Precision Pays

Here’s my last Farm Progress Show interview for this year. I walked in to Jeremy Wilson, Crop IMS, in the new Ag Leader Technology building. Like me, he says the new building is a real showcase of all that Ag Leader has to offer. After wandering around Farm Progress Show he also agrees that there’s a lot more precision on display than ever before.

I asked Jeremy what farmers have been saying to him. He says, “The biggest comment is . . . what’s this crop going to be? How much am I going to make?” He calls that shorthand for “How much do I have to invest in new equipment, new precision ag equipment?” Planter controls are also getting the most attention in terms of the questions and comments he’s been hearing.

You can listen in to my conversation with Jeremy here: Interview with Jeremy Wilson

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

During this year’s Farm Progress Show I visited with Wisconsin grain farmer Charlie Hammer (left). He likes to keep up with new technology and keeps in touch with Ag Leader Technology since he’s using their equipment.

He’s been running precision farming applications for a while starting with yield monitors, moving into guided steering and now he’s adding Integra and ParaDyme to his harvester. Charlie mentioned how the automated steering system reduces some of the stress in the field. He also enjoys the information he collects which helps him make better decisions for the next season.

You can listen in to my conversation with Charlie here: Interview with Charlie Hammer

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

When farmers want to increase their yields – and what farmer doesn’t? – they really need a systems based approach to maximizing what they get from every acre, and that is what FS Green Plan Solutions is all about.

At the 2011 Farm Progress Show, I talked with Neil Eimer, Evergreen FS Crop Specialist in the central Illinois counties of McLean and Livingston, about how he helps farmers maximize every acre. “Green Plan Solutions is basically finding out what the grower’s needs and wants are and we’re going to tailor every recommendation we make according to what they want as an end result,” Neil says. “Essentially, the more bushels, the better.”

The FS crop specialists look at every aspect of the farming operation – seed, chemicals, fertilizer, equipment – to determine how improvements can be made to increase profit potential. “All that put together, just taking it from the large scope and then dialing it in on an area basis and finding what works,” he said.

Listen to my interview with Neil here. Evergreen FS Crop Specialist Neil Eimer

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

At the Farm Progress Show I met Hans Stiekema (not pictured) who has just recently joined Ag Leader Technology. Hans is the Regional Manager – EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). His job is to introduce and grow Ag Leader in this market by working with existing distributors and establishing new distributors in new areas. He’s also going to be working with OEM’s in the region.

When I spoke with Hans I asked him how important precision ag is to farmers in his region and what they are looking for. He says that in Europe it is needed since farms are very small compared to here in the United States. That makes precision even more important in order to get the most from the land they have. He provides some examples like Dutch tulip fields. But he also has parts of his territory very similar to the U.S. like in eastern Europe and Russia. You can listen in to my conversation with Hans here: Interview with Hans Stiekema

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

What makes the Farm Progress Show so special every year is the opportunity to watch real equipment working in real fields, so making the demo plots the best they can be is important, no matter what kind of tricks Mother Nature plays during the growing season.

That was the job of Evergreen FS this year as the agronomy sponsor for the demo plots, and Seed Marketing Manager Gary Bowen says it was definitely a challenge. “We had a pretty tough year,” he told Chuck Zimmerman at the show. “We started off really wet, we finally did get in and get it planted and then the water shut off and so we’ve been pretty droughty and it has affected our yield, no doubt about it.” Despite the challenges, it was still a decent crop and Gary says it was a good chance to highlight what the FS System can do.

Listen to or download Chuck’s interview with David here. Gary Bowen with Evergreen FS

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

As education coordinator for Precision Planting, Sean Arians has the opportunity to preach the message of how precision planting pays at farm shows like Farm Progress, demonstrating it live on-site.

“Everybody loves to see equipment moving,” Sean told Chuck Zimmerman during an interview at FPS. “We have a tractor running around on a sand track with eight different row units to compare performance of the meter and then we also have a 2020 Seed Sense monitor in the cab that allows us to communicate that information from the cab so everyone can see that around the track.”

Sean says help farmers maximize production and return on investment. “Technology is not a $5,000 investment anymore,” he said. “However, the end all benefit is usually a very quick pay back” in terms of input cost savings.

Sean is also an advocate for using technology for communications and was a beta tester for the new CropNAtion agricultural social network. “In today’s marketplace, it’s important to manage risk and part of that is having information at your fingertips,” he says. “CropNation allows farmers to get connected and find out what’s going on in various parts of the country. It provides a lot of opportunity for us to network and share ideas.”

Listen to or download Chuck’s interview with Sean here. Sean Arians with Precision Planting

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Entrepreneurship is alive and well at Iowa State University. I visited with Michael Koenig at the Farm Progress Show about it.

ScoutPro, a business started by 3 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students at Iowa State University will be launching their first products: ScoutPro Lite™ Soybean and ScoutPro Lite™ Corn at the 2011 Farm Progress Show on Aug 30-31 and Sept. 1, in Decatur, IL.

In addition to the app, producers will also be able to manage all scouting reports and gain access to aggregated pest data through their own private, secure website.

ScoutPro Interview

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Illinois farmer Mike Behrends found a lot to like at the Ag Leader Technology building during the Farm Progress Show. To start with he likes the company on Facebook. Do you? If not, visit Ag Leader on Facebook.

