- [Announcer] "Montana AG Live" is made possible by (beaten music) The Montana Department (soft upbeat music) of Agriculture, the MSU extension Service, the MSU AG Experiment Stations of the College of Agriculture, the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, Cashman Nursery and Landscaping, (beaten music) the Northern Pulse Growers Association, and the Gallatin Gardeners Club.

(soft upbeat music) (theme music) - Good evening.

You are tuned to "Montana AG Live", originating tonight from the studios of KUSM on the very dynamic campus of Montana State University, and coming to you over the Montana Public I'm Jack Riesselman, retired professor of plant pathology.

I'm happy to be your host this evening.

We're gonna have an interesting program tonight.

As we started off the spring series, featuring women in agriculture, we're gonna continue that tonight, and we're gonna look at a lot of different things in the college of agriculture tonight, but especially, precision farming.

That's a new technology to me.

It's been around for a while, but we're gonna learn a lot more about it this evening.

So, before we get started this evening, let me introduce the panel.

Way to my left, the end of the table is Uta McKelvy She's a plant pathologist here at Montana State University, disease questions tonight, lawn, garden, home, wheat, (Uta chuckles) pulse, (Uta laughing) anything you wanna know, she can answer at this evening.

Our special guest this evening, I'm happy to have her here, Sreekala Bajwa.

She's a dean of the college of agriculture here, and she's gonna talk about what the College of Ag is doing, a little bit about precision ag.

We stole her a couple years ago from North Dakota State University.

(Tim and Sreekala laughing) They did get back at us in the football field this past year, - Right.

- [Jack] so I think, (guests laughing) the revenge is there.

As usual, Laurie.

Laurie Kerzicnik, glad to have you here.

She's a insect diagnostician, and she does know a lot about insects and she did bring another pet along this evening.

(Laurie and Tim chuckles) We'll get to that in a little bit.

Tim.

Tim Seipel, he's been here several times.

I think, he's a weed specialist, but I think, a mechanical cropland weed specialist too.

And answering the phones this evening, both remotely, Mike Drew.

Mike is the head of the plant science and plant pathology department, and Judge Bruce Lobel.

And Judge Lobel is just one of the guys we used to have on here all the time.

He's an interesting individual and he is really become a very good person to answer the phone for us.

Before we go any farther, Sreekala, tell us how the College of AG is doing right now.

- Jack, we are doing very well.

It's almost the end of the semester.

One more month left for the semester to end.

I just can't believe it, where we were a year back or two years back.

But beyond that, our enrollment has been going up steadily.

Our research expenditures have been going up.

So, college is doing very well and good relationship with the people outside of the university, with our producers.

So, very happy.

(chuckles) - Yeah.

I've been very impressed with the last few years of way the college has advanced, especially since you've come here.

And you might just wanna mention one of our new programs briefly, and we do have some questions from last week about it.

Tell us a little bit about the precision ag program here at Montana State University.

- Jack, when I interviewed three, four years or three and a half years back, my search committee had somebody from our Montana Grain Growers Association, Lola Raska.

You probably know her.

She's very famous in this state.

(Jack laughing) So, she, at the time, she asked me this question, are you going to start a precision ag program here?

And later on, when I joined, again, she said, we want to see a precision ag program in Montana.

So, I have been working on it, and not just me, our college has been working on it.

And finally, with the support from Northwest Farm Credit Services, we are able to hire.

We hired four new faculty members and we also have a few faculty members who are our veteran faculty, who are working in that field.

So, I'm very happy to say we brought some new skills to Montana and they are working.

They have been here for a couple or less than two months or two, yeah, two months now.

They are working to identify where our strengths are, where our needs are, who our partners are and come up with a plan to move forward.

So, precision agriculture is our new program and I'm very excited.

It is an integrated program.

It's not just research.

We have to do research and development.

We also have to educate our students.

the students coming out of our program, they need to have the opportunity to have skills in precision ag.

They go to work for Radis companies who will become agronomist.

They need to know what data they are collecting, what they need to collect, how to analyze it.

So, teaching is a component of that and also outreach.

The research we do in the labs, we need to be telling our story, educating our producers about the research, so they can adopt, they can take advantage of it.

So, it takes research, teaching, and outreach.

- [Jack] Okay.

And on that note, the caller, our question came in via Slack.

The questions come in on this little contraption I have here, (guests chuckles) it's called a computer, I think.

(guests laughing) And the technology is called Slack.

but from Bozeman, "What can MSU College of Agriculture do to get Montana students to more seriously consider careers in agriculture?"

And that's a good question because the jobs are there right now.

- Yeah.

(clears throat) - And agriculture is a very dynamic changing science right now.

So, have at it.

- Yeah.

Jack, this is something we are continually working to become better at.

We have our research centers in...

There are seven research centers across the state.

We also have our extension offices in every county.

So, we are looking at some new ways to recruit students, to let them know agriculture is...

There is perhaps some misconception in some parts that agriculture is all about just about farming, growing your crop or your livestock.

Actually, it is pretty broad.

There are a variety of careers.

So, every opportunity we get, we are looking at how we can educate people.

It's not just educating the students.

It's also educating the parents and the grandparents.

