 Well, good morning, everyone standing by the podium standing in the center of the room. It was better So I'm gonna have to go to that Mike. How did you hear me before so Jessica? Standing there is good Jeff standing there is good good. That's what we're gonna do we're just gonna stand here then and Everybody in the room here in pier can hear okay We're good super and folks out there on the virtual land can hear okay Correct thumbs up. All right. We're gonna go wow Okay, let's go ahead and get started everyone. Thank you so much for joining us for Kind of our uh, September state technical committee meeting Glad to have you all here. We have a nice room full Here in here on you're seeing a few of those folks in on camera But we also have an amazing crowd that is joining us now remotely So thank you so much As you can tell just from the few minutes that we just went through this is kind of new ground for many of us Someone was just saying Earlier today Carl was telling me if he had a quarter for every time He said that we're just trying to find our way through this New situation that we find ourselves in that we he would be a rich man. So Carl I'm not going to give you those dollars, but I think your your observation is good. So anyway Really glad to have you all we have a lot to go over with you today Through this effort and so please bear with us the best we can I think we'll be able to take some questions that will come up and visit about that I I really believe that um For the sake of kind of time and camera and things like that one of our normal traditions is to do introductions I think that's going to be a little bit difficult to navigate through that Um, so I think what we'll do is for go that day and we'll try to do our very best To make sure that if someone wants to make comments that they could do a quick introduction of themselves And that will also what we'll also do is make sure that we get the best List published of all the folks who were here So we'll try to make sure we capture all you as attendees So virtually and in person and make sure that we share that out. So everyone Here Or everyone can know who was here and who joined us. So thank you Very good. Well, thank you again. So um with that I'm going to make just a few opening comments and then we'll go ahead and get started And I'm going to be calling on some of our congressional representative representatives that are with us today To make a few comments during that time and then they may have some other comments They want to make throughout the meeting as well so This has been an interesting year as we talked about it's not just the whole covid situation, but it's also Really about us being able to try to find out how we are rolling out our farm bill programs many of you in the room Who we speak with often Have are aware that nrcs has tried to roll out this year several new computer programs Software programs try to help us do a better job Nationally of capturing outcomes and things like that about programs I think in the end it will be a really good spot for us to be but that doesn't mean that any time you go to a Good spot. There's not growing pains along the way might and this year. We've had Definitely our share of growing pains. So we've gone through a lot of that The good news is is that we are sitting here today on the 16th of September With the end of the fiscal year rapidly approaching us and we have literally gotten all of our dollars Farm bill dollars obligated and so we've got just a handful I think maybe we're down to a couple of equips and less than tens conservation stewardship applications To get finished up all of our acep Applications have been moved and obligated and sent in we're still finalizing a few of our agreements for some of our technical assistance dollars If I don't know that we'll have anybody on with Farm service agency But I can tell you that we had a large workload in South Dakota this year And we were able to get that wrapped up by last friday. There's a few things that are going on. So I feel really proud Of the nrcs people and all the partners that we work with for accomplishing this workload It was a busy year. You're going to hear more about that But we really banded together and got it done. So thank you to all of you online I'm a thank you You all of you in this room that helped us accomplish that. I think it's going to be good for conservation and good for the So we're pleased. We're pleased to share a lot of those updates with you today So second on the agenda is for some of our congressional representatives to speak with us um Ryan donnelly is joining us from washington dc Works with senator thune and ryan right now appears to be froze up a little bit Maybe he's going to come through ryan if you can hear me and if you're free right now Would you like to make a few opening comments? ryan might have lost connectivity there for a second. He did look froze up Um, okay, joe, would you like to join us? I'm going to have you come forward and i'll step out of the way Maybe you'd like to make a few comments as well morning I hate to interrupt you, but can you stand right in front of the computer? Okay. Yeah, can you hear me now? Yes, thank you the cell phone commercial um So I I just wanted to you know, obviously we're it's sort of a conscious time. We've got an election coming up and we're kind of potentially negotiate some of the extension of encoded relief legislation, especially the most popular items Like ppp that's proven to be difficult. I think with the different competing priorities I can I don't know ryan if you heard that part, but I told the group but we're gonna have ryan donnelly Can I talk to him a lot of this so we'll rely on his expertise, but Um, so that's an ongoing thing. I think we're going to be in through early october. They might lop off one week in october of session As we grow closer to another election One thing we are pushing in front of this corona situation that we've Suffered through this year is our meat inspection bill, which I think a lot of you are familiar with That allows state inspecting meat facilities in south dakota to Use that or sell that product across state lines. We think that the food supply I mean if this beard didn't prove it. I mean our food supply system is too consolidated We need competition. It's in Best interest of consumers to seek that kind of competition It's in the best interest of food security to have that type of competition So we're continued and push that as one part of many to make sure that our supply chain is less consolidated And at the end of the day We think it comes down to You know an unnecessary regulation that you can sell these products safely within state, but you can't Uh sell it interstate even though Uh those safety standards do meter in the pre-existing federal standard. So I'll just touch on two more things. Um phase one On the China purchase, you know, it seems like that's on a good pace I mean, it's a tough year to maybe hit that but You know, I think it's our obligation to congress and obviously with the executive branch to keep Pressuring China to make those purchases that they committed to so that's going to be huge and you know Jeff might know more See fat details are coming soon. Ryan might be able to add more but again, just Thanks for the opportunity to come listen to the technical meeting and you know, get some information and want to provide a little Insight onto what our office is working on what senator rounds is working on. So we appreciate that. Thank you Ryan, it looks like you're able to or have joined us back and it looks like you're live And I can see your head moving now. So you're not froze up. That's great news. Good to see you Um, we're gonna have you go next sir. And then what we'll do is if there's some questions from the group Maybe we can have joe come back up and the two of you could tackle both together. So I'll turn it over to you ryan. Thank you so much for taking time to join us today Thank you. Can you guys hear me? Good heads nodding here in the room and I'm sure live so All right, glad to hear of my Wifi cut out there for a minute. So sorry. I hopped off but I'm back now. I'm ryan donnelly I'm senator things add legislative assistant based out here in dc Um, I don't have a whole lot to add on top of what joe has already covered You know, we're obviously looking at appropriations legislation. Probably a continuing resolution Either through december or early next year To to fund the government. One thing we'll be looking at as part of that appropriations legislation will be funding for the commodity credit corporation obviously that funding is being used now for See fat the direct assistance to producers, but we've also got commodity and conservation program payments that will be due here in You know at the beginning of the next fiscal year and That'll be a priority for us to make sure that usda has the the funds needed to get assist get Program payments out the door to producers um Joe and mention see fat we do expect more details on that hopefully this week yet on you know potential second round of assistance for producers And then I guess one other thing I wanted to touch on is The soil health and income protection program That was included