Turning the Table for the Final Wheat Beat Podcast with Aaron Esser and Dr. Drew Lyon

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Episode transcription:

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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 from 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 podcast app and leave us a review so others can find the show too.

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My guest today is Aaron Esser. Aaron is with WSU Extension in Lincoln and Adams counties, where he has worked for 26 years. His extension program is focused on integrated weed control and soil health. In addition to his role in the traditional Extension program, Aaron has served as chair of the WSU Wilke Farm Management Committee for the past 12 years. The WSU Wilke Research and Extension Farm, a 340-acre facility located on the eastern edge of Davenport, Washington, is situated in the intermediate rainfall zone. Hello, Aaron.

Aaron Esser: Hello, Drew.

Drew Lyon: So, Aaron, the first WSU Wheat Beat Podcast episode was published on October 24th, 2017, and you and Dr. Dave Crowder talked about your work on wireworms. Are you still doing work on wireworms today? And if so, has wireworm management changed since 2017?

Aaron Esser: Well, the end of your question is: has wireworm management changed. And, yes. The first part of your question, am I still working on it? And I like to say: actively no. I’m hoping maybe I gave my last wireworm presentation last year at the Pacific Region ESA Meetings, Entomology Society of America Meetings. So, I use that as a moment to put that whole program to bed. But I do answer phone calls still on wireworms. I’ve had 3 or 4 different text messages on wireworm/wireworm management this spring. But actively, no.

Drew Lyon: Okay. So, do you feel like you’ve solved the problem? That’s why you’re not working on it anymore or did you just find something more interesting to do?

Aaron Esser: No, we brought on a lot of different changes. I mean, one of the things I think that really helped farmers manage this pest was just increasing their rates of neonic insecticides. From what they started using at some very low rates to just upping those rates has really helped wireworm control across the region. And then we brought on a couple brand new active ingredients. A brand new active ingredient, a group 30 insecticide that’s commonly known. The first one was brought to market by BASF called Teraxxa [F4]® And then later, I think it’s fairly a new release, a product called Plinazolin® released by Syngenta. And those two have been instrumental as well as far as helping growers manage and control wireworms across their farm.

So, all the integrated approaches that Dave and I in those early days talked about: the increasing the rates of neonics, the new insecticides brought to the marketplace by BASF and Syngenta has really helped hopefully put that pest to bed and we can move on to more important, just more important projects.

Drew Lyon: Okay. So, what are some of those things?

Aaron Esser: Oh, they’re never ending. When you start looking at the issues we have, you know–you’re the weed scientist–I still see weeds as the single largest limiting factor growers are facing over the next 2, 3, 5, 10 years. And, herbicide resistance there.

The farm economy and where it’s at with the increased input costs, the land costs, and some of the uncertainties around that is, of course, a big issue and one we’ve spent some time talking about.

And then fertilizer. You know, nitrogen, nitrogen management, nutrient management, and soil health, all those play into short-term profitability as well as long-term viability. So, I think those are the two or three issues that I’ve been focusing more of my time on in the last couple of years, and less on the wireworms.

Drew Lyon: Okay.

Aaron Esser: So, yeah. I want to change this up a little bit, Drew.

You’ve spent a lot of time over the last–what did you say, since 2017…

Drew Lyon: Yes.

Aaron Esser: …asking questions. And you’ve asked a lot of questions. I want to change it up a little bit and ask you a question or two.

Drew Lyon: We’ll allow that this one time.

Aaron Esser: Okay. Now, I think most of our listeners understand that you came to Washington State University from the University of Nebraska. And moving here, what was, you know, one of your biggest surprises? What was the thing that, you know, the a-ha? What was your biggest surprise coming from Nebraska to Washington state?

Drew Lyon: Well, I think, you know, a number of things surprised me, but probably the biggest one was just the effect of the different environment here in the PNW on wheat production and how herbicides behave. I’ll mention a couple examples on the–I think it was the first summer, so the summer of 2013, I was here and you may have given me this farmer’s name. I don’t recall who it was now, but it was a farmer near Ritzville, and as a new Extension person, you go out and you visit with growers to learn what their issues are and what they’d like you to work on. And I was visiting with him–it was about June; the wheat was headed. It was a good looking wheat crop and I asked him, “What’s your annual rainfall here?” And he said, it’s about 10 inches. That sounds about right to you, doesn’t it, for around Ritzville? And I looked at this wheat crop and it looked really good. And I said, “What do you think that’s going to yield?” And he said, “I think it’s going to yield 50-60 bushel.” I said, “You get 10 inches of rain and you’re going to get 50- or 60-bushel wheat?” In the Great Plains, 10 inches of rainfall, you’d have to probably go into eastern Wyoming to get it that low–that’s 20- to 25-bushel wheat country. And here on the same amount of rain, he was going to get about twice that amount.

And I think it comes down to just how the different regions receive–the environment. So, in the Great Plains most of our rain comes in May, June, July. [It] comes in convective storms, so it comes fast. You get runoff. It’s warm, you get evaporation, and much less of that water goes into the ground.

And here, the rains come in the cool time of the year. They tend to come gently. Just much more efficient at storing water and being able to produce a crop with much less rain than what it took in the central Great Plains. So, that kind of surprised–I knew they could grow wheat here, but just the magnitude of the difference in how the environments are different.