So, we are trying to tell our stories.

I actually sat down with our communication person this last week.

And they talked about a communication plan, talking about alternating between our stories of research, how our research is impacting Montana agriculture, and also, telling the stories of our students.

Our students go into, they become agronomists.

They become animal science, people scientist, microbiologists, teachers, bankers, business person, and doctors and veterinarians, and you name it.

There are environmental scientists.

And there are a variety of areas they can go into and become successful and become contributing members of the community.

So, this is... We are seeing, looking at rural areas, there are several drawbacks.

One is if you don't have a family member or someone you know who has gone to college, whom you can talk about what you can do in college, that is a disadvantage.

So, can we use our research centers and our extension offices to spread that information?

The very many meetings we go to agricultural organizations, field days, can we spread that information that these are the opportunities in the college.

And also, our faculty getting out there and working with the schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, having programs, bringing those students to Bozeman, sometimes going to their classrooms and telling them about the disciplines we have, and the jobs they can go into.

So, we try.

- [Jack] Okay.

Good answer.

And I will tell you, I grew up on a farm and I couldn't wait (Sreekala laughing) And a little John Deere B tractors and old alfalfa fields, and two days to plow seven acres wasn't my lifestyle.

(guest chuckles) So, look where I ended up.

(guests laughing) I love agriculture.

So, there is a lot of careers out there in agriculture.

Change the subject here a little bit.

Laurie, this came in last week.

This is the one time we asked this question.

One answer, all spring, boxelder bugs, lots of 'em, what do you do about 'em?

- Well, the best thing you could do is really just backing 'em up with a Shop-Vac.

- Yeah.

- And yeah, make sure you don't smash 'em on anything white because yeah, they're gonna definitely stain.

But they come and go, so yeah, Shop-Vac's your buddy here to get rid of 'em.

- [Jack] Okay.

And that question came in from Kalispell.

So, now, we know.

And from Shields Valley, "This color has a weed with a bulb.

It is shallow-rooted weed and is bluegrass long.

Will weed and feed product kill that weed?"

I have no idea what that is.

Do you?

- A small bulb, no, other than maybe it's a hyacinth or something like that.

They might have a bulb in there.

Will weed and feed kill it?

I do not think that the weed and feed will actually take care of the problem.

The weed and feed hits weeds as they germinate, as they come out, so that may not work very well.

And if it's a bulb, it may be a lilly, which means it's a monocot species.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So, it won't be killed by a broad leaf herbicide.

- [Jack] If you only have a few of 'em, dig 'em out.

- Dig 'em out.

Okay.

(Jack and Tim laughing) That works.

Uta, from Great Falls.

This call came in last week.

I jotted it down.

This person wanted to know about using fungicides in barley, they grow continuous barley, and they have seen a lot of disease.

Where could they get information on the fungicides?

And they also wanna know if there's MSU test fungicides for cereal disease control.

- Okay, so, what fungicide is best to use would depend on what's the predominant disease problem.

So, if they know that already, then that's a good starting point.

If they still need to find out what is exactly the disease issue, I would recommend contacting your local extension agent and bring them a sample, probably in a couple weeks from now, 'cause things are probably not too green at this point.

Or the diagnostic lab at Bozeman, at MSU in Bozeman, can help too.

That will be me looking at that.

And then, once we know what the disease problem is, I could direct them to fungicide guides that we have available on the planned pathology MSU extension website.

The other part of the question was if MSU's testing for fungicide efficacy?

- [Jack] Do we have variety of testing in fungicides on cereal grains for yield potential and stuff.

- So, I know in terms of the breeding program, the breeders typically score their breeding lines for what diseases occur and how resistant or tolerant they are.

And typically, when a variety is released, that information is included.

I do not test fungicides as of now for disease control on barley diseases.

There may be other researchers at the research centers or in other labs that do.

I would have to ask some people and find that out.

But typically, the information that we get, we would put them in those month guides that are available in the extension stores.

So, foliar disease control of small grain crops, there would be information on which fungicides would be suitable.

- [Jack] All right.

Thank you.

Couple questions with precision ag.

And this first one came from Bozeman last week and I said, we'd answer it this week.

"What is the definition of precision ag per se?"

And that is a good question.

What does it mean?

- Like many other things, you would see very different definitions if you ask different people, but it is about making decisions based on data you collect from your field and the...

It's not just the typically agronomist, they would drive by and look at the field and make a decision what is going on.

So, for a large field, you don't see whoever is going by the edge of the field.

You don't see what is happening deep into the field.

So, it's about collecting data at a finer resolution all across the field and then, making decisions based on that.

One of the definitions I use is it's using technology to provide the right input at the right time, in the right amount and at the right place.

So, it has a time aspect to it.

You have to provide that input at the right time.

It has a space aspect to it.

So, a very distinct thing in precision ag is that our conventional agriculture, we do, for example, our researchers do variety trial and field trials across the state and make recommendation, which requires this much nitrogen around this growth stage.

But there is variability in the soil.

Soil is not same because you take a 40 acre or a hundred acre field, your soil is not same everywhere.

So, depending on how much moisture is available, how much organic matter is there, it's elevation differences and things like that.

