A wide array of experienced ag researchers are examining field data, preparing for presentations to farmers March 14 at the Story County fairgrounds in Nevada, Iowa. This will assemble some of the keenest minds among commercial developers of nutrient and biological products.
February 14, 2019 — The data presented March 14 should help you answer questions we’re hearing most often from farmers facing tight crop budgets this season: With corn and soybean prices so low, what yield enhancers have the highest odds of payback in 2019?
The presentations are being arranged by Boone, IA Bob Streit and Marv Mortensen of allied with Dave Schwartz of Central Iowa Agronomy and Supply, working with Verdesian Life Sciences. Here’s the announcement which Bob and Carol Streit e-mailed to their clients:
Central Iowa Agronomy & Supply
‘Show Me the Money’
Pre-season Meeting
March 14, 2019
9:30 am – 3:45 pm
Quality Inn (Formerly Starlight Restaurant & Motel)
2601 E 13th St.
Ames, IA
A great line-up of speakers will be presenting at our “Show Me the Money” pre-season meeting. You won’t want to miss this cutting edge information and the opportunity to get your questions answered.
This meeting is designed to provide the latest field crop production information to consultants and farmers. Speakers will share their 2019 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 2019 growing season. These experts have been able to trial products and select products that offer high ROIs and better plant health.
The main focus of the conference will be on:
- 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 13 reasons you don’t want to miss this meeting:
- Learn how we produced big yields in 2018 and learn how we suggest incorporating this information in years going forward.
- Learn what newer products were in trials and on track to produce the highest ROIs.
- Learn what steps and products can improve soil health and increase your Haney and PLFA score. Are cover crops totally practical or do we use other paths?
- Learn how good soil health correlates to good plant health.
- Learn how and when you should sample your fields for the Haney analysis.
- Learn what products to use and how much it will cost and how long it might take to build the desired test levels for high yields.
- Hear about farmers in two northern Iowa counties who have converted to and are producing nice profits on over 40,000 acres of organic crops.
- Learn about N stabilizers to minimize N runoff, stop leaching, and protect late season plant health.
- Learn the facts and the benefits of using silica fertilizers on plants, Greensnap resistance and drought tolerance, stronger stalks, and increased yields.
- Learn about the bacterial disease complex affecting corn since 2009. What is tar spot?
- What are endophytes and what benefits do they offer?
- Learn about StressTech, a new product to eliminate heat stress in plants.
- Learn the latest on tillage and planter thoughts for the 2019 crop season.
10:00 am – 10:45 am: Dan Coffin – Will discuss how specific microbes work symbiotically.
10:45 am – 11:45 am: Kevin Kimberley – Tillage tools – how they work and their adjustments. Planter updates and settings.
11:45 am – 12:10 pm : Jerry Carlson – WakeUp – tips for 2019.
12:10 pm – 12:45 pm: Lunch
12:45 pm – 1:30 pm: Eric Massey – Energized fertilizer applied to plants – benefits + function.
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm: Tom Wood – 02 – Chitosan works against diseases and insects.
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm: Dr. Michael McNeill – Thoughts on and learning about transitioning to organics.
2:30 pm – 3:00 pm: Dave Schwartz – Nutrient use efficiency
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm: Bob Streit – StressTech and Bio Empruv thoughts. High yield soy bean management.
3:30 pm – 3:45 pm: Marv Mortensen – Getting updated on soil analyses and delivery of products
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. 2018 work 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.
Dan Coffin
For the past 30 years, Dan has made it his business to help farmers re-establish a healthy growing environment for their crops through the use of cutting edge technology, soil and plant fertility science, and basic wisdom. Dan is a Masters graduate of the Purdue University Agronomy program with a specialty in soils and holds credentials as a Certified Professional Agronomist. With a long career as a teacher and technical sales specialist for companies like American Cyanamid Co., Northrup King Co, and fertilizer outlets, Dan is uniquely qualified to talk with both growers and technical groups in all phases of agriculture including the emerging biostimulant business.
As owner of SPNC Corp (Soil & Plant Nutritional Concepts), Dan instructs many growers on how to utilize fertility based on soil and plant interactions and the normal/natural abilities of plants to grow healthier, more abundant crops. In 2013, Dan became Vice-President of Agricultural Sales with the Biodyne Midwest LLC and has been focusing on the integration and application of biotechnology to the agricultural world.
Kevin Kimberley
Kevin Kimberley of Kimberley Ag Consulting teaches producers how to reach ultimate yield potential through planter and field preparation. He is known for his on-farm consulting in which his clients utilize various farming techniques including strip-till, no-till, and full-tillage. He’s a master observing and understanding how tillage machines and planters work. He has been in business since 1980 and has been consulting on planters since the 1990s.
Jerry Carlson
Jerry Carlson has 35 years’ experience in researching and writing about biologically-based farming for higher profits and healthier food. Most of his current reporting appears on the www.renewablefarming.com website. It’s named after Renewable Farming LLC which his family owns. It’s run by Jerry’s son Erik and wife Jeanene, with their three sons Blake, Terry and Lane. The family manufactures several formulations of the colloidal surfactant and growth stimulant, WakeUP. In 10 years of field and lab research, the family learned how farmers can use WakeUP to amplify benefits of crop nutrients and biological products. In Jerry’s earlier ag career, he was Managing Editor of Farm Journal and co-founder of Professional Farmers of America. Jerry and his wife Jill (a teacher and book author) live on the family’s research farm near Cedar Falls, Iowa.
