deeper Understanding of Tar spot of Corn Part 1. 6/13/24. In I See Dead Plants. Crop Protection Network.

In this episode Ed speaks with Dr. Tim Widmer of the USDA-ARS. They discuss overseas biological testing labs (OBCLs) and how they are working to keep damage from invasive pests to a minimum. Additional Resources https://www.ars.usda.gov/office-of-international-research-engagement-and-cooperation/overseas-biological-control-obcl-highlights/ How to cite the podcast: Zaworski, E. (Host) and Widmer, T.(Interviewee). S2:E24 (Podcast). Nature's Defenders Against Invasive Nightmares: Overseas Biological Testing Facilities. 6/5/24. In I See Dead Plants. Crop Protection Network.

USDA-ARS' Dr. Claire Phillips discusses soil carbon sequestration at the Cook Agronomy Farm. Resources: USDA-ARS Northwest Sustainable Agroecosystems Research Unit: ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/northwest-sustainable-agroecosystems-research/ USDA Northwest Climate Hub: climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/northwest Cook Agronomy Farm LTAR: cafltar.org Agoro Carbon Alliance: agorocarbonalliance.com PNW Crop Tour schedule: smallgrains.wsu.edu/events/ Contact information: Dr. Claire Phillips, ars.usda.gov/people-locations/person/?person-id=57463 claire.phillips@usda.gov Episode transcription: smallgrains.wsu.edu/wbp182

In this episode Ed talks with Dr Eric Johnson of the USDA ARS. They discuss the work Eric has been involved with trying to identify possible biocontrol agents for controlling corn tar spot. Additional Resources https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/11/6/1550 https://www.ars.usda.gov/oc/ars-wired/ How to cite the podcast: Zaworski, E. (Host) and Johnson, E. (Interviewee). S3:E18 (Podcast). Controlling The Diabolical With A Biological: Potential Corn Tar Spot Biocontrols. 4/24/24. In I See Dead Plants. Crop Protection Network.

This week, we share an episode that was TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING (if you count continually rescheduling episode recording sessions due to various conflicts and then forgetting about it for a year as making an episode). Phoebe interviews Amisha Poret-Peterson with the USDA-ARS on the basics of soil microbiology. We discuss the complexity and role of the soil microbiome, bulk soil vs the rhizosphere, and more! Listen to hear some very amazing things.Come to an upcoming extension meeting!Sacramento Valley San Joaquin Valley (scroll to the bottom) Mention of an agrichemical does not constitute a recommendation, merely the sharing of research findings. Always follow the label. The label is law. Find out more at ipm.ucanr.edu.The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of California. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. The "University of California" name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.Follow us on Twitter! @SacOrchards and @SJVtandvThank you to the Almond, Pistachio, Prune, and Walnut Boards of California for their kind donations. Thank you to Muriel Gordon for the music.

USDA-ARS' Dr. Garett Heineck joins the Wheat Beat Podcast to share the results of alternative crop trials in wheat-based agroecosystems. Resources: USDA-ARS Northwest Sustainable Agroecosystems Research Unit: ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/northwest-sustainable-agroecosystems-research/ PNW Herbicide Resistance Initiative: pnwhri.org The Land Institute: landinstitute.org Kernza®: kernza.org Contact information: Dr. Garett Heineck, garett.heineck@usda.gov, 608-397-9207 Episode transcription: smallgrains.wsu.edu/wbp180

USDA-ARS' Dr. Ryan Benke joins the Wheat Beat podcast to explain how artificial intelligence and machine learning are being used to predict crop performance. Resources: USDA-ARS Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research Unit: ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/whgq/ Deep Learning with R: manning.com/books/deep-learning-with-r-second-edition WSU Variety Testing Data: smallgrains.wsu.edu/variety/2023-variety-data/ Episode transcription: smallgrains.wsu.edu/wbp179

In the latest episode of The Dairy Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, we host Dr. Todd Callaway, a seasoned researcher in gut microbiology from the University of Georgia. We approach the intricacies of probiotics, prebiotics, and other gut health modifiers, with a focus on their implications for dairy cows. Drawing on a comprehensive review soon to be published in the Journal of Dairy Science, this conversation shows crucial insights into feed additives' roles in enhancing daily cattle performance and welfare. This episode is full of knowledge for anyone engaged in dairy nutrition, offering cutting-edge perspectives on gut health management. Tune in on major platforms to explore how these insights can transform dairy herd health.“A probiotic is a live organism, whether it's a bacterium, the yeast, or a fungus; then the prebiotic is a fermentable substrate.” - Dr. Todd CallawayMeet the guest: Dr. Todd Callaway is an Associate Professor at the University of Georgia's College of Agriculture with an extensive background in microbiology and animal science. Holding a Ph.D. from Cornell University, his career spans over two decades, including a significant tenure as a Research Microbiologist at USDA-ARS. At Georgia, he's evolved from Assistant to Associate Professor, focusing on agricultural and environmental sciences since August 2020. Hear his insights on probiotics and dairy cow health in the episode on all major platforms.(00:00) Highlight(00:38) Intro to gut microbiology(01:24) Probiotics, prebiotics, eubiotics(02:37) Feed additives role(04:06) Symbiotic relationships explained(05:48) Postbiotics impact(08:07) Symbiotic effects, microbial interactions(08:39) Probiotics feeding strategy(09:43) Closing thoughtsThe Dairy Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast is trusted and supported by the innovative company:* Adisseo