You may not require the same amount of fertilizer everywhere or in other words, I call it yield potential.

The field has different yield potential in different places, depending on the soil and the soil characteristics.

So, changing your input to spatially, that is one very definite aspect of precision agriculture, but it is also so about using sensors to collect data across the field.

Every time a machine is going on your field, it's collecting data, it could be yield.

It could be how much chemical you're applying or how much seed, you're planting rate, or the color of your soil.

So, it's about using sensors to collect data.

Then, analyzing that data to make a decision on how much input to apply.

There is also an aspect about robotics.

In recent times, there is so much, so many people are working on robotic tractors, robotic sprays, drones, the common term is drone.

I call it and meant aerial systems.

That is also an example of robotics.

So, bringing in new technologies, using artificial intelligence and making decisions based on actually what the data are telling you.

- [Jack] Let me follow it up a little bit.

I read an article probably last year in "CropLife Magazine" that said that using precision ag techniques, (Sreekala clears throat) a lot of producers can save 10 to 15% on herbicide cost.

At the price of glyphosate right now, if you save 10 to 15%, number one, you're not using as much in the environment, but number two, you're saving money.

- Absolutely.

- And does that work pretty well here in the state of Montana?

'Cause we use a lot of Roundup.

- Yeah and I think, that technology is coming onto the market.

John Deere introduced a new sprayer this year that the nozzles turn on and off automatically.

You're spraying only where you're hitting, where the weeds are detected.

- Amazing.

- And so, you're saving glyphosate.

There's some weed technologies, another one that's out there.

There's a weed chipper that's out there that has cameras on it, that chips out the large weeds in in kosha or slight kosha in fallow, for example.

Leaves a big hole, it's not most ideal thing (guests laughing) you've ever worked with, but there is a lot of that that's coming online, and it does have the potential to really reduce the amount of herbicide that we use.

- [Jack] So, as environmental benefit, as well as a financial benefit.

- Absolutely.

- Okay.

Back to Laurie.

this is a good one.

Green caterpillars and a gooseberry bush.

What are they?

What do you do for 'em?

- Oh, yeah.

I think, gooseberries have a sawfly.

And you should probably contact me.

Maybe we could follow up on, and maybe you could send me a sample this spring.

So, I'll have to look up the lifecycle for that because I think, there's a...

I don't know if it's called the gooseberry sawfly, but there is a sawfly issue.

And a sawfly, it looks like a caterpillar, but as an adult, it's closely related to a wasp.

- [Jack] Okay.

So, it wouldn't be very good in your gooseberry pie to just let 'em- - Oh, I don't think so.

Yeah.

(laughs) - Okay.

- Yeah.

- [Jack] All right.

Let's move on.

This is from Billings.

Interesting question.

"Fertilizer costs are skyrocketing.

Is MSU teaching and/or researching regenerative ag principles, such as no-till to assist ag users get away from costly fertilizer?"

I don't think we can get away completely, but we can probably make it more efficient using precision technology.

- I would say so.

Before we started, we were chatting here about the cost, how much the cost of fertilizers and pesticides.

Glyphosate, they are going up.

So, I think, maybe last month or so, we got some question about what material is available there to help our producers make some decisions.

If they are using fertilizer, they wanna make sure it is effective, efficient, and that nitrogen use efficiency and things like that.

So, precision ag is certainly a technology to cut down on fertilizer usage, but there are other, perhaps other techno, and I'm not an expert in this area.

What I did is I contacted our land resources and environmental sciences department, that is Tim's department here, and asked client Jones to proactively provide some of these educational materials to green growers or other groups and to the media to help with that.

But certainly, precision ag is one way to reduce the amount of input we apply, and any kind of input including fertilizer.

- [Jack] Sounds good.

Thank you.

And I'm old school, I'm not familiar with precision ag, but what I'm hearing is pretty impressive.

And if you're not into it today, you're going to be if you wanna stay in the farm.

- Yeah.

- So, that's my attitude.

Anyway, let's move on.

Tim, from Shields Valley, the caller said the weed that we thought might be a lily is probably bulbous bluegrass, and that's very possible.

- Oh, yep.

- Yep.

And Uta, this person from Billings has planted their peas, and it's a little warmer in Billings.

- Mm-hmm.

- But I think, we're supposed to get - Uh-oh.

- eight to 12 inches of snow (Laurie laughing) - Yeah.

- in Billings this week.

They want to know if the soil stays cold and the peas don't germinate, will they rot in the ground and how long before they rot?

- Hmm.

- It's a guess, but have at it.

- Right, so I think, one question would be that they use a seed treatment.

Seed treatments are really good at preventing seed rots.

So, if the seed lies dormant in the ground, the fungicide seed treatment can protect the seed from those pathogens, fungal pathogens that are present in the ground that can attack the seed.

And they typically last, we say, two to three weeks, so that might help.

I would be concerned if the peas started to germinate already, that the ceilings may suffer from the cold.

So, let's see what happens next week.

- [Jack] Don't plant tomatoes yet.

- [Uta] No, it's not the time (Tim laughing) for tomatoes, is it?

(group laughing) Hold your horses on tomatoes.

- [Jack] Exactly.

(Uta laughing) Okay.

