--Ted Labun from Canada speaking on "successfully growing dryland wheat". My main interest was his comments on canola, after his talk. Points he made: --different hybrids with, some growing tall with narrow branching, and others growing shorter with wider branching. The first he likes seeding in 7" rows, and the latter in 10-14" rows. --he likes plants every 6-7" along row. --where a clump of seed drops, only 1-2 seeds will germinate. The others do nothing. Spacing out seed allows for reduction in seeding rate. Instead of 400,000spa, you can go down to 250,000spa. --he likes the wheat-canola rotation. --his pics showed a lot of residue (flat) on the ground. --he likes a black slot where residue has been moved to the side for seed to emerge. He could not tell me if there are issues with growing canola in tall standing stubble (possible light interference). His talk indicated he was more familiar with minimum till practices, compared to no-till.
--Pic below: Aaron Esser promoted his color coded crop/field chart with chemistry groups used by year. 
This is a great tool for quick one page visual reference of chemistry when endeavoring to reduce weed resistance. The problem I see is that his colors don't show enough contrast for some crops he has assigned. We should develop this for our operation. He likes using Liberty Link canola instead of RR canola. It is an opportunity to reduce one or more applications of glyphosate in the rotation. I think it is a given that most of us use too much glyphosate and should look for alternatives where possible.
His studies show that cultivar genetics was a better tool for disease control than applying fungicides. From my biological farming study, fungicides are particularly bad for beneficial soil fungi, so it's preferable to avoid them when improving soil health is a goal.
A new management tool he unveiled today was charting by field weed species, ranking them by worst as they impact crop yield. *This suggests that we should not try to kill every weed in the crop/field. *Changing that mindset toward weed management programs will likely reduce chemical applications, reducing potential weed resistance, by targeting weeds that impact crop yield.
--Rick Wesselman from Syngenta talked about plant roots. Roots are the foundation for the plant. Healthy root system makes for better yield. Seed coatings are being developed that enhance root growth early in root development. Our operation is looking into these type products. This year we have applied biological material to all our seeding either by seed coat applications or in-row with the seed.
--Rachel Wieme from WSU gave information and demonstration about soil pH and why it matters for crop production. She showed how varied the pH is by taking readings along a 12" soil probe sample.
Several people in the group remarked that they were introducing cultivation back into their no-till operations because of their finding soil stratification of nutrients and pH. *From a soil health aspect this is going backwards. In our environment, growing sufficient biomass to move the needle on soil health in a positive direction is difficult. *No-till, in and of itself, is not sufficient. *No-till dramatically reduces the loss of SOM, and corresponding, slows the rate of deteriorating the soils health. *Cultivation in any form accelerates the loss of soil organic matter, surface biomass, and soil structure. *Natures plowmen (worms) disappear with cultivation. *They need food on the surface, and in the form of soil organic matter. *Along with food, they need undisturbed ground for reproduction. * Worms, both vertical borers and horizontal borers breakup soil stratification by moving material around in the soil profile.
--A spokesman from Altitude Agri Services gave a talk, and demonstrated a T30 agriculture drone. This is new technology to agriculture and there are a lot of questions. He stated that a drone set up with two extra batteries, charger and generator) costs between $30-40 thousand dollars. I didn't hear him talk about licensing. We have been looking into this technology since January. 
*The T40 (pictured here) became available in the fall of 2022. Licensing for legally flying these heavy drones is a pretty straight forward process, but is time consuming and can be expensive depending on how you go about it. *There are individuals and companies scrambling to set up training/licensing programs.
(*my thoughts interjected into the info. presented.)
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