S1:E1 Stewardship with Sina Parks & Dan Blocker

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In his 34 years working with farmers at Ceres Solutions, Dan Blocker has seen plenty of change. Farm practices that strike a balance between being good for the earth and for farm profitability are no exception. One thing that hasn’t changed? The value of teamwork.

When you work with Ceres Solutions, you’re not just getting seed and well wishes for your growing season. Our team strives to provide you with customized solutions for every acre. In this episode, Ceres Solutions conservation specialist Sina Parks and account relationship manager Dan Blocker share stories of farms they’ve worked with, changes in trends over the years, and give a sneak peek at what farmers who would like to know more about management options that improve their stewardship and their bottom line should expect when they reach out to Ceres. 

Here’s a glance at this episode:

(06:35): Account Relationship Manager Dan Blocker describes his approach to helping farmers reach their goals with stewardship in mind.
(07:50): Dan outlines some of the questions farmers should expect to discuss in early conversations about stewardship and management goals.
(10:29): Dan discusses the way profitability can lead the conversation while still making good stewardship decisions on the farm.
(18:43): Sina emphasizes the role a trusted advisor can play in getting results on the farm, and how farmers who have developed a management approach based in understanding data will see better results.
(26:31): Sina explains the importance of data in making financial and management decisions specific to each field, even specific portions of fields.

Resources mentioned in this episode:
Productivity, Profitability & Preservation with Ceres

Connect with:

Ceres Solutions
Facebook  Instagram  LinkedIn Twitter www.ceres.coop
Sina Parks
Dan Blocker

Bios:

Sina Parks grew up on a small corn and soybean rotation farm in Montgomery County, Indiana, and was an active member of 4-H and FFA. She studied at Purdue University and in 2014, after several years of experience with farm credit, Sina transitioned to a role in conservation. She joined the Ceres Solutions team as conservation specialist in April 2021.  
 
Dan Blocker has serving Ceres Solutions customers for 34 years, first as an outside sales rep for crpo inputs and feed inputs, then as a branch manager and seed hub manager before returning to sales in his current role as account relationship manager. Dan is a Purdue graduate and proud to call Huntington County, Indiana home. 
 

 

Transcription:

