I talked with Rick at the Farm Progress Show in the GROWMARK tent, since Rick is also Vice Chairman of GROWMARK, and we talked about the Cultivating Master Farmers program that GROWMARK helps to sponsor in Illinois. “In the Cultivating Master Farmers program, one of the Master Farmers who’ve been around for a while spend some time with young, up and coming farmer couples who are just getting started in their careers,” Rick explains.

The two year mentoring program pairs up young farmers with Master Farmers. “Part of what we try to do in that program is to allow them to ask the questions that are on their minds,” Rick says. That includes topics like technology, record keeping, marketing, estate planning and much more.

The Cultivating Master Farmers program is coordinated by Prairie Farmer magazine in Illinois. Young farmers have the opportunity to apply for the program in odd years, so the Class of 2013 is already started up, but those who will still be 35 or younger by the end of 2012 will have a chance to apply for the next class.

Listen to or download my interview with Rick here. GROWMARK Vice Chairman Rick Nelson

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

At the top of the list is approval of biotech traits to help increase production to meet growing world demand. “When biotech traits were first introduced about 20 years ago, it took 18 months to get through the approval system here in the U.S. Now it takes four years,” Steve says. ASA and the National Corn Growers Association held a joint conference with other stakeholders the week after FPS to discuss actions the industry could take toward getting timely regulatory clearances for biotech traits and avoid trade disruptions.

Listen to or download my interview with Steve here. Steve Wellman at FPS 2011

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

The estimate for corn production this year is now 12.5 billion bushels, down 3 percent from the August forecast but still more than last year and would still be the third largest corn crop in history. Yields are expected to average just over 148 bushels/acre, however, the lowest in six years. Meanwhile, soybean production is forecast at 3.09 billion bushels, up 1 percent from August with yields expected to average 41.8 bushels per acre, up 0.4 bushel from last month. That’s still less than last year, but at least the crop is not suffering as much as corn from the heat.

World Soybean Yield Champion and Rock Star Kip Cullers describes his corn crop in southwest Missouri this year as “horrible at best.” His first 4,000 acres averaged just 23 bushels an acre.

However, Kip says his soybeans actually look pretty good. “Soybeans are a lot more forgiving. They bloom 75 days so basically you got 75 days to mess up and 75 days to redeem yourself.” Kip was on stage at the Pioneer tent at Farm Progress Show talking about his grand champion soybean yield strategies.

Listen to or download my interview with Kip here. Kip Cullers at FPS 2011

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Shannon says the company manufactures all sorts of structural shapes like this building for their shared exhibit with Trellis Growing Systems. The focus at the Farm Progress Show was the ag market of course. He says the primary problem in the market is corrosion but the fiberglass material they use is impervious to it. Basically their products last a lifetime. And almost everything they produce is custom designed. This includes fertilizer storage, hog barns, poultry houses and more.

You can listen to my interview with Shannon here: Interview with Shannon Foor

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

You can listen to my interview with Jeff here: Interview with Jeff Whetstine

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

In addition to the app, producers will also be able to manage all scouting reports and gain access to aggregated pest data through their own private, secure website.

ScoutPro Interview

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

“The focus is really local,” says Curt Clausen, Pioneer agronomy sciences director. “It’s really about local crop management, innovation and knowledge.”

Pioneer is doubling the number of ATMs currently in the field to over 40 in the next three years. “This is the next level of service to our customers,” Curt said during the Pioneer press conference at FPS.

Listen to Curt’s press comments, introduced by Pioneer’s Jerry Harrington, here. Curt Clausen of Pioneer

One of the real live Pioneer ATMs out in the field is Jake Vossenkemper from the Decatur area, who says growers have hundreds of agronomy questions that they want answered. “They want to do the best job they can just like everyone else and our job is to step in and help them answer those questions,” Jake says.

Jake says Pioneer has been performing some specific experiments in certain regions, like an intensive soybean management experiment to look at factors that have been shown to consistently increase soybean yields. “Some of those factors include seed treatments, foliar applied pesticides and fungicides, as well as planting date,” he said.

Listen to Jake’s comments here. Pioneer ATM Jake Vossenkemper

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Here’s Susie Decker, Lisa Rigoni, Vicki Henrickson & Patty Kisner having fun in the shade.

I couldn’t make it, grrr! But I wanted to. Maybe in 2013?

To see who else had fun with Heartland NAMA you can see photos here.

