Besides hearing from a researcher and a farmer we also heard from Commodity Classic Learning Center sponsor Bruce Battles, Agronomy Marketing Manager, Syngenta Seeds. The subject was Maximizing Yield in Continuous Corn.
Bruce says the company is investing a lot of time and money in testing their hybrid specific recommendations to increase the percentage of success their customers have. When it comes to corn on corn he says the biggest controllable difference a grower can make is hybrid selection. He suggests growers get as much yield information as possible to find the best one that will work on their fields.
Listen to my interview with Bruce here:
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AgWired coverage of the 2008 Commodity Classic
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If you haven’t heard Dr. Fred Below, Professor of Plant Physiology, University of Illinois, speak then you’re missing something. He was part of a panel discussion on Maximizing Yield in Continuous Corn that filled the room. The Learning Center session was sponsored by Syngenta.
The first thing Dr. Below wanted growers to know is that they’ll take an approximate 10% yield penalty by doing corn on corn. He’s done a lot of work on how you go about mitigating that penalty. To do so he says you should utilize a high yielding hybrid and apply sufficient nitrogen. Of course it helps to have a little cooperation from the weather too since that’s the single biggest impact factor on yield. Another thing he suggests is planting more seed per acre since corn planted after corn often emerges poorly. For more information he recommends that growers contact their local extension offices where they’ll find a lot of information on this subject.
Listen to my interview with Dr. Below here:
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You didn’t think I was done posting from Commodity Classic did you? Well I’m not. There’s still more to come.
AgWired coverage of the 2008 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: and
The world record soybean yield champion credits his winning 154.7 bushel yield to good genetics and crop protection.
“I run very extensive on-farm research every year on different genetics from all kinds of companies and then I pick the best ones to plant on my farm,” said Kip Cullers of Purdy, MO.
The best one this year was Pioneer® 94M80 soybeans and Greg Luce, Pioneer technical representative, worked closely with Kip over the season and watched the record crop grow.
“We want to share all the things that Kip is doing with other growers,” said Luce. “He does some things uniquely. He irrigates frequently at low volumes of water to cool the plant, an idea he got from his green bean production.”
Kip also protected his crop from disease threats. “I live far enough south that we have a lot of disease pressure and we use Headline fungicide to protect the crop when its up and growing,” said Kip. “A happy plant wants to produce.” He also used Syngenta Warrior insecticide.
Missouri Soybean Association Executive Director Dale Ludwig estimates that less than five percent of the soybeans in the state get a regular treatment of both fungicide and insecticide.
Dennis Belcher, technical service representative in the Midwest for BASF Agricultural Products, said BASF was honored to be considered a partner in Kip’s success.
“In 2006, the average on-farm trials for Headline increased soybean yields from four to eight bushels per acre and corn yields from 12-15 bushels per acre,” Belcher said.
Listen to Loose’s comments here:
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Listen to Belcher’s comments here:
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Missouri soybean grower Kip Cullers beat his own world record by 15 bushels this season to once again claim the title of soybean champion. Cullers produced an outstanding 154.7 bushels per acre on his southwestern Missouri operation, compared to last year’s 139.9 bushels and he believes he could do even better.
“200, 250 - it’s totally possible. The genetics are there, we just need to figure out how to do it,” Kip said.
The average yield per acre in Missouri last year was 38 bushels per acre. “So, as you can tell, Kip’s doing a little bit better than that,” said Missouri Soybean Association executive director Dale Ludwig.
Cullers was honored by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt who made the official announcement during a media event at the Missouri Soybean Association office in Jefferson City. He called Kip the “Babe Ruth” of soybean producers.
“Kip is setting records because he knows his business as well as anyone and works diligently to cultivate not just high yields, but record-breaking yields,” the governor said.
Cullers credited his success to a soybean dream team of professionals who helped him with his contest plots, including experts from Pioneer and BASF. He accomplished his record-breaking production by planting Pioneer® 94M80 soybeans on an irrigated and conventionally-tilled field and he used BASF Headline fungicide to protect against disease pressure. He also used Syngenta Warrior insecticide, Optimize technology from EMD Crop Bioscience, and a Monosem twin row planter.