Morgan Seger (00:00):
Every day we rely on food, fuel, and fiber. But how much do you know about these industries we depend on? In this podcast, we dive deep into the production and processes of these everyday essentials. This is field points an original podcast production from Ceres Solutions. Hello everyone and welcome to Field Points. I'm your host Morgan Seger and I cannot wait to get started. I first wanted to welcome you to the first episode of our first series here at Field Points. Our goal is to have a collection of series that are all focused on different segments of production agriculture. We hope by having a series, this allows us to dive really deep into these topics so our listeners can gain a better understanding of how each segment of this industry impacts our every day. For each series, I will have a different co-host who will be an expert in that subject and help us dive deep into those conversations. In this first series, we are focusing on stewardship in agriculture. So my cohost is Sina Parks, the conservation specialist with Ceres Solutions. She will be helping me guide these conversations as we go through the next three episodes. So first let's meet Sina.
Sina Parks (01:15):
Yeah, so I grew up on a small corn and soybean rotation farm, um, in Montgomery County. And then I graduated from high school, you know, while in high school, did all the 4-H and FFA things and then went to Purdue. I graduated from Purdue. I spent a couple years in Texas, so I got to see a different part of the country. Um, and then I moved back and um, I don't know, a few years after we moved back I started working for Farm Credit for a few years. So I saw the finance side and interacted with um, farmers on that. And then I was able to move into the Soil and Water district and I served as the conservation director for Montgomery County Soil and Water for almost a decade and then started in this new role at series with the stewardship specialist.
Morgan Seger (02:02):
Awesome. So how did you, um, get pulled into stewardship? Was that just kind of happenstance or is that something you were trying to work towards?
Sina Parks (02:11):
Um, if you had told me when I graduated from college that this would be the direction I would go, I probably would've laughed just cuz it wasn't something maybe quite as forefront to me. Um, but conservation and no-till and um, protecting water quality and erosion and you know, preserving the farm that I grew up on was always very important to my grandfather passing on to my father, you know, and then to me and my brother. And so I think, I think it's probably always been a piece of me. I just didn't realize the importance maybe it had in life.
Morgan Seger (02:43):
Sure. Well it's neat that you're able to now serve in a role that's also, you know, along those same causes. Um, how would you describe your position at Ceres? Like what are you primarily working on?
Sina Parks (02:57):
Uh, I get to work in a lot of different areas related to stewardship. I get to have conversations with, um, farmers and sales staff about uh, U S D A programs cuz I have that background. So when they have questions, um, with customers that are involved in certain programs, I get to have that conversation. I get to talk about cover crops, I get to talk about implementing new practices on the farm. I get to work with carbon, um, and that whole program. So it's a lot of different things every day and that's probably one of the things I like the most about it.
Morgan Seger (03:28):
Yeah. Well and I'm super excited to have you as a cohost for this series cuz I think that we're gonna be able to really dive into like each of those different things and really, um, go deep into what that actually means because we hear a lot of kind of um, click bait-y phrases and words being thrown around. So, um, what I'm really hoping throughout the series is that we can get some actionable steps and really get a deeper understanding of what stewardship means, especially in our trade area here in Indiana and Michigan. So what are you most excited about in this podcast series?
Sina Parks (04:01):
Ooh, I think one of the things I'm most excited about is just getting to talk with different individuals, um, on the Ceres team and who we work with and, and how what we each do works together and makes us part of a team that can um, continue to be a trusted advisor for our farmers. That members of the co-op can see me as like another tool in the toolbox for the Ceres staff. Um, and so we have these different options that we are working on rolling out as far as, you know, whether it's a data piece or whether it's carbon that they're interested or if they're wanting to make changes on the farm, you know, being able to help facilitate some of those conversations so that that they're not having to pull resources from multiple organizations. It's giving serious access to someone internally that they can just take on the farm with them and I can sit down and talk with growers and we can have, you know, that team approach and we can all talk together at the same time.
Morgan Seger (04:56):
Yeah, but if someone is um, wanting to learn more about that, how would they reach out to you or what direction would you point them?
Sina Parks (05:05):
Um, I think if you're already working with a Ceres branch, I think reaching out to your salesman and having them get in contact with me would be the easiest way. Um, otherwise you can find me on the Ceres website.
Morgan Seger (05:18):
