There’s a new sheriff in town. Sheriff Barry Nelson, John Deere. He wants you to love his Chip Foose 4020 and that’s an order son.
It’s a 1970 John Deere 4020. The tractor will be given away to one winner as part of the John Deere Big Buck Promotion. You may find rules to enter on the John Deere website.
The mild mannered public relations coordinator by day job, turned into one mean enforcement machine at Commodity Classic. He was guarding the Chip Foose designed 4020 model tractor along with sidekick, Deputy Kelly Schwalbe (left). They made sure no one took a peek under the veil over this promotional machine. I can tell you I wasn’t about to try!
So after the unveiling which you can still watch in the video clip below, I spoke to Sheriff Barry about the promotion and what the plans are. Barry says they entered into a partnership with Chip Foose to take an old 4020 tractor and put his special brand of design work on it. People can go to their local John Deere dealer to enter to win the tractor and it will also be part of this year’s Drive Green event. Barry says the project came out of a brainstorming session and a willingness on Chip’s part to do the work.
Commodity Classic is a gathering of farmers who grow many crops, including sorghum. I wanted to learn more about the organization that assists sorghum growers, the National Sorghum Producers, so I spent a little time with their Chairman, Gerald Simonsen.
Simonsen began by telling me about a great victory that had recently for sorghum growers. The organization has some issues with the formulas used to figure price election for crop insurance. After more than eight years working on the issue, they have gotten the methodology changed. In 2009, the price election was 77.8 percent of corn – in 2010, the price election will be 97.8 percent of corn.
“That’s a huge difference in coverage for producers,” said Simonsen. “On a personal note, on my farm, it means a difference of $35 per acre in crop insurance.”
While the National Sorghum Producers handles a lot of policy issues, they are also very involved in sorghum’s use for ethanol. Today, 1/3 of the sorghum crop goes into ethanol production. They may grow, however, as more research is dedicated to producing ethanol from sugar-based sorghums like sweet sorghum and cellulosic and biomass production using energy sorghums or forage sorghums.
While Simonsen doesn’t anticipate more sorghum production by “leaps and bounds” he does anticipate “a slow and incremental gain over the next few years.”
Each year, soybean growers around the country take the American Soybean Association (ASA) and BASF up on their challenge to reduce weed competition, increase plant health and protect yields – but only three are chosen.
We already met first place winners David and Sue Roehm in an earlier post. Today we meet Dave and Mary Jonas of Pinnconning, Michigan, one of two runners up in the 2009 Secure Optimal Yield (SOY) Challenge, which won them a trip to Commodity Classic and $2000 in cash.
Dave says the SOY Challenge worked out well for them with a two and a half bushel increase in yield. “They had a certain program they wanted you to follow just to see the difference,” Dave said. Test acres received an application of a BASF residual herbicide, such as Prowl® H20, Scepter® or Extreme® herbicides, and a treatment of Headline® fungicide for disease control and Plant Health benefits. Control acres were treated with a single pass of glyphosate in-crop only – no fungicide or residual herbicide.
The goal is not so much to see how much of a yield bump they get with the program, but how taking part in the ASA/BASF SOY Challenge has helps them to be more successful soybean producers. Contestants must submit a testimonial in words or video to explain how the challenge worked for them. Dave says it worked well enough that they plan to use it on more acres this year.
Listen to an interview with Dave and Mary in the player below.
There was a lot to see and hear about at Commodity Classic but maybe the best testimonials for a product are the growers themselves. I spent a little time with two growers who gave several Stoller USA products their stamp of approval. Why? Because they have seen significant increase to their yields.
Ken Miller, both a grower and ag retailer who lives in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, said that he has been selling Stoller USA products for 12 years and has been using them for 10 years. I asked him when he became a believer and he said two years for him to believe in the product. Miller uses Bio-Forge, Sugar Mover Plus and X-TRA power. He is routinely seeing 12-14 bushel per acre increases in his corn yields, 6-7 bushels per acre increases in his soybean yield and 5-7 bushel per acre increases in his wheat yields. One of the benefits he noted was that the Bio-Forge helped the plant to make a “massive root system” that enabled it to take up the nutrients from the soil.
