- [Announcer] "Montana Ag Live" is made possible by the Montana Department of Agriculture, the MSU Extension Service, the MSU Ag Experiment Stations of the College of Agriculture, the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, Cashman Nursery and Landscaping, the Northern Pulse Growers Association, and the Gallatin Gardeners Club.

(upbeat country music) - Good evening.

You are tuned to Montana Ag Live, originating tonight from the studios at KUSM on the very dynamic campus of Montana State University, and coming to you over your Montana Public Television system.

I'm Jack Riesselman, retired Professor of Plant Pathology, happy to be your host this evening.

We've got kind of a little bit different program tonight, so I think you probably wanna stay tuned because you're gonna see some things that you normally do not see on this program.

So with that, I'm gonna start introducing the panel.

On my far left is Abi Burrows and her pet rabbit, and we're gonna talk about why that rabbit's here in a little bit.

Mary Burrows, of course, Abi's mother.

Todd Kesner, he's our special guest tonight, he's gonna be talking about volunteers in 4-H, the 4-H programs here in Montana, and how beneficial they are for the youth of this state.

It's one of the best programs of Montana State University as going, so stay tuned.

You'll learn a lot about 4-H tonight.

Tim Seipel, he's a weed ecologist.

You know how hard that is for me to say?

(Tim and Jack laughing) He actually is a weed scientist.

I have to get it out that way, but if you got questions about weeds, then as I've said before, if you live in Montana, you have weeds, and he can answer the questions as best of anybody we have around here.

Abi Burrows, Abi is our extension horticulturalist, and if you have questions about how to store your vegetables, what you need to do to put your plants to bed for the winter, take care of those downed trees that we had last week in a lotta the state, call in with your questions tonight, and we'll get 'em to Abi.

Answering the phone here in the studio is John Holly, and remotely tonight, we have Judge Bruce Loble, who is a retired water court judge, Chief Water Court Judge for the state.

So with that, phone number's on the screen.

Start calling the questions in.

I'm gonna turn it over to Todd for a few moments and let him talk about 4-H here in Montana.

It's all yours, Todd.

- All right, well, Jack, thanks for having me.

I really appreciate it.

This is a very fun opportunity for us, and I get a chance to talk about, well, you're very flattering with your introduction, and I appreciate that.

We are at the beginning of our 113th year in the state of Montana for the 4-H program.

We've got about 15,000 kids across the state that are participating.

We have been as high as 20,000 kids, and we're building that back after having been, everyone having gone through the pandemic and the shutdowns and things, and we are able to do a lotta things remotely through that entire period, so we kept a lotta kids engaged, and we're really proud of that and actually reached some young people who couldn't otherwise participate, so we learned some good things through that program, and we're at the beginning of the enrollment for this coming 4-H year.

The 4-H year is October 1st through September 30th, so we're just getting started, and not only enrolling young people, but also our volunteers as well, and we've got about 3,000 volunteers across the state of Montana, and that's really where the program runs, and we have a faculty person that represents extension in 4-H in each county, and that's one person, but you can have a county program of 700 young people in tremendous number of projects, and it's difficult to do that without the volunteers.

It's impossible to do that without the volunteers.

- And I understand the volunteer numbers post-COVID have kinda dropped off a little bit, and we're trying to recruit more volunteers.

Is that correct?

- Yeah, exactly, or that's our limiting factor.

If we don't have the volunteers to help us in our communities, we can't gather the kids together as much, and so that is a real focus this year, is really working on expanding those volunteer numbers.

- Okay, I'm gonna let you introduce Abi again, and talk a little bit about the project, so.

- All right, yeah, we've got Abi Burrows, a Gallatin County 4-H-er with us this evening with her rabbit, and she's gonna tell us a little bit about the, really, the rabbit project and what you do in that project.

- Yeah, so I'm in the rabbit project and the poultry project and dog agility and two clubs, so I'm in a lot of stuff, and I've been doing it since I was nine, and it's just great.

Everyone's awesome.

The volunteers are awesome.

Everyone, the kids are awesome.

(every chuckling) The animals are awesome, and it's just great 'cause I've learned so much over the years of doing it, and I've learned how to be a better leader and how to talk in public, and all sorts of stuff.

- [Jack] Show us a little bit about what you do with a rabbit, some of the things that they train you with the rabbits.

- Yeah, so at fair, we'll have showmanship, where we show off our rabbits, and we'll show how our rabbits are good, how they don't have any diseases or anything, and then we'll also flip the rabbits like this and check for their nose and their back feet and all sorts of stuff to make sure that they're really healthy, and we'll also have a breed show, where we show off our rabbits for the breed, and we also have a rabbit jumping and racing competition, which is really fun.

Hermione's really good at that, and it's just kinda to see how high they can jump, and it's just fun.

- You know, it sounds like a lotta fun.

Are there quite a few youngsters in the rabbit program?

- Yeah, there are.

There's always been a bunch of rabbit people, and yeah, after, I think, 2021, we had a big disease come through, and that's where we kinda lost a few members 'cause there was a bad disease going through the rabbit population, so after that, and COVID next to each other.

That wasn't great for the rabbits, but we're doing better now.

- Okay, thank you.

That is a cute rabbit.

(Abi Burrows laughing) It looks a lot better than a cottontail or jackrabbit, and I'm more familiar with those.

Anyway, run over here to Abi.

From Great Falls, quickly, how can they prolong the life of carrots after harvest?

- That's a good question.

(clears throat) So you can do this one of two ways.

One of the ways is if you cut the tops off the carrots, you can store them in cold storage, so you need the temperature to be 32 degrees, and it needs to be high humidity, or they're gonna shrivel up.