I'll be sure to link out to the page that Sina was referring to on series website in our show notes and those will be available at ceres dot co-op. Now it's time to meet our first guest, Dan Blocker.
Dan Blocker (05:32):
Okay, well, uh, coming up here at the end of September, I will have been in the co-op system for 34 years. So Wow.
(05:40):
In some of these around now I'm the old man of the group, but uh, started out uh, at the branch. Northern Hunting County was the first outside salesman they had back in the day, got another dating the deal. We were still an elevator, still grinding feed. Uh, I actually moved in, I kept doing the crop sales, moved into branch managing and then um, kept going on that for quite a while and then, uh, actually kinda moved into uh, the seed side for a year managing our seed department, but kind of missed being out on the farm more so came back and I've done uh, all sales from for the rest of the time, so.
Morgan Seger (06:23):
Okay. So you have lots of experience on farm kind of in the trenches with growers.
Dan Blocker (06:27):
Yeah. Yep.
Sina Parks (06:28):
Dan, can you share with us a little bit of an experience of how you've guided a grower in their stewardship journey?
Dan Blocker (06:35):
Yeah, this is still kind of a newer thing. Um, we've had probably bits and pieces going on probably 10 years or so. Um, so yeah, you know, maybe at the first we didn't ask enough questions, we would sometimes just go, Hey, here's what we can do. And I think as this has progressed, we've learned more of, um, again asking more questions, trying to find out what the farmer's goal is so you can kind of set expectations maybe versus um, that you know, you're gonna do this and all the sudden things are changing. This is a, a work in progress I guess I'd say something that won't change the farm operation overnight. So, um, plus too we've learned a lot more, we have so many more variety options and, and again that's where you kind of need to know what the farmer's goals are. So you know, you just kind of come along beside 'em and, and help 'em in that management decision and try and lay out a plan and and try and see what happens and what mother nature gives you.
Sina Parks (07:43):
What are some of the questions that you ask those uh, growers as you're trying to figure out what their goal is?
Dan Blocker (07:50):
Well, I guess, you know, partly gotta kind of figure out what their management side is. Um, you know, we've had some do it as basic as just putting wheat out there. So again, you're still keeping a cover out there. Um, still like we sometimes say putting green manure out there to get something back on the ground. Um, so in the springtime that's a pretty simple, you can go out, you know, whenever again it kind of warms up enough you could get that killed off and not be too much of a hindrance in your planting. Versus another guy, if you might say he's a little braver, um, and maybe goes with like a cereal rye. I know not too much happens around here, but I know other areas, uh, sometimes you can let that get up five, six foot tall again, you're adding a lot more organic matter back in that gets a little nervous sometimes trying to plan into that or, uh, again, depending what the spring might give you of getting that killed off.
(08:48):
Um, but then one of the growers we're gonna work with this year, we're actually gonna use like a three-way mix. So we're gonna have some tillage radishes out there, crimson clover and then cereal rye and um, I don't think that'll be too hard to manage come spring. I think we can still get that killed off. It's going into kind of a soil that's kind of tough to work with, kind of not forgiving. And so that's the reason we're wanting to put the tillage radishes in there to try and help break up the compaction and, and some of that. So
Sina Parks (09:19):
I look and I look forward to hearing how that goes.
Morgan Seger (09:22):
Yeah. So one question I have is, you mentioned that you're asking these questions to find out their goals. What are some of the goals or an example of a goal that a grower has shared with you?
Dan Blocker (09:32):
Well, the one, a couple of 'em that we work with, I mean another one we do, he's actually on our uh, soil and water board. So being on the board, he's trying to be a little more proactive. He was doing some no-till, um, he's kind of ramped up, he's no-till a little more and now he is starting to work more with like the cover crop side of things. The other thing too, sometimes we think about land for some is getting harder to acquire. So you use the land you have trying to improve it and get the, you know, most bushels or what the maximum profits you can get out of that. And this is could be one way of, of boosting more production out of what they already have.
Morgan Seger (10:18):
Have you ever had anyone come at it just from a profitability standpoint or is it usually trying to get these other things and then they're trying to figure out how to be profitable along the way?
Dan Blocker (10:29):
Well, to be totally honest, uh, of course sometimes the government helps them make that decision. And again, you stop and think that helps a little bit take some of the risk out if you're getting a little help, you know, buying or a little more help of cuz you are trying to conserve, um, then again that management decision gets a little easier that you're not assuming all the risk. And so another, you know, maybe not on the cover crop side, but even again some of these guys adapting back on the no-till side as part of it, um, they again maybe are getting in like a lot of people getting into a labor situation. Again, fuel costs where they're at. Um, and again, the no-till side even we know so much more about how to handle things. And again, back on the management side, um, technology I guess you wanna say has brought that, I wanna say easier, but maybe a little more manageable than what it used to be.
