Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Executive Committee: Jay Norton volunteered to be the incoming secretary. Eric Bremer will become the vice-chair and Olga Walsh will become the chair at the conclusion of the meeting.

State Reports:   See appendix.

IPNI Conference Support: Rob M. asked whether IPNI is needed to support the conference, if IPNI involvement is meeting the needs of the group, and whether the committee would be willing to take on registration and other tasks associated with conference that IPNI has provided a person to facilitate in previous years. The consensus was that IPNI support is very valuable and that we would be willing on more of the on-site tasks required for the conference

Motion to Make Past WNMC Proceedings Searchable: Past WNMC proceedings to be made searchable by IPNI with monetary support of up to $3000 from WERA 103. Motion was passed.

Crops and Soils Articles: With various co-authors, Roger Ondoua submitted four articles in 2017. Commitments were obtained for articles in all six issues of coming year.

Planning for 2019 Conference

Chair: Jim I. with assistance from David T. and Rob M.

Dates: March 6 (WERA meeting), March 7 and 8 (conference)

Venue: Eldorado in Reno, NV

Proposed Plenary Talks and Sessions (Chair, CCA Focus)

1. Opening plenary talk on biostimulants (Rob M., CCA)
2. Biostimulation products and relation to nutrient efficiency (Rob M., CCA)
3. Rhizosphere and nutrient/drought interactions (Urzula N.)
4. Specialty crop session, e.g., K and hort crop quality, SE Asian veggies, tree crops, blueberry (Amber M., CCA)
5. Resilient Ag systems, e.g., nutrients and soil health, air quality, manure legacy, Pacific agroforestry (Jay N. and Kevin B.)
6. Soil pH and salinity/sodicity management (Bob Miller, CCA)
7. Managing nutrients and water/fertigation (Terry Tindall, CCA)
8. Closing plenary talk on yield-based N fertilizer recommendations: pro and con, where useful/used (David T., CCA)
9. Encourage poster presentations on active sensors and N management

Motion for Conference Exhibitors: delegate to executive plus Rob Mikkelson (as chair) to develop exhibitor policy for the 2019 WNMC meeting.  Motion was passed.

Motion for Proceedings Format: No hard copy proceedings for 2019 WNMC, only online version. Motion was passed.

Motion for Proceeding Papers: Continue to request that presenters provide a paper for the proceedings, but if there is push back, to allow an extended abstract to be submitted. Motion was passed.

Accomplishments by objective

1. Develop and/or improve nutrient recommendations for diverse cropping systems based on soil, water and plant analysis results and management strategies in the Western Region.

• Provide nutrient correlation and calibration data for crops in the region.
• Work toward uniformity of nutrient use recommendations for similar crop production systems in the region.
• Evaluate and apply new nutrient analytical and interpretive methodologies.
• Evaluate the efficacy of new fertilizers and formulations.
  • Wide-ranging discussion of options to obtain resources for updating multi-state soil nutrient recommendations. Recommendation to focus on corn fertility simply because it is a crop commonly grown in all western states.
  • Sub-committee selected to follow-up with Deanna Osmond (NCSU) and Hailan Zhang (OKState) on obtaining resources for broad regional soil test recalibration (Dan S., Chris R., Haiying T.)

2. Promote effective use of soil, water, plant, manure, and compost analytical information

• Integrate analytical test results into nutrient management software
• Maintain and update the Western States Soil Plant and Water Reference Methods Testing Manual
• Review status of soil/plant/water analysis Extension guides and summarize interpretive guidance
• Explore method for internet distribution of methods manual, analytical interpretation guides etc. Website would be for clientele outreach.
• • Pro-actively do the following
    • When making publications and/or presentations, promote use of data to make decisions
    • When developing programs such as the WNMC, include talks that include the use of data to make decisions
    • Demonstrate effective use of data
    • Point out or demonstrate how people make money by use of the data
    • These data lead to judicious use of nutrients
  • Activities from 2017 that address this objective
  • 2017 Western Nutrient Management Conference 
  • Contributions to Crops & Soils Magazine
  • Contributions to publications and presentations (see State Reports)
  • Email discussions among WERA-103 members on various subjects (e.g., carbonates)

3. Provide education on the principles of soil-plant-animal-water system management and the tools and practices that lead to sustainable agricultural production

• Facilitate regional education among government agencies, private industry and universities through conferences, websites, extension publications, newsletters, and other appropriate media.

• Disseminate information within the Western Region to extension educators, private agencies (e.g., Certified Crop Advisors) and other interested parties (e.g., K-12 teachers) through conferences, training the trainer opportunities, and access to published interpretive materials.

