Alfalfa Pest and Crop Management Session

February 16, 2021

Video Transcript

Like a blister beetle that can occur down in the southwest part of Michigan, really all of Michigan, but it's not a major pest. Some of the weeds that we see, curly dock. That's one that Bruce said I should really think about. But I think that there are other weeds that are equally just as important and a challenge. And maybe the biggest one is thistle. When we think of fertility challenges, soil acidity is always a problem. Ph is something we never ever get tired of talking about in Extension. We have potassium that can be a challenge, especially in these low organic soils that are well drained. Low sulfur, low boron, all of those, they're all associated with those lighter and coarser textured soils. But in addition to that, when you add all of those things together, we have some management challenges that go along with those. So whether it's getting a stand established, What kind of weed pressures do you have? What kind of cutting schedules do you have? When do you plant? When do you not plant? What is the longevity of your stand and then fertility. Those are all things that go into really managing a very vigorous alfalfa stand for high production. And when I think about some of the major concerns, we want to, we want to think about the three big things that come up every time I talk to producers. And I can ask questions about what concerns them. And these three will always come up. Forage quality, forage yield forage leaf loss. And of course with these, we want to maintain and have high-quality forages. We want to maintain and have high yields. And on the inverse, we want to keep that forage leaf loss down to a minimum as much as possible. And all that ties together really for the best animal performance that we can possibly have. But I look at these and every single one of them is a preventative measure. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to keep the yield that we have. We want to keep the quality that is there or prevent that leaf lost from occurring. And if we can do that, we can be successful, some of the time. When I say some of the time, there are some costs associated with forages. And if you look at dry hay, I've seen losses anywhere from 22 to 38%. These are averages across the upper Midwest according to the another sander. And of course we see it in the mowing and raking in the bailing and the storage and all the way through the feeding process. There are some real losses that occur with dry hay. Haylage. You think, well, that's something a little different. And I'm hoping that there are some dairy producers here today that are cutting haylage. And they think, well, we have a lot less loss. Well, that's not always true. We can have anywhere from 20 to 35 percent loss on our haylage. Either into curing process, the harvesting, storage and again in the feed out stage for all of these operations that are in Michigan. So one of the things that I want to talk about today and, and really try and emphasize is that we're looking at things that are trying to take that yield away. We're trying, we want to look at things that are trying to take the quality away. And when I look at some of the major insects that are out there, alfalfa weevil, which has been around a long time, it chews, it defoliates. Usually it's first cutting. It over winters in Michigan. It's an introduced species that's not native to Michigan. But there are bio control things that are, are available out there. We have these small wasps that do a very good job of controlling alfalfa weevil in most parts of the state. And I rarely see people spraying for alfalfa weevil. On the other hand, when I look at potato leafhoppers and we'll get into some of the more specifics of these. in a little bit, it actually, it injects toxin into the plant and it sucks juices. It causes hopper burn. It's usually in second and third cutting. It migrates to Michigan from the deep south. It's native to the United States. Very poor bio control because it is so mobile out there and producers do spray very often when you think about trying to control this particular insect. I took this picture early in my Extension career and I honestly, I've never seen anything as bad since and I'm glad. There's really nothing that you can do in a field like this. It was just loaded with alfalfa weevil. The only thing that you can possibly do from management standpoint, get in there and cut it and get it out of there. These larva that you see on the right-hand side, they're going to be pupating. They're going to be going into a cocoon and they're going to really turn into adult before you know it. And so there was really nothing that you could do. You would never spray a field like this. You want to just go ahead and cut it. But hopefully you don't see anything like this in your fields in Southwest Michigan. Again, with the alfalfa weevil just from a identification standpoint, usually one generation per year. The adults will overwinter. They'll lay their eggs, and then those larva will hatch and that's what causes the problem. They mature really according to heat units. So when you see the weather start to turn. And we have temperatures that are in the 60s and 70s. That's when the clock starts ticking. And so these adults will, they lay their eggs and those will actually start to hatch at 250 growing degree days with a base at 48. It's a little different than with corn when we talk about growing degree days. Or even with alfalfa that are base of 41, corn is a base of 50. These weevil actually started a base of 48. So there's different ways to track this. And one of the best things that we have going for us is the enviroweather system. It's actually something that Michigan State University