Listen to Blunt’s announcement here:
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Listen to some of Kip’s remarks here:
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Syngenta will continue to use and sell Agrisure(R) GT (GA21 corn), despite the Monsanto Company’s effort to block Syngenta’s right to sell the product. Monsanto took its plea of patent violation to the US Federal Courts, but couldn’t convince judges of any patent violation. The US Federal Appeals Court today ruled unanimously in favor of Syngenta Seeds, Inc., with respect to the patents asserted by Monsanto against Syngenta’s use and sale of Agrisure(R) GT (GA21 corn). The Court reaffirmed the summary judgment decision of May 10, 2006 by the Federal District Court that the asserted claims of the Shah patent were invalid and that the asserted claims of the Lundquist patents were not infringed.
“We are extremely pleased that the Appeals Court has confirmed our right to sell Agrisure GT to US corn growers,” said Mike Mack, COO, Syngenta Seeds.”
Merging the latest in seed technology with resistance management is the key Syngenta wants to give to farmers so they can fully maximize their productivity. I grabbed Craig Abell with Syngenta Crop Protection and Syngenta Brands NK Seeds Steve Pig to talk about how the two sects work together to give farmers the most out each bushel and acre.
Listen to Craig and Steve here:
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I think this will be the last post from last week’s Syngenta Learning Centers field day. Hey, the agriblogger doesn’t always have his picture taken. Thanks to Tom Steever, Brownfield Network.
Actually I had to post a picture of the Golden ZimmComm Microphone. It’s very popular these days. In fact, Cindy has to borrow it to take to an event later this week because the client specifically requested this microphone. I can guarantee you that she’ll sound better on this mike than I do.
If you’d like the Golden ZimmComm Microphone to visit your event please let me know. BTW. I’m interviewing Dr. Fred Below in the picture.
It’s going to be a green week on AgWired as I cover the John Deere product launch in Cincinnati, OH. That coverage should start on Wednesday. With some nice rain falling here in central Missouri maybe it’ll be a green week at home too since we’ve been dry.
On this week’s program you can hear Farm Industry News editor Karen McMahon talk with me about the Syngenta Learning Centers field day we attended in Iowa last week. Karen was one of several media representatives attending. The event provided a great opportunity to learn more about the company and their brands. I don’t know about you but with all the mergers and acquisitions of different brands it can be a little confusing to reporters. Think of how difficult it might be for farmers too.
The program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network and Alex Lehrhoff. The song is “Green Roots Blues.” If you’re going to go green, do it with the blues.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 133 (10 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
If you haven’t ever attended a Syngenta Learning Centers field day then I hope my coverage this week helps you make up for that fact. In fact, I hope it encourages you to attend one in the future.
I’ve received a number of comments on the coverage and appreciate all of them. For example, it was noted that since I was posting over several days that the coverage was kind of broken up, meaning that Laura and I had posts on other topics in between posts from the event. It’s true that I normally try to put all my event posts in order while I’m there or within a day but that wasn’t possible this week. This is why I use categories on all my posts. If you use the Syngenta Category Link (http://agwired.com/category/syngenta/) then you’ll see the unbroken coverage of the event of which there are 23 stories including this one. The posts include 14 interviews and audio from one presentation, 3 video clips and some of the 228 pictures I shot. You’ll find 114 of them in the online photo album. The online photos and video clips are tagged and easy to find by searching just like the posts themselves.
All of the interviews are posted so that you can play them immediately to listen to and also as MP3 file links so you can download them. That’s because farm broadcasters and web editors are welcome to download and use the audio in their programs and I want to make it easy for them to obtain the audio.
Thanks to Jim Elliott and all the Syngenta team who were on hand at the event and also to Gardner Hatch and Catherine Wang and all the folks at Gibbs & Soell for bringing me in to do this. Let’s do it again next year!
One of the people I met before leaving the Syngenta Learning Centers field day in Milford, IA was Tracy Mader, District Sales Manager for Syngenta Crop Protection. Tracy provided an update on Syngenta’s Agrisure corn traits.
He first of all explains that AgriSure is a family of traits for corn. Besides some of the current products under the Agrisure brand he mentions some new ones like Agrisure RW for corn rootworm control.
You can listen to my interview with Tracy here:
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Or you can download the interview using this link: Tracy Mader Interview (3 min MP3)
When it comes to breaking the yield barrier Virgil Sparks, Soybean Product Development, Syngenta Seeds is the man. His talk at the Syngenta Learning Centers event in Iowa this week was titled, “Breaking the Yield Barrier With Genetics and Technology.”
He says that one of the main things he wants people to know is that Syngenta is very serious about accomplishing what his talk’s title says. He says they’ve seen some step changes in the products they have by bringing together the gene pools of the Golden Harvest, Garst and Northrup King brands. Looking down the road he says that there may be less number of products but higher quality products.