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.
Tom Wood
Tom Wood grew up on a potato, cereal grain, and alfalfa farm in Eastern Idaho, with both irrigated and dryland acres. Tom has built several ag related small businesses over the years, including a custom haying operation, and with his brother Matt, a custom application business, and a farm retail business focusing on biological and alternative inputs, while still managing his own farm. Tom is always looking for “alternative” methods, systems, and products to help lower inputs and increase profitability on his own operation. After experimenting with the O2YS and Organisan line of chitosan products on his own farm, the products were added to the retail business portfolio, and one thing led to another, and Tom is now the Western Territory Manager for O2YS Corp, and Organisan Corp.
Dr. Michael McNeill
Michael McNeill is a PhD agronomist trained at Iowa State University. His work following graduation included working as a plant pathologist with the U.S. Army and later managing a corn breeding research station for Funks Seeds International. In 1983 he started Ag Advisory Ltd. as an independent agricultural consulting service providing genetic, agronomic and economic consultation for farmers. The services provided included soil and plant tissue sampling, fertilizer recommendations as well as, herbicide, fungicide, and insecticide recommendations. He conducted contract research work for private companies, universities and government agencies that involved improving agronomic practices and evaluating inputs. He also developed early research work on remote sensing using GPS technologies involving aerial photographing of the land mass of a five state area in the Middle West. He is currently researching methods to efficiently rejuvenate damaged agricultural soils. Mike has transitioned his own farm acres to organic.
Dave Schwartz
Dave Schwartz has been in Agr-Business for 38 years and has worked at all levels of Production Ag from Retail to Basic Manufacturers to Distribution and has been fortunate to have been involved in the evolution of the modern day high yield technologies that 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 farm and the family’s farms near Guthrie Center where he gets to put into practice all the techniques and technologies that he has learned and is very passionate about improving Soil Health and Water Quality on his own farm and be able to share his learnings with other growers who have those same goals. Dave is the Vice President of the Iowa Agricultural Water Alliance Business Council and also the Vice President of the Fluid Fertilizer Foundation which he enjoys learning ways to help growers and retailers seek more efficient ways to be sustainable and profitable. His talk today is about how farming sustainably can also be more profitable.
Bob Streit
Bob Streit, CCA, CPCS, 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.
Bob is co-owner of Central Iowa Agronomy & Supply and President of Central Iowa Agronomics. He is actively involved in projects in soil remediation, making biological assessments of growing environments, developing systems to clean up food and water supplies, and doing test trials of products. Since 2003 he has traveled throughout much of South America, working with the top scientists and growers on their specific problems in crop production. Bob contributes articles to several magazines and writes a weekly column for an Iowa based Ag newspaper. He has been internationally interviewed and has appeared in several movies dealing with soil, plant, and human health. To learn more go to www.CentralIowaAg.com.
Marv Mortensen
Marv Mortensen is co-owner and manager of Central Iowa Agronomy and Supply. He is a Certified Crop Advisor who was born and raised on a family farm in northwest Iowa. Marv earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Ag Business and Farm Management from Iowa State University. Over the next 15 years he gained experience in custom applications, fertilizer and chemical marketing, fertilizer plant management, and seed management including district sales for a regional seed company in western Iowa.
In 1993, Marv established Mortensen Enterprises to compliment and utilize his knowledge of agriculture and product application. Mortensen Enterprises, provides GPS soil sampling, crop consulting and crop scouting for farmers and landlords in the Midwest. The soil sampling service involves GPS antennas, handheld electronic devices and laboratory work to provide the farmer with data and professional analysis of these results. For more information feel free to contact Marv at marv@highyieldbeans.com.
To sign up for early registration fill out this FORM and send to the address provided with your $35 check made payable to Central Iowa Agronomy & Supply.
You must register to guarantee seating and lunch. This will help us have an accurate count and food supply for lunch.
Additional information: Please contact Carol Streit at 515-231-6710 or info@centraliowaag.com for additional details.
CCA CEUs: Will be applied for.
Farmers asked to hear updates from the same speakers that Bob and Dave assembled at last summer’s Aug. 20 field day at Dave Schwartz’ farm west of Guthrie Center, Iowa. We’ll add speakers’ names and the agenda as they’re confirmed. Since many of the products they’ll talk about are foliars or in-furrow, Bob has invited the Renewable Farming team to briefly explain how WakeUP (which our family manufactures and markets) enhances performance of these biologicals and nutrients.
For a quick review of presentations from last Aug. 20 and some data from our own field trials, here are four links you can visit:
1. An overall summary of the Aug. 20, 2018 field day at the Schwartz farm. (The entire crowd had to stay in that machine shed because four inches of rain poured down in an all-day storm.)
2. A close look at how specialized symbiotic fungi, living inside crops, can protect yields against stress.
3. A product that could help keep corn from premature die-down in late summer.
4. How silicon is proving helpful in strengthening crop metabolism.
Another of the confirmed speakers will be Tom Wood, representing the Organisan and O2YS companies.
To cover costs of the fairgrounds conference hall, a good sound system, lunch and other expenses, Bob is suggesting a registration fee of $30 to $40. The advanced nature of the subjects also qualifies the meeting for Certified Crop Adviser credits.
To advise Carol Streit of your planned participation, e-mail her a note at info@centraliowaag.com