Donny Carpenter, a grower from Dimmitt, TX first began using Bio-Forge on his wheat. Last year, due to increased commodity prices for wheat, he increased his acreage and used Bio-Forge for the first time as a seed treatment. He noted that early on he couldn’t tell the difference between his Bio-Forge treated and untreated acres, but when the crop began to boot, this changed.
“We had a crop that stood better, didn’t try to fall because there wasn’t any lodging and it out yielded the untreated area by 12-15 bushels per acre.”
Although Carpenter plans to reduce his wheat crop this season (commodity prices have dropped again for wheat) he will be using the Bio-Forge on his corn and cotton this year and plans on experimenting with various types of applications.
I asked them both what they recommend for other growers and Carpenter encouraged other growers “to give it a shot.” Miller said, “Use Stoller products because they are proven.”
BASF Headline fungicide continues to make headlines, even after years on the market. The more research they do with growers using this product, the better it gets.
During a press conference at Commodity Classic, BASF Regional Sales Manager Gary Schmitz and Technical market Manager Nick Fassley talked about the more than 6,000 on-farm trials that have been held just in the United States on various crops. While we talk a lot about Headline in the major crops of corn, soybeans and wheat, Nick says the fungicide also provides plant health benefits for crops like peanuts, citrus and even sugarcane. “We’ve done a lot of work on southern crops,” Nick said. “We actually see some added benefits on our plant health label for citrus growers who see their crop mature more at the same time.” Nick says peanut growers have seen an overall increase in quality and yield with Headline, and some new rust species in sugarcane moved Florida to requested a section 18 for the use of Headline in that crop.
Gary talked about Headline AMP™, which is being offered for the first time this year for corn. “What they’ll get with Headline AMP is all the benefits that they’ve seen with Headline over the years, plus it has an additional active ingredient called metconazole, which is a best in class triazole and has very broad spectrum control of many of the diseases you find in corn,” Gary said. In trials, Headline AMP provided control for tough diseases like Rust and Southern and Northern corn leaf blight and delivered higher yields.
Download or listen to back to back interviews with Nick and Gary in the player below.
Taking a team approach to problem solving often saves both time and money and that has been the goal of the North Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP) in using soybean checkoff dollars more efficiently for the benefit of growers.
During the Commodity Classic I talked with NCSRP executive director David Wright, seen here with South Dakota farm broadcaster Michelle Rook, about the program which is run by soybean producers for soybean producers. “NCSRP is a grower-based organization that invests soybean checkoff dollars into research and education activities to improve soybean yield,” he told me. “These are state checkoff dollars combined with some national checkoff dollars. We’re a regional organization, we pool money from both sides, and then invest it at approximately 20 land grant universities throughout the United States.”
Twelve states participate in the program, from Kansas to North Dakota and east across to Ohio and Michigan, and the dollars are distributed each year through a very competitive grant process. “We don’t just do research, we target research to solve problems,” David said.
NCSRP has a website (www.ncsrp.com) where growers can find all of the latest management recommendations to increase soybean yields, and they also hold numerous meetings in the various states during the year to get the information out to farmers. In addition, NCSRP has a producer communications effort called the Plant Health Initiative which aims to help growers manage soybean from the ground up. That site features a regular update on soybean health issues by David called David’s Desk.
Listen to or download my interview with David in the player below.
The world’s population is growing and simultaneously, malnutrition is growing. The World Soy Foundation (WSF) is a nonprofit organization that is helping to eradicate malnutrition around the world through soy protein. I had the chance to spend a few minutes with Nathan Ruby, Executive Director of the World Soy Foundation to learn more about what they do.
Ruby explained that they address malnutrition issues through soy protein in four ways:
Food distribution of soy protein
Microenterprise – helping people start small businesses like the soy cow where people add 1 lbs of soybeans to 1 gallon of water to produce soy milk which they then sell in the local community
Research – studying soybeans in different nutritional settings
Education – working with people around the world to help them learn how soy protein can increase nutrition
WSF is currently working in areas with high malnutrition including Haiti. “Our program there is really about development,” said Ruby. “We’re not a diasaster relief agency so we’re more concerned about what happens when the television cameras leave and go away and the world kind of forgets about Haiti. We’re still going to be there developing and we have a long-range plan to do that.”