For Sreekala, this person has heard a soil acidification, and I think, that's in a lot of areas of state, but especially in the Highwood, Bench area and so forth.

- Mm-hmm.

- "Can precision ag techniques help to reduce acidification?"

- Again, our soil scientist have been working on, their estimate is that around 500,000 acres in Montana has soil acidification problem.

How precision... You have to apply something like a lime or something to combat it.

But how precision agriculture can help is that with the input cost, we cannot apply.

Our producers cannot make a profit if they are going to apply lime across the lime or spend lime or whatever it is, treat the entire field.

So, that's where precision agriculture come into picture.

If you have a hundred acre field, maybe you have a 20 acres that has acidity problem, not the entire field, but if you apply lime - Correct.

- or spend lime or this... From our sugar wheat processing plant, the spend lime coming, that's cheaper.

If you apply to the entire field, it is still very expensive.

But with the precision ag, if you can map where the acidity is and you can do this variable rate application, depending on the pH level in those areas that has acidity, then, it is more doable.

So, that's where precision ag come into picture.

- Okay.

Question came in via Facebook from Wolf Creek.

And this is a good question.

They had a major grasshopper issue last year, and they were looking online for some grasshopper bait.

And I guess, they're out of stock, any suggestion where they might get bait this year?

And is that something that we're short of nationwide again?

- Yeah, actually, I had a few questions about that the last couple weeks.

And what they're talking about is there's a fungus called, Nosema, that's used to control grasshoppers.

And last year, we were pretty much outta stock.

And what you do actually is you apply it around your property and the grasshoppers will contact the fungus.

It's pretty much grasshoppers-specific, so killing the grasshoppers, and it's not a hundred percent effective.

It usually cut down about 50% of population.

But they were outta stock last year, probably about...

I don't know if they were outta stock all year, but this year, they say they're outta stock.

And then, I called the distributor and they said that they're releasing product to their online distributors in May and June.

And then, when they're out, they're out.

So, I think, it's gonna be really difficult for people to get.

The only one that's available right now, the only brand is Nolo Bait.

So, you could try to call your online supplier and get on the list, on a waiting list, but they're not gonna be making any more.

And I don't know why.

- [Jack] Interesting.

Everything seems to be short in agriculture and more expensive.

- [Laurie] Yeah, yeah.

- [Jack] This cold snap we're supposed to be getting this week, I saw the lowest, maybe 70 degrees here in Galton county this week.

10 to 12 inches of snow, in some areas, below zero, not below zero, below freezing temperatures for prolonged period.

Is that gonna reduce the grasshopper numbers?

- [Laurie] It's gonna depend on egg hatch.

- [Jack] Okay.

- So, if it coincides, we have some overlapping generations of grasshoppers.

Usually they, over winter, in the egg stage.

So, if it happens to hit the egg stage in that particular area, then yeah, it'll have an impact on 'em.

And if it stays wet, that's good too.

- [Jack] Okay.

Ironically, we were talking ahead of time before the program this evening, about some erosion.

And this question did come in tonight from Carbon County and they say, "After a wildland fire, what should property owners do to rejuvenate the property, and what steps should they take to avoid noxious weed, invasive species and erosion?"

- Ooh, that's a really good question and a really complicated question.

So, it depends on what the land use is.

We did some research at Red Bluff, cheap ranch out in Bozeman, after the fire in 2012, and we monitored how much grass came back in the burned area, how much grass came back in the bulldozer line that was used to combat the fire, and we compared it to the unburned.

So, if you're talking native rangeland in Montana and the fire was not too hot, I think, you'll see the grass come back, and there's probably not a lot you need to do unless you had a whole lot of cheap grass there before maybe, and you might have to manage it post-fire.

So, I think, you have to figure out what you have there.

In cropland systems, if stubble burns, things like that, I would say one of the best things to do is to get a crop in the ground and grit, vegetation covering it, whether it's a cover crop or a weed crop, so that we prevent that erosion from going.

If you think about managing noxious weeds, what we wanna make sure we prevent is bringing seeds in.

So, if you're gonna go in and reseed, do some things like that, go with clean equipment, wash it off, make sure you didn't bring a lot of weed seed from around the yard into the fire, and I think, into the fire area.

And I think, monitoring and figuring out what sort of plan you might need and what areas might be prioritized.

That's actually something we talk about in maybe precision ag, in the rangeland system, having your vegetation map, so you know, okay, this is full of cheap grass.

This is full of weeds.

That's where I might concentrate my re-vegetation and my restoration work.

- [Jack] Okay, good answer.

Thank you.

Laurie, this person has a small red bug, tiny, they say, on their house plants.

Any idea what it might be?

- Oh, a red bug on their house plants.

Huh, when I think of a really small red bug, I think of a clover mite.

- Yeah, - And I don't know if this is be the time of year that they might be coming in, but they usually don't come too far into the house, but if you...

Please send me a picture or something to maybe even a sample and we could try to figure out what that is.

- [Jack] All right.

Two questions on precision ag, is it applicable to livestock production?

And this call came from (indistinct) - [Sreekala] It is applicable to livestock.

Although if you look nationally, there is a lot more work done on crop than livestock.

