Subscribe on iTunes | Android | Stitcher | SoundCloud | Spotify | RSS feed
Show Notes & Resources Mentioned:
Contact Information:
Contact Isaac via email at isaac_madsen@wsu.edu or via phone at 360-448-9081.
What is a podcast?
For those of you who are newer to the medium, a podcast is like a pre-recorded radio show. In the same way that you turn on a talk radio show, you have to turn on a podcast. The major difference is that while our cars are equipped to find radio frequencies, they are not built to accommodate direct access to podcasts. On your smartphone or computer with internet access (since the files tend to be on the larger side), you can discover podcast shows of any kind, in any field, on any topic.
Listed above are some of the most used podcast hosts. iTunes and the iTunes Podcast app are preinstalled on your iPhone and are the simplest tools to use. You simply search for “WSU Wheat Beat Podcast” in the search bar, hit “subscribe” and the download arrow, and listen whenever it’s convenient for you.
If you use an Android or use another type of smartphone, you will need to find a different podcasting app because those devices don’t come with a preinstalled app like Apple. If you don’t know which podcast app you’d like, simply hit the “Android” link above and it will show you to several Android podcast apps for you to choose from.
After you download an episode, you can listen without using data any time of day. Our goal is to post a new podcast every other Monday. Your podcast app should automatically load our new episodes and download them for you (on WiFi), hands-free if you choose that in the app settings.
If you have further questions about what a podcast is, which app is best for you or need more assistance with getting started with podcasts, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Episode Transcription:
Drew Lyon: Hello. Welcome to the WSU Wheat Beat podcast. I’m your host, Drew Lyon, and I want to thank you for joining me as we explore the world of small grains production and research at Washington State University. In each episode, I speak with researchers WSU and the USDA-ARS to provide you with insights into the latest research on wheat and barley production. If you enjoy the WSU Wheat Beat podcast do us a favor and subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app and leave us a review while you’re there so others can find the show too
[ Music ]
Drew Lyon: My guest today is Dr. Isaac Madsen. Isaac is a soil scientist and native of the northwest. He currently serves as the Extension Agronomist for the Washington Oilseeds Cropping Systems Project at WSU. He’s been involved in research on soil health, plant root and soil interactions, soil futility and alternative crops. His current research focuses on stand establishment and winter survival in canola, as well as alternative cropping practices such as legume oilseed intercropping and integrate livestock in dual purpose cropping systems. Hello, Isaac.
Isaac Madsen: Hello, Drew.
Drew Lyon: So, this is kind of a new position for you, agronomist to the Washington Oilseed Cropping Systems Project. What excites you about this new position? And, what really gets you motivated or gets you to show up in the office each morning now that you’re in this new position?
Isaac Madsen: Yes. Thank you, Drew. I think what really excites me about this position is probably the opportunity to work with farmers. I have a little bit of experience with that. You know, I’ve been involved in the oilseeds project actually for about seven years now as a Ph.D. student and then as a post-doc. And so, I really enjoyed getting to know that group of farmers that were some of the early innovators and adopters of oilseeds as most people trying it out and I found that to be a great community to learn from and to work with. And so, I’d say, working with the farmers on innovative solutions to their problems is probably the most exciting area for me. Also just getting to work with different crops, I think. I’m really look at not just canola as an oilseed, but flax, sunflower, safflower, some of these other crops that maybe a little less is known about. So, I think there’s exciting research to be done in those areas. And then, I’m hoping to continue some of my root work, which was my focus during my Ph.D.
Drew Lyon: Okay. So, this position, formerly Karen Sowers was in it. Actually, not really. She was kind of in a different position. What are some of your newer responsibilities that you’re going to be taking your position in.
Isaac Madsen: Yeah, so, Karen Sowers was 100% extension. I am actually teaching, research, and extension.
Drew Lyon: Okay. You’re doing all three.
Isaac Madsen: Yes.
Drew Lyon: All right.
Isaac Madsen: So, I assume the full land grant mission with this position and I see those ranking out as extension as my primary responsibility, then research, and then teaching. And, I’ll be teaching a class that I’ve actually taught for the last three years, so I have a pretty good handle on that.
Drew Lyon: Okay. So, that’s good. You’re melding all those different things together, so.
Isaac Madsen: Exactly. I actually find there’s a huge benefit to doing all three. You know, I take what I learn from growers or I learn from research. I take that right into the classroom. Sometimes I use that to design exam questions and then I always learn things from the students. They have, you know, new and different perspectives, so I try and bring that back into my research and into my extension efforts.