Extension has that will track the weather and the growing degree days across the wide area for all these different types of base, 48, 41 or 50. Don't be fooled though there are some clover weevils out there. And those clover weevils, can mimic and look a lot like the alfalfa weevil, but they're not. So just make sure that you have the right critter that you're looking at. When you think about potato leafhoppers, they are small, they're about a quarter inch tall... they are about a quarter, quarter inch in length. And if you walk through a field, you will see them jump and fly. They'll actually be going out in front of you as you walk through a field of alfalfa. And again, like I said earlier, this is usually in second cutting. And during the spring time on some of these big rain and frontal events that start around the Gulf of Mexico and come northward. That's where we have all of these potato leafhoppers coming from the Gulf States up into Michigan. And I will talk to Dr. Chris DiFonzo. Especially during the spring time and if you have events that are bringing a lot of moisture, a lot of warm air, you can bet that you're actually having potato leafhoppers migrating to Michigan, on those air fronts. And once they're here, those adults, they will fly, they'll lay eggs. And you will have anywhere from three to four generations of potato leafhopper per season. And it, It's one of those things where first cutting, I have never seen potato leaf hopper in the thumb, in first cutting alfalfa. But for second cutting alfalfa and third cutting alfalfa, we start to see major challenges with leafhoppers. And I'm going to say that it's one of those things where you should be scouting. You should be looking for leafhoppers during those particular cuttings. I say that I don't go further than third cutting because normally what happens in August, are temperatures start to cool down. And one of the things that happens is that these adults and nymphs that are out there when the temperatures start to go down, we have a lot more moisture in our fields and then we have fungus that will actually attack and cause these populations to crash. Normally I see potato leafhopper devastate fields that are younger. And I'm going to say for new seedlings. These are particularly susceptible. But I've seen fields that have been in, in, there been around for three or four years and they'll be light yellow or brown and I've had calls where I go to the farm and they say, What's wrong with my alfalfa? I walk out there and say it's not a nutrient deficiency. This is potato leafhopper. And best thing at that point in time is to cut. There's no reason that you should ever spray a field that looks like this because those plants are already stunted and nothing good comes out of a plant that's been attacked by potato leafhopper. Yield goes down, quality goes down, winter survival goes down for the plants. The vigor of the plant is reduced and it will stunt those plants, prevent them from actually growing. And so, especially in hot, dry weather, potato leafhopper will be a real challenge. There are some cultural controls. Like I said, you can cut the alfalfa, but you want to make sure that you have you follow those IPM strategies that are out there. If you can walk out, scout, sweep the field to find out just how many of the adults and nymphs that you have. And then make a determination whether or not you should spray. There is genetic resistance that is available. I don't see it or hear about it as much as I did several years ago. But it is still an effective alternative to a chemical control. And we'll talk about that in just a little bit here. When I say that there is genetic material out there that will actually prevent the potato leafhopper from causing problems. As you can see from this picture, there are actually a granular haired alfalfa that will prevent that insect from sucking and getting to the plant. And that is important because you want to keep that plant as healthy as possible and prevent those toxins from being injected into the plant. Right now they're at the eighth generation of potato leafhopper resistance. And some companies will offer up to 85 percent resistance to the pest. And that is a huge difference compared to a susceptible. Now, if you are in a situation where you have just a major infestation with potato leafhopper. Even the leafhopper resistant varieties can be overcome by the potato leafhoppers if there's a large enough population, so it's not foolproof. But you should consider, if you have this particular type of resistance, it should prevent it from being a problem most years. And one of the things that they say that the economic spray threshold is 10 times higher than that of non-resistant varieties. I have seen fields that had two different varieties. One was resistant, one was not. And you could see the strips of yellow in the field from the leafhoppers that it had been attacking the non-resistant variety. I'm going to switch gears a little bit now and talk a little bit about the management strategies that alfalfa producers should consider. And I want to just say that details matter when you're working with alfalfa. It matters for the preparation. And good planning prevents poor performance. In the establishment phase, I'll say this, you never get over a good or a bad start. You live with it for the rate, for the length of that field. And considering that this is a perennial crop, you may have 3-4-5-6-7 or higher number of years that you're going to keep that crop. And so you will limit the yield with a bad start. And when I talk about harvesting, timing is everything. Quality is critical when you think about when you harvest your alfalfa and looking at the IPM and maintenance of that, of that crop that's out there. Protect your