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LessonsInCornGrowing

Good morning! Another week - don't know if you people are interested in this one, but I had good time with it. Dad

r Grapes and Saddle Sores

George Hirst

It is about learning! August 25. 05

On August 11th , I spent part of the morning attending two of the all day sessions presented by Syngenta.an agribusiness and Garst, a seed company. The sessions were held in the "learning center" located two and a half miles east of Wyoming on the Valley blacktop. The site is owned by Scholl Farms and is 60 acres in size.

Eugene Kassmeyer, Head of Eastern Division Sales for Garst in a welcoming speech said there were eight learning centers across the midwest. He introduced the Garst sales representatives who were present and the Crop Protection and Seed Treatment representatives from Sygenta. He told the farmers present that everyone was here to learn.

As the plans for the day were presented, it seemed to me that the eleven plots of beans and corn planted in various varieties and strains under different soil managements were not

demonstrations but lessons for everyone involved in land management and crop production. So the day was about learning.

Seed company signs are all over the place. They are placed in demonstration plots by seed companies to show farmers about the varieties of corn and soy beans that they have to sell.

Demonstration sites developed by Sygenata Crop Protection, Sygenata Seed Treatment,Garst, Agrisure Traits, and Mower Soil Testing, are more than sites to sell farmers seed corn and beans. It is more than teachings in tillage and production of corn and beans.

It is a"learning center" because it provides information to everyone involved in crop management. The lessons learned are about genetics, traits, seed treatment and crop protection as well as tillage practices, timing and fertility.

This is a long way from "Bob" Garst’s selling an improved seed corn. In the early 1940s Roswell (Bob) Garst came to the Kansas State Fair and opened a booth with information about hybrid corn. The company was called Pioneer Seed Company and the principal owners were Roswell Garst and Charles Thomas. Garst was the sales manager and Thomas was a scientist who had developed a new way of producing better corn. Any corn farmer will tell you that was a method called cross pollination. Most of the farmers in those early days grew open pollinated corn which was produced each year from the previous year by growers.

My father bought seed from the company and eventually became a sales representative. He took quite a bit of heat from his friends about the new corn. I tell you this because from that beginning has come the company called Garst.

The information provided to corn and soy bean growers is at the cutting edge of farming practices. To those who are not farmers and who keep a high interest in 100 bushel per acre farming practices in the 21st century, the information is a testimony to 21st century agricultural industry.

At one of the soy bean sites, Dr. Palle Pederson, a soybean specialist from Iowa State University placed heavy emphasis on the use of all resources for farmers working to increase the production of soybeans to 100 bushel per arcre. The availability of seed representatives for knowledge on variety and strains of soy beans, the help from Syngenta production and seed treatment folks as to the treatment of plants in width of rows and crop population, the use of weather forecasters in planting times and protection from weed and insects. If he said once, he said it a dozen times, the need to scout bean fields to spot troubles such as insects and rust is present before, during and after a crop year.

In short, Dr. Pederson said, everyone is involved in producing 100 bushel per acre soy bean crops. What this really says to me is that 21st century agricultural people are all working together in the precision production of crops to feed a world.

The people at the demonstration were very helpful to me. I especially appreciated the help of Laura Temple, Public Relations.

SourGrapesAndSaddleSores
Created by KKris. Last Modification: Saturday 30 of September, 2006 17:12:30 EDT by KKris.