So that's about 98% humidity, and you can put them in a plastic bag to keep that, or you can leave them in the ground with a bunch of mulch on top and harvest them as needed, and they get sweeter over time, if you don't get a lotta snow cover, and you can do that.

That's a nice way.

- There was one issue with leaving them in the garden this year, and they're called voles.

(panelists laughing) - That's true.

That's true.

You will be competing for your carrots.

- And they like carrots.

- Oh, yeah.

- And beets.

My entire beet crop this year was gone.

- Oh, wow.

- They ate half of 'em, and I got the carrots out before the voles got 'em.

Anyway, top - - So Abi, can you take?

So sometimes, we take our carrots, put 'em in a five-gallon bucket, and put a little soil back over the top of 'em and mix 'em with soil and then pull 'em out.

- Yeah!

- After that, and as a way to keep 'em, so you don't have to water 'em, and they don't shrivel up so much.

- That's another way of keeping that humidity, if you're gonna do it.

Yeah, that's a good strategy.

(paper rustling) - A question for Todd.

You mentioned volunteers.

This person has no agricultural background but is interested in "Montana Ag Life" as a faithful watcher, and I thank you for that.

They wanna know if there are places for people like that to volunteer.

- Yeah, absolutely, and folks think you need a background in agriculture, or you need a background in teaching or something like that, and really, you just need interest in young people, and you need a desire to share your talent or your hobbies with young people, and just that in itself does a lot to build the future for these young folks because they have a caring adult that they have an opportunity to work with.

They get to experience some new things.

They look up to you.

They've got a mentor.

So really, that's all that you need, and we have a training program for brand-new volunteers, so you aren't just set out there and have to figure it out for yourself.

We've got the county extension offices in each county that help our volunteers get started.

We also have a brand-new volunteer that you can take online at your convenience and complete that, and we've got some other volunteer written materials as well.

So we can really get you started, and your desire just needs to be to work with young people and share your talents and your time, and that means the world to them.

- So if I wanted to volunteer to be a 4-H leader, where would I go?

What would I do, the first step?

- First step is contact your local extension office and talk to either the office manager there or the county agent there, and they would get you started and just ask you a few questions about what you're interested in leading and volunteering for, sign you up.

They do background checks and then have you take the training program, and then you're ready to go.

- Sounds like fun.

I know there are a lot of adults, especially that are looking for things to do.

Do you have a lotta people that are retired that are volunteers for 4-H?

- We do, we do, and we're working, and we've been successful at planning these projects for young people that fit into the volunteer's timeframe.

And so you may have an interest in woodworking, or you may have an interest in gardening, or you may be going south for the winter, but you might be back to teach fly tying in the early spring.

You know, those types of things, so we can really accommodate the volunteer's time, and it can be just a few months, or it can be all year.

It's really up to the volunteer.

- Okay, thank you.

Mary, I have a question for you, but before we get there, I have one for Abi number one at the end of the table, not Abi number two.

(panelist laughing) But anyway, this person would like to know a little bit more about the disease and how long these rabbits generally live for.

Can you answer that?

- Ah, yeah, probably.

So the RHDV2 rabbit disease, I think it's from Australia, and so it's really super-deadly.

I'm pretty sure we don't have too much of a problem with it anymore, or at least, we're doing the rabbit stuff without, yeah, but then, we're doing lots of health checks and stuff, but it's super-deadly, super-quick.

- There is a vaccination.

- There is?

Yeah.

And yeah, it's really bad.

- [Mary] How long do rabbits normally live?

- I forget how long they live, but it's not super-long once they get the disease, and it's from wild rabbits.

- How old is, and what's the name of your rabbit here?

- This is Hermione, and I think she's about five-ish, I'm pretty sure, so she's getting older now, but yeah.

- I'll say this: that rabbit is better behaved than my two golden retrievers, so.

From Sidney and also from Miles City area, I believe, MC, so I assume that's Miles City.

This person has heard that Palmer amaranth has moved closer to Montana, and they're concerned about it.

You wanna talk about that a little bit?

- Oh, yeah, it's a really interesting topic.

It's a weed species, so Palmer amaranth, and it really kinda started in the desert Southwest, moved into cropping systems in the Southeastern United States, and then it's been spreading north and eastward over the last 20, 30 years.

(paper rustling) And it's a weed that is related to redroot pigweed, so we are familiar with it in some of our different cropping systems, but it's never made it into Montana.

It's spread now into, I think, more than 10 counties in North Dakota, and it's a really problematic weed because it's developed a lot of herbicide resistance, and so glyphosate doesn't work on it anymore, basically.

It really started in the Southeast United States when Roundup Ready soybeans came out, Roundup Ready cotton, and those things, we used a lotta Roundup on it.

It evolved resistance to Roundup, began spreading further and wider, and so it's made it into the edge of Montana, right up into, I think they found it in Williston, North Dakota.

It's something we really have to be on the lookout for.

(paper rustling) Its biggest vector into the state of Montana has been through millet seed, actually.

So the seeds of Palmer amaranth are really tiny, like millet seed, and so it's hard to clean, and a lot of our millet seed supplies comes from Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, and those areas where they have a whole lot of Palmer amaranth and a whole lot of resistance.

There's some instances out of Kansas where it's resistant to five modes of action of herbicides, so atrazine, glyphosate, all the Group 2 molecules like chlorsulfuron, and so it's a really problematic weed, so we have to really learn to identify it in Montana and keep it outta the state as best we can.

- And we definitely don't want it.

My question here is we're growing more in the state, and I don't know if there's millet in some of those cover crops or not.

