Nebraska CropWatch

In this episode, Dr. Christine Wittich of UNL's Civil Engineering department joins to talk about why she got into engineering, why she traded preparing buildings for earthquakes in California for working with farmers in Nebraska and Iowa, what was learned about grain bin structures in the 2020 derecho, and why grain bin destruction is more than just a damaged building.

In the third Weather Ready Farms podcast series, I visit with Dr. Amy Schmidt of UNL's Biological Systems Engineering. She talks about her background and why she switched from aerospace engineering to agricultural engineering, the benefits proper manure management in fields can bring to the soil and the environment, and what a manure broker is. Finally she tells us who her all-time favorite baseball player is and why.

In this episode, Aaron Young from UNL's Conservation and Survey Division joins the podcast to talk about the latest Nebraska Groundwater Report which was released earlier this year. We talked about the tedious work that goes into data collection and map making, the areas that saw the biggest declines between the spring of 2022 and 2023, why some areas of the state have actually seen groundwater levels rise over time, why the relationship between temperature and groundwater hasn't been well correlated in Nebraska, and how the High Plains aquifer is faring in  Nebraska overall compared to neighboring states.