Intelligent or sensor-controlled sprayers have the potential to improve pesticides application efficiency, reduce labor, and lessen waste. Brent Warneke, Senior Faculty Research Assistant in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University is testing LiDAR sensors that can sense a plant and adjust the amount of spray based on the coverage area needed. Brent also addresses the best time to use biologicals based on disease pressure, the benefits of drones in farming, and simple ways to improve spray efficiency with an air blast sprayer. Resources:         REGISTER: April 12, 2024 | Tailgate | Fungicide Spraying: Reduce Your Carbon Footprint & Financial Burden 2: The Goldilocks Principle & Powdery Mildew Management 79: Grapevine Fungal Diseases 117: Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light Airblast 101 Brent Warneke Google Scholar Brent Warneke LinkedIn How to Do Regular Maintenance on Air Blast Sprayers to Ensure Proper Care for Specialty Crops Oregon State Fruit and Ornamental Disease Management Testing Program Oregon State University Nackley Lab Pesticide Redistribution and Its Implications on Pesticide Efficacy Sensor Sprayers for Specialty Crop Production Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  Our guest today is Brent Warneke. He is senior faculty research assistant in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. And today we're going to talk about some really cool stuff and agricultural technology. Thanks for being on the podcast, Brent.   Brent Warneke  0:11  Hey, thanks for having me.   Craig Macmillan  0:12  I saw you speak at the 2023 Sustainable Ag Expo in San Luis Obispo. And I was very inspired by your talk, I thought things that you were doing were really interesting. And I thought your message is really, really great, what kinds of things you've been working on.   Brent Warneke  0:25  I've been in this position at Oregon State University for the last five years. And we really started with investigating this sprayer, which we'll get into called the intelligent sprayer, and how it has potential to increase efficiency in terms of pesticide applications, from everything from labor to spray volume to pesticide quantity, and waste. And that's something that we've covered and in a lot of different ways that we'll go into here.   Craig Macmillan  0:55  And so, you know, obviously, this is a viticulture oriented show, but you've done this in other crops as well.   Brent Warneke  1:01  Yes. So I work with specialty crops in general, the kind of main categories that I focus on are wine, grapes, blueberries and nursery crops.   Craig Macmillan  1:11  Cool. What is an intelligent sprayer? Let's start there. What is it? What's it composed of? How does it work? What are the benefits?   Brent Warneke  1:19  Yeah, so the intelligent sprayer is one of a group of sprayers that I termed sensor controlled sprayers. These are sprayers that have sensors mounted on the sprayer, and they're able to sense objects in our in our case plants, and adjust the amount of spray they're applying based on those, what they're seeing. And the intelligent sprayer is is a kind of more advanced sprayer that uses a LIDAR sensor, which is a laser sensor, that's able to scan the plant canopy with millimeter resolution, and adjust is it spray very finely based on the canopy density that it detects.   Craig Macmillan  1:59  Tell me more about the sensing aspect of it. So LiDAR, if I remember correctly, it's the same concept as radar. Only light is the key, the laser, the laser goes out and bounces back. Is that right?   Brent Warneke  2:12  Yep, so a lot of these sensors use what's called time of flight. So they'll emit a beam of light. So in the case of a LiDAR sensor, it's a laser beam. And then it detects the amount of time it takes for that beam to hit off of the object and come back to the sensor. And what's cool about this LiDAR sensor is it scans a 270 degree field of view, it's able to scan basically almost through, you know, fully around the sensor itself. And out up to about 100 feet is the maximum that it can see. But you're able to set the various widths and areas that you want the sensor to focus on, for doing your precision spraying.   Craig Macmillan  2:55  Is that 270 degrees? Is that vertical or horizontal? I mean, is it scanning up to capture canopy? Or is it going side to side to make a map, how's it work?   Brent Warneke  3:02  if 270 degrees would be kind of three quarters of a circle, and the blind spot of the sensor would be kind of pointed at the ground. So if you can picture an arc going kind of from each side of the sprayer up and around, so it can see vertically above and also horizontally out up to about 100 feet from the sensor.   Craig Macmillan  3:25  It's reading a plane?   Brent Warneke  3:26  Yes it is.   Craig Macmillan  3:27  And then it's telling the computer, there's something there, there's something not there. And then the computer adjusts how much spray or is not coming out of the nozzle then?   Brent Warneke  3:35  Correct. So this sensor itself is a two dimensional sensor. So it scans that plane, That's 270 degrees field of view. But then as the sprayer moves through the field, it kind of creates that, that third dimension, and it's able to construct 3d representations of the canopy. And then that's what it uses to adjust the spray volume in real time.   Craig Macmillan  3:59  How is that controlled, there must be some valves and involved in the third thing.   Brent Warneke  4:03  Yeah, kind of where the the eyes meet the the actual controllers of the system are individual solenoid valves at each nozzle. And you can actually set the field of view or the area that each of those nozzles will focus on. You can actually tell each nozzles to only focus on a certain width of the canopy that has some a lot of different capabilities even besides what I just mentioned, there's other settings that you can use to make sure that you're kind of only targeting what you want to target.   Craig Macmillan  4:38  Oh, okay, so does that mean that as I go along, it'll say okay, there's something above but there's nothing below so I'm gonna open the valves above not open the valves below. Or the opposite say, hey, there's less above than there is below. I'm gonna change my rate based on that so it can do it both directions and everything as you're going along.   Brent Warneke  4:55  Yeah, exactly. A common thing is there's weeds that are below or the vines and we don't want to spray those, they're not relevant to us. So we can tell the sprayer to not regard anything that's 18 inches and below, or you can tell it to only focus on, you know, the actual grape canopy itself. So there's different settings and within the system itself, you can make different configurations for different crops or different size canopies, depending on what you're working with.   Craig Macmillan  5:26  So something I was thinking about, as I was preparing for this interview, we've I've done a number of interviews recently around things like hyperspectral, imaging, and also just regular light. So this is a little bit different, because those things are based on color, or based on certain reflectances. This is just based on the physical presence of a leaf or shoot or branch or something like that. So it doesn't matter what color it is?   Brent Warneke  5:49  It does not so this technology actually does not sense any colors. I mean, there is potential for that. But it just says his presence or absence. So it sprays you know, if there's a post there, or something in the canopy that's not green material, it'll spray that because it'll it'll detect that it's there   Craig Macmillan  6:07  wouldn't be advantages to using this kind of technology?   Brent Warneke  6:11  The advantages of these sensor controlled sprayers kind of form a cascade. So because you're using the sensors to detect canopy they apply usually lower volume than a standard air blast sprayer. And an air blast sprayer is kind of the the general comparison we always use. That's the most widely used sprayer type. What's the work? Yes, it's been the classic workhorse for, you know, 80 years. Yeah, for a long time. Yep, yeah, implementing these sensors, you start saving volume, and then that leads to fewer fill ups of the sprayer, which then leads to less labor, because you're in the field for less time, and then also less diesel, then you're also releasing less pesticide into the environment, and using less pesticides. So there's less pesticide waste as well. So there's kind of a suite of benefits that come with using these more precise sprayers.   Craig Macmillan  7:09  And that was the next thing I wanted to talk about. So in my experience, when you're working with fungicides, in particular, it's all about coverage, coverage, coverage, right? It's all about coverage. When I use a lower volume, I am perhaps reducing the coverage that I'm gonna get. That's always been kind of the mindset, for me, at least, you know, my understanding, how does this technology overcome that issue? I mean, are we getting good coverage with this kind of technology, and then I want to talk more about the reduction in pesticide as a result.   