Posted June 15, 2022 | By: Nutrien Ag Solutions

Milestone Edition: Sustainability Highlights and Insights from Our First 25 Podcast Episodes

It's been a busy year full of insights on the Future. Faster. Podcast.

And if you missed even one episode, you missed a lot.

So in this, our 25th podcast episode, we're listening back to some of the highlights from the last year of the Nutrien Ag Solutions podcast project.

We'll hear some of the most important lessons, and some of the most memorable moments, including actionable insights for cover cropping this fall, how last winter’s climate predictions have held up this summer, and so much more.

The guests from whom we'll hear clips include:

• Jeff Tarsi, President of Global Retail at Nutrien Ag Solutions
• Patrick Reed, Vice President of Sales and La Crosse Seed
• Christine Chitwood, Northern High Plains Division Research and Sustainability Manager
• Brent Smith, Global Vice President of Sustainable Ag, Innovation, Marketing and Proprietary Products at Nutrien Ag Solutions
• Eric Snodgrass, Science Fellow and Principle Atmospheric Scientist at Nutrien Ag Solutions
• Ryan Bond, Senior Director of Crop Protection and Nutrition Innovation at Nutrien Ag Solutions
• David Elser, Senior Vice President for North America Retail at Nutrien Ag Solutions

Episode Transcript

Tom Daniel:

I'm very passionate about sustainability, because I guess I grew up on a farm, and I'm always concerned about the resources of the farm, and what my kids are going to have to farm with in the future.

Sally Flis:

We're doing some pretty exciting and tip-of-the spear kind of work that is really good to be passionate about while you're working on it.

Dusty Weis:

Welcome to The Future. Faster. A sustainable agriculture podcast by Nutrien Ag Solutions, with our very own Tom Daniel, Director of North America Retail and Grower Sustainable Ag, and Dr. Sally Flis, Senior Manager North America, Sustainable Ag and Carbon. This is your opportunity to learn about the next horizon in sustainable agriculture for growers, for partners, for the planet.

Dusty Weis:

To us, it's not about changing what's always worked, it's about continuing to do the little things that make a big impact. It's hard to believe that it's gone so fast, but this is our 25th episode of The Future. Faster. and in honor of that milestone, we're taking a look back at our highlight reel, some of the most important lessons, and some of the most memorable moments from our first 25 podcasts. We'll hear about actionable insights for cover cropping this fall, how last winter's climate predictions have held up this summer, and much more, but if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed to this podcast in your favorite app. Also make sure you follow Nutrien Ag solutions on Facebook and Instagram.

Dusty Weis:

I'm Dusty Weis, and it's time once again to introduce Tom Daniel and Sally Flis, and Tom and Sally, let me just be the first here to congratulate you on a pretty impressive milestone. I've got to say you've reached your 25th podcast episode, which I think qualifies as a silver anniversary of sorts or something like that.

Tom Daniel:

Dusty, do we get a gift for that? Is there something special coming in the mail?

Dusty Weis:

Let me see about that. But I did want to put that number in just a little bit of context. Amplify did a study of the 2 million podcasts in the Apple podcast's database, and they found that about two thirds of podcasts don't make it past 10 episodes. So you're making it to 25, fittingly, already puts you in about the top 25% of podcasts, a fantastic milestone. So congrats to the both of you.

Sally Flis:

Dusty, it's been a really valuable opportunity for us to use other Nutrien Ag solutions staff and outside supporters to tell our sustainability story, and get to meet and interact with other key players in this sustainability ecosystem.

Tom Daniel:

Yeah. And Sally, when we were launching this project, one of the first people we got to talk to was Jeff Tarsi, who at that time held the title of Senior Vice President of North America Operations, and since then he's moved up to now, today, hold the title of president of global retail. But he made it very clear in episode two of the podcast, how sustainability really plays a role in every facet of Nutriens’ operation.