So, I see it as an opportunity for us, Montana State University.

We have our crop and livestock are equally important for us.

So, there is work done on a company, a presentation I listen to, they have this drone-based herding of cow.

They said that they could cut down on the number of cowboys by using drone, but that's one aspect of it.

But monitoring your cows individually to see how they are doing, they're moving around, they are eating, and what their metabolism is, body temperature is, that kind of stuff.

But also, this technology is already there, monitoring how much each cow is eating in other...

In our livestock farm there, we have GrowSafe.

You can monitor for each cow when they come and how much they eat.

And so, it's...

In crop, we say precision ag is farming by the square inch or managing each plant individually.

In livestock, it is more like managing each cow individually rather than as a herd.

That's one aspect.

The other aspect is managing the rangeland, from overgrazing and weed for example, invasive or otherwise, weed management and things like that.

- [Jack] Okay.

Thank you.

And from Bozeman, this person would like to know how expensive it is to become involved in adopting precision ag procedures.

(guest sighs) And maybe DeImna could answer that in two weeks too, because... (guests laughing) - I wish I had this silver bullet answer there.

That's why research and outreach is very important.

One of my advisory committee members asked, there are four companies who have approached me with their separate systems that would do the same thing.

How do I know which one to go for?

And how do I actually know whether I will lose money or make money on this?

That's why we need research and to develop technologies specifically for Montana and also validate, evaluate technologies in Montana conditions.

Some of these technologies are out there, applying fertilizer or seed or water, inevitable rate manner.

It's out there, but we still have to customize it to a farm or a field.

Some technologies look at a previous yield to decide how much fertilizer need to be applied and where it need to be applied.

Others use soil test, distributed soil test to quantify fertility levels and then apply.

So, there are a variety of ways you can use technology.

But the important thing is that you cannot take that technology from elsewhere and blindly apply here to your field.

And so, when you do research, you do demonstration, you do validation, you are going to look at a certain set of conditions in a field, in one or multiple fields here.

And then, reporting whether it is going to be...

The cost you pay, what you pay for that technology is going to make sense for farmers or ranchers here in Montana, whether it is going to... How long it will take, it's going to pay off in two years, five years, or it's 10 years, whatever, what they can do.

So, that's why I would say that it is very important that we do that kind of research here.

- [Jack] All right.

Thank you.

This is a once in the spring question for Uta.

(Tim and Sreekala laughs) This person had a lot of blossom-end rot last year on their tomatoes, would like to use the same planting beds this year, but wondering if that's a good idea, and how do you get rid of blossom-end rot and why?

- Right.

It seems very early to answer this question.

Maybe we'll come back to it later this year, but for now, (Jack laughing) blossom-end rot is caused by a deficiency in its calcium, right, Jack?

Yeah, and so, I don't see a problem with using the same soil, but you would wanna make sure that sufficient amounts of calcium are So, amending the soil with some fertilizer or some other ingredient that supplies that calcium would be a good way to help with that problem.

Yeah.

- Okay.

And I promise that I probably won't bring it back again.

- [Uta] All right then, (group laughing) well, write your answer down 'cause this is it.

(laughs) - [Jack] All right.

Laurie brought a pet along.

Entomologists are a little strange.

Most people (guest laughing) have dogs and cats.

- [Laurie] Says the plant pathologist.

(group laughing) - Okay.

But this is an interesting creature here.

And I don't know what you've named this one.

Is that George or Betty or... (Uta laughing) - This one does not have a name, but this is a vinegaroon and I'm not sure what camera I'm looking at here.

But a vinegaroon, this is... Oh, good.

Yeah.

Hold it down a little bit.

This is actually from Arizona.

We don't have vinegaroons.

It's a type of arachnid.

We don't have 'em in Montana.

So, it's a type of arachnid and we have 'em in Arizona.

We also have 'em in Central and South America, in the east, in East Asia.

And they get their name from having this long whip.

They're called whip scorpions or vinegaroons.

They shoot out acetic acid from this tail.

And they use that acetic acid in addition to a solvent to break down the skin, the exoskeleton of an insect.

So, they're actually a really good pet.

They are harmless to humans.

(Jack and Tim laughing) They're nocturnal and they build lots of, they build burrows in sand or underneath logs.

And they come out at night to grab prey and they're pretty much blind.

So, they use these first pair of legs of their four legs as feelers.

And they eat crickets.

So, earlier, when I brought this out earlier, a bunch of people were asking if this is fish bait and it's not fish bait, (Jack and Tim laughing) since we don't have it Montana.

- They don't eat grasshoppers?

- They would actually eat grasshoppers probably if I pulled off the spiny legs.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Yeah.

That's a good thing.

I should try this summer.

- Right, right.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - [Jack] Okay.

So, that was our cute pet for the evening.

- [Laurie] Cute pet for sure.

(Sreekala chuckles) - On that note, Tim, I'm gonna throw this one at you because it's one of those great questions that probably doesn't have a real good answer.

But a person from Bozeman has a problem with three rabbits eating leaves of crocus and spinach.

What can they do humanely to (group laughing) take care of that problem?

- I do not know.

I would probably eat the rabbit.