Mike found a lot of things to look at FPS and especially from Ag Leader. Mike is using several products which he says make farming easier. He mainly uses auto guidance equipment along with yield monitoring and mapping. He says that “you can’t be afraid to push buttons” when you start using precision equipment and says you can always get good support when you call Ag Leader too.

You can listen to my interview with Mike here: Interview with Mike Behrends

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

There were quite a few race cars mixed in with the tractors and combines this year at the 2011 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois.

In addition to the American Ethanol NASCAR Sprint Series car at the Growth Energy exhibit, over at the Illinois Corn Growers exhibit, the Illinois Family Farmers NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Kenny Wallace was signing autographs and doing interviews. Kenny said he was “blown away” by the Farm Progress Show. “This is like our Daytona 500! I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said in an interview with Chuck Zimmerman.

Kenny visited with lots of farmers during the three day show who made him feel very happy to be the Family Farmer American Ethanol spokesperson. “Farmers make me feel good,” he said. “They say thank you so much for putting up for us and that really humbles me,” he added.

Listen to Kenny’s interview here. NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Even though the Farm Progress Show now has permanent sites in both Iowa and Illinois, they still have host farm families who actually own and take care of the land, especially the field demonstration plots.

Dawn and David Brix are the folks who handle the field demo plots in Decatur, Illinois on the odd years when FPS is held there. “We take care of about 225 acres that we use for combine and tillage tune up and then Tuesday and Wednesday during the shows we have demos out there,” David says.

They partner with GROWMARK FS on the field plots. “They keep an eye on it all year, whether it’s crop scouting, fungicide treatments, genetics,” David said. “They take the worry out of our hands, we’re doing the labor but they’re doing all the stuff to make sure it’s the best crop it can be.”

David says it has been a challenging year for the corn crop. “We didn’t plant until maybe the 10th, then it got flooded out and then we didn’t have another drop of rain after that,” he said. “All things considered, to still have 110-115 bushels yields, that’s pretty good.”

What do they do on the off years? “Rest, relax, just do normal farming – not all the craziness,” David said. “That’s the only good thing about not having it every year is that you get a rest year before it comes back.”

Listen to or download my interview with David here. FPS Field Demo Host Farmer David Brix

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

The Illinois Corn Growers helped to kicked off a new program at the 2011 Farm Progress Show called KIC, short for “Keep it for the Crop by 2025″ program.

The new program is designed to promote, implement and track the rate of adoption of enhanced nutrient stewardship practices by Illinois agricultural producers, focusing on the 4R’s of Nutrient Stewardship: Right Source, Right Rate, Right Time, Right Place.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) has identified six priority watersheds for nutrient reductions including Lake Bloomington, Lake Vermilion, Lake Decatur, Vermilion River (Illinois Basin), Salt Fork Vermilion River (Wabash Basin) and Lake Mauvaisse Terra. Marcia Wilhite, IEPA’s Bureau of Water Chief, said “The lakes and rivers in these watersheds have water quality problems due to too much nitrogen or phosphorus, or both. Illinois EPA strongly endorses efforts to promote voluntary action by producers to adopt nutrient stewardship practices in their watersheds.

Start-up funding for the program is being provided by the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, the Illinois Soybean Association and IFCA fertilizer manufacturer members Agrium, CF Industries, Koch Fertilizer, The Mosaic Company and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan.

Listen to or download the press conference at FPS here: Illinois KIC Press Conference

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

If you want more friends on Facebook all you’ve got to do is ask. That’s what Ag Leader Technology was doing in their new permanent Farm Progress Show building this week. Here’s Lori Costello (left) and Katie Beeler with the t-shirts that are part of the I like Ag Leader Technology promotion.

I talked with Katie about how things were going with this idea. Katie says they share a lot of information via their Facebook page and they wanted to get the word out to people and ask them to like their page. So how this works is, you go to their page, like them and then fill out a short survey telling a little about yourself so they know who they’re talking to and you can get one of the t-shirts you can see in the photo. Katie says the goal is 1,000 followers by the end of the year. I think we can help them beat that don’t you? Like Ag Leader Technology here.

You can listen to my interview with Katie here: Interview with Katie Beeler

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

At the 2011 Farm Progress Show, GROWMARK is showcasing CropNAtion “the place for busy, progressive farmers and ranchers” to connect.

GROWMARK’s Heather Miller was signing people up for the agricultural social media site at the GROWMARK tent and Chuck talked with Cory Winsted about it. “You could say that CropNAtion is a virtual coffee shop, where a producer can be at home or in the shop on a computer and they can communicate with other producers all over the world,” Cory said. There’s no cost to sign up for CropNAtion – which you can do here at FPS this week, or on line anytime at cropnation.com.

Listen to or download Chuck’s interview with Cory here. GROWMARK's Cory Winsted

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Here is an edited video of Max Armstrong presenting the new John Deere products at the 2011 Farm Progress Show. John Deere experts explain some of the features on the new S-Series combines and R-Series tractors.

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

We are heading into the last day of Farm Progress Show today with temps expected to be over 100 degrees! It was just about 100 on Wednesday, but that didn’t slow down the crowd. At least it has been sunny and breezy – we’ll take it over rain!

Chuck Zimmerman interviewed Willie Vogt, Editorial Director, Farm Progress Companies about the show this year. Willie says the attendance on the first day was huge and there is a potential that some records could be set this year.

Field demos are in full swing so if you’d like to see some new technology in action Willie says this is a great place to do it.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Willie here. Interview with Willie Vogt

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Precision Pays Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by John Deere FS GreenPlan Solutions AgLeader