National Hard Spring Wheat Show Speakers

Importance of Soil Sampling

Thursday, February 9 at 2:40 pm

Chris Augustin, NDSU Area Soil Health Specialist

Chris grew up on his family farm in northeastern North Dakota near the town of Crystal. Helping out with small grains, sugar beets, and potatoes operation gave Chris a love of agriculture and respect of the land. This carried over into college as he earned a B.S. and M.S. in Natural Resources Management emphasizing Soil Science from North Dakota State University. During Chris' time at NDSU he became active and held leadership positions in many organizations. During the spring of 2008 Chris moved to Carrington to work for the NDSU Extension Service as a Nutrient Management Specialist where he worked with farmers and ranchers fertility programs and consulted them on environmental issues. Chris moved to Minot in March of 2012. He hopes to help farmers improve their soil resources. Chris is excited to improve North Dakota's soil by educating producers, technical service providers, and others on current and emerging soil management practices.

Winter Wheat Production in the Northern Great Plains

Thursday, February 9 at 3:20 pm

Dr. Phil Bruckner, MSU Winter Wheat Breeder

Phil L. Bruckner is a winter wheat breeder and professor in the Plant Sciences & Plant Pathology Department at Montana State University. Phil obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees at Montana State University and a Ph.D. in 1985 from North Dakota State University. Phil served as small grain breeder at the University of Georgia Coastal Plains Experiment Station from 1985 to 1992, before moving to Montana State Universi-y. His program focuses on development of high-yielding winter wheat varieties that have good agronomic characteristics and resistance to disease and insect pests, withstand environmental stresses, and meet marketing requirements of Montana wheat producers. His program has developed and released eight solid-stem winter wheat cultivars for management of wheat stem sawfly. Recent cultivars released by the MSU program include Decade, Bearpaw, Judee, SY Clearstone 2CL, WB3768, Warhorse, Colter and Loma winter wheats.

Communicating Through Differences

Wednesday, February 8 at 7:30 am

Jodi Bruns , Community Vitality Extension Specialist

Jodi Bruns is a Community Vitality Extension Specialist for the NDSU Extension Service. She works with rural community leaders to assist them in developing long term plans as well as providing various research based resources from NDSU. She also delivers professional development training and facilitation for private industry, government agencies as well as communities. Jodi and her husband live and work on their 4th generation farm located in Dickey County.

Five Common Mistakes in Grain Marketing

Wednesday, February 9th at 8:30 am

Dr. Ed Usset , Grain Marketing Economist for the Center for Farm Financial Management University of Minnesota

Working with his colleagues at CFFM and in extension, Ed developed the award winning "Winning the Game" series of workshops. In addition, he manages Commodity Challenge, an online marketing education game that uses real-time cash and futures data. He teaches "Commodity Markets" at the University. The 2nd edition of his book, "Grain Marketing is Simple (it's just not easy)" was released in November, 2015

What's On Your Landscape?

Wednesday, February 8 at 2 pm

Jay Fuhrer, NRCS Bismarck Conservationist

Growing up on a small grain and livestock farm, Jay's interests have always centered on agriculture. Jay emphasizes Soil Health as a foundation for cropping & grazing systems, cover crops, soil biology, pollinators, insects, wildlife, and quality of life. At the Menoken Farm, Jay uses cover crops and livestock integration to connect the cropping and grazing systems together, raising the Soil Health bar even higher.

Projected Weather Patterns for 2017 Growing Season

Thursday, February 9 at 7:30 am

Daryl Ritchison, Interim Director North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) North Dakota State University

Daryl spends his time on climate research, public outreach and development and enhancement of tools for NDAWN, a network of 85 weather stations located throughout North Dakota, eastern Montana and western Minnesota. He also presents short and long term forecasts for the state of North Dakota and the upper Midwest and is a well-known public speaker on various topics. Previous to his current position he worked for 25 years as a meteorologist at various Midwestern television stations including WDAY-TV, WDAZ-TV and WDAY-AM. Throughout his career he has spoken to hundreds of groups on NDAWN usage, weather, climate, weather risk management, public relations, serving as Master of Ceremonies, giving motivational talks and additional topics.