Jeff Tarsi:

At Nutrien Ag Solutions, we're focused on making changes on a daily basis as it relates to our planet that actually create an impact, and most importantly, that can be measured scientifically. And I want to emphasize the importance when I say measured scientifically. In business, we use KPIs to measure our performance. And when we think about positive environmental changes, and some of the things that we're out working and recommending to our growers, I think what differentiates us is our ability to capture and measure some of these responses, and then being able to use that information to educate our growers, to educate our communities, and the public and such.

Jeff Tarsi:

And so in a normal day for our company, look, it's our goal to support our growers. And we do that by providing solutions that include practices and programs and products that create positive economic and environmental impacts on the farm. We like to call that solutions, that we provide solutions to our growers, and those solutions are across a very broad platform. But at the end of the day, when we look at what it is we're striving to do, is we're looking to leave the land in better shape than we found it in. And at the same time, we're looking at creating a return on investment for our growers, which is vitally important as well.

Tom Daniel:

You know Sally, that notion of doing the right thing because it's the right thing, but also getting a return on investment in the process. We've had that subject, the return on investment, come up pretty regularly throughout the course of our first 25 episodes. And certainly that was the case when we talked to Patrick Reed from La Crosse Seed in our episode five.

Sally Flis:

Tom, that's absolutely a conversation worth revisiting, because Patrick is an expert in use of cover crops, which is one practice that we talk a lot about with growers, and a lot of growers are probably thinking about right now, what they're going to do with cover crops for this coming fall. And so when we talked, I asked him what growers should be thinking about as they're making their cover cropping plans.

Patrick Reed:

Well, first off, they need to understand what their crop rotation is, what fields are going to go into what next year, and that will help dictate what cover crop species would be best suited to be planted prior to that cash crop the following spring. Additionally, and a very large thing, would be to understand what goals you want to accomplish from that cover crop on your farm.

Patrick Reed:

There's many key benefits to cover crops, and goals that growers need to consider when implementing a cover crop on other farms. A few examples might be sequestering nutrients, compaction alleviation, reducing runoff of nitrates and other fertilizer products. There's a long list of benefits that cover crops do provide that, ultimately in many cases, could be an enhancement over time to your corn and soybean yields. But those things initially need to be considered by the grower as key aspects of what they want to accomplish on their farm, and then by planning ahead, you can actually implement those cover crops into your entire farm program for the year, perhaps adjusting your variety or hybrid selection based on what cover crops you want to plant, as well as rotations.

Sally Flis:

So if a grower is in the situation where they still want to plant a cover crop this fall, obviously their pesticide applications have all been done, and that kind of stuff, what are opportunities around varieties or different mixes of species that they could select if they had a pretty aggressive herbicide management program that might restrict the use of the more common sort of rye or wheat cover crops being planted?

Patrick Reed:

Well, their herbicide program definitely has an impact on what they can plant and when they can plant. In fact, the herbicide program is another example of something that needs to be pre-planned into your system if you're going to plant cover crops. One thing that's gaining in popularity is interceding cover crops into V3, V4 corn. To do that, you need to have a clear direction on what herbicides you're using, so you can enable yourself to even do that.

Tom Daniel:

I will ask you this question, in our earlier segment of this podcast, we were discussing how growers were looking for return on investments from cover crops, or really from sequestered carbon. So they want to get these early payments through their carbon revenues to help pay for the cost of implementing cover crops, and no-till, and the other things that come along with sequestered carbon. When we're thinking about return on investments and cover crops, how should we look at that as a grower today?

Patrick Reed:

There's far more momentum when talking about things like carbon programs and other payments. Cover crops have been a big thing now for many years. Each year it's gained an intensity, but now, I would say in the last year with the new administration, all the talk of climate change and all that has really ramped up efforts again, and now the advent of carbon programs have become more mainstream.