- [Tim] There is, yeah.

- So we're importing most of those cover crop seeds outta the Midwest, Nebraska specifically.

Is there danger there?

- Yes, there is danger.

Actually, bird feed is another one of the biggest vectors.

There was a study a couple years ago on bird feed, and they looked at all these different bird feeds, and they found multiple pigweeds, ragweeds, all these things, including Palmer amaranth, including Palmer amaranth's sister species, waterhemp.

That's another one.

So bird feed is one thing to watch out for, but then also cover crop seed, especially things that have these really small seeds.

So if you're planting millet, if you're planting sorghum-sudangrass as a forage, it's really important.

In beginning of 2020, we listed it as a state-restricted weed seed in the state of Montana, so if your seed is inspected and comes from somewhere else, it should say if there were these types of pigweeds on your seed label.

- Okay, thank you.

Mary and Abi, I know you guys both like to grow garlic.

This person says that their garlic has some brown spots in it.

Will that still store?

Any idea what that might be?

- It could be bruising.

It could also be Fusarium dry rot.

They need a proper diagnosis to tell exactly what it is, so if they wanna send some heads in, they certainly can.

That's usually caused by planting garlic in the same spot year after year.

- [Jack] Yeah, good point.

- Any other comments, Abi?

- Do you recommend not storing bruised or, you know?

- It doesn't matter, really.

I mean, you can store it, but it might not last very long.

- It doesn't store, yeah.

- [Jack] You know, you grow garlic.

You can only eat so much garlic, so.

- Oh, I don't know.

(panelists laughing) You could roast whole heads, and.

(panelists laughing) - Yeah, roasted garlic hummus, I do love that, yeah.

There's no doubt about it.

- Is it too late?

So anybody's soil who's not quite yet frozen, do you think it's too late to put garlic in?

I put mine in like two weeks ago.

- Yeah, you can still.

If your soil is workable.

- You can do it in the spring as well.

- You can put it in.

- And if you have that as a problem, you know, move to a new area of the garden and buy new seed garlic.

- On that note, Todd, are there 4-H gardening programs available for kids in town?

- Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely, and that's something you can do even in a windowsill, you know, growing flowers or vegetables or any kinda plant, and it's been a real popular project for kids that are in town, and there's a lotta projects for kids that are in town, so we've got about half of our enrollment are rural and farm, and the other half is urban and suburban.

And so it's quite a mix of kids across the state, and there's something for about everybody.

- That's good, and I like the shooting sports.

I kinda involved with that a few years ago, and that's one of the biggest 4-H programs, I believe.

- It is.

It's been about the fourth biggest program that we've got in the state, yeah.

- What is the biggest 4-H program?

- We are still really strong in livestock.

- Okay.

- And that's kind of what most folks' perception of 4-H is because you go to the fair, and that's where we're on display, and you see all the animals there.

And so we still have a real strong traditional ag program but are pulling other kids in because of the life skills and the things that we're trying to teach and been successful at getting kids from in town there as well.

So I would urge folks when you go to the fair, don't just go to the barns and look at the animals, but also go through the indoor buildings and look at all those things those kids are doing that are on display inside that are not directly ag-related 'cause there's a lotta kids doing some really amazing things.

- [Mary] And there's lots of scholarship opportunities through 4-H as well.

- There is, yeah, absolutely.

There is.

Probably 30-something scholarships through the Montana 4-H Foundation mostly, oh, yeah.

- Okay, sounds good.

Somebody said I didn't introduce you properly.

She's our extension horticulturalist, so Abi knows everything about gardening, plants, and so forth.

The question now is, "How short should a person mow their yard as we go into winter?"

And I'll let you have that one.

- Yeah, that's a good question.

(clears throat) If you usually have a lot of snow cover in your landscape.

I would say two, two and a half inches high, so you don't have matting and snow mold, but if you don't have very much snow cover, I like a higher mowing height, about three to three and a half inches 'cause that'll protect the crowns of your turf, and it'll bounce back more quickly after winter.

- I agree with you entirely, but I also make this comment.

I don't like to rake leaves.

I have a lotta trees that shed a lotta leaves.

If I mow my yard an inch and a half tall about this time of year, I can expect a windstorm that will move those leaves into the neighbor's yard or in their pasture, and that works very, very well.

So there's two sides to that story.

- That's a great strategy.

(Abi laughing) - Okay.

Another one for Abi, while you're up, "Billings caller is tired of traditional lawn and constant work it takes.

He would like some suggestions of alternative plants that are both dog-friendly and easy to maintain."

- Another good question.

So for dog-friendly, if you're using your landscape, most people have Kentucky bluegrass lawns.

That's one of the most common lawns here in the northern climates and here in Montana.

So if you're looking for a more lower-maintenance turf grass type, fine fescues like creeping red fescue or sheep fescue work really well.

That'd be better for dog-friendly, but if you want just an alternative lawn, you want some green cover, you don't necessarily want to do a lot of recreation there, clover is a good option.

You can interseed clover with your turf grass, and it'll take over in those bare spots, or you can use creeping thyme and just replace your turf entirely, and both of those options are great for pollinators as well.

- What about, if you've got a bluegrass lawn, and some cities are charging for water in the summertime.

It's pretty high.

What about just letting that yard go dormant?

- Absolutely.

A lot of people do that.

A lot of people don't actively irrigate, and especially when you have those, you know, high-drought years and water is a challenge, there are places that'll encourage you to let your grass go dormant.

That won't hurt the grass at all, so that's an option as well.

- Okay, thank you.

Over to Abi number one.