FAQ About Fusarium Head Blight & Don

Wednesday, February 8 at 10 am

Dr. Andrew Friskop , NDSU Extension Plant Pathologist

Andrew is responsible for the management of cereal diseases in North Dakota. He is a native of North Dakota and received his Ph.D. (2013) from North Dakota State University. His applied research program focuses on the management of several cereal diseases.

Soil Health

Wednesday, February 8 at 3:20 pm

Dr. Nick Goeser, National Corn Growers Association, Director of the Soil Health Partnership, Director of Soil Health and Sustainability

Nick is building The Soil Health Partnership Network of on-farm research trials to connect soil health with on-farm management, crop productivity, profitability and environmental responses. Nick has over a decade of research in the areas of crop production, nutrient cycling and management, and environmental quality. Nick completed a MS in Agronomy and PhD in Horticulture from the University of Wisconsin. Nick's doctoral research focused on the evaluation of crop productivity, nutrient use efficiency, and nutrient cycling from organic residues within a vegetable rotation.

Agricultural Apps for 2017

Wednesday, February 8 at 11:30 am

John Nowatzki, NDSU Agricultural Machine Systems Specialist

John's responsibilities include developing and teaching educational programs related to agriculture machinery selection and operation, geo-spatial technology for precision resource management, conservation tillage technologies, agricultural chemical application technology, energy conservation and alternative energy use. Expertise areas: agricultural machine systems, precision agriculture, conservation technology, farm equipment energy conservation, energy efficiency, farm chemical application technology & wireless technology on farms.

Effects of Sulfur and Nitrogen on Growth and Yield of Dryland Spring Wheat

Thursday, February 9 at 11 am

Dr. Gautam Pradhan, Research Agronomist NDSU Williston Research Extension Center

Gautam's research mainly focuses on evaluation of crop varieties and breeding lines for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance and development of technologies that enhance input use efficiency, yield and quality of dryland crops. He conducted similar research at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Amarillo, Texas; Kansas State University, Kansas; and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Nepal. At present, he has grants from the ND Soybean Council, Montana Wheat & Barley Committee, and Northern Pulse Growers Association. Dr. Pradhan has a PhD in Agronomy from Kansas State University and a MS in Agriculture from the University of Bonn, Germany. He is a reviewer of seven international journals and an author of nine scientific papers.

Wheat Midge

Management Tips for 2017

Wednesday, February 8 at 10:45 am

Dr. Janet J. Knodel, Extension Entomologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at North Dakota State University

Janet received her B.S. in Zoology and Ph.D. in Entomology from North Dakota State University in Fargo and her M.S. in Entomology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Her primary responsibilities include insect pests of field crops, trees/shrubs, garden, and home. She oversees the insect diagnostics, administers the North Dakota Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program and co-edits the NDSU Extension Service Crop & Pest Report. Her applied research focuses on IPM strategies (cultural control, biological control, host plant resistance and chemical control) for insect pests of canola, cereal grains, potato, soybean and sunflower.

Glyphosate-Resistant Horseweed and Kochia: Identification and Management in the MonDak

Wednesday, February 8 at 1:30 pm

Dr. Clair Keene, NDSU Area Cropping Systems Specialist

Clair received her Ph.D. in Agronomy with an emphasis in Weed Science from Penn State University in August of 2015. She received her undergraduate degrees from Iowa State University. Dr. Keene arrived in North Dakota in February of 2016 and is working at the Williston Research Extension Center as an Area Extension Specialist in Cropping Systems with NDSU Extension Service. Dr. Keene is currently engaged in research projects focusing on reclaiming saline soils with perennial forages and expanding herbicide options in safflower. Her extension program is under development, but she enjoys working with farmers on weed management questions and diversifying crop rotations for both pest management and profitability.

Insects – Good and Bad

Thursday, February 9 at 2 pm

Dr. Travis Prochaska, NDSU North Central Research and Extension Center Area Extension Specialist

Travis has a B.S. in organismal biology from Concordia University Nebraska (2009) and a M.S. in entomology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2011) where his studies focused on soybean host plant resistance to the soybean aphid. He earned a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2015) focusing on switchgrass host plant resistance to cereal aphids, specifically Greenbug and Yellow Sugarcane Aphid.