Here is the complete agenda and speaker biographies for Central Iowa Agronomy’s meeting on soil health, plant health, micronutrients and nutrient management.
March 8, 2018 — It’s scheduled for 9:30 am to 3:45 pm Monday, March 12, 2018, at the Holiday Inn Ames Conference Center, 2609 University Blvd., Ames, IA 50010.
Here are the details provided by organizers Bob Streit and Marv Mortensen:
This meeting is designed to provide the latest field crop production information to consultants and farmers. Speakers will share their 2018 recommendations and give an overview of the successes that they have seen in the last few growing production seasons. This will help prepare growers to remain profitable in the 2018 growing season. These experts have been able to trial products and select products that offer high ROIs and better plant health.
Main focus of the conference:
- Soil health
- Plant health
- Micronutrients
- Nitrogen management & Nutrient efficiency
You’ll be able to network with top growers, scientists, agronomists, and product specialists. You’ll receive practical information and will be able to get your questions answered by the experts.
The top 10 reasons you won’t want to miss this meeting:
- Learn how we produced big yields in 2017 and learn how to apply this knowledge in 2018.
- Learn what newer products seem to produce the highest ROIs.
- Learn what steps and products can improve soil health and increase your Haney score.
- Learn how good soil health correlates to good plant health.
- Learn how and when you should sample your fields for the Haney analysis.
- Learn how much it will cost and how long it might take to build the desired test levels for high yields.
- Learn about humates, what they do.
- Learn about N stabilizers to minimize N runoff and leaching.
- Learn the new cutting edge facts and the benefits of using silica fertilizers on plants. This information has never been shared before in Iowa.
- Learn about the bacterial disease complex affecting corn since 2009.
9:30 am – 10:10 am: Mitchell Hora – Continuum Ag, LLC
10:15 am – 10:45 am: Bob Wagner/Gil Farley – BioDyne Midwest
10:45 am – 11:40 am: Dr. Dave Sasseville – AgriGuardian
11:40 am – Noon: JR Santos – Spraytec
Noon – 12:40 pm: Lunch
12:40 pm – 1:20 pm: Dr. Dan Olk – USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment
1:20 pm – 2:00 pm: Dave Schwartz/Brody Benton – Verdesian Life Sciences
2:00 pm – 2:45 pm: Eric Massey/Richard Evans – Midwest Redox
2:45 pm – 3:30 pm: Marv Mortensen/Bob Streit – Central Iowa Agronomy & Supply
Mitchell Hora
Mitchell Hora is a Washington County Iowa farmer and the owner of Continuum Ag. Continuum Ag is a consulting and data management company working with farmers, consultants, and ag businesses around the world to economically and logistically quantify and improve soil health. While graduating from Iowa State in May 2017, with degrees in Ag Systems Technology and Agronomy, Mitchell and his team collected over 1,000 Haney Soil Health tests in 2017. Hora’s planned work this season includes product testing with global companies, providing lab analysis from: Haney’s ARS lab, Brookside Labs, Ward Labs, Trace Genomics, and more, plus evaluating management practices with farmers across the Midwest. Constant updates can be found on Continuum Ag’s social media or YouTube.
Bob Wagner
Bob Wagner worked in crop protection, sales and marketing with Dow Dupont for 30 years. He is founder and owner of Wagner Consulting since 1985. Bob is currently a regional manager and consultant for Biodyne USA.
Dr. Dave Sasseville
Dr. Sasseville holds a Ph.D. in Horticulture from the University of Missouri with specialization in plant nutrition with emphasis on the relationship of pesticides and microbiology. He was State Extension Specialist with Missouri University Outreach and Extension for 25 years, where he worked with growers on nutrition and pesticide issues. His emphasis was using soil testing and plant analysis to include all plant nutrients to improve crop yields and quality. He is co-author of Plant Analysis Handbook III (2014), which is used worldwide as the standard plant nutritional tissue testing reference. Dr. Sasseville has served as a crop production consultant in over 30 other countries. In 2005, after retiring from the university, he founded AgriGuardian ™ , a company that develops and markets specialty agricultural inputs that were not available to growers, such as AgriGuardian ™ Moly and AgriGuardian ™ MicroMix, AgriGuardian ™ Nutra-Boost ® . These products are used on both agronomic and horticulture crops, and are marketed internationally.
