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Soybean Superstar Speaks at BASF Seminar

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BASF The Science Behind Soybeans Kip CullersYou can never get enough of the always entertaining World Soybean Yield Champion Kip Cullers.

During the BASF Science Behind Soybeans seminar at the 2010 Commodity Classic on Wednesday, Kip talked about the recent trip he took to Brazil and what he learned there. “The reason I went to Brazil is because, if you want to learn something, you got to go where there’s a problem and Brazil is challenged by so many things,” Kip says. One of the problems he had on his farm in southwest Missouri last year was white mold, which is a big issue in Brazil. “I got about five or six brand new ideas from Brazil on how to control white mold,” he said.

title=That’s what Kip does best – try new things to help increase his yields, not just for contests, but for his overall production. “60-80 percent of all my experiments fail miserably, but we never quit trying and we’re able to average 100 bushel soybeans across our whole farm,” Kip says, and that’s what pays the bills. To that end, he is a strong believer in BASF Headline for plant health, and the new Kixor technology herbicide, which he helped test for BASF prior to registration last fall.

The last time I talked to Kip was on his farm toward the end of the 2009 harvest season. You will have to check out that post and listen to the interview or watch the video to hear the goat story that he references in the interview below.

Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

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USGC Is International Marketing Partner for NCGA

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USGC International Marketing ConferenceOne of the founding members of the U.S. Grains Council is the National Corn Growers Association. Attending the USGC International Marketing Conference is NCGA CEO Rick Tolman, seen here addressing one of the meetings.

Rick, who worked for USGC for many years, says that NCGA considers the Grains Council their international trade partner. The two organizations have a very strong working relationship. He says one of the things he’s really happy to hear discussed here at this meeting is how well exports of DDGS have been due to the efforts of the Grains Council. That’s good news for corn growers for whom the production of ethanol is so important right now. He says that the Grains Council is looking at other value added products they can promote for export too.

USGC International Marketing Conference Photo Album

You can listen to my interview with Rick here:

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New Holland Workmaster Debut

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2010 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

nfmsNew Holland’s new WORKMASTER™ tractors bear a trusted name, and the same important qualities that made the original WORKMASTER tractors so popular in the 1960s.

The new Workmaster made its debut right out of the box and off the boat here at the National Farm Machinery Show. I talked with Mike Stolitca, New Holland sales manager for Kentucky, about this dependable, basic workhorse. “We are very excited to have this tractor here, first tractor in North America for the Workmaster series,” he told me. “This provides a reliable, efficient tractor at an affordable price.”

Mike says this tractor is great for hobby farms and smaller operators looking for a good chore tractor. Some of the features that allow for ease of operation include an 8×8 shuttle transmission and a comfortable, open operator station.

Listen to my interview with Mike here:

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NOVUS Wants To Maximize Beef

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Dan MeagherWhen it comes to communicating NOVUS International’s commitment to the beef industry Dan is the man. He’s Dan Meagher, VIce President, Sales, Americas. He was on hand at the Cattle Industry Convention to help spread the word about the company name and products for the beef industry.

Dan says that NOVUS is investing in people and products. A lot of the research the company has done has been on beef. He thinks they have an opportunity right now in this segment of the industry. He says they’ve moved into the dairy and pork sectors and this is just part of their diversification strategy. Their products are designed to maximize the nutrition capabilities of the animal so it reaches its full potential while reducing costs.

Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the Cattle Industry Convention is sponsored by:
Novus

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Drought Biggest Challenge for Stoller Australia

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Fifteen years ago, StollerUSA opened up an office in Australia, and today Stoller Australia has demonstrated that they have many products that are beneficial for Australian growers. I caught up with Richard Emery, who runs this division during the Ag Associates Conference. He began by telling me that the country has a diverse range of crops including wheat and cotton, mangoes and table grapes, citrus, vegetables, and more.

One of the country’s biggest challenges is water scarcity – the country has been in a drought for nearly 10 years. Emery told me that the drought has flown down through many of the crops and water has become a very scarce commodity and has become one of the company’s biggest challenges.

However, Stoller has some products that help growers address some of these challenges including Root Feed. “For example, Root Feed has become very popular because it builds the root system of the tree or plant. So it actually makes it a more durable plant and able to overcome some of these stress periods,” explained Emery. “And also the development of the product Bio-Forge has been very timely because we’re now using it after a drought stress or heat wave. Afterwards, we apply Bio-Forge and we get a much quicker recovery of the plant.”

Bio-Forge can be used universally, whereas Root Feed, Emery notes, is limited to where there is a good fertigation system.

The importance of root systems is very new to growers in Australia and Emery says that his team spends a good amount of time educating the grower about the importance of strong, healthy roots. Emery concluded, “The roots are the brains of the the plant. So they need to be doing everything they can to have a robust, continually growing root system under their crop.”

Listen to my interview with Richard below.

Ag Associates Conference Flickr Album.

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Using Bio-Forge to Increase Soybean Yields

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This week, during the Ag Associates Conference hosted by StollerUSA, I had the opportunity to talk with Mike Molnar, with Town and Country Ag. His company is a co-op working in nine counties in North Eastern Ohio and three of their locations provide full-service ag products and applications for growers.

Molnar told me that he has been using Stoller products for the last four years to help overcome one of their biggest challenges which is poor soil. “We’re always looking for ways to improve root growth to get better yield in our crops,” he said.

He, along with other growers in the area, are still learning and he recently did a trial with grass hay where he has seen some pretty drastic results using Bio-Forge and Folizyme together. He mentioned that he has also done some good things with soybeans using Golden Harvest Plus, a Stoller product.

“If you’ve got a plant stalled or not growing the way you want it to, you can get that plant to jumpstart a little bit and take off and start growing again for you,” explained Molnar.

Molar has learned some important things working with Stoller, one of which is that its not just about nutrients. It’s also about the hormone balance of the plant. “Cytokinin is a hormone that’s manufactured in the root tips. So, if you have a root system that’s not actively growing and not making new root tips, you’re not going to have the hormone production or the nutrient uptake you need to have maximum yield of your crop,” said Molnar. “Anytime during the growing season that our roots stops growing, we’re losing yield.”

Listen to my interview with Mike below.

Ag Associates Conference Flickr Album.

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