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

The Shipman Elevator Team, sponsored by BASF, took first place in District 6 last year and also won the Novel Practices Award in the challenge funded by the Illinois soybean checkoff. Team member Dwayne Milner, pictured here with his BASF rep Kaleb Hellwig, says they are competing again this year to build on what they learned last season. “As a whole, we learned that we’ve got to manage soybeans, we’ve got to plant them early and we’ve got to manage more like corn,” Dwayne told me.

Teams of growers, working together in nine districts across Illinois, farm side-by-side plots using traditional techniques on one and innovative methods on the other. The common goals for all Challenge participants are to maximize soybean yields while producing valuable data that will benefit researchers and growers alike. The Shipman team averaged 85.3 bu/ac of the top five growers, which was the highest of all the district averages last year. “Everybody did a lot of different approaches, but our most common were seed treatments, planting early, fertility management, used Headline as our fungicide, used an insecticide on it and residual herbicides,” Dwayne says.

Listen to or download my interview with Dwayne here. Dwayne Milner Interview

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Tier 4A engines with the addition of five new CR Series Twin Rotor® combines and three new CX8000 Series Super Conventional combines equipped with ECOBlue™ Selective Catalytic Reduction engine technology.

Listen to their presentations in the video:

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

In addition to the American Ethanol NASCAR Sprint Series car at the Growth Energy exhibit, over at the Illinois Corn Growers exhibit, the Illinois Family Farmers NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Kenny Wallace was signing autographs and doing interviews.

Kenny said he was “blown away” by the Farm Progress Show. “This is like our Daytona 500! I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said in an interview with Chuck.

Kenny visited with lots of farmers during the three day show who made him feel very happy to be the Family Farmer American Ethanol spokesperson. “Farmers make me feel good,” he said. “They say thank you so much for putting up for us and that really humbles me,” he added.

Listen to Kenny’s interview here. NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace

The next big races for Wallace and all of NASCAR are coming up Chicagoland on September 16-18. Speedway president Scott Paddock says that triple header NASCAR weekend is a the first race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – the first of ten ‘playoff’ style NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in pursuit of the 2011 championship. “NASCAR was looking for a major media market and a big platform to kick off their playoffs and they chose Chicagoland and we’re honored to have that designation,” he said.

Scott says Illinois’ corn farmers will have a major presence at the Chicagoland event. “They’re going to have some combines and harvesters out there,” he said. “We’ll have over 100,000 fans out there that weekend so it’s a great way to get their message out about the important role farmers play in society.”

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Scott here. Chicagoland Raceway president Scott Paddock

The Fast Five 225 truck series will kick off the weekend on Friday, September 16. The Dollar General 300 Nationwide series, Kenny’s race, will be Saturday, Sept. 17 and the three day weekend will conclude on Sunday, Sept. 18 with the GEICO 400 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

You’ll notice that the picture also includes a New Holland Boomer. I can’t forget to mention the New Holland Boomer 555 Contest we’ve been helping promote. New Holland is giving away a five year lease on a new Boomer 30 with front end loader to eight regional winners. Here’s where you can enter. While at the Farm Progress Show I spoke with Abe Hughes, New Holland Agriculture Sales & Marketing Vice President about the contest.

Listen in to my conversation with Abe about the Boomer 555 Contest: Interview with Abe Hughes

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

“I been over to the New Holland booth,” Richard said during a press availability with Growth Energy and the National Corn Growers Association. “That’s what we run on our farm, our vineyards. They have special tractors and it really works out great.”

Listen to Richard sing the praises of blue tractors in this sound bite, courtesy of Dave Russell, Brownfield Ag News (Thanks, Dave!)
Richard Childress likes New Holland

Richard says he has had a cattle operation since the 1980s and is growing some soybeans this year in addition to his vineyard. “I got about 100 acres of grapes at home that we make some good North Carolina wine out of,” he told me.

The agriculture connection is what made Richard want to be a part of the American Ethanol NASCAR partnership when the series started using a 15% ethanol blend this year. Richard says it has been great. “I’m a huge supporter of everything we do in America, from our farmers to our military,” he said. “This country has to quit depending on so much foreign energy and resources. We gotta do better.”

He says that NASCAR has had no problems making the transition to 15% ethanol fuel and next year they will go to fuel injection. “The fuel injection and the American Ethanol is really going to work out great,” Richard says.

Listen to or download my interview with Richard here. Richard Childress and American Ethanol

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Start-up funding for the program is being provided by the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, the Illinois Soybean Association and IFCA fertilizer manufacturer members Agrium, CF Industries, Koch Fertilizer, The Mosaic Company and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan.