Morgan Seger (11:37):
Dan shared a lot of great examples of how growers are implementing these practices on their farms. Next Sina shares how growers are being profitable executing on these stewardship practices.
Sina Parks (11:48):
I think we have to look at some of the programs and other things that, uh, Dan mentioned that we can offset some of those costs with. You know, you've got some of those U S D A or S WCD programs that can just help provide, um, a little bit of income to offset the cost of, um, growing expensive inputs or growing price inputs, however you wanna look at that. But um, you know, everything today is getting a little more expensive and so just giving these farmers an opportunity to be able to offset some of that cost. Um, there's also other opportunities that come out such as, uh, the carbon markets. That seems to be the big hot topic now, but I think there's also, um, growers looking at making some of these changes. We'll just start to unlock more and more opportunities as, as more of a focus turns to climate smart ag practices. And so I think we've talked a lot about no-till and cover crops, but I think it's also important to look at um, even a nutrient management plan and how you apply your, your nutrients throughout the year.
Morgan Seger (12:46):
Dan, one thing you had mentioned is how brave someone was feeling and I really like that cause I feel like sometimes it's just kind of intimidating. Um, do you have kind of like a success story you could share where someone was brave and it worked out and kind of, you know, is it repeatable for them?
Dan Blocker (13:03):
Yeah, uh, I know one of the things you guys are kind asked if we've had any failures. Well, I'll bring up one example. The guy, uh, would've been two years ago, well he'd done a little bit of it, decided to go into it both feet, you might say, got an air seeder and put cereal rye out and I forget the spring, but some kinda got a little, uh, behind and so got it up to probably five, six foot tall. Plus he had very good germ, so very thick, planted corn into it. Um, corn struggled a little bit getting up through it, but um, maybe took a little of the top end off but it wasn't a failure. Um, you know, he, uh, again, went right back out of the next year, adjusted the seeding rate a little bit, I think got more timely of getting it killed down in the spring.
(13:57):
And so, but again, that's a little bit like how farmers are too. I mean, they won't give up just after one try. So, um, so I think, you know, there again, he's, he's making it work. Uh, I think he's got a little more rolling ground, a little more playground that's again, a little less forgiving. So this is a way back kind like I said, maybe trying to get some more outta that ground, um, just by some of these practices. Um, you know, it gets a little tricky again, the farmer that's gonna try the three way, we're actually gonna fly it on. Okay. We have tried in the past, uh, when it was in beans one year, we used a very early bean and we were able to get it harvested timely and we spread it with our own. We have an airflow at my branch so we can do a pretty good job spreading the seed with the fertilizer.
(14:54):
And so we got it out there timely, got a rain, I think he vertical tilled in and we had a good success story on that one that year. Some others we've tried, we just got a little later and again, you kinda get a little reliant on rain and um, it, it wasn't as successful. So back to this year, we're gonna put it on with the plane here in a week or so and, and it's corn this year and so hopefully we're early enough that again we can get some nice fall rains here and, and uh, we get a good, a radish goes down, helps us break up that compaction and we get a nice spring seed bed. So.
Morgan Seger (15:32):
Gotcha. Now I haven't seen a whole lot of corn firing yet. Do you have like a general best practice for when people are gonna be flying it on?
Dan Blocker (15:42):
Well, to do your radish, so the crimson clover actually it's timing for this area I'm in, we should be, I think the latest would be if I remember the dates like September 14th.
Morgan Seger (15:55):
Okay.
Dan Blocker (15:55):
So that's where I just talked to the aerial guy yesterday and we're probably gonna give it another week then maybe see if we could get real lucky and try and time it in front of a rain to help it go down in then.
Morgan Seger (16:08):
Now if you have not flown on cover crop seed before harvest might be a different experience for you the first time. So Dan explains what a successful cover crop will look like when you're harvesting your field.
Dan Blocker (16:20):
Hopefully by that time you are thinking you've got a weed control problem and actually it's your radishes are kicking in and might have the rye kicking in a little by then, but the radish usually doesn't take too long if it gets in there and gets some rain on it. So, so that's what we would hope for. We'll see green instead of brown dirt when he starts harvesting. Well, and it's funny, um, but again, two, three years ago went by a cornfield and kind of forgot about, well actually it's another hunting county grower that's on our soil and water board and he had done end crop and uh, I was thinking, wow, look at that terrible weed control in
Morgan Seger (16:20):
 