JR Santos
Graduated with an Agronomy degree from Ponta Grossa State University in Parana – Brazil in 2012 with focus on Plant Pathology. Began career as an Agronomist Crop Consultant for Insolo Ag LLC advising growers for 30,000 acres of corn, soybeans and cotton in Maranhao, Brazil. In 2013 to advance international experience and professionalism, he accepted an internship through Ohio State University to apply academic knowledge and practical skills to manage a Coffee Farm in Kona, Hawaii – USA. Once the internship was complete, returned to Brazil and worked as a consultant for Impar AG LLC in research and strategy development. 2016 Spraytec brought him to USA as a sales territory manager in Iowa and Illinois. Currently responsible for product and market development of Spraytec product in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
Dr. Dan Olk
Dr. Olk is a soil biochemist at the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames, IA. His laboratory research addresses the roles of soil organic matter and its chemical composition in soil processes and agronomic sustainability. His field research studies the efficacy of humic products in promoting crop growth and economic yield. He is a PhD graduate of the University of California, Davis and performed post-doctoral research at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines before joining the USDA-ARS.
Dave Schwartz
Dave Schwartz has been in Agribusiness for 38 years and has worked at all levels of production ag from retail to basic manufacturers to distribution. He has been involved in developing modern day high yield technologies, which he most enjoys in his current job as Executive Vice President of Sales for Verdesian Life Sciences for the 12 Midwest Corn Belt states. His major hobby is farming. His family farms near Guthrie Center where he gets to put into practice all the techniques and technologies that he has learned. He’s also passionate about improving soil health and water quality on his own farm. He’s eager to share his knowledge with other growers who have those same goals. Dave is the Vice President of the Iowa Agricultural Water Alliance Business Council. He’s also the Vice President of the Fluid Fertilizer Foundation, through which he enjoys learning ways to help growers and retailers seek more efficient ways to be sustainable and profitable. His talk today is all about that how farming sustainably can also be more profitable.
Eric Massey
Eric Massey was born in Milford-Haven, Wales and at the age of 9 immigrated to the U.S. He served in the US Navy. Eric began working on his family farm after arriving in the U.S. He has always had an interest in agriculture and horticulture. He attended Olympic College, Washington State University, with a focus on mycology and soil biology. He has been a student of agronomy for 38 years. Eric is a former Golf Course Superintendent with 17 years’ experience. He has worked in sales as a regional manager and territory developer since 1997. In 2005 he started selling Redox products in turf. He has experience in golf sales of Redox products from Simi Valley in the west to Medinah CC in Chicago and has also worked with agriculture and has experience in many crops from California to the Great Lakes of New York.
Marv Mortensen
Marv was raised on a farm in Buena Vista County. He graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. degree in Ag Business with a minor in Farm Management. He became a Certified Crop Advisor in 2002. From 1978 to 1991, he worked at the Heart of Iowa Co-op as a custom applicator, fertilizer and herbicide sales and seed manager. From 1991 to 1993, he worked for a regional seed company. In 1992 he started his own business, Mortensen Enterprises, as a crop consultant to provide crop scouting and soil sampling. In 2003 he became co-owner of Central Iowa Agronomy & Supply, marketing a variety of cropping inputs.
Bob Streit
Bob is an agronomist, plant scientist, crop consultant, international speaker and expert in educating audiences and individuals on the correlation between healthy soils and the production of healthy food, as it relates to good human health. His college education at Iowa State University was in Plant Pathology, Pest Management, and Agronomy. Bob has over 40 years of experience in crop consulting, farm management, research, technology and product development.
Lunch & snack breaks will be provided.
Registration: Free but you must RSVP to guarantee seating and lunch. This will help us have an accurate number for meals.
RSVP: Please RSVP to reserve your seat to Carol Streit at 515-231-6710 or carol.streit6@gmail.com.