Patrick Reed:

So there's a lot for a grower to think about. The benefits I mentioned earlier all have an economic benefit to a farmer, or to the environment, but when it comes to all of the carbon payments and maybe other government support that we're seeing on cover crops, there's more opportunity now than ever for a grower to offset seed costs and planting costs of cover crops, due to some revenue source, whether it be carbon programs, whether it be a government program, a watershed initiative that's making payments, and so on. It's ramping up quickly. The key, though, is for a grower to understand what it is he wants to do. And I would never recommend a grower plant cover crop just so he can make money, or get the seed cost offset by some program or carbon program. There's so many good benefits to cover crops beyond that.

Dusty Weis:

You know, Tom and Sally, hearing that clip with Patrick kind of makes me chuckle, because, this might be old hat for you, but I still get kind of excited when I see cover crops out in a farm field. In fact, it’s getting to the point where my wife won’t even go for a drive out in the country with me anymore because I just point out the window and talk about what types of cover crops I’m seeing in the farm fields there.

Sally Flis:

For sure, Dusty. These practices are a lot more common than people think of, and a lot of it is just not recognizing what the practice is in the field, right? So getting that background is really helpful. And a big takeaway from us at the Carbon Summit that Nutrien Ag Solutions held at Commodity Classic in New Orleans this spring, is how many growers that we work with at Nutrien Ag Solutions are really implementing some pretty excellent practices on the landscape.

Tom Daniel:

Yeah, and Sally, a big reason we held the summit is we wanted to bring all these guys together, all the participants that were in the Nutrien Ag Solutions end-to-end carbon pilot for 2021. We learned a lot, and that was the whole purpose of the summit, to bring all those minds together in one room, and to share individual knowledge, not only about cover crops, but tillage practices, and all the things around carbon programs in general. And we also got to talk to Christine Chitwood, who was a major leader for us in the Northern High Plains division in driving a lot of the carbon project in that area. So we got a chance to talk to her, and of course she is the research and sustainability manager for the Northern High Plains division. She shares some really incredible insights from some of those carbon pilot participants in the Northern high Plains area.

Christine Chitwood:

So when this whole sustainability carbon thing came about, and it was a buzzword, and then we hear that there's a program that Nutrien is offering, it was definitely something that we wanted to be a part of, because we felt that we had a lot of customers that are already doing a lot of sustainable practices. Our region covers a wide variety of environments, a lot of tough acres, sandy soils, dry conditions, hot conditions, windy conditions. So if the opportunity was there to share some of our inputs and maybe be able to help shape what this thing looks like moving forward, we wanted to be at the table. We wanted a seat at that table. We wanted to be a part of this learning experience, and share our inputs and our feedback on the whole thing.

Dusty Weis:

The thing that strikes me most about it is, having met a lot of these customers and growers at the Commodity Classic event that you guys put on, I was struck by how nonchalant they all are about their sustainable practices. They're like, "Yeah, we've been doing this for years, and it's just what we do. It's right for our operation, and it's right for the environment." And it's almost like it's no skin off their nose. They were just happy that it was finally being recognized.

Christine Chitwood:

Yeah, definitely. In our area, a lot of our growers have already been doing no-till for 20 years. They've already been implementing cover crops in a number of areas, especially with water allocations and things like that. They're already trying to get as much out of each drop of water that they're applying, and same for nutrients as well. They're trying to get the most they can, and keep as much of it where they want it. And so the opportunity to be a part of a sustainability program was definitely something they were interested in.

Sally Flis:

Christine, as Dusty mentioned, when we gathered at Commodity Classic for the Carbon Summit, we were looking for feedback from growers, and the crop consultants, and other Nutrien staff that participated in our 2021 pilot so that we can do better in 2022, and as we start thinking about already developing our 2023 program. So what were some of the biggest learnings that you and the growers that worked with our pilots in 2021 discovered through that process?