You can listen to or download the press conference here: Illinois KIC Press Conference

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

The guys were out at the show to find and talk with former FFA members. They didn’t have to go far to look! In the photo they’re interviewing one former member who was attending the show. The FFA convention was a topic of discussion so I got a look ahead from them. It’s going to be October 19-22. There’s an expanded area in the Indianapolis Convention Center so the National FFA Expo will be bigger than ever. Blake Shelton will be performing too. DeLoss says that this year there will be a Native American Heritage Celebration so they’ll be highlighting contributions from native Americans to FFA. They also previewed the new FFA Ag Career Network that is coming soon.

You can listen to my interview with DeLoss and Geoffrey here: Update From FFA

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

I talked with Katie about how things were going with this idea. Katie says they share a lot of information via their Facebook page and they wanted to get the word out to people and ask them to like their page. So how this works is, you go to their page, like them and then fill out a short survey telling a little about yourself so they know who they’re talking to and you can get one of the t-shirts you can see in the photo. Katie says the goal is 1,000 followers by the end of the year. I think we can help them beat that don’t you? Like Ag Leader Technology here.

You can listen to my interview with Katie here: Interview with Katie Beeler

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

To find out how the show was going I caught up with Farm Progress Show manager, Matt Jungemann. Matt says that Tuesday was a record attendance and speculated that Wednesday was too. We chatted about one of the big sponsors of the show (and AgWired), GROWMARK. GROWMARK has been one of the foundation partners since the beginning of the dedicated Decatur show site. They support the host farmers in a number of ways that include the alfalfa in the parking lots, seed/fertilizer/inputs for demonstration fields and demo plots. As Matt points out, there is a lot of work on planning things like alfalfa field rotations.

You can listen to my interview with Matt here: Interview with Matt Jungemann

Cindy and I did a little summary this morning to figure out just what we’ve done regarding Farm Progress Show this year. So here’s what we came up with: 889 total photos, 46 interviews/press conferences, 4 videos, 19 posts on AgWired so far and 7 on Precision Pays. That doesn’t count content produced for other client sites. We’ve got lots more to come!

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

I talked with both of them about challenges in Washington, ethanol policies, and the ability of corn growers to meet all demands even in the toughest weather years.

Bob is frustrated with the climate in Washington and the inability of Congress to get anything done, but he is always amazed by the ability of the nation’s farmers to do their job. “The fact of the matter is, the American farmer is the most productive and efficient in the world,” Bob says. “We will get through this and there will be enough supply to meet the needs for grain that exist.”

Listen to or download my interview with Bob here. RFA CEO Bob Dinneen

Garry says he expects his corn crop this year to be just about average and he notes that the latest USDA forecast still expects the corn crop to be the third largest in history. “Can you imagine what it would be like if we had 1980 hybrids during this type of a weather situation? We probably would be looking at a disaster,” Garry said. “That’s the importance of this show. We’re here looking at the technology in seed, machinery, guidance systems … we have the tools to do it but Mother Nature could help out a little better!”

Listen to or download my interview with Garry here. NCGA 1st VP Garry Niemeyer

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

“We take care of about 225 acres that we use for combine and tillage tune up and then Tuesday and Wednesday during the shows we have demos out there,” David told me.

They partner with GROWMARK FS on the field plots. “They keep an eye on it all year, whether it’s crop scouting, fungicide treatments, genetics,” David said. “They take the worry out of our hands, we’re doing the labor but they’re doing all the stuff to make sure it’s the best crop it can be.”

It has been a challenging year for the corn crop. “We didn’t plant until maybe the 10th, then it got flooded out and then we didn’t have another drop of rain after that,” he said. “All things considered, to still have 110-115 bushels yields, that’s pretty good.”

Listen to or download my interview with David here. FPS Field Demo Host Farmer David Brix

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

By the way, Pioneer and ADM made a big announcement this week about the 2012 marketing of Plenish soybeans that growers will be very interested in.

Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), announced that ADM will contract for PlenishTM high oleic soybeans in 2012 with the intention of marketing the high oleic soybean oil for use by the food industry in 2013.

ADM is inviting soybean growers in the Frankfort, Ind., area to contract with ADM to produce PlenishTM high oleic soybean for the 2012 growing season. Farmers will receive a processor paid incentive for producing and delivering these soybeans, with an additional stewardship incentive available for this growing season.

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Cindy and I are already collecting more interviews and will be traveling back to ZimmComm World Headquarters this afternoon. But that doesn’t mean our coverage ends. We’ve got an off the road week next week and you can bet we’ll have a lot more stories from this year’s show.

