Nutrient Management with Late Planting

fieldwaterPlanting progress continues to be slowed by wet and cold weather in most of the major corn producing states.

According to USDA
, just 5% of the U.S. corn crop was planted as of Sunday, only a percentage point of difference compared to the previous week. Last year at this time, nearly half the crop was in the ground and normally at least 30% should be planted by now. All 18 major corn producing states are behind the five year average and five have nothing in the ground yet. Another half dozen have less than 3-4% planted.

grandinJohn Grandin, Senior Field Sales Agronomist at GROWMARK, Inc. says that while planting is definitely running behind normal in the Corn Belt, it’s nothing to worry about just yet.

“We’re not behind the eight ball as far as we’ve missed out on all the growing degree days,” said Grandin, who adds that field work is progressing in his area of Iowa.

Grandin stresses the importance of sticking with the original plan when it comes to nutrient management. “If the original plan calls for spring-applied anhydrous ammonia, then stick with spring-applied anhydrous ammonia,” he said.

However, Grandin points out the possibility of burning corn roots or even killing the seedling if application is followed too quickly by planting. “We can manage that by putting the anhydrous ammonia on at an angle to the direction of row planting,” he said. That will help decrease the possibility of free ammonia being trapped in the knife track as a result of wetter soils. “We don’t want to be planting directly on top of the anhydrous knife track for any length of row.”

Listen to this interview with Grandin to find out more: GROWMARK agronomist John Grandin

Mighty Mississippi Rolling Along

bargesAt the beginning of this year, closing the Mississippi River to barge traffic as a result of low water levels was a very real possibility, but that crisis has been averted thanks to some Army Corps of Engineers work.

“There was an emergency move by the Army Corps of Engineers to blast rocks out of the river floor at Thebes and Grant Tower, Illinois,” said Tracy Mack, director of bulk and packaged goods logistics for GROWMARK. “That added about two feet to the navigable channel between Memphis and St. Louis.”

gmk-mackThat project was complete by the beginning of February, sooner than expected, and some timely rains also helped. “Because of the recent rains and the forecast rain right now, we’re not in imminent danger of closure,” Tracy said. “It’s looking that we have enough water to get us through the month of March at least if drought continues.”

It was a different situation when Tracy was a guest on the AgFanatics podcast in early January so he is glad it has improved.

Listen to my interview with Tracy here: GROWMARK's Tracy Mack

Koch Agronomic Services Has Scientific Integrity

Greb Schwab AG CONNECT ExpoKoch Agronomic Services is on display here at AG CONNECT Expo. I visited with Greg Schwab, Director of Agronomy (seen on AgriTalk), to learn what he’s talking to farmer attendees about.

Greg says the company has grown tremendously in the last two years with multiple acquisitions to add to their product lineup. One of the key issues he’s talking to attendees about is nitrogen management. He’s also talking about the company commitment to “scientific integrity.” He says that they’ve been working with university researchers around the country to make sure the products they develop bring real value to producers that will help their bottom line.

You can listen to my interview with Greg here: Interview with Greg Schwab

2013 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

GROWMARK Excited About N-Watch

Ag journalists on the GROWMARK media tour in Iowa last month had the chance to learn about N-Watch, which started this year as a small scale, pilot program by GROWMARK in partnership with FS Member Cooperatives.

The objectives of the program are to quantify the form of available, soil-applied nitrogen (N), where it is located, and what happens to the concentration of available N over time in the upper 0-12 and 12-24 inch profiles of the soil.

“We go out after harvest and take an inventory of plant available nitrogen,” explained GROWMARK Agronomy Services Manager Dr. Howard Brown. “Once we have that determination, we take composite samples after that every 2-4 weeks, track the nitrogen until it freezes, then after it thaws in the spring we’ll continue to pull the samples to see if the residual nitrogen is still there.”

Brown says it’s not an exact science, “but it’s a move in the right direction, this is what we need to be doing.” GROWMARK has over 45 sites in Illinois now and they are now moving in to new sites in Iowa, where we heard about the program last week during a GROWMARK media tour.

GROWMARK is so excited about the N-Watch concept that they want it to spread quickly. “We came up with the phrase (N-Watch) but we gave the license to the Illinois Council for Best Management Practices so that it can be utilized in the Midwest,” said Howard. “It would be great if everybody used N-Watch.”