(group laughing) - They are tasty.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

I really like rabbit.

(group laughing) I don't have a good answer for that one.

I don't know how to keep rabbits out of- - Get a dog.

- Yeah, get a dog.

- They'll run 'em out.

- Yeah.

- We had rabbits and then we got two golden retrievers.

We have no more rabbits.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yep.

- Rabbits do not like- - [Uta] Wouldn't a humane thing to do be to just plant more of what they like to eat?

(group laughing) Is that the answer?

(laughs) - Maybe covering it with chicken wire or two- - You can do that.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

- But they'll find something else in the yard then to eat.

Interesting question from Joplin.

And Uta, you may not remember this, but this person wants to know whatever happened to the dreaded disease of wheat called Karnal bunt?

- [Uta] Hmm.

I heard stories.

I think, we just got it under control.

Okay, now, maybe you should better tell that story 'cause... (Jack and Uta laughing) - [Jack] It is an interesting story and I'm pretty sure I know who asked this question.

- You were probably involved, weren't you?

Yeah.

(chuckles) - This is back in the 90s.

I think, '96, They found - Mm-hmm.

- a quarantinable disease in Arizona, on desert durum.

And APHIS, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service said, we're gonna eradicate it.

And so, a bunch of us went down and attended that meeting.

And I came back along with some others and just said, we plant some durum in Montana that originates in Arizona, from different fields, of course.

I said, I am a little bit uncomfortable.

Don Matthew was uncomfortable, several from the department.

So, we requested some samples from Joplin and they had Karnal bunt, which is not a very serious disease.

- Mm-hmm.

- It's a quarantinable disease.

If that had gone in the soil 10 days later, - Mm-hmm.

- when it was scheduled to be planted, the entire grain crop in Montana would've been quarantined and we could not export it.

And last week, as Cassie said, we export 80% of our grains.

So, we had had 80% of the wheat sitting in bins here.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, minor disease, those political disease, - Mm-hmm.

- It's no longer an issue.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, enough said with that.

This is an interesting one here.

"How do you resuscitate a tired old lawn, plant on old soil without starting over completely?"

And I'll open that up to whoever wants to.

- My lawn looks terrible, so I have nothing (group laughing) to say to that.

- I would probably dethatch it first, if it was really dense.

- Right.

- And then, probably now, I would seed it perhaps or aerate it, get the soil a little bit lighter, if it's been compaction.

At my house, I have kids who really compact the lawn.

And today, I was out there trying to aerate it as best I could.

And then, I would probably re-seed it.

I had put some grass seed down today and I'm gonna let the snow and the rain and whatever we have really (guest chuckles) soak it in the next few weeks.

- I agree with you entirely.

- And just to add, we have also have a month guide.

Cheryl Moore-Gough put a month guide together on growing lines in Montana.

So, you could either get that on the MSU extension store or you can contact me, and I could definitely get you the month guide for that.

- [Jack] 9945704.

- Yep.

That's right.

- How's that?

Okay.

(Tim chuckles) Question here from Billings.

This person has heard of precision ag bootcamp.

I haven't heard of that.

Can you tell us what that might be?

- [Sreekala] Yeah.

You can contact me to get more information.

A number of faculty in our college is working together, Alan Dyer, Shannon Arnold, and our four new precision ag faculty members, perhaps I think, Bruce is also involved, Bruce Maxwell.

So, two things we are trying to do.

We received a grant from CHS foundation to educate our student.

Part of it is to convert one of our farms to a precision ag and sustainability learning farm.

So, that's gonna be our roots farm, but our precision ag group, they have been here for two months and we don't have a connectivity there.

So, we are working on it.

But in the meantime, this summer, we are putting together this bootcamp under the leadership of Alan Dyer, but several people are involved to train our students.

It's open to community members as well, the different aspect of precision ag, what you can do.

So, if I remember correctly, it is structured as mornings, they will provide lectures and share information.

Then, afternoon, they go to the farm and try their hand on some of these technologies.

That's what...

I think, it is in, I can't remember exact dates, but it is some time in June, but contact me, I can share that information.

- Yeah, something I probably ought to get involved with, just to increase a little bit.

I'm so far behind in precision ag.

- Yeah.

- That technology has advanced rapidly and I haven't kept up with it.

- So, the general consensus is that the precision agriculture technologies last two to three years.

They keep changing, the new and the cooler, newer and...

It's like a cell phone.

(group laughing) As soon as you buy something, there is something new and the cooler outside, out there.

So, two to three years is what they say.

So, if you are...

I have been here.

I haven't been doing research for three years and I feel like I am totally out of touch.

- [Jack] I can believe that.

- Yeah.

- You know, Jack, I have to say, there are some producers in the state who are using a lot of these things on their phones.

And sometimes, when we discuss crop-related health questions, maybe herbicide injury carryover, and they can whip out their phones and tell me exactly what they sprayed on what date and what the weather was, - Yeah.

- that is a really great technology to keep your records on your farm - Mm-hmm.

- and have it in a place where it's accessible.

- Yeah.

- Good point.

We didn't have that a few years back.

- Yep.

- So, I like that.

While I have you up, this person from Ledger, and do you know where Ledger is, everybody?

It's way up north.