You can listen to my interview with Virgil here:
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When it comes to growing corn Mike Leetch, Technical Services Representative, Syngenta says remember the soda can rule. That is that you don’t want your corn to be full of weeds when it gets to about 6 inches high. He also says you can use a beer can too. The reason for this is that studies show that yield will be severely impacted if this happens.
He highly recommends the application of a pre-emergence herbicide and an in-season 2 pass program. He says that if the corn doesn’t have to compete with weeds growers can see up to a 20 bushel per acre advantage and that converts to a lot of money. Mike also talks about some new technology that’s going to be available from Syngenta soon. Mike is pictured here talking to growers at the Syngenta Learning Centers program in Milford, IA.
You can listen to my interview with Mike here:
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Or you can download the interview using this link: Mike Leetch Interview (4 min MP3)
Syngenta wasn’t the only company on hand at their Learning Centers program in Milford, IA. So was John Deere and their Central Insecticide System.
Here’s Ron DeFauw, John Deere Seeding Group, talking about a brand new way to apply Force Insecticide. Think of the box version of wine that you put in your refrigerator and you’ll have a pretty good idea what the new box formulation of this corn rootworm control product looks like. Ron says the product will be available this fall and that you should see your John Deere dealer for more information.
He says benefits of Syngenta’s Force CS include the fact that there’s no worry over getting granulated product or dust on your hands and the boxes are lightweight and easy to load and move. Another benefit comes after you’ve applied the product through your John Deere NT equipment. The boxes don’t have to be returned to the dealer. You can easily dispose of them.
I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this new product at next week’s John Deere product launch and I’ll be there to bring it all to you here.
You can listen to my interview with Ron here:
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Or you can download the interview using this link: Ron DeFauw Interview (2 min MP3)
We talked a lot about corn at the Syngenta Learning Center program in Iowa but soybeans were also a major topic of discussion. One of the presenters was Gene Kassmeyer, Head of Soybeans, Syngenta Seeds.
Gene says that soybeans are a crop that’s changing rapidly. For one thing he says there are a number of new pest problems to deal with like aphids and that soybean cyst nematode continues to be a problem. Gene says that Syngenta is working on new herbicide resistant varieties and that some of the new products released this year have significant performance improvements.
You can listen to my interview with Gene here:
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Growers attending the Syngenta Learning Center in Milford, IA might have wished they could drive this car but they were content to grow the fuel that’s powering it around the track this season. The #17 Rahal Letterman show car was accompanied by Al Jentz, Amaizing Energy. Al is also on the board of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council which manages the promotion of the car. He gave an overview of how things are going in the ethanol industry for the growers and retailers who were attending.
Al says that although he felt like he was preaching to the choir his presentation allowed corn growers to learn more about EPIC’s promotional activities and ask questions.
He also felt like he got to learn more about what Syngenta is doing to develop corn varieties that will make the ethanol production process more efficient.
Syngenta is also a member of EPIC.
You can listen to my interview with Al here:
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Or you can download the interview using this link: Al Jentz Interview (4 min MP3)
Farm Industry News editor Karen McMahon was one of the media representatives attending the Syngenta Learning Center in Milford, IA. Here she’s taking notes during our media briefing. (Me, I take pictures)
Today when we were out in the field I interviewed her about what we’ve seen and what she thinks about attending a very personal, just for the media, opportunity to listen to and interview company representatives and then get to go out in the field and see what they’re talking about “live.”
One of the more entertaining presenters at today’s Syngenta Learning Center in Milford, IA was Dr. Fred Below. He’s a professor of crop physiology at the University of Illinois.
The main focus of his comments was mitigating the effect of yield loss when planting corn after corn. His research offers a number of suggestions for growers and you can hear them in my interview with him. You can also get a taste of his presentation in the following video.
You can listen to my interview with Dr. Below here:
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There was a nice breeze out on the Johnson farm where the Syngenta Learning Center was held today in Milford, IA. You’ll hear it at the beginning of this overview video from the site.
The Syngenta Learning Center in Milford, IA was located on a farm just south of town. The owner of that farm is Bruce Johnson.
Right after lunch today I got to talk with Bruce about his farm and why he decided to work with Syngenta to hold this major event on his property. He says that about 59 acres is involved with the project and one of the things he’s looking forward to is getting the information first hand about the products and practices the Syngenta is working on.
