Noting runs like a Deere, except maybe the wind. And now John Deere is farming that wind.
John Deere Wind Energy is into lots of domestic energy projects these days and that includes investing in and providing value-added services to utility-scale wind projects that involve multiple wind turbines with a nameplate capacity of 1.25 megawatts or greater.
For example, Corn Plus Cooperative, a farmer-owned ethanol plant in Winnebago, Minn., entered into an agreement with John Deere last year to harness wind energy to help power their plant.
Two years ago, John Deere Wind Energy partnered with Missouri based developer Wind Capital Group and the Missouri Rural Electric Cooperatives to construct a 50-megawatt wind energy project in King City, a little farming community about 30 miles northeast of St. Joseph. The project was named “Blue Grass Ridge” in tribute to the farming community’s historic role in bluegrass seed harvesting.
Here’s a YouTube video that provides a look at that completed project:
Blue Grass Ridge led to a second 50-megawatt Missouri wind farm – the Cow Branch Wind Energy Project located between Rock Port and Tarkio in Atchison County, Mo.

Do you know Joe? As in Sloppy Joe? This is “The Joe You Know.” Well
In England they think
I know we’ve heard a lot from Gene Hemphill here on AgWired the past few days but well we should. Here’s my interview with him from the trade show floor at Commodity Classic. In it we talk about his support of the ag media including sponsoring the media room. Gene says they’ve been doing it since Commodity Classic started and before that individually at the organizational meetings of the groups involved with Classic.
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There aren’t too many people in agricultural marketing who don’t know Gene Hemphill, Industry Affairs, New Holland. You probably know that we honored him at the media reception at Commodity Classic. This week’s program expands on that theme. Gene is a friend as well as a client and beloved by all of us in the media who have worked with him for so long. For all the attention he’s getting for “partially retiring” I can’t wait to see what happens when he really retires!
Kip Cullers of Missouri is not only a great corn and soybean grower, he has become one heck of an entertaining speaker. He’s really fun to be around, but he is totally serious about helping other growers meet their optimum potential for yields.
Kip says with prices where they are today, growers should make every effort to maximize soybean yields. “Soybeans now are $15, so – my gosh – you can spend a little and make a bunch. It’s simple economics.”
Besides hearing from a researcher and a farmer we also heard from Commodity Classic Learning Center sponsor Bruce Battles, Agronomy Marketing Manager,
I think growers appreciate hearing from other growers, even if they also sell Garst Seed. At the Commodity Classic Learning Center session on Maximizing Yield in Continuous Corn, north central Iowa grower Mike Missman talked about his experience with corn on corn.
There were 145 media representatives covering Commodity Classic. Here’s some of them at the Sec. of Ag Schafer press conference. We all have significant needs for things like internet access, phone lines, work spaces, convenient food/beverages, privacy, a meeting place, secure room for equipment and help finding our way around. That’s why it is so important and appreciated to have companies like New Holland sponsor a media/press conference room at events like Commodity Classic.
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