Howard held a little impromptu news conference at the Machinery Shed in Des Moines to tell us all about N-Watch. Listen to Howard’s overview of N-Watch here and watch him in the video below: Dr. Howard Brown, GROWMARK

New GROWMARK Dry Terminal in Iowa

The first loads of fertilizer came in this week to test the new GROWMARK dry terminal in Stuart, Iowa but earlier this month I joined some of my fellow ag reporters in climbing to the top of the 15,500 ton facility. Notice it was all females – left to right, Rita Maloney of Illinois RFD Radio; Deanna Thomas of WMBD in Peoria; and Carrie Muehling of WJBC in Bloomington – with me. The guys on the trip declined to make the climb.

The facility will handle granular urea, monoammonium phosphate and white potash. It has capacity for 18 railcars with six 10 ton hoppers, five micro hoppers and a blending capacity of 300 tons per hour.

In the video below, GROWMARK Plant Food Operations Manager Brian Hundman provides a behind-the-scenes look at the new facility in its nearly complete stage. You can also check out photos from the media tour last week in the photo album and hear more about it in this month’s Precision Pays podcast, sponsored by Ag Leader Technology.

GROWMARK Iowa Media Tour Photos

Real Farms Show Real Results on Tour

One of the nicest things about trips such as the Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour is the chance to see real farms with real crops growing under real conditions. Chuck stopped at Marcus Maier’s farm in Illinois where they were showing split application of nitrogen on corn. Maier explained they’re trying to display how varying rates of nitrogen in particular areas and depths across a field can be effective and how it fits into the overall conservation theme.

“We’ve always done no-till beans and minimal-till for corn, so hopefully, this is just showing us some ways to fall apply and spring apply some nitrogen to take advantage of the product itself,” Maier said. He added this also cuts down on the amount of nitrogen that might leach into groundwater, showing good conservation practices in that sense.

Maier said this is the first year they are using AGROTAIN‘s SuperU product to control nitrogen loss. He’s looking forward to the results, especially since he’s heard from others that SuperU has increased yields by 20-30 bushels an acre.

Listen to more of Chuck’s interview with Marcus here: Interview with Marcus Maier

2012 Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by AGROTAIN

AGROTAIN SuperU to the Rescue

The extreme dry weather in the midwest was very evident at this week’s Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour. Out in the corn fields we had a nice breeze, but that breeze was blowing a lot of dust! On our first stop, Martin Case, AGROTAIN, was a presenter. This is the second year of this tour and we’ve gone from one weather extreme to the other. As Martin puts it, “We’ve got the tale of two years,” since last year’s weather was abnormally wet and this year is abnormally dry. Maybe comparing nitrogen use data for both those years will yield an average?

Martin says that AGROTAIN is trying to evaluate nitrogen stabilizer strategies in this project which can also be used in other areas of Illinois and beyond. It’s all about improving nitrogen use efficiency to not only increase the return on investment to the farmer but also to the environment. He says that last year they saw an extreme advantage to using their SuperU technology. Data for this year is not available yet. Listen to Martin explain more about the two technologies contained within SuperU in my interview with him: Interview with Martin Case

2012 Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by AGROTAIN

Total Grain and Fertilizer on Track

Total Grain Marketing (TGM) handled 70 million bushels of grain at its 31 locations in Illinois last year and this year is likely to be even more.

During the recent GROWMARK media tour, we visited TGM and South Central FS in Casey (that’s pronounced Cay-zee) and learned about that facility in particular which was created when the two entities joined in 2010 as part of the GROWMARK and FS member companies partnership that was started in 2006.

“We have an 8 million bushel elevator, it is on the CSX railroad, we are a 90 car unit train express load shipper, and handle about 16 million bushels of grain a year,” South Central FS CEO Randy Handel said. That express loading process can rival a pit stop in the Indy Car Series. “We have 15 hours from when the train comes to load it, grade it and put the train back together and have it ready for the CSX to take,” he says, noting that they can load 1,000 bushels a minute – or 90 cars in six hours or less.

Randy says the venture between South Central and TGM has been very successful. “It’s been a win-win for our local grain producer in that it has helped enhance their margin, it’s been profitable for us as a company, but we’re a local cooperative so in turn it’s profitable for our owners and members,” he said. Most of the grain goes to the southeast to the poultry market and ADM and Bungee on the bean market.

We also got to visit the brand new GROWMARK-owned fertilizer facility on the same site. “It is a 25,000 ton dry fertilizer blend facility and a 10,000 ton solution facility and this is the first spring we are using it,” Randy said. The fertilizer facility also benefits from being right on the rail line. “It’s a very good location being on the CSX track and it’s good sharing the resources with our grain elevator and it’s a very strategic location.”