in the 2018 farm bill And it's a three to five year set aside program within the conservation reserve program And the deadline to sign up Pro for the program Was extended from august 21st to november 20th So that's something a program that was a you know, a high priority for senators soon in the farm bill and Glad to see that the the sign-up was extended and Would appreciate any any feedback or thoughts you guys have on the program or you know ideas for improvement as we Continue working to implement the farm bill But that's it for me and thanks again for the opportunity to join today Ryan, thank you so much So if I could Joe if you want to come at least be up close up front I would open it up for a few questions for ryan and joe So, um, we'll just kind of go ahead and see how that turns out So any questions from the room here? I can try to repeat those back to them Or are there any questions from any of the folks joining us virtually ryan mike So mike schmidt livestock producer from moody county wondering about any updates on Price discovery on the livestock side of things. So if I didn't do that very well joe for that as well He might have I don't know if you can hear me now Okay, I just want to add some top-line stuff That I think the senator want would want me to add on all that price discovery our meat inspection bill uh country of origin issues, um This whole thing's going to be an uphill battle And I mean this is going to be a real fight because there's some real I mean as we know Entrenched Threshold interest groups. I don't want to see any additional market competition They don't want to see the labeling issues even if it's worked out on a trade basis So I I can let don't only kind of give maybe, you know, what's the Status of affairs right now with this concerted effort that our delegation has gone through Along with a lot of different You know rural senators that aren't that get it and understand the cattle issues You know when we go out in the communities and we see it and talk So I just wanted to add that you know, this is going to be a Fight that we're we're going to have to continue a multi-year fight But I'll I'll let ryan kind of touch on specific details Yeah, thanks joe and yeah, I agree it is going to be an uphill battle that we'll continue to to have here Probably won't I'll be resolved this year, but we will keep working at it In the senate ag committee, we've got mandatory price reporting Reauthorization and that the current authorization expires at the end of this fiscal year So here at the end of September And you know, we haven't reached an agreement yet on what a long-term reauthorization will look like But hopefully we can get a short-term extension included in a continuing resolution or another the bill that will Maintain funding for the government here in the short term and then you know continue working towards a long-term agreement on mandatory price reporting Your involvement with us today appreciate that much Next on the agenda is a soil health update There's a quite a few people in the room and live that can help us with this But a couple of our specialists who normally speak with us Specifically ken veliger who is our state soil health specialist was tied up today So you're going to get just kind of a simple update from me. So sorry about that But the main update that I want to give to you is is that South coda and the partnership has put together a new handbook the folks here We're able to uh be able to Publish this and it's out now and I know cindy is putting it out this week with her newsletter and some things like that and so This is going to hit south coda. So all of you interested in soil health I really encourage you to get your hands on one of these handbooks. It'll be on the nrcs website It's going to be on the soil health coalition's website a really good document took a long time And we're just happy all as a partnership to have it out and available for producers across south coda and beyond our Borders well. So thank you so much with that Levi do you have anything else that you'd like to add sir? Are you okay? Levi's given me the thumbs up All this technology is scaring off some of these people including me. So anyway, we'll just kind of handle it that way If any other questions come up on soil health later on, please let us know The last thing that I'll share about soil health is is I've had a chance to travel around the state Recently spending some time with some producers last thursday I was in a meeting and some producers were telling me it was a landowner Operator and you don't too many times run into both of those people at the same time in a meeting But anyway, we were visiting and they said hey jeff when you leave here Make sure you take a look at the north side of the gravel road And please take a look at the south side of the gravel road as well And so I stopped along the road and I took a couple pictures And what I've seen is one side of that road had been farmed with the soil health system from since about um, I think they told me 1996 seven somewhere in that neighborhood so about 22 23 years And the soybeans on that side of the road Look were taller. They were greener They just in a lot of ways looked like it was going to be a better crop It'll I'll find out on the south side of the road had been more traditional and its propping system And it's how it was planted it was killed before And it was a more corn soybean rotation and those beans look like they're hurting a lot from the lack of rain That this part of the state had had in the month of august So once again this year has shown us That soil health systems definitely do Um help us be resilient. We don't know what mother nature is going to throw our way But we know that we can prepare and our soils can be better able to handle it And I think that's the message that we just want to continue to carry forward across their state to help our state be in the best So thank you for all of you that are working together to make soil health go farther in south Dakota Next we have another exciting thing that we want to do for you. We're going to show you some technology I'm going to tell just a little bit of a story to get it started and then we're going to bring mark larsina so Over my eight and a half years with you in south dakota numerous times I've had producers talk to me about the need pile And the decision of whether pile drainage should be put in the ground And many people have said that you know, they hear a lot from a lot of different individuals that it will pay back It will provide them a profit And you know, what I've always just encouraged producers to do is while I'm not telling you that tile is good or tile is bad What I do tell you to make to do is make the best informed decision you can We felt like when we thought about that as an nrcs and partnership team We felt like we were we were missing some of that data some of the things that maybe a producer could think about And we challenged our staff with that And j cob has worked with mark larsin one of our hydraulic or hydro hydrologic engineers And mark has put together a decision tool that he wants to present to you today And it would be something more that you can also see from different locations. We'll share that But I do believe it will not provide you all the answers nothing will but it will Provide you some of the answer will help consider how do you think about several things? So with that I'm going to bring forward mark and I really appreciate all the work that he's done on this thanks So I'm going to share my screen with you and what I'm going to share is two things This is the result of that request by jeff Make sure I get the right thing here first All right, so we put together a spreadsheet to help process the decision of whether or not to install agricultural drainage tile And this is the opening page on that spreadsheet the first tab. It's a list of instructions And I'm going to go through it quickly with you on how it operates how it works what the answer you get what it means So we'll start with the first thing we want to find is The field that you're interested in tile and when we look at the field that you're interested in tile and we're going to recommend using web soil survey And this tool is available on e-photog under section two So you can go there you can download this tool Any updates we do to it will be placed there as well But the first thing you need to do is get a soil survey of the land if you're interested in tile And so we've done this for this plot of this quarter Here it gives us our soil map units It gives us our acreage that we have for each soil map unit within that field And we're going to take that if I bring my tool back up We're going to go to this input tab, which is the green tab So we start at the top we have our producer name We have our soil survey area In this instance, I'm using date county But there's a nice drop-down box you can choose your soil survey area by county I've labeled the tract in field And then once you've done that You go in here under map unit in these green boxes and you can choose those map units from your soil web soil survey And once you've chosen the map unit you then input the acreages found on web soil survey