Archived Content

1st Bobcat Skid Steer

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 21:48:26 GMT

Only a very rare few brand names become synonymous with what they are. Say “Kleenex” and we all know you could mean tissue.

Same with Bobcat .

Quite a fascinating story with the development of the skid steer loader, which Bobcat of course pioneered and the term “Bobcat” came to mean “skid steer” to many folks, even to this day. Got thinking about Bobcat this afternoon when I was sent this picture from the showroom floor of Lano Equipment ( http://www.lanoequip.com ), a Bobcat dealer in Norwood, MN...picture of a restored 1960 Bobcat M400, 1 of only 200 made, technically the 1st production model skid steer ever made:

Now you may recall a blog I wrote last year that was titled “The 1st Skid Steer Loader”. Actually that 1958 farmer invented machine wasn’t technically a full fledged “skid steer” yet. Farmer brothers Cyril “Cy” and Louis Keller from Rothsay, MN made their “Powered Scoop Shovel” for local turkey farmer Eddie Velo who had been complaining about his trouble cleaning his turkey barns. So here’s what the Keller brothers invented:

Here’s link to that blog I wrote about this “Powered Scoop Shovel” the Keller brothers invented: https://www.machinerypete.com/media_posts/the-1st-skid-steer-loader

Back to the restored 1960 Bobcat M400 in the showroom at Lano Equipment in Norwood, MN...I got poking around Bobcat skid steer history and found a very cool, insightful blog from Bobcat itself, talking about the history of the skid steer. The blog said it wasn’t until 1960 when the company added a rear drive axle and created the four-wheel drive M400 could the machine now be called a “skid steer”. I found this Bobcat blog to be a fascinating walk through time, here’s a link to read it yourself, trust me, you’ll enjoy it: https://blog.bobcat.com/2016/03/m440-was-first-bobcat-loader-in-1962/

Here are a few more pictures of the restored 1960 Bobcat M400 skid steer in the showroom of Lano Equipment in Norwood, MN:

Tomorrow's Top Producer Winner Joanna Carraway

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 20:43:50 GMT

A young Kentucky farmer thrives amidst adversity

Joanna Carraway is goal-oriented. Not a bucket-list, dreams-of-the-day type of goal setter; Carraway sets goals she will accomplish.

Carraway has lifetime goals, yearly goals and short-term goals. “Joanna will even set daily goals,” says her husband, Craig. “It drives me crazy.”

Carraway was combining a corn field on their western Kentucky farm not long ago. They moved fields late enough they should have parked the equipment and went home. “I was determined to finish it,” she says. Her father-in-law, Steve, calls her at 10:30 p.m. and says, “So, I guess you’re going to finish this field?” She says: “Yep, you all go home.”

A few hours later, that field was checked off her list, and she went home. Goal accomplished. “That is just the way my brain is wired,” says the 35-year-old farmer. Carraway’s driven personality and analytical nature is what has helped her family’s Murray, Ky., crop operation thrive during adverse conditions.

Every corner of farm country has its own unique challenges. For the Carraways, the biggest challenge has been no rain. In 2006, the couple bought into his family’s farm, which includes a partnership with Craig’s parents, Steve and Freda.

They had a banner year growing white and yellow corn, soybeans, winter wheat and tobacco. It was so encouraging that Carraway left her job at a software development company to join the farm full-time. Craig had left his ag retail sales job in 2003.

In 2007, it quit raining, and has hardly rained since. Corn yields on Carraway Family Farms have come in under 100 bu. per acre five of the last seven years due to drought. In 2012, corn only made 31 bu. per acre.

Carraway says nothing teaches you to manage money better than not having any. In 2007 they were facing a trying financial situation. Carraway knew it was time to nitpick their financials and business plans and make some management changes.

For the past decade nearly the exact same group of men has been working for the Carraways.

Craig’s family had always bought crop insurance, but hadn’t had a crop insurance claim for years, Carraway says. “Then we came back to the farm and it quit raining.”

Necessary Changes. Due to consecutive years of low yields, Carraway knew she had to ramp up her understanding of crop insurance. “It took me a week, but I studied everything I could find about crop insurance,” she says. “I set up a spreadsheet that I could plug in the bushels we would potentially make, with a price, so I knew exactly what the crop insurance would pay.”

Jody Jones, a River Valley Ag Credit loan officer, handles the Carraway’s crop insurance. “I had seen Joanna work hard in the field, but little did I know how smart she was when it came to the business side of agriculture,” he notes. Jones says Joanna will often tell the crop insurance adjusters and him the crop insurance claim amount before it is even worked.

Her knowledge of crop insurance has proved to be financially valuable. Twice, their crop insurance checks were significantly less than what she had determined. By having her spreadsheet to show as proof, they were able to have the claims corrected.

Having a good team of advisers and partners, such as Jones, has been vital to the Carraways operation.

After a tough 2007, they decided to add more tobacco acres because it was the highest value crop on their farm. To do so, they needed to set up irrigation and build additional tobacco barns, which had a hefty price tag.

“The bank we were with at the time told us we couldn’t add any more debt,” Carraway says. “I showed them on paper how the expansion was going to add a huge amount to our farm income and be the safety net we needed, but they still said no. So I went bank shopping.”

With a little extra effort they were able to find a bank willing to take a chance. “We were really fortunate to find Heritage Bank,” Carraway says. “They believed we had a good plan and were a good idea; while on paper, we did not look like a good idea.”

Jimmy Hicks, Heritage Bank market president, has worked with the Carraways since 2008. “During this time, they have demonstrated excellent character and communication, and maintained a spotless credit rating,” Hicks says, noting that their substantial financial growth is a tribute to their production and financial management skills.

Carraway is quick to credit Hicks and the bank. “He allows us the flexibility to run our business and looks at the big picture,” she says. “Plus, he doesn’t point out our mistakes.”

Carraway’s main responsibilities on the farm include record keeping, setting financial goals and analyzing new purchases or expansions.

Her goal is to “recycle” money. “When we spend money, I always want it to stay in the same balance sheet,” Carraway says. “I don’t want to spend money that won’t be positively reflected on the balance sheet.”

A recent example is the purchase of a larger spray coupe. “Joanna did the math and determined it was a better investment to buy a bigger sprayer instead of hiring guys from the local coop to help spray,” Craig says. “That has been a great investment.”

Machinery costs are an area the Carraways focus on. “We can’t afford to have broken-down machinery for very long,” Carraway says, explaining that they buy extended warranties, typically three years, on key equipment. Even on new machinery, a small problem can quickly surpass the cost of the warranty. “We know for the three years we’re going to have this machine what it will cost us,” she says. “There are no surprises, which means we can run at full efficiency.”

Relationship Management. For more than a decade, 12 men from Mexico traveled north to spend six months on the Carraway Family Farm. The Carraways pay for H-2A visas, which allow temporary agricultural workers to seek employment in the U.S. Expenses for traveling to and from Kentucky, as well as housing, transportation and wages while in Kentucky, are paid by the Carraways.

Their main responsibilities are tobacco related, Craig says, and the program is expensive, but they wouldn’t be able to produce tobacco without them. “If you’re going to raise tobacco of any magnitude, you depend on migrant workers.”

What’s impressive is for the past decade nearly the exact same group of men has been working for the Carraways. “They are like family to us,” Carraway says. Through Facebook, she has connected with her employees’ families and posts updates and photos of what’s going on around the farm.

Carraway understands the sacrifice their employees make. “They are here trying to make a better life for their kids,” she says. “My goal is to set something up, like a retirement plan, for them. Tobacco is such hard work and they can’t do it forever. They have been so good to us, that I want to do something long-term for them. Ultimately, we need to grow and expand, but we want them to have something for later.”

The Carraways also maintain landlord relationships. They rent around 2,450 acres and have 50 landlords. Craig says these relationships have always been important. His grandfather started a tradition of providing sweet corn to landlords, then his father added sausage.

Now, Carraway has taken it a step further. Each year, she mails a card that features a snapshot of the farm. They also send notepads, hats and pens with the farm logo to help solidify their relationship.

These acts of kindness can lead to opportunities. Their goal is to fine-tune their finances so if a landlord wants to sell them his or her farm, they will be in a position to buy.

At the Heart. Originally a Missouri farm girl, Carraway grew up the youngest of five girls on a row-crop farm. Her father never hired employees, so his daughters became expert truck and tractor drivers at an early age. By age 10, Carraway was working 14-hour days. “My dad never asked if we could do something, he just told us to do it,” she says.

Carraway left the farm for Murray State University and majored in business administration. After six months, she missed agriculture; it was in her blood. She switched her major to agronomy and started an internship at a local ag retail store, where she met Craig.

As the daughter-in-law in a multi-generational operation, she admits it can be challenging, but with her farm family background Carraway understands the emotional connection families have with the land and their property.

Craig’s family wants the farm to succeed and stay intact, she says, and they try to balance that with her own goals and dreams for the farm. “It isn’t like I just married a farmer,” Carraway says. “This was my dream before I met him. We just happened to have the same dream.”

A Profile of Carraway Family Farms

Joanna and Craig Carraway focus on relationships with their advisers, landlords and workers.

Long Line of Farming: Carraway Family Farms began in 1953, when Noby Carraway bought land near Murray, Ky. He and his wife, Euva, farmed until their son, Steve and his wife, Freda, joined the operation in 1971. After Noby passed away, and in 2006 Joanna and Craig began a five-year process of purchasing Euva’s share. Joanna and Craig have two children, Preston, 7, and Hannah, 2.

Crop Mix: The Carraways own 42 acres and rent 2,450. Around 80 acres are planted in tobacco and the remaining acres are used to produce white corn, yellow corn, soybeans and double-crop winter wheat.

Employee Management: Carraway Family Farms employs 12 migrant workers each year, whose main duty is to help with tobacco production. Joanna has connected with the workers’ families through social media, which helps them stay in touch during their six months apart.

Community Focused: Joanna says she never realized she would need to be an advocate for agriculture, but as fewer people have a direct connection to farming, she recognizes the need. In 2012, Carraway Family Farms donated funds for the local elementary school to build an outdoor classroom and garden. “It’s important for children to learn how food is grown,” she says. “It’s just one little garden at one little school, but it could make a difference.”

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Success By the Dozens

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 20:40:01 GMT

Indiana farmer expands one acre of sweet corn to a booming, diversified business

It’s 5:30 a.m. in July, and the sun’s glow across the horizon starts to raise the temperature of the flat, rich land around Needham, Ind. This is Jeremy Weaver’s recipe for a perfect day as he heads out to fields of sweet corn.

For most people, picking sweet corn is not on their list of favorite things. But Weaver is almost antsy during the winter months as he counts down the days until he can plant his next crop. “I live for getting up early and picking sweet corn,” he says with a candid smile.

When Weaver was 15, his father put him and his brother in charge of one acre of sweet corn. The goals: Keep the boys out of trouble and let them earn some money for college. That small business venture quickly turned into a much bigger dream.

Nearly 20 years later, that one acre has grown to more than 40 acres of sweet corn, along with five acres of green beans and smaller patches of tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini and other produce.

For a little perspective, one acre of sweet corn yields about 18,000 ears. Multiply that by his more than 40 acres, and he’s producing enough sweet corn to provide an ear to nearly every person in Indianapolis. That’s a lot of sweet corn.

So how did Weaver grow his farm from scratch? He’s creative, hardworking and a natural at networking. Weaver’s diversified approach to farming and calculated risk-taking are just a few of the reasons he was named the 2014 Tomorrow’s Top Producer Horizon Award winner.

Family Ties. Weaver married into a farm family. He had only been dating his future wife, Christa, for a few months when her father, Kevin Carson, asked for help with harvest since her grandfather was in poor health. Being a farm kid and not wanting to disappoint, Weaver jumped right in. As Weaver says, he stepped in to help out and has never really left that role.

In 2009, Carson took Weaver on as a farm partner. Weaver rents his vegetable acres from Carson, and together they farm 2,400 acres, of which 450 acres are rented.

“I have grown to love the land that their family has owned for almost 200 years,” he says. Carson and Weaver make a strong team, which might sound surprising since in-law relationships can be challenging. But they both run at turbo speed and are open to new ideas.

When Weaver was starting to expand his vegetable business, Carson provided support financially and as a mentor. “He has helped me tremendously in every aspect of my farming career,” Weaver says of Carson. “He’s been my biggest champion.”

Today, Weaver is responsible for all of the bookkeeping, and the two split marketing. Carson also works as a crop insurance agent for Farmer’s Mutual. During most of the year, they have two part-time employees and up to six during peak times.

Competition for land is fierce around their area, which is just south of Indianapolis. Since expanding row crops would be difficult, Weaver has developed a quality-over-quantity view of farming. His goal is to grow vertically instead of horizontally. “We focus on how to make the land we have really work for us,” he says.

As the ag economy shifts down, Weaver is confident that his operation can handle a grain-price dip. He has spent the past few years building connections and developing specialized and creative market options.

“With the grain side of the farm, there is always a willing elevator to receive grain,” Weaver says. “Whereas with the produce operation, there is a tiny window in which the crops have to find their market.”

Market Maker. Weaver’s produce is sold at farm stands, farmers’ markets, through his personal website and a virtual farmer’s market—all under the Weaver’s Produce brand. While his bachelor’s degree is in history from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Weaver minored in marketing.

He has applied several of the branding techniques to his produce and built a cult-like following for his sweet corn, especially.

In the beginning, Weaver pounded on doors to peddle his produce. But, today, consumers want to know their farmer. The push for local food has provided a boon to Weaver’s business, especially during the past few years, he says.

As of 2013, consumers could buy Weaver’s sweet corn in the frozen section of supermarkets across the Hoosier state. He was one of the first growers to partner with and supply sweet corn to Husk—an Indiana sweet corn processing company.

Not only does Weaver provide high-quality sweet corn to Husk, but Nick Carter, company president, says Weaver aggregates product from other growers to fill contracts.

“We rely on his ability to innovate to help us further develop our supply chain,” Carter says. “He is working on a production model that maximizes his profitability, as well as other farmers whom he will help train to grow product for us.”

Husk’s processing facility is 30 miles away from Weaver’s farm, where corn is picked from the field, delivered to Husk and cut off the cob in less than six hours. “Having these markets allows me to mitigate the risk of losing product due to it sitting on the shelf,” Weaver says.

After sweet corn, Weaver’s next favorite crop is pumpkins, which are double-cropped after wheat. Since wheat harvest can run late, Weaver and Carson started brainstorming other crops to grow ahead of the pumpkins. That led them to barley.

Always wanting to capture a good opportunity, Weaver began exploring markets for barley. He took a week-long course at North Dakota State University, where his wife and daughter accompanied him under the guise of a vacation to learn about the different barley varieties and how to build a malting system.

It didn’t take long before Weaver connected with the owners of Sun King Brewing, an Indianapolis-based craft brewery. Their goal is to make a true “Indiana-local” beer, and Weaver is able to supply them and home brewers with the barley. “Most in the craft brewing industry are willing to take chances, just like me,” he says.

Weaver continually thinks about what he can do next, and his farm continues to grow in both quality and diversity, says Scott Gabbard, a Purdue University Extension educator in Shelby County. “Weaver creates new opportunities and capitalizes on them,” he says. “Some people talk about being entrepreneurial; Weaver and his family live it.”

While some farmers grumble about Indianapolis’ sprawling edges, Weaver is not only creating opportunities for others; he is showing others how farming can be embraced on the urban fringe, Gabbard explains.

Last year, Weaver’s Produce participated in a farm-to-fork food festival where a top-notch chef transformed a few dozen ears of Weaver’s sweet corn into chocolate custard.

“We’re not foodies by any stretch of the imagination,” Weaver says. “But it was an honor to network with producers and chefs. We want to continue to take advantage of our proximity to Indianapolis.”

Connecting Consumers. As for the future, Weaver hopes to continue to connect consumers with their food. In 2013, Weaver put up a high tunnel greenhouse to give his seeds a head start. He’d love for his farm to become a destination for families to pick their own produce and experience a real working farm. He aims to keep diversifying his farm to handle the volatile times ahead.

“It takes thinking outside of the box to make it in this day and age,” Weaver says.

Weaver’s Producer and Meadow Valley Farms

Operations: Since 1995, Jeremy Weaver has been growing and selling sweet corn. Today Weaver’s Produce includes sweet corn, pumpkins, straw, green beans and a variety of other fruits and vegetables.

Weaver is also a partner with his father-in-law, Kevin Carson, in Meadow Valley Farms—a row-crop operation that comprises 2,400 acres, of which
450 acres are rented.

Conservation and Technology: The Carsons bought the family farm more than 200 years ago, and they still have the original sheepskin deed to the land, signed by John Quincy Adams. Land that has been in the family for two centuries is a prize possession.

To help conserve their land, Weaver says they have converted most of their acres to no-till and are incorporating cover crops. Additionally, fertilizer is applied using variable-rate technology to help reduce waste.

Business Minds: Weaver and his wife, Christa, have a 2-year-old daughter, Ella. Christa owns a bridal and formalwear store in Shelbyville, Ind. The couple continually bounce business ideas off each other. Christa’s farm roots are a great asset, as she is quick to help plant, run a grain cart and drive the combine.

Leadership: Weaver is a natural networker and leader. He has served as president and a board member for his local Soil & Water Conservation District, president of the Shelby County Ag Promotion Committee, was a founding member of the Hoosier Harvest Market and is a member of the Boggstown Presbyterian Church.