hay and quality will stay. Those are quotes out of a forage book that I got at a conference many years ago. Maybe you didn't see this one. But there's been a lot of unrest in our country in the last and across the world really for the last several years. And, and this group was very concerned about saving the leaves on alfalfa. It's one of those things where I think they've got the right idea. Save the leaves, protect that quality, protect that yield. But before we get into some of that, I want to talk a little bit about getting started. I say plan one year in advance. And why do I say that? When you think about alfalfa varieties, think about the variety that you're starting with. You want to select something that has increased disease winter hardiness. There are many varieties out there that have a great package of disease and winter hardiness indexes that are very good. If you have those, you'll see less winter kill and less winter injury, which really helps you in the long run. Michigan State University completes an annual forage variety test report. And Dr. Kim Cassida with MSU, who is our forage agronomist. She puts this together and actually will publish this, I'm going to say, within the next couple of weeks, we'll have the latest information available. But I'm going to say that if you're not using this, this is a very good bulletin that talks about alfalfa varieties, telling you what the companies are. It talks about grass varieties as well as cover crop varieties that are available on the market for purchase. But one of the things that even this bulletin talks about his planning in advance, and when I say planning in advance, you need to be ready. You need to prepare because the last thing I want to do is get a call the middle of April and say, someone says to me, Phil, I want to plan an alfalfa field. And I say, well, what's the field look like right now? Well, it's still got a lot of weeds from last year and I'm having, wondering what do I do? Well, now it's not the time. Actually, it should have been done in advance. But when you think about the type of alfalfa Friday that you're going to purchase. And again, getting back to what's available out there, There are different types of alfalfa from the companies. There are the treated types. And what I include Roundup Ready, which is glyphosate resistance. And there is a tech fee associated with this particular product, a $125 a bag. There is another type of trait called hire extra. And not only is it something that high, it has higher digestibility. And it has been tested at MSU and several different universities across the country as well as the companies. It has Roundup Ready genes as well as a HarvXtra. And there's an extra $125 bag tech fee. So, you know, it's got a $125 with Roundup Ready plus another $125. So you have $250 of tech fees with that particular variety. So when you consider the cost of your seed, that's something that I have seen really is, is cause people to second guess this particular technology. But I'm going to say the technology does exactly what it says it's going to do. It is higher digestibility. It is usually 5% higher in digestibility than conventional types of alfalfa. One of the caveats of this particular product is what happens if we have a year like 2019 and you can't cut your alfalfa the first of June and it goes to flower. And it goes to flower, and it stays there. And all of a sudden you've got fully bloomed alfalfa. According to the agreement that you sign when you purchased Roundup Ready alfalfa, it needs to be cut by 50% flower date. So actually you're out of compliance if it goes longer than that. So that's just an FYI for you. On the conventional types. There are some, all of these, I'm going to say our improved varieties and I recommend improved varieties whenever you're planting alfalfa. High chest is it's not a trait. It's conventional breeding. And it does have a very good quality, very high-quality. We have hybrids that are part of the Dairyland family. Now near fourth generation. We have varieties that have reduced lodging. We have potato leafhopper varieties with resistance that we talked about earlier, as well as varieties that are considered high-quality. So all of these different types are available. You need to decide what you actually want. When we talk about growing the crop with establishment, plan in advance. You want well-drained, no water pockets. And if possible, if you have pockets where there where water will stand, I do recommend that you land level these fields to make sure that no water stands. Get the right variety for yield resistance traits. And again, these varieties will vary from farm in region, most of Michigan know we want something that's going to have very good winter hardiness, maybe in a four. And we want something that's going to have very good hardiness at a three level if possible. Some of the questions that I get are associated with time of establishment. And if you're taking the time to plant this perennial crop, you want to make sure that it's done so that you get a good start. In the spring time there are some there are pluses and minuses. And in the spring, you have enough moisture, you have cooler temperatures, and you can have higher yield for the year because you may be able to get at least one, possibly two cuttings for that year. Some of the minuses, weed competition is always a challenge and it may be too wet to be able to plant, get it in on time. And I like to see alfalfa planted before the first of June because if it turns too hot, then that small seedling, they're wimpy, they will die if you give them a chance, especially if it gets hot and dry in June. And we've seen that the last several years. In August, I like to see things planted before the 15th of August. And