So we try to make this as as easy to use as possible Once you have all of your acreages in with their soil map unit We move down here to our crop rotation You can do corn corn beans, you can do all corn You can do a variety of different crops Right now I do corn soybeans and wheat in here as a three crop rotation Which seems to be a very typical especially in those areas that are putting in drainage tile But you can see there is there is a list of crops in here that you can use Even have alfalfa in here So there's a there's a complete list Now the gray boxes are optional inputs For right now, I'm going to leave those blank, but I'll show you how of putting something there to these things out for quickly Once you have made those choices The next thing you're going to want to do is go up to data And we're going to hit refresh all I've already done this so I'm not going to do it because it does take a little bit of time to do that Once it's done refreshing You'll see that the bottom here where these red values and black values are for your profit net profit and gross profit Those values will change and So then the next step after we refresh it all is we're going to put in the cost of installation of that time So you should have a general idea on a per acre basis of what's the tile installation that costs Over the years that value can range depending on how many acres you're going to do How much manual labor is going to be involved? What size of tile So I've seen costs anywhere from as low as $500 to as high as $1,500 The the default value in here is 800, but that again we can change that value The next is the practice lifespan. This is how long Before you're going to have to replace that tile Now for us at nrcs our practice lifespan for a subsurface drainage tile is 25 years And that's what we would put in there if it was if you're installing it as a practice for nrcs But we also also recognize that most subsurface drainage tile is going to last you a good 50 years I know everything that on my home farm that was installed in the 70s and 80s is still there. It's still fun So I have 50 years here for the practice lifespan Also, because that also affects our interest rate and our maintenance rate that we're doing next So if we're purchasing this and we have an interest rate on it, that's the next tab here the next box and we're going to input that value Right now it's defaulted at 8% And then the next box is our maintenance and that's defaulted at 2% on an annual maintenance cost Now once those green boxes are filled It automatically adjusts the final answer speed If you go to the right here these white boxes under yield increase It gives you after the tile is installed What the expected increase in yield of those crops will be on that field as an average for the field Okay, so it's a average for the field Then as we move further down we have our pre drainage gross revenue and net profitability for each crop in the rotation And then we have our post drainage gross revenue and net profitability for each crop And then that final line in that table is the change in profit So how much are we gaining or how much are we losing by putting that tile in and that takes into account The amortization of the tile over those years And then the final three boxes here are our years to payback Now here it says a hundred years It default it defaults at a hundred years max I shouldn't say it just once it hits a hundred years it stop doesn't go any higher And we can get values lower than that I've seen some as low as eight so we can get lower values But in this field because we're assuming pattern tile on a quarter section Almost always on every field. I've checked it's come out to a hundred years So what that is saying is it's going to take you at least that long before you'll make enough profit That's before you'll make enough money, right? That's you're actually above and beyond what should cost you to put that tile acres of little to no benefit These are the acres identified by this spreadsheet That you in that you input it at the top That have little to no benefit as far as hydrology goes for drainage top Okay and for yield increase And the acres with a potential benefit are those acres that have that added yield increase have a significant yield increase So you're probably wondering where do I get these numbers from? They kind of wanted to go through it real quick for you so you kind of understand how we're doing this And next I'm going to go through the next tab which does a little better job of helping me explain how we go through how we get our numbers so Once you've identified your soil map units The spreadsheet identifies each component within that map unit And it identifies based on that county's Percentages for that component for that map unit how much of that component is in that map? So let's say for instance You have a buse loam That has some sub components of a barns. Okay, and the barns is 10% So in that buse loam whatever acreage you put in there 10% of those acres would go towards the barns component So all your components are figured out and then each components acreages from each map unit is added back together So we've now divided up into components here your entire field So these are individual soil components divided up across your field And then from there we take those components we determine the degree And that's given to us by the soil survey. We have identified the drainage class Anything that is very well drained or well drained is considered to have No yield effect by installing drainage time And those are typically the soils when it says acres of little to no benefit. That's those are the ones that are showing up here Moderately well drained soils as you can see on this we have a defaulted to 10% increase in yield So any soil components that are labeled as a moderately well drained soil as their drainage class Is going to get a 10% increase in yield bump For any soil that is labeled as somewhat poorly drained or poorly drained We are giving a 20% yield bump and then any soil that is labeled as a very poorly drained We are giving a 40% yield These yield increases come from research that was done by the university of minnesota and university isle over the past 20 years As new research comes out We'll make adjustment, but that's research I could find from those universities. That's what I could find was a 20% 15 to 20 yield bump on those poorly drained somewhat poorly drained soil You also notice on here that we have some of these components are highlighted in pink The reason they're highlighted in pink is because they're identified as hydric soils So as we are also concerned about wetlands We highlight those just so that you are made aware that there's a potential for wetland in those soils That's all it's just uh just to make you aware. That's it It doesn't tell you that there is a wetland. It doesn't tell you Anything else it just says there's a potential And it's also a good time to if you're working on this with your district conservationists or your soil conservationists And they see that they can say hey, have you had done a certified wetland determination on this field Right. So it's another conversation starter for you Once we have those that information It goes into the yields Now the yields that we are using in this spreadsheet Are those taken from the Mitchell technical institute's annual reports where they call up producers and ask them What'd you get for a yield? And those are based on crop per county So depending on which county you chose earlier It's going to give you values based on the information they got from that county And that is going to be the county average Okay So we're looking at the county average Based on Mitchell Mitchell technicals institute's annual report and then going further down When we're looking at the price that we're using for your per bushel or per ton Sale of your of your crop Those prices I currently have up to 2019 average prices in there. Those are statewide average prices For that year If they're not specific to a county, they're not specific to a time of year. They're just the average price per year And it's updated to 2019 Obviously, we're not done with 2020 yet. So I don't have that value in there now That that's how we're getting our default information And that's how this thing is calculating its information if I go back to our input table There are some things that we can change So these going back to these gray boxes if you know What you're getting in that field or a yield Prior to putting prior to the installation of your file You can put that value in And it will use that value instead of the county average to determine What your final yield is going to be So my county average for date county was 148 bushels per acre And I know that I'm getting 190 Just throwing numbers off the top of my head I can make that adjustment and everything adjust Additionally if my corn price my average county corn price is 389 But I know I've already got it for sale for 410 Whatever it may be right, but I know I know I know what my price is going to be I can put that in And again, that adjusts everything down line So we can make these adjustments for every crop on this page So you can either use the county averages