Another month, another year, and another decade to enjoy, get a bunch of work done, see the family increase in number and hopefully see the Ag economy flourish and the people in this and other countries find peace and prosperity. We have traveled to many countries and the common denominator between the citizens of each of them it to try to raise their kids to be successful and healthy plus try to make their lives easier than they had it. My parents grew up with work horses around and the newer tractors were IH Hs and Ms while the JDs were the old two cylinder poppers. Cows were milked by hand and there were no skid loaders. Most people living on farms likely did not think that everything about those conditions constituted the good old days. It was bitterly cold in the winters and the work never got completely done. So what might we see in the rest of this decade? I would like to hear other people’s thoughts.
So being we are in the first full week in January we typically see the coldest part of the winter occur over the next four to six weeks. Will that be the case this year? The current weather forecast from the meteorologist is telling us that a large blob of warm air is blocking the really cold air from entering the Midwest. The week’s prediction for high 30s to mid-40 temps sounds very tolerable. Along Hwy 30 any snow that has fallen has melted right away. North of Hwy 3 there is a measurable snow pack. Already a person can notice the days are getting longer. The good news is that at this point there are only eleven weeks left of winter.
The month of January is one involving numerous educational and Ag meetings, planning for the coming season, decisions and reservations to be made, and during the final days the Iowa Power Show.
Things to Do
The admonitions by Charlie Hurburgh this fall as he was observing the crop and the delayed planting and harvest seasons was that this crop was very late and very wet based on our normal calendar. He expected lighter test weights, and that was real for most growers. With the wetter grain at harvest the potential existed for more harvest damage being done to the grain. He also expected the grain to not store as well and would need to be checked more often than normal for any spoilage and heating in the bins. That is an area where warmer temps could lead to additional storage problems.
The majority of growers had stories about lighter test weights and sometimes dramatic differences before and after the rain delays and freezes. There seemed to be major differences in rainfall and harvest progress between the eastern 1/3rd and the western 2/3rds of the state as to how the harvest progressed or remain stalled for many weeks.
Crop Update Sessions and the Power Show
Over the next few weeks the ISU extension will hold regional meetings where the discuss cropping topics and problems observed in the past year. The main thought among most Ag people is that most were simply wanting to get 2019 over with and turn the page on a new year.
The big Iowa Power Show is also on the calendar for late January in Des Moines. It is a major event for the farming public and most of the Ag businesses in the state. Most of you have it on your calendar and hope to attend if the weather permits and the grain and livestock markets improve.
The month is also for farmers to sit down and do much of their planning and decision making for the coming season. The last three or four have been ones where belt tightening and budget cutting was common for ever operator. I have to keep seeing people during the month and keep working towards out big conference on Jan 22nd in Webster City.
“Show Me the Money” 2020
The big meeting is still a work in progress as we design the poster for it and get the PR in place. The past conferences were all held successfully except that nearly every event was held during torrential rains that nearly flooded the event out. As proof of that the one in 2019 was on March 14th, the big rain in Neb, S Dakota and NW Iowa when the large rains fell on a record snow pack and all of the streams were still iced in.
A few more of the speakers let us know they would be attending. Previously I mentioned that the members of the BioDyne crew and Kevin Kimberley would be attending. A scientist turned entrepreneur who spoke at an earlier one, from Seattle, is a microbiologist who is continuing to test his microbe and microbe/mineral mixes in different states and countries. Rusty Rodriguez told us at the earlier conference about his Trichoderma fungus and how it makes plants much more tolerant to heat and cold. He was recorded giving a Ted Talk entitled ‘Symbiosis’. Look for this on YouTube. To me the main benefit it seems to be threefold. 1. It makes plants much more heat tolerant. 2. It helps plants emerge and grow quicker in a cold spring. 3. Where pasturing of animals is common, the forage production is increased 2 to 3X. Alfalfa also wakes up and starts adding top growth two to three weeks earlier.
A tech person for Redox will be present again. As the only ISO 9000 certified plant nutrition company in the U.S. they take a different tactic with their plants. Their founder and CEO attended the 10 days long BioStimulant Conference held in S Korea in October. What they call biostimulants are basically soil microbes which serve in the soil to make applied and latent nutrients plant available. The large conglomeration of speakers agreed and stated that 60 to 70% of the energy the plants produced was use to battle environmental stresses (ie: heat, droughts, salinity, low mineral content etc… So if they developed a new mineral or humate product that helped the crops to battle those stresses, they would conserve their energy to produce more grain or fruit. They talk a lot about reducing oxidative stress in plants and seeing huge benefits. We get to hear how those field trials in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin turned out in 2019.
The last person to confirm is someone in a field of human medicine plus the CEO of a company he collaborates with. What this related to are the issues discussed at a large Environmental Medical Conference I attended a few years ago. These MDs and DOs work with patients that other medical people have given up on. They begin by questioning work history, what products you’ve been around, then do testing to get to the root cause of the problem. In the Ag world, which is huge, that typically means looking to see that harmful product such as a herbicide, fungicide, insecticide, solvent, heavy metal or such that people are exposed to or consume that eventually accumulate to such a level that they liver and kidneys can no longer cleanse the body and eliminate them.
These humate chemists have developed the testing protocol to test a person for such toxins and then developed products that get them out of the body. We talked with the Dr. last week and he is very sharp. He has developed a reputation for his ability to treat Lyme’s patients successfully. With their resistor cells treating for this disease is similar to treating malaria. My wife and I would recommend that farming partners, the wives, who wash the clothes their husband wear while around or applying such products, come to listen to Dr Lindsley. I wish I had known about this company and their products before I had to attend so many funerals over the last two decades. (But they and their findings didn’t exist until recently.)
Another recent confirmation came from a PhD water researcher who got educated at Oxford and Tokyo Universities and trained at the top labs in Germany, Japan and Russia. He was recently awarded the equivalent of the Nobel Price for inventors by the International Trade Council. He is an excellent presenter and has done so for many kings and queens and presidents around the world. He makes you think hard about a topic you have seldom thought about- water. Don’t miss your chance to listen to him, as crop farmers and livestock producers would benefit from gaining knowledge from him.
If attending this conference sounds like something you would benefit from make your reservation by calling or emailing me, my wife, Marv or Larry Eickhoff by Jan 15th . MM: 515-370-3381. CAS: 515-231-6710, me: 515-709-0143, or LE: 515-571-7260.
Bob Streit is an independent crop consultant and columnist for Farm News. He can be reached at (515) 709-0143 or www.CentralIowaAg.com.