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) First Vice President Garry Niemeyer brought his own U.S. Representative Bobby Schilling (R-IL) in for a press conference on Tuesday to share some of perspectives as a freshman congressman and new member of the House Agriculture Committee. “I think as most people are aware, it’s been quite a storm in Washington DC the last seven months,” Schilling said. “Coming out of the business sector right into Congress, it’s been quite frustrating for me to see what’s happening in our nation’s capitol.”

As far as the Farm Bill is concerned, Schilling says the “super committee” on reducing the deficit may make decisions that will impact farm programs so the agriculture committee needs to make recommendations on how spending could be cut. “Because if we don’t they will just go after dollar amounts without looking at where appropriate cuts could be made,” he said.

Listen to some of Congressman Schilling’s comments during the press conference here. Cong. Bobby Schilling

Congressman Tim Johnson (R-IL), who also serves on the House Agriculture Committee, came by the Farm Progress Show on Wednesday to visit with leadership of the Illinois corn and soybean growers associations. He is pictured here(striped shirt) with Illinois Soybean Association (ASA) treasurer Doug Winter, Illinois Corn Growers president Jim Reed and ISA president Matt Hughes.

Johnson says he is optimistic that they can come up with a Farm Bill that is workable, meets budget constraints and still has a safety net for farmers. “And we need to make sure the House Agriculture Committee and people who know American agriculture are the people framing policy,” Johnson said.

Johnson also shares the concerns that farmers in the state have about government regulations making it more difficult to farm. “USDA, USDOT and most particularly EPA tying our left hand is a real burden,” he said. “This administration more than any other administration in history has done more to damage the ability of farmers to make a living.”

Meghan Grebner of Brownfield Ag News and I interviewed Cong. Johnson together. Cong. Tim Johnson

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Well we have done some interviews, shot some video and collected lots of photos today. We took off a little early to clean up, get some blogger fuel and now we’re working on all this stuff. It’s amazing how many interviews you can get in a day!

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Well today the Farm Progress Show officially honored Gene for his years of hard work, dedication and easy disposition no matter what challenge is presented. On stage in the media tent to present him with a plaque are (L-R) FPS Show Manager Matt Jungmann, Jeff Lapin, President, Farm Progress Companies and Don Tourte, Farm Progress director of sales and national events. After receiving his plaque Gene took the microphone to make a few remarks I think you’ll enjoy.

Here’s Gene’s comments after receiving his recognition: Gene Hemphill Remarks

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Field demos are in full swing so if you’d like to see some new technology in action Willie says this is a great place to do it.

You can listen to my interview with Willie here. Interview with Willie Vogt

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Basically, Trellis approached Bedford for a product material to make their unique growing system that was designed for midwest growers. Bedford’s reinforced plastics product is custom made and designed to resist corrosion and aging, making it ideal for blackberry growing. Trellis has sold systems throughout the country including some of the largest growers in the industry. In the midwest they’ve sold systems into Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky and other states.

Besides selling their systems Trellis provides a full meal deal that includes consulting and advice, setup, product selection and even marketing. They’ve also partnered with Bedford on several farms of their own! What better way to talk farming to a farmer than being one yourself?

You can listen to my interview with Richard and Shannon here. Interview with Bedford/Trellis

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

The press conference focused on several new product areas like:

. . . Tier 4A engines with the addition of five new CR Series Twin Rotor® combines and three new CX8000 Series Super Conventional combines equipped with ECOBlue™ Selective Catalytic Reduction engine technology.

. . . anniversary edition of New Holland’s FR9000 Series self-propelled forage harvesters.

And much more.

Listen to or download the full press conference here. New Holland Press Conference

Here’s video of Abe’s comments at the press conference.

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

I don’t know what the attendance was yesterday but I’ve overheard folks here in the media tent speculating that it may have been a record. I don’t know about that but it sure seemed like we had a big crowd out here all day.

Last night we got our photo album up to date. So take a look and see what you’re missing.

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

“For $145, they’re going to get a three year membership,” says ISA chairman Matt Hughes of Shirley, Illinois. “They also get a free toy semi, $100 worth of free biodiesel and 100 units of free Optimize seed, which is valued about $400 – so you’re making money on that deal.”

But, as they say on the infomercials, wait there’s more. “The legislative work we’re going to do with that (your membership) is gonna bring a lot more money back to your farm than any membership dollars going out,” Matt said. “It’s not about the money to be a member, it’s about standing up and being counted.”

Kind of like this little piggie outside the Illinois Soybean exhibit is standing up to be noticed for the important market livestock represents for the soybean industry! Stop by the IL Soy tent at FPS 11 and find out more.

Listen to or download my interview with Matt here. IL Soy Chairman Matt Hughes

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album