• Conduct direct education to agricultural producers through conferences, grower meetings, and published interpretive materials.
• Increase exposure for the 15 videos produced from Western SARE Grants on western soils http://westernsoils.nmsu.edu/
• IPNI Webinar Series: Rob M. obtained volunteers for monthly webinars over the next year from WERA-103 group
• Western Nutrient Management YouTube Website - Dave T. will create and share an unlisted video for our review
• Bob Flynn Excel Spreadsheet for interpreting soil test – discussion on whether to make available online or developing it as an app
• Resources for teachers - from webinars, add a descriptive paragraph, how to get the information out: Urzula N. will talk to Ag ed person at U Wyoming and Troy B. will ask the STEM Extension person at CSU.
• Activities from 2017 that address this objective:
• Contributions to Crops & Soils Magazine
• 2017 Western Nutrient Management Conference

 General Accomplishments

1. Biennial conference (previous: March 2 & 3, 2017, next: March 7 & 8, 2019)
   1. Attended by about 150 participants in 2017 from all western states, expect as many or more in 2019
   2. CCA CEU credits in 2017: Nutrient Management - 5; Soil and Water - 6; Crop management – 3.5. Approximately 40 topics were offered as oral and poster presentations, similar number for 2019.   The credits and information are valued by consulting and extension agronomists (based on conference evaluations and the number of credits requested), who all work with tens of crop producers or more.
   3. Approximately 15 students gained experience in presenting research posters and short oral summaries, providing valuable feedback for future presentations at national meetings and thesis defense.
   4. Proceedings are available online and often more useful than journal papers for consulting and extension agronomists.
   5. Networking among attendees during conference is highly valued
2. Annual meetings (March 13 to 15, 2018 and being planned for March 6, 2019)
   1. One-day meeting prior to biennial conference, 2.5 day meetings on alternate year
   2. Allows for planning and delivery of biennial conferences, networking, updating of Methods Manual, and collaboration on joint projects (see below)
3. Western States Methods Manual
   1. Provided on website and used by labs throughout region
   2. Procedures and interpretation of methods included in manual are discussed and updated as appropriate (last published version: 2013)
4. Articles for Crops and Soils magazine aimed at certified crop advisers, agronomists, and soil scientists
   1. Four articles provided in 2017, six articles committed for 2018
5. Video series on soil sampling and interpretation at westernsoils.nmsu.edu
   1. Developed by members of WERA 103 at NMSU, promoted and used across region
6. Twelve webinars to be made on range of relevant topics by WERA 103 members in 2018-19 and made available online through IPNI
7. List of multi-state projects currently being conducted by WERA 103 members
1. Agricultural Laboratory Proficiency (ALP) program. R.Miller.
2. Development of Economically Viable Variable Rate P Application Protocols for Desert Vegetable Production Systems. S.A. Sanchez.
3. Field Evaluation and Demonstration of Controlled Release N Fertilizers in the Western United States. C.A. Sanchez.
4. Improved Assessment of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fate and Transport for Irrigated Agricultural Watersheds in Semiarid Regions. M. Arabi, R. Bailey, and T. Gates.
5. Precision Nutrient and Water Management across Spatial Variable Landscapes for Enhancing Nutrient and Water Use Efficiencies, Farm Profitability and Environment Sustainability. R. Khosla, R.M.Reich, and L. Longchamps.
6. CropManage Hawaii – Adaptation of the CropManage online irrigation scheduling decision support tool to Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa vegetable crop lands. J. Deenik, Bateni , and M. Cahn.
7. Optimizing Water and Nitrogen Use for Sustainable Wheat Production (ID and MT). O. S. Walsh, X. Liang, and J.A. Torrion.
8. Cover Crops in the Southwest: Obtaining Ecosystem Services while Minimizing Water Use. USDA/NIFA EPPWS. E. Lehnhoff, S. Sonogo, Idowu, Schutte, Pietrasiak. 

See linked appendix for full list of publications

Multistate research publications (peer-reviewed)

1. Barbarick, K.A., J.A. Ippolito, and J. McDaniel. 2017. Meta-analysis of biosolids effect in dryland wheat agroecosystems. J. Environ. Qual. 46:452-460.
2. Bronson, K. F., Hunsaker, D. J., Mon, J., Andrade-Sanchez, P., White, J. W., Conley, M. M., Thorp, K. R., Bautista, E. and Barnes, E. M. (2017). Improving nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency in surface- and overhead sprinkler-irrigated cotton in the desert Southwest. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 81: 1401–1412.
3. Cowie, A. L., Novak, J., Ippolito, J.A. and Borchard, N. 2017. Biochar research activities and their relation to development and environmental quality. A meta-analysis. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 37:22.
4. Carroll, D.A., II., N.C. Hansen, B.G. Hopkins, and K.C. DeJonge. 2017. Leaf temperature of maize and crop water stress index with variable irrigation and nitrogen supply. Irrig. Sci. 35(6): 549-560.
5. Laird, D.L., J.M. Novak, H.P. Collins, J.A. Ippolito, D.L. Karlen, R.D. Lentz, K. Sistani, K. Spokas, R.S. van Pelt. 2016. Multi-year and multi-location soil quality and crop biomass yield responses to hardwood fast pyrolysis biochar. Geoderma 289:46-53.
6. Wade, J., S.W. Culman, T. T. Hurissoa, R.O. Miller, L. Baker, W.R. Horwath. 2018. Sources of variability that compromise mineralizable carbon as a soil health indicator. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 82:243-252.

Multistate extension publications

Clark, N., Orloff, S., & Ottman, M. (2017). Fertilizing high yielding alfalfa in California and Arizona. Better Crops with Plant Food, 101(4), 21–23. http://www.ipni.net/publication/bettercrops.nsf/0/B3D37D5A6F4A11C2852581D00057AA17/$FILE/BC-2017-4%20p21.pdf