Dan Blocker (17:02):
That was actually his camera crop coming up wasn't pretty good. So
Morgan Seger (17:04):
Like, oh, good job. Yeah,
Dan Blocker (17:06):
You go talk to anybody's weed control, but then it wasn't a problem, it was supposed to be there. So
Morgan Seger (17:11):
That's funny. Do you see people, um, trying to do similar things with soybeans or are they not inter-seeding soybeans as much?
Dan Blocker (17:20):
Um, I think, I think we, well the other thing sometimes too, well again, it depends on what you're trying. If it is just say a weed or a cereal rye, your beans are coming off usually early enough, you wouldn't have to planes a little extra money. Um, and again, we could kind of do it with fertilizer so you're okay. You could combine it and, and save an app on that. So the beans are a little different now. Depends again, what you're deciding. You wanna, you actually, if if you did wanna try the radishes or some of these other mixes, then yeah, you probably would fly those on too just because of the timing.
Morgan Seger (17:58):
Okay.
Dan Blocker (17:59):
They need to be in. So,
Morgan Seger (18:01):
Um, so as you know, we think about this and we think about things growing in the fall. Um, how is this impacting like traditional practices like fall burn down and things like that? Are they replacing, you know, practices with these or do they work together or,
Dan Blocker (18:17):
Um, not really. You pretty much are replace them. But the other thing to think about if you do get a good cover crop establishment, well then that should help you keep a good cover. It might just say it smother out any of the weeds. So if you have this working correctly in a way that would actually kind of might say help you.
Morgan Seger (18:42):
Okay.
Sina Parks (18:43):
So I think some important things to note as we're listening to today and talk about these different examples of um, options is like one you really need to work with your trusted advisor, whether that's your agronomist, your co-op, whoever that is, um, and make sure that you're doing planning and you're communicating back and forth with them to be able to help make sure that they know what your plan is so that they can help you to the, um, get the best advantages, um, for those practices. And then also I think, um, one of the things that Dan mentioned is, you know, they're starting on one field. I think we sometimes think that we have to do it all and we don't always have to start on the whole farm. We pick one field that you want to try it on or a couple fields, but don't, don't think that you have to do the biggest bestest most, you know, eight way mix or whatever that is that you wanna try. It's okay to start small and it's okay to start with one piece of the stewardship process.
Morgan Seger (19:31):
So when people are thinking about choosing a field, do you have a recommendation on, you know, are there any characteristics that would lend themselves to these types of practices?
Sina Parks (19:42):
I think it depends on the grower and the management style of that grower. Like Dan mentioned earlier, um, you know, if if they're very intensive and how they manage their farm, then I think you pick a farm that maybe is a little more complicated if they're not quite as intensive than how they manage or um, you know, they, they tend to do the same on all their farms. You look at one that maybe is a little easier to manage.
Morgan Seger (20:05):
Okay. Or if they're like me and they're not brave, you put it on the furthest away farm so they don't see it change their mind. Definitely.
Dan Blocker (20:15):
One thing I was gonna touch on what Sina just mentioned, the planning part because you do gotta be careful like maybe not so much on the bean crop but um, corn crop we're sometimes doing a lot of two pass corn programs. So you do gotta think a little bit about what that chemistry is and what its residual is. Especially, you know, we're talking here going in September, uh, and again maybe, maybe if you were just putting in a wheat or something kind of basic maybe wouldn't be hampered as much as what we're looking at doing here with the radishes and the clover. Um, so again, yes, you need to be kind of thinking of your chemistry that you're doing in the spring too.
Morgan Seger (20:58):
So far we have spent a lot of time talking about the management practice of cover crops. Next Dan's going to walk us through some other practices that can lead to profitability on your farm while enhancing your stewardship.
Dan Blocker (21:13):