Or you can use your own input Now, so this was a pattern tiled field the whole quarter We can also with web so survey and the reason I like using web so survey for this As we can say well, what if and it's hard to see on this because I don't have a Web so survey doesn't do a good job highlighting this. What if I'm just tiling some low spots, right? What if I'm what if I'm specifically tiling certain areas? Okay So if I'm looking at just these low spots I can go back And we can adjust those values. So I'm going to open up my second one There you go So this is now just looking at that smaller area in the field versus the entire field And again, we're putting in our soil map units We got our county or so map units acres for each one based on that soil survey And we're making adjustments To our pre-draining yield and our costs So let's say I'm a little higher for right So we can see for corn Let's say I have this higher yield and that's higher price My pre-draining net profitability is about $372 break My post-draining profitability on that on those same acres if I switch down to this smaller area It's 382 So actually we're before if I pattern titled the whole field I was showing of an An increase in loss not an increase in profit. Well, now I'm showing an increase in profit of 10 dollars So it's also a good way to see the difference. So there's two ways to use this. I can use this on my whole field. Just see what Looking at just the economics of that tile and yield increase as all we're looking at We're not looking at any other benefits from the time. We're just looking at the economics of the yield increase and the installation of time And I can see how if I just spot tile it I'm actually going to save more money or earn more money at you Especially with corn and again if I change the values for the soybean and winter wheat I'm sure those will adjust as well So this is a tool, you know as mr. Zimbridge had mentioned He's been thinking about for a while something that he requested that we develop This is what we came up with. I've run this through several university and experts in the field already Trying to make sure that I got the number that I'm using the right numbers and getting the information correct So at this time, I'll take any questions It is available on the e-photog website under section two engineering tools But currently that's the only place I have it Because that was It was a term that we wanted to put it in one place that was that should be accessible to everybody So here your DCs Yes, yep, I've already had a couple of DCs that have used it and have run stuff by me already. So I know they're using it We mentioned it was done You're not the single tag Ephotog and angela had mentioned that there was difficulties in being able to access that I think what we need to do then is research that find out why that is And we may need to provide a link out to all of you because yes This tool will do no good if it's not accessible And we're going to need to make it be accessible. So thank you for that do that and we'll work on that Coming to waterway. What's the question? Do you Okay, so the question is Why doesn't it address the grass waterway that's being removed to put in tile So this wasn't designed to address that issue I mean, just to tell you if I wasn't designed to address that issue my hope is That if you're working with your dc on the spreadsheet that he would or she would Address that issue with you as you're talking Because again, this is this is only meant this is only to be used to start the conversation and hopefully The nrcs employee you're talking to Has a broader knowledge than just this tool and they can use that knowledge to address grass waterway issues terracing Wascobs any other type of Practice we might be able to keep or install in the field along with drainage No, and I understand that that so It's mike, right Mike's saying that that the only time that farmers are dealing with the dc is if it's a wetland And I would say that that's an issue more for broader discussion with nrcs as to why farmers aren't communicating with their dcs more often than just wetlands That's not something that I can address with this tool I mean, I can put a I can put a disclaimer on there that this tool should be used in discussion with your district I can add that to the front page But that again, that's that's not what this tool is intended for I addressed mike's question real quick or a comment and then I also want to we've had one come in online. So um number one When we started working on this and when we put this out and we present this we realize This discussion would be And that's good for us. That's healthy To have those discussions. So no that it's not ending today, right? We're putting this out there. We'll have those discussions So mike my first comment is it It concerns me and in a way I would say hurts me here That the only reason you would want to visit with our district dealing with a wetland because I believe that our staff have an incredible amount of knowledge So we'll work on that but another question that came up and was came in online was Does this tool address the environmental costs of pile being incident and it's simply Not And we all know that there are different things tools can be Very simple and complicated and this one to me is complicated enough And it's just addressing Kind of the economic side of making good decisions And and to me this was about sharing some new information or some information It's probably not new but getting the people to think about it to help them make wise decisions As they look at their land and make decisions on how they want to manage going forward So that was the purpose of this. So no it does not do all of those other environmental things I think mike's point was roughly the same thing, right? Tile is not a silver bullet. It does not solve all issues It does not solve a femoral gully erosion It does not solve ponding issues Some of these issues that I worry about is some of these areas may show a positive benefit If they were tiled, but I can also tell you they're still going to pond water In heavy rainfall events and if they do do that you're likely to still see A yield reduction that probably would drop you below being economically sound. So all of those things have to be considered Good discussion Don't want to cut it off, but I also just want to kind of keep it moving. Are there other questions? Any other comments? Know that mark can help you with this get your hands on this tool If you wanted to demonstrate if you wanted to observe it with him We can arrange that it's a little different now We had done a fair amount of that with several producers that came and seen mark went over it with them We've had some positive comments that provided them some information that they that no one else was giving them It was unbiased Really just looking at numbers that you can put into the system Not somebody telling you that yes, it's going to provide you an incredible amount of profit But it does talk about the investment you're taking it from. All right Very good. Thank you so much mark appreciate it All right next on the agenda is a whole lot of program updates So mr. Vanderwilt's going to come forward and walk through those with you You can see he's going to talk about our conservation implementation strategy and then a bunch of Program stuff. Yeah, take it away All right. Good morning everybody. I'm glad I could be here with you today We'll start out with the conservation implementation strategy. Just a quick update We did our funding selections back in may we we selected six new proposals to move forward this next fiscal year here in 2021 would start in october I don't have the list for you yet because I'm still working on some final details with a few of the folks Once I get those details worked out, I'll get you that final list which should be at the next day tech meeting. So You know november ish december ish somewhere in there. I'm sure we'll have our next day tech and I will get you that final list Um, but we do have a couple that are out. Um, so if you see some news releases I think we have three of them out that are Starting to do some outreach starting to try to work on planning with the producers that have one in charles mix county That's working on some cheaters for removal in a watershed down there The belphush irrigation district has also announced their program in getting that one rolling irrigation improvement and then The one in it would be marshall day and spink county kind of where are those Street county and I think maybe brown to a little bit, but right in that area There's a couple of watersheds where they're going to try to treat some splendid the issues um, and they're working directly with the soil health coalition on that project as well and they've done some Uh news announcements and those kinds of things as well. So we've got a couple of them out on the street I wanted to provide you the whole list, but I still working on a couple of details with a few of them And so I don't have that so I opted not to hear that just yet So I get those final details and I will certainly have those by the next state Also, most likely by the next state tech meeting. Um, we will have our