Christine Chitwood:

I'd say one of the biggest themes that we are hearing from our customers, as far as what they've learned, and then just personally too, is that a carbon program might not be for everybody, but sustainability is, and that's been a big learning experience. Early on we had a lot of interest across our division from a lot of different sales people and customers, but we selected kind of the more progressive guys to be a part of the program. Looking back, they maybe weren't the ones that were going to get the most payments, because they were already doing no-till and cover crops, but to have their input along the way on how the program was going and how it fit for them was really valuable.

Sally Flis:

So Christine, in the Northern High Plains division, you mentioned in earlier comments that you have really had some strong support from your divisional leadership to move down these sustainable, and carbon, and other research pathways. What are some of the other events and ways you're reaching out to growers to engage them on sustainability or soil health, beyond the enrollment in some of the programs we have going around carbon?

Christine Chitwood:

Yeah, we do a lot. So I'd say that the leadership through people like Don, also Mark Fabrizius, our plant nutritional manager, he plays a huge role in all of this as well. I work really closely with him on all of our research. We just have this culture of trying to be more sustainable with everything we do. Some of our sales people are personally inviting speakers that are nationally known experts on the topic to come in and talk about soil health, and the regenerative ag topic, and we've had really good feedback and involvement from our growers at some of those meetings. Mark and myself and Don, and we have just a number of great staff that our job is to educate our sales force. It's to educate the growers. And I'd say that's the culture of the Northern High Plains division, is to just try to be as educated as possible.

Christine Chitwood:

And that ties into the research thing too. That's why we do it. We want to know when, where, what, how to place our products. If there's a potential to reduce some of the inputs where you can do that, what does that look like? Because we need to be confident knowing what we're doing, and then we also need to build that trust with the grower, and I believe that the confidence in recommendations we might be giving the grower, I think a lot of the confidence can come from on-farm research trials, and then as well as having outside experts come in, and talk, and kind of reconfirm what we've been telling our guys and our customers as well.

Dusty Weis:

Tom and Sally, Christine mentioned in that clip that her region in the Northern Plains covers a really spectacular variety of climate conditions and soil types, and certainly that's true, but just a little further to the south, though, is a part of the country where the effects of climate change are manifesting via some pretty challenging drought conditions right now.

Dusty Weis:

And so coming up after the break, we're going to look back on a conversation we had last winter about that, and see how some of those expectations panned out now that we're into the growing season. That's coming up in a minute here on The Future. Faster.

Dusty Weis:

This is The Future. Faster. A sustainable agriculture podcast by Nutrien Ag Solutions. I'm Dusty Weis, along with Tom Daniel and Sally Flis, and in recognition of our 25th episode of the show, we're looking back at some of the important takeaway lessons from the first 25 podcasts we've done.

Tom Daniel:

Dusty, they say that you can't know where you're going if you don't remember where you've been. And so if we look all the way back to the episode one of the podcast, our very first one, we talked to Brent Smith, who is the global Vice President of Sustainable Ag Innovation, Marketing, and Proprietary Products at Nutrien Ag Solutions. And I ask him why, why this heavy focus on sustainability driven largely by consumers, and why now?

Brent Smith:

Well, look, personally, I think it's a good thing, that we're getting pressure and we're being held accountable by the consumer, and the consumer puts pressure on the food companies, and the grain companies, and the grocers, as examples. And so what we're trying to do again, because our customer is a grower, we're trying to help our customer help their customer, meet those demands.

Brent Smith:

And so whether it's quality, or it's quantity, or it's a sustainable outcome like a reduced greenhouse gas, or a low carbon product, we are helping them get there. And so I honestly think this is a good thing for our industry, and when you think about sustainability and scaling sustainability, sustainability isn't new. What we're trying to do, though, is make it mainstream and make it scalable. And I think having the whole ecosystem and the portfolio approach that we have focused on solutions to deliver specific outcomes, to meet the demands of the consumer, all the way up that value chain through the grocers and the food companies, I think this is a good thing.

Sally Flis:

Tom, what I really like about Brent's attitude in that clip is it exemplifies the farming spirit so well. When there's a problem, you don't complain about it. You don't pretend that it isn't a problem. You roll up your sleeves, and you get started fixing the problem in the field.