Brent Warneke  7:38  So that's actually a great segue, I can talk about some of the work we've done using both micronized sulfur and and also biological fungicides. So we first got this system back in 2018. And we took it as an out of the box sprayer, we're gonna see what it can do. That was our approach. And we chose micronized sulfur as our product to really investigate it with because it's a contact fungicide that you need really good coverage with in order to get good disease control on powdery mildew, which is the disease we mostly focus on. So yeah, we took it with it's out of the box sprayer settings, and micronized sulfur, and out in the field, it didn't perform as well as we were hoping it would, with a standard five pounds per 100 gallons sulfur mix rate, we took that and we decided to make some adjustments to how we use the sprayer. So we kind of tested two different things, we upped the concentration of sulfur in the tank, and then we also increased what's called the spray rate in the sprayer, which is where the sprayer will apply more spray per unit canopy. So per canopy density unit than the original lower setting. And we were able to get control that was controlled powdery mildew that was comparable to our standard airblast sprayer. So those were two adjustments that we were able to make to get to get good control. And along with that we've done coverage studies as well. And volume is related to coverage amounts. So with higher volume, you will get better coverage, you can get to the point of oversaturation, then you're not really providing any benefit. That's more of a waste situation, you may you know, you probably will still be getting good good disease control, but then you're also probably wasting materials. Well, we found that with adjusting the various settings we could get also get comparable coverage to a standard sprayer.   Craig Macmillan  9:39  How hard is it to calibrate this kind of technology?   Brent Warneke  9:42  You know, these these technologies these sensors sprayers I mean they're they're just sprayers like any other air blast sprayer. I like to work backwards when I'm thinking about calibration. So that really is how well is it actually covering the leaves. Using water sensitive papers is a great way to About this, you can get them from many agricultural suppliers, and just bring them out into the field. And it takes, you know, it'll take a half day or you know, it'll take a little bit of time to really dive into adjusting your sprayer. But using those cards, adjusting the air volume, adjusting the spray volume to match the canopy really has lots of benefits, in terms of streamlining spray efficiency.   Craig Macmillan  10:27  You talked about increasing the concentration in this particular study we started with said five pounds per 100 gallon, I think, was the ultimate outcome in terms of what the concentration was.   Brent Warneke  10:37  We jumped up to 20 pounds for 100 gallons, so four times the amount. Oh, wow, that's not to say that a lower concentration wouldn't still have efficacy. But we just jumped up there just to see how well that higher volume would work. And using the lower per unit canopy settings with at higher volume yielded similar control to our standard sprayer. So we may have been having a hotter spray mix. But then we applied, you know, quite a bit less volume. So there is a trade off there. You know, maybe with some products like sulfur, you know, there's potential to maybe not be saving as much spray pesticide material. As you know, one one would hope based on that the trade offs. But we've also done work with some trials with synthetic fungicides. And those, even with the reduced rates and kind of mixed at a standard rate, they still performed quite well. And there's been lots of other studies across the US with this intelligent, prayer technology that have found great disease control with synthetic products at those lower use rates.   Craig Macmillan  11:49  You mentioned biologicals. First of all, why the interest in biologicals and then secondly, what did you find out?   Brent Warneke  11:54  We've really zeroed in on biologicals over the last three years, we kind of started with sulfur and looked at that for three years. And then we transitioned over to biologicals. And mostly because there is such an interest among growers and using them. I mean, they have a lot of, yeah, they have a lot of benefits. I mean, they're typically organic, they typically have short reentry and pre harvest intervals. And there's a ton of different development that's going on in the field and new products coming out all the time. Yeah, there's a lot of interest out there. So that's kind of why we started looking into them more, just to kind of quickly go over what we found, we definitely found that some products, there's a bit of a rate response, like if you apply more of them, you might get some better control. And then other ones, we found that that's not actually as much of a thing where those lower application rates can still have fairly comparable control to the higher application rates. And then we've also found some found that some products don't don't work very well, as well. So it just kind of depends. Another kind of overarching caveat is that the disease control that you can expect is definitely dependent on the disease pressure that's present. So these products are these biological products really need to be applied preventatively. And if there's a lot of disease pressure, a lot of disease in the field, they're not going to reverse that, like, you know, many fungicides will not and these, these are the same. So that's that's kind of another caveat.   Craig Macmillan  13:25  Right. What kind of reductions are we talking about? Like in terms of the sulfur work? You know, I think a standard application might be anywhere from two to five pounds per acre, biologicals, we're talking ounces per acre, or whatever liquid, what kind of reductions Did you see between your comparisons between the normal sprayer and the LiDAR controlled sprayer?   Brent Warneke  13:45  So this is a it is a true variable rate sprayer. So when there's less canopy, it applies less material, and then when there's more canopy, it applies more material. So looking at a graph of how it applies spray over the course of a season, it starts out really low, so at approximately 10 to 20 gallons per acre, and then it'll slowly increase up until the canopy is full. And that can be 40 to 50 pounds gallons per acre, depending on the settings. In general, we saw it we see approximately 70 to 90% SPRAY savings in those first applications of the season. And then as the canopy fills and the maximum canopy is achieved, it's more like 30% Spray savings.   Craig Macmillan  14:36  Ah, that's that's a lot.   Brent Warneke  14:37  Yeah, plus or minus depending on those those settings.   Craig Macmillan  14:41  What does that translate into in terms of like pounds of sulfur per acre?   Brent Warneke  14:44  That all depends on your mix rate and your application volume per acre. We saw with those lower application rates that were the default when we first got it. We were applying approximately one ish pound at the beginning of the season up to to about two and a half pounds at the end of the season, with that lower use rate and five pounds per 100 gallons, whereas in Standard Mode, it was applying about five and a half pounds of sulfur per acre. And with that higher spray rate that we tested, it still started the season at approximately one and a half pounds, but then increased up to around four pounds per acre. Yeah, and that was the setting where we adjusted the spray rate and were able to get good control of mildew.   Craig Macmillan  15:30  So if I was using a synthetic fungicide with this technology, that could be a major cost savings. Some of these fungicides are pretty expensive.   Brent Warneke  15:38  Absolutely. What we found with the synthetic fungicides is even mixing them at kind of your standard rate. And using this technology, which applies a lower volume, we still got great disease control comparable to a standard application. In terms of spray volume savings with synthetics, there's greater potential to save on volume and wastage than with contact pesticides, which need higher volumes higher coverage to be efficacious.   Craig Macmillan  16:06  Now, you said you started with an with an out of the box sprayer. So when you started this, it was a machine - a whole sprayer that you got. That was all constructed. Is that right?   Brent Warneke  16:22  What I had meant to insinuate by that was it was a sprayer that we just took and used as it was, we actually started this project, kind of midway into its usage. So some folks back at Ohio State University and the USDA ARS over there, design the sprayer and kind of developed a concept model for it and prove that it worked pretty well. And then the next step of the project was to take that control system that they developed and retrofitted onto existing sprayers. And then that's where we came in. So we got just a standard 50 gallon air blast sprayer, and had this sensor system retrofitted onto the sprayer and use that system in our tests.   Craig Macmillan  17:10  How difficult was that?   Brent Warneke  17:12  So the retrofitting itself is not too difficult. So we have two of the systems in our research program. And one of them uses a research version of the system. The other one uses a commercial version of the system because it has since been commercialized. And when we got the commercial system installed, it only took about two hours, maybe two or three hours to get installed, and then also calibrated on to our crop that we were focusing on. So pretty quick. And the company has, you know, representatives and stuff throughout the West, and across the country. So they're able to come out and provide customer support for that.   Craig Macmillan  17:51  So if I'm a grower, I don't need to have a master's degree in Ag Engineering to implement this kind of an idea. This is something that I can I can take and I can do myself.   Brent Warneke  18:04  Yep, yeah, the technology is there. And there is support. And it can be run by any knowledgeable pesticide applicator one, one note, all I will say about these sensor systems is it's good to have someone who wants to use them and to take an interest in them. Because they do have more caveats than your standard sprayer would. And if you don't really put the time and really learn to use the system. You won't be able to realize its benefits as much as you potentially could.   