The organization is typically anywhere where people live in areas that are disconnected form the general flow of resources and opportunities. Currently, they are considering some programs in Iraq to help them learn how to farm soybeans and a similar program in Central America.
As a nonprofit, WSF is always looking for more people to become involved in their programs. Soybean farmers around the world can participate through the Acre Challenge. Ruby explained that in this program, soybean farmers donate the proceeds from one acre of production.
To learn more, click here and you can listen to my full interview with Nathan below.
CVT stands for Continuously Variable Transmission and Case IH was spotlighting its benefits over power shift during Commodity Classic, both at their exhibit and during a WIN session.
“The advantage of having a completely variable transmission is that you can allow the computer to operate both the engine and the transmission to dial in the ’sweet spot’ for power and for fuel consumption with the tractor,” says John Bohnker, Case IH marketing manager.
The technology has been around for many years, but Case just recently narrowed it up to use in row crop applications. CVT is now available on Case IH MagnumTM 180, 190, 210 and the new 225 tractors, as well as the Puma 165 to 225 series. “If you look at North America, the row crop tractor is the area where there’s a strong demand for variable transmission,” Bohnker said. “In particular, the sugar beet and potato areas, as well as the Midwest row crops.”
Listen to or download my interview with John below.
His wife calls him a “PMG” – Professional Meeting Goer – because Alan Kemper has been serving on the boards of state and national agricultural organizations for over two decades now.
Alan was a very busy guy at the Commodity Classic last week but I was able to do a quick interview with him while he was in the BASF exhibit presenting the annual BASF/ASA Scholarship award. He talked about the scholarship program, the attendance at Classic, his thoughts on Secretary Vilsack’s speech and the importance of the soybean export market. Listen to or download that interview in the player below:
The future of agriculture is important to BASF and that is why the company sponsors scholarships for young people along with both the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and the American Soybean Association (ASA).
The NCGA program awards five $1,000 scholarships to college students studying agriculture, while the ASA program chooses one student to award $5,000. So, each year for the past three years, BASF has helped six students pay for their future career in the field of agriculture. All awards are presented at the annual Commodity Classic
I talked with BASF North American Crop Protection Group Vice President Nevin McDougall about the scholarship programs as he was presenting the students with their awards during the Classic last week. “We have a very common base and understanding in terms of vision, values and goals for the respective grower organizations and we feel it’s our obligation to contribute to the long term sustainability to their membership, to help educate the young talent that will be contributing to the growth of our industry in the future,” Nevin told me.
Nevin enjoyed getting to meet the scholarship winners who were able to make it to the Classic to receive their awards and talk about their future goals, as well as getting to meet their families. “Our scholarship initiative is a good example of how we are trying to contribute to individual family farms, support their children in terms of their educational goals and to be a part of the future they’re trying to create,” he said.
Listen to my interview with Nevin in the player below:
There is a rare treasure nestled in the heart of the Ozarks in Southern Missouri – a college that offers students a degree in hard work.
I’ve lived in Missouri for 18 years but never knew about the College of the Ozarks until this week when I joined the Missouri Beef Industry Council (MBIC) for a luncheon and tour at the school located just south of Branson in a picturesque spot called Point Lookout. It was originally founded as a Presbyterian high school in 1906 and today is a Christian-based four year liberal arts college with 1500 students who pay their tuition by working 15 hours a week on campus and two 40 hour work weeks at the end of each semester. Students are chosen on the basis of financial need as well as academics and only about 1 in 7 who apply each year actually get the opportunity to attend.
The college offers 48 different degrees, including culinary arts, hotel and restaurant management, agribusiness, animal science, and ag education. There are about 125 students majoring in some area of agriculture there, but the school offers amazing hands-on experience for them, including hog, dairy and beef operations, a meat processing facility and a feed mill. They also have a beautiful center that is open to the public which features fine dining, historic lodging, meeting rooms, and more. During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Sarah Palin chose to visit the college as one of her stops in Missouri.
You can find out more about the college by listening to the MBIC podcast here or in the player below the video. And you can see all the photos from the tour online in this Flickr photo album.