why do I say that? Because you need six weeks of good growing, weather in order for that plant to have the ability to withstand the winter that's coming up. So make sure that it's in on time. And if we have hot dry weather with no emergence for over two weeks now you're at the 1st of September. Now you're starting to get in a range where it's, it's iffy, if you try it in plant that later than that, our recommendations plant it before the 15th. And I like to say the first week in August is a great time. Start with a clean field. Weed competition is less. One of the challenges. Moisture and temperature can be hot and dry. And when I say start clean, weed suppression is critical. Always try and get rid of those weeds if you possibly can. When Bruce talked about his major weed, you have to have tillage in order to take in, take that out of the equation because conventional tillage needs to disrupt the root and it's a taproot that comes with that particular weed. And so I want to make sure that you understand now you've gotta get it out of there and clean it up prior to planting. Take a soil test. pH should be at 6.8. 6.5 to 6.8 and you should apply lime six months in advance. Always have a firm seed bed. I have seen people use what I call a stale seed bed and a fall and had an excellent stand. But I'm going to say they even have a stale seed bed in the spring time and get a good start. Plant at the right depth, not too deep because you can certainly have a thin stand by planting too deep and control weeds early. Follow those labels on those pesticide applications. You want to control those weeds for the first 60 days. One of the things that I want to say is that making sure that you plant with a clean field is so critical and that firm seed bed, making sure that you get that 12 to 18 pounds a seed. I don't think we need more than that. I know people are planting higher rates than that, but I don't think it's necessary. Some will plant with a nurse crop like oats in the spring time that can be effective as well and reduces weeds and will suppress those weeds during the growing season. But I can't emphasize this enough. Think about the year before. You want to make sure that those herbicides that may have been applied to a different crop do not cause a problem. When you look at harvest strategy, yield is critical. Quality is critical and there's always a trade-off between yield and quality. And it's one of those things where if you want higher yields, you can get that if you wait. If you want something that's going to be higher in quality, you need to take it earlier. And by doing that, then you will actually reduce yields. So it's a trade-off. And what do you want to try and do? Get in there before that bud stage or at that bud stage to make sure that you're cutting at the appropriate time for the livestock, that you're actually fitting this too. And I put this slide up because forage quality varies by animals. And if you're in a dairy, you need very high quality alfalfa. If you are working with dry cows or heifers, you need lower quality forage. And so you may have opportunities to have different levels of forage during the course of the year. If you're doing that, make sure that you are considering where that's going to go according to the quality needs of the animals. Whether it's horses, goats, sheep, whatever you have. When I say I talk about cutting on time, the reason I bring this up is because that first cutting normally represents 40 percent, 40 to 50 percent of the overall yield for the year. And so if you, if your quality is compromised on that first cutting, it can cause havoc for the rest of the year because now you have low quality forage for the majority of your forage yields. And you can see that as the summer goes along, especially in third cutting, you'll notice that it gets pretty tight as far as the amount of yield that's due to hot dry weather, normally that we see in Michigan. I want to talk a little bit about soil fertility. And Bruce, I'm not sure how much time I have left, but if you could give me a little bit of a heads up, I'd appreciate it. Sure you're doing fine. Phil, you've got, you're only 332 right now. So we've got plenty of time. All right, great. I do want to talk about soil fertility because it is the one thing that was talked about last night with Joe Lauer from the University Wisconsin, it was a very good point. Soil fertility is an offensive way to get higher yields instead of playing defense all the time. And soil sampling is a critical part of that. Soil test every three to four years, no more than 25 acres per sample. Some people will do grid sampling of 2 1/2, 2 or even less size acreage for each sample. But use that information to make sure that you have good fertility. Adapt those nutrient managements based on trends over time. And soil pH, again, is one of the most important aspects. Make sure you put lime on six months in advance. Other things. Like sulfur and boron, those need to go on annually. And when I say recommendations for pH 6.0 to 6.8 and when I say 6.0, that's on the subsoil for high organic soils like we have in Lapeer county, we have some muck soils. 