Tom Daniel:

Yeah. It's kind of a matter of fact approach to the whole issue. And I think it's kind of refreshing, don't you? I mean, someone else who we talked to back in February really takes the same approach around climate change, and climate change is one of those things that when you bring it up, everybody's got an opinion, right? But Eric Snodgrass, who is Nutrien Ag Solutions Science Fellow, and he's the Principal Atmospheric Scientist for Nutrien, you ask him to tell us how we can see climate change already taking effect today.

Eric Snodgrass:

I'm glad you're asking me this question, because I've spent 20 years researching it, and I have no political affiliation. So I can actually just give you a straight up answer on what I've observed, and that's important, because you think about what our customer growers are doing, right? They farm within a weather system, but their entire long-term perspective deals with the climate system, so we have to know year on year what the weather's going to do, but if there's any systematic change in the weather, we would call that a climate shift. And let me just give you some numbers to think about here, let's go right into the primary corn and soybean belt. So that's going to stretch from your neck of the woods, Tom, from Kentucky in the Eastern corn belt, all the way to Kansas, and all the way back up north, to North Dakota. In that area, you average the entire region since 1970, it's increased during the growing season, April to October, by about five and a half inches of rainfall.

Eric Snodgrass:

Now I'm sitting here in an I state today, in Indiana, and these I states we've actually measured a tripling in the frequency of what we call heavy rainfall events. That's where we're getting more than two inches of rainfall in a 24-hour time period. On the temperature side of it, because the precipitation side of it, overall, is that we're seeing more wetter years than drier years, but on the temperature side of it, maximum temperatures aren't necessarily increasing in this part of the world. What's increasing here in the primary corn and soybean belt, is that we're seeing warmer overnight lows. Now that's added about nine to 12 days, on average, throughout the primary corn and soybean belt, that's added on average, about nine to 12 days of frost free season. So when you think about that, those numbers say, learn and figure out a way to manage the year-on-year water stresses.

Eric Snodgrass:

And I'll tell you something, I've flown all over the Midwest, and driven all over the Midwest this winter, and I see how folks are responding to it. They're responding to it with pattern tile, they're responding to it by changing their drainage strategies. They're responding to it with their tillage practices. We're finding better ways to take care of the soil, so that when the adverse weather, like the heavy rainfall events, come through, we're able to keep the soil healthier longer, and it gives us bigger and better yields. So yeah, we deal with shifting climate all the time here, in not only in the Midwest but around the world, and we're constantly in this adjustment mode to how we make better decisions, to have year on year profitability, to take better care of that soil. So these things are front of mind for the growers, and what we want to do here at Nutrien is provide the statistical evidence on how stuff is shifting around, and keep all of the other nonsense out of the way.

Tom Daniel:

So Eric, our sustainable ag team and a lot of our crop consultants that we're working with today were focused on a lot of sustainable practices on the farm around the crop production, right? So we're looking at reduced emissions, nitrogen application reductions, the use of reduced tillage, obviously for soil health benefits, and then of course, cover crops to sequester carbon in the soil. We've got a lot of other companies that are starting to join us. You just mentioned Bayer, as an example of a meeting you were at. Do you believe agriculture can be one of the key answers to helping in climate action, where we can actually benefit our climate by adopting new practices that can not only benefit productivity on the farm, but actually protect the natural resources of soil, water, and air?

Eric Snodgrass:

Tom, it's a great question, but I'm going to rephrase it. It doesn't matter what I believe, it's what the facts states, it's what the data shows, and whether I believe it or not, the data are there to show that those changes in practices are fantastic for a couple things, reducing erosion, reducing total application, they're fantastic for keeping the soil more healthy, which makes it more resilient to big weather events that are going to come through regardless of how all of these practices go into place. You put on a cover crop, the effect of doing that plus changing tillage, we have measured and shown in the results how much carbon is stored. And you think about the reduction that has of total atmosphere carbon, and the footprint that's being drawn back and shrunk by that—the US farmer, the global farmer, has a major role to play when it comes to ensuring that the environment, in which we are stewards of, continues to improve in the longer term.