A Cornucopia of Crops

Diversification is the name of the game for Jeremy Weaver of Needham, Ind. Between his two operations, Weaver’s Produce and Meadow Valley Farms, Weaver and his family grow the following crops in central Indiana:

Row crops: corn, soybeans and winter wheat
Vegetables and fruits: tomatoes, green beans, carrots, onions, potatoes, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, celery, zucchini, beets, turnips, cabbage, eggplant, squash, pumpkins, Indian corn, gourds, strawberries, peaches, watermelon, cantaloupe
Sweet corn
Malting barley
Straw

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Calculated Growth

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 20:38:54 GMT

Intense analytical skills and a strong team allow young farmer to thrive

For Matt Sims, farming is a numbers game. It’s about juggling assets versus liabilities, analyzing cost of production on every acre and, above all, about managing working capital.

General manager Matt Sims, 35, of State Line Farms helped triple the operation’s size.

“I think about working capital from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to sleep,” says Matt, 35. Armed with a calculator, his custom-built cost of production spreadsheets and current balance sheet at all times, Matt is following the sound advice for farm economy downswings: Know your numbers.

In 2005, Matt left a high-paying job as a manufacturing engineer to join his step-dad, Mark Wright, as a hired hand on the family farm. State Line Farms is a corn and soybean operation headquartered in State Line, Ind. “I wanted to see the direct impact of my work,” Matt says.

While he loved the work, the farm didn’t offer enough hours to support two full-time employees, so Matt worked for just over minimum wage. “I knew I had to find ways to make our operation more profitable and efficient,” he says.

Know Thy Strengths. That’s just what he did. Matt’s entrepreneurial enthusiasm, chronic goal-setting, networking ability and careful financial and risk-management strategies are just a few of the reasons he received recognition this winter during the 2015 Tomorrow’s Top Producer conference as the winner of the prestigious Horizon Award.

Since 2009, Matt has undergone seven surgeries because of major back and spinal cord issues. The surgeries made him miss a combined year of work and made it almost impossible for him to operate farm machinery for long periods of time.

Although most people would be discouraged by these physical limitations, Matt used them as an opportunity to develop his financial and business skills. “I was sort of forced to work in the office,” he explains. “But that is probably the biggest reason we’ve had our growth. I’m a business person who just happens to be in the farming industry.”

For several years, Matt and Wright shared all major farm responsibilities. They worked well together, but the structure didn’t result in the most efficient use of their skills, which created tension at times. In January 2014, Matt became general manager, overseeing the business aspects of the farm, while Wright became operations manager and focused on the field and day-to-day operations. The clear division of duties has made the farm more professional and is helping Wright transition into retirement.

A new operations manager, Eric Davis, started work in January 2015. Although Wright is looking forward to having more freedom, he’s happy to provide input and advice to Matt, Davis and the farm’s other full- and part-time employees, an advantage the entire team enjoys.

“Mark has been a mentor and given me so much guidance,” Matt says. “He has always given me the freedom to do what I think is necessary for the future of our farm. It is typical for a father to say, ‘This is the way we have always done it and will always do it.’ With Mark, it has never been this way.”

Bright Future. Each year since 2007, State Line Farms has grown its acreage base 18%, on average. It hasn’t been easy, notes Matt, since the farm straddles the flat expanse of the Illinois-Indiana border, a productive and competitive area.

Seven major surgeries left Matt Sims unable to run equipment, so he delved into office work. His step-dad, Mark Wright, is a key mentor.

“I came into farming at a very profitable time,” Matt says. “That meant everyone wanted every acre they could get to either purchase or rent. It also meant that no one was retiring, quitting or going out of business for financial reasons.”

State Line Farms’ growth goals are steady and sustainable. “Too often, many farming operations feel the need to grow their operation under the false theory, ‘bigger is always better,’” explains Adam Stonecipher, vice president of agribusiness banking at First Midwest Bank in Danville, Ill., and Matt’s banker.

“All of Matt’s financial decisions are calculated very carefully. Risk-management strategies are well crafted and followed diligently, and nothing is done for the sole sake of farming more acres,” Stonecipher says. “All cash rent bids are carefully calculated using sophisticated spreadsheets and projected to be profitable, or they are not pursued.”

Matt and his team have set acreage goals for every year for the next decade. “We know what machinery, facilities, financial controls and, most importantly, what people we will need to reach these goals,” Matt says. “We, as well as our advisers, are comfortable with these goals. If we don’t reach them one year, we don’t get too caught up on it because it means the right opportunities were not there.” Most of the acreage growth State Line Farms has undergone is due to Matt’s networking and developing relationships instead of always offering the highest rent.

He spends countless hours getting to know local farmers, farm managers, business owners, attorneys, real estate agents and investors. Matt’s talkative nature and confident, yet humble, attitude makes partners gravitate to him.

Plus, Matt is quick to jump on new opportunities, especially when time-rushed real estate agents or farm managers call. “I know what every farm around here is worth for me to rent with today’s inputs and current market prices,” he says. “If someone calls me up to bid a farm that I know, I will typically put in an offer right then. They love that I can give them a bid so quickly.”

Focus On People. Matt views landowners as partners, which is a multi-generational mantra of State Line Farms. Each year, the team hosts all landowners, which total nearly 40, and key suppliers at a customer appreciation event. Nice gestures like that, in addition to regular communication, keep landowners signed on for the long-term. More than 750 acres they rent today have been leased for more than 70 years.

“Matt has an extremely strong and profound duty to those around him,” explains Michael Zuzolo, president of Global Commodity Analytics & Consulting and one of Matt’s market advisers. “I see this keenly in his relationship with his landlords, employees and, most importantly, his family.”

Learn more about the Tomorrow’s Top Producer Horizon Award and previous recipients at www.TopProducer-Online.com/TTP.

Control Costs to Push Profits

Farming is an industry where someone tells you what you will pay for inputs and someone else tells you what your product is worth, says Matt Sims. “The only way I make money is to widen that margin and produce as much as I can,” he explains. With margins tightening, here are some ways he is managing costs.

Machinery: All machinery debt has been restructured to longer-term fixed loans. This allowed Matt to cut per-acre machinery costs by $20. Leases also are used strategically.

Seed: Farm team members evaluate hybrid and variety performance each year. They are willing to pay for the latest technology as long as the cost equals higher yields.

Rent Payments: Instead of making the two traditional cash rent payments on April 1 and Nov. 1, Matt offers his landlords the option to be paid in full, with interest, in November.

Marketing: Matt works with two market advisers. His annual marketing plan includes puts, calls, hedge-to-arrive contracts, forward contracts, cash sales and basis contracts.

Improvements: Future plans include a separate building focused on farm business. That would allow the farm’s current office to serve as headquarters for field operations.

State Line Farms Snapshot

The fourth-generation farm includes Matt Sims, his wife, Stacey, and their son, Cooper.

Operation: State Line Farms is a fourth-generation farming operation located in State Line, Ind. Hyta Wright founded the farm in 1928. Hyta’s grandson, Mark Wright, joined the operation full-time in 1972 and today, Mark’s stepson, Matt Sims, serves as the operation’s general manager. State Line Farms includes corn and soybean production in Illinois and Indiana across 4,600 acres, 90 of which are owned. Since 2007, State Line Farms has tripled in size.

Team: As general manager, Matt is in charge of such duties as financial record-keeping, grain marketing, acreage growth and capital purchases. Until January 2015, Wright served as operations manager and oversaw daily activities and field operations. Wright is transitioning into retirement and new employee Eric Davis has succeeded him as operations manager. State Line Farms has one other full-time employee along with seasonal help. Matt’s wife, Stacey, and his mother, Colleen, are involved in landowner and public relations. Matt and Stacey have a four-year-old son, Cooper.

Technology: State Line Farms uses a cloud-based record-keeping system to track financials on every farm entity. The system allows them to monitor inputs, yields, contracts and more. The team also soil tests every acre on a four-year rotation for variable-rate application of fertilizer and other inputs.

Leadership And Community: The Sims and Wright families focus on promoting and supporting agriculture and education. Each year, they provide scholarships to their high school alma mater and the local community college. They also produce half an acre of sweet corn annually to donate to local food banks and churches, in addition to other community outreach.

Innovation Meets Tradition

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 20:31:08 GMT

Young farmer adds value to 100-year-old operation

Farming in southwest Oklahoma is not for the faint of heart. Clouds can roar over the prairie and drop 6" of rain hard and fast—or disappear for months. Relentless sunshine and wind sizzles and scatters soil, and herds of up to 60 feral hogs nose through freshly planted milo fields, eating every seed and leaving ruts that can hardly be conquered by a sprayer.

Farmers here must be flexible, financially minded and creative. A big helping of grit helps, too. That’s what Cody Goodknight, the 2017 Tomorrow’s Top Producer Horizon Award winner, brings to the table.

Goodknight is the fifth person in his family to hold the reins of Goodknight Farms, established in 1911 near Chattanooga, Okla., by his great-grandfather, Albert Victor Goodknight. Building on the traditions and firm foundation set by his predecessors, 31-year-old Cody has expanded the business, created new income streams, built a strong team and increased professionalism in the century-old operation.

Today, Goodknight Farms includes 3,200 acres of wheat, cotton, sesame and grain sorghum; 1,600 acres of range and grassland; and a cattle operation including 200 bred heifers and 800 stocker calves. All wheat acres are dedicated to production of certified seed wheat, which is sold to local customers. The team, which includes two full-time and several part-time employees, also does custom farm work on 3,000 local acres and harvests wheat and cotton for customers in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas.

Dad and Son. In 2008, Goodknight joined the farm full-time after earning a degree in agribusiness from Oklahoma State University. It fulfilled a dream he’d had since elementary school. His father, John, led the operation.

“We get along great,” Goodknight says. “A lot of people struggle with a dad who is old-school, but my dad has always been innovative. I would not be as good of an operator without his innovation and ideas.”

John taught Goodknight the ins and outs of the business. He provided deep-dive instruction on finances, the importance of improving and protecting farmland and ways to build a professional network. The two formed a partnership and made plans to gradually shift Goodknight into the role of manager, allowing John to step back in his responsibilities and travel more with his wife, Maggie.

But the timeline abruptly veered into the fast track. In early October 2013, a pickup truck driver pulling a stock trailer T-boned John’s pickup. The crash broke John’s neck and left him unconscious for four weeks.

“That was our busy season for seed-wheat sales, and we were planting,” Goodknight recalls. “At the time, it was just me and dad and one other full-time guy. My dad was in Oklahoma City two hours away, so I was trying to go see him and run the operation. We were making plans for the worst because the doctors didn’t think he’d make it.”

Yet John recovered. After two more months in the hospital, he returned home. The wreck left him unable to continue working, and it placed management of the operation on Goodknight’s broad shoulders.

“He has been more than up to the challenge,” explains J. David Schumpert, the operation’s CPA. “The upside of this adversity has been to accelerate new and innovative practices at Goodknight Farms.”

Return on Investment. By hewing to his father’s mantra, Goodknight has added value to every crop and animal they produce, whether by growing specialty crops, raising award-winning livestock or trucking grain hundreds of miles to capture the best price. “We want to be an above-average producer,” he says.

The philosophy starts with their certified seed-wheat business, which has been a segment of the operation for more than 25 years. Annually, they sell about 40,000 bu. of seed to 50 growers, 75% of whom are repeat customers. Those customers come back because the Goodknights care about customer satisfaction. They grow multiple varieties, offer seed-treatment options and provide seed delivery. Additionally, they are regularly recognized as one of the top certified seed-wheat providers in the state of Oklahoma.

Because of harsh regional weather conditions, conservation practices are essential. The Goodknights adopted no-till practices in 2000. They grow cover crops on all production acres to boost soil health and provide winter pasture for cattle.

“Our goal is to never have our land bare,” Goodknight says. “I want something growing on that soil to protect it and keep it from washing away. Every bit of light that hits bare soil is wasted.” Because drought conditions are common in the area, Goodknight also wants to use every drop of rain. Two years ago, the operation installed a rainwater capture system on a barn. The setup includes three 3,000-gal. tanks. A 1" rain can generate 6,000 gal. of water for watering cattle, washing equipment or spraying, he says.

Goodknight carefully weighs these types of innovative farming practices against the need to ensure they have clear ROI. It’s a mindset his ag lender respects and appreciates.

“He likes to apply modern technology but does so in a way that keeps his financial ratios in a healthy position,” says Gary Kafer, vice president of Oklahoma Ag Credit.

Goodknight’s leadership is most evident in the operation’s cattle business, which has evolved rapidly under his watch. He knew the farm could make better use of its native grasslands, so he migrated the farm’s small cow herd into an Angus replacement heifer development program.

“The heifers have allowed me to improve our rotational grazing system and to easily change cattle numbers during times of drought,” he says.

Each year, Goodknight shows heifers at the Southwest Expo Fort Worth Stock Show, which is one of the oldest livestock shows in the U.S. and attracts participants from 40 states. His animals have placed in five of the past six years, and he’s even won a Reserve Grand Champion title.

The notoriety and strong customer service has paid off for his business: This year, Goodknight didn’t advertise any heifers for sale because previous customers already had spoken for them. “Our reputation is building,” he says. “The people who have bought from me are telling their neighbors.”

Another reputation-building tool the operation uses is a farm website, www.goodknightfarms.com , which Goodknight’s fiancée, Kara Eschbach, recently completed. The site prominently features the company’s service-oriented ventures of seed wheat, custom farming and cattle.

Eschbach posts photos on the website and the farm’s Facebook page to build brand awareness and showcase life on the farm.

Personal Development. Although Goodknight thrives in the business and production elements of running the operation, his steepest learning curve has come from leading a team of employees.

“He’s such a perfectionist and really particular,” Eschbach explains. Goodknight acknowledges even though he’d like to do every job on the farm, it’s not his role.

“The biggest challenge I have faced is the growth of our company and my personal desire to micromanage every task,” Goodknight says. “I have learned that though I may have the final say, employees who feel they have a voice will be more vested in their work. The best thing I can do for the company is surround myself with the best employees I can hire, train them well and reward good work.”

Goodknight aims to keep growing the operation, but that doesn’t just mean adding land.

“I’ve never wanted to be the biggest farmer in the county,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to increase production on the land we have. That’s all land, crop and pasture.”

He strives to never be complacent or satisfied, which in turn means long hours of hard work. It’s an approach that has kept the family operation thriving for five generations and, Goodknight hopes, one that will continue to do so for many more.

A Snapshot of Goodknight Farms

Operation: Goodknight Farms is a fifth-generation farming operation in Chattanooga, Okla. Cody Goodknight and his father, John, have an equal partnership. Goodknight is the manager of the operation, which includes 3,200 acres of wheat, cotton, sesame and grain sorghum. It also features a cattle operation with 200 bred heifers and 800 stocker calves. Goodknight custom farms an additional 3,000 acres locally, including 1,200 acres for his mother, Patricia Goodknight. His brother, Charles, also provides part-time help to the operation.

Custom Farming: The team provides custom planting, spraying, seed cleaning, trucking and harvesting for local farms. To build a niche for wheat harvesting, Goodknight purchased a stripper header so straw can remain standing in the field. This results in cleaner grain and fuel savings.

Team: Goodknight provides general farm management, business planning and oversees new ventures. The farm has two full-time team members, Mark Prater and Clint Braly; a part-time bookkeeper, Cindy Speer; and seasonal help. John Goodknight retired in 2013. Goodknight’s fiancée, Kara Eschbach, recently joined the team.

Leadership And Community: Goodknight serves on the boards of his local Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers and the Comanche County Cattlemen’s Association. He also donates time to his local FFA chapter, 4-H program and the Saddle and Sirloin clubs.

The team at Goodknight Farms in southwestern Oklahoma includes full-time employee Clint Braly (left); business partners John and Cody Goodknight; full-time employee Mark Prater; and Kara Eschbach, Cody’s fiancée.

How to Provide Positive and Negative Feedback

Management of employees and expectations is an ongoing challenge, says Cody Goodknight, 31, manager of Goodknight Farms in Chattanooga, Okla., and a self-described perfectionist. His goal is to provide feedback to team members after they complete tasks and to go over what went well and what can be improved.

Managers should strive to offer effective and valuable feedback to employees, says Michelle Painchaud of Painchaud Performance Group, a human-performance consulting firm in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. “We in agriculture are really bad at giving feedback,” Painchaud says of farmers and ranchers. “We need to use feedback to ignite high performance.” Follow her advice on how to provide feedback in any situation.

Reinforcement: Use this approach for behaviors you want to repeat

Describe the specific positive behavior, such as a team member’s strong attention to detail.
Explain how the behavior will create positive results for the operation.
Credit the employee for the behavior.
Thank and encourage the employee.

Redirection: Try this framework for behaviors you want to avoid

State the inappropriate behavior, such as showing up late for work.
Wait for the response and listen effectively.
Remind your employee of the expected behavior.
Ask them to come up with a solution.
Identify a solution, document it and follow up.

North Dakota Farmer Talks Reality TV Appearance

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 16:59:16 GMT

Fourth-generation grower Shannon Bergstrom and his family know what it’s like to work on the edge of farming. They produce corn and soybeans on 8,000 acres just south of Finley, N.D., where crops must be harvested quickly to avoid the risk of bushels freezing in the field.

That made Bergstrom Ranch a prime candidate for the first season of Challenger’s Internet video series, “The Edge of Farming”.

What followed was a “neat experience,” says Bergstrom, who acknowledges he didn’t know how he would react to the presence of cameras.

“After a while you’ve just got to forget about it,” he says. “You’ve got a job to do.”

The video shoot resulted in three episodes, each about 3 1/12 minutes in length, documenting the 2012 harvest. Obstacles they face along the way include a powerful winter storm. The episodes include interviews with Bergstrom; his cousin Tor, with whom he runs the operation day-to-day; his father, Roger; and Tor’s father, Gary. Shannon and Tor took over the operation from their fathers, who began farming in the 1970s and now drive tractors and provide other needed help during the summer.