And then the carryover herbicides really came out. A lot of herbicides are broken down by microbial degradation. And for a microbe to work, it needs warmth and it needs moisture. In the Great Plains, again, it rains in May, June, July when the soils are warm. Add moisture [and] herbicides break down pretty quickly. And here, herbicides that I never thought about carrying over and causing problems in the Great Plains, you come here and there’s problems because when it’s warm here, we’re dry. And when it’s cold, that’s when we’re wet, so we never have quite the right environment for microbial breakdown, which again, is a major avenue.

So, I think I was just realizing I thought I knew a lot about how to grow wheat and what the influence of climate was in the Great Plains, then I came here and I was surprised by the amount or magnitude of difference that climate made in wheat production.

Aaron Esser: All right. Thank you.

I have a second question for you. I don’t know if you remember, but I went back and listened to that very first podcast, and the very first question you asked on the Wheat Beat Podcast was “Aaron, can you please tell me about the impacts of your wireworm research?” And, you know, focused on impacts. And I know you always love talking about impacts. So, I want to ask you about some of, you know, what is one of your impacts that you’ve had here at WSU that you might be most proud of?

Drew Lyon: I think maybe I’ll again raise a couple of them. I think one thing that I think–a lot of times we’re asked in the university to give an impact and we they want a new impact every year. And I think it’s really difficult to really get at impacts in that short of a period of time. But I’ve been here almost 13 years and I think two of the areas, one is the Extension Dryland Cropping Systems Team.

So, this is something that I tried to put together when I first came here. Dr. Rich Koenig suggested that I try to get a team together to better coordinate Extension programing because we had lost quite a few Extension faculty over time. So, we started putting that together in 2013 and got some funding from the Grain Commission to help us get started. We put together the website, the Wheat and Small Grains website. The team started doing the Wheat Academy and really the programing that that team–you being a member of it [and a] number of people being on it–I’m kind of proud of that. You know, again, I didn’t do it all. When we write our impact statements, we say it’s all due to us. But, I think getting that started, getting a good group of people together, and creating an environment where everybody feels like they can contribute and be recognized for their work, I think the team has really come together and we’ve done some good programing over the last 13 years, so I’m quite proud of that.

And then, I think I started fairly early on in my Extension talks talking about herbicide resistance. Of course, a lot of people were struggling with it, but I think I helped raise awareness of herbicide resistance and some of the management strategies–how it occurs and some of the management strategies that are involved.

There’s been since then the PNW Herbicide Resistance Initiative that Dr. Ian Burke is kind of taking the lead of, but I think it was the recognition of just what a problem herbicide resistance was that helped him garner support from growers in the industry to get that federally funded program going.

So, I’d say on the research or Extension side, that would be it. And then the Extension Dryland Cropping Systems Team. Those are probably the two things looking back that I think have maybe had the most impact at.

Aaron Esser: All right. I mean, I’m going to concur with you on the impacts on the Small Grains team, and you mentioned I’ve been at WSU for 26 years–and it’s somewhere in that neighborhood, yes. When I look back and this is–that whole Dryland Cropping Systems Team is something I’ve always wanted, and I’ve absolutely really appreciated your leadership in that and bringing that to life. And, the website, the materials, and the outreach, that teamwork to get stuff accomplished has been tremendous for me being a faculty member out in the field off of campus and having that tie to campus has been tremendous.

Lastly, we talked about impacts and what are you proud of. But, you know, just when you look back, you know, here, what are some of the, besides the things you’ve already mentioned, what would be another thing that we you’re most proud of?

Drew Lyon: You know, I think the thing that–I never told my administrators this because I like them to think that I need raises every once in a while. But the thing that really I feel is the most rewarding is when a grower comes up to me unsolicited and tells me that something I did or said or recommended helped them. That just–I guess that’s maybe why I’m at Extension, because that kind of thing just really makes me feel good. Rings my bell when that happens. And it doesn’t happen every day, but it happens with some regularity. That is just–that’s how I get my buzz, I guess. So, just knowing that something I do is helpful to the people I’m supposed to be serving in this role is very rewarding to me.

Aaron Esser: I can’t agree with you more on that. And that’s what I still think one of the beauties of Extension is–is that interaction and relationship we get to have one on one with the growers.

Drew Lyon: Yeah. It’s what drives a lot of people in Extension. And I know, you know, I’ve been working with you now for 13 years and, yeah, you’re a great Extension person. You have real good contact with the growers in your area, and, yeah, it’s just fun to work with people like you. And the Extension Dryland Cropping Systems Team is full of people like that.

Aaron Esser: Yeah, 100% agree.

Drew Lyon: All right, Aaron, thanks for being my guest and turning the tables on me today. I really appreciate all the times I’ve had you on board. I think, I believe by my count, this is number 13 for the episodes you’ve been on the Wheat Beat Podcast and I’ve enjoyed every one of them. Thank you very much.

Aaron Esser: Thank you, Drew. Appreciate it.

Drew Lyon:

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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 podcast 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 [X] @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.

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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests of this podcast are their own and does not imply Washington State University’s endorsement.