One of the highlights of the tour was a culinary demonstration and gourmet lunch prepared by college Chef Robert Stricklin. The menu included Cranberry Cinnamon Biscuits, Pear and Feta Cheese salad with Baby Greens, Braised Short Rib Shank with roasted vegetables and rosemary jus, Black Walnut Coffee Toffee Ice Cream made by the students – and everything was fabulous! Chef Stricklin made his five star gourmet entree look amazingly easy to prepare in his short demonstration, which you can view below:
The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) is relatively new to Commodity Classic with this being their third year. You could tell when you talked with John Caupert, the director of NCERC, how excited he was to be there so I asked him why.
“There’s energy, there’s enthusiasm back around around ethanol and biofuels. Some people believe that corn ethanol is an old technology. We believe just the opposite. We feel the corn ethanol industry is still in its infancy and through technological advancements, there’s much more to learn and prove in corn ethanol production.”
Caupert explained that the NCERC is unique in that they bring together the ethanol industry, corn growers and livestock producers and one of their goals is to ensure that there is a long-term market for corn growers through the corn ethanol.
Recently, they have spent a lot of time reviewing data regarding how the value of how co-products improve the greenhouse gas footprint of fuel ethanol production. “I think more often than not, we forget about the fact a corn ethanol plant in addition to producing fuel ethanol, also produces this high value livestock feed called distillers grains,” said Caupert.
Caupert noted that although they don’t often work directly with farmers, they work closely with both the National Corn Growers Association as well as state corn groups.
I only touched on the work that NCERC is doing. You can hear more about their research by listening to my interview with John below.
A recent focus of Bill Hendrix, the Biology Team Leader, Insect Management Traits & Seeds Treatments for Dow AgroSciences, is developing the new SmartStax technology for corn with Monsanto. I spoke with Hendrix about the new SmartStax traits in more detail during Commodity Classic.
The SmartStax technology brings eight traits in a package of corn. It received registration in 2009 and is now available for the 2010 growing season. I asked Hendrix how this new technology benefited farmers.
“It’s a benefit to growers because it offers the broadest spectrum. It will bring the best of both the Herculex trait as well as the Yield Guard traits. So it’s got double modes of action, above ground and below ground. Plus, it has Liberty, Link and Roundup Ready herbicide traits,” answered Hendrix.
According to Hendrix, another major benefit for the farmer is that because of the resistance management protection and the extra modes of action, the EPA has granted a reduced refuge from 20 percent traditionally, to 5 percent.
Hendrix added that no matter where the farmer is in the country, the traits will bring them protection.”
You can get more information here as well as by listening to my interview with Bill below.
Commodity Classic was full of new products and technologies and two new product lines have come from the Channel Brand. The Channel Brand is under the Channel Bio company (launched in September 2009) which is a Monsanto company.
I spoke with Stacy Markovich, Channel Brand Manager about Channel Bio and the new Channel Brand products. “Our mission is to serve as the American farmers most trusted source for seed, and Channel is one of the largest seed companies in the United States,” said Markovich.
The company’s primary products are corn and soybean but they also have alfalfa and sorghum. This year, they have a new corn lineup with 18 new products including six Channel Brand Genuity SmartStax products. On the soybean side, they have 24 new products including 20 Channel Brand Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield products.
Also in the Monsanto pipeline are products that will address drought, drought tolerance and water utilization needs. Click here to learn more about the Channel Brand products.
International marketing was the focus of a press conference held by the United Soybean Board at Commodity Classic. First up on the podium was Phil Bradshaw, USB Chairman and a soybean farmer from Griggsville, IL.
He spoke about future efforts to increase soybean exports as conducted by the USB. A record 1.56 billion bushels of soybeans were exported in the most recent marketing year which is “every other row of soybeans produced in the United States.” He says the USB has just selected a new organization to represent soybean growers on the international level. That will be the newly re-organized U.S. Soybean Export Council.
You can listen to or download (mp3) Phil’s remarks here:
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The next person to speak was Jim Call, USB International Marketing Chair and a soybean farmer from Madison, MN.
Jim says the new model that USB has selected to increase soy exports will allow them to better coordinate on planning with exporters and customers. They expect to decrease the duplication of efforts and invest Checkoff dollars more wisely.
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Last to address the press conference was Ike Boudreaux, USSEC Chairman and a soybean farmer from Lebeau, LA.