announcement out for essentially Two funding that we're going to you know make funding support here in 2021 So that that announcement will come out in november It'll have a due date in april. I don't know exact dates yet. I haven't worked those out But uh, we'll be looking to partner with folks get some new proposals. We'll have more money available for uh 2022 as well So it'll be a hopefully we'll get a few more people interested Kind of get this snowball rolling down that hill and picking up some speed as it goes down that hill Any questions on cis the kind of where we're at with that the conservation implementation strategy Okay, now we're going to get really wild So my staff is not here, but they are all online And so gen works is going to be up first. We're going to talk equip So jen's going to join us be a teams here You guys can see her handout And so we're we're going to test this whole Technology thing to the max with state tech here today. So we'll see how this works. I see you gen I don't see your screen yet, but I see you Yep, good morning everyone And everybody can hear okay here in the room. I got not so I think we're good gen Hey, let me get my screen shared Hey, can you everybody see the screen? Okay Okay, well I'll start off with equip. Um like Jeff had said early on the year on the meeting we started with a lot of New software which delayed our rollout of offering programs for fiscal year 2020 so This is george can can you expand that on the screen? Those of us with old eyes have a hard time seeing that if you could expand it that would be great. Thank you that better Okay We delayed our rollout of programs because of the delay in the final rules with some farm bill information so our Programs didn't start in the fall like we normally do they started in the spring With batching dates and such so our staff has done an amazing job of getting all of our allocations spent We ended and this This is in your handout packet. So I know it's a little bit smaller but We ended with 17,500 thousand dollars as our final allocation uh We had an emergency animal mortality Sign up And that was due to a lot of issues with covet and shutting down packing plants and then a lot of hog farmers having to Depopulate pop their population because they had no place to go with their animals. So we had Five of those that we approved and funded We got seven applications, but two of them ended up not having to depopulate, which is why they didn't get funded so The rest of the fund pools are about the same as previous years The one addition or two additions that we had was this prairie pothole wild water quality and wildlife Sign up and that one it was new with the farm bill where it was offering some incentives on delaying planting delaying Harvest on prairie pothole areas within the field the the wetland size would be two acres or less um But you could have multiple wetlands within a field that were enrolled. We had two applications this year for that with it, you know, not very large in size So maybe next year we'll have a little more interest in that particular program And the other program was our northern plains grassland bird initiative that was new Out in the western part of the state. I'm focusing on grassland birds And that one we ended up allocating initial $500,000 adding a few Under $170,000 to it to fund three applications that have more intensive grazing systems to allow development of the different habitat types for I believe it was five focused species of grassland birds out there Uh, the rest of the you know, the rest of the fun pools are very similar to what we've had in the past years So I can let you look through the numbers We're going to end the year with about 326 contracts I know our sheet down here says 331 I believe But some with our new software that we have for ranking Uh an assessment could potentially be funded within multiple fund pools And we did have about five or six of those This year that were funded out of multiple fund pools, which is why This number is showing higher than what we'll actually have in actual contracts And that's only because you know, it was partially funded in say soil health and The the general fund pool wherever they fell within their ruck Uh because they also included practices that were not offered through soil health or through Whatever other fund pool that they ended up being in so Anybody have any questions on equip? Nobody here in the room. Jen has your hand up either One one quick time one quick comment I'll make though Jen just so that everybody knows these these handouts did get emailed out too So if if you can't see the screen well george or Still or if you want to study it harder, you should could have gotten an email copy of these as well Yeah Yeah, and um 919 is a number of Assessments that were ranked across all of these fund pools And some of these fund pools are some of these assessments. I should say were ranked in multiple fund pools Uh, it this is considerably different than what we've had in past years where it was basically One application one fund pool and that was it And that's why I said there's there was some that were funded across multiple fund pools that ended up being one contract in the end but two funding Announcements or two funding options in there So that that makes these numbers a little bit different from from previous years We still had 1100 to a little over 1100 applications received Uh, and we did a workload prioritization On that so maybe not all applications received Were high enough in the workload prioritization to be fully assessed and ranked So that is equip in a large nutshell Um, do you have any questions? You don't want to ask today. You since really reach out to me and I will let you know or Answer any questions Um, I'm going to cover the rcpp equip as well here before I jump off And that was another handout that looks like this one And we'll try to make it a little bit bigger This is showcasing the ducks on limited to Uh projects that they have they have the james river and then a prairie pothole working land partnership Um with the prairie pothole working land partnership that does cover into north dakota, minnesota and montana As well. So this is just the south dakota representation of the of what happened in there We've had three sign-ups with these two projects now and the james river we are fully funded And we actually borrowed into a little bit of money that was returned through a modification to fund the last one this year um in 2020 we had 20 of 20 assessments and We funded all 20 but one backed out at the end. So we ended up with 19 that we funded through them that one Same goes with prairie pothole. We ended up with eight assessments and Two of them cancelled after we funded those as well. So we ended up with six projects funded And about 70 000 left so that we could Sign up for 2021 on the prairie pothole side Oh, this is george. Do you have a acreage estimate for the those projects what the total acreage involved is? um I don't have it with me today george, but I can I could get it I can I can pull it up. I don't Top of my head. Okay You might want to include that on a future Spreadsheet so we can see how many acres are actually impacted. Thank you. Okay I guess The only other thing that I have for equip is that we are currently working through our payment schedule for 2021 And making any adjustments needed for that We will probably also convene our program subcommittee group To discuss You know the the payment schedule and any other changes that are needed for 2021 here very soon Jeff did you have any other comments you wanted to make? Nope, I think that covers equip for us anybody have questions here. We're good in this room jen Okay, but Thanks, jen appreciate it. You are very welcome All right, we're gonna switch folks. Um, we're gonna switch to joist travithic I don't think joist has had the opportunity to meet many of you joist is our new csp program manager. Um, she started I believe it was late june With us here in south Dakota. She came to us from montana. So she she took over the role that jessica mohalski held for several years and so joist is new she's she uh Came out a really great time to get her feet wet as we were trying to get our new csp's obligated and And uh get all that accomplished Joyce at that at this point i'll turn it over to you and kind of let you go over your numbers for csp Thanks, jeff. Can you see my screen? Yep, we sure can. Oh good. Okay I haven't shared this over teams yet. So it's To trial by error. Hopefully not too many errors So good morning. Glad to be with you that at least virtually We'll run through some quick numbers the csp renewals came in In may this year the deadline was in may and we ended up with um, we'll cover the just the renewals first And then i'll get into the classics, but we had 219 total applications received for the 20 fiscal year 20 renewals And the initial allocation on that was 18 million 150 000 dollars So the numbers listed on the table below this is in your handout also That that's the initial allocation that was given to each fund pool And we had at the end of our contracting by the end of july We had 129 contracts that were obligated Totaling 17,338,184 dollars and this covered Little