I'm wanna say early nineties, you know, the no-till thing kicked in pretty hot and heavy and I kind of just relate to Huntington County, but um, big majority really kicked it in and then some of 'em fell, you know, after a couple years that, you know, just wasn't quite working and so went back to fair amount of tillage and I, I would say we probably still are, but we've again, I guess you'd say we've had variations of it. Um, probably a lot of our beans are getting no-tilled. Um, they feel just the beans can, um, the seed bed I guess you say maybe could be a little more forgiving to get in a bean up versus what how particular corn point is. Um, but even then we've developed the, like the uh, vertical tillage type of system so we're still not doing deep ripping. We're just working again kind of that couple inches to get the seed bed prepped and then some of that's happening for corn too.
(22:17):
So, um, I guess a little piece of that again, as we've changed some of our chemistries, we've got more options to where the uh, what we call it, the, uh, anyway, a field cultivator is, you know, was doing awful good as our weed control versus uh, some of our chemistry options. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So again, as we've developed that, that has helped us open the door that we can still manage weeds and it, the corn side's always stayed pretty easy. Um, it's in the bean side where we were having issues. So that's just a piece of some of those. And, and again then I was gonna say I think we have had some more look more into like the no-till piece too. So
Morgan Seger (23:07):
Yeah, it seems like your timeline also kind of lines up when for soybeans at least a lot of people transition from a drill to planter. So that might be making no till even more viable cause they're getting the seed placed better.
Dan Blocker (23:18):
Well you're exactly right. You know, you're, I actually in one of my summer jobs, um, when the no till thing and, and drilling beans was kind of kicking in the soil and water service in Huntington County, we did custom drilling, so I was running around all over hunting county with a drill. Well it was kind of a, uh, what would we call that spilled? Uh,
Morgan Seger (23:42):
A controlled spill.
Dan Blocker (23:43):
Controlled spill. There you go. I knew we had a saying for it. And you're right, the planters now and moving into the, the 15 inch rows or even the drills they've, they actually have a planting unit. So yes, we have again came a long way in being able to uh, just planting technology. So
Morgan Seger (24:03):
For the success of No-Till in Corn, you said that, you know, people moved away from it after they felt like it wasn't working. Was it just that the crop wasn't looking as well? Was it yielding as well? Were they not getting the stand?
Dan Blocker (24:15):
I, I think they just felt they were struggling getting it out of the ground, getting the stand. But I, I think again, um, John Deere precision, anybody you have down force, you have up force, you have just so many things you can, you know, be working within the cab or it can be sensing it. Um, you know, that it's, again, it's eliminated. We talk about sometimes a thousand variables. Well some of this stuff has just helped eliminate all those variables to where the no-till corn I think has started make a little comeback anyway.
Morgan Seger (24:57):
Yeah. And I would think that, you know, if you're looking over like the last 30 years that seed lean bigger has probably improved and the genetics are better as well. So maybe this is a sign for anyone who did it and called it quits that maybe it's time to try again. Right,
Sina Parks (25:14):
Definitely. I think too, when you start talking about, um, profitability, it's, it's important to note that we need to look at all of the inputs to a crop as far as like what is making that profitable, I don't know that you can always pinpoint your profitability on one thing. There's so many variables that play into um, that season. You know, whether it's mother nature, whether it's uh, chemical prices, whether it's fertilizer prices, whether it's trying a new practice. I mean there's just so many different pieces that play into that that we really have to keep in mind that profitability isn't necessarily tied to just one piece of what the farmer is doing, that they all kind of play together. Um, and then I think another thing that's important that we talked about, there's a misconception that farmers just do this because it's the right thing. Like farmers are still running the business and they still have to operate as a business and if they're not making money then they can't continue to do what they're doing. Yeah. So
Morgan Seger (26:08):
I think that's a very important detail. Um, I think as humans on this planet, we all kind of feel like, well we should be doing this no matter what, but then you're right, they have books that need to totally, you know, work out at the end of the day. Um, so do you work with any growers that have done, um, you know, a good job or something unique in the way they are measuring this?