Listen to my interview with Randy Handel here: South Central FS CEO Randy Handel

See more photos from the TGM visit here: GROWMARK 2012 Media Day

Stabilized Nitrogen For Faster Plant Start

The Director for Agronomy for Koch Agronomic Services, Greg Schwab, visited with me in the media room at Commodity Classic. Greg runs the company research program. He says they have twenty five land grant universities working on their products. He coordinates that effort.

Since it’s planting season I asked him what advice he has for growers. Greg says that with farmers managing larger amounts of land these days it is becoming increasingly important to get in the field to plant quickly and that the planting date means a lot in terms of final yield. He points to their AGROTAIN nitrogen stabilizer which allows a farmer to use a broadcast application of urea instead of a more traditional incorporated or injected application. The AGROTAIN treated urea prevents volatilization loss that would normally occur with surface applied urea. This means a faster start for plants. He says growers are also finding a split application helpful.

Listen to my interview with Greg here: Interview with Greg Schwab

2012 Commodity Classic Photo Album

Coverage of the 2012 Commodity Classic Show is sponsored by BASF and New Holland

GROWMARK Building Fertilizer Storage Facility in Iowa

GROWMARK is building a dry fertilizer storage facility at Stuart, Iowa that will have the capacity to hold 15,000 tons and will complement the acquisition of CF terminals made by GROWMARK in 2011.

Construction will begin in spring 2012 and completion is expected in fall 2012. The facility will have rail receiving capability from the Iowa Interstate Rail System which is looking forward to this new venture. “Our connections with all Class One rail carriers at multiple locations, along with access to the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, will help provide an enhanced alternative for transportation to this region,” said Carrie Evans, Iowa Interstate Railroad vice president of sales and marketing.

Local retailer AGRILAND FS, Inc. will conduct the day-to-day operational activities at the facility. “The location of the Stuart facility is a good fit for AGRILAND FS, and will save the cost of replacing a dry fertilizer building in Winterset,” added John Knobloch, AGRILAND FS general manager.

AGRILAND FS, Inc. is an agricultural based cooperative, headquartered in Winterset, Iowa. It provides ag-related inputs including feed, seed, plant food, crop protection, fuel, lubricants, and grain marketing services to farmers and rural residents in 38 southern Iowa counties.

AGROTAIN’s Tim Healey Wears Many Hats on CTIC Tour

Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) past chairman Tim Healey of AGROTAIN wore many hats during last week’s 2011 Conservation In Action Tour, including bus monitor, sponsor, interviewee and interviewer.

“We’ve been doing this for five years now and each year the conservation tour gets better,” Tim told me at the end of the tour in northwest Ohio. “We hear from farmers who are really dedicated to instituting conservation practices to make sure that the majority of nutrients they apply in the field stay in the field.”

Listen to my interview with Tim here: Tim Healey of AGROTAIN on CTIC Tour

The tour had a record number of participants this year, over 200, and many of them were farmers who had the chance to learn about conservation practices from other farmers. During time on the bus, Tim did an interview with one of the farmer participants, Gerald Heck of Monroe, Michigan.

Tim asked Gerry why he decided to come on the tour. “Couple of reasons,” Gerry answered. “The opportunity to gain more knowledge about conservation tillage and the six CCUs also were a nice incentive since I’m a CCA.” Gerry says he does use continuous no-till in some fields. “Started no-tilling back the late 80s, with soybeans, then wheat and finally corn, as the equipment became available,” he said. “We moved to no-till to save on fuel and wear and tear on our iron.”

Listen to Tim’s interview with Gerry here: Tim and Gerald Heck

CTIC 2011 Conservation in Action Tour Photos

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by AGROTAIN

Improving Soil & Water Conservation

CTIC TourThe Ag Resource Coordinator for the Livingston County, IL Soil & Water Conservation District is Terry Bachtold. He was one of the coordinators for the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project field day. He says this project is all about water quality and what farm management practices will help improve it. A good percentage of farms in the watershed have signed up, in fact, I believe it’s about half of them!

Terry says these farmers are using different techniques to apply nutrients and conducting much more testing so they can fine tune how and when and where they make applications, including moving to more summer time application. They’re hoping to see results within three years with more farm participation and adoption of these new practices within a couple years after that.

You can listen to my interview with Terry here: Interview with Terry Bachtold

CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photos

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by

Illinois EPA Working With Farmers In Indian Creek Watershed

CTIC TourThe Conservation Technology Information Center’s Indian Creek Watershed Project is funded in part by the Illinois EPA. Representing the IL EPA during last week’s field tour was Barb Lieberoff, Environmental Protection Specialist. I spoke with her during lunch.