(panelists giggling) You mentioned the chicken project, and I understand that you made some nice shekels, cash, with the chicken project.

You wanna tell us a little bit how that works?

- Yeah, so I was in the market chicken project.

So I raised, I think, six chickens, but I had a few extras that I sold in the market sale at the end of fair, and I made over $2,000.

So it's a good thing to make money if you want to do that, and that was, I think, eight weeks of raising those chickens, and it was, yeah, it was great.

- Yeah, it sounds pretty good.

Can I do that now?

(panelists laughing) I guess I'm, hey, based on that, how old do you have to be to be in 4-H, and what's the limits on the age?

- Yeah, you can start as early as six years old, and there's a project called Cloverbuds, and that's for kids that are six to eight, and then at nine through 19 is what, for lack of any other term, we just call it regular 4-H, and that's when you can take any project in the 4-H program, nearly any project in the 4-H program, and start raising animals or veering off into whatever your interest is.

'Cause we don't tell kids what they can take.

They choose that for themselves, and you can take it all the way through high school.

- Okay, you mentioned three or four 4-H projects that you're involved with.

Which is your favorite?

- I think they're all equally my favorite, honestly.

I do like poultry 'cause I get to make money, but they're all equally fun, but yeah.

- But you started with rabbits.

- Yeah, I did start with the rabbits, and a lotta people start with these small animals, like rabbits or chickens, and then move on to the bigger animals like lambs and goats and steers, or yeah.

- So Abi, if someone watching wanted to have a rabbit project, they wanted to enter the rabbit project, what kinda space, what do they need to get started?

- So you'll need a hutch that's big enough for your rabbit.

You'll need food and water.

You'll need food bowls, water bowls, and then you'll need a rabbit, obviously.

(Jack chuckling) - [Todd] And can they be outside, or you keep 'em inside, or how do you do that?

- I keep her outside because she's not allowed inside.

(Abi Burrows and Jack chuckling) But a lotta people also keep them inside, like in their rooms or in the garage or whatever.

- [Mary] And if you go to fair, you can see the diversity of rabbits that you can get.

- Sure, sure.

- And there's a number of rabbit breeders that breed for 4-H. - Yeah, 'cause my kids, I always brought my kids' rabbits inside when it was getting zero and below zero.

I just felt sorry for the bunnies, and so I'd bring 'em into the garage, and they're pretty hardy animals, but I still felt better having 'em outta the wind and stuff like that.

- Yeah, ours are pretty sheltered.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, and they have a little heated pad thing that I have in winter there, and they have heated water bottles and stuff.

- Yeah, that woulda been nice.

I hadn't thought of that one.

(panelists chuckling) - And you don't need a rabbit at the start of the 4-H year, but by a certain date, you need a rabbit.

- Right, right.

- So you could go and attend some meetings.

- You've got plenty of time to, yeah, to sit in the projects and learn.

Yeah, that's a good point.

- All right, on that note, I have a question from Helena for Todd.

They would like you to talk a little bit about the 4-H Legislative Breakfast and the Citizenship Seminar that 4-H has, if you would.

- Yeah, absolutely.

There is a group of volunteers who have a strong spot for 4-H in their heart, and they are kind enough to put on a Legislative Breakfast on our behalf and invite the legislature in, and we usually get quite a few legislators that attend that breakfast, and that is the day after Martin Luther King Day.

I wanna make sure I get the right date.

January 17th in Helena.

And this committee, Montanans for 4-H, orchestrate this whole thing on behalf of 4-H, and we have several kids that speak at that breakfast, and we'll pull in, well, anywhere from two to 300 people altogether, including many legislators that come over from the capitol, have breakfast, listen to the kids who are giving their speeches and talking about 4-H, and then there's table talk right there at each table, and we try to put 4-H-ers from a certain legislator's area with them so they're talking to kids from their area, and that goes on till about 7:30 that morning, and then we've got folks that have to get back to the capitol for committee meetings and things like that.

- Great.

- Yeah, it's a big event.

Concurrently is the Citizenship Seminar, and that is a three-day event for kids to learn about the legislative process, and so we do that every two years when the legislature is in session, and those kids write bills and learn how to pass bills and get to be the audience for several legislators who come and speak at that event, and they take tours at the capitol and just learn the whole state governmental process.

- That's pretty impressive.

How big a turnout for the youngsters do you have for that Citizenship Seminar?

- That can be anywhere from 60 to 120 or so.

- Okay.

- It depends on the year, and we're pleased to be offering that again in person, and we had to do an online one two years ago, and we're hoping that we'll draw those kids back again, and I think we will.

We've got a lot of excitement about it.

It is such a valuable program.

Worked out pretty good online.

We're just happy to be doing it where we can have speakers come in and really interact with the kids.

- Sounds like a really good opportunity there.

Switch over to Tim here.

This person would like to know, "How long does Banvel stay active in the soil?"

And it'd be dicamba or Banvel.

- Yeah, that's a really good question.

So it depends on the rate that you use.

If I remember the Banvel label correctly, I believe if you use the high rate, it is 45 days before you can plant back to wheat or some of the other crops that are in there.

If you use a lower end crop rate, there'll be less herbicide that'll stick around for less period of time 'cause you can use it in crop in serials.

Banvel is dicamba, which is a broadleaf herbicide, so it mostly affects broadleaf weeds, but I would say it's probably there six months or so in the soil in some way, shape, or form.

- You don't wanna use mulch from a lawn that's been treated.

- No, you definitely do not wanna use mulch from a lawn.

Actually, there's some good herbicide injury.

I went to look for it before the show today, but up on a linden tree on campus, where they had put a bunch of mulch that I think had, and a bunch of containers, and they had definitely done some damage to some trees.

