Getting more corn yield per acre was the theme of an interview I did with Shannon Hauf, Monsanto Area Technology Development Manager for Minnesota and Iowa. Shannon was attending a Monsanto Technology Showcase Tour event in Elkhart, IA. I got to speak with her after listening to a field stop that was all about “stress mitigation.” Shannon says that about …
Advice For Iowa Corn & Soybean Growers
After a hearty lunch at the Monsanto Technology Showcase tour stop in Elkhart, IA, last week, growers got to hear from Palle Pederson, Iowa State University Soybean Extension Agronomist. Palle’s work focuses on soybean yields and profitability for growers. Palle says the field day concept is a nice opportunity for growers to see new technology on display before they need …
Kip Shares His Secrets
When Kip Cullers told me two weeks ago that they were expecting 2000-3000 people for the first ever Kip Cullers Record Breaking Field Day, I really couldn’t believe it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more than that by the time this event ends on Thursday because there had to be at least 500 out there today in …
Record Breaking Field Day
A record breaking field day on a record breaking farm kicked off Monday night in Purdy, Missouri at the home of Kip and Michelle Cullers. Kip is the man who put this tiny town in southwest Missouri on the map by being the world champion soybean yield grower two years in a row, not to mention numerous National Corn Yield …
Meet Nancy Bunker Koester
One of the special people I got to meet this week at the Ag Media Summit was the new National Corn Growers Association, Director of Communications, Nancy Bunker Koester. AMS gave Nancy the chance to meet and interact with a hundreds of ag media professionals and other industry leaders. She is not unfamiliar with this industry, having worked for Monsanto …
Corn Blog Wins Gold Award
Gotta admit to being pretty proud of this – the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and the Center for Association Leadership has awarded the National Corn Growers Association with a 2008 Gold Circle Award in the category of “Blogs – Association Annual Budget Greater than $2 Million” for Corn Commentary. John H. Graham IV, CAE, president and CEO of …
Farmers Find Student Expert at Mobile Greenhouse
One of Monsanto‘s Mobile Greenhouse “Street Team” representatives is a student from Purdue. Daniel Stauffer is a Field Sales Intern for Monsanto and is one of the experts farmers and growers at the Michigan Ag Expo can grill about Monsanto’s new Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans. Daniel says one of the most exciting attributes of Monsanto’s “next generation” soybeans is …
Is There a Biofuel To Food Price Link?
The first speaker here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference is Michael Wetzstein, University of Georgia. His talk deals with two issues. One is on price volatility and the other is on food and fuel. He’s one of 22 speakers on the program and all the talks are dealing with the biofuels issue. I’ll do my best to …
How an Iowa Corn Grower Feels – Optimistic
At the Iowa Speedway yesterday, the Iowa Corn Growers Association held an outdoor press conference. They used it to help educate media about corn usage by placing banners on the side of a grain trailer showing the relative percentages of corn used for different purposes like livestock feed and ethanol. I did a short interview with Gary Edwards, ICGA board …
Ethanol Car Runs Strong in Iowa
This year’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 is over and as usual, ethanol won. Actually, Dan Wheldon, Target Chip Ganassi Racing won the race. You can see plenty of victory lane pictures in my photo album. However, I was rooting for Team Ethanol. They ran as high as 3rd place but according to driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay, they lost a gamble on …