Eric Snodgrass:

Because by the way, you all know this, the more we take care of it, the better it takes care of us. And so these kind of things, I mean, they're right there in the peer reviewed publications, they're in there in the trials, they're there in the data, and it's my job just to come out there and make a pretty song about it and sing it to let folks know, these are the things we've observed, these are the changes that are happening. Let's get those numbers in front of you to see how these things can make you a more efficient farmer in so many different areas. So, Tom, yeah, you're a hundred percent on the money there, that the data are showing that these practices will improve the bottom line.

Sally Flis:

All right, Eric, we get asked this all the time in the sustainability field. What's the one thing we can do to fix all these problems? So what's the one thing that growers and our crop consultants should be looking out for or paying attention to coming into this 2022 crop season?

Eric Snodgrass:

Coming into 2022, my biggest concern, and it's my concern in February, who knows if I'll still be concerned about it May or June, but it's going to be over issues of expanding drought in the Southern Plains. That's what I'm going to have to watch most carefully. If that all gets erased by the time we get into June, hurray. I'll be happy with everybody else. But the bigger answer to your bigger picture question is really more about weather's going to give you ups and downs every year, no matter what. What I would just tell folks is, whatever we can do to make more resilient soil, to hang onto the things that make us have smaller bumps in the road when the weather's going to come through and throw a curve ball at you, those are the kind of things I want to be thinking about and talking about.

Eric Snodgrass:

So it's the systematic shifts that we're doing to make our fields and our soil more resilient, and that's why talking to agronomists, soil scientists, talking to the chemists, and of course talking to the weather geeks like me help to put that whole picture together, because I would want to go into any growing season talking about how I have year-on-year smaller risk, because I've taken care of the ground, which will end up taking care of me. So that's what I'm thinking about every single year.

Dusty Weis:

So Tom and Sally, we talked to Eric back in February, and it's kind of hard to imagine that much time has gone by already, but he mentioned then that he was concerned about what sort of drought conditions they'd be facing in the Southern Plains come May or June. May and June, of course, have come and gone. So with the perspective of hindsight here, how warranted were his concerns?

Sally Flis:

They are pretty big concerns, still for us Dusty. We're just listening as I've been traveling over the last three weeks, and they were mentioning parts of Kansas where they're probably going to be closer to about 20 or 30 bushels an acre versus their normal yields, because of those drought conditions that they're seeing in parts of Kansas. And I know from some of the other projects that we're teeing up for 2022, there are parts of Texas and Colorado where we may not have crop to measure outcomes on.

Sally Flis:

The other piece that I've noticed as I was traveling around the country over the last three weeks is how variable everything is. So I've driven through Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa in the last week, and there's a lot of variability in crop growth out there. There's also a lot of variability in moisture. So those parts of Indiana that we've talked about a few times, and Iowa in previous episodes this spring of being too wet, are all getting to the point of being too dry now. So those extreme swings are really being seen out there, and you've got corn everywhere from six inches to waist high as you drive across a state like Iowa. Tom, I know you've been traveling a lot this spring as well. What have you seen out in the field as you've traveled around?

Tom Daniel:

I guess my biggest worries right now, Sally, of course, we've got the moisture issues out in west Texas, New Mexico—all the west is having lots of issues around lack of adequate rainfall. But I think the one that concerns me the most right now is just the temperature, the high temperatures that are occurring, especially in the south and parts of the Midwest. We're going to start seeing corn tassling in the south, which is not the huge corn market, but it is the early corn market that everybody concentrates on for early feed needs, and those markets are going to be tassling right in these high 90-100 degree temperature ranges. And I think we all know what that does to pollen and what that does to overall pollination of the corn crops. So we've got temperature, we've got lack of water in lots of places, and believe it or not, and I know this is hard to believe, but there are sections in the east region that are still getting too much water.

