Agriblogging Students

By Cindy Zimmerman

A special thanks for the content that appears on this blog goes to five outstanding University of Illinois student “agribloggers.” This group worked as a team to get out the majority of the posts you can find here from the AGMasters Conference, including most of the audio interviews.

The bloggers are (standing) Crop Science majors Ross Recker and Jared Roskamp. Seated are, left to right, Agricultural Communications major Alyssa Eade, Crop Sci major Caitlin Allen, and Ag Comm major Megan Ott.
They deserve a big round of applause for their great work. I expect to see every one of them working in the industry and making a name for themselves in the very near future. Thanks to all of you!

A Special Thanks to Hard Work

By: Caitlin Allen

During the conference, registrants can listen to speakers from the College of ACES, as well as other universities from around the nation, to hear about new concerns in the agriculture industry. AGMasters comes with a new site and new program, but behind all of this is a special lady, Sandy Osterbur. Sandy Osterbur has been putting together the Crop Protection Technology Conference, newly the AGMasters, and the Corn & Soybean Classics for the last 5 years.  Organizing such conferences is a year long process that ends in a two day conference like AGMasters, or a 7 day adventure like the Classics. Sandy’s long hours and hard work is extremely important to attain such great conferences for you to attend. Personally, I hope that many of you will take the time to thank Sandy and all the hard work that she does for you to have a great experience.

AGMasters Classes in Session

By Cindy Zimmerman

The first day of the AGMasters Conference provided a big picture look at a number of issues. Today attendees are getting down to the details in two hour sessions on various topics.

In a classroom setting, industry representatives and growers are hearing this morning about Nitrogen Use by Corn from Fred Below; Soilborne Diseases of Soybeas with Terry Niblack, Managing Glyphosate Resistant Weeds from Dale Shaner; and Bt Plants for Insect Management with Anthony Shelton. The class size was limited to allow for good interaction among participants.

This afternoon, sessions include: Analysis of On-Farm Combined Experiments with German Bollero; Biotechnology and Genomics to Enhance Plant Breeding and Crop Improvement with Stephen Moose; Physiology of Herbicide-Plant Interactions with Dean Riechers; and Making Sense of Product Claims by Paul Vincelli.

See photos from the entire AGMasters conference here.

Sponsors Made AGMasters Happen

By Cindy Zimmerman

Sponsor support made the inaugural AGMasters Conference possible this week. Those sponsors included BASF, Bayer Crop Science, DuPont, Dow AgroSciences, FMC, Monsanto and the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association – as well as Syngenta and Burrus Hybrids.

“Obviously the financial benefit of sponsorships from industry was very important to put on a conference like this,” said conference co-chairman Aaron Hager. In addition to the financial support, Hager says the companies and organizations also served on the committee to develop the structure for the new and improved conference.

An extra special thanks is in order for the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association and president Jean Payne for their involvement over the years with the event.

Listen to Aaron’s comments about the sponsors here:
Audio File: Aaron Hager

There are multiple benefits for the companies in sponsoring such an event. “I think it’s important from a basic manufacturer’s standpoint, to get our products used correctly,” says FMC representative Brent Neuberger.

Monsanto’s Chris Kamienski says they are only successful when farmers are successful, “And in order for them to be successful, they really need the expertise and research provided by the universities. So, when the universities educate the farmers, who are our customers, everybody wins.”

Courtney Gallup with Dow AgroSciences agrees with that concept. “We feel strongly about the input of universities and we want to support their efforts in outreach and extension and exchanging ideas.”

Craig Abell with Syngenta, who served on the conference committee, was pleased with the new structure and format for the conference, which builds on a 60 year history of serving the industry. “It’s a very in depth view,” he says. “The new format really provides a deep dive into some topics important to the business today.”

Listen to comments about the conference from a few of our sponsors here:

Audio file: AGMasters Sponsors

Guenther Shares Similarities Between Farming & Football

By: Megan Ott
Participants at the end of the conference were able to enjoy an appearance from University of Illinois Athlectic Director, Ron Guenther. Guenther has been the Athletic Director at Illinois for 18 years now and connected with the Illinois Athletics for over 30 years. Guenther commented “There are similarities between farming and football both had a tough fall.” Guenther shared his experiences with his agricultural experiences and latest in athletics which contributed to a great finale for Day 1 of the 2009 AGMasters Conference.

See all photos from the conference here on the AGMasters Photo Album

4R Nutrient Stewardship

By Cindy Zimmerman

The final presenter on the agenda at the AGMasters conference today was Dr. Cliff Snyder, Nitrogen Program Director for the International Plant Nutrition Institute, who talked about how to apply nitrogen effectively and responsibly.

Dr. Snyder pointed out that fertilizer use already enables farmers to feed more people than they could without it, but the growing world population will require even greater global food supplies. At the same time, there is growing concern about the effects of nitrogen loss on the environment.

To that end, he encourages “4R Nutrient Stewardship – right source, right rate, right time and right place.” He considers this “essential to improve farm profitability and sustainability, to provide global demands for food, fiber and biofuels, and to protect water and air resources.”

The International Plant Nutrition Institute has embarked on a campaign to promote implementation of 4R Nutrient Stewardship. Find out more about it here on their website.