Sina Parks (26:31):
I would say the growers who have a better idea of what their profitability or their return on investment is comes to the ones who keep more data. Data is only gonna become more and more important I'm afraid as we uh, just continue to move through each year and there's more, um, consumers asking questions and the education process that has to go back and forth between the farmer and the consumer. But I think data and having numbers, knowing what all of your inputs are, knowing a field by field cost that you have, knowing how much you're selling the grain for that's coming off of that field or at least trying to be field by field or at least somewhat more specific, will play a big key role in in knowing going forward if you're profitable or not.
Dan Blocker (27:18):
Um, and that was something whats was talking about before I was gonna bring up about it was talking about, we were talking about the data piece. So with TruTerra we've been probably what, 3, 4, 5 years you might say kind of hit and missing with it. And I will say one of the big things, again with everything where you are doing in the ag world now, um, it was hard and again, like you say, it's pretty select on some of the farmers with all this data. But I think, I'm gonna say I guess Ceres needs to be complimented you might say, to have the foresight to partner with like Sina because it has, I can be a lot more, um, proactive with it I guess I'd say thinking I can call Sina and she can work with the grower direct getting this data. You know, we are kind of unique in again taking the step we did and I think we can be a leader in this by what we've done
Morgan Seger (28:38):
For sure. I definitely can see how leaning on your expert is really helpful. Especially, you know, just as you've shared stories, you've talked about how much everything has changed and staying on top of general practices plus the way everything is evolving that's a heavy load. So being able to work as a team, I could see that being really valuable. Yeah.
Sina Parks (28:56):
Well and I appreciate having salesmen like Dan that I can lean on and ask questions too and and be able to go back and forth cuz it is, it takes the whole team to, to be, um, advising and helping the grower.
Dan Blocker (29:10):
Sure does. And I think it helps the grower be a little more open also, um, by being able to kinda say we have an expert here. Again, it's a new enough thing like the carbon piece, just everybody's coming outta the woodwork and so yeah, they are struggling to try and know where to go and how to deal with it. So again, I think it's another good asset you might say to be able to offer it to the farm.
Morgan Seger (29:40):
Yeah. Real quick, back to your disaster story. Are they still farming? Oh yeah. Are they still using these stewardship practices? Oh yeah. Yep. Is it, um, do they still have to be as brave? Are they getting kind of a rhythm? Uh, they're getting a little more comfortable. Good. Well thanks for spending this time today and kind of letting us into your world and, and how traditional ag so to speak, is working with stewardship to really helped move the mark with growers. Thank you. Thank you.
Morgan Seger (30:17):
Thanks for tuning into the first episode of our first series. We hope you enjoyed our conversation as we tried to talk specifically around profitability of these real world applications of improving conservation agriculture. You know, as I think about how I could summarize this, it really comes down to three ways that Dan shared growers are increasing profitability with these stewardship efforts. The first is by managing their labor and wear and tear and fuel on their equipment. Next is through programs. So Sina shared some of the programs through the government that can help reduce risk as growers are making these changes. And also the opportunity there is to participate in carbon markets, which we'll dive into more in depth in our third episode of this series. And finally, improved soil health, really improving soil health and improving the entire environment on your operation is also going to lead to farm profitability.
(31:16):
In our second episode of this series will be joined by Betsy Bower an agronomist from Ceres Solutions and we will be focusing on that last point, improving soil health. She'll talk about how she sees growers doing that and the implications it has for their operation. The show notes for this episode will be available at ceres dot co-op, that's www.ceres.coop. If you enjoyed this deeper dive, be sure to subscribe and leave us a review. Your review and feedback will help other listeners like you find our podcast and we are so thankful for that.
 
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