over for well almost 410,000 acres. So Um There were 15 of those that were determined in ineligible and then 19 chose to cancel their application The ones that weren't funded had a choice of being Referred to the next fund funding For the classics So on down to the classic applications. We actually had Can you scroll Joyce? Can you scroll this sheet so they can see? Did that not scroll? It did not Oh Let's see. Are you seeing this screen? Yep Okay, let's we'll we'll just switch to this screen Yep, we're good now Okay, good So an initial allocation on the classic csp 2020 dash one classics That thing will quit bouncing on me We had 10 million dollars Four weeks in um period we added another 1.5 million I wonder if I move this Did that take it away? No, we're still there Okay, I don't know why it's jumping on me. I don't either It is on this end too That's weird. I have the other one pulled up if it would just show it Damn low bid computers I know They're a pain in the neck some days Joyce go under the sharing deal and try to share a different screen if you got two screens I do Okay, let's open this For the shot anyways How's that? There you go. We see it. Oh good And it's not bouncing That's good. That's really hard on the eyes So back to the 2020 initial allocation We had 10 million dollars we got with our first an allocation from headquarters They gave us another 1.5 million and then About three weeks ago. They gave us another 1.545 million And so we ended up with a little over 13 million dollars to spend on csp classic We had over a thousand applications And um it has 63 obligated here. I'm really happy to say that right now we have 86 obligated out of 90 So we've only got four applications that are still it Pre-approved or approved. So the field offices have really moved on them in the last week Um, we had 49 That chose to cancel their application 22 were determined in eligible and There were 138 that were actually eligible but due to funds We didn't have enough funds to cover everybody that actually ranked high. So This is the number of contracts that were actually funded or will be by the end of the week, hopefully um In each fund pool And then this second column the total obligation is the money that we were able to spend Or should be able to spend by the end of the week in each fund pool And the third column the original allocation is what was initially in there. So on each one of those fund pools we actually went over quite a bit so That was the good news on what it looked like when we first started out with only 10 million future renewal contracts, um The numbers I came up with and I don't know how close these really are Because protracts doesn't really work with us sometimes um, I had 224 active 2016-1 contracts that should be eligible for renewal this fall There were 349 active 2015's that had extensions that also should be eligible for this renewal But we're still waiting on any guidance from national on these so That's about as much as we know on that right now As far as csp the grasslands conservation initiative We have a batching deadline that we were given of october 16th for the 2021-1 applications and the farm service agencies sent out a list of eligible producers on august 14th of 2020 so Earlier this year in january 126 contracts were obligated under grasslands conservation initiative And then in april there were two more obligated So that's what I have for csp and anybody has any questions We'll take them Any questions from anybody here in the room? online All right, thank you joice Welcome The only thing I would probably add to that is the renewals have to Be Assessed ranked and funded before the end of december so we know that much that's all we know at this point We don't have actual Batching deadlines and those kinds of things those will come down from headquarters when they when they make those determinations So but we do know that we'll have to get those done before october So the the existing contracts that they can renew will expire in december and we have to do them before That's as much as we know on that So with that brandon cocky our easement program manager has his stuff up and I'll let brandon go All right, thank you jeff. Can you hear me? All right here again All right. Thanks everyone for joining the spartan. Uh, we'll take a little time here to give you a brief update on our 2020 application summary for our easements and waterbank programs. So Um, as you can see here, we actually had a pretty good year this year We were up to 114 total applications Of across just about 17,000 acres That's up from the boat. I'd say we were around the mid 60s last year So we had a pretty good increase in interest In the easement program this year With the amount of funds that we received we were able to actually fund seven easements Um, two of them being permanent easements with reserve grazing rights Both those combined covered about 857 acres We're also able to fund four permanent easements just under 700 acres And then one easement converted from a 30-year easement to a permanent so Pretty big bump in the size of our offers this year Usually we were kind of right around that 100 acre average, but that was we had some pretty nice significantly Blocks of offers this year. So we were able to get in right around 1763 acres. So Should be a good year going forward and Hopefully you can look at starting a resource on those in the next year. So Um, regarding our al e who are pretty excited with the new farm bill, there was a new option this year to Both a program agreement We were able to execute one of those with uh an entity um And the nice thing about this is it kind of it gives the state and the entity a little bit more flexibility and time with enrolling parcels So that will have about five years to enroll several different parcels With this empty across south dakota They're pretty excited. They have a pretty Large list already of interested applicants. So as we go into fiscal year 21 We're pretty excited to start talking some of those parcels enrolled and continue to build our al e program here in south dakota Just some restoration and management stats for you for this year We actually had some favorable conditions for once. So we had a really productive year The spring with getting some seedings in the ground Between our federal contractors and landowners together. We got pretty close to about 900 acres actually seeded Um, and we have about 350 scheduled for this fall and things are looking pretty good there too So hopefully everything stays on track with the weather and we get those in as well Um, here you can see our uh numbers for the compatible use agreements that we authorized for this year So right around 114 practices that we approved for the various management activities on just about 4 000 acres as well, so Again, the nice weather with this year really allows some of our easement holders to get out there and do some quality management to improve Some of our grass stands on our easements I'm going to switch screens here with you quick Oh water bank stats for the year How we did see a drop in applications this year, uh, we had a total of 16 Um, and all that didn't come up right all right one side It's not on our end. I guess Looks like it's trying to load here. There you go. Okay So yeah, I'll get out and recap that quick for you. Um 16 total applications that we had this year. Um, we were able to fund all of them but one Um, one just didn't meet the criteria for the program for the year. So Um, still a good chunk of uh acres there about 913 acres Uh, about 13 of those were up in the day county area and the remaining two were over in brown county. So Pretty good numbers there I think the last thing that I had to share and I don't have a slide for that or anything But uh, we did announce here a couple weeks ago our application period for our floodplain easement So, uh, no press release went out there. It is open until october 9th We've had quite a few landowners already contacting us and starting the ball rolling, you know with The flooding and events that we had in 2018 and 2019 Um, there's just a lot of interested parties and seeing what we can do there to hopefully kind of alleviate some of the issues that we had some of our floodplain areas so That's the update that I had for you guys this year And if you have any questions for me on uh, any of the easement stuff serve our bank feel free to ask Anybody in any of our questions? Looks like we're good here anybody online. All right real good Okay, so, um Last couple or the last quick topic to cover is the regional conservation partnership program Uh quick update on that we uh are in the process of writing agreements with two projects that got funded out of the 2019 offer one of those was with the East Dakota water development district on the big sue And the other one was with the belphush irrigation district Doing some irrigation work out there. So those two were funded through the announcement that we held Would have been last fall winter sometime Then this uh late summer there was an opportunity for folks that had existing rcpp projects to Uh put their name in the hat for a renewal to extend their project for another five years get some additional funding And uh rocky canipling