Tom Daniel:

So it's just amazing how much variation we have in the overall environment from west to east. Sally, as we've talked about the unbelievable differences from the west coast to the east coast and even into Canada, with weather conditions, and environments, and everything that we see happening around climate in our north American area, quite frequently, we always say that there's no such thing as one size fits all. We're different across this whole geography. Everything's local, everything around sustainability is local, just like farming is all local. We always talk about that data, that the data and the needs of each individual farm field should drive the approach, the agronomic solution, or the approach we use on the farm. And so from Nutrien Ag Solutions perspective, that creates a lot of different variables we have to account for.

Sally Flis:

That's true, Tom. And in December we talked with Ryan Bond, the Senior Director of Crop Protection and Nutrition Innovation at Nutrien Ag Solutions. And he laid out for us some of the ways that we're looking at new innovation and products and practices in the field to meet some of these differing needs and individual changes within a field for growers and customers across North America.

Ryan Bond:

So I'd like to think about, or we'd like to think about, R and D as well as our crop consultants do as well is that ag is local, and it truly is. Each situation that we find ourselves in is slightly different than the one before. But at large, when we're developing products, we do like to have that local context, and that's where we have at Nutrien Ag Solutions, those 3,000 crop consultants that you reference there. That's our largest listening system that we have, and so if we do a really good job of listening, then we can take those insights and put those into an R and D program that really gets specific, and then we can leverage the other capabilities that we have in Nutrien beyond just our field scientist. We can leverage the scientists that sit there in the digital agronomy team as well.

Ryan Bond:

We've actually worked towards putting together a really robust pilot program over the last two to three years that we call trials to solutions. And so within that, we're working across the corn belt this year, we've worked across the Southern region this fall, where we've taken more of a replicated R and D trial type of systematic approach, where we mix and match products, and we go across the acre variably applying these different products, turning on and off different spray nozzles and things like that, to where we can actually scale up a traditionally small-scale type of approach to R and D, we can scale that up to the field level, and give really detailed, on-farm type of knowledge base and data coming back to say which solution or which mix of products works best in this particular field versus another field.

Sally Flis:

Tom, we've heard that. As we talked, I think every grower this year, as we approach them with new solutions or opportunities in carbon markets, why something doesn't work for them, and getting through that conversation, and so knowing that these resources are available, as we continue these sustainability conversations, is really critical to getting to that 75 million acres that we talked about on the previous episode.

Tom Daniel:

That's exactly right. It really does. And Ryan, one of the key components, you and I have had multiple discussions about this, but one of the key components of sustainable ag is resource protection or regenerative ag, as you hear that term used a lot. I know you are a huge component of soil health. That's one of the things that you've spent a lot of time in your career on. So give me some ideas. In the innovation side today how are you focusing on soil health measurement, or how we improve our soil health pieces? And what does soil health have to do with productivity and other key components of agriculture?

Ryan Bond:

Well, I am a soil scientist, so I'm glad you asked the question. I can nerd out on this probably all day, every day. Simply put, I mean, a healthy soil is required for biomass, productivity, and plants, and microorganisms, and plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. And I know you guys have had a lot of conversations about carbon here recently.

Ryan Bond:

Soil health also determines the capacity of the soil to function as a productive and stable ecosystem to sustain the plants and other living organisms, so improving soil health results in enhanced water quality, enhanced resilience to environmental change, enhanced carbon sequestration, biodiversity. You think about disease suppression of healthy soils, and then greater productivity of food, and feed, and fiber, and fuel.

Dusty Weis:

I have to laugh when I listen to Ryan talk in that clip about nerding out about soil science, because, A, it's something that we do regularly on this show, but what really strikes me as we listen back to these old clips is just how passionate everyone at Nutrien Ag Solutions gets about these topics.