- Okay, thank you.

Have a nice comment here from Dillon.

Joanne Juliano called in and says she owns some radio stations and likes to invite the local 4-H kids and other youth groups into her stations to be on the air and act like radio personalities.

Kind of interesting program.

She would like somebody from "Ag Live" or KUSM or Todd to call her on Monday and talk about expanding this youth outreach to other stations and media, and I will give you her phone number, which she gave to us.

So that's your job.

- Oh, very good.

That will be a very fun contact to make, so thank you very much for the offer.

- You bet.

Okay, from Stevensville, this caller has lots of weeds in her garden and wonders if it is too late to apply herbicides like 2, 4-D or glyphosate or anything else.

- Ooh, it depends on the weeds, I think, and maybe Abi would say.

So I've been looking at, well, I'm always looking at weeds, but I been looking at weeds the last few days, and you know, the cheatgrass is up.

The cheatgrass is about an inch or two tall now.

It really germinated after this last precipitation event that we got.

So if you're, you know, if you're a producer, think about managing cheatgrass.

Think about managing winter annual weeds now.

I saw desert alyssum also germinated.

That's a really common range weed that we have floating out.

I saw some of that yesterday in range that I was looking at.

Shepherd's purse, these things like that will germinate.

Is it too late to apply herbicide in the garden?

- Most likely.

- Mostly likely, it's probably a little bit too, I think it's too cold and too wet.

Next year, when it gets warm in the springtime, on those warm spring days, you should be able to get the winter annual weeds in the early spring next year.

- Question from Gallatin Gateway for Abi number one.

(Abi Burrows giggling) This person wants to know is your rabbit always so docile?

(panelists giggling) - Most of the time at fair, she's pretty calm and stuff, but after a while of being handled, sometimes, she does get a little antsy and not like it too much.

Like all day during showmanship and the breed show day, she does get kinda antsy towards the end, but normally, she is pretty calm, and that's partially 'cause she's kinda old now, and yeah.

(Abi giggling) - Okay, yeah, you do have a leash for her, am I correct?

- Yep.

(laughs) - [Jack] You take it for walks?

- I don't really take her for walks too much, but sometimes, we'll put her out in the yard, in a little dog pen like those puppy pens that you can get, and she likes, she and her brother really like munching on the grass and stuff there, and then also at fair, I'll take her on little runs or walks around the rabbit barn and let her explore and stretch her legs.

- Yeah, that's interesting.

Okay, Todd, this person would like to know where they can find out more about 4-H projects, and that call came in from Columbia Falls.

- Okay, yeah, there's a couple of things.

Obviously, your county extension office is the first place to start, as well as our website, which is Montana4H.org, and that's without the dash between the four and the H, so Montana4H.org, and that will lead you through a lot of aspects of what the 4-H program is all about.

And so folks can take a look at the website.

They can take a look at the project guide that's there under Projects and then speak with their county agent in their local county office and follow up from there.

- There's a lot of available projects.

- There's about 200, over 200 projects in 4-H. - Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

- That's pretty impressive.

- And so there's a lot to choose from, and the key is having a volunteer to lead each one of those projects.

So sometimes, you'll pick a project, and your county may not be able to offer it because of a lack of volunteers, and that's something that we're working really hard to correct.

- You know, tell me, how do you propose to get more volunteers?

I know after COVID, we mentioned earlier that the numbers have dropped, and that's a shame because it's a great opportunity to work with youngsters.

How do you propose to get more volunteers?

What's 4-H doing to try to encourage volunteers?

- Well, we're getting, number one, we're just out recruiting and working really hard at it, and a lotta that is just local attention of having that opportunity to speak at different civic events around the community for our county agents and our kids, and we've done some social media advertising as well, and so we've put a campaign together where we're trying to reach deeper into these neighborhoods and reach people who may not have thought of it before, and that social media campaign, along with some radio and television things as well, and then really listening to the availability of that volunteer and fitting the 4-H program into their timeframe so that they can actually volunteer and have it not be such a burden if they have limited time, and so we're really working on that.

- So what are some types of volunteer roles that you have other than leading a project and stuff?

How can you get involved if you don't have the specific topic in mind?

- Well, we have 4-H clubs, and within a club, that is where the kids learn their parliamentary procedure and how to run a business meeting, and public speaking, and a lot of really good education happens within those clubs, a lotta times outside of the project, but you can also volunteer to be a judge, to sit down with a young person to have a conversation about their project.

You don't necessarily have to know everything about the project.

You just need to know how to talk to a young person and provide 'em with that back and forth because what that teaches is that ability to receive constructive criticism, that ability to express what I've done and where I could improve and what went right and what I like about the project, and all those types of things.

And so that adult on the other side of that table is really important to have that back and forth because what that teaches young people year after year, when they become adults, it really shows.

It really shows in high school classrooms, college classrooms, and in a career as well.

- Great.

- Okay, thank you.

Darby caller and grandmother of a 4-H grandchild wants to know what the most important lesson or thing the rabbit owner, Abi number one, (panelists giggling) learned from her 4-H experience and participation.

- I think one of the most, well, two of the most important things that I've learned are probably just speaking to people and speaking in public and then just leading 'cause I'm also in kind of leadership roles in my two clubs, so I've learned how to run meetings and all sorts of stuff.

And then in the rabbit and poultry projects, I've learned how to interview, and then how to present, obviously, to a bunch of people in showmanship, and yeah.

(Abi laughing) - Good answer.

I like that.

Mary, while we're down at that end of the table, a question from Belgrade.