Craig Macmillan  18:40  Yeah, so like anything else you have to there's a learning curve, but this one doesn't seem like it's too steep.   Brent Warneke  18:43  Yep, it's a tool. And it takes some practice, but it can give you some good benefits.   Craig Macmillan  18:49  Are there other ag technologies out there that you're excited about?   Brent Warneke  18:53  You mentioned remote sensing earlier, that's a technology that I'm very interested in in terms of being able to detect changes in plant canopies and use that as a way to detect what's going on in the field. I'm also interested in drones both as a way to collect some of that remote sensing data. But then also in terms of spraying. Yeah, there's there's just been an explosion in drone spraying technology. It's constantly evolving. So that's something that I would like to do some more research on is looking at how good is are these drones for spraying in specialty crops such as wine grapes, what can we do to use them in that capacity to actually get good disease control good coverage and get some good returns.   Craig Macmillan  19:45  I remember a while back seeing it was a remote controlled helicopter that was set up to be a sprayer for wine grapes. Are you familiar with that technology for me when we're talking about.   Brent Warneke  19:57  Yeah, I think those are maybe the yeah Mahara Maxi are mentioning, it looks like a little helicopter. And they've done tests with them, I think up in Napa and that area   Craig Macmillan  20:08  Is it the same concept?   Brent Warneke  20:09  It's the same concept. Most of the drones I'm referring to are kind of more the quadcopter, with the four different rotors on the top kind of your, your classical drone shape. Just larger. I mean, these things have wingspans of close to 10 feet.   Craig Macmillan  20:28  Oh, wow.   Brent Warneke  20:29  And they, some of them can have eight gallon tanks on them. So they're, they're pretty sizable.   Craig Macmillan  20:36  And then we need an operator. So we need somebody who has the training and the licensing to do that.   Brent Warneke  20:43  Yep.   Craig Macmillan  20:44  How far away is that kind of technology from being out in the world?   Brent Warneke  20:47  Well, the drone sprayers are being used right now. There's, there's folks in the Willamette Valley, where I live in work, that are using these things in all kinds of crops. Right now, it's a very wet winter here where we live, so the fields get muddy, it's hard to get equipment in there. So that's kind of one aspect that is really appealing about these drones is that they can get into these areas that are kind of difficult to reach with tractors. And the same goes for hilly terrain.   Craig Macmillan  21:17   Eight gallons does not sound like very much   Brent Warneke  21:19  No, no. So application rates that these drones are targeting are typically less than 10 gallons per acre, you know, two to five gallons per acre is pretty common. I'm not by any means an expert at this point. So I won't get into the details of using them too much. But that's that's part of the impetus for the research is there's kind of there hasn't been a lot of looking into how efficacious these things are in specialty crops. So that's something that I think is a good opportunity.   Craig Macmillan  21:52  You mentioned remote sensing. Tell me more about that. You were interested in drones. But are you interested in satellite, aerial, proximal, you know, you have some kind of a sensor on on a piece of equipment being an ATV or being on a tractor. Where does your interest lie in that world?   Brent Warneke  22:09  I think in terms of remote sensing, I definitely have interest in the drone space. Because with that type of surveillance, you're able to get a lot finer spatial resolution than you can with, say, a satellite, I do appreciate that satellites, you can get information and data on a much wider field of view. So you can track much larger areas easier. And there's lots of different options out there that are either low cost or free. But drones I've I want to focus on a little bit more just because they're widely available. And lots of farms may already have them. And you can get very fine spatial resolution, which could allow determination of plant stressors such as disease, or localized water stress, or kind of other stresses with hopefully more precision than using satellite based technologies.   Craig Macmillan  23:10  With things like vine stress or disease pressure, can that be combined, either directly or indirectly, in combination with your on the ground spray application that can inform what you do?   Brent Warneke  23:21  Yeah, definitely, the spray application technology that we talked on a little bit earlier, was mostly in reference to real time sensor applications. So these are sprayers that go through the field, and adjust that what they're applying in real time based on what the sensor is seeing as it drives through the field. But there's other systems out there that use more of a prescription map approach, where they will take these remote sensing maps, or maps that are created from sensors on tractors, and then use that data to construct a prescription map. Where that is actually used. The map itself is actually used to adjust the amount of spray applied in a given area.   Craig Macmillan  24:06  Where are we going into the future? What kind of what actually I guess what I'm really asking is what kind of projects are you looking forward to. Is the current work ongoing? Are you starting new things? Where do you where do you want to go next?   Brent Warneke  24:16  Yeah, so our current work is, you know, as research tends to, it's always ongoing, there's other things always developing. So we're definitely continuing looking at biological fungicides. One aspect of biological fungicides that we want to delve into is kind of the compatibility. So what can we mix these things with? Is there any impact on the viability of these biological organisms that are in the products? Another thing is, are we affecting viability by using them in these various sprayers? So if we put these products through these airblast sprayers or through drone spraying systems and the like, is there any impact in their efficacy because they're expensive, and they're a lot they're alive. So those are some Some aspects. And then with the drones, I hope to do some research on looking at sprayer efficacy, specifically in wine grapes, and potentially other specialty crops as well, just to get some data on some of the spray parameters. So droplet size, volume per acre, how is that impacting coverage and efficacy? Those are, those are two things I definitely want to delve into.   Craig Macmillan  25:25  Cool, what one thing what one message, or recommendation do you make to our listeners regarding these topics, overall?   Brent Warneke  25:34  I would say that there's always a place to start to improve your spray efficiency. So we've been talking about sensor array sprayers and drones and remote sensing. And they're all kind of big technologies. But you don't need to worry about any of that if you just want to increase your application efficiency. I've looked and I work with other colleagues that work with spray application technology. And you can do what's called canopy adaptive spraying, which is basically working backwards from coverage on the spray cards to adjust your spray volume and the air volume that your sprayer is putting out to match the canopy. And actually looking at that in detail can save quite a bit of time and money and pesticide wastage by really targeting and matching that spray application output to the canopy itself. So that involves adjusting the spray volume using different nozzles and adjusting the air volume that's getting expelled at the sprayer by either changing the RPMs of the tractor driving faster or slower, or various ways like that. And then circling back to getting you know better good coverage. That's that will be efficacious with your products. And then on top of that standard sprayer, if you want to take it one more step, you could look into one of these sensor based systems, which could be retrofitted on your standard sprayer and increase efficiency in that way. And then on top of that, there's other autonomous sprayers that are out there that can take even more labor out of the equation. And many of those can be fitted with these sensors to increase their efficiency even more. And then if we want to take it one more step, then using some of this remote sensing data can even help streamline these things even more.   Craig Macmillan  27:32  So there's lots of things we can do. They don't all have to be rocket science, but the science is out there. And it's coming to us in new forms constantly, which I think is really exciting. The one of the things that got me excited about your work was, like you said, you know, the basic airblast style sprayer has been around for forever. We have all gotten very used to it. That's like the base technology. And I think it's a great message to say, we don't have to stop there. We can keep going we can make improvements on what we have. And it doesn't have to be, you know, skull crushingly difficult.   Brent Warneke  28:05  Yep, there's always some way that we can improve. Yep.   Craig Macmillan  28:09  Well, thank you, Brent. Our guest today has been Brent Warneke. He is senior faculty research assistant in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. So I'm really excited about the work that you're doing. And it's really, really great. And I hope that you can get your message out there and help people reduce their pesticide load and improve their efficiency. You know, less labor, less diesel, less water. Those are all good things. So thanks for being on the podcast. Brent.   Brent Warneke  28:34  Definitely. Thank you very much for having me.   Nearly perfect transcription by https://otter.ai