5.3 will actually be enough. And I want to talk about removal rates. This is brand new information out of the 2020 tri-state fertilizer recommendations. These have changed a little bit. And when I say a little, it went from 13 to 12 on alfalfa for phosphates. And for our potassiums from 50 to 49. So it changed a little bit, but not major amounts, and that is removed per ton of dry matter. I took these pictures of the identical field. On the left is first cutting. On the right is second cutting. What's the difference? I was in this field and I was there because the farmer called, said what's going on and come to find out it was sulfur deficient. Sulfur can be a problem in fields that are low organic matter that do not receive manure, that have leaching that occurs. And so sulfur is one of the things we're not getting as much deposited from our air. And so I'm going to say adding sulfur deficient fields can increase yields by one ton or more. You can't figure this out with a soil test. You must do this with leaf tissue testing. And it's something where if you add the sulfur that it can respond and does respond as shown on the picture on the right after we planted or actually we added sulfur to that in the form of sulfurs. Ammonium sulfate, that's what we used. I did a sulfur survey several years ago. And in the southwest part of Michigan, there was actually deficient in about 50 percent of the fields that we're actually entered into the survey. And that includes those that are borderline .25 parts per million was the level that we were shooting at. I would say .27 is borderline. And you can see 50 percent were actually in that range. And then we had adequate in very few that were high. So when you look at annual applications for sulfur and boron, I would say 25 pounds per acre on a high-producing alfalfa field is sufficient for the year and sulfates are available. And actually should be the way that I would go. And as you can see, there are recommended fertilizer rates based on tonnage. And this is where we're actually in the maintenance range. And so that's why it's good to know what you have before you start adding a lot of fertilizer. Dairy manure is one of the things that does add towards nutrient levels in fields, especially for those dairy farmers. And this has taken off the Dairyland Lab's website located in Battle Creek in Southwest Michigan. You can see that phosphates between 8 - 9 pounds per 1000 gallons of liquid and for the potassium between 19 - 20. So what I do, I figured that I would give you an example where we're, where we're seeing some dairy farms actually not paying attention to the details. And they're seeing a net loss and reduction in yield because they're not putting enough nutrients on the field even though they are adding manure every year. If you have a farmer that cuts 4 - 5 times a year and gets six and a quarter dry matter tons. And he puts on 10 thousand gallons of liquid dairy manure. He might think that he has enough. But the end of that alfalfa stand after four and a quarter years, he's actually depleted the potassium levels by over 500 pounds per acre. That's major nutrient loss. And I'm sorry, no matter how you look at it, that's going to cause reductions and challenges in alfalfa for winter hardiness and yield, both. So you may want to ask yourself, how long should I keep my alfalfa stand? Well, I'm going to say that for a high-producing dairy, normally they're around four tons for four years and they're rotating out. For others, they may keep it longer. But data shows based on information from MSU and Wisconsin and other Midwestern states, that at the end of six years, you are probably less than 50% of the alfalfa yield than you had at the beginning in year one. And that's a major hit. And so it's one of those things where you may want to consider. Should I take the nitrogen credits that are available and put those towards a corn crop rather than trying to get one more year out of that alfalfa. And I'm going to say, I think that there are opportunities where we can rotate that field and gain in both alfalfa and in corn yields and be farther off economically. When I see stands like this, there may be pockets where there is gaps. Do the gaps come because the weeds take over or do the gaps come because the alfalfa doesn't thrive. And I'm going to say alfalfa leaves before the weeds come. The weeds are opportunistic. And so they will come actually and invade fields rather than they're there And so they overtake, that usually doesn't happen. And I would assess your field of alfalfa. Obviously, if you have a an alfalfa stand that has this type of winter damage and heaving that is going to be dead alfalfa plants. But you want to look at what do you have on a per square foot. And 55 stems per square foot is what I consider full production. 40 to 55 is less than ideal and below 40, I would consider actually rotating out. And getting rid of that alfalfa stand and going to corn or another crop. One of the things with harvesting, make sure that you adjust your haybines. Make sure that those rollers are actually hitting the target, cut at the right height. Every inch of alfalfa that you leave in the field is lost yield. Make sure that you don't have soil that's going into the forage when you're raking. This is a great example of using a merger and keeping as much ash in soil out of that forage as possible and bale as soon as possible because wheel traffic will decrease the amount of alfalfa if you go over that established stand where it is actually starting to grow before you get out there and go across the field and protect those leaves as much as possible. When I talk about adjusting those conditioner rolls, make sure that they're adjusted on both sides. Many times they'll wear in the center. And so do several different areas of that roller and try and figure out what you can or what what you need to do in order to adjust for the right clearance to make sure and crush those alfalfa stems. And again, I, I hate to bring this up. Leaf loss is one of the major things that I see in many fields where they lose quality. And let's resist leaf loss as much as we can. These protesters felt very strongly about it, leaves have rights too, let's stand up for our leaves. When I think about cutting, wider is better. Respiration continues. And if we can spread that alfalfa out, you want to have at least 80 percent of