You can listen to my interview with Bruce here:
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One of the presenters at the Syngenta Learning Centers media briefing is Bruce Battles, Agronomy Marketing Manager, Syngenta Seeds. He talked about the science of corn from the standpoint of what Syngenta is working on with new varieties. He says that there are a lot of options and challenges for growers. For example he says they’re working on solutions to the challenges of planting corn after corn.
You can listen to my interview with Bruce here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Besides hearing from a researcher and a farmer we also heard from Commodity Classic Learning Center sponsor Bruce Battles, Agronomy Marketing Manager, Syngenta Seeds. The subject was Maximizing Yield in Continuous Corn.
and 
If you haven’t heard Dr. Fred Below, Professor of Plant Physiology, University of Illinois, speak then you’re missing something. He was part of a panel discussion on Maximizing Yield in Continuous Corn that filled the room. The Learning Center session was sponsored by 
The best one this year was 
Dennis Belcher, technical service representative in the Midwest for BASF Agricultural Products, said BASF was honored to be considered a partner in Kip’s success.
Missouri soybean grower Kip Cullers beat his own world record by 15 bushels this season to once again claim the title of soybean champion. Cullers produced an outstanding 154.7 bushels per acre on his southwestern Missouri operation, compared to last year’s 139.9 bushels and he believes he could do even better.
“Kip is setting records because he knows his business as well as anyone and works diligently to cultivate not just high yields, but record-breaking yields,” the governor said.
The US Federal Appeals Court today ruled unanimously in favor of Syngenta Seeds, Inc., with respect to the patents asserted by Monsanto against Syngenta’s use and sale of Agrisure(R) GT (GA21 corn). The Court reaffirmed the summary judgment decision of May 10, 2006 by the Federal District Court that the asserted claims of the Shah patent were invalid and that the asserted claims of the Lundquist patents were not infringed.
Merging the latest in seed technology with resistance management is the key Syngenta wants to give to farmers so they can fully maximize their productivity. I grabbed Craig Abell with Syngenta Crop Protection and Syngenta Brands NK Seeds Steve Pig to talk about how the two sects work together to give farmers the most out each bushel and acre. 
I think this will be the last post from last week’s Syngenta Learning Centers field day. Hey, the agriblogger doesn’t always have his picture taken. Thanks to Tom Steever, 
It’s going to be a green week on AgWired as I cover the 
If you haven’t ever attended a Syngenta Learning Centers field day then I hope my coverage this week helps you make up for that fact. In fact, I hope it encourages you to attend one in the future.
One of the people I met before leaving the Syngenta Learning Centers field day in Milford, IA was Tracy Mader, District Sales Manager for Syngenta Crop Protection. Tracy provided an update on Syngenta’s 
When it comes to breaking the yield barrier Virgil Sparks, Soybean Product Development, Syngenta Seeds is the man. His talk at the Syngenta Learning Centers event in Iowa this week was titled, “Breaking the Yield Barrier With Genetics and Technology.”
When it comes to growing corn Mike Leetch, Technical Services Representative, Syngenta says remember the soda can rule. That is that you don’t want your corn to be full of weeds when it gets to about 6 inches high. He also says you can use a beer can too. The reason for this is that studies show that yield will be severely impacted if this happens.
Syngenta wasn’t the only company on hand at their Learning Centers program in Milford, IA. So was 
We talked a lot about corn at the Syngenta Learning Center program in Iowa but soybeans were also a major topic of discussion. One of the presenters was Gene Kassmeyer, Head of Soybeans, Syngenta Seeds.
Growers attending the Syngenta Learning Center in Milford, IA might have wished they could drive this car but they were content to grow the fuel that’s powering it around the track this season. The #17 Rahal Letterman show car was accompanied by Al Jentz, 
Al says that although he felt like he was preaching to the choir his presentation allowed corn growers to learn more about EPIC’s promotional activities and ask questions.
One of the more entertaining presenters at today’s Syngenta Learning Center in Milford, IA was Dr. Fred Below. He’s a professor of crop physiology at the University of Illinois.
The Syngenta Learning Center in Milford, IA was located on a farm just south of town. The owner of that farm is Bruce Johnson.
One of the presenters at the Syngenta Learning Centers media briefing is Bruce Battles, Agronomy Marketing Manager, Syngenta Seeds. He talked about the science of corn from the standpoint of what Syngenta is working on with new varieties. He says that there are a lot of options and challenges for growers. For example he says they’re working on solutions to the challenges of planting corn after corn.
Cool Interactive Ideas in new media was the topic of a NAMA Boot Camp presentation by Erin Holte, Martin Williams.