Thanks for joining us! Today we welcome Dr. Jonathan Lundgren, Founder and Director of the Ecdysis Foundation and Director and CEO of Blue Dasher Farm. Jonathan was one of our speakers at the very first AgEmerge event and his presentation was so powerful. Watching the work that he and his whole team are doing at Ecdysis and Blue Dasher Farm inspires us to continue to learn and understand the biodiversity necessary to nurture our land. In this episode of the podcast Jonathan says, “you know those entomology problems, those insect pest problems? The reason we don't solve them is because they're not entomology problems, they're soil problems. And until we heal the soil, we're just going to continue to have problem after problem after problem.” Take a listen as he and Monte talk about their research, discoveries and passion to solve those problems. Dr. Lundgren is an agroecologist, Founder of the ECDYSIS Foundation, and CEO for Blue Dasher Farm. Lundgren's research program focuses on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing long-term solutions for sustainable food systems. His ecological research focuses heavily on conserving healthy biological communities within agroecosystems by reducing disturbance and increasing biodiversity within cropland. He received his PhD in Entomology from the University of Illinois in 2004 and was a top scientist with USDA-ARS for 11 years. Lundgren's research and education programs focus on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing long-term solutions for regenerative food systems. Ecdysis Foundation & Blue Dasher Farm as a research foundation as well as training ground for future scientists and farmers. He is an Agroecologist, Farmer, Rancher, and Beekeeper. ECDYSIS https://www.ecdysis.bio/ Blue Dasher Farm https://www.bluedasher.farm/ Got questions you want answered? Send them our way and we'll do our best to research and find answers. Know someone you think would be great on the AgEmerge stage or podcast? Send your questions or suggestions to kim@asn.farm we'd love to hear from you.