The aspen this person has has some leaf diseases.

I'm not sure which they would be.

And with the snow on it, there's no way they can clean up the leaves right now.

Any suggestions what they could do?

- You can use fungicides, but usually, those like the Marssonina blight really doesn't do much damage unless it would repeatedly defoliate the tree year after year.

What do you think, Abi?

- Yeah, I would agree with that.

I would say if you can't get to it, you know, let them be and decompose, but you can take them away in the spring, too, if they're not completely gone, or using mulch around the base of the tree could prevent some of that reinoculation as well, but yeah, I don't think that it would be too big of a deal.

- Yeah, and it's more of a problem in those wet springs, too, so it depends on the weather.

- Is this the foliar disease where the aspen leaves get quite black or turn?

- Yeah.

- Okay, so later in the season, once they get a bit stressed, they turn black?

- It really probably doesn't hurt the aspen that much.

- No.

- No, it really doesn't.

We got several questions for 4-H and they're coming in pretty rapidly, so I'm gonna concentrate on a couple of these.

From Helena, "Does 4-H cooperate with other youth groups such as Scouts?"

- Yeah, absolutely, and we're not in competition with another youth program, and that's not the purpose.

Purpose is to get kids involved in positive things and then have them transition successfully into adulthood, and we will help and partner with any other organization that wants to do that, and so we are certainly not an exclusive organization.

We are very integrated into other things in kids' lives.

- [Mary] And you get a lotta sponsorship from local businesses as well, which is really nice.

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

You know, and Abi asked the question about other ways to volunteer.

A week at camp, if you'd chaperone camp.

If you'd chaperone, bring a delegation of young people to campus for 4-H Congress that we hold here at MSU, to chaperone a trip for a young person.

So there's things for a few hours to a week to a few months.

- Or a guest speaker at a club.

- Guest speaker, resource people.

You were one on the beekeeping online workshops that we had done this last spring and summer, and all of that contributes to the educational program of 4-H. - Okay, question number two from Missoula.

This caller wants to know whether the 4-H program are active on the tribal reservations?

- Absolutely, yes.

We have about 14% of our enrollment is Native American youth, and I think the percentage of Native Americans in Montana population percentage is about 7%, so we've got a lot of young people from the reservations involved.

We'd like to have a lot more, and there's definitely an audience that we'd like to continue to work with, and we've been really, really pleased with the reception we've had on the reservations, and what those kids are doing are the same as what kids are doing across the state.

- Okay, and the third one, and then I got some questions for everybody else too, but while we have Todd here, I want him to explain, and this question came from Bozeman.

Recently, 4-H received a $5 million anonymous gift from someone here in Montana, and also the College of Ag, Precision Ag, got five million.

Explain some of the things that you might be considering to use that money for.

- Sure.

- I know it's early, but- - Yeah, yeah, it's a $3 million endowment, and so that money will provide interest yearly that'll support some 4-H programs.

We are looking very strongly at college and career readiness and life skills and youth, two things that 4-H just excels at, and that fits the vision of the donor as well as the vision of 4-H, and so we're looking forward to potentially putting some staff into that and expanding our programs into some underserved audiences as well, but real emphasis on career readiness.

Career readiness and life skill development in youth are two of the top five key issues that Montanans had identified when we just did the MSU extension and done the statewide needs assessment, and out of the huge list of things that people are concerned about in Montana, career readiness and life skills in youth were two of the top five, and so that's really where we're focusing.

Exactly how that's gonna come together yet, we've had a lot of ideas, but we've got a lotta folks to talk to before we make that good, solid commitment and announce exactly what the plan is, and honestly, we don't have the full plan until we talk to a lot of other folks, but we're excited to look further into this, and we have the opportunity now to do some really special things.

- I think that's right, and Mary, the Precision Ag Endowed Chair, you wanna tell us a little bit about that?

You're in the Dean's office quite a bit of time.

- Yeah, so we've had a focus since Sreekala Bajwa started on precision agriculture, and we've had several investments, and this is the biggest thus far.

We'll be creating an Endowed Chair of Precision Ag, which will help, you know, bring forward the precision ag program in Montana.

We've got four non-tenure track faculty right now, and hoping to grow that program, where they're developing a minor.

They've done a bootcamp, all kinds of stuff going on.

- Okay, it's a good project too.

I mean, we are behind in Montana, precision ag.

- Very much so, and the growers are very highly engaged in the potential for precision ag in their operations 'cause they know it is a need to adopt this new technology, and they wanna know the best way to do it.

- Okay, thank you.

Kim, from Three Forks.

This person wants to know are they still ester forms of 2,4-D available, and if so, why are we using those instead of the amine formulations?

- The amine formula is, so there are multiple forms of 2,4-D available.

There's both the ester and the amine formula.

If I remember correctly, we stay away from the amine formula because of its volatilization.

So depending on the formulation of 2,4-D, it can be acidic, and then it can volatilize really easily, so you basically lose it to the air, so you don't get the herbicide to actually kill the weeds.

So we tend to avoid that because we have large vapor pressure deficits quite often.

That's when the air is really dry, and the moisture's going from the air up, so that herbicide is volatilizing and then drifting into the atmosphere and blowing away.

- I thought ester formulation was more volatile than the amine formula.

- You're right.

Ester is more volatile than the amine formulation, so we stick with the amine formulation mostly in the state.

- All right, but you can still get ester formulations?

- Yeah, you can still get ester formulations.

Actually, to tie this back to Palmer amaranth in the beginning is, so in the 1990's, they invented Roundup Ready soybeans, Roundup Ready corn, Roundup Ready cotton in the Midwest, Southeastern United States, and we used glyphosate or Roundup for weed control, and it led to the development of whole lot of herbicide resistance.