Their great-grandfather, Olaf, founded the operation.

“It’s just kind of grown that way,” Shannon Bergstrom says. He owns land and rents from his dad and others.

The Bergstroms began buying Challenger track tractors for tillage a few years back, he says. They’re easy to drive and get into, and offer a nice platform and windows, all features that might be minor to most but make a lot of difference to a farmer, Bergstrom says. In addition to operating Challenger track tractors, the Bergstroms use John Deere combines and tillage equipment; White Planters ; Sunflower tillage equipment; a Case IH sprayer; and other equipment depending on the job.

Butler Equipment in Fargo services their equipment.

“They’ve just been super for us,” Bergstrom says.

There are several positive outcomes from “The Edge of Farming” appearance, Bergstrom says. The episodes demonstrate the amount of hard work required for people to get their food. They show how the Bergstroms adapted from a wheat-intensive operation to one focused on corn and soybeans in a part of the country that offers a very short time window for planting, harvesting and prep work.

The videos are also a great record for future generations of the Bergstrom family.

“It’s a document that we’ll have for our family history, so that was probably one of the best things,” Bergstrom says.

He enjoyed watching similar “Edge of Farming” episodes about farmers in Texas and Mississippi for their educational value. Growers elsewhere have different challenges, Bergstrom says, and he appreciates being able to farm in North Dakota even more now.

For the 2013 growing season, Bergstrom anticipates planting 2,500 acres to corn and the remaining 5,500 to soybeans. All planting wrapped up in two weeks last year—a perfect scenario, he says.

“That is not going to happen this year, but we’ll be able to start in the second week in May, hopefully,” Bergstrom says. There’s still snow on the ground in North Dakota, and the family anticipates hiring custom planters to ensure they can get the crop in the field in the narrow time window.

With all of those challenges ahead, Bergstrom remains optimistic.

“It’s not work if you enjoy it,” he says.

Expansion Challenges Lead to Innovation

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:36:52 GMT

Expansion challenges lead to innovation

Many look at Pennsylvania dairy farmer Luke Brubaker and ask, “How did you do it?” How did you survive the high feed costs when others were looking to exit? How did you bring your sons back to the farm? How did you make green energy profitable? How did you manage the permitting in such an urban area?

His answer: “I’ve just been blessed with opportunities,” says Brubaker of Mount Joy, Pa., and the 2013 Top Producer of the Year. “My father helped me get started; I’ve helped my boys, Mike and Tony; and now we are focused on the grandkids.”

His success is not completely built off of good fortune. With the help and support of county educators, the conservation district, his township and the department of agriculture, Brubaker has excelled in turning challenges into opportunities.

In the 1970s, Luke and his brother, Jim, bought the family farm and 18 cows from their father. For the next 20 years, the brothers paid off debt and added cows. In the early ‘90s, the Brubakers were expanding, but without a strategic plan. They had dairy cows, a 1,200-head hog unit, chickens and crops.

“I was adding lean-tos onto the side of my barns and making additions here and there to different structures,” Brubaker says. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was actually becoming more inefficient. Our farm and dairy equipment were becoming obsolete. We were at a point where we couldn’t keep doing what we were doing; we needed to stop or grow and modernize.”

“We don’t need to be the largest operation, by any means. We want to be known as good farmers willing to help others.”

Building With Family. When his son, Mike, graduated in 1990 from Pennsylvania State University with an agribusiness degree, he wanted to return home and work the Lancaster County farm. At the same time, Jim was looking to exit the business.

Brubaker purchased his brother’s shares and brought his son in as a partner. In 1993, they went from 200 cows to 400 cows with the construction of a freestall, double-10 parallel parlor, manure pit and bunker silos. Three years later, Brubaker’s other son, Tony, graduated from college in business management and also wanted to farm. He, too, was brought in as a partner.

“When the boys came home, it was critical for me to give them a stake in the farm,” Brubaker explains. “They did not come back to the farm to be hired men.”

Looking for ways to bring more value to the farm, Mike asked his father if he could build a chicken barn. “This gave him the ability to own and be responsible for something—a specific project that had a good return when it was paid off. He did so well, I built my own for my retirement project, which I later sold to Tony when he came home.”

Then in 1999 on a cold October day, Brubaker Farms suffered a major setback when a fire completely destroyed their 1,200-head hog unit.

Setbacks Can Be Comebacks. This setback forced Brubaker and his sons to focus on the dairy and make it a profit center. They expanded the dairy herd to 500 cows with the addition of a second freestall barn and the renovation of their heifer facilities. Two additional bunker silos were built to meet their forage needs.

Brubaker’s business philosophy is to evaluate each project on an individual basis and look at the potential profitability and benefits—whether it’s benefits to the farm, the environment or the community. “Before we build or buy anything, we always make sure it cash flows,” he notes.

“The Brubakers have always been very open to reviewing the various strategies for the farm’s future growth,” says Ken Darlington, PNC Bank vice president of ag banking. “Like other farms in Lancaster County, the Brubakers have many hard decisions related to agricultural farmland purchases based on the extremely high cost of farmland in their area. They have done an exceptional job of managing their costs and reviewing possible future farmland acquisitions to ensure it makes “economic sense” to the business.

This is one of the reasons why Brubaker was selected as the 2013 Top Producer of the Year.

Then in the mid 2000s, milk prices forced Brubaker and his sons to look for other profit centers. “We had an interest in exploring energy,” notes Brubaker. They researched methane digesters, high-efficiency lighting and high-efficiency motors.

In 2006, USDA awarded Brubaker Farms one of three renewable energy grants. The farm also received a Pennsylvania Energy Harvest grant. These grants, in addition to a loan of $1.25 million, provided them with the money to construct a methane digester and solids separation system for the dairy. Construction began in 2006, and the system was fired up Dec. 20, 2007.

Amped Up. The family was successfully capturing energy from the manure. One of the unintended benefits is that after 21 days in the digester, the waste is 99.9% pathogen free, which almost eliminates odors. The waste moves through a separator, and the dry matter is used as bedding for the cows, with the remaining liquid used as fertilizer. The digester provides enough energy to power 150 to 200 homes.

By 2008, the farm was ready for another expansion. They added to the freestall barn for a total of 900 to 1,000 cows. They also increased their land base and practiced no-till on 98% of the acres.

Then in 2010, Brubaker turned to the sun for added energy. Working with the local utility company, the farm began adding solar panels to barn roofs. Every 1,000 kilowatts of energy is called an SREX and sells for about $20 in Pennsylvania. Brubaker also works with a broker to sell clean energy credits—those go for $200 to $300 an SREX.

Brubaker says the farm should recoup its investment in three to five years. While he likes putting energy on the grid, Brubaker loves that the farm is energy independent.

“We don’t need to be the largest operation by any means,” Brubaker says. “We want to be known as good farmers willing to help others.”

Throughout the years, Brubaker has relied on his family, community and faith in God to promote good agribusiness. Education and community involvement remain a priority. The Brubakers share their farm with about 1,000 visitors every year, including students, neighbors, church groups and anyone interested in learning about dairies and agriculture.

With so much going on, when does Brubaker sit down to figure it all out? “Between 10 p.m. and midnight—that’s when I do my work,” he says. “I enjoy the challenge of tough decisions and trying to do what’s best for all parties involved.”

If Brubaker wasn’t good at making tough decisions, his farm wouldn’t be where it is today. “Luke’s personal foresight, coupled with an ability to embrace the resources around him, has enabled him to maintain balance in the evolution of his business,” says Don Hoover, president of Binkley & Hurst LP, an ag equipment outfitter.

If Brubaker is not manicuring the farm, in a meeting or at his desk, you might find him playing golf, but he’s still promoting agriculture and the dairy industry.

Life Around Lancaster

Farming in Lancaster County is no easy task. It’s essentially farming in the middle of an urban area of about half a million people. Brubakers must maintain neighborly relations, so the family keeps their farm perfectly manicured, which is no small task. They’ve done such a good job that when selling their houses, neighbors use the farm as a selling point—next to preserved farmland.

Learn more about the history and innovation that makes Brubaker Farms unique at www.TopProducer-Online.com/MeetLukeBrubaker .

Illinois Farmer Puts Best Face Forward

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:35:36 GMT

Farming the Mississippi River bottom yields boom times and busts

The view in tiny Meyer, Ill., resembled a scene from the movie “The Wizard of Oz.” The difference: Its roads and sidewalks were paved with yellow corn instead of bricks. It was 2008, and the Mississippi River had breached levees. Water rushed against the local elevator’s 700,000-bu. bin, busting its concrete foundation and spilling millions of dollars of crop.

It’s a memory 36-year-old Joe Zumwalt, who has spent his life farming the river-bottom ground, finds hard to shake. That year, he and his family lost 3,500 acres to the mighty river. So when history repeated itself this summer, Zumwalt remained stoic. As the rain-swollen river carried on its assault in July, he quietly watched the water swamp 200 of his 3,500 river-bottom acres of corn and soybeans.

“I think what’s happened this year is proof the levees work,” Zumwalt says. “If you stand on the top of the levee and look at the amount of water being held back and the devastation that could have occurred, you have to feel pretty good.”

Zumwalt is a positive person by nature. A person who has grown up with the Mississippi flowing behind his back is either optimistic or neurotic; he chooses optimism even in light of reports from USDA—Farm Service Agency (FSA) that the river and its tributaries destroyed at least 400,000 acres of Illinois crops this year. The flood came at a bad time as Midwest corn grew gangbusters and soybean plants matured. To Zumwalt, though, the endurance of the levees near his fields in Warsaw, Ill., matters most.

“I watched Joe handle tense situations during the flood with a smile on his face,” says Gerald Jenkins, general manager, Ursa Farmers Cooperative. Jenkins has worked with Zumwalt for years, including during his term as president of the local co-op. “He has made tough decisions in supporting the farmer–members, as well as showed outstanding strength in decision-making on behalf of the company itself.”

Strength of character, a positive attitude and wise decisions in the face of adversity are just some of the reasons Zumwalt was selected as a finalist for the 2014 Top Producer of the Year Award. He began farming in 1999, when one of his family’s tenants announced plans to retire. He started with 860 acres, primarily in the fertile floodplains. As a local boy, Zumwalt easily developed cash-rent relationships with older landlords and brought more acres into his corn, soybean and wheat rotation that made up his family’s 5,000-acre land and farming corporation.

Today, Zumwalt farms a mix of owned acres, cash-rent land and crop-share acres from ownership within his family’s operation, Hancock Land Company.

“My original goals were not to raise 250-bu. corn or to invent a new tillage practice,” Zumwalt notes. “I farm because I love the idea of production. I love the land. I want to be a quality asset in the industry.”

Financial Groundwork. He started out with limited debt. The 2000s marked a time of government support. Loan deficiency payments timed with limited market variability helped him maintain income. He used savings built up in high school and a small inheritance from grandparents to purchase used equipment.

For several winters, he painted equipment in exchange for harvest value. His mother financed equipment debt at a competitive rate, and he repaid it over a five-year period.

Despite suffering a financial loss with the 2008 flood, Zumwalt built a solid lending relationship with his bank, The Hill-Dodge Banking Company in Warsaw.

Devastation By The River

Zumwalt had farmed for only eight crop years when the Mississippi River flooded in 2008. That year, he faced complete crop failure. In his community, a levee failed and flooded 32,000 acres.

“I have witnessed a steady growth in the operation with additional acres, improved equipment and use of new technology,” says Gary Uhland, bank president. “All expansion and capital improvements to the operation are thoroughly considered before money is invested.”

In 2004, Zumwalt dedicated himself to achieving the goal of operating without debt. By 2008, in spite of complete crop failure from the flood that year, he ran his business with only a meager operating loan. Since then, Zumwalt has purchased larger equipment to support growth. He purchased a new combine in 2013, and he will offset the debt with custom harvesting.

“From a banker’s perspective, he is progressing on a well-defined plan,” Uhland says. “He truly recognizes the difference between the needs and wants of his operation. I have yet to see Joe act upon his want list. This is important to his banker, as well as his long-term success.”

Today, Zumwalt builds his net worth at a rate of 10% per year, much of it through careful investments in equipment that improve his operation and provide additional returns. “I no longer have to survive crop sale to crop sale,” he says.

Technology Is Your Friend. Wide-scale use of yield monitors, soil tests, variable-rate fertilizer application and auto-steer has helped Zumwalt innovate during tough times. He uses auto-steer on three of his four tractors and on his combine. The initial investment has paid off through fewer skips and overlaps at planting and added operational windows when the sun goes down, especially with fertilizer applications.

Although yield maps dating to 1988 are available for his acres, he has supplemented them with digitized data collection in recent years as well as digital soil type maps to create calculations for every acre.

“Over the past 10 years, I have seen an equalization of soil tests and yields across fields,” he says. “I’m almost to a point that a standard rate of fertilizer can be applied.” Inputs are placed where they are needed most, and at the end of the year, the use of evolving technology pays dividends. “Point rows cost money, unproductive tree lines cost money, overlaps and skips cost money, and a lack of bushels to sell costs money,” Zumwalt says. “As I keep this in mind, I am reminded how valuable technology really is.”

For example, he purchased a single light bar and discovered, in the first year, that the ability to work later into the evening cut several days off his fertilizer-application window. Those results justified the purchase of additional light bars.

After the Mississippi destroyed grain storage and machinery buildings on Zumwalt’s farm in 1993 and 2008, rebuilding within the floodplain was not an option.

“My operation needed a center, a place to grow, build and repair equipment,” Zumwalt says. “But we also needed a central place to meet for area producers.”

He constructed a state-of-the art 72’x216' shop covering 15,500 sq. ft. The facility features living quarters, office floors made of hewn wood and space for tools. He financed one-third of the shop; paid for another one-third in the crop year in which it was completed; and funded the final one-third with savings he built up over six years.

A prize shop, built after floods damaged Zumwalt’s former machine buildings, has become a central meeting place for farmers and legislators. The state-of-the-art 72’x216' shop covers 15,500 sq. ft. and features living quarters and plenty of space for tools. shoop covering

“His investment in the shop shows the pride that Joe takes in maintaining and caring for his line of equipment,” Uhland notes. “As a lender, I consider the care of equipment, or lack thereof, to be one of the areas that will eventually separate the successful from those less successful.”

Zumwalt prides himself in opening his shop doors to legislators interested in visiting the heart of production agriculture. “Nothing speaks louder than when a congressman visits your facility and he can hear the hum of working machinery in the background,” Zumwalt says.

Fighting the Good Fight. He will use the shop as meeting space while working with Illinois leaders to advocate for the streamlining of interstate flood prevention efforts. Although local farmers want the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to spearhead flood-fighting efforts, individual states currently dictate increases in river levels caused by levee repairs. Yet conflicting state standards can increase damage on one side of a swollen river, Zumwalt explains. Illinois has the most restrictive river-level rate among states bordering the Mississippi, making it more susceptible to flooding.

Repairs are still needed in some areas from 2008 flooding, in part because of questions about which agencies have the money and who will do the work.

Zumwalt lobbies for funding to build state-of-the-art navigational locks to reduce shipping delays that increase the price of grain.

With his easy demeanor and experience on the river, Zumwalt has as much chance as anyone to change policy. “I’m not planning to go anywhere, so I’ll keep fighting the good fight to help farmers in the river bottom stay above water,” he adds.

Joe Zumwalts says his obligation is to give back to the community.

Zumwalt Farms At a Glance

Business Structure: Joe Zumwalt, 36, and his family farm 4,500 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat near Warsaw, Ill. He is a partner in his family’s business, Hancock Land Company. More than 80% of the acres he farms are family-owned.

Leadership: Zumwalt hosts on-farm meetings with state and national legislators on timely issues related to farming and water. One key meeting included 80 state government officials and local producers affected by drainage issues. “Those in attendance sunk their feet in the levee and saw firsthand the impacts of farming on a local economy,” Zumwalt notes. “That makes a difference in later discussions.”

Community Service: Zumwalt lives by the saying, “to much is given, much is expected.” He has served on the Hancock County Farm Bureau Board for 15 years and State of Illinois Young Leader Committee. He is in his 10th year on the Ursa Farmers Cooperative Board. He has served on boards at Trinity United Methodist Church, the Hancock County Economic Development Committee and Greater Keokuk Area Foundation Committee.

Find a Mentor: “Let’s face it, in modern agriculture, everyone needs guidance,” Zumwalt says. He has worked not only with family members but also with older producers in the area. Early on, Zumwalt offered to truck grain for experienced farmers just to be part of their operations and learn from them. One of his key mentors is a board member of the local co-op.

Patient Advance

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:33:04 GMT

Jay and Cara Myers take farm to new heights with test plots, data

This day in late May is an anomaly. Conditions above the expansive, flat and fertile Red River Valley are warm and dry. Jay Myers is behind in planting corn, the latest he’s ever been at this point in spring. The quiet and patient confidence he projects and his acceptance of farming’s biggest challenge—the weather—would make you think planting season were over rather than just being underway.

Jay is the fifth generation to farm near Colfax, N.D. It is the 11th hour for planting, and another crisis looms; a university researcher is planting test plots for research Jay sponsors and has misplaced some products. He deals with the problem with focused intensity on reality rather than accusation and frustration. Five minutes and three phone conversations later, he arranges for his wife and farm partner, Cara, to deliver the products so the research can be completed.

Jay is like that: cool, centered, solutions-oriented. He doesn’t let emotions get the best of him. Part of that confidence comes from lessons hard-won when he started farming amid the 1980s farm crisis.

“We still can get a good return,” Jay says wryly. He’s sure despite a corn-planting cutoff date nine days away. Less than two weeks later, both corn and soybeans are planted on time. A new 24-row planter enabled 50% faster completion.

