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January 2010
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January 29, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
Or Agriculture Aphorisms.
EVEN A BLIND PIG FINDS AND ACRON ONCE IN A WHILE
I heard this saying by a speaker at a conference a few weeks back, but under closer inspection, I found out that is should be, A blind squirrel finds an acorn, a blind pig finds a truffle, once in a while.
Meaning: Most people think that it means that no matter how much of an underdog someone is, and no matter how unlikely it is that they succeed, they will find success. The problem with that is, a pig doesn't search for truffles by vision, but by smell, so a blind pig should be as successful finding truffles as a sighted one and needn't rely on luck.
Squirells incidentally also use their noses to find acrons and other nuts. Both pigs and dogs are used to find truffles, and I would assume a pig eats aorns (also found by smell), but I haven’t been able to find a reference for people using pigs to find acrons. This means that talking about blind pigs finding acrons means someone has mixed up two aphorisms.
So really the saying means follow your nose. We’ll dissect that saying another time!
Attributed to: Lyndon Johnson 1908-1973
Farm Sayings Friday is weekly feature of Yield Starts Here. You might think your grandparents made it up, but that old saying likely goes back many years. In this feature we will figure out who said it first and what it really means! Do you have a well used saying in your family, send to us and we'll feature it in a future blog.
Yield Starts Here is a blog for farmers, focusing on increasing yield and profitability by focusing on the soil. It is managed by Craig Dick, a Blogronomist and Sales and Marketing Manager at Calcium Products. Find other articles by Craig and guest writers at http://blog.calciumproducts.com/ .
January 28, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
One of the things we here from many of our customers is how much better thier corn dries down and that grain storage problems go away. I don't have independent testing to prove this, but in apples, mellon, and many other fruit crops, high calcium content is highly correlated to longer storage life.
Could use of SuperCal 98G and SuperCal SO4 have prevented this disaster?
One of my freinds sent me this picture reportedly from Northwest Iowa:
Whether your a corn farmer, cooperative member, employee, or consumer grain quality should be as important as quantity. As a corn farmer and cooperative member, if you can't get the grain to market you lose, as an employee of the cooperative being exposed to that much mold, bacteria and fungas can't be good, and as consumers we all lose, since most of it will be blended in with good grain and end up in our food.
If anyone knows anymore information about this picture, I'd love to talk with you, we may be able to help. High quality and high quanitity start with the soil!
January 25, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, IA will be hosting a free, 3-day crop clinic on Jan 27th, Feb 2nd and Feb 9th at 7 pm.
Cropping challenges for 2010 and beyond:
Topics include making crop plans for 2010, soil fertility including soil testing, micro-nutrients, foliar fertilizer, nitrogen programs and use of nitrogen stabilizers, Rresidue management, seed management and treatment, high yield programs, fungicides and diseases, understanding the disease triangle, crop scouting, products and timing, research, and 2009 crop disease explosion, seed traits, insect trends, physiological energy demands, conventional weed control, and new products and uses.
Bob Streit, a private crop consultant, will be the presenter. The program will be held at Iowa Central in Fort Dodge in the Career Education Building, room 108. The program is designed for farmers and agribusiness to keep up to date on corn and soybean production in north central Iowa.
There is no charge for the program, but please call to preregister for the program, call (800) 362-2793, ext. 1277 or call 515-574-1277.
January 22, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
One of the comments we get a lot is, what data do you have to support your product works? We have many trials that back our claims, yet many agronomists and farmers need more proof. Sales of SuperCal 98G and SuperCal SO4 have grown stedily every year since we started. The growth in our sales in from farmers trying the product and seeing it works for themselves.
What about the people that need more proof?
Seth Godin says it best in his blog;
Business plans with too much detail, books with too much proof, politicians with too much granularity... it seems as though more data is a good thing, because data proves the case.
In my experience, data crowds out faith. And without faith, it's hard to believe in the data enough to make a leap. Big mergers, big VC investments, big political movements, large congregations... they don't usually turn out for a spreadsheet.
The problem is this: no spreadsheet, no bibliography and no list of resources is sufficient proof to someone who chooses not to believe. The skeptic will always find a reason, even if it's one the rest of us don't think is a good one. Relying too much on proof distracts you from the real mission--which is emotional connection.
So why don't we have reams of data? Because if you've tried our products you know they work! Makes you wonder why some products work so hard to "prove" they work?!?