On-Farm Foliar Data Statistical Considerations

By: Vince Davis and Megan Ott

Paul Esker, University of Wisconsin Extension Plant Pathologist, discussed the statistics of on-farm foliar fungicide research trials. They have developed an extensive network of on-farm trials averaging 20 to 25 research locations per year in WI over the last couple of years. They focused, with their growers, on how to emphasize appropriate statistical analysis. The foundation, of course, was Fisher’s three principles: replication, randomization, and blocking. Unfortunately, large-plot observational studies are much harder than small plot research to accomplish those principles.

There are several sources of variation from the farms – they are not the same, and treatment effects are not the same due to environmental variation. Weather data is always important, but a challenge. WI also has a wide range of soil types.

One important step for good on-farm research is to learn more about each individual field to make sure check strips are placed in an area of the field that is adequately representative of the whole field. Paul also mentioned that blocking around contours in some fields can be a major challenge. An idea of “An empirical law of heterogeneity of agricultural crops in fields” dates back to Fairfield-Smith in 1938 and even before.

The statistic that has a big financial implication to growers at the end of the day is the power to detect a difference. This is based on concepts like the p-value that represents the probability that there is, or is not, a difference related to a treatment. Very simply put, if the size of difference and the sample size are large, the power is large, but if the error variance is large, the power is low.

Paul then summarized 2007 and 2008 trials mostly using data from the treatment of Headline fungicide produced by BASF. The number one disease in Wisconsin in corn right now is anthracnose of corn. They found little differences related to crop rotation, and no differences in relation to crop maturity. They did find about a 10 bu effect due to tillage but no interaction with tillage and fungicide use. The “trend” is an advantage of 3-4 bu/acre for using Headline across all the different environments and they have not seen an increase in corn grain moistures. This fall they are looking into corn stalk ratings to better understand the influence of stalk quality.

In summary, they are finding success to using a slightly more complicated, on-farm research protocol over multiple locations. Over years, they are building ‘blocks’ over time, and their focus is on corn stalk quality in the next couple of years. Paul said an additional resource for learning more about on farm research can be found on the Plant Management Network website.

You can find Megan’s interview with Paul below:

Audio File: Paul Esker

AGMasters Photo Album

A Brief Look at the Fertilizer Industry

By: Jared Roskamp

Harry Vroomen, Vice President of Economic Services for The Fertilizer Institute, brought some insight to the group on the supply and demand of fertilizers. The fertilizer industry has been more like a rollercoaster in the past five years. Harry explained to us the reason for the high prices in the recent past. He cited high production costs and transportation costs as well as high demand as reasons for the spike in fertilizer cost. He sees costs dropping for the upcoming year as fuel and raw material costs have started to decline. Because we rely on imports so heavily, the value of the dollar was stressed as a key element to the cost of the fertilizer. This may be a big variable for the price in the upcoming year. Lastly, the consumer demand has backed off due to the price volatility of the crops and the recession which has helped to drive the prices back down.

See all photos from the conference here on the AGMasters Photo Album

Reshuffling the Deck

By: Megan Ott

Just as we search to find the best cards in the deck or as we pick the best sports teams to follow, seed companies are doing the same in their own way shuffling the deck picking the best traits to provide the greatest protection in the bag. Having grown up on a farm but not paying too much attention to the agronomic side, and now majoring in agricultural communications, I will admit to not having the best expertise in the agronomics or crop sciences division of agriculture. However, I wasn’t afraid to sit in on a session with an expert in this division and follow with an interview.

Ken Ostlie, Professor of Entomology and Extension Entomologist at University of Minnesota, provided insight on the latest developments of Bt-Rootworm Transgenics and other technological developments in the seed and trait industry. Ostlie provided ways in which seed companies are working towards their goals for the future. Those include the following: 1.) Marketing Advantage 2.) Farmer Convenience-Risk 3.) Durability- Resistance? 4.) IRM Compliance and 5.) Shelf Space.

Ostlie spoke about the latest developments from seed companies and their efforts to provide the farmer with greater corn rootworm protection. Two companies working towards this are Monsanto and Pioneer. Monsanto has developed their SmartStax line and Pioneer has worked to develop Optimum Acre Max I. SmartStax gives the opportunity to allow farmers to only plant 5% refuge in the same or adjacent field. Optimum Acre Max I is in approval to determine it’s goal of allowing 2-5% refuge in the bag.

This is a prime time for agriculture and its producers. With products such as these being developed, farmers will be able to continue their hard work with in a simpler way.

You will find my interview with Ken below:

Audio File: Ken Ostlie

AGMasters Photo Album

Managing Troublesome Weeds

By: Jared Roskamp

One of the topics that was covered for the crowd at the AgMasters conference was the continuous problem of glyphosate resistant weeds. Dr. Mark Loux, Extension Specialist at Ohio State University, discussed how to use glyphosate effectively as to not increase the amount of resistant weeds, but still recieve effective control. Major weeds highlighted include control of horseweed and giant ragweed. He discussed some field scenarios where there was evident resistance. He also discussed multiple control strategies to help control the resistant weeds. “It is important to start with a clean seedbed, utilize proper pre-emergence herbicides, and diversify the herbicides,” said Dr. Loux. Glyphosate can still be utilized with help from other herbicides. Dr. Loux expressed that we have good tools in the pipeline that can be utilized in the future.

You can listen to my interview of Dr. Mark Loux below:

Audio File: Dr. Mark Loux