That’s one side of Jay. Inside the tractor cab, where he controls a caravan of planting and fertilizer equipment, a different side emerges. An attentive Jay eagerly watches four monitors showing real-time data for planting and fertilizing and identifying problems in need of correction. The monitors provide detailed information not only on this field near his home place but also on operations at fields up to 20 miles away.

Striving to Improve. Although he is a seasoned farming veteran, Jay constantly looks for ways to be more efficient and profitable. For example, though he’s banded fertilizer for years, preliminary research convinced him to band fertilizer on both sides of the rows this year. He will compare the results against those of single-banded rows in a test plot. Jay wants his own farm’s data before he makes the practice permanent.

Delegation of responsibilities and adoption of Big Data are two keys to the Myers’ business success. Cara is a certified public accountant who previously worked at Microsoft. “Cara’s experience gives her a good eye on financial issues,” Jay explains.

Fusing technology with field scouting is critical. A monitor for his Precision Planting unit provides real-time readouts on both seed spacing and plant population. The display connects to his iPad in the cab and to Google Earth. The system allows him to troubleshoot. While planting this spring, an alert on his iPad revealed light plant populations around a disk. Further examination uncovered a bouncing 1.25" ribbon of silicon that had kept the machine from planting correctly. He immediately fixed the problem, which would have produced erroneous test results during the season.

A lifelong learner, Jay holds a degree in agricultural economics from North Dakota State University. He is in constant motion and seeks to run the farm as a tightly managed manufacturing plant. Rigorous testing is a big part of that. This year, six different test plots will allow him to compare competitive fertilizer and seed products. Although company and university trials can provide important information, there is no substitute for replicated tests on individual farms and fields.

“Salesmen have a vested interest in selling seed and fertilizer products in their lineup,” Jay says.

His research has found yield differences up to 15 bu. per acre between competitive products that supposedly have the same ingredients. “In reality, products that are supposed to be the same are not,” he says.

It might not be the active ingredients listed that are different but differences in heavy metals, pH and salt index that can impact fertilizer quality and ultimately yield. “For one product, we replicated the trial three times on different parts of the field,” Jay explains. “Our testing program is a lot of work, but it’s also one of our comparative advantages.”

In addition to conducting rigorous on-farm tests, Jay sends fertilizer products to independent labs for analysis with sometimes surprising results. For example, some products have poor quality that can harm the crop. They can set back or even reduce crop emergence. The experience is like driving an inexpensive car versus a Cadillac. “Cheaper products sometimes are far more costly than a premium product,” he says.

Spinoff Farm Business. The emphasis on testing resulted in a new farm business, AgroValley Solutions. As word of Jay’s research spread, area farmers wanted to take advantage of the results. He started selling fertilizer and, in turn, equipment. Since then, the business has expanded into a regional company.

The approach is not lost on the team of experts with whom they do business. “When Jay started to farm with his father, the size and scope of the original farm was smaller than most other farms in the area,” says Annette Loken, senior agricultural specialist with Wells Fargo. “Jay had to implement new and effective yield/field management to maximize his profitability. Over the years, they have been able to maintain high profits with cost containment.”

Those successful practices are foundational to the couple’s role in the farming community.

“Jay and Cara are teachers,” explains Dennis Dammen, owner of Crop-Maxx, an advisory and consulting business. “They are often asked to provide training and assistance to others.”

Although the couple’s corn and soybean yields are 10% better, on average, than typical yields in the upper part of the Corn Belt, profit per acre is the factor that drives Jay. “I strive to be a low-cost producer,” he says. Armed with data from on-farm trials, he can turn a profit even with $4 corn.

Believers in Big Data. The benefits of gathering data go beyond keeping track of the planter and combine. “We have added the ability to monitor our grain dryer remotely with an iPad and cellular Internet,” Jay notes. “This allows me to have an iPad in the combine and monitor functions on the dryer and everything running at the grain site without someone being there. I can do the job of two people this way.”

An efficient workforce is crucial to farming in North Dakota, where it’s difficult to find and keep good workers amid an oil boom that has pushed unemployment below 4%. The job environment led the couple to devise an incentive pay system that rewards employees for staying throughout the busy seasons. It also prompted them to adopt precision farming tools early. “I use the latest technology with RTK auto steer to make driving equipment less stressful and to be able to hire part-time employees to drive with less experience,” Jay explains.

Evidence of patient and carefully planned progress extends beyond the tractor cab to every facet of farm. It is a reflection of Jay and Cara’s commitment to leaving a legacy for the next generation. They have enrolled in the Conservation Stewardship Program for their fourth year. “This has allowed us to sign up with different enhancements that monitor what we use for fertility through soil tests and fertility tests and tissue tests,” Jay says. “We also practice conservation with strip till and placement of nutrients to become better stewards of the land.”

Teachers and lifelong learners, the Myers hope to farm for many years to come and to pass on their foundational knowledge to the next generation of agriculture.

Come Hail or High Water

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:30:22 GMT

Risk manager defies weather with irrigation tech, diverse crops

On a recent spring morning, self-described risk manager Roric Paulman switched into full damage-control mode. A storm the night before dumped hail on his emerging popcorn crop and up to 2.5" of rain within 45 minutes on parts of his roughly 9,000 acres.

“We’re in a jam,” Roric relayed to a dealer over the phone. The Sutherland, Neb., producer found himself dispatching team members to gather parts to build a pump and drain water away from the power panel of a center-pivot irrigation system. He put in a call asking his insurance agent whether he could switch to production hail coverage.

He moved nimbly from his office phone to his cellphone to his shop nearby to ask questions, give directions and receive status updates. While Roric admits he’s not very good at prioritizing—a fact that drives his wife crazy—he is exceptionally good at tinkering and quickly identifying solutions to problems.

Even with his long to-do list, he didn’t think twice about helping a friend with a flooded cattle feedlot.

“It’s pretty much wide open in terms of who we look to and who we help,” he explains.

Loss To Leadership. Although the severity of the storm proved unusual, that hands-on approach to management is nothing new for Roric. He owns and operates Paulman Farms with his wife, Debra, near the tan, gently sloping Sandhills of western Nebraska. They have been married for 35 years, 30 of which they’ve spent farming full-time.

Over that time, Roric has set himself apart via constant networking, a practice that has led him to grow a rich array of crops, participate in cutting-edge research and spearhead statewide water conservation efforts. These are just a few of the qualities that led him to being named a 2015 Top Producer of the Year finalist.

“Roric is a noted leader on ag issues in our state,” says Matthew Williams, president, Gothenburg State Bank and a longtime friend. “He has been involved in water issues and is currently president of the Nebraska Water Balance Alliance. Through his work with this group, water users from different disciplines build a consensus.”

Yet like the bountiful but fragile Ogallala Aquifer beneath his family’s farm, Roric knows what it feels like both to reap rich harvests and to be depleted. In 1985, he left a budding career with Caterpillar in Omaha to begin farming full-time with his father. Six months later, his dad died, and he looked on as creditors repossessed the land his family had worked so hard to own and preserve.

Yet the Paulmans didn’t give up.

“We contacted all of the landowners we had been farming for to see if they would stay with us,” Roric recalls. “The options included continuing to rent their land or to custom farm for them. By the grace of God, they all said yes, and that gave us the start we needed. That year was rock bottom for us, but we diligently pursued our passion and grew into the operation that we have today.”

Under Roric’s leadership, the farm has expanded into a multi-million-dollar venture. This year, he will grow roughly a dozen crops, including corn, wheat, dry beans and popcorn. He’s added chai (as in chai tea) as part of a dryland experiment. They mix changes annually based on relationships he’s formed and opportunities he finds to earn premiums.

Team Focus. Roric nurtures members of his farm team, ensuring quality in every aspect of his business.

“My goal is to continue to find ways to bring people back into agriculture and to show them it is a viable career going forward in order to feed a growing population,” Roric explains. “Leaving the ground in better condition than I received it for future generations is the legacy I want to leave behind.”

The farm has three full-time and eight part-time employees. He also has partnered with his son, Zachary, and lead employee, Tony Holm, each of whom farms 1,000 acres to learn the business of farming.

“They have a vested interest not only in their own but in this operation,” Roric explains. His ability to communicate calmly and his emphasis on knowing breakeven at all times have been helpful, Zachary notes.

“There are a lot of bad things that happen around the farm, from weather to breakdowns to equipment failure. He never gets upset about it,” Zachary points out.

As an employee for more than 20 years, Holm adds Roric’s guidance has enabled him to do what he loves.

“My father farmed, but about the time I got really interested in it as a job, my dad had retired from farming,” Holm explains. “Roric’s been the one I’ve worked for and learned from. He’s there for me to bounce questions off of and to help me, and he lets me get my own feet wet, too.”

Local unemployment is just 2%, making it difficult to find and retain good workers. As a result, Roric has an open-door policy and takes a chance on people other employers have rejected because of a drug addiction or background problems. Those employees have gone on to become productive team members.

“It’s a great place to work,” he says. “We believe in building strong relationships to last a lifetime.”

From The Ground Up. On average, the region surrounding Paulman Farms sees up to nine hail days each year—the highest rate in the nation. The ever-changing environment is an appropriate foil to Roric, whose foresight has created a safety net of proven business partners and farming practices to offset risk.

Responsibilities handled by Roric include purchases, grain sales, oversight of truck loads and deliveries, payroll and coordination of repairs. Debra works part-time for the operation and manages the farm’s finances using enterprise analysis.

The operation has built an edge with innovative crop marketing.

“We focus on quality, especially with our dry beans and popcorn,” Roric explains. “We direct cut dry beans, delivering clean beans to the end user, including a large restaurant chain. We have cleaned, bagged and sold both popcorn and dry beans directly from the farm. To do this, we originate our own freight.”

Because he farms conventional, specialty and organic crops, Roric pastes a piece of paper with the past five years of crop rotations on his desk. This allows him to cross-check crops before approving application of chemicals or other inputs that could harm neighboring plants. He sells his crops when he can realize a profit and hedges corn and soybeans several years in advance. Crop insurance is a critical part of his marketing plan, and he budgets $70 to $80 per acre for the expense.

Zachary Paulman (left) is a farm partner with his parents, Debra and Roric, who are teaching him the skills needed to run the operation in the future.

Conservation With Technology. All of the land farmed by the Paulmans is under irrigation fed largely by groundwater, making conservation a top priority. They use cutting-edge technology to increase yields while managing water use. This includes RTK and variable-rate seeding and fertilizer application.

The Paulmans partner with leaders across the state to capture data on their farm documenting how much water each crop and field uses. The cutting-edge research led former Gov. Dave Heinemann to appoint Roric to the Governor’s Water Funding Task Force.

“Roric led the team to find sustainable funding to support Nebraska water projects,” recalls D. Chandler Mazour, former manager of Monsanto’s Water Utilization Learning Center. “The result of the work from this team was significant financial appropriations from the Nebraska legislature.”

His knack for banding people together prompted Roric to seek election as a senator representing Nebraska’s 42nd District this fall.

Although he didn’t win, he made an impact—Roric lost by just 300 votes out of 10,000 cast. He says he took the high road, refusing to respond to critics even after they pulled data from the Environmental Working Group’s website and used it to portray him as a corporate farmer who operates at the expense of taxpayers. He’s proud of his effort.

“If you want your community and your state to be a better place,” he points out, “you have to give your time to make that happen.” He recently joined the Top Producer Executive Network (TPEN) to learn from other producers.

Community Leader. Roric and his family have come a long way from the rock bottom days of the ‘80s.

“Roric has never been one to sit in the back seat,” notes Williams of Gothenburg State Bank. “When given an opportunity to lead, Roric has always accepted the challenge.”

Part of what makes him so successful is his close connection to all aspects of Paulman Farms.

“Roric has developed good business plans, learned to use his cashflow and all tools and resources available to him, and has become an above-average marketer,” explains Jen Winder, vice president of commercial and ag banking, Adams Bank & Trust in North Platte, Neb.

Today, Roric aims to fight for the right thing. He knows there’s still work to be done to ensure American agriculture remains an industry full of opportunities.

Paulman Farms At A Glance

OPERATION: Paulman Farms spans 9,000 acres in southwest Nebraska. The operation’s mix of more than a dozen crops changes annually. The farm is a state leader in water management.

FAMILY: Roric and Debra Paulman have four children, three of whom now work off-farm. Roric and son Zachary are full-time farm partners. Debra is a part-time partner and full-time educator. Roric leads day-to-day operations, and Debra handles finances. They have recently begun a succession plan that calls for Zachary to lead the farm in the future.

COMMUNITY: Service is a key component of Roric’s mission. A snapshot of his roles include the Nebraska Governor’s Water Funding Taskforce, The Nature Conservancy, Great Plains Regional Medical Center, Sutherland Rural Fire Board and the Adams Bank and Trust Regional Advisory Board.

TECHNOLOGY: Rapid adoption of technology is a hallmark of Paulman Farms. Variable-rate systems are used across the operation to reduce waste and maximize inputs. Roric meets with his suppliers to review yield data, ask questions and make plans.

Harvester of Opportunity

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:29:31 GMT

Straw market expertise indelibly links producer to Asian dairies, feedlots

Stan Boshart built his career out of straw starting with a kiddie pool and three feuding friends.

The producer and father of five from Tangent, Ore., watched in 1986 as straw trucks rumbled past his home as he lay in 1-ft.-deep water with two of his young daughters. From an early age, he’d helped his dad farm the fertile Willamette Valley, and he’d grown into his own trucking business hauling just about everything from lime to lumber.

Now he needed to stay close to home to raise his family, and he desperately wanted to farm again.

“I wanted to touch that straw,” explains Stan, 56.

Two years later, Stan’s opportunity showed up outside his red office door in the form of three grouchy friends. He’d called a meeting with Richard Boshart, Stan’s brother who is a local farmer; Joe, a farmer and baler; and Duff, a straw buyer.

“Those three were frustrated with each other,” Stan says. Richard needed the straw off his field; Joe hadn’t been paid for his baling services; and Duff hadn’t paid for the past year and didn’t want to promise payment for the new year.

One by one, Stan asked whether they’d be willing to work together. One by one, they refused. “When each one of those guys said ‘No,’ I was saying, ‘Yes!’” he recalls.

So Stan offered to pay Joe to bale for Richard and to sell the straw to Duff. The three agreed.

From Startup To Standout. Stan didn’t know if straw would be profitable, but he needed the money. “I wanted a lot of work,” he says.

Today, he manages a business with annual sales of more than $8 million alongside his wife, Lori, and daughter, Shelly Boshart Davis. The family operates four entities: Boshart Trucking, which ships straw; BOSSCO Trading, which handles international marketing and sales; PressCo, which manages pressing and container loading; and SJB Farms, where Stan grows grass seed, radish seed, wheat and hazelnuts.

Over time, all five of Stan’s kids, his brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews have worked for the family farm. This summer marked the first harvest with one of Stan’s grandchildren operating a tractor. At peak capacity, their team uses 11 balers to custom harvest 25,000 to 28,000 acres owned by about 45 farmers, after which straw is baled, stored, pressed and packed into containers for shipment to dairies and feedlots in Japan and South Korea.

Stan’s entrepreneurial development of the straw-harvesting market and his dedication to customer service are some of the many reasons he earned recognition as a 2015 Top Producer of the Year finalist.

“We have watched Stan and Lori manage the business with not only what makes sense at the time but how will these decisions impact their business in the future, whether it is financially, managerially or for their customers,” says Jeff Johnson, relationship manager with Northwest Farm Credit Services, Stan’s lender for the past 15 years.

Harvest Comes First. All operations lead up to summer. “To be ready for harvest is our No. 1 goal year-round,” he says. The urgency of harvest proved especially true this year amid dry conditions. Less moisture meant an earlier and condensed harvest window of four weeks versus the typical five and a half.
The planning process begins in May, when the team—including Stan; Shelly, who is vice president of international sales; Eric Martin, operations manager; and Cassie Rugh, human resources and safety manager—put together a plan identifying needs for seasonal workers. Temporary employees include school bus drivers, teachers and teens. This year’s harvest workforce totaled 85.

Boshart Trucking team member Oso Rodriguez moves bales into a barn. Bales are spray-painted with black letters and numbers to indicate the crew chief who helped harvest it and the number of the field from which it came. Photo: Nate Birt

Employing teens is a huge liability, Stan admits, but it enables young people to experience one of the toughest jobs they’ll do while earning up to $12.50 an hour. Students complete a tractor safety course and undergo rigorous on-farm screening.

“It’s really important that young people are exposed to hard work,” he says. “When we get done with them, they’re qualified workers.”

During harvest, mornings are spent greasing and oiling machines. Raking and baling begins once the dew dries. The team includes operations managers, crew chiefs, raker operators and baler operators.

Each of the operation’s balers can make 400 to 600 bales per day for a total of about 5,500 bales per day. Each bale weighs between 1,000 lb. and 1,200 lb. For all 11 balers, Stan has built accumulators, shelf-like platforms that group and place bales on the ground simultaneously for efficient stacking and pickup.

Stacked bales are taken from the field and placed onto a fleet of trucks, which put away an average of 60 loads per day into one of 14 barns. Each barn holds roughly 7,000 tons of straw.

Ship Out. Straw is marketed internationally over the next 10 months. Because straw isn’t a commodity, Stan doesn’t do forward contracting. Overseas customers order straw as they need it. The Bosharts work directly with Asian dairy and beef farms with which they’ve cultivated relationships over the past 15 years.

Shelly joined the operation full-time nine years ago and has implemented systems to secure sales and nurture those relationships.

“The marketing is really a negotiation between the customer and the supplier,” Shelly says.

