On certain Tuesday mornings throughout summer, University of Idaho Extension experts and agricultural professionals meet virtually to share observations on crop progress, pest and disease threats and other timely topics in statewide food production.
Following each of these online roundtable discussions, a featured speaker addresses an agricultural topic of the week. Known as Ag Talk Tuesdays, UI Extension started these informal, coffee-shop style online group chats in 2018 to share current, science-based data and updates to help food producers and industry leaders make informed decisions.
Meetings start at 11 a.m. MT, last about an hour and are scheduled for the first and third Tuesdays of each month from May through August. The 2023 Ag Talk Tuesday schedule will include seven morning meetings, with no meeting on the first Tuesday of July due to Independence Day. Visit the Ag Talk Tuesday website to register for meetings, which are offered admission free. Each session is recorded and archived on YouTube for those who can’t attend live.
On the Friday following an Ag Talk Tuesday meeting, UI Extension specialists compile and send out a related newsletter, including Extension research, information on Ag Talk Tuesday discussion points in greater depth and an overview of the featured presentation. Archived newsletters are also available at the Ag Talk Tuesday website.
Participation in the program has grown steadily, rising from a combined 61 participants in the first year’s sessions to 163 participants registered for the 2022 sessions.
“I feel that as we get the word out it will grow even more,” said Kasia Duellman, a UI Extension seed potato specialist who helped organize the program. “I’d like to see hundreds of people register and I’d like to see at lease 50 people attend every session.”
Years ago, UI Extension hosted regular “fieldman lunches” during the summer to bring farmers, agronomists, food processors, industry officials, UI Extension experts and others from the public and private sectors together to discuss issues that surfaced each growing season. Duellman, along with Pamela Hutchinson, and Juliet Marshall agreed to work together to resurrect the discussions in a new format.
During the initial year in 2018, participants met at a different location in eastern Idaho each time for a luncheon discussion. The first event – a sponsored lunch hosted in Blackfoot – drew a large crowd.
Subsequent events not offering a free lunch, however, were sparsely attended, and some agricultural professionals said the lunch hour wasn’t an ideal time.
In 2019, the meetings adopted a hybrid model, hosted in person at a different location in eastern Idaho each time but with a Zoom option, enabling people to join remotely. They were also rescheduled for breakfast time. Ag Talk Tuesdays became entirely online in 2020, which proved to be a more convenient format and has been retained ever since. Zoom meetings also appealed to a statewide audience, with some participants even joining in from surrounding states.
While the featured talks often draw participants interested in a particular topic, the roundtable discussions attract a core group of regulars.
“Anyone who has information to share is invited to share it,” Duellman said. “That’s where we get the most feedback that this is something that really is valuable to participants.”
Featured speakers during 2022 covered topics such as herbicide resistance, maximum residue limits of farm chemicals on various crops set by trade partners, crop insurance updates and Farm Service Agency programs.
The 2023 series will begin on May 2 and end on Aug. 15. As usual, the first discussion will focus on the water outlook and the final discussion will feature economic outlooks. Other topics have yet to be determined.
Other program organizers include Pamela Hutchinson, an Extension specialist in potato cropping systems weed science; Juliet Marshall, head of the Department of Plant Sciences; Olga Walsh, an Extension specialist in cropping systems agronomy; and Douglas Finkelnburg, area Extension educator in cropping systems.