 Hello Joel, we're answering extension agronomists for cereal crop. I wish I was with you face to face in Dickinson. I'm aware of some of the challenges that you're facing this season and hope that the remainder of the year the weather will be beneficial. As I'm approaching the end of my career, Ryan Bito has asked that I reflect back on my experiences and share some of the lessons that I've learned, some lessons that may be helpful to you. My 40 years might be described as somewhat atypical for an extension agronomist in North Dakota. I hope though that the experiences that I've had have led to some lessons that would be useful to you, even though not all of my learning has been in North Dakota setting. In fact, I started my research career working with wild rice in Minnesota. I then spent three years in Mexico working on irrigated and rain-fed environments, both on farm and in research station, working with wheat, both Durham and Spring wheat. I then worked 13 years in Africa where I had the chance to see the impact of new varieties on farmers that have had limited access to varieties. I also learned about the importance of maintaining soil health by ensuring that organic matter goes back into the soil in addition to regular soil fertility practices. I was also disappointed to learn of the policies restricting the use of GMOs and I think of what impact genetically modified corn would have at this point in history when the Fall Army worm is having such a devastating impact on corn production. And I certainly think that GMOs would be safer than the current practices that are employed of spraying insecticides with limited protective equipment. And finally, I concluded my international experience in Nepal where farm size was very small, the use of equipment was limited, and you can imagine in a setting like this that even a small motivator would be very difficult to use on farm. So it was quite a transition for me to go from Nepal to North Dakota where, you know, large equipment and chemicals allow for the use of for the farming of much expanded areas. So what are some of the lessons that I learned and I thought I would summarize my lessons learned by talking in the first person as if I had somehow inherited a farm and now was going to farm based on and using some of the experiences that I've had in the past. So first of all, I understand the importance of using the best varieties in a farm to enhance the productivity using the practices that are considered best practices. Based on that, I would do my homework in selecting new varieties. What does that mean? I would use data from multiple environments, including high and low yielding environments. I would certainly avoid varieties that are susceptible to diseases, sprouting and low protein and wheat, rather than go for the highest yielding variety in a research station or as my farm. I would look at stable varieties, meaning varieties that yielded well over both in both high yielding and low yielding environments. And I think I would regularly introduce new varieties in a small way and expand their use as I from my own experience, I determined that they fit into my that they'll be useful to my farm. Secondly, I would conduct some level of on-farm testing and by this I would mean something that's easily conducted based using yield monitors and the equipment that I have. Topics, for example, that would lend itself to this kind of research would be including an enriched strip or an in-pore strip to see how well my fertilization program is matching the need. I think altering seeding rate could easily be done and would provide a valuable information, particularly if it's done routinely over a number of years. Pop-up fertilization, fungicide use, these are also factors that could easily be experimented and I think that by experimenting I would learn much faster than just relying on the outcome of my regular practices on a given year. I certainly would have a yield monitor in my combine and I would archive those data. I did have interaction with a farmer that had a yield monitor for many years but never knew how to archive the data. And I think by archiving I'm learning from past years, one can learn a lot about the fields that are being farmed, very powerful tool for advancing techniques including precision ag. And I certainly would implement some level of precision agriculture in my farm and I'm not suggesting a very detailed top of the line kind of precision ag program. But for example, using yield data and aerial images to guide the use of production zones within a field. I know here's an example of a field that we've done some research on and you can see this red would represent the low yielding parts of the field and turns out these are sand ridges year after year, those are going to be the lowest yielding parts of the field yet they receive the same level of fertility of the rest of the field and it will just make sense to have some level of, to me, to have some level of precision agriculture where I would alter the amount of fertilizer that these routinely poor yielding areas are receiving. And on the other hand, if you look at this part of the field where it's high yielding, it's also very low in protein, this is protein map here. And again this would suggest that when we're thinking of putting fertilizer on makes sense to put less here and more there, so we're going to get more out of our field. I think anirates is one of the areas of precision ag that one could consider. You might also, for those of you who are corn farmers, consider plant populations, I'm not so sure that we have the data to support changing hybrids within a field, but populations perhaps in certainly nitrogen levels. And finally I would certainly use available data to guide input use. I think the disease prediction model is a great tool that can be used to help determine whether the fungicides are needed. I would not just routinely apply fungicide, I would look at both the disease prediction model, I'd look at forecast for weather and do scouting in my field before I use fungicide. I would also extensively use research results that are available and it might mean that I would have to dig around a bit, not always are the data available in an easily accessible form, but as an example on helping me decide whether I should use fungicide on corn, I would use data that's available both here in North Dakota and elsewhere to get a sense of the potential benefit of fungicide. And I might just say that I think the data, in most cases in North Dakota where we have so very little disease pressure on corn, that would be a practice that would likely not be profitable. And I would also employ my own experience and data from previous years to help me in making some of these decisions. And I think with that, I know this is a short presentation, I hope that I've sparked some ideas and that might be useful as you consider your approach to farming. And as again, as I mentioned at the outset, I hope the remainder of the season is more favorable weather-wise and that you're safe and healthy, thank you.