Drew Lyon: Excellent. So, what are some of the research areas you think you’ll be focusing on going forward that will benefit oilseed growers?
Isaac Madsen: Yeah so, I’ve traveled around a little bit this year. Well, I traveled to one place, but it was to Canada and in Canada, I met with a lot of Australians. And so, if you know anything about —
Drew Lyon: Interesting.
Isaac Madsen: [ Laughter ] Yeah, yeah.
Drew Lyon: You went north to talk to people from the south.
Isaac Madsen: Yeah, exactly. But, you know, Canada and Australia are probably two of the major oilseed producing regions besides the U.S. in the world, well as far as, if you just count soy. So, if you look at canola, and it was really interesting talking to them, because we all face the same challenges is what I found. You know, they have very, very different systems than ours, but in dryland systems, stand establishment is always the number one concern and that, I would say, is the number one concern in the northwest. You know, I’ve been doing some stand counts and sometimes you’re only getting up about 40% of the seeds you’re actually putting in. So, that’s, especially with expensive seed prices, that’s not very good if you’re only getting 40% up. So, I would like to see that number increase. So, I would like ideally every seed we put in the ground emerges. That would be a perfect scenario, so I see that as a major area of focus and I’m working with a variety of practices on that. So, everything from fertility, just basic fertility practices, to also thinking about how we might do some more innovative things, like I know some growers who have been trying inferowatering. So, rather than trying that in the field a whole bunch of times and maybe it working, maybe it not, I’ve actually been running some in the lab incubations to see how much growth you can get out of, you know, certain amount of gallons break.
Drew Lyon: Okay.
Isaac Madsen: So far, it’s not looking super hopeful, but hey, we’re working on it [laughter]. You need a lot of water to germinate seeds is the bottom line.
Drew Lyon: Especially if your soils already dry when you start, yeah.
Isaac Madsen: Yeah, and that’s another variable we’re actually shifting is what is the starting moisture of the soil. So, you know, if you’re at a permanent wilting point, you might as well give up, but if you’re like just edge and below field capacity or something like that or, well further below field capacity, just above permanent wilting point, maybe that’s where we’re seeing, okay, there’s a little bit of benefit we can actually get from adding some moisture.
Drew Lyon: I know when I go around and talk my integrate wheat and management talk around one of the points I always make is how important a good stand of competitive crop is for wheat control. Even herbicides work much better when there’s good competition. So, I think that’s a really important. It was a frustration for me early in my work in Nebraska when I was trying to do wheat control and canola, if I got a good stand, I could get good wheat control, and if I couldn’t get a good stand, it didn’t matter what herbicide I used, I had wheat problems.
Isaac Madsen: Yes. And, I think everybody that’s growing knows that if you get it up out of the ground, you get it through winter, it’s really aggressive and a really competitive plant. But it’s just a wimp when it’s a kid. It’s that little puny kid that goes onto college and plays football or something like that. [ Laughter ]
Drew Lyon: But having those gaps in the stand really makes a big different.
Isaac Madsen: Yes.
Drew Lyon: So, if you could really get that stand establishment figured out, I think you’d really help the wheat control issues as well.
Isaac Madsen: Yeah. And, I think singulation, seed singulation is going to be something that comes up. I know that’s an expensive and different and a little bit scary sometimes, but I really think work that Ian Burke has done points us that way where he’s used a plantar to plant canola.
Drew Lyon: Okay. So, I know I enjoy every once in a while popping into the hallway and having a talk with you about some new innovative cropping system you’re thinking about. What are some of the innovative cropping system practices that you think might be useful here in Washington State?
Isaac Madsen: Yeah, so getting back to my trip to Canada actually this summer, the goal of it was to go look at intercropping studies. And, this is where you plant more than one crop at a time and you harvest the seed all together. So, what I was looking at in Canada was pea, canola, lentil intercrop was looking very good up there. That’s very competitive against weeds because you’re competing at multilevels.
Drew Lyon: Okay. Right.
Isaac Madsen: It does reduce your herbicide options. And then, the other intercrops I was looking at were flax and garbs. I see that as a better, not so good of a fit here. They have a lot pathogen issues because of their summer humidity.
Drew Lyon: Okay.
Isaac Madsen: And so, it breaks the canopy up and it prevents the spread of the pathogens in the garb canopy.
Drew Lyon: Okay.
Isaac Madsen: So, that’s an area of interest. I’m really focusing on the winter pea, winter canola intercrop and seeing how much nitrogen inputs we can reduce for our canola. You know, if we can get a decent canola yield and pretty much have to add no fertilizer or very little nitrogen to that system, that would be ideal. I know peas right now, the value’s kind of low, so this might be a longer term thing we’re looking at.