that wind row spread out as wide as possible. And that will give you faster drying times and be able to take that alfalfa off the field faster as well. Bruce, I'm going to wrap it up by giving a little bit of a advertisement here for other MSU forage programs. What you had today was just a taste of what you could have for different programs that are coming up. We have a webinar series, Hay Production 101 that is going to be starting the 2nd of March. And we also have the Great Lakes forage grazing conference scheduled for March 11th. That's both of these are webinars online. And I think that if you are, especially for a beginner or intermediate, hay producer, you would get a lot out of this Hay Production 101 series. And the grazing side is included in the Great Lakes Forage and Grazing conference. But we have Dr. Dennis Hancock, who was the US Dairy Forage Research Center Director as our keynote speaker that day. And he is going to be talking about balage and balage production at the webinar. And I have some resources that I have available for everyone. If you would like them, I can put those in the chat if you'd like. And with that, I don't know how much time I have, If there's enough time for a couple of questions? There are and there's some questions I'm going to, excuse me, I'm going to stop sharing Bruce. That's fine. So there was a question in the chat or in the Q and A's. Do PLH alfalfas work in grazing operations? Potato leafhopper varieties work in any situation if you have leafhoppers. The challenges is that alfalfa is not a great grazing product to have in a field. Normally I'm going to go with something that's a little different. I would probably go with a different legume. I may have things like white clover, red clover, or even possibly birdsfoot trefoil in a, in a perennial stand that can be there for many, many years. Alfalfa just doesn't seem to last as long. The other question is a age old question down here. It's about the Van Buren County flower, which is horse nettle or Carolina nettles. So basically horse nettle. And so the question is, how do you control them in alfalfa grass pastures? Oh, there's really not much you can do. It's one of those things where you have a broadleaf and you have a grass. And most of our herbicides are geared for one or the other, but usually not both. So when you have something like horse nettle, glyphosate is something that you may consider. And I've seen people try to wick it and spot spray, but it's, it's very difficult to get it out of a field once you have it in there. That's why I say start clean if possible. And if it's bad enough and you have just over abundance, you may have to start over. But hopefully, if it's a small enough area, you can control it. And possibly frost seed or add some other forages in there without having to renovate the entire field. Yeah, that's a it's a very tough one to do. Certainly cutting, helps reduce the viability. So in a multi-cut system in alfalfa, especially where there's some competition in there. You're going to be better off, but it doesn't get rid of that, get rid of the challenge in there, so okay. Anything else for the good of the cause I guess? I do have some references that I would be glad to share if anybody is interested. In fact, I'll put those in the chat. Okay. So we can do that. Um, if he'll put those in the chat and we are probably getting pretty close to being able to wrap up our session for today. Thanks Phil for for providing us with some good information on alfalfa production. And we guess the question I guess I would have in there is if if you are when you when you wrap up today, we need to be able to go back and finish up with our our evaluation, which has the at the end of that has the RUP information that you can enter your, your stuff. So the survey link, Eric just put in the chat pod. And we will be back here tomorrow looking at several different several different things. I think tomorrow is Wednesday we will be working on the looking at soil quality and soil sustainability essentially. And then Thursday we will be back with full sessions looking at irrigation in production, irrigated production, and as well as commercial food production. And Friday we will have sessions dealing with food, cottage industry in working with townships for like an agricultural enterprise or a food enterprise just beyond the farm gate. As well as kind of a session that deals with looking at the weather. Jeff Andresen will give us an update on the 2021 growing season, kinda discuss some of the trends that we've seen. We will walk through some of the changes, enviroweather, the weather station system that has 81 station spread across Michigan and parts of northern Wisconsin. And look at some of the tools that are involved with that and some of the things for the IPM program. And then on top of that, we will look at maybe some things that would be useful for your farm to be able to help manage extreme weather events. So we'll take a look at some of the strategies that you might be able use to help mitigate some of the challenges with weather. And finally, a look at kind of wildlife damage and maybe ways to constructively work with regulatory agencies, DNR, the USDA office, and ways to identify which which species are causing damage and to document things to build to help manage wildlife damage on farms. So that is kind of the breast of the program for the rest of the week. We would we do appreciate the fact that you guys are here. Please do fill out the surveys and we will see you tomorrow. Eric, anything else for the good of the cause? I can't think of anything. Fantastic. Well, thanks again for coming and thanks Phil for teaching us a little bit more about alfalfa and we will be happy to see, see down the road. Thank you. Bye.