Ike says the USSEC is proud to have been selected by the USB to execute the new international marketing model. The new efforts will begin October 1, 2010. He says that USSEC is updating its operational structure in order to earn the business. He describes some of the elements of the plan they will be putting in place which includes targeting six key markets.
I had a chance to spend some time with Gail Stratman, the Midwest Technical Sales Lead for FMC, during Commodity Classic and I learned two things. First that Cadet and Authority Assist are big sellers, selling out the past two years, and second, why both products work so well.
Cadet is a post emergence herbicide that was introduced about two years ago for corn and soybeans. “It’s a very good product for growers using Roundup Ready or glyphosate tolerant crops, that are looking for an additional herbicide to put with their glyphosate to help control those weeds they may be experiencing some trouble controlling with straight glyphosate,” explained Stratman.
Some of the weeds that are controlled using Cadet (and Authority Assist) are velvet leaf, water hemp, morning glory, and lambs quarters. Stratman noted that it’s a unique product in that it has a very broad spectrum of weed control and it’s labeled for use at the same rates for corn and soybeans so if a grower has both crops, you don’t have to worry about spray drift.
Authority Assist is a pre-emergence herbicide for soybeans used to control early season weeds. The product limits weed competition, which researchers have found to be as important in soybeans as in corn, and helps to improve yields.
As Project Liberty gets closer every day to completion (The POET project is set to be online no later than 2012), farm equipment manufactures, such as Vermeer, are developing corn cob harvesting technology. During Commodity Classic, I caught up with Jay Van Roekel, the product manager for Vermeer’s Ag Division to learn more about their biomass technologies.
Van Roekel explained that they have a current hay tool line that is a big help in collecting round bales of switchgrass or corn stover. In addition, their latest and most focused is their corn cob collector, the CCX770. Vermeer has been working on this technology full steam ahead for two years but bought the patent from a farmer in Nebraska who had been working on the technology for 10 years.
Here’s how it works. You hook the CCX770 behind a Class 7 or greater combine. Then the machine catches all the materials coming out of the back of the combine and then it sorts out the cobs from the other residue and then the leaves and husks are blown back onto the soil and just the corn cobs are left.
This is a one-pass system but Van Roekel said the farmer will still need to add to his system a way to transport the cobs to storage. The CCX770 is currently available for purchase or lease and you can get more info by clicking here.
You can listen to my full interview with Jay below.
Being a brick artist doesn’t sound like a high pressure job but when you’ve got to finish your LEGO creation by the close of the Commodity Classic trade show it can get a little tense. Nathan Sawaya got this art work done for BASF in their Commodity Classic booth just in time. I think he actually had a couple seconds to spare.
I spoke with him while he was building the project to learn more about what he does and his plan for this project. He basically uses LEGO bricks to create art. In this case he was asked to create “crops” out of LEGO bricks. By the end he had corn, soybeans, wheat and a barn. He says he had an idea in his mind of what he’d do before the show to make sure he brought enough bricks. He also tours with an Art of the Brick Museum Exhibit.
Syngenta made two announcements during Commodity Classic last week - a new sustainability team and that their water optimization technology is on track. I spoke with Terry Stone who is heading the new sustainability team as well as Tracy Mader, Project Marketing Head who is working with the team developing the water optimization technologies.
I asked Stone to tell me what the mission of the new sustainability team was and he explained, “Our focus is helping growers produce more from less and to realize where they’re at in terms of not just how much they are producing but now much energy, water, soil loss and other impacts they are having from production.”
There is a lot of talk now about how the world will need to feed nine billion people in the next 30 years so I asked Stone how sustainability and world food production go hand in hand. “Farmers are the original stewards of the land and when you think about land, you have to think about soil and the soil is the farmer’s bread and butter,” explained Stone. “They’ve been very careful about the health of their soil and the more healthy the soil, the more productive it will be.”
Water optimization also goes hand-in-hand with sustainability and Mader gave me an update on their technology that is close to market. “Our water optimization technology is on track and has made several technical milestones. We plan to introduce this technology in the 2011 planting season for growers in the plains and the Western cornbelt of the United States.”
Nebraska and California are the two most irrigated states and Syngenta did research in both of these states as well as other regions. However, they are developing the technology to both work during drought conditions and during optimal conditions.