In this episode, USDA-ARS' Dr. Alecia Kiszonas explains why wheat quality is so important for PNW growers. Resources: USDA-ARS Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research: ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/whgq/ Western Wheat Quality Laboratory: wwql.wsu.edu WSU Small Grains Variety Selection & Testing: https://smallgrains.wsu.edu/variety/ Preferred Wheat Varieties Lists: wwql.wsu.edu/pacific-northwest-wheat-quality-council/preferred-wheat-varieties/ Contact information: Dr. Alecia Kiszonas, ars.usda.gov/people-locations/person/?person-id=49578, 509-335-4062, alecia.kiszonas@usda.gov Episode transcription: smallgrains.wsu.edu/wbp175

Thanks for joining us! Today we welcome Dr. Don Reicosk. Dr. Reicosky is a retired Soil Scientist for the USDA-ARS, North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory, Morris, MN, and Adjunct Professor in the Soil Science Department, University of Minnesota, St. Paul. He has an exciting discussion with Monte about the foundational research he conducted back in the late 1990's finding that tillage releases carbon into the atmosphere in sudden rushes of CO2 as the soil is opened up. And now, more than ever, Dr Reicosky uses his time to help growers know this critical information, whether it's conservation, agriculture, regenerative agriculture or soil health farming, he says we've got to adopt these practices so we don't destroy all of our soil resources. It's a great conversation so let's jump right in! Early research involved describing crop response and water use on conventional till and no-till systems with and without irrigation and later focused on tillage and crop biomass management as related to global change issues with emphasis on measuring carbon dioxide and water losses following intensive tillage with a portable chamber. The short-term tillage-induced gaseous losses of carbon were related to the volume of soil disturbed in the tillage operation and help explain the long-term decline in soil carbon associated with intensive tillage agriculture. These results suggest need for improved Conservation Agriculture Systems for enhancement of soil resources and environmental quality that resulted in numerous international invitations. In retirement, he continues to write about Conservation Agriculture Systems, soil carbon management and environmental issues and to travel and talk about carbon cycling and carbon management in agricultural production systems. Research and articles by Dr. Reicosky: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Don-Reicosky?mc_cid=a3d5482833&mc_eid=UNIQID https://www.jswconline.org/content/70/5/103A?mc_cid=a3d5482833&mc_eid=UNIQID https://www.jswconline.org/content/78/5/105A?mc_cid=a3d5482833&mc_eid=UNIQID Got questions you want answered? Send them our way and we'll do our best to research and find answers. Know someone you think would be great on the AgEmerge stage or podcast? Send your questions or suggestions to kim@asn.farm we'd love to hear from you.