That includes reassuring buyers that when straw color varies because of weather or field conditions, it remains of the same quality, she says.

To Stan, straw is the equivalent of the potato in a steak-and-potato dinner. Cows need 2 lb. of daily protein and 15 lb. of roughage, the latter of which straw provides. It might not get the glory protein enjoys, but it remains a vital part of the diet.

The price the Bosharts get for straw is determined by several factors. First is the yen-dollar exchange rate, which in late August stood at roughly 124 yen to one U.S. dollar. That has made U.S. straw less competitive than two years ago.

Second are typhoons, which can damage Asian rice straw crops and drive purchases of U.S. straw higher.

Shelly travels internationally one or two times each year and visits livestock operations as well as straw storage facilities to understand customers’ needs. Stan’s Willamette Valley-based PressCo business entity, which presses and packs straw for export, has several packaging types including sleeves and plastic straps. The business has changed the way it handles the crop to improve ease of unloading and stacking overseas. In the early 2000s, they expanded their farm office to two stories because buyers wanted evidence of the operation’s successfulness. Stan bought a red Ford pickup and arrived at the airport before farm tours wearing a cowboy hat. “They feel like they are getting part of America for them to enjoy,” he says.

Although Shelly says people sometimes call her Stan—“so I must be doing something right”—she notes he has an innate ability to turn numbers into business decisions.

“He is able to see things that a lot of people can’t,” she explains.

Port To Orchard. Transportation problems outside of Stan’s control dramatically changed shipment dynamics this past year. Moreover, the crop makeup of the valley is changing. Both factors have led Stan to critically assess how he will do business in the future.

Team member bridger Martin, 14, uses a bale scoop to squeeze bales into a stack. Stacks are placed on the ground for loading. This marked the first year on the farm for Bridger, whose father is operations manager Eric Martin.
Photo: Nate Birt

On the transportation side, West Coast ports slowed down for months beginning in November during a contract dispute by longshoremen. The Bosharts paid thousands in unanticipated overtime for truckers and booking changes.

It will take one to three years to determine whether the slowdown scared buyers into purchasing products from other locations.

Consumer demands are also changing. Stan recognizes the region’s farmers will potentially plant less rye grass for seed in the future, resulting in less turf seed and straw production. Grass seed remains valuable for cover crops and cattle pastures but is less sought out for lawns amid water scarcity concerns. As a result, Stan is planting hazelnuts to diversify his crop mix. They are growing in popularity as a health food, plus they “go into chocolate candy bars great,” Stan says.

In the past two years, Stan has planted 28 acres to hazelnuts. It will take four years for the trees to begin yielding enough to harvest with maximum yield at 12 to 13 years.

Driven By Partnerships. In 1950, local farmers helped Stan’s dad, Merrill, adapt to Oregon’s agriculture and climate after relocating to the state. The Bosharts trace their roots to Nebraska corn and hog farmers.

Although Stan says his dad never strived for financial success, he was a hard worker and someone who put his church and family first. Stan himself didn’t always enjoy financial success, so he draws inspiration from his father’s leadership and endurance.

“I need a word that describes my first years of farming,” Stan says.
“You mean broke?” Lori quips.

“Challenging is a very polite word,” explains Stan, referring to the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. “They were awful. It was a test of endurance. It was like a seven-year marathon.”

Today, Stan has forged close working relationships with buyers, local farmers and suppliers. He praises his local equipment dealership, Linn Benton Tractor Co., for its leadership under service manager Roy Garman and employees’ ability to arrive on site to repair machinery within 15 minutes of a breakdown.

“We have gained an appreciation of how Stan manages his operations through good times and when things are tough,” Garman says. “His standards of excellence help in making well-informed decisions under any circumstance.”

Stan is particularly proud of his children, all of whom continue to live in the Willamette Valley. He says they have learned from his mistakes. “My children had to participate in my struggles simply by being children,” Stan says. “Out of those struggles, just like I watched my dad and improved on his ideas, I hope the same for my kids.”

As a trucker and producer dedicated to the highest standards of excellence, Stan has become the engine that will drive the Bosharts’ operation into the future.

A Toast to Tradition

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:28:12 GMT

Kentucky farm with deep roots grows vertically and professionally

To say the Petersons have a long history of farming is a severe understatement.

“One of our direct ancestors farmed Manhattan Island, N.Y., in the 1600s,” says Bill Peterson, a partner of Peterson Farms. “There’s been 13 generations since the Manhattan farmer, and there have been farmers in every generation of our family.”

Peterson Farms At A Glance

Operation: Peterson Farms produces GMO and non-GMO corn, soybeans, wheat and canola on 3,100 owned and 12,400 rented acres in central Kentucky. Nearly 6,000 acres are planted and harvested twice each year. They sell wheat and corn to bourbon distilleries. Non-GMO soybeans go to Japan and Korea for tofu and other products.

Team: The farm is a partnership among three brothers and a son: David, Bernard, Bill and his son Albert. David’s wife, Sandy, and Albert’s wife, Karen, hold key office and financial roles. The team also includes 15 full-time and 14 seasonal employees.

Community: The Petersons are involved with several farm and commodity organizations and serve on numerous community boards, including school boards and local arts councils. The family donates grain to its local FFA chapter.

Technology: “With a family full of engineers, we are always looking to be more productive,” Albert says. They use GPS on nearly every machine and have used yield maps since the early 1990s. An inventory management software system links to their phones and tracks seed, chemical and fertilizer on all fields. They use software to manage truck logistics, accrual accounting and more.

Although the operation has grown in sophistication, the passion of its owners is definitely genetic. In the past decade, the Petersons have doubled their crop acres. Total acreage tops 15,500 in seven counties that span 90 miles.

The current management team includes three brothers and a son—Bernard, 55; David, 61; Bill, 67; and his son Albert, 41. Their strong business focus led them to produce GMO and non-GMO crops for specific end users, such as world-famous bourbon distilleries and international markets.

The Petersons grow wheat, corn, soybeans and canola on a patchwork of more than 400 small fields below tree-topped hills in central Kentucky.

The ability to seize opportunities is central for the Petersons. They stay true to their core values, in addition to establishing a sustainable growth strategy and progressive succession plan. As a result, they were recognized as the 2015 Top Producer of the Year winners.

Southern Living. In the 1950s, the brothers’ grandfather John C. Peterson founded the Kentucky operation as a dairy. He bottled and delivered milk to capture extra value. When large milk processing plants came and made his on-farm bottling facility non-competitive, he exited the venture and focused on dairy and crop production.

“He was successful because he knew how to adapt to change when the tide had turned,” Albert says.

Eleven children and 55 grandchildren later, the operation is a modern-day success story.

Recipe for Success. The Petersons view their land as an investment, devoting time and technology to maximize yields on each acre.

Since 2006, they have installed more than 2 million feet of drainage tile. “The success of these efforts is dramatic,” Albert says. “Even in our wet soil types once considered poor, we have achieved 200-bu. yields.”

Each field averages 30 acres in size, so planting and harvest logistics is the equivalent of a 400-piece jigsaw puzzle. “We plant fields in an order, starting up river and moving down river,” Albert says. “We have a plan, but it is always altered by weather. Our field moves are often, but we try to make them short distances.”

Central Kentucky’s topography requires the Petersons to navigate small fields and winding roads, but they wouldn’t trade their location for anything. One reason is they’re centered in the heart of the world’s bourbon whiskey distilling area.

“Within 45 miles of our grain facility, 90% of the world’s bourbon is made,” Bernard says. For 35 years, the Petersons have been the main supplier of soft red winter wheat to Maker’s Mark, a world-famous and growing bourbon distillery.

The grain ingredients of Maker’s Mark include approximately 70% corn, 16% soft red winter wheat and 14% malted barley.

“Because Maker’s Mark is a high-end whiskey, we need high-end grains,” explains Greg Davis, the company’s master distiller. “We want to go from the farm to the distillery to the consumer and keep that as tight as possible.”

Maker’s Mark has used the same recipe and yeast strain for more than 150 years, so every load from the Petersons must meet strict quality guidelines. The distillery has only 26 hours of grain storage capacity, so they deliver wheat daily.

The Petersons sell grain to six other local distilleries. To do so, they’ve invested in 2 million bushels of grain storage capacity. Their high-tech bin system allows them to monitor quality and segregate GMO from non-GMO grain.

Storage is key in their marketing plan. It allows them to capture carry in the grain markets and secure multiyear contracts.

To meet local and constant demand for their crops, the Petersons invested in grain storage. Their total capacity is 2 million bushels.

Team Development. All four of the Petersons attended the University of Kentucky, earning engineering and ag degrees. After college, Albert worked as an engineer for John Deere Harvester Works in Moline, Ill. “I came home every other weekend [eight hours each way] for harvest,” he says. “I was 25, and I loved it.” He couldn’t wait to farm full-time, so he took a pay cut and moved back in 2001.

The Petersons were building a first-class team, but their management structure wasn’t keeping up.

“For years, my uncles and father had a loosely-structured partnership,” Albert recalls. “I was back at the farm for over a decade before officially becoming one of the business owners. It wasn’t settling, since you can’t read people’s minds.”

After years of saying “we need to do something,” the Petersons hired experts and prioritized succession.

“We can look at our nieces, nephews and grandchildren,” Bernard says. “But they may not have a desire to be part of the farm, so we wanted it open so others could join us. Long-term, to get top management people, we needed to have that ability.”

Invaluable Partners. The Petersons spend quality time with their 92 landlords and offer many leasing options. They include investors, former farmers and celebrity radio host Rick Dees.

Landowners seek out the Petersons for renting their land, which has led to most of their acreage growth.

“They know the Petersons will do a professional job of taking care of their land,” says Johnne Syverson, president of Transition Point Business Advisors and the family’s lead consultant for succession
and financial planning.

The four managers have clearly defined roles. Bill heads up land management. David oversees marketing and the elevator. Bernard is the face customers see, as well as the lead on financial analysis. Albert manages farm operations.

David’s wife, Sandy, is office manager and Albert’s wife, Karen, is human resources manager and an accounts payable specialist. There are 15 full-time and 14 seasonal employees. Future growth will depend on finding qualified employees.

“We’re looking into more benefits, like retirement options and safety and wellness programs to entice employees,” Karen says.

The team focus is working.

“I admire the harmony among the owners and employees,” says Moe Russell, a farm adviser and president of Russell Consulting Group.

Now, the Petersons are keeping their eyes on the future.

“We have come a long way in being more formal and like a business with the organization and systems we’re putting in place,” Sandy points out.

Disciplined Expansion. The Petersons evaluate opportunities based on if they have the energy and expertise to pursue them. “Our intention is not growth for the sake of growth,” Albert says. “We want to grow vertically and professionally.”

Goals include allowing senior team members to ease out of day-to-day operations.

Peterson Farms remains successful 13 generations later. Why? Bernard cites: “Family support, hard work, people working together, good fortune and the grace of God. We are blessed we love what we do.”

Snapshot Of A Comprehensive Succession Plan

The Petersons hired Johnne Syverson with Transition Point Business Advisors to lead their succession planning process. It spanned two years and included a collaborative group of experts. He provides an overview.

Phase I: Diagnostic

Syverson’s team interviewed key stakeholders and their spouses.
The family provided a package of current legal documents and financials for review.
Syverson’s team presented a report, which highlighted interview themes, personality styles, gaps between the partners’ vision for the future and existing circumstances, and potential solutions.

Phase II: Plan Design and Implementation

A team of experts developed recommendations to match the Petersons’ goals. They created three new business entities to provide a structure into which Albert and others could be integrated into ownership of the operation.
A buy/sell agreement for each entity clarified what would happen if an owner or partner exited.

Phase III: Sustainability

The four partners, their spouses and advisers hold an annual business review meeting. They evaluate decisions from the previous year, report on previous action items and review a financial report.
The group discusses strategic issues, such as land acquisitions.
A celebration dinner follows the day-long meeting as a capstone to another successful year.

Attention To Every Row: From Poor Soil to Verdant Fields

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:26:57 GMT

Alabama transplant turns poor soils into a pioneering 10,000-acre enterprise

A 2,000-acre stretch of dark green foliage, possibly the largest contiguous soybean field east of the Mississippi Delta, shimmers under a painted blue sky at mid-afternoon. A skin of humidity hovers over the canopy as a searing late-June sun turns the horizon to a hazy anvil, but the fields are no mirage. Standing in the middle of this sea of green, watching warily over it all, is the captain of the ship: Annie Dee.

Tucked into the hills of east-central Alabama, Dee River Ranch is a 10,000-acre piece of heaven, with 4,000 crop acres split between corn and soybeans. It’s a model of soil fertility, precision technology and high yields, forged by the drive of a remarkable producer. Yet wipe away the gleam of crop success and you’ll expose the vein threaded beneath the entire operation: service that goes far beyond the fence line. For these reasons, Dee earned a spot as a 2016 Top Producer of the Year finalist.

In the late 1980s, Dee’s father, J. Roy Dee, farmed and raised cattle on 10,000 acres of sugar sand in central Florida. Amid looming shortages, their water district pegged the Dee property as vital to residents of Tampa and St. Petersburg.

J. Roy didn’t wait on the iron hand of eminent domain. He went to the table and walked away with pockets full, ready to begin again anywhere in the southeast crop belt from South Carolina to Texas. Through circumstance, fortune or providence, he caught wind of land available 700 miles away. J. Roy signed the deed, didn’t look back and headed for Aliceville, Ala.

Go West, Young Woman. In lock-step with her father, Annie Dee packed and stacked a Florida farm and hit the road for Aliceville in 1989, going west with cattle and a caravan of equipment. But there was no green and gold waiting in Alabama, just depleted ground, weed pressure and a farm in disrepair.

“We had no real plan because we didn’t even understand the soil,” Dee says. “Our first couple of years were necessary failures. You either complain or embrace failure and learn.”

Dee nursed the dirt, uncovered soil complexities and had the ground in genuine recovery within five years. Today, 27 years after the initial land purchase, the soil has been reborn. Tillage is out. Cover crops are in.

She reaches between remarkably clean rows for a handful of blackland prairie soil and sifts the particles as they fall to the ground, a mix of rich dirt, cover-crop residue and poultry litter. Simply put, it’s an elixir of soil health. Dee follows a 2.5-acre grid soil sampling setup to measure cover crop benefits and manages resources and inputs with OptiGro precision ag mapping and farm history tools from Cleveland, Miss.-based Sanders, an inputs and tech provider.

“We’re no-till if we can,” she explains. “It’s naturally weak soil, and continuous tillage does lots of damage.” Dee started with wheat as a cover crop, switched to rye and settled on clover, winter peas, radishes, rapeseed, rye and turnips. Every year, she makes slight changes.

Saved By Water. Even after the penny dropped and Dee unlocked the soil-fertility code, she continued to fight a yield battle. Dryland corn yields of 150 bu. to 160 bu. per acre weren’t acceptable over the long term, and several agronomists told her the math was fixed. She could drop in a pivot and maybe boost yields to 180 bu. per acre, but it wouldn’t justify the payout.

Dee didn’t flinch.

“I knew we could do it. Forget 180,” she recalls. “I knew we had the soil fertility for 300 bu. per acre under irrigation.” Yet Dee bled yields during years when crops burned. She struggled with whether to give the crops a drink or hold the line.

In 2011, Dee River Ranch chose the first option. A 25-acre reservoir would irrigate 310 acres in tandem with a cattle pond to water 114 acres. The result? A 125-bu.-per-acre leap that, combined with $7 corn, almost paid for the system in a single season. It shook Dee to the core.

“I was ready to go big,” she says.

The decision looked risky to some. Was it really a good idea to reach into the coffers and make a big financial commitment based on a single year of fantastic yields? Dee stepped on the gas anyway.

“Sure, I had doubters,” she says. “Guess what? Everyone has doubters. Hit a wall and back up to find a way around, no matter what. That’s the personality I was born with.”

Solving The Puzzle. The next challenge Dee had to address: how to pull irrigation water, whether from a river, creek, wells or a reservoir. The magnitude of the project left no second chances. It had to be correct from the get-go. When Lindsay Corporation put pencil to paper and broke down the efficiency options, all numbers pointed toward building a reservoir.

Lindsay designed a whole-farm irrigation system fed by a 110-acre reservoir built on idle land. Five Watertronics 150-hp pumps with variable frequency drive control technology now supply water to 2,850 acres. Lindsay touts the design as the most energy-efficient irrigation system in U.S. agriculture.

The pumps feed 17 center pivots mounted with Growsmart Field Boss control panels. Lindsay’s FieldNET is used to control all pivots and pumps through the ezWireless broadband network and can be accessed by tablet or smartphone.

“This was a very insightful plan for the long-range sustainability of the farming operation,” says Ed Boyd, regional president of Alabama Ag Credit, Dee’s lending partner since 2011. “A large part of the farming risk was reduced by having irrigation available during critical times in the growing season.”

The ranch’s 17-pivot irrigation system has been dubbed by its designer, Lindsay Corporation, as the most energy-efficient anywhere in the U.S.

Old math has been trumped by new yields. Corn routinely explodes to over 300 bu. per acre. The yields forced Dee to double grain-handling capacity from 125,000 bu. to 250,000 bu. In wet years, the 17-pivot system pushes yields, and in dry years it is the difference-maker. Since 2011, per-acre corn profits on nonirrigated acres have ranged from $144 per acre to $1,093 per acre, Dee says. (Soybean incomes on nonirrigated acres have ranged from $115 per acre to $215 per acre.) The total return on irrigation investment has been 31% over that timeframe.

Success In Plain View. At first blush, Dee might appear to be removed from the daily grind. Yet spend a day watching her drive cattle, operate a combine and troubleshoot fields—all while calling the shots on commodity marketing—and the reality is plain. Dee belongs in the dirt, and the wheels at the ranch don’t turn without her.