Barb says the Federal 319 Program, part of the Clean Water Act, is what where the program funding comes from. She says the IL EPA worked collaboratively with the CTIC to choose a watershed in which they could create some BMP’s for improving water quality. She says a TDML is being considered for the watershed. The Indian Creek Watershed was considered a good fit for the project. By being proactive early in the process she says that all the stakeholders involved are helping themselves in the long run.

You can listen to my interview with Barb here: Interview with Barb Lieberoff

CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photos

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by

Harms Farm Participating In CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project

CTIC TourMy first stop on the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project field tour was Harms Farm. Our host was Kevin Harms (left) pictured pointing to a chart being held by Harold Reetz. Kevin’s farm is in southern Livingston County, Illinois. He’s one of the farmers that has volunteered to participate in this project.

Kevin says they’re trying several different practices to try to more efficiently use nutrients, especially nitrogen. These practices include cover crops, side dressing, split application and using “environmentally smart” nitrogen. He hopes to find out how to more efficiently manage nutrients while improving water quality for the area. The multi-year project will allow them to do testing under different weather and field conditions. He says the corn crop in his area is in great shape while soybeans got off to a late start but are also looking good.

You can listen to my interview with Kevin here: Interview with Kevin Harms

CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photos

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by

AGROTAIN Working On Indian Creek Watershed

Martin Case AGROTAINField days and tours are heating up this summer along with the weather. During the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project field tour one of our stops put us right out in the corn, looking at the impact of various levels of nitrogen application. Martin Case, AGROTAIN, our sponsor for tour coverage, conducted one of the presentations. He’s seen here answering questions after his presentation. AGROTAIN is one of the sponsors of the tour as well.

Martin gave us an overview of AGROTAIN and the company’s products. He was showing initial results from a nitrogen use efficiency study. This type of study can take several years to obtain all the results needed. He believes that nitrogen management is critical not only for the environment but also for the financial sustainability of the farmer. The study going on here on this farm is intended to show how using new technology like that provided by AGROTAIN can achieve these goals. You can watch Martin’s presentation here:

CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photos

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by

Precision Conservation Technology

We couldn’t have had better weather for a farm tour than today for the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Day. Several bus loads of participants visited Livingston County, IL area farms to see and hear how they are implementing best management practices for things like nutrient management.

One of the people working on the project with CTIC and a presenter today is Harold Reetz. I visite with Harold prior to the start of today’s activities. I’ll see him again next week in Sprinfield, IL for the InfoAg Conference. Since that’s all about precision agriculture and since that is an integral part of the BMP’s being implemented on the tour stops here we decided to call it “precision conservation.”

Harold says the project purpose is to demonstrate different best management practices for nitrogen. It’s a relatively small watershed with mostly corn and soybean crops. So the goal is to come up with practices to improve nitrogen efficiency which will reduce the amount that will get into the ground water. Local farmers have volunteered in this first year of the project to implement suggested practices and it is their farms we visited. I’ll have interviews with each of them in coming days.

The project is receiving funding from a variety of sources that includes the Illinois EPA. It is really a proactive approach to voluntarily manage natural resources without the need to have new regulations. That sure seems like a potentially win win situation for all parties.

You can listen to my interview with Harold here: Harold Reetz Interview

Post Update: I’ve updated the link to my photo album below:

Here are some of my photos from today’s tour. I’ll have more after getting back to ZimmComm World Headquarters. The internet access here pretty well quit about half way through uploading. CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photos

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by

AGROTAIN Presents University Nitrogen Efficiency Research

AGROTAIN continues to line up the university research on the performance of their products that control nitrogen loss.

commodity classic agrotainAt the Commodity Classic earlier this month, plant science professors from the University of Kentucky and the University of Delaware presented some of their findings during a press conference. They were also available to talk with growers at the AGROTAIN booth and recorded a segment of the AGROTAIN educational series on RFD-TV that aired on March 7.

Dr. Greg Schwab, University of Kentucky, has been researching the performance of inhibitors in no-till corn under high loss conditions. “AGROTAIN under those high loss conditions performs just as well as the ammonium nitrate fertilizer,” he said. “This is important because a lot of our farmers historically have used ammonium nitrate but find it harder and harder to get it and it’s much higher priced.”

Dr. Greg Binford, University of Delaware, tells farmers to make sure the products they use are supported by data. “I think there’s clear data with AGROTAIN to show that it is definitely a urease inhibitor,” he said. “DCD which is a product in SuperU and AGROTAIN Plus, there’s definite data to show that it’s a nitrification inhibitor. So both are providing the mode of action that they claim they are.”