(group laughing) This person wants to know if they can use a tine weeder to control field bindweed.

And I don't know what a tine weeder is for sure.

- Yeah, so a tine weeder is an implement, it's a mechanical implement that's pulled by a tractor.

And really, it's a spring-loaded tine that comes down with a little hook on the end, and you can set it more aggressively or And it goes down and it rips up the surface of the soil about an inch or so.

And it really gets out the annual weeds I would assume that this would be someone who'd be using it in an organic situation.

And so, there's a couple times you can use it.

And normally, you can plant, put your seed down below the surface, come over the top with a tine weeder and get those little bitty annual weeds that are germinating.

You then can come back when the cereals emerged and you can go back over the top of it again and get the second flush of annual weeds that came out.

Will it work for bindweed?

The answer is no because bindweed is a perennial plant that has a deep rise zone in the ground.

So, if you rip it off the top, it's just gonna regrow.

Tine weeding is really good for spring annual weeds that are just germinating around your crop.

And usually, the crop is bigger and the little annual weeds are smaller, so you can rip those tines over it without damaging your stand too much.

- [Jack] Okay.

Thank you.

Mike Drew says, "Bootcamp is June 6th to June 10th, and (guests laughing) we can get ahold of...

I'll tell you what, we'll put that date in the "AG Live" newsletter, which you can get by signing up for it online.

And a Billings caller called in and says he keeps rabbits out of his peas by spreading a boundary of moth balls every four to five inches apart.

That's a lot of moth balls.

That would be expensive (guest chuckles) in my estimation.

And a question from Great Falls.

Cassie last week talked about high quality of Montana grain, and this caller would like to know will precision ag techniques continue to enhance Montana's grain quality?

Good question.

- Potentially.

Again, one of the things before I move to this position, one of the things we were looking at was variable rate management of inputs to improve the quality, nutritional quality of the grain.

Now, I am not, again, an expert in this, but certain micronutrients, you can spray selectively.

There is a potential there, but I would say, generally speaking, if you are providing the nutrients, you are managing your crop in as needed basis, where it is needed, you are providing nutrients where it is needed.

You are managing the insects, or you are managing the insects when it starts, before it spreads to the whole field.

You are going to end up with a good quality crop.

So, I would say yes.

- [Jack] Okay.

Uta, this person from Bozeman put in a stone patio couple years ago, and the trees surrounding that patio don't look very good.

Is that because the patio going in, do you think?

- It could be.

It would depend on what trees they are and how close to the patio they are, but if you think about the stone patio, that adds the weight to the ground and to the roots that are probably underneath, and so, that weight might slowly have killed or is killing the roots and that's might be what the trees are suffering from.

We'd have to have a look at the site and get a little more information, but I think, there could be a relationship, yes.

- If they did any deep digging to put that patio and they could have- - Certainly if they injured the roots, for sure.

Yes.

- Very possible.

Caller says, "Regenerative ag uses nitrogen-producing companion crops, such as legumes to pull nitrogen outta the air, make it available for primary crop, such as corn.

Is MSU teaching regenerative ag at all?

- [Sreekala] That's a good question.

I don't know, Tim, do you know?

My understanding is that our classes provide, cover broad perspectives in agriculture or cover all kinds of agriculture to some degree, but maybe the most emphasis is on conventional agriculture.

Tim- - Yeah.

I think, we do cover some topics in regenerative agriculture.

Northern Ag Research Center in Havre, there was a project that Darrin Boss started, looking at taking out fallow from our wheat fallow rotation and putting cover crops in there where we assessed soil health.

We looked at the trade offs of soil, water usage.

We looked at the response of insects in those senses.

I think, a lot of people out there are using different regenerative ag techniques, whether that's in ranching or that's in row crops.

A lot of people look to use legumes as green manure crops to add nitrogen to their fields, especially organic producers.

That's really their main source of nitrogen in the state, but we do look more and more at ways of reducing fallow in Montana, which is necessary, but also a difficult part of our cropping system.

And that's where regenerative ag practice is, mixing in some cover crops in there occasionally and working on soil health is out there.

So, we do that in a number of disciplines, I think.

- I think, that's absolutely correct.

- I wanna add to that.

Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, the teaching programs there has a strong focus on sustainability.

So, when you talk about the sustainable agriculture, regenerative agriculture, organic agriculture, they are part of it.

But I would also suggest that the next time you bring Bruce Maxwell, ask him this question.

He would know more.

(group laughing) - He sat here last week.

We picked his brain - Right.

- a little bit.

Okay.

Interesting.

"With the advent of all the electric vehicles over the past few years, is there anything being done in electric tractors?"

- [Sreekala] Hmm.

(Sreekala sighs) If we are talking about our conventional size practice, there has been research looking at diesel electric, a diesel generator that generate electricity and then the tractor is running on electricity.

So, that is for our conventional size tractors.

But I don't know, maybe there are small-scale robotic machines, like unmanned aerial systems that may be running on battery.

But other than that, I'm not aware of any.

- [Jack] I haven't heard of any, but I have heard of this next question, which is a follow-up, what about autonomous tractors, driverless tractors.

- Yeah.

- Are those on the horizon?