Yield Starts Here is a blog for farmers, focusing on increasing yield and profitability by focusing on the soil. It is managed by Craig Dick, a Blogronomist and Sales and Marketing Manager at Calcium Products. Find other articles by Craig and guest writers at http://blog.calciumproducts.com/ .
January 22, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
From: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/41/messages/299.html
MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES --
Meaning : Act while conditions are favorable. The grass that is going to be used as hay needs to be dried after it is cut: rain is likely to spoil it. The farmer, therefore, sought to cut hay on a day when it seemed likely that the sun would be around for that day and one or two more.
Atributed to: John Heywood listed the advice as proverbial in 1546: 'When the sunne shyneth make hey.'" From "Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Wings Books, Originally New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985).
Farm Sayings Friday is weekly feature of Yield Starts Here. You might think your grandparents made it up, but that old saying likely goes back many years. In this feature we will figure out who said it first and what it really means! Do you have a well used saying in your family, send to us and we'll feature it in a future blog.
Yield Starts Here is a blog for farmers, focusing on increasing yield and profitability by focusing on the soil. It is managed by Craig Dick, a Blogronomist and Sales and Marketing Manager at Calcium Products. Find other articles by Craig and guest writers at http://blog.calciumproducts.com/ .
January 21, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
My apologies to all our customers, our Internet went down last night, taking our phones with them.
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This might be more reliable than our current phone service.
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Some-days I think a little piece and quite would be nice, nothing could be further from the truth. I found out today what it is like to not have the phones ringing (I hope it never happens again, what a nightmare). We are here to serve you and thanks to miserable service from one of our providers we were unable to do that.
Qwest finally has our phones back up. It is my hope that they have finally solved the problem. Since switching to T1 service, our phones and internet have gone out intermittently over the past few months and the quality of the calls has been poor as well. Time will tell if their new service is a completive advantage (which it is billed as) more useless than two tin cans and string.
If you have any questions, concerns or problems getting through to us, please contact me, 515-240-3347.
Thanks for you patience today.
Craig
Yield Starts Here is a blog for farmers, focusing on increasing yield and profitability by focusing on the soil. It is managed by Craig Dick, a Blogronomist and Sales and Marketing Manager at Calcium Products. Find other articles by Craig and guest writers at http://blog.calciumproducts.com/ .
January 18, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
While this conference is geared to no-tillers, anyone in production agriculture could learn something from attending this conference. Dan Davidson at DTN says it best here, this conference really is a Farming Think Tank.
There are discussions on all things farming and I know any farmer will get more value out of meeting farmers from around the country, and interacting one-on-one with industry leaders than the cost of the conference. I highly suggest making plans to attend next year, it will be the second week of Jan. in Cincinnati, Ohio, www.no-tillfarmer.com.
So what did I learn this week, ( besides get the basics right)?
Uneven emergence is a huge yield robber, and a planter needs to be treated as a precision instrument.
Excessive N is released by plants as ammonia gas and is a dinner bell for insects.
Need to inoculate soybeans every year.
Farmer (and agronomist) need to take time to observe their fields, get out of the pickup, dig in the dirt, smell the soil, really look at the plants.
We should worry about how to get soils wet during the dry part of the year and not how to get the dry during the wet part of the year.
Many farmers want more information on gypsum.
You cannot do mechanically to the soil what needs to be done chemically, i.e. compaction is due to the chemical properites of the soil.
There are many more ideas I took away and you can see them at https://twitter.com/CraigDick. Over the next few weeks I will be expanding on these topics.
Yield Starts Here is a blog for farmers, focusing on increasing yield and profitability by focusing on the soil. It is managed by Craig Dick, a Blogronomist and Sales and Marketing Manager at Calcium Products. Find other articles by Craig and guest writers at http://blog.calciumproducts.com/ .
January 18, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
I have had a few people ask if I would be willing to let them write an article. I would love to hear other points of view. We are more than happy to have guest authors. A few quick guidelines;
Articles can be anything that is useful for our readers (farmers, though dealers read this too) is good content for a guest post here. It can be related to farming, soil fertility, and it can also be derived from your own personal experiences. There is no minimum or maximum length for your post, but usually I prefer post to be 300-500 words.
Guidelines
· Your post must be original and must have never been published before on the Internet
· You agree to not publish the post anywhere else (i.e., in your own blog or as a guest post in other blogs)
· You can’t use SEO’d anchor text for your links
· Please have your name, title and where you can be found regularly as the first line.
To submit your guest post
You can send it to me on the email craig@calciumproducts.com. Usually within 48 hours I will reply stating if we will accept the guest post or not. If I reject your post, you are obviously free to use it in your own blog or to propose it as a guest post to some other website. Once accepted I will post on our blog within the hour.
