 Imagine a recent, delicious, nutritious meal you have eaten that incorporates agricultural products raised right here in North Dakota. Our personnel in the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and NDSU Extension participated in every aspect of how that meal was produced on its way from the field to the plate. It might have been the scientists who bred crop varieties that thrive in our climate. The Extension Specialist offering recommendations on how to protect the crop from disease and weeds or other personnel involved in enhancing livelihoods and viability of livestock operations or those involved in improving the quality and safety of our food products as they make their way to the consumer. Our personnel contribute to protecting the natural resources such as soil, water and air so future generations can prosper, ensuring that our quantities meet and exceed the expectations of domestic and international customers and provide the research and education necessary to have a healthier nation that has access to safe, affordable and nutritious food. When it comes to agriculture and food products produced in North Dakota, you can be assured that every bite you take has been influenced in some way by work conducted by NDSU Extension and the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. We hope you enjoy hearing from a few of the specialists and scientists who helped get North Dakota agricultural products from the field to the plate. Our story begins with the soil, which is the foundation of our state's agricultural systems. We recognize this tremendous natural resource in the motto on the North Dakota Code of Arms, Strength from the Soil. My name is Nyeen Kowler and I'm Extension Soil Health Specialist for the NDSU Langdon Research Extension Center. There's only so much land on earth to grow food. However, every year we keep losing our productive grounds to issues like soil salinity and sodicity. That results in loss of revenue and less food for humans and other living beings. Together we can improve the health and productivity of our soils. Since 2012, Langdon Research Extension Center Soil Health Program has helped 122 producers with sampling and testing in 12 counties to figure out a plan to remediate 329 unproductive fields. Soil sampling and testing activities are followed up by creating site-specific remediation plans. In case of sodicity, amendments such as gypsum can be applied, followed by establishing salt-tolerant annual crops such as barley or oats on marjoram fields or perennial salt-tolerant grasses on the very toughest spots. By establishing perennial salt-tolerant grasses on severely affected fields, producers can save at least $355 or more per acre in four years. And that will help remediate these toughest spots as well. If they decide to hay or graze these grasses, they can actually make additional profits. Greetings and thank you for this opportunity to share with you the importance of cropping and livestock integration, research, and extension. I'm Chris Augustine, director of the Dickinson Research Extension Center. Soils are the basis of all agriculture. Without soils, we would not have a food system and start. North Dakota soils are arguably the most fertile in the world. Our soils formed from thousands of years of densely-rooted grass and forms that added abundant amounts of organic matter. Animals like bison and deer assisted with soil formation by grazing native vegetation and excreting nutrients. These actions encouraged soil microbial activity that transformed and cycled nutrients that fed vegetation and further built soils. Fertilizer is important for a bountiful harvest and tends to be a producer's most expensive input. According to the 2019 Western North Dakota Farm Management Program report, the average producer spent more than $85,000 on fertilizer. Our newer cropping practices are improving soil health and local research indicates reduced fertilizer inputs from a healthier soil microbial. This graph shows the amount of dollars saved per acre in fertilizer in various crop, livestock, and tilling systems. An integrated livestock cropping system fairly mimics native conditions because biodiversity is increased from grazing animals and crop diversity. This extends grazing seasons and better facilitates plant, animal, and nutrient cycle. This collaborative work led by Doug Landblum has shown reduced fertilizer inputs and an additional income increase of nearly $17 per acre per year from reduced fertilizer use. All the while, the livestock in the system converts soil resources into a healthy, tasty, and economical source of protein for consumers in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. This work has improved North Dakota's two greatest resources, its people and soils. Thank you for your time and please reach out to me if you have any questions. Naeem and Chris are just two fantastic examples of the soil health work we are doing, which takes place at each of our research extension centers as well as the main station. Soil health is also an excellent example of our extension specialists like Dr. Abby Wick or Naeem work with our researchers such as Dr. Keeley-Gash and Dr. Tom DeSutter on joint projects that improve and sustain the land above our bountiful soils by wide open skies and the climate that makes North Dakota's agriculture so unique with its diverse rotations and productive range lands. All of our research and extension efforts require a deep knowledge of our weather as it touches all parts of our agriculture and natural resources. Hello, I'm Darryl Richardson. I'm the director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network, which is usually just referenced as Andon. Andon is part of the Ag Experience Station and our main offices are in Fargo at NDSU. It would be hard to argue against that weather is the most important element in the overall food system. North Dakota has some of the most extreme weather on the planet, making the analysis and use of weather data important to maximize the production of crops grown in the state. There is an old saying that everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. But at Andon, we are trying to do something about the weather. Andon is a network of 160 weather stations, making it one of the largest such networks in the United States. The large amount of data we collect can be used to support weather risk management tools. These models, for example, warn of impending disease or insect infestations, so that pesticides may be applied at the optimal time to maximize the production and quality of the crop. A great example on how Andon data can be used is our inversion app. Inversions increase the risk of chemicals like dicamba to more readily drifted to unwanted areas. The Andon inversion app sends notifications directly to Springer's phones when inversions are present, which help make North Dakota have some of the fewest drift complaints of any state. Although Andon was originally developed with agriculture in mind. Our data is also used to monitor roads in the Bakken to lessen potential damage to gravel roads by emergency managers. The National Weather Service and our soil moisture and temperature data is used by flood forecasters to increase the accuracy of their forecast. But Andon also generates a lot of data that isn't being used as creating value added solutions to our many stakeholders takes time and talented individuals to develop. Andon's rapid growth and the increased usage of the big data we generate offers great opportunities for expansion of the tools and resources needed to better manage the ever-changing weather conditions in North Dakota. I thank you for your time. You may have read some fascinating headlines about the microbiome and even seen commercials for probiotics. Science is discovering how a healthy human microbiome can improve everything from dental hygiene, immunity and even mental health. We've just scratched the surface of how important a healthy human microbiome is for human health. And now we're endeavoring into how these microbiomes can improve our agricultural production systems. Hello. My name is John McAvoy. I'm the head of the microbiological sciences department, which is located on the NDSU main campus in Fargo. I'd like to take two minutes of your time today to tell you about the new agribiome research initiative that was funded in the last legislative session. First let me introduce you to the team of agribiome research scientists. So we have Sam Banerjee and Barney Geddes who are working on the agribiome on crops and we have Samana Matt and Glenn Dorson who are working on the agribiome in livestock. So what is the agribiome? Well, the agribiome is the agriculture microbiome and a microbiome is basically a community of microbes and their environment. And the microbial communities and the gut of livestock and the roots of crops are important examples in agriculture. These microbial communities do not develop by accident. They are recruited to perform critical tasks such as acquiring key nutrients and it's a form of outsourcing, if you will. Consider that you could not enjoy your meal today if it was not for the microbes in your gut. Our goal is to harness the microbiome from soils, plants and animals to enhance crop and livestock production. We are building better communities. We all know what a great community looks like. Last fall when a farmer from Crosby suffered the incredible misfortune of a combine fire followed by a heart attack, his community quickly organized an army of volunteers to harvest these remaining crops. A great community is defined by its collective ability to respond to stress and opportunity. So we're just beginning, but what does success look like for the agribiome program? Well in livestock we should expect to see increased feed efficiency and also increased resistance to disease. And in crops we should expect to see greater nutrient use efficiency and greater resistance to stresses like drought and salinity which are important in North Dakota and also to crop diseases. I appreciate the opportunity to visit with you today. Enjoy your meal.