Growing Season Weather Outlook Focus Of March 11 Ag Research Summit Webinar

Farmers and ranchers in the MonDak region are readying their equipment for spring planting. The big question now is the weather. What can farmers and ranchers expect this growing season?

Patrick Gilchrist with the National Weather Service Office, Glasgow will help answer that question in the fifth webinar of the 2021 MonDak Ag Research Summit Series to be held on Thursday, March 11 beginning at 10 a.m. MT, 11 a.m. CST.

In his keynote presentation – entitled Seasonal outlooks and potential climate change impacts for eastern Montana and western North Dakota – Gilchrist will not only discuss current drought conditions and the outlook for spring and the growing season, but also what impacts climate change may have on the region's normal weather patterns going forward.

Patrick Gilchrist is the warning coordination meteorologist for the Glasgow weather office. Born and raised in Glasgow, he graduated from the University of North Dakota in 2001 with a degree in atmospheric science. After getting his start with the NWS in Missoula, he returned home to Glasgow in 2007. In addition to leading the office outreach and preparedness efforts, he also serves as an incident meteorologist, providing on scene weather support to firefighters battling large wildfires. Most recently he supported the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for six weeks in Sydney and Brisbane during their record fire season in 2019-2020.

Following our keynote speaker are three shorter presentations by USDA and MSU researchers in Sidney and Kalispell, addressing soils and weeds in cropping systems as follows:

• Effect of crop management practices on soil microbial communities - Dr. Sadikshya Dangi, microbiologist; Agricultural Systems Unit; USDA-Agricultural Research Service; Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney.

• Palmer amaranth | Sugarbeet weed control - Dr. Clint Beiermann, assistant professor, cropping systems agronomist, MSU Northwestern Ag Research Center, Kalispell.

• Soil Compaction - Dr. Jalal "Jay" Jabro, research soil scientist; Agricultural Systems Unit; USDA-Agricultural Research Service; Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney.

The webinar concludes at 11:30 a.m. MST/12:30 p.m. CST. All interested persons are invited to participate and anyone can join the day of the event by using the following (Zoom program) link: https://ndsu.zoom.us/j/91453448686. No registration is needed to participate.

The MonDak Ag Research Summit is coordinated by MSU's Eastern Agricultural Research Center; USDA ARSs Northern Plains Agricultural Research Lab, both in Sidney, and NDSUs Williston Research Extension Center, Williston. Normally a one-day, in-person event, this year's MonDak Ag Research Summit was moved online due to COVID-19.

The concluding webinar and keynote presentation for the 2021 MonDak Ag Research Summit webinar series is:

• March 25: Whither agricultural policy in 2023 and beyond? - Dr. Vincent Smith, professor, Initiative for Regulation and Applied Economic Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics, Montana State University, Bozeman;

Dr. Smith is a Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University Professor, and also directs the university's Agricultural Marketing Policy Center. In addition he serves as MSU's Initiative for Regulation and Applied Economics Research co-director, and the AEI Agricultural Studies Program director, and Visiting Scholar American Enterprise Institute. Dr. Smith's research interests focus on policy and include the areas of domestic and international agricultural commodity policy; agricultural risk management policy, and agricultural science and technology policy.

Note, all webinars run from 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. MST/11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. CST and include opportunities to ask questions of the speakers during the live sessions.

For questions or more information on this series, contact Beth Redlin, 406-433-9427; [email protected], or Violeta Hobbs, 701-774-4315; [email protected] or visit our website at http://www.ars.usda.gov/pa/nparl/agsummit.