Yield Starts Here is a blog for farmers, focusing on increasing yield and profitability by focusing on the soil. It is managed by Craig Dick, a Blogronomist and Sales and Marketing Manager at Calcium Products. Find other articles by Craig and guest writers at http://blog.calciumproducts.com/ .
January 14, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
I was toying with live blogging from the No-Till Conference, but I wanted to have a little more freedom to roam and not be tethered to my laptop. So I will be live-tweeting.
You can follow my updates and the high points of the speakers at https://twitter.com/CraigDick, you don't have to join to follow, but if you have questions you will either need to join or send them here.
January 13, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
Greetings from the No-Till conference in Des Moines. I just listened to Fred Below talk about achieving 300 bushels. Unfortunately he has only done that once, back in 1985. From there he goes to show his current research using high tech products to try and reach those goals.
His recommended additions add an additional $125 to the cost of an acre and add between 14 and 66 bu/a.
My take away, high tech might be worth it, but if you don't have the basics right, your wasting you money. Fred echos this with you must to do better at the basic to hit high yields.
I will add to this in further blogs, got to catch the next session!
Yield Starts Here is a blog for farmers, focusing on increasing yield and profitability by focusing on the soil. It is managed by Craig Dick, a Blogronomist and Sales and Marketing Manager at Calcium Products. Find other articles by Craig and guest writers at http://blog.calciumproducts.com/ .
January 12, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
I found this link on using BioChar to build soils and reduce CO2 emissions. Whether you agree or disagree with climate change, having high levels of soil carbon (not just organic matter, they are different) will make you soils more productive and increase your nutrient holding capacity. This was an interesting read, even though it is a little long.
http://www.miller-mccune.com/science_environment/the-dirt-on-climate-change-1651?article_page=2
Our new product TRIO has a small amount of leonardite (a naturally occurring carbon source). This product will help keep calcium in the root zone in soils that have low carbon levels, such as sandy soils.
If you have had experience using carbon in your fertilizer program or want to know more about TRIO, I'd love to hear from you.
Yield Starts Here is a blog for farmers, focusing on increasing yield and profitability by focusing on the soil. It is managed by Craig Dick, a Blogronomist and Sales and Marketing Manager at Calcium Products. Find other articles by Craig and guest writers at http://blog.calciumproducts.com/ .
January 8, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
In the past two days Glen Howell and myself have driven 600 miles in a blizzard! As we left Des Moines heading into the storm on our way to Grand Island we encountered blowing snow which gradually subsided by the time we got there. The next day we struck out toward Des Moines and on to Marshalltown. I repeat of the day before, as we eventually caught back up to the storm!
Our first meeting in Grand Island was with Servi-Tech, Inc. They specialize in crop consulting, and lab testing. What a great company and a great group of professionals. I was impressed with the management team at Servi-Tech and their commitment o educating their representatives. We presented information to their agronomists on the importance of lime and calcium on soils. Thanks for the invitation and the hospitality!
Today we will be at the Practical Farmers of Iowa Conference, in Marshalltown, IA. This two day event is full of interesting speakers, round-tables, and a tradeshow. Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) is a non-profit, educational organization that began in 1985 and now has over 700 members (we are one) in Iowa and neighboring states. Their mission is to research, develop and promote profitable, ecologically sound and community-enhancing approaches to agriculture.
We took our time and made into Marshalltown just before sundown last night. We hope to visit with you at the PFI conference, dress warmly and drive slowly!
Yield Starts Here is a blog for farmers, focusing on increasing yield and profitability by focusing on the soil. It is managed by Craig Dick, a Blogronomist and Sales and Marketing Manager at Calcium Products. Find other articles by Craig and guest writers at http://blog.calciumproducts.com/ .
January 5, 2010
Written By: Craig Dick
You’re a farmer, an entrepreneur and a business owner.
You have more work to do than time on this earth, You need help!
Not more help, but a group that can help you reach the big goals of the farm.
We all have dreams that we long to accomplish in life. First dismiss the people that say it can’t be done. Then find those who believe in your dreams, and are willing to support you through the rough times that lie ahead and won’t abandon you when you reach those goals. These are the people that you need to surround yourself with, Your Dream Team.
If you have built anything, you can build a team. Like welding or carpentry, team building is learned. You don’t have to be well-educated, hard-nosed, or even especially intelligent to build a team. You don't have to be anything other than yourself. You can be effective with people using common sense and a few fundamental principles.