Well, then, beginning in 2017, '18, '19, they made a new herbicide-tolerant partially the 2,4-D and the dicamba, in response to Palmer amaranth, and it was a very volatile, both of the formulas were volatile.

Caused huge amounts of herb crop damage.

Cause huge amounts of tree damage, natural areas, all kinds of things, and we really made that switch because of herbicide resistance in Palmer amaranth.

So we need to prevent Palmer amaranth from getting into our sugar beets, into our potatoes, and into our soybean crops.

- I'm gonna meet with the potato growers this week, and I just dread if we ever got Palmer amaranth into the potatoes 'cause they're not herbicides that you could use in there.

- No, it's really, they are not many, so it's a tough one.

Sugar beets is another very tough crop.

If Palmer amaranth or waterhemp really spread into sugar beets in Montana, it's gonna really, it's gonna be a tough crop to manage, or a tough weed to manage in that crop.

- And we may not be growing sugar beats as a response, yeah.

- In some ways, yeah.

- Okay, (laughs) you're up.

"Linus and the Great Pumpkin want to know which are the best type of pumpkins to grow in Bozeman for jack-o'-lanterns and/or for pumpkin food dishes like pumpkin pie?"

- That's a good question.

I don't know for that.

I would say if you see a pumpkin that you like, go to a garden center, or if you go to the fair at 4-H and you see those cool pumpkin projects, I would ask whoever's growing them that the cultivar, the variety that they're growing, but I don't make very much pumpkin pie.

I like to eat it, so I don't know.

Does anyone here know?

- There's a bunch of really small varieties.

I've grown various ones over the years, kinda depending on seed availability.

Another good resource would be the Gallatin Gardener Club or one of the local garden clubs.

- I had Howden, Howden pumpkins.

That was a good jack-o'-lantern pumpkin this year, but really, only one good jack-o'-lantern so, you know, it takes up quite a bit of space.

- Gourds do really well.

- Yeah, gourds and winter squash.

- Yes.

Yeah.

- Pumpkins are a bit harder.

- You know, my favorite pumpkin variety is those that come in cans.

(panelists laughing) It's the easiest way.

- [Mary] I'm gonna bring you a pie, Jack.

(panelists laughing) - I'll take you up on that.

- You know, Pete Fay.

He was formerly faculty at MSU.

He grew his pumpkins in Billings, actually, and not in Gallatin, though.

- He did, and you know who grew 'em over there for him?

- Who's that?

- Nina and Walt Zidack, who is now director of the Montana Potato Improvement Association and sits in this chair quite often.

Comment from Corvallis.

I appreciate this.

"Caller in wanted to share her thankfulness for Montana 4-H.

Her three kids were able to attend school thanks to the money they raised from 4-H projects."

Todd, you might just mention who supports these 4-H projects in so many of these rural communities?

- Oh, it's the population there, absolutely.

And that's business owners.

That's individuals that are just doing it outta the kindness of their heart, you know, and sometimes, it's in-kind gifts.

Sometimes it's bidding on animals at the fair, and what really supports 4-H is not government.

Our university will supply a faculty member, and the county supplies the office space, and the community supplies the resources for these kids to really excel.

And if it wasn't for that partnership, really, with those local community businesses and individuals, we would not be able to do what we do.

- I'm gonna ask Abi number one, not number two.

(panelists laughing) Who bought your chickens?

Do you remember?

- Yeah, I had DLM Contracting, I think, and then Phoenix Farms buy my chickens this year, so thank you to them.

- So what are you gonna do with your money?

You did really well on chickens.

- It's going into savings, so it's going into college savings or maybe for a car, something, so yeah.

- There you go.

If you can avoid loans, that would be, they'd love to hear that too.

- [Jack] Is your mother matching the amount that?

(panelists laughing) Just asking.

- She has a lotta earning potential.

(panelists laughing) - Okay.

I'll drop that for now.

(Tim laughing) Todd, from Bozeman.

Interesting question.

"Is there a 4-H or extension program for students that are just beginning college?"

- There is.

Actually, we just ramped up again after a few years off.

We lost interest, but there is a tremendous group on campus now with collegiate 4-H. And so that started back up here at MSU just this school year, and we're really pleased with that.

We've got some really high-qualified and accomplished young people that have gone from high school to transitioning into and have stepped forward and say, "Hey, we wanna get this going," so we've got a group of about 30, 35, maybe even 40, depending on how many stay involved.

They gathered in my backyard in August and played some cornhole, and we talked about 4-H, and they're planning to help out across the state with 4-H programs as examples of what 4-H can do for you, and we're really excited about that.

- Okay, wanna have you a caller from Liberty for Todd, and I don't know what this is, but are there any self-determined projects What is a self-determined 4-H project?

- Self-determined would be a project that may not yet be offered officially through 4-H, so we may not have a curriculum for it.

It may be a very limited type of project because there's an interest of a young person who has just a narrowed and specific interest in something, and they wanna kinda design the program for themselves, and they can do that, and they just work with their county agent and their 4-H club leaders, and they put together a set of goals, try to find some resources for that project, and then can continue with that because that was something that they're interested in doing.

And so if you don't find something in that over 200 number of projects that we have, there is an opportunity to do some special things on your own, depending on a specific interest that you might have.

- Are there quite a few people that have self-determined projects?

- There's not a ton of 'em.

- Okay.

- Yeah, it's relatively limited, and that's not by any design of ours.

That's just because most kids have found, at least get started, in the 200 projects that we offer, but it is out there as an opportunity for a young person as well.