“We are really committed to two guiding principals,” said Mader. “Number one to help the plant maximize its yield based on the available water and number two, when growing conditions are ideal, that the technology doesn’t offer any yield penalty. And our initial hybrids will meet both of these criteria.”
Listen below to my back-to-back interviews with Terry Stone and Tracy Mader.
The American Soybean Association (ASA) is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year and has a lot to celebrate. Last year, the organization received more than $12.8 million in export funding from the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service for the promotion of U.S. soybeans and soybean products. ASA President Rob Joslin noted in the organization’s press conference during Commodity Classic that this was the largest of that type of grant ever given to one organization. ASA’s committee, Rural Initiative Soy and Human Health, also received a historic grant of $26 million for the promotion and infrastructure of soy in Afghanistan.
However, grant dollars were not the only success for 2009. Joslin highlighted some of the policy work his organization is undergoing in the beltway that affects soybean farmers in terms of both biofuels development and the farm bill.
“ASA led efforts to correct a flawed proposal by the EPA. This proposal would have disqualified soy as a feedstock from the mandated Renewable Fuels Standard,” said Joslin. He continued by saying that ASA believes this was not the intent of Congress and with their efforts, among others, the new rule by the EPA allows for the continuation of soy as a feedstock for biodiesel.
Biodiesel has also been hit with the lack of extension for the Biodiesel Tax Incentive. Joslin said that to date, 23,000 workers across the country are idled and the longer the biodiesel plants don’t produce biodiesel, the harder it will be for the plants to begin running again once the incentive is passed; yet, ASA is confident the incentive will pass.
But the lack of the biodiesel tax credit also affects farmers. Joslin said that it costs farmers 25 cents per bushel by not having biodiesel production. Of the 3.3 billion bushels harvest in ‘09, this will costs farmers $825 million in income.
Joslin, on behalf of ASA, expressed continued hopefulness for 2010 for soybean farmers across the country and reiterated that they will continue to work on their behalf both here in the states and abroad.
You can listen to the highlights of the ASA press conference below.
Commodity Classic took place in Anaheim, CA. You'll find all of Chuck, Cindy and Joanna's photos here.
Happy Ag Week
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
In this week's program I interview Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is Chair of the Agriculture Council of America, the group coordinating National Ag Day. Learn more about their activities, especially this week in Washington, DC.
There’s a new sheriff in town. Sheriff Barry Nelson, John Deere. He wants you to love his Chip Foose 4020 and that’s an order son.
The mild mannered public relations coordinator by day job, turned into one mean enforcement machine at Commodity Classic. He was guarding the Chip Foose designed 4020 model tractor along with sidekick, Deputy Kelly Schwalbe (left). They made sure no one took a peek under the veil over this promotional machine. I can tell you I wasn’t about to try!
and 
We already met first place winners 
Taking a team approach to problem solving often saves both time and money and that has been the goal of the 
During the Commodity Classic I talked with NCSRP executive director David Wright, seen here with 
CVT stands for Continuously Variable Transmission and 
His wife calls him a “PMG” – Professional Meeting Goer – because Alan Kemper has been serving on the boards of state and national agricultural organizations for over two decades now. 
The 
There is a rare treasure nestled in the heart of the Ozarks in Southern Missouri – a college that offers students a degree in hard work. 
The college offers 48 different degrees, including culinary arts, hotel and restaurant management, agribusiness, animal science, and ag education. There are about 125 students majoring in some area of agriculture there, but the school offers amazing hands-on experience for them, including hog, dairy and beef operations, a meat processing facility and a feed mill. They also have a beautiful center that is open to the public which features fine dining, historic lodging, meeting rooms, and more. During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Sarah Palin chose to visit the college as one of her stops in Missouri. 
International marketing was the focus of a press conference held by the 
The next person to speak was Jim Call, USB International Marketing Chair and a soybean farmer from Madison, MN.
Last to address the press conference was Ike Boudreaux, USSEC Chairman and a soybean farmer from Lebeau, LA.
Being a brick artist doesn’t sound like a high pressure job but when you’ve got to finish your LEGO creation by the close of the Commodity Classic trade show it can get a little tense. 
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