Assembling Your Dream Team
1) Have definite goals.
a) Nothing will derail you faster than not having clear goals
b) A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. SMART stands for:
(1) S Specific
(2) M Measurable
(3) A Attainable
(4) R Relevant
(5) T Time-bound
2) You must identify a small group of likeminded individuals
a) People that are committed to high achievement and will help you reach your goals
b) Keeping the group size small allows you to focus on your goals, here are some ideas for members of your team;
(1) Other Famers
(a) The neighbor may not be your best choice; he wants to farm your ground!
(b) Find 1 or two farmers that share the same goals in life as you and will be happy for you when you reach your goals.
(2) Agronomy Consultant
(a) You want the best you can find, don’t settle for less.
(b) Find a consultant that is willing to teach you what they know. The hall mark of a true agronomy consultant is that they are more concerned with your success than the products they sell.
(3) Financial Consultant
(a) Be it accountant, insurance agent or grain broker, the same rules for finding an agronomist apply to your financial consults.
(b) Don’t blindly follow their recommendations. Nothing is more important than understanding the financial decisions you are making.
(4) Business Person(s) Outside of Farming
(a) In the business of farming and agronomy we sometimes can’t see past the corn rows. Find a friend that works in any other industry and bounce ideas off one another.
(b) Why reinvent, learn from what others have done and apply that knowledge to you situation.
c) Finding Team Members
(a) Don’t declare to the potential candidates that you’re building a “team”. Just simply ask for help and a chance to learn.
(b) Start by calling them and simply asking them for help. Try this; “My name is Bob, I’m a famer and I saw that you grew 300 bu/a corn in Farming Daily Magazine. Would you have a moment to talk with me about your experience and what it took to do that?’ They will either say, Yes, Yes, but not right know, or No. In which case you continue the conversation, call back, or call the next potential dream team candidate.
3) Have regular meetings/calls with Your Dream Team
a) Meetings are to be upbeat, positive, and should be beneficial
b) Share something positive that has happened since the last time you met
c) Share opportunities and ideas, and ask for feedback and help on your toughest projects.
Remember, changing how you do things is the only way things will improve! So start today and plan out your success for 2010.
Yield Starts Here is a blog for farmers, focusing on increasing yield and profitability by focusing on the soil. It is managed by Craig Dick, a Blogronomist and Sales and Marketing Manager at Calcium Products. Find other articles by Craig and guest writers at http://blog.calciumproducts.com/ .
January 2010 Calendar |
January 4, 2010
Written By: Glen Howell
Welcome to 2010! The next few months will be busy ones for everybody, including us. We will be at the Servi-Tech Midwinter Conference this week, followed by the Practical Farmers of Iowa Annual Conference in Marshalltown (http://www.practicalfarmers.org/events/annual-conference.html).
Next week is the National No-Till Conference in Des Moines on January 13-16 (http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/NNTC---National-No-Tillage-Conference-Home-Page.php), & we finish up January at the Nebraska Agri-Business Expo on the 27th & 28th (http://www.na-ba.com/events.htm).
The 1st week of February will find us at the Iowa Power Farming Show (http://www.iowapowershow.com/) in Des Moines (February 2-4), and we will be participating in the Agribusiness Showcase & Conference ( http://www.agribiz.org/) on February 9 & 10.
You can also check out our show calendar here: (http://www.calciumproducts.com/calendar.cfm)
We look forward to seeing you!
The weather is never dull! |
January 4, 2010
Written By: Glen Howell
I admit it, I am a weather junkie. If there is a weather event going on in the Midwest (or other places), I usually am aware of it. With all of my background in agriculture, I am also constantly looking for signs of the upcoming season & what it may bring.
What weather do you expect this spring? If you are hoping for an early warmup this year, you may be disappointed. Mike Palmerino from DTN, is looking for a repeat of the last several years with saturated soils & cool temperatures (http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com/dtnag/view/blog/getBlog.do?blogHandle=weather&blogEntryId=8a82c0bc25987ff10125fa799fd80477).
At a recent meeting, Elwynn Taylor from ISU (http://twitter.com/elwynntaylor), explained his observations that April precipitation in Iowa has been increasing since the 1940s. As a result, soil moisture has also increased, leading to wetter spring conditions and difficulties in getting crops planted on time.
Will we have a repeat of the Midwest flooding from 2008? I hope not!
Will you have time to get your lime spread before spring? If not, we need to talk about SuperCal 98G!
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