“What we’re really talking about is loss. Anytime that you have a producer putting urea fertilizer out, it’s subject to loss – upwards of 30%,” said John Hassell, AGROTAIN International’s Manager of Research and Agronomic Development. “Today, we’re seeing urea prices around $500 a ton and if you’re losing 30% of that, you’re losing $150 right off the top. So, it’s really important that we be able to provide a technology to protect urea fertilizers and that’s what AGROTAIN does.”

AGROTAIN also recently released some new data from California and Arizona that shows the effectiveness of AGROTAIN technology in controlling nitrogen (N) loss for higher yields in almonds, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, corn, cotton, lettuce, rice, tomatoes, and wheat.

Listen to comments from Schwab, Binford and Hassel here: AGROTAIN at Commodity Classic

AGROTAIN Hosts Corn Yield Expert at AGCONNECT

According to University of Illinois professor Dr. Fred Below, there are “Seven Wonders of the Corn Yield World,” and one of the most important is nitrogen.

Dr. Below developed the “Seven Wonders” as a tool to teach farmers the relative importance of management factors that can impact corn productivity, ranking the top seven factors that can positively impact corn yields. “In our quest to grow 300 bushels and to improve crop management, we need to know those management factors that have the biggest impact on yield and make sure we manage those correctly,” he told me during an interview at the AGROTAIN exhibit during AGCONNECT Expo.

Fred ranks weather and nitrogen as the top two corn yield world wonders. “These wonders interact with each other so that every single thing about nitrogen application and use by the plant is affected by weather,” he says. So, while farmers can’t control the weather, they can control nitrogen loss due to the weather. To that end, Dr. Below included SUPERU® (with AGROTAIN technology) as part of a high tech fertilizer package in his studies. “The AGROTAIN technology like SUPERU is designed to mitigate weather-induced nitrogen losses. This lets the plant respond to the nitrogen, rather than have it be lost,” he said. “So preventing nitrogen loss is number one on the list for achieving high yields.”

The other five “wonders” on Dr. Below’s list include: hybrid selection, previous crop, plant populations, tillage and chemicals.

Listen to my interview with Dr. Below here: Dr. Fred Below

2011 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

Bioponica – The New Wave of Food Production?

Who wants to grow food in a box? Maybe not a lot of you yet but you just might after reading this story.

David Epstein, D.O. a holistic osteopathic physician and Kenneth Lovell, P.E., a professional engineer have developed Bioponica, a food production system that turns food, yard and body waste into feed and then from feed to food. The system works by converting waste, that is more often than not sent to a landfill, into worm castings and worm teas that are used to fertilize soil-less hydroponic plant beds. Waste products used include grass clippings, table scraps, and other sources of carbon and nitrogen rich waste.

“It is unfortunate that we have relied on our municipalities to dispose of waste, whether that be urine, food or yard trimmings, “ said Epstein. “It is not practical or sustainable. When nutrients that come from the environment or from the food we eat are buried in landfills or else incinerated then we lose that valuable resource and it becomes a greenhouse gas that negatively impacts our climate and environment. The alternative is to recycle nutrients with the least amount of effort and cost.”

According to a company release, the system also hosts the growth of algae and duckweed, along with the microbes and aquatic animals that feed on the algae. All this, plus earthworms, become food for the fish. Yes, you read correctly. Bioponica is designed to use waste to feed fish in large-scale fish farms similar to the Farm in a Box aquaponic system.

So on top of the fish farm is a table, or garden, that is designed to grow micro-greens and wheatgrass along with your variety of edible and medicinal plants. In other words, you can grow your own salad. The fertilizer for your greens comes from the fish below, which convert the waste into plant feed. Continue reading

Conservation In Action Tour Wrap-up

Tim HealeyConservation Technology Information Center Chairman Tim Healey, AGROTAIN, gave us a preview of the Conservation in Action Tour. Now you get to hear his wrap-up following the CTIC board meeting.

Tim says the tour was a real success and I echo that. We learned a lot about what farmers are doing in this Chesapeake Bay area and especially in the area of conservation. These were not only old farms but ones using the newest technology. That made for a real contrast. Tim says you can’t continually farm land like this without using good conservation practices. Public policy makers told him that they did not realize that these conservation practices we saw were being used on farms in this area. I’m glad they were with us! The CTIC board has announced that next year’s tour will be in northwest Ohio, probably the week of August 8th. I know you always like to to “better” next year but I’m not sure how you can beat this tour this year. Tim says it can be done though. Hope I’m there to see it. Tim Healey Interview

Conservation In Action Tour 2010 Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the Conservation In Action Tour is made
possible by and the