Tom Daniel:

Well, Dusty, we have to be passionate. I'm very passionate about sustainability because I guess I grew up on a farm, and I'm always concerned about the resources of the farm, and what my kids are going to have to farm with in the future, right? Our customers, our growers, this is not just their livelihood, it's their passion.

Sally Flis:

Well, Tom, I would agree. And I hope sometimes my passion doesn't get mistaken for yelling at people. I think people at home tend to mistake it that way every now and then, but it really is just... We're doing some pretty exciting and tip-of-the-spear are kind of work that is really good to be passionate about while you're working on it. So if there's one thing that we've tried to drive home on the podcast, I think Dave Elser said it best when we talked to him back in January, Dave is our Senior Vice President for North American Retail at Nutrien Ag Solutions.

David Elser:

At the end of the day, we want to end up being the most customer-focused agronomic solution provider to all of the growers across north America. One of the things that we're going to have to be great to recognize is that sustainable ag is at the heart of everything we do. Now, the good news is with all the agronomists we have on the ground, serving customers every day, all the learnings we've had over the number of years that we've been who we've been, as well as I was saying earlier in the segment, where we scale across literally all geographies across North America, it really gives us a chance to shape those insights going forward. So although it is quite local, quite fast, when you've met one field of one grower, it ends up being a different solution. The scale that we have gives us a chance to really bring forward that customer-focused agronomic solution provider, which sustainable ag is at the heart of all that we do.

Dusty Weis:

Well, Tom and Sally, it has been a great honor for me, and just a whole lot of fun to boot, to get to go on this sustainability journey with you guys. We're 25 episodes into this already, so I have to ask, what are you hoping to cook up for the next 25?

Tom Daniel:

Well, first thing I want to know Dusty, what is the gift for silver anniversary? We haven't settled on that yet. So the next piece is, I think as long as we can continue to provide up to date information, not only for our retail guys that are out in the field working, because look, sustainability for them is an abstract term to a certain extent. They live it every day, but they don't realize it, or track it every day, right? And so our ability to help them focus, and understand the importance of sustainability when it comes to their customers and us, I think that's our drive. I think for the next 25 episodes, or the next 50 episodes, it's how do we help engage not only our retail, but growers, in understanding sustainability, understanding the importance of it, but also to be able to tell that grower story. And Sally, I think that's our focus.

Sally Flis:

Yeah, that's what I was going to say, Tom. A big part of that in the next 25 episodes, we'll be highlighting all these growers that we've worked with over the last year and a half, and the good work that they're doing, and why they've adopted the practices that they're doing, and the data collections, and what's worked, and what hasn't, and all those pieces and parts to help people recognize in the field that this hasn't been easy for anybody. This isn't an easy journey or an easy process, and so how can we share the stories of the variety of growers and crop consultants we've worked with to help figure out what's going to work best for all of our customers across North America?

Dusty Weis:

Well, we've got a lot to look forward to, and certainly a lot more to discuss. And I know that after I jump off this call, I'm going to get my supply guy on the line and see if he can do up some silver microphones for you guys, or something like that. But certainly feels like we've only just scratched the surface here.

Dusty Weis:

I'm glad we get the chance to take a look back at some of the highlights from the last year, and cheers guys to the next 25. Thanks for joining us on this episode of The Future. Faster.

Dusty Weis:

That is going to conclude this edition of The Future. Faster. The pursuit of sustainable success with Nutrien Ag Solutions. New episodes arrive every other week, so make sure you subscribe in your favorite app, and join us again soon. Visit futurefaster.com to learn more. The Future. Faster. Podcast is brought to you by Nutrien Ag Solutions, with executive producer Connor Erwin and editing by Larry Kilgore III. And it's produced by Podcamp Media, branded podcast production for businesses, podcampmedia.com. We're Nutrien Ag Solutions. Thanks for listening. I'm Dusty Weis.

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Posted July 16, 2021

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