“It’s apparent to me that Miss Annie’s commitment to soil and water conservation, along with nutrition, is the key to her successful farming practices,” says Kenny Cordell, CEO of Pinnacle Agriculture Holdings. “In my 35 years in this industry, I’d have to look hard to find anything that has made a greater impression on me.”

Legislators laud her contributions.

“Through Annie’s leadership, the farm continues its tradition of being on the cutting edge of technology and environmental stewardship,” says U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

It’s high praise, but Dee is quick to shake off the accolades. She traces the operation’s success with a straight line back to the people who surround her. “I’m just part of a team,” she says. “Sure, I’m the face most often seen. But this success is because of our excellent team.”

Younger brother Mike Dee shoulders irrigation, nitrogen and grain-handling responsibilities. Her son Jesse More handles spraying, while her son Seth More is the overall farm manager. Zack Powell, another vital link who has been with the operation for about 10 years, is a key machinery operator. Her husband, Ed, is an Extension plant pathologist with Auburn University.

Blood and Soil. Dee’s determination to shape circumstances paved the road to Aliceville—as did two pivotal figures. Fernell Alka, a family friend, ran a ham-and-egg ranch in Mt. Carmel, Ill. When her husband died in a farming accident, Alka took eggs to stores on her own and put her children through college.

“She could have wallowed in misfortune, but instead Alka pressed on,” Dee recalls. J. Roy looms large as a man of vision in Dee’s life: A self-taught farmer, her father adopted irrigation and fertigation in Florida well ahead of his peers.

Dee chose farming—or maybe the profession chose her. “I’ve been blessed and, in turn, I feel I have a moral responsibility to make sure people aren’t hungry,” she says.

Her words are backed by donations to food banks and involvement in a host of humanitarian and food security projects including the Rural Medical Scholars Program through the University of Alabama; the United Soybean Board; and Howard G. Buffett’s Invest an Acre program.

As pivots pump and sprayers roll in the distance, Dee looks across her 10,000-acre Eden and points toward a rolling corn field.

“I farm because I know that’s what God intended me to do,” she says. “When the corn comes off each
fall at harvest, it’s hard to describe how happy it makes me. It’s not complicated. This is the story I’m supposed to tell.”

Dee River Ranch At A Glance

Ranch operations are managed (from left) by Annie Dee’s brother, Mike, and her sons, Seth and Jesse. They often push corn yields above 300 bu. per acre.

Operation: Dee River Ranch covers 10,000 acres in western Alabama, with 4,000 acres of
corn and soybeans.

Family: Annie Dee is CEO. Her sons, Jesse and Seth, handle spraying and management. Dee’s brother, Mike, shoulders irrigation and applies nitrogen. Her husband, Ed, is an Extension plant pathologist with Auburn University.

Community: Annie is involved in the Rural Medical Scholars Program through the University of Alabama; United Soybean Board; Howard G. Buffett’s Invest an Acre program; Harvesting the Potential; Alabama Pro Health grant funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focusing on obesity prevention; and frequent speaking engagements at universities on conservation and energy efficiency.

Technology: Dee is heavily invested in cutting-edge center-pivot irrigation and soil-health technology, agronomic product testing, university field trials and new crop trials.

Ranch Tests New Crops, Products

In addition to growing corn and soybeans, Annie Dee is focused on new crops that have the potential to be big business. She planted 20 acres of millet this year and has contracted with a malter to raise barley
in the fall.

She sees opportunity for bamboo, for example, and is preparing to plant acreage for Resource Fiber, operator of the top bamboo nursery in the U.S.

She is conducting the first U.S. corn trial of N-Fix, a nitrogen-fixation seed coating developed by England-based Azotic Technologies that could reduce nutrient loss in fields.

2017 Top Producer of the Year Finalist: Richard and Roderick Gumz

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:18:57 GMT

The brothers co-own a diversified crop farm including potatoes, onions, carrots and mint. They’ve invested in field drainage and other technology that makes production, packing and shipping more efficient than ever.

Brothers Richard and Roderick Gumz strive for ultimate efficiency and revenue on each acre they farm. This is no easy task, as their operation, Gumz Farms in Endeavor, Wis., produces a cornucopia of crops.

In addition to corn and soybeans, Richard and Roderick’s team produces 875 acres of potatoes, 675 acres of onions, 300 acres of carrots and 1,800 acres of mint, making them one of the largest mint producers in Wisconsin. Carrots are sold to processors who slice and dice them, while the onions and potatoes are packed for retail and sold on the fresh market under the Gumz Farms brand.

The vertically integrated operation is a fourth-generation farm that has evolved to maximize consumer demands under Richard and Roderick’s acute leadership.

“We have made the investment in the building and the technology,” Roderick explains. “Our customers see that and see that we’re committed to producing a good crop, committed to quality, committed to food safety. They want to partner with us because they see that we’re willing to make that commitment.”

The brothers’ great grandfather founded Gumz Farms in the 1930s in Indiana. He later expanded into Wisconsin. In 1994, the brothers bought the Wisconsin operation and formed Gumz Muck Farms

The “muck” part of the farm’s name is an homage to the soils that fuel their operation. High in organic matter, these soils are perfect for onion, potato and mint production. Although this sparse soil type creates high yields, it also takes intensive production management, especially when it comes to drainage systems. The brothers are logistics masters, as their plethora of crops keeps them in nearly year-round production mode.

As Richard and Roderick have grown their business, they’ve focused on vertical growth. In 2012, they expanded their on-farm potato packaging facility and built a new onion packaging facility, complete with offices and meeting rooms. The brothers are early adopters of technology, and their facilities include an optical sorter, automated stacking equipment and precision ag technology in the field. Their team also uses social media to increase awareness about their products.

To match the growth of their operation, the brothers have expanded their team and made engagement and retention a focus for their 90 full- and part-time employees. The word has spread, and now people seek them out for jobs with the operation.

Richard and Roderick give of their time, as well. They are both members of, and hold leadership roles with, numerous farming and community organizations. They also are quick to help those in need. None of their produce goes to waste. Through a partnership with Feeding America, all of their off-grade or misshapen produce is donated. Last year, the operation provided over 5 million pounds of produce to the Feeding America network.

“We’re looking to do this for the next generation,” Richard says. “We’re not just trying to survive until we retire.”

Watch Gumz Farms’ story on AgDay above.

2017 Top Producer of the Year Finalist: John Pagel

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:18:28 GMT

The CEO of Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy in Kewaunee, Wis., also owns three cheese manufacturing facilities and a farm-to-fork restaurant in Green Bay.

John Pagel has a lot on his plate. He serves as CEO of Wisconsin’s largest single-family-owned dairy operation; farms several thousand acres; owns three cheese manufacturing facilities; and, as of August 2015, is a restaurateur in Green Bay, where he owns a farm-to-fork restaurant and food market.

Although his schedule stays packed, he wouldn’t have it any other way. John is a hardworking and acute businessman who enjoys a challenge. His operation’s success comes from a strong foundation.
Seventy years ago, John’s parents, Carl and Garnet, purchased a farm and founded Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy . When John took it over in 1980, the dairy included 65 cows and 380 acres.

“There were a few moments in my life where I wasn’t quite sure I was going to be a farmer,” John says. “I graduated high school. I worked off the farm for a year, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I came back to the farm, and I’ve been here ever since.”\

Fast forward to today, and the thriving operation includes 5,300 dairy cows, 8,500 crop acres and a digester that produces electricity for the entire town of Kewaunee, John’s hometown. It also employs 120 full-time and 10 part-time team members, making him one of the largest employers in the region.

John’s team includes his four children. His daughter, Jamie, manages the office and heads up the human resources department, while son John works on the production side with the milking herd and young stock. Son Bryan manages the digester and bedding dryer plus wholesale meat sales, and son Dustin works with the field crews and is in charge of nutrient distribution.

Three years ago, John hired a professional coach to zero in on family and employee relations. The resulting employee training program is called “CARS,” an acronym for communication, accountability, respect and sustainability.

This program helps employees understand the farm’s core values and what is expected of them. In addition to this structured employee development program, a counselor visits regularly to lead team-building exercises and meet with employees.

To diversify the business and go full-circle with their farm, John and his team opened a market and farm-to-fork restaurant, called Cannery Public Market, in nearby Green Bay. They engaged a consultant to define their target market and a design team to remodel a former canning building originally constructed in 1917. They took down four barns for lumber to furnish the space and display farm artifacts.

“It’s a huge adjustment, but I believe it will make us better farmers,” John says, “going all the way from one cycle to the other, learning what the consumer wants and why they want it, and to be able to bring that back to the farm and grow what the consumer needs and wants.”

John is dedicated to his community, holds numerous leadership positions in farming organization and serves on the local school board. He also regularly opens up the farm to host local grade school students so they can learn about the many career offerings in agriculture.

One of John’s references described him as having ingenuity, dedication and boundless enthusiasm.

“It’s amazing that I get to work with my children, and the grandkids get off the school bus here every day,” John says. “I’m very blessed in that way.”

Watch Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy’s story on AgDay above.

Titan Farms Named 2017 Top Producer of the Year

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:16:39 GMT

First-generation farmers Chalmers and Lori Anne Carr of Titan Farms in Ridge Spring, S.C., have been named the winners of the 2017 Top Producer of the Year award. The couple’s operation is one of the largest peach producers in the U.S. They also grow peppers and broccoli and recently diversified with a frozen-fruit facility for processing of peaches that are sold in bulk or pureed for use in yogurt, baby food and other products.

“My husband and I are truly living a dream,” Lori Anne Carr told attendees of Top Producer’s annual awards banquet in Chicago before the winner was announced.

“On the farm, we truly have a motto that nobody’s going to come up and pat you on the back, or nobody’s going to say, ‘Great job,’” Chalmers added. “We get our achievements and our personal goals set by going out and protecting the natural resources that we have, cultivating those into crops and producing staples and food for other people to eat. My personal joy comes from doing that day in and day out.”

Sponsored by Bayer and Case IH , the Top Producer of the Year contest is in its 18th year and represents the best in the business of farming. In addition to the Carrs, finalists for this year’s award were John Pagel of Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy , a dairy and grain operation in Kewaunee, Wis., and brothers Richard and Roderick Gumz of Gumz Farms , a row crop and vegetable operation in Endeavor, Wis. Readers of AgWeb.com and Top Producer will learn more about each of the finalists in future news articles.

Each of the finalists received a trip for two to attend the seminar and will receive sessions with a CEO coach. The winner will receive the opportunity to be enrolled for a year in the Top Producer Executive Network™ peer group program, courtesy of Bayer. Additionally, the winner will get to choose either a Steiger Rowtrac or a Magnum Rowtrac from Case IH for 150 hours of use, courtesy of Case IH.

For more cover of the 2017 Top Producer Seminar, visit topproducerseminar.com .

Thank you to the sponsors of the 2017 Top Producer Seminar!

Premier Sponsors: Advance Trading; BASF; Bayer; Beck’s; Cargill; Case IH; Channel; CropZilla; Dow AgroSciences; DuPont Pioneer; ESN; FarmersEdge; Farmers Business Network; John Deere; K-Coe ISOM; Soybean Premiums; Top Third Ag Marketing; Verdesian.
Co-Sponsors: AgYield; CliftonLarsonAllen; Gulke Group; Rabo AgriFinance; Zaner Ag Hedge.
Supporting Sponsors: Alltech; BMO Harris Bank; Transition Point Business Advisors

Heartland Farms Named 2018 Top Producer of the Year Finalist

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:12:58 GMT

For Jeremie Pavelski, serving as president of Heartland Farms combines two passions: agriculture and technology. This innovative young farmer is leading his family’s operation, which began in 1873, to new levels of success.

Heartland Farms is a partnership between Jeremie, his father, Richard, Dave Knights and TJ Kennedy. Spanning 24,000 acres, the top crop on this Wisconsin-based farm is potatoes, though they also grow sweet corn, canning peas, green beans and soybeans. Annually 8,000 acres are dedicated to potatoes, most of which end up as potato chips.

“Dick ran into some people at a John Hancock seminar that was key in Frito lay that were talking about trying to go to unit suppliers and get rid of a lot of their growers and go to larger units and stuff and it truly opened up a door for us,” Knights says. “I think life, in general, is a sense of when opportunities present themselves. Are you prepared to take them on? And you never seemed to know when they’re coming.”

Heartland Farms includes 120 full-time and 150 part-time employees. This team is comprised of what Jeremie calls “old-school knowledge” and “new-tech savvy.” Through careful planning and mentoring, these two groups have learned to work collaboratively.

The success of the operation depends on its team. The farm’s leaders conduct tri-annual employee reviews and offer regular training. They provide catered meals to every employee at harvest and offer bonuses based on good attendance.

I think you’ve heard us all talked about its people, people, people without good dedicated people. You know you can’t make it very far,” Jeremie says. “Each individual at the upper levels of the company understands that our job is to train our replacement and to make sure he’s better than we are.”

Heartland Farms is committed to its community. Jeremie holds numerous roles in leadership and community organizations. The operation and the Pavelksi family have committed to donating $450,000, to support their local school’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program. They’ve also committed $500,000 to help start a Breast Care Center in Stevens Point, Wis.

“We still consider this a family farm and when people say ‘well how can that still be a family farm at that size of the operation?’ my answer to that is it’s the kind of family farm you build when you do it for 130 years with five generations,” Richard says.

Congratulations to Heartland Farms for being a 2018 Top Producer of the Year award finalist.

Thanks To The 2018 Top Producer Of The Year Award Sponsors:

Courtesy of Bayer, each finalist receives CEO coaching sessions with Sarah Beth Aubrey with Aubrey Coaching & Training and a Top Producer columnist, and a trip to this year’s Commodity Classic. From Case IH, the winner receives use of a new Case IH tractor for 150 hours of use or six months.

2019 Top Producer of the Year

The award honors three producers whose operations are at the forefront of agriculture and crowns one winner. Entrants are judged on entrepreneurial originality (50%), financial and business progress (30%) and industry or community leadership (20%). All three finalists receive trips to the Summit, CEO coaching sessions and other prizes. The winner also receives a lease of a Case IH tractor. Download the application and apply by Aug. 30 . Sponsored by Bayer and Case IH

3 Countries Share Top Challenges in Corn, Soybean Production

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 12:51:51 GMT

Every corner of the world has its own unique obstacles to overcome when it comes to crop production. Weather aside, representatives from three countries shared what they see as their area’s biggest challenge for corn and soybean production.

Argentina: Political and Infrastructure Issues

In Argentina, Federico Bert, says the top obstacles are political and infrastructure issues. Bert represents AACREA, which is the Argentina Association of Regional Consortia for Agricultural Experimentation, a collaborating group for the country’s farmers. Specially, he says roads and highways are biggest infrastructural hindrance inhibiting expansion and profitability for Argentina farmers.

Political unrest, theft and extortion are also hurting farmers’ potential in Argentina, which is the world’s third-largest exporter of corn and soybeans. Thieves target trucks carrying grain . While data on agricultural crime isn’t available, police and port authorities say incidents are on the rise, affecting deliveries to grain handlers.

Belgium: Proving Farming is Sustainable

Belgium farmers, as well as their European Union counterparts, are constantly trying to show agriculture in the country is sustainable, says Alexander Doring, secretary general at European Feed Manufacturer’s Federation in Belgium. He says the market demands “responsible production,” and if farmers could document and prove sustainable agriculture, they could gain market opportunities.

To create real solutions around the sustainability of agriculture, Doring says, stakeholders need to talk to each other more. “We are feeding plants, animals and humans; think of the synergy we could have by bringing everyone around the same table,” he says.

United States: High Cost of Production

With corn and soybean prices lower, Danny Murphy, Canton, Miss., farmer and American Soybean Association chairman, says the high cost of producing grain is the biggest challenge for American farmers. “Prices have come down in the last 6 to 8 months, but production costs are still stable or higher,” he says. “It is going to be very challenging for growers over the next few years.”

Murphy says regulations, especially about the waters of the United States, consumer acceptance of modern farming practices and transportation hang-ups with grain movement via railroads also challenge U.S. farmers.

The three were part of a panel discussion at the 2014 Corn and Soybean Future Forum , hosted by Bayer CropScience, and taking place in Frankfurt, Germany this week.

Gulke: 'We've Run Out of Demand'

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 15:00:58 GMT

U.S. farmers are harvesting record-breaking corn and soybean crops, according to USDA’s Nov. 9 Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates . While the storyline for much of the growing season has been record production, now farmers are faced with an even bigger problem—increasing production without corresponding demand increases.

USDA pegs the 2016 corn production at 15.2 billion bu., up 1% from the October forecast and up 12% from last year. The national average corn yield is forecast at 175.3 bu. per acre, up 1.9 bu. from the October forecast and up 6.9 bu. from 2015.

U.S. soybean production is forecast at 4.36 billion bu., up 2% from October and up 11% from last year. The national average soybean yield is pegged at 52.5 bu. per acre, up 1.1 bu. from last month and up 4.5 bu. from 2015.

Most pre-report estimates called for a decrease in corn and a 6/10 increase in soybean yield, says Jerry Gulke, president of Gulke Group .

“We thought they would raise corn,” he says. “But they raised it 1.9 bushels, which is pretty big.”

In the last several reports, as USDA has increased production for both crops this year, Gulke says, demand followed suit. But that largely stopped Nov. 9.

“What we feared was at some point in time you run out of demand,” he says. “That’s what we saw today.”

With supply rising faster than use, USDA raised corn ending stocks to 83 million bu. “The thing that concerned us most is they translated most of the new production into ending stocks, which in essence is saying we can’t really find a home for all of it,” Gulke says.

