 Welcome, everybody, to the NDSU Research Extension Center Field Days, the 2020 version. My name is Mark Birtzel. I'm a farmer, producer in Ward County area and I'm current chairman of the State Board of Agricultural Research and Education, DSU. First of all, I want to thank all the research station directors for giving me the opportunity and the invite to come and have a look at what's been done here and to get a chance to see all the great research that's being done at our centers across the state. Although this is a different approach to research days as it has been in the past, I think it also provides an opportunity to show your important research that is done here to a broader audience and maybe have an opportunity to touch some individuals that haven't had a chance to see what's been going on at the centers. Also, I'd like to take a moment to thank all the advisory board members. Your job is so vital and important to all these research station directors and to the stations themselves. Providing current relevant grassroots information to all of our centers keeps all of our research relevant and current from your areas. So thank you much for your dedication. Another big thank you to our state legislators for the work they've done and for the response they've given S-Bear with their priorities when we take them to the legislature. Also a big thank you for the salary compensation package for state employees that was passed in the last session. That is such a big help in keeping and attracting employees that are so vital and talented to provide information that our producers have become accustomed to over the years. We're very fortunate in North Dakota to have a legislature that understands the importance of agriculture in North Dakota and have been so great to work with. We've all witnessed some big changes in our state and in our world in the past months. We have had some industries that have changed dramatically in our state in the past months. Adjustments have been huge but North Dakota agriculture remains strong. North Dakota leads the nation in the production of over a dozen different commodities. We are a multi-billion dollar industry and those dollars turn many times in our local environments. We're very fortunate that in agriculture a lot of those dollars stay in North Dakota and they're spent on Main Street North Dakota and help our communities thrive and as far as the amount of money that it gets turned over many, many times as you're all aware. Over the last 40 to 50 years there have been several studies done by USDA and several universities on the impact of ag research dollars spent and they show approximately a 40 to one return on investment over the years. Those are huge numbers and whether you raise livestock or crop production or involved in 4-H or use the extension information as an urban family to help provide information on nutrition for your family. All of this starts here at these research centers and it has a huge impact on all of our lives. As a producer I don't go many days without relying on NDSU research and extension to help on my farm and my business. Whether it's a crop production information, variety information or crop protection information or end on weather I use them just about every day and they're so vital and important to me because they are the only unbiased research information that we have available to us. We want you all involved. SBARE was put together by a legislative decree in 1997. We're responsible for budgeting and policy making associated with supervision of the NDSU experiment station and extension. A big part of our job is to listen to the grassroots producers and commodity and grower groups and listen to the needs in agriculture and do our best as an organization to prioritize those needs and to bring them to the legislature every two years with a unified voice. We've had several listening sessions over this past winter and have heard testimony and seen written testimony from over 65 different individuals and organizations. We have had several meetings since then and many discussions on trying to prioritize all the issues that have been brought before us. We have put together a prioritization list for the coming legislative session and I'll share a couple of our top priorities with you. As far as the Ag Experiment Station, our number one priority is going to be labeled big data. We have a tremendous amount of information that's available to us and we need to enhance capabilities to collect, manage, and analyze large data sets. This impacts all phases of agricultural research, crops, livestock, precision agriculture, soils, climate, and economics. On the extension side, our top priority is a livestock initiative. We heard much testimony over the period from livestock individuals and industry and also from individual grass roots producers about how the livestock industry could expand in North Dakota. This initiative would include adding specialists to provide vital information needed to expand our livestock production in North Dakota. As I mentioned earlier, we want you all involved. North Dakota has a great story to tell. We look forward to the next legislative session and the opportunity to present spare priorities, but sometimes we take for granted that everyone understands how important agriculture is in North Dakota. We need to do a better job of telling our story. We need to work with individuals that need to hear more about agriculture. So please help us by spreading the word of the importance of agriculture and NDSU research and extension in North Dakota. Thank you very much and have a great day.