- Okay, I now have a question from Bruce Loble, and he says, "Why did Todd get away with wearing a tie?"

When he showed up on the program, it was cut off.

(panelists laughing) - I heard that story.

(panelists laughing) And thank you for doing that to me.

- [Tim] We can bring out the scissors.

(panelists laughing) - Bruce has a long memory.

There's no doubt about that.

Tim, from Shelby.

This caller wants to know if Palmer amaranth can be controlled by tilling and cultivation techniques.

- Whoo.

All right.

Yes and no.

If you wanna till fallow for years, the seeds would last in the seed bank for six years.

That's about what it is, so when we think about Kochia, Kochia's two years in the seed bank.

This is Palmer amaranth's six years in the seed bank.

If you're having a crop, you know, you would have to do inter-row crop cultivation.

It's a tough thing.

You know, in the Southeastern United States, they have hand-roguing crews, actually, that go in and chop 'em out, so that's how far it set weed, sort of weed management back.

Cultivation alone is not gonna do it all by itself.

- You know, I'm sitting here thinking we don't want it here.

We know that, and a lot of our irrigated producers now have gone to a combination of cover crops so they can feed livestock, which has been pretty beneficial to livestock, and the management is good.

It's economically feasible.

If some of our irrigated sugar beet growers or potato growers were thinking about a cover crop, would you recommend they keep all small-seeded plants outta that cover crop mix?

- Yeah, maybe.

It depends on what you can really do with it.

So the hard thing, so we had a instance this year where some seed got planted.

Millet seed that was contaminated was planted in Montana.

We went out.

We had a awesome, awesome extension agent, local agent on the ground who has also been working on it, and the thing is, for these small specialty crops: for millet, for sorghum-sudan, there's not a lot of pesticide or herbicide products that are labeled for those, so it makes it really difficult to use in crop.

So what I would tend, if I was the sugar beet producer, I would think about more to the barley forage crops.

Where there's more things labeled, you can do more things in there and maybe, yeah, avoid some of the small-seeded cover crops.

- And kinda makes sense to me for right now, but again, I'm not a weed ecologist.

- Or scientist.

- (laughs) Or scientist.

(panelists giggling) Good point.

From Belgrade, to Todd, "Are there resources and support for 4-H-ers who with special needs or disabilities?"

Good question.

- That is a really good question, and yeah, absolutely, there is.

We have made accommodations if we've needed to, or just integration of young people with special needs, and they've been able to participate in every program that we've offered, including even going to the state horse show and competing in shooting sports and things.

And so I wouldn't hesitate ever to join 4-H if you have a young person with disabilities because we'd be more than happy to work with the parent, the guardians, anyone involved, to give that young person a really great experience, and we've been able to do that repeatedly, so I'm really confident in that area.

- Okay.

Thank you.

From Bozeman, with kind of a comment now.

Let Abi comment on this.

"Caller would like to share that sugar pumpkins are the proper variety for cooking instead of jack-o'-lanterns."

What is a sugar pumpkin?

High in sugar?

- Yeah, yeah, they're usually probably a little more compact.

Denser flesh, fewer seeds, so a jack-o'-lantern'll, you know, you can carve it, and there's a big, hollow cavity.

The chickens love the seeds, or you can roast 'em, but the sugar pumpkins definitely have a higher sugar content, and I have difficulty raising.

I get a few off a plant just like Tim.

- Yeah, here in Gallatin County, it's a little bit more challenging.

- I tried to grow those blue pumpkins, and they got white, but I never got to blue.

(panelists giggling) - A comment from Great Falls.

They wanna thank Abi number one for bringing her rabbit in.

It's been a highlight of the program, and she also comments that you've done a good job in training that rabbit to behave.

(panelists laughing) I have to admit that I am impressed with that also.

We're down to a little bit of time left.

I wanna ask Todd.

This question came in about 4-H Congress.

What is 4-H Congress?

- 4-H Congress is, basically, at the basic level, it's a leadership conference for young people.

When you have complete seventh grade, eighth graders through 12th-grade young people can come to campus here at MSU, and we do have on-campus, statewide contests, and so there's public speaking contests and livestock judging contests and cooking contests and sewing fashion shows, and a lotta things to get involved in, but we also have a number of speakers that come and talk about leadership, what it takes to be a leader, a lotta opportunities for young people to see MSU, to learn a little bit about college life, and to take workshops as well on different aspects of just growing yourself as a leader and a communicator and someone who can lead other folks and really show an example to others, and so it's a neat project.

It's usually three nights in time here on MSU.

Stay in the dorms, and eat at the cafeterias, which are like five-star restaurants if you visit 'em now, yeah.

- They are now.

(laughs) - And it wasn't like that when you and I went to school, but they get to see a lot of MSU and things.

- Okay.

Thanks Todd.

Hey, we learned a lot about 4-H tonight, learned a lot about rabbits.

It was kind of a fun evening, little bit different.

Next week, our guest will be Chris Mehus, who is with the Western Sustainability Exchange.

If you wanna learn about carbon credits, carbon capture, which I do, join us next week.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks, everybody.

Good night.

- [Host] For more information and resources, visit MontanaPBS.org/AgLive.

(upbeat country music) (upbeat country music continues) - [Announcer] "Montana Ag Live" is made possible by the Montana Department of Agriculture.

The MSU Extension Service.

The MSU Ag Experiment Stations of the College of Agriculture.

The Montana Wheat and Barley Committee.

Cashman Nursery and Landscaping.

The Northern Pulse Growers Association.

And the Gallatin Gardeners Club.

(upbeat music)