Soybean ending stocks also increased by 85 million bu. to 480 million bu. USDA pointed to reduced soybean crush and reduced demand for soybean meal.

“Now you have too much of everything,” Gulke says. “All this translated into corn going down 12 cents and beans are down are 24 cents after the report. The party is over for now.”

Looking forward, to see a dramatic increase in prices, a major crop production problem will have to surface in the U.S. or in South America.

“Fortunately we had a big crop to cover some of the downside in prices,” he says.

Listen to Jerry Gulke’s full commentary:

To Do: Price Grain Before Planting

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 16:08:03 GMT

Selling a crop that’s not yet in the ground can be intimidating. But if you don’t get a head start on pricing your crops, you might miss good marketing opportunities.

“The biggest single mistake farmers make is not selling more before planting,” says Matt Roberts, founder of The Kernmantle Group, an economics research and training firm. Historically, the best windows for pricing old- and new-crop corn and soybeans is in the spring.

In January and February, farmers could have sold new-crop corn in the $4-per-bushel range and soybeans in the $10-per-bushel range. “But you only get those prices if you actually sell it,” Roberts says.

Looking at the 2017/18 marketing year, soybeans could follow a similar pattern to the last marketing year, says Todd Hubbs, University of Illinois grain markets specialist. “The possibility of a strong downward price movement through 2018 is substantial, much like last year,” he notes.

Why? Prospects for soybean crops in Argentina and Brazil seem strong, despite some weather concerns. Soybean acres and production will likely increase in the U.S.—adding to already large soybean ending stocks. At 470 million bushels, the soybean ending stocks forecast is the largest since the 2006/07 marketing year.

“With so much production uncertainty in the U.S. and South America over the next few months, the current bids for 2018 harvest delivery provide an opportunity for locking in prices on new-crop soybeans,” Hubbs says.

Watch for opportunities to sell new-crop corn and wheat, as you might also see similar price movements as last year.

“Last year, they told you to sell the carry in corn, so you had to hedge,” says Angie Setzer, vice president for Citizens Grain. “If you’re looking at $3.90 December futures, for example, you can store and expect carry to put them at $4.15 to $4.20 futures. Spreads turn into cash and give you more opportunity. To hedge or get started around these levels is not a bad idea.”

For wheat, price prospects are dismal. “The bad news about wheat is there’s a lot of it out there,” Roberts says. “In the U.S., 50% of a year’s usage of wheat will be sitting in inventories when we start harvest in 2018.”

Yet, dry conditions in the southern Plains could present some good pricing windows for wheat. “There will be substantial marketing opportunity for wheat, but they don’t have to last a long time,” Setzer says. “They could just be a day or two so it’s important to have those orders in place.”

The supply-and-demand picture for corn, soybeans and wheat all point to being proactive about marketing grain early this year. Roberts suggests marketing 25% to 33% of your expected production before April 15. Then shoot to have 75% to 100% sold by harvest.

Sonja Begemann contributed to this story.

Nutrient Navigator Series

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 21:32:45 GMT

The Nutrient Navigator series focuses on efficient, environmentally sound management of nutrients. The goal is to provide practical knowledge that helps drive yields and profits higher.

The 4Rs of Fertility
Focus on fertility to prevent pollution and boost profits

The Challenge of Nitrogen
In your quest for high yields, nothing is more crucial, or more difficult, than managing corn’s most important nutrient

A Moving Target
Preventing corn from going hungry requires balancing nitrogen and other factors, from year to year and field to field

The Great Escape
Stabilizers and controlled-release products help keep the Houdini of nutrients where your crop needs it

In the “Lime” Light
Correct acidity to create diverse microbial populations, which decompose residue and release soil nutrients

Potassium Insight
Drought emphasizes the value of this vital nutrient

Rich in Potassium
The No. 1 challenge with potassium is to manage the nutrient so that it’s ready to work when it’s needed

Potassium Speaks Up
Know how your fertilizer recommendation was calculated to tailor potassium applications to soil type

The Magic of Phosphorus
Understand the cycle to fertilize more efficiently

Field-by-Field Phosphorus
The soil environment tells you when and where to apply this essential nutrient

Just Right Rates for Phosphorus Efficiency
Soil and tissue testing key to phosphorus efficiency

The Fourth Building Block
Sulfur is easily forgotten but essential to high yield

Step-by-Step Sulfur
Application methods, placement and timing depend on soil conditions in each field

The Basics of Zinc
Know where to look for deficiencies to set the stage for preventive management

Don’t Let Zinc Sink Yield
Anticipate deficiencies and then fix them with fertilizer timing and placement

Plants Need Boron to Thrive
It’s likely not the first nutrient you think about, but boron is critical to many plant functions

Target Your Boron Applications
Let your soil and rotation tell you where to expect boron deficiencies

The Role of Manganese
From photosynthesis to building carbohydrates, manganese packs a punch

How to Fix Manganese Problems
Expect to encounter manganese issues on certain soils, plan treatment accordingly

Understanding Iron
Knowledge will help you avoid problems with this vital micronutrient

Manage Iron to Meet Crop Needs
Once you confirm the diagnosis, here’s how to handle iron problems

Two Micronutrients to Watch
Copper and molybdenum are easy to manage if you know how to identify deficiencies

Magnesium Magic
Problems can be avoided, or easily fixed, once you understand this secondary nutrient

A Moving Target

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 23:08:17 GMT

Preventing corn from going hungry requires balancing nitrogen and other factors, from year to year and field to field

Tending to the fertilizer needs of a field means assessing the past, present and future in order to hit the profitable and environmentally sound bull’s-eye.

Understanding how the previous crop, soil temperature, soil pH, tillage, nitrogen products and application timing interact requires a basic knowledge of nitrogen in the soil and the fertilizer you apply, says Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie. “Organic nitrogen is tied up in organic matter and microbial tissue, and plants can’t use it,” Ferrie says. “Inorganic nitrogen is the usable form of soil nitrogen. It comes from applications of nitrogen fertilizer, or from the mineralization of organic nitrogen.”

Nitrogen fertilizers include ammoniacal nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen. Ammoniacal nitrogen includes nitrogen ions bonded to hydrogen ions, such as urea, ammonia and ammonium. Nitrate nitrogen is nitrogen bonded to oxygen ions, such as potassium nitrate and calcium nitrate.

Some products, such as ammonium nitrate and UAN (urea-ammonium nitrate) solutions, are a mixture of both. The popular 28% and 32% UAN solutions are 50% urea, 25% ammonium and 25% nitrate.

“Of the inorganic sources of nitrogen, nitrate is subject to loss through denitrification and leaching,” Ferrie says. “Of the ammoniacal sources, ammonia is subject to loss through volatility, or gassing off.”

Acid soil. Soil pH is a major factor affecting nitrogen efficiency.

“With low soil pH, the nitrification process slows down,” Ferrie says. “That happens because the microbes in the soil that mineralize organic nitrogen into inorganic nitrogen, as well as the microbes that convert ammonium nitrogen into nitrate nitrogen, are pH-sensitive. Their populations are limited in acid conditions.

“This is evident in very acidic fields,” Ferrie continues. “There, we see slow breakdown of old crop residue, possibly residue from two or three years ago. This indicates that mineralization of nitrogen held within the crop residue is being slowed or halted. This is nitrogen we count on when trying to select the proper rate of application.

“Fields that are acid are what we call nitrogen-thirsty fields. They require a higher rate of inorganic nitrogen fertilizer to achieve yield goals,” he adds.

While acid soils are slow to break down organic nitrogen, they also are slow to convert ammonium nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen. A nitrification inhibitor applied to an acid soil might not give you the benefit that you would expect on a more neutral soil.

Alkaline soil. “In alkaline soils, we must be concerned with volatility loss when we apply ammoniacal nitrogen in the urea form,” Ferrie says. “Urea must go through a process of hydrolysis to be converted from urea into another ammoniacal source, the ammonium form. For this hydrolysis to take place, we need the urease enzyme, which harbors in the soil and crop residue. I call the urease enzyme the pin puller in the grenade; it has to be pulled before the process will begin.”

Nitrogen volatilization is a concern in soils with a naturally high pH; it might also occur if you apply urea where lime was spread and not incorporated.

Urea hydrolysis causes soil pH to shift upward toward 9.0 in the area around the nitrogen molecule. “This shift in pH can cause the stable ammonium molecule to convert to an ammonia molecule, a gas that can volatilize off,” Ferrie says. “This volatility risk is associated only with the urea form of ammoniacal nitrogen applied to the surface of the soil and not incorporated or rained in.

“Weather conditions and soil pH influence how fast volatilization happens,” Ferrie continues. “With normal weather and soil pH conditions, it can take three to five days. But when we apply urea to the surface of high-pH, or alkaline, soils, urea volatility can occur in a matter of hours. In those conditions, the urea form of nitrogen needs to be incorporated in a matter of hours to stop the volatility.”

Unincorporated surface-applied urea has become more common, as farmers implement no-till, strip-till and preemergence weed-and-feed programs. “While volatilization is mainly a concern in soils that carry a naturally high pH, it must also be considered in fields where limestone was applied the previous fall and not incorporated, as often happens in no-till and strip-till situations,” Ferrie says. “That creates a temporary high surface pH.”

The higher the rate of urea application, the faster and higher the pH shifts—and the greater the risk of volatilization, Ferrie adds.

“Another form of volatility loss, one that farmers sometimes fail to detect, occurs when we apply ammonia [NH3] gas to extremely dry soil,” Ferrie says. “The ammonia ions will quickly attach to hydrogen ions [H] in the soil, converting to stable ammonium [NH4].

“Most of this hydrogen comes from water. If soil is too dry, the ammonia gas will continue to move in the soil because it failed to find water to cause the conversion. Some of it may eventually gas back off into the atmosphere. When that happens, you can smell ammonia coming out of the soil hours or days after application. There isn’t much you can do to stop this loss, except wait for soil moisture conditions to improve. This can definitely be a problem following dry seasons.”

Tillage. Tillage done prior to nitrogen application reduces the risk of volatility in two ways, Ferrie explains. First, it incorporates crop residue, which reduces the amount of urease enzyme at the surface. The urease enzyme is 10 times higher in residue than in the soil. Second, by incorporating lime applications, tillage reduces the issue of high surface pH that causes volatility of surface-applied urea.

Maintain 10 ppm nitrogen in the top 12" of soil from emergence to knee-high and 20 ppm nitrogen in the top 2' for the rest of the season.

On the other hand, tillage increases the temporary tie-up of nitrogen in the soil because of the carbon penalty. “As we incorporate residue into the soil, where the microbes can process it, that process creates a temporary nitrogen shortage,” Ferrie says. “The severity of the temporary shortage will be linked to the amount and type of carbon that was chiseled in and the time of year that it was done. That means corn after corn has a higher carbon penalty than corn after soybeans, and springchiseled cornstalks have a greater carbon penalty than fall-chiseled stalks.”

Immobilization and mineralization occur at the same time, Ferrie points out. But at certain times there is more of one or the other, resulting in net immobilization or net mineralization.

“The carbon penalty is the same with either fall or spring chiseling; but with spring chiseling, net immobilization of nitrogen may occur at the same time the young corn plants need nitrogen. That can create a rough start for the corn crop,” he says.

Tillage also affects the amount and timing of mineralization. “When residue is chiseled in close to the surface, where there is oxygen and high populations of microbes, the carbon penalty is stiffer, but the rate of net mineralization is faster,” Ferrie says. “When we moldboard-plow the residue into an area where there is no oxygen, microbial activity is somewhat limited.

“Plowing reduces the early season carbon penalty. The process affecting the deeply buried residue is more like fermentation than decomposition; it takes longer to mineralize the nitrogen in the deeply buried residue so that crops can use it, and less is recovered.”

Impact of crop residue. “If you’re in the carbon-penalty area and need to decompose residue faster in the fall, first check your soil nitrate levels and see where the existing values are,” Ferrie says. “In fields with high net mineralization rates, fall nitrogen loads may be high enough to drive all the decomposition you want.

“The same thing may occur following a drought, when corn did not use all the applied nitrogen. If nitrate levels are in the single digits, you may want to add some nitrogen to stimulate the soil microorganisms.

“If you add nitrogen, choose the ammonium form of nitrogen [DAP, MAP or ammonium sulfate], so you don’t have to worry about it leaching or volatilizing,” Ferrie continues. “If you apply UAN solution, half of the solution is urea, which could be lost through volatilization in three or four days. The other half of urea is one-quarter ammonium and one-quarter nitrate; but microbes won’t use nitrate until the ammonium is gone, so this nitrate could be lost in fall rains.”

Apply the ammonium nitrogen when the soil is warm because that’s when microbes are active. “This goes against traditional wisdom in terms of environmental safety because the ammonium could be converted to nitrate and leached out of the soil,” Ferrie says. “For that to happen, you would have to apply a large amount—more than the microbes can use.

“If you apply only 30 lb. or 40 lb. broadcast per acre of ammonium nitrogen, the microbes will suck it up so fast it won’t get a chance to convert to nitrate. Our studies show that if you apply ammonium nitrogen, soil nitrate levels actually fall seven days later because the microorganism populations have exploded, used up all the ammonium and started using the nitrate.”

This fall-applied nitrogen will mineralize back so the crop can use it next spring, Ferrie notes. So the fall application is not additional nitrogen; rather, it counts as part of your total application rate for the year.

Fall nitrogen considerations. When anhydrous ammonia is applied in the fall, the concentrated subsurface application does little to help decompose surface residue, Ferrie warns. “This banded application can’t be applied until the soil temperature is below 50°F,” he says. “Because of the high concentration and the location of the band below the crop residue, nitrates will be produced when the ammonia core starts to go through nitrification. This nitrate could be leached away before the crop needs it next spring.”

In the spring, UAN solution is a good choice and works well. The ammonium wakes up the microbes. The urea breaks down into ammonium later, which keeps them going, and there’s nitrate for the crop.

Your situation is unique. Timing and rate must be linked to your own farming practices. Set your sights on keeping corn plants happy all season long, from planting through harvest.

Learn and Profit from Nutrient Navigator

Two Decades of Nitrogen Research

Under the direction of Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie, nitrogen research continues to be a focal point of the Farm Journal Test Plots program, now in its 21st year.

Studies have included comparisons of application equipment; application timing and placement; interactions with soil pH; forms of nitrogen fertilizer; nitrification inhibitors; new technology, such as slowrelease nitrogen formulations and vegetative sensing equipment; the effect of the carbon penalty; nitrogen testing; and the ability of soils to supply nitrogen. Nitrogen research will continue this year on about 2,500 acres across 12 farms.

With nitrogen, there’s always more to learn, Ferrie says—for farmers as well as researchers. “The weather and environment play such a critical role in nitrogen utilization that you must manage the nutrient all year long,” he says. “Every season is different. You can’t just make a plan and follow it—you have to monitor the situation and react.

“As one example, in a dry year such as 2012, in many areas a lot of nitrogen remained in the soil after harvest,” Ferrie says. “Weather conditions and management will determine whether it’s still there for the 2013 planting season. If it isn’t, growers must provide more nitrogen. Knowing what to do—or not do, in the case of unneeded nitrogen applications—impacts profitability and the environment, too.”

Where nitrogen is concerned, every farm, and sometimes every field, requires different management. For example, continuous corn in conventional tillage requires different nitrogen timing than continuous corn in no-till or strip-till. Understanding nitrogen nuances pays off in higher yield and fertilizer savings, Ferrie says.

Note: Peaks and valleys in the graphs indicate rain events; rain causes nitrate values to decline, but they quickly recover.

You can e-mail Darrell Smith at dsmith@farmjournal.com .

In this soil pH study, 3 tons of limestone per acre was applied in the fall, leaving a check strip without limestone. The following spring, after planting, 200 lb. per acre of urea was applied to the surface. The area received a substantial rain 4½ days after application. Testing the limed and unlimed areas for ammonium and nitrate documented the loss from volatility. In the area that received 3 tons of lime, at least half the 200 lb. of nitrogen was lost. The high surface pH caused by the non-incorporated limestone applied the previous fall triggered volatility in a matter of hours after the urea was applied, Ferrie says.

In the fall, Ferrie applied 3 tons of limestone per acre using three forms of tillage. The field was planted to corn, and 200 lb. per acre of nitrogen was applied as urea to the surface. To track volatility, Ferrie recorded ammonium values every three days. “When ammonium values go up, the urea is converting to ammonium,” he says. “When they drop, it is being converted to nitrate or used by plants or microbes.” The chart shows higher ammonium values where the limestone was tilled in. Tilling in the limestone solved surface issues that would have triggered volatility.

Not all tillage is equal in terms of its effect on nitrogen availability for the crop. In this study, soil nitrate values were lower with moldboard plowing than with chisel plowing late in the season. “This indicates that net mineralization of nitrogen was not occurring,” Ferrie says. “Moldboard plowing reduces the carbon penalty in the spring, but it doesn’t always have staying power. The same problem can arise if you remove carbon by chopping corn or baling the stalks and don’t replace the lost carbon with something else, such as manure.” The lower no-till nitrate values reflect losses to volatility from applying 3 tons of lime on the surface, causing high surface pH.

The Challenge of Nitrogen

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 23:04:33 GMT

In your quest for high yields, nothing is more crucial, or more difficult, than managing corn’s most important nutrient

After coping with the worst drought in decades, most farmers couldn’t wait to get whatever corn they had harvested off their hands. While some of their frustration was sent down the line with the grain, complications still linger.

Because parched plants can’t take up nutrients, there’s a gold mine of nitrogen fertilizer buried in corn fields. The kicker, though: it is in the highly mobile nitrate form, and only the best crop managers will be able to carry these valuable nutrients over to the next corn crop. Mother Nature will play a large role in the success rate.