Progressive Cattle editor Tyrell Marchant visits with Ken Odde from Kansas State University about his work on the newly formed Genetic Merit Pricing Task Force and how he thinks genetic data will impact how cattle are bought, sold and raised in the future. Then, Tyrell sits down with Justin Derner from USDA-ARS at the Range Beef Cow Symposium to discuss what producers can do to make sure their pasture is doing everything it can for their cattle, and vice versa. Finally, David, Carrie, Abby and Tyrell preview the February issue of Progressive Cattle and share their recipes for fighting off the winter blues. 

In this episode, USDA-ARS's Dr. Marilyn Warburton discusses the importance of the major U.S. gene bank on WSU's campus that contains over 100,000 accessions of 5,200 crops and plants. Resources: Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research: Pullman, WA: ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/plant-germplasm-introduction-and-testing-research/ Agricultural Genetic Resources Preservation Research: Fort Collins, CO: .ars.usda.gov/plains-area/fort-collins-co/center-for-agricultural-resources-research/ USDA-ARS Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN): ars-grin.gov Contact information: Marilyn Warburton, Marilyn.warburton@usda.gov, ars.usda.gov/people-locations/person?person-id=57100 Episode transcription: smallgrains.wsu.edu/wbp174

In this episode, USDA-ARS's Dr. Timothy Paulitz discusses just how widespread Fusarium crown rot is and how genetic tolerance may be the best way to manage the pathogen in the future. Resources: Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research: ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/whgq/ International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Turkey: cimmyt.org/location/asia/turkey/ Contact information: Dr. Timothy Paulitz, timothy.paulitz@usda.gov, ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/whgq/people/timothy-c-paulitz/ Episode transcription: https://smallgrains.wsu.edu/wbp172

In the dairy cattle industry, innovation and sustainability are key to future success. Bridging the dairy and beef sectors opens doors to efficient production and profitability. This synergy is vital for meeting global demands and ensuring environmental stewardship. This episode, with Dr. Aimee Hafla from Cargill, delves into the connection between dairy and beef production. Dr. Hafla discusses the challenges and opportunities at this intersection, highlighting innovative approaches for sustainable, profitable cattle management."Integrating beef expertise into dairy enhances profitability and sustainability."What you'll learn:(00:00) Highlight(01:59) Introduction (05:07) The Importance of Dairy-Beef Collaboration (07:01) Integrating Beef Expertise into Dairy Operations (12:01) New Developments in Cattle Care and Management (21:15) Market Strategies and Profitability in Dairy-Beef (23:47) Future Innovations in Dairy-Beef Collaboration (27:28) The final questionsMeet the guest: Dr. Aimee Hafla, an esteemed beef cattle innovation lead at Cargill in Des Moines, has a distinguished career in ruminant nutrition. With a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, she has previously worked at USDA-ARS and Agri-King, Inc. as a Beef Cattle Nutritionist. Her research focuses on optimizing beef cattle health and productivity, backed by extensive experience in pasture management and feeding strategies. Dr. Hafla's role at Cargill reflects her commitment to advancing the beef industry through innovative nutritional solutions.Connect with the guest!The Dairy Podcast Show is trusted and supported by innovative companies like:* Adisseo- Evonik- ICC- Diamond V- Phibro- Protekta- dsm-firmenich- smaXtec- Berg + Schmidt

In this episode, USDA-ARS's Dr. Xianming Chen discusses the progress being made in his stripe rust research program. Resources: striperust.wsu.edu USDA ARS Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research Unit: ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/whgq/ Contact information: Dr. Xianming Chen, xianming.chen@usda.gov: ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/pullman-wa/whgq/people/xianming-chen/ Episode transcription: https://smallgrains.wsu.edu/wbp170/

In the Weeds Series 12 Episode 4: MSU Extension Field Crops Educator Monica Jean and MSU LTAR Associate Director Dr. Brook Wilke,  sits down with Dr. Alan Franzlebbers, Plant Science Researcher for USDA ARS, to discuss different soil tests that access the health and function and how to use those numbers to inform your farm's nutrient management plan.  

“Genes and genetic mechanisms contributing to fall armyworm resistance in maize” with Sandra Woolfolk and Leigh Hawkins, research entomologist and molecular biologist (respectively) at USDA-ARS. Fall armyworm is a major pest around the world, causing millions of dollars in damages yearly. However, farmers are not alone in the fight against these invasive creatures, with plant breeders coming alongside to help develop more resistant plants. This episode, Drs. Sandra Woolfolk and Leigh Hawkins discuss their work tracking down the traits that can lead to higher resistance against this frightful pest. Tune in to learn: ·         What fall armyworms look like ·         What makes fall armyworms such a scary pest ·         How DNA, SNPs, and metabolic pathways are like a highway ·         Which metabolic pathways were the most promising If you would like more information about this topic, this episode's paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20311 This paper is always freely available. Contact us at podcast@sciencesocieties.org or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don't forget to subscribe. If you'd like to see old episodes or sign up for our newsletter, you can do so here: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/. If you would like to reach out to Sandra, you can find her here: Sandra.Woolfolk@usda.gov If you would like to reach out to Leigh, you can find her here: leigh.hawkins@usda.gov Resources CEU Quiz: Coming soon Transcripts: Coming soon Corn Host Plant Resistance Research Unit: https://www.ars.usda.gov/southeast-area/mississippi-state-ms/crop-science-research-laboratory/corn-host-plant-resistance-research/ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_armyworm Entomology Department, University of Florida: https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/field/fall_armyworm.htm Mississippi State Extension Fall Armyworms page: http://extension.msstate.edu/content/fall-armyworms Mississippi State Extension Fall Armyworms in Hayfields and Pastures article: http://extension.msstate.edu/node/7154 USDA-ARS Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AgriculturalResearchService USDA-ARS LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/usda-ars/ FAO Fall Armyworm page: https://www.fao.org/fall-armyworm/en/ USDA Fall Armyworm article: https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2018/02/26/fall-armyworm-usda-research-lends-hand-international-pest-outbreak Field, Lab, Earth is Copyrighted by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