- So, Case IH, that's one of the tractor companies.

They had a fully autonomous tractor for at least five or six years.

Just one model, they take it to shows, but I don't think that they have been selling it to producers.

So, it is out there and it is possible.

They are showing that you can do it.

And then, John Deere, I saw a recent news from John Deere saying that by the end of this year, they will have a fully autonomous So, it is out there.

- [Jack] That's amazing.

- Yeah.

- It really is.

- [Tim] I've seen a fully autonomous seeder.

It's basically the seeder with two wheels on the side and the wheels are driving it on the side, and there's no tractor actually attached to it.

And it's an autonomous seeder.

- For which crops, outta curiosity?

- Mostly for higher value crops.

They may be corn.

They'll land in other crops that are not necessarily grown in Montana first, but it's out there on the horizon.

- Technology.

Amazing.

While I have you up Tim, this person from Hogeland and it could also be any other place in the state, wants to know how to control dandelions and alfalfa, and boy, this valley could really use the control.

- [Tim] Yeah, that's a really, actually a pretty tough question.

Dandelions can become perennial plants and they have rarely large rootstocks and they can actually take a fair amount of yield from you and your alfalfa crops and dry down at a different rate in your hay a little bit.

So, what can you do to manage it?

A lot of the best management techniques, maybe if it's Roundup Ready alfalfa would to be apply Roundup in the fall when the alfalfa is down and low in stature and the dandelion is greened up for its fall period.

You can use a herbicide called Velpar in the springtime.

That works pretty well.

And then, there's another herbicide, Raptor, that people commonly use for weed control.

And that's an Imazamox herbicide in alfalfa, but varying degrees of success.

It's actually a pretty tough, a pretty tough problem.

And I think, you might, if it's an older stand of alfalfa, you could think of refurbishing that stand and putting some new plants in there.

- Actually, I'd rather see 'em tear it out, - [Tim] Yep.

- and grow grain for a couple years, get rid of some of the weeds - Mm-hmm.

- and then go back to alfalfa.

- Yeah.

- If you follow alfalfa with alfalfa, you can run into some serious disease problems, that Uta can touch on that.

- Yeah, yeah.

Especially, I think, there's this, if you seed alfalfa after an alfalfa crop, when alfalfa decomposes in the soil, it produces some compound that is actually toxic on alfalfa.

And so, you may have issues even establishing a new alfalfa crop if you follow it directly on an old one.

- [Jack] Correct.

This is a Facebook question, they came in this week.

Gene from Bigfork.

This is interesting.

They have hundreds of brown worms on their porch.

(Uta chuckles) Some of them are coming inside, but a lot of them die outside before they come in.

Not enough robins there yet.

This happens in the fall too.

(group chuckles) What are they?

How do you get rid of 'em?

- [Laurie] Well, they probably aren't worms.

They're probably, they're garden millipedes if they're about an inch long, brown, curl up.

They actually will... Once they get into the house, they're not gonna reproduce, but sometimes, they could be a big nuisance outside.

So, you could either, you can apply some, they call it, call 'em foundation sprays, in the fall and the spring, and that can cut down on them coming into the house.

But you can also just do some standard stuff to try to keep them from coming in, like some caulking around the foundation and door sweeps, and make sure that your screens are intact.

They're gonna try to come in the basement.

- Okay.

- But if it gets really bad and it's like that, you could definitely spray a fat foundation spray and you can contact me at 9945704, and I can help you out with that.

- [Jack] All right.

We're down to a very short period of time, yeah, but this question came in from Manhattan.

And it has to do with potatoes and precision ag.

Are there a lot of precision ag techniques being used in potato production now?

- It's a good question.

I don't know answer to that, Jack.

- [Jack] I'm not sure either, but you would expect with the amount of fertilizer - Yeah.

- that potato producers utilize and herbicides and insecticides, I suspect there's probably room for some.

- Yeah, chemical application, you can use that on any crop, but potato specific, I can't say much.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- Is there some precision irrigation technologies coming?

- There is.

- I think, so.

- There is.

Definitely.

Tim, in 10 seconds, (guest chuckles) when do you start controlling dandelions in lawns?

- Today was a pretty good day.

Well, wait till after this snowfall.

- Yeah.

(chuckles) - Yup.

- I would say so.

(guest chuckles) - And when he gets warm.

Yeah, a little bit warm.

- Yeah, and another week or so.

- Yep.

- Based on what we have this week.

(beaten music) I'd like to thank the panel.

We're down to the last few minutes.

We will not be here next week.

Easter Sunday, (soft upbeat music) we're taking that Sunday off.

The following week, we'll have DeImna Heiken here from Triangle Ag-Services, to talk about how precision ag techniques are being used here in the state.

Sreekala, thanks for the time.

Everybody, thank you for watching.

See you in two weeks.

Have a good week.

Good night.

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(soft upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Montana AG Live" is made possible by (beaten music) the Montana Department of Agriculture, the MSU Extension Service, the MSU Ag Experiment Stations (beaten music) of the College of Agriculture, (soft upbeat music) the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, Cashman Nursery and Landscaping, (beaten music) the Northern Pulse Growers Association, and the Gallatin Gardeners Club.

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