“You might be able to underapply phosphorus or potassium and still grow a good crop,” says Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie. “That’s not so with nitrogen. It’s not just applying the right total amount—it’s having nitrogen present at crucial times in the crop’s life, all season long. Nitrogen management requires timing, placement and managing risk.

“From emergence to knee-high, you need to ensure that nitrogen doesn’t fall below 10 ppm [parts per million] in the top 12" of soil,” Ferrie says. “From knee-high on, after the corn roots have some depth, you want to maintain 20 ppm of nitrogen in the top 2'.”

That requires a basic understanding of nitrogen processes and the products you apply. Knowing your product will help ensure nitrogen is used by corn plants and not lost as a gas or leached away by water, downward into groundwater or laterally through tile lines into drainage ditches. Lost nitrogen not only costs yield, but nitrogen in water sources causes environmental problems as well.

There are a variety of nitrogen products available. “Anhydrous ammonia is the basic ingredient of all these products,” Ferrie says. “It can be applied directly to the soil or used to create other products.”

Besides anhydrous ammonia (a gas, shipped under pressure in the liquid form), the most common nitrogen fertilizers are urea (a solid), ammonium nitrate (a solid) and urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN) solutions. Other solid products include potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate and ammonium sulfate.

Corn production requires ammonium and nitrate, the only forms of nitrogen plants can use. However, Ferrie says, “plants need larger amounts of nitrate. Inside the plant, nitrate is stored in bulk and translocated to help with ear fill.”

Calcium nitrate and potassium nitrate fertilizers are in the nitrate form, Ferrie explains. Ammonium nitrate is half ammonium and half nitrate. But anhydrous ammonia and urea must be converted to ammonium and nitrate after you apply them.

Prevent nitrogen loss. Nitrogen management is a challenge because the ammonium form of nitrogen is fairly stable in the soil, but the nitrate form is easily carried away in water. That’s because the ion carries a negative charge, which repels negatively charged soil particles.

You need to make nitrogen available to your corn plants all season long, but if you provide nitrate too far ahead of time, it might be lost before they can use it.

After ammonium is converted to nitrate, it can be lost through denitrification and leaching. Denitrification occurs when soil is saturated with water. The water drives out oxygen, creating an anaerobic environment for denitrifying bacteria, which convert nitrate into a gas. The most denitrification occurs when soils are saturated during warm temperatures.

Leaching occurs when water carries nitrate downward through the soil or out through tile lines. Besides reducing your yield, that lost nitrogen creates environmental problems.

You can combat denitrification and leaching by applying nitrification inhibitors and stabilizers. They keep nitrogen in the stable ammonium form for a longer period by reducing the populations of bacteria that convert it to nitrate or by slowing the bacteria’s activity. Slowing the conversion process keeps more nitrogen in the stable ammonium form (which plants can use, just like nitrate) and less in the nitrate form, which can be lost.

With urea, there’s another hazard: it can be volatilized into a gas and lost into the atmosphere. Catching a rain shortly after application, or tilling urea into the soil, eliminates this danger.

If you must apply urea on the surface, as in no-till, you can reduce the risk of volatilization by applying an encapsulated form of urea; or you can apply a urease inhibitor, which controls a soil enzyme that starts the urea breakdown process. Either product can help prevent urea from volatilizing before rain can wash it into the soil.

When you choose an inhibitor or stabilizer, remember that 28% and 32% UAN solutions contain 50% urea, 25% ammonium and 25% nitrate. So you might need two products: one for the urea and one for the ammonium.

We’ll help select the right inhibitor or stabilizer in a future installment of Nutrient Navigator. Meanwhile, let’s look at a few more reasons why nitrogen management is a challenge.

The choice of a cover crop depends on whether you’ll plant corn or soybeans in 2013. How you manage the cover crop come spring will affect corn yield.

The carbon penalty. The carbon penalty can wreck a corn producer’s goal of making sure plants never go hungry, even for a day. It results from the nitrogen cycle.

Making nitrogen available to plants requires that soil microorganisms decompose old crop residue and release its nutrients (finishing a cycle that began when the plants took up nitrogen from the soil). As one source of energy, the organisms use nitrogen that is available in the soil itself. For a while, that nitrogen is immobilized in the microorganisms’ bodies, in the organic form that plants cannot use.

Eventually, after the microorganisms die and decompose, this nitrogen (along with the nitrogen they released from crop residue) is mineralized back into the inorganic form that crops can use. This can happen in the next crop season, but it could also take years.

Immobilization and mineralization occur simultaneously. Sometimes there is more of one or the other, and sometimes the rates are equal.

What Ferrie calls the carbon penalty results from the abundance of old crop residue in the top few inches of soil in early spring. The carbon in the residue provides food for the microorganisms that decompose it. All that crop residue causes microorganism populations to explode. The microbes draw so much nitrogen from the soil that there is none left for young corn plants.

The carbon penalty occurs when a corn crop follows high volumes of crop residue with a high carbon/nitrogen ratio. Examples of such crops include corn and wheat; soybeans, in contrast, have a low carbon/nitrogen ratio. The penalty is highest when large volumes of residue with a high carbon/nitrogen ratio are incorporated in the top few inches of soil (for example, continuous corn with chisel-type tillage).

To pay the carbon penalty, apply at least 100 lb. (out of your total nitrogen application) on the surface, shallowly incorporated or with the planter.

“The carbon penalty is significant from central Illinois northward,” Ferrie points out. “As you go south, the warmer fall weather provides more time for microorganisms to decompose crop residue.”

High and low risk. Identifying areas at risk for nitrogen loss involves using yield maps, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maps, aerial photos and ground-truthing. It’s a season-long process.

“Maps and photos show you where high and low yields are coming from,” Ferrie says. “Say you visit those sites early in the season. In the highly stressed or low-yielding spots, the corn is showing nitrogen deficiency symptoms and it’s struggling, but other parts of the field are lush and green. The struggling area makes 180 bu. per acre, and the lush area yields 240 bu.

“You have isolated and confirmed a high-nitrogen-risk area. Now you must figure out the cause. If the low yield is in a coarse soil with a high infiltration rate, the cause might be leaching. A low area could be losing nitrogen through denitrification, resulting from poor drainage and saturated soil.

“Perhaps you can solve the problem by tiling the low area, changing application timing on the coarse soil or applying nitrification inhibitors or nitrogen stabilizers.”

Soil-supplied nitrogen. Another factor in efficient nitrogen management is the supplying power of the soil. It can account for yield differences in a field and affect how much nitrogen you need to apply to various areas.

“A 200-bu. corn crop requires more than 300 lb. of nitrogen per acre,” Ferrie says. “Some soils will supply you with 70 lb. or 80 lb., and some will supply 200 lb. through mineralization. There are soil tests, such as the Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test and Cornell University’s test for potentially mineralizable nitrogen, that can help you identify high- and low-supplying areas.

“Typically, the soil’s nitrogen-supplying capacity is correlated to cropping and fertility history and to organic matter content,” Ferrie continues. “In our example, the low-yielding area may need 100 lb. more nitrogen and the high-yielding area 100 lb. less.”

Soil with good nitrogen-supplying power can also be a high risk for loss—if it’s poorly drained and subject to denitrification, for example. “The weather is also a factor,” Ferrie says.

That brings us back to 2012 and all the nitrate lingering underneath corn fields. Can you save that nitrogen?

“If it rains too soon and too much this fall, probably not,” Ferrie says. “You could plant wheat this fall and not need to apply any nitrogen next spring. If weather permits, and you plan to grow corn, you could plant a cover crop such as oats, rye or radishes to help take up the nitrogen and hold it for next spring’s corn crop.

“If you plan to grow soybeans next spring, you could attempt to pull last year’s nitrate through 2013 and keep it available for your 2014 corn crop. To do that, plant a cover crop of rye this fall. Let it get some size next spring to boost the carbon/nitrogen ratio. Then kill it late, and no-till your 2013 soybeans into it.”

If you plant a cover crop followed by corn next spring, Ferrie offers these precautions: “The species of cover crop, when you kill it and whether or not you till it in will have a big effect on the carbon penalty. If you don’t manage your cover crop correctly, it could have a serious impact on your 2013 corn yield.”

Producers in some locations apply a small amount of ammonium nitrogen in the fall, before chiseling cornstalks, to help the stalks decompose faster. “In 2012, with large amounts of nitrogen left over in the soil and high nitrate levels in the cornstalks, this won’t be necessary,” Ferrie says.

With nitrogen, nothing is simple. We’ll give you more management tools in the next installment of this series.

A Basic Understanding of Nitrogen

Corn

©

Nitrate is stored in bulk inside the plant, then translocated to help with ear fill.

Managing nitrogen starts with knowing what products are available to apply—and then understanding how those forms are used by the corn plant. Corn production requires ammonium and nitrate, but the plant needs larger amounts of nitrate. One reason nitrogen management is so challenging is that the ammonium form of nitrogen is fairly stable in the soil, but the nitrate form is easily carried away in water.

Nitrogen products include:

Anhydrous ammonia: a gas, shipped under pressure in the liquid form; it can be applied directly to the soil but must be converted to ammonium and nitrate after applied; also used to create other products
Urea: a solid that must be converted to ammonium and nitrate after applied; can be volatilized into a gas and lost into the atmosphere
Ammonium nitrate: a solid that is half ammonium and half nitrate
Urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN): a solution of urea and ammonium nitrate in water
Calcium nitrate: a solid in the nitrate form
Potassium nitrate: a solid in the nitrate form
Ammonium sulfate: a solid

Learn and Profit from Nutrient Navigator

Hot Beef Sundae

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 18:44:12 GMT

By Missouri Beef Council

Hot Beef Sundae

Ingredients

1 pkg (17 oz) fully cooked beef tips with gravy
1 pkg (24 oz) prepared mashed potatoes
Toppings: shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, cherry or grape tomatoes

Method

Heat both beef tips and mashed potatoes according to package directions.
Using an ice cream scoop, place 2 scoops (about 1/3 cup each) of mashed potatoes in 4 individual sundae bowls.
Divide beef tips evenly over potatoes in each dish, repeat and top with sour cream and tomato to resemble the cherry!

Funds Active Sellers of Corn and Beans Since Sept. 1

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 18:44:12 GMT

What Traders are Talking About:

* Fund selling continues in corn, beans. Funds sold another 13,000 contracts (65 million bu.) of corn and 4,000 contracts (20 million bu.) of soybeans Thursday. Since September 1, funds have sold a net 30,000 contracts (150 million bu.) of corn and 16,000 contracts (80 million bu.) of soybeans.

The long and short of it: As long as funds are active sellers, there’s more downside risk in corn and bean futures. But once funds flip the switch to “buy” again, it will become much easier for corn and soybean futures to strengthen.

* Chinese inflation eases, economic activity slows. China’s CPI slowed to a 6.2% over year-ago in August, down slightly from the 6.5% increase in July, which was a three-year high. Food price inflation at +13.4% accounted for 4 points of the overall inflation total. Pork prices rose “only” 45.5% in Aug. after surging. nearly 57% in July. China also announced second quarter GDP came in at 9.5%, down from 9.7% in the first quarter and 10.4% for all of 2010.

The long and short of it: The combination of slightly milder inflationary pressure and slowed economic activity suggests China is likely done with the monetary tightening.

* Macro focus on global economic slowdown. Finance ministers and central bankers from the G7 economic powers, along with International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, are meeting in Marseille, France, today with a focus on trying to stem the tide on the global economic slowdown. Yesterday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) revised sharply down its growth forecasts for the rest of the year for G7 nations. OECD says U.S. growth is set to be much weaker than previously forecast at 1.1% in the third quarter and 0.4% in the fourth quarter, compared with forecasts of 2.9% and 3% at the end of May. Also yesterday, the European Central Bank shifted its stance and held interest rates rates steady at its policy meeting, saying inflation risks are no longer skewed to the upside and that economic growth in the region will be slow at best. That has many traders now expecting the ECB to cut rates by the end of the year.

The long and short of it: The global economic slowdown is a factor for grain and soy futures in that it could impact investor attitudes. And speculative money flow is still very important to price direction in grain and soy futures.

Follow me on Twitter: @BGrete

Need a speaker for a seminar or special event? Contact me: bgrete@profarmer.com

Grains Maintain This Week's Choppy Trading Range

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 18:44:12 GMT

Follow me on twitter @julijohnston

Overnight highlights.

Following are highlights of overnight trade and opening calls:

Corn: Marginally to 2 cents higher. To maintain this week’s choppy trading range, corn was firmer overnight. Strength in the U.S. dollar index limited buying, although traders don’t want to push corn too far to the downside ahead of Monday’s Crop Production Report. Traders fully expect USDA to lower the size of the crop, but have a sizable yield drop already priced in.

Soybeans: 5 to 7 cents higher. Futures benefited from short-covering overnight to maintain this week’s choppy range. Strength in the dollar limited buying, although focus in the market today will also be on position squaring ahead of Monday’s Crop Production Report. Like corn, traders expect USDA to trim the size of the crop due to declining crop condition ratings, but have a yield drop already factored into prices.

Wheat: Mixed. Futures have been in a follower’s role this week, but upside potential from slight strength in corn overnight was limited by dollar strength. Since U.S. wheat is not priced competitively on the global market, further dollar improvement raises concerns about how long lasting slowed wheat demand will be.

Live cattle: Steady to higher. Futures are expected to be higher this morning in reaction to the start of cash cattle trade at higher levels in Nebraska. Live cattle have posted technical improvement this week to signal a near-term low has been posted, which could help secure a high-range finish for the week. But with the U.S. stock market expected to be weaker, buying could be limited.

Lean Hogs: Steady to higher. Followthrough buying in lean hog futures today and a high-range close would signal a near-term low has been posted. Traders have brought nearby hogs back in line with the cash index and cash bids were mostly steady yesterday and could possibly firm today as packers say they still need to secure next week’s needs.

Head to Head: A Plan for Low Prices

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 18:44:12 GMT

Q:

Producers have been hearing for months about how low prices can go in light of record-planted corn and soybean acres. As we continue to remove some of the uncertainty with these crops, what would be your downside objectives for both December corn and November soybeans?

A:

Scenario Planning Paints Picture

Naomi Blohm, Senior Market Advisor, Stewart-Peterson

For December corn, if $5 support is taken out, the next short-term objective is $4.50. This could happen by mid-August with good weather. There is substantial support at $4.50, as it’s the long-term uptrend for the continuous weekly December corn chart. With current acreage estimates, yields of 160 bu. per acre and $4.50 support breaks, the next technical low is $4 at harvest.

If USDA accounts for prevent-plant acres and reduces corn acreage and if yield is average or better, then $4.50 will likely be the low for December futures, with prices between $4.50 and $5.50 into year end.

Unlike corn, soybean fundamentals have a negative slant because of ample global supplies. The first support on November beans is $12, which will likely be hit by mid-August with good weather. If $12 fails, then the next target lower is $11.25 to $11, which is where the uptrend holds for the continuous weekly, November chart. If corn breaks below its long term up-trend price of $4.50, then soybeans will likely break below $11, leaving $10 as the harvest target.

If USDA accounts for prevent-plant acres, $11 November futures should hold, allowing prices to bounce between $11 and $12.50 for November futures towards year end.

A:

Implement Discipline When Marketing

Brian Bastings, Commodity Research Analyst, Advance Trading

If there is one thing certain, it’s that there will be surprises this fall, which will ultimately affect corn and soybean price direction.

These could range from a surge in Chinese purchases to unprecedented export competition from South America to economic developments that directly affect the purchasing power of overseas buyers.

These types of events can send prices much lower, or higher, than we had anticipated. In this environment, our guiding principle is there always has been, and will be, uncertainty in price prediction.

However, this uncertainty can be turned into opportunity by implementing disciplined management strategies.

Current fundamentals indicate a significant downside price potential for corn and soybeans. With respect to corn, a record harvest and weak export demand could see December futures trade to $3.50 to $4. A bumper soybean crop and stronger export competition from South America could send November soybean futures to $9.50 to $10.

It’s likely both lows would be seen at harvest. Again, amid the uncertainty in commodity price trends, successful marketing is tied directly to implementation of risk management strategies.

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The brothers co-own a diversified crop farm including potatoes, onions, carrots and mint. They’ve invested in field drainage and other technology that makes production, packing and shipping more efficient than ever.

2017 Top Producer of the Year Finalist: John Pagel

Titan Farms Named 2017 Top Producer of the Year

Thank you to the sponsors of the 2017 Top Producer Seminar!

Heartland Farms Named 2018 Top Producer of the Year Finalist

2019 Top Producer of the Year

3 Countries Share Top Challenges in Corn, Soybean Production

Argentina: Political and Infrastructure Issues

United States: High Cost of Production

Gulke: 'We've Run Out of Demand'

To Do: Price Grain Before Planting

Nutrient Navigator Series

A Moving Target

Preventing corn from going hungry requires balancing nitrogen and other factors, from year to year and field to field

Nitrogen volatilization is a concern in soils with a naturally high pH; it might also occur if you apply urea where lime was spread and not incorporated.

Maintain 10 ppm nitrogen in the top 12" of soil from emergence to knee-high and 20 ppm nitrogen in the top 2' for the rest of the season.

Learn and Profit from Nutrient Navigator

Two Decades of Nitrogen Research

The Challenge of Nitrogen

In your quest for high yields, nothing is more crucial, or more difficult, than managing corn’s most important nutrient

Team member bridger Martin, 14, uses a bale scoop to squeeze bales into a stack. Stacks are placed on the ground for loading. This marked the first year on the farm for Bridger, whose father is operations manager Eric Martin.
Photo: Nate Birt