with the louison clark project was one of our folks that was eligible to do that and he did And he was selected for funding as well So we're working on writing a new agreement with uh rocky and that project to do some additional work in the louison clark area So as we get those three Kind of lined up and ready to go. We'll certainly provide you guys more information But this just kind of heads up to those three got funded this year And I'm working on those agreements with those folks right now as we speak Tomorrow there'll be an announcement for some alternative funding arrangements. It's a kind of a side pot of money through rcpp We had several Partners here in south Dakota put in for those You could do state Projects or multi-state projects. And so that announcement will come out tomorrow on any projects that we might get funded We'll have some some additional news that are hopefully with some additional projects getting funded through that and then currently a A clad we call them classics now a classic sign up is happening for rcpp So if any of you partners out there are interested in doing a project This opened up on august 4th give or take a day or two and it closes on november 4th And so you've got 90 days to write a project proposal and put the put that all together for an opportunity to get some additional funding for 2021 and beyond We've kind of been told we should expect somewhere in the 6.6 million dollar range Worth of funding if we have applications that will value that high So, you know, one of the things we want to really make sure is that we at least make an effort to try to bring those funds Here to south Dakota. So I've reached out to a dozen or better partners for sure To try to talk about projects if I have a contact you apologize, but if you are interested, let's talk I've got the announcement. I can send it to you if you can't find it Like I said, we've got until november 4th to get those put together So if anybody's interested get a hold of me, let's talk and we'll see if we can get some projects rolling here And put in and you know get an opportunity to put more conservation on the ground So that was a real quick brief update on rcpp. But does anybody have questions on that? Anybody online? I've just scoured the room here quick All right, that's my update. So thanks everybody for seeing you whether in person or virtually Thanks Jeff and appreciate all the updates from Brandon and Joyce and Jen so As we said earlier, it was a crazy year for programs, but we Definitely succeeded. I really appreciate your comment. George thought asked about acres impacted I think it would be good for us to include that on the spreadsheet and show you kind of those impacts that we're having And I think it would always be good too if we could find some ways in time To share some of the individual success stories happening out of the land It really struck me that when Brandon was speaking about You know the work that we've been doing to improve the easement too Showing you what's happening on these easements and I think it'd be something that all of us in the conservation family would be proud of if we could see those and see how We're improving some of those landscapes across South Dakota. So we're going to do that in future We'll make a point to make that happen I'm going to speak with you real quick about the emergency watershed program It is an authority that we've talked about with you a few times Definitely this tied to disaster. So a lot of this is tied to activities that hit South Dakota in 18 and 19 But we have been lucky I think to partner with some conservation districts and also a walking to district And there's a handout in your sheet that talks about those So we're able right now to work in Jones County Jackson Todd Bennett And then with the brulee watershed district to repair several dams that were severely damaged From those flooding events. We've had auxiliary spillways That were damaged washed out threatened and we're going in to get those fixed. So it's been really good I also know that there's partners online and in this room that have helped us a lot Angela through the conservation districts and bill through state has helped us And game fishing parks and others have brought matching funds into Project thank you to all the partners that are help us helping us make these happen. These are structures That really are key in a lot of communities, you know, but like the Myrto structure and the Belvedere dam They're key for those communities. They also provide control benefits downstream. So it's really good for us So the key here is If you are in an area that has One of these events that we always hope we can avoid in the future. We're optimistic that This program might be able to help us Jacob it's kind of been leading the way on that effort. All right questions on that program at all All right next we're going to talk a little bit about the conservation reserve program As you know, we provide technical assistance program that is administered by the farm service agency Owen and other leaders from FSA we're unable to be with us today And I don't believe that they've joined us online But I do know that we have Jessica and Brandon that are able to kind of just give you some a little bit of an update about the Number of plans and the impact that some of that's had so yes I'm going to throw that to you and to Brandon and you can share whatever you had planned and talk a little bit about the effort Again, we're definitely not Stay with a partner of farm service agency But we knew it would be a topic that you all would want to talk about and an incredible amount of work has been going on in this program This year so big interest in South Dakota. So just Okay, actually, I do believe that Owen and Don were able to join so I want to make sure that I give them an opportunity um, Owen or Don if you have any updates before um, I just give a little brief Bit of information Please Owen do that for us I'm sorry air. I had a phone call come in as I was trying to do multitasking so Please refresh what you wanted the information updated on Well, I just wanted to give you the opportunity to um say anything that you wanted to say as far as a crp update is concerned Okay Um, you know, we don't have of course, we had a huge workload lift Recently with the conclusion of the continuous sign up deadlines grasslands general sign up ship crap all of those rolled into one We don't have those finalized numbers. We're still moving towards the finish line Had great working relationships with NRCS and our conservation partners through this process and You know, again, that's why I wasn't on the agenda as we wouldn't have those finalized numbers But uh, can field any questions or concerns if there was anything related to the sign up Maybe help address some of those concerns Any rough numbers what we're looking at for acreage? Yeah I don't at this time know That I would feel comfortable sharing What might you have those numbers? Um, it'll be the probably the first week after September the fiscal year. So after october 1 we should have those numbers was I finalized Yeah, okay Sorry, I don't have more to offer but I guess that's Okay, I'm sorry. No George one more question here. Do you you have any Feedback on another general sign up if there's going to be another general sign up in 2020 Uh, yes the 2018 farm bill Uh, basically laid out that timeline. So it'll be a reflection of what we experienced this year So there'll be uh, that december ish Start for the general sign up then it'll be the grasslands continuous For reenrollments will start again around that april date So the same timelines we realize this year will be experienced in 2021 as well Okay, thank you oan. Um, there was just a couple points that I wanted to make sure I brought to everyone's attention um, again, don't want to steal oan or don's thunder here, but um For grassland CRP Many of you might be aware that south dakota actually Had about one third of the accepted offers. So That was a big workload for both farm service agency and nrcs staff and to make sure that we get Some really good management on those grassland CRP offers we've been working with our producers on either prescribe grazing plans or A hang plans for after the primary nesting season um, and then dawn did provide today that we have about 3500 Accepted offers right now. I know we've still got a lot of signatures being Received by fsa and nrcs staff to wrap up our CRP workload again, I would echo oan's thoughts on the great partnership that we have with FSA nrcs and then a lot of other Partner staff that have been assisting us with the workload and moving around as we needed so But again oan and and dawn and brandon and I will all work together to get you finalized numbers In the near future This is george. I guess for anybody Do you anticipate any movement on the rental rates for CRP? Um, they're revisited every year again according to statute, but it's it's a lot of it's based off of the national ag statistics service data and Again, those factors that were attributed to those rental rates are again statutory with the 85 or 90 percent of those rates so again a lot of that's driven Outside of the control of the county committees or the