On this episode of Rocks to Roots, we talk with this year's Farm and Food Symposium Keynote Speaker! Dr. Jonathan Lundgren is an accomplished agroecologist and the keynote speaker at the upcoming Farm & Food Symposium, a gathering that unites progressive farmers, ag companies, scientists, investors, consumers, and industry influencers to explore the world of regenerative farming. Dr. Lundgren's journey in agriculture is nothing short of extraordinary. Armed with a Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of Illinois, he spent 11 years as a leading scientist with USDA-ARS, where his work made significant contributions to the field. His passion for agriculture, sustainability, and biodiversity led him to establish the ECDYSIS Foundation and serve as the CEO for Blue Dasher Farm. At the core of Dr. Lundgren's research and education programs is a profound commitment to evaluating the ecological risks associated with pest management strategies and developing sustainable solutions for our food systems. He's received accolades, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering from the White House, recognizing his outstanding contributions. So join us on this episode as we delve into the world of sustainable farming, and the critical role farmers play as agents of change. Dr. Jonathan Lundgren's insights and dedication to ecological farming principles are sure to inspire and ignite a passion for regenerative agriculture. Make sure to sign up for this year's Farm & Food Symposium by visiting the following link, www.spokanecd.org/farm-food-symposium

Come dive into the world of soil health. In this episode we dig into the relationship between soil health and profitability with Agoro Carbon Science Manager, Dr. John Shanahan.  John is one of our founding scientists team members and brings over 35 years of experience as a professional agronomist in both public (Colorado State University, USDA-ARS, Soil Health Institute) and private sector (Corteva Agrisciences) roles. His expertise consists of nutrient, water, and soil health management in crop production systems. John is also proficient in the use of multiple digital farming tools for helping growers improve profitability and sustainability. Farmers and ranchers run businesses with very tight margins, so profitability is often the most significant barrier to adoption of soil health practices. Listen in to learn more details on topics like the impact of soil health practices on profitability, ag carbon's relation to extreme weather resilience, and how yields are affected by soil health practices (cover cropping, reduce tillage, nutrient management). Resources mentioned in this episode: Sustainable & Profitable Conservation Farming: Thoughts From A Farmer Economics Of Soil Health Systems

We are excited to bring you this packed episode. We start with Jeff talking with Becky Masterman, from the Minnesota Honey Producers Assn. about the USDA-ARS National Publication 305 (NP-305) and its importance.  Next Jeff and Kim talk with Dr. Lars Chittka about his book, The Mind of a Bee. Becky Masterman has been on the podcast before and we enjoy having her back to discuss the USDA-ARS NP-305. The NP-305 sets the research priorities for the USDA-ARS for the next five years. Right now and until August 7, the USDA-ARS is soliciting beekeeper feedback and comments on where they should focus their research funding. Unfortunately, as important as this decision is to beekeepers… relatively few beekeepers know about this comment period. Listen in as Becky helps us understand how critical this is for the next five years and what you can do to help! Next, Dr. Lars Chittka joins us to discuss his 2022 book, The Mind of a Bee.  Lars talks about how his research and that of many others of the honey bee has uncovered fascinating insights into their cognitive abilities, communication, and problem-solving skills. Join us as we explore the remarkable world of bees and gain a deeper understanding of their intricate minds, the possibility of a “bee consciousness”, the essential role they play in our ecosystem and our understanding of intelligence in the animal kingdom. This is one episode you will want to listen to several times! We hope you enjoy the episode. Leave comments and questions in the Comments Section of the episode's website. Links and websites mentioned in this podcast:  Dr. Lars Chittka's website: http://chittkalab.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk/Lars.html The Mind of a Bee on Amazon: www.amazon.com/Mind-Bee-Lars-Chittka/dp/0691180474 USDA-ARS NP-305 Comment Website:  https://np305.arsnet.usda.gov/ Minnesota Honey Producers News Website: https://minnesotahoneyproducers.com/news-events/ Beekeeping Today Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@beekeepingtodaypodcast Honey Bee Obscura: https://www.honeybeeobscura.com ______________ Betterbee is the presensting sponsor of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global offers a variety of standard and custom patties. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode!  Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com Thanks for Northern Bee Books for their support. Northern Bee Books is the publisher of bee books available worldwide from their website or from Amazon and bookstores everywhere. They are also the publishers of The Beekeepers Quarterly and Natural Bee Husbandry. _______________ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com Thank you for listening!  Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; A Fresh New Start by Pete Morse; Wedding Day by Boomer; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC

In this episode of Two Bees in a Podcast, released on June 15, 2023, Dr. Jamie Ellis and Amy Vu speak with Mohamed Alburaki, a researcher from USDA ARS in Beltsville, Maryland, on diversity and genetic testing of bees. This episode concludes with a Q&A segment. Check out our website ufhoneybee.com for additional resources from today's episode. 

In this episode of Two Bees in a Podcast, released on June 7, 2023, Dr. Jamie Ellis and Amy Vu speak with Evan Palmer-Young, a USDA ARS post-doctoral researcher at the Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, on the relationship between sunflowers and honey bees. This episode concludes with a Q&A segment. Check out our website ufhoneybee.com for additional resources from today's episode.