Drew Lyon: So, will peas, the existing pea crop, provide nitrogen to another crop growing with it? I always thought of it as the follow crop got the benefit but it’ll actually help the intercrop as well.
Isaac Madsen: Yeah. There is some evidence that in crop you will see some benefits. I don’t think it’s as much as you would see in a following crop. So, that would be the other component of this is, even if you still have to fertilize your canola, you might be reducing the amount of nitrogen you have to add to following wheat.
Drew Lyon: Okay.
Isaac Madsen: So, you get the benefits of nitrogen fixation without having to take such a hit on a price with the peas. That would be part of the idea.
Drew Lyon: Okay. I see the winter canola and winter peas as being two of the more promising alternative crops for our wheat growers —
Isaac Madsen: Yes.
Drew Lyon: — out in the dry area particularly.
Isaac Madsen: Yeah, so I’m really focusing out on the grain follower or transition zone for my initial studies. And, the nice thing about those is you can actually use some grass herbicides in the system.
Drew Lyon: Okay.
Isaac Madsen: And so, a lot of intercropping research has been done in organic systems where they’re doing a grass and legume.
Drew Lyon: Right.
Isaac Madsen: And, for us, that doesn’t really work in a lot of our conventional systems, but this is a way we can still use herbicides, hopefully increase our competition and reduce our fertilizer.
Drew Lyon: Okay. So, you mentioned you’re doing all three. You’re doing extension, research, teaching. From the extension side, how do you see your extension program efforts look – or, what do you see them looking like going into the future?
Isaac Madsen: Yeah. Yeah, so, in the future, really what I hope to emphasize, especially in this first year, is just availability. I’ve already had a lot of growers and field men and different people in industry reach out to me and say hey, we saw you got this job and what’s your future looking like as far as programs that you might be implementing. So, I really want to emphasize, give me a call, give me a text, give me an email. I’d love to hear from people that are actually out there. You know, if you see something interesting occurring in your field, just shoot me an email. You can take a picture and shoot me an email or I’ll try and run out there if time allows.
Drew Lyon: Okay.
Isaac Madsen: So, I’m really emphasizing availability.
Drew Lyon: With that in mind, what is your email if somebody wants to shoot you an email.
Isaac Madsen: So, I hope we can put a link somewhere.
Drew Lyon: We’ll add it to the show notes.
Isaac Madsen: Okay. Great, yeah. So, it’s isaac_madsen – and Madsen is spelled M-A-D-S-E-N, @wsu.edu.
Drew Lyon: All right. Excellent.
Isaac Madsen: Yeah.
Drew Lyon: And, part of your extension program will be a web presence.
Isaac Madsen: Yes.
Drew Lyon: What’s the URL for your oilseed cropping systems website?
Isaac Madsen: Yeah, so currently, our URL is css.wsu.edu/oilseeds.
Drew Lyon: Okay.
Isaac Madsen: It might be changing in the future. We’ll probably keep that so it will link to the —
Drew Lyon: Yeah, you just redirect it.
Isaac Madsen: Yeah.
Drew Lyon: Okay.
Isaac Madsen: And then, so that’s kind of online presence and personal communication, but we’re also going to be continuing the winter workshops. I see that as one of the major successes of the WOCS project in the past was that we were able to have these winter workshops and we kept recruiting new people who hadn’t grown canola before, which is always to me a good sign when we’re drawing new people into the system, you know, and so, people were learning about canola and I think that was really exciting. So, that’ll be one of my main focuses. I’ll be talking at the Wheat Academy —
Drew Lyon: Yes, you will [laughter].
Isaac Madsen: — here in December. And then, next year, I’m hoping to have several field days.
Drew Lyon: Okay. Well, excited to have you onboard and see where you take the Washington Oilseed Cropping Systems Program.
Isaac Madsen: Yep.
Drew Lyon: And, to our audience, reach out and visit with Isaac if you have some ideas. Thank you very much for your time, Isaac.
Isaac Madsen: Thank you.
[ Music ]
Drew Lyon: Thanks for joining us and listening to the WSU Wheat Beat podcast. If you like what you hear don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. If you have questions or topics, you’d like to hear on future episodes please email me at drew.lyon — that’s lyon@wsu.edu –(drew.lyon@wsu.edu). You can find us online at smallgrains.wsu.edu and on Facebook and Twitter @WSUSmallGrains. The WSU Wheat Beat podcast is a production of CAHNRS Communications and the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University. I’m Drew Lyon, we’ll see you next time.