state state office personnel for fs for the rental rate That's posted Do you have any idea where they're going for? this year next year I don't have any of the data currently um, and I guess maybe the No, I don't have a feel for what if we're going up or down based on rental rates this past year Very good. Any other questions in the room on CRP Mike go ahead You bet So the question was oan in case you didn't hear it and repeating it for the group was Mike Schmidt was asking about there's been discussion about Having CRP have a little bit more of a working lands approach And I think the grassland portion of CRP is an example of that So oan do you want want to share at all some of the the ways that you all are seeing management of CRP change and maybe even how you're seeing it with This new sign-up and some of the things that are allowed. I think it would be great to share that with the group Sure The 2018 farm bill expanded the authorities Non-emergency hain and non-emergency grazing on all CRP lands Of course we in addition to that Presented to the state technical committee a couple meetings ago the proposed required management that would be on those CRP lands And part of that was that the hain and grazing activities could satisfy that requirement With that the the frequency is once every other on the grazing aspect And once every three years on no more than 75 percent on the hain aspect So that quasi You know could have the appearance that it's more of a working lands. There's more availability for access to that acreage to to help with a farming operation And again you touched on it Jeff with the grasslands that that is a working lands Helps manage that acreage with turnout dates and grazing plans on the acreage or Again the hain aspect on stubble heights and things like that So I guess those would be the the big things to refresh everyone's memory on what was a part of that 2018 farm bill And the the capabilities that are out there now on CRP Branded did you have anything you wanted to add to that? You know, I don't just I think you guys have covered everything that I would have mentioned Okay, we can't hear you Jeff Okay, now I'm unmuted. Hey am I coming through now? Super thanks. I don't think I touched a button in us somehow. I am muted myself. So Most of you that know me would think that there's no way you can mute She could be my wife you're exactly right, Carl. She is a powerful woman So anyway, I would just share that You know as we've talked in previous state technical committee meetings that we know that our South Dakota landscape was formed With it being used and so, you know, I'm anxious to continue to work with you all And farm service agency as we find ways to manage these lands better and care for them Any other questions on CRP? If not, um, I will take you to our last topic on the agenda before we have root time for questions Is our wetland compliance workload? I don't have this on the screen available for you But you should have handouts that were sent to you all And then there's handouts here for the audience And if some of you don't have these that are with us joining us, please let us know and we can get a hold of you Uh, just kind of a real quick review and recap I guess as I'd share that right now as of The data and Kathy I'm looking at so I'm looking at a few of these numbers and I see that we Oh, yeah, it's right. Sorry. I'm looking at some numbers and I'm confusing myself So this is data as of august 1 We didn't have yet the september 1 data to get it ready for publication But as of september 1 since october 1 of 19, we kind of add that data up We have 222 Wetland determinations that are in progress And if you look at the chart on the bottom, it would show you that we're almost half of those Are less than um, two months old and then the rest kind of scatter out So all of them are within that six month range Very few numbers are in the old We've we've completed about 1,300 determinations so far this year that includes some that were carryovers from 2019 And we've received almost 1200 application and there's some data on there as far as our 569 or our when we have reports of possible violations that we follow up on We've also included for you the four maps that show Work on backlog Overall total backlog is the first map second is backlog that's older than 60 Days and then received application or received requests And then the last our process request. So got that numbers out for you Um, and it just kind of shows those numbers for the state. So once again our compliance team led by de cabec is doing a great job of staying up on the requests Keeping them young getting out there and doing that that team is also taking on a lot of the workload for highly erodible land determinations And also our compliance reviews that go along with our highly erodible land So that team is actually taking on more of that compliance workload Giving our team our field office team more time to be able to spend on Conservation issues and things like that. So any questions at all related to compliance? All right, thank you That brings our agenda to close. Um, are there any other topics that you all hear in the room or Joining us virtually would like to bring forward Being done here in the room. Um, are there any others that you? Virtually not having anybody speak up I really would appreciate any feedback that you can either give us right now on how this meeting was conducted virtually How you thought it went um suggestions for improvements Also know that you could send those directly to myself or to kathy erbing and let us know Kind of just how we can make it be more efficient These are kind of crazy times and I know that we've had By doing it this way we've allowed a lot of you to join us that probably would not have been able to Not only because of COVID just because of travel distance and schedules. So that's a good part of it. Um I Do come from a little bit of the older side of the crowd so that I do enjoy the face-to-face and that interaction And I feel like I hate that we would lose that But I do see that this has potential to make the state technical committee be a little bit bigger Um, I heard at one time we had about 40 of you that were joining us virtually And I don't know how many are in the room here. Maybe 20 something in that Role maybe a little bit more than that. So if we had a total of 60 to 65 people join us Um for a state tech to me that would be a pretty large state technical committee meeting for us So that's good, right having us more involved. So I think what we may have to continue with this format Offer both options But definitely do what we can to make it be the most productive as we can So maybe that's going to be more sharing of things on the screen and things like that just so that you all have that Any comments that any of you would like to share right now just about um, how we offered this to you today Jeff I don't have a comment But I do have an acre count for the rcpp equip contracts this year And we did um, we have treated acres of 15,600 Just just shy of 15,600 acres For rcpp equip Very good. George has given a thumbs up appreciates that head nodding his head. So thank you very good All right. Kathy did say we're getting some comments sent in those will be great continue to please do that And we'll take all this information put it to good use And i'm going to kind of end on this topic I kind of had to giggle a little bit to myself It kind of goes along with I say I'm saying I'm in the old school Vanderwilts talking about all our programs now have this Classic term to them and the classic kind of refers to the the way it used to be Old version right so I'm thinking that maybe I should start to refer to myself And then I was thinking a little bit and what really made me giggle is thinking that if my mom was still alive He would remind me. Yeah, Jeff. You're really a classic and it wouldn't be in a real level Flattering tone of lit So anyway, thank you all for those of you that are Younger and newer and for those of us that are classic. Thank you so much for all you do for conservation in South Dakota I appreciate you much. We've accomplished a lot this year a lot still to do But I think we're on a great path to doing more. I'm really really really excited about what's happening with some of our focused efforts a conservation implementation strategy really gets my blood boiling and pumped up because I see folks focusing on that And you're going to be interested to see more of those and Jeff's going to talk to you more about That announcement's coming out soon and he mentioned that so be working on that And that's really leading us to take on more rcpp In South Dakota getting us ready for that and we're seeing more of that happen now with partner I think that real focused approach I'm really addressing some individual resource concerns specific areas and really help us show some advantages and payoffs That conservation does not only for all you individual producers in the room But also for the greater public as well. So we're going to continue to work on that. I'm really optimistic about that So with that, thank you all if there's no other questions or comments Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday Take care