/April 2023

Gleanings Q&A: The Successful The Bottom Line

Useful tidbits about the Interview A ‘Log-Term’
world of agriculture Taylor Purucker Investment

10 11 13
Can Their Problem Machinery Insider™
Be Solved? Buy a new sprayer
Should a farmer expand the
operation so his adult children WHAT’S or go used?

INSIDE
can join or scale back to enjoy
retirement with his wife?

20 21

Hope or Hype? A Fungal Foe All Around the Farm®

The truth about soil’s ability to Sudden death syndrome kills Ideas from farmers
sequester carbon. yields with little warning. since 1929

28 49 69
2 Across the Editor’s Desk® 13 The Bottom Line 43 40 Seasons
4 Agriculture.com™ 16 Your Profit 46 Tuned Into Tech
6 They Said It 20 Can Their Problem Be Solved? 49 Tips For Managing SDS
8 In Case You Missed It 21 Machinery Insider™ 52 Agronomy Tips to Maximize Yield
10 Gleanings 26 Shop Hacks 54 Irrigation Insider™
11 Q&A: Taylor Purucker 28 Cover Story: Hope or Hype? 57 Family
12 15 Minutes With a Farmer 34 Coping With Extreme Wet Weather 69 All Around the Farm®
39 Carbon Connection
Successful Farming magazine serves the diverse business, production, and family information needs of families who make farming
and ranching their business. Our passion is to help you make money, save time, and grow your satisfaction in the farming business.

Cover Photography: banjongseal324,

rasikabendre of Getty Images April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com 1
 ACROSS THE
EDITOR'S DESK

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW CHAPTER

I
n November 2012, I called my parents to tell them some
big news: I had accepted a job at Successful Farming as the
innovations editor.
Their response was excitement with some skepticism.
“Are you sure?” asked my mom. “Are you ready?”
That hesitancy stemmed from the fact that I was not your
stereotypical farm kid who loved every aspect of the farm
and being outdoors. I was a bookworm and a bit of a nerd
who could be coerced into cleaning my room with the threat
to take away my books.
As a kid, my view of the world wasn’t broad enough to
understand that what I love to do could overlap with my
parents’ passion for farming. (My parents, Ann Bigbee and
Charlie Scott, have a corn, soybean, and cow-calf farm in
Marengo, Iowa.)
I also couldn’t see how my skill set fit into agriculture. On
more than one occasion, I’ve had to remind my dad that I’m a
far better writer than I am a driver (and equipment operator).
Thankfully, auto steer has decreased the frequency of those
reminders, particularly when harvesting soybeans.
When I called my parents to tell them my most recent
big news, that I had accepted the role of editor in chief at
Successful Farming, my mom’s response was similar to 10
years ago.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
That’s a hard question to answer. Here’s what I can say
with confidence:
• I love this brand. For more than 120 years, Successful
Farming has excelled at producing service journalism. That’s
the fancy way to say we create the content that matters to
farmers. Our work is a combination of the practical informa-
tion you need to run your farm and your business as well as
the inspirational stories that serve you and your family. I am
honored to be the 11th steward of that legacy.
• I am energized by our talented staff. See the list of people
at the bottom of this page? That list includes editors, sellers,
marketers, and more. While the skill sets vary widely, we all
have one thing in common: We show up to work each day
thinking about how we can fulfill Successful Farming’s
mission.
• I am humbled by the audience we serve. What has always
impressed me about farmers is their ability to be incredibly
hardworking, determined, and resilient while also being
compassionate, welcoming, and kind. (At my family’s farm,
those last three are most evident while nursing a bottle calf.)
I am ready to get to work, to keep learning, to keep asking
questions, to keep adapting our brand to meet your needs. If
you have feedback on how we can do that, my email is below.
I’d love to hear from you!
Jessie Scott
Editor in Chief
Jessie.Scott@agriculture.com
Follow us: Twitter: @ SuccessfulFarm • Facebook: @SuccessfulFarmingUSA

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2 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023

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4 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023 Getty Images
 MASSIVE
VERSATILITY.
MAJOR VALUE.

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THEY SAID IT “…Without
a solid crop
nutrition
foundation,
it is difficult
to capitalize
“What has always impressed me about on practices
farmers is their ability to be incredibly
like seed
hardworking, determined, and resilient
while also being compassionate, technology,
welcoming, and kind.” pesticides,
Jessie Scott, Successful Farming editor in chief, p. 2 yield, or other
growing season
management.”
“WE DON’T ALWAYS Taylor Purucker, crop nutrition
lead of eastern North America
for Mosaic, p. 11

GLEAN THE REWARDS

OF THE THINGS WE “…WHETHER IT’S
DO, BUT MAYBE THE STOCK OR GRAIN
MARKET, EMOTIONS
THE NEXT PLAY A HUGE ROLE.
GENERATION EVENTUALLY THE
FACTS RULE, BUT
WILL.” Alabama farmer Chad Henderson, p. 34
YOU NEED TO ALSO
CONSIDER EMOTIONS.”
Lin Warfel, Illinois farmer, p. 43

“I worry…it
could come
“You can’t be in
back to bite farmers the farming game
and ultimately not get us any and
further down the road toward not be
reducing greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere.”
willing
Gregg Sanford, senior scientist of agronomy at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison,
to fail.”Brent Rendel,
p. 28 Oklahoma farmer, p. 12

6 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023

 ADVERTORIAL
DOES ORGANIC MATTER, MATTER?
Four Keys to Unlock Potential with Nitrogen Management
As growers, we can often find ourselves
in conversations bragging about how
much — or lamenting about how little —
organic matter we have based on our soil
testing reports. While the importance of
organic matter is generally understood,
we continue to struggle as an industry to
put that knowledge into action.
So, how do we use organic matter
to make better decisions and
improve productivity?
Here are four key concepts to consider:
1. LANDSCAPE POSITION
Research shows higher landscape
positions often achieve canopy later.
Additionally, they have higher soil
temperatures during the mid- to
late-vegetative stages and have
less available water throughout
the growing season. These
are key factors that help us
understand mineralization rates
and total nitrogen supply, but more
importantly can lead to prediction of
available nitrogen for the crop.
2. NITROGEN USE EFFICIENCY (NUE)
Regardless of the per unit cost, the
effective use of applied nitrogen is
important every growing season.
Contributing factors to the mystery of organic matter are its variability across fields, the dependence
of mineralization on moisture and temperature, and the Carbon to Nitrogen ratio.
*True sand, OM < 0.5% & CEC < 5
For generations, research has shown
that substantial amounts of nitrogen
can be mineralized by organic matter
for crop production. For this reason,
understanding environment is critical to
optimizing nitrogen input decisions.
3. QUANTIFYING NITROGEN
CONTRIBUTIONS
Another common industry practice
is to place more nitrogen on better
producing soils, rationalizing that with
higher yield potential comes a greater
nitrogen requirement. If we assume
these better producing soils also have
an organic matter of >3.5%, we could
mineralize upwards of 120-140 lbs
N/acre. Now with that information,
would we still place more nitrogen on
these higher organic matter soils?
In that same vein, the rationale of
“cutting back” on acres that are going
to yield less may seem economically
sound. However, knowing that these
acres will mineralize less than half
the nitrogen compared to the lower
landscape acres, is this decision
agronomically sound?
4. PLANNING NITROGEN TIMING
FOR SUCCESS
While more nitrogen does need to be
added to the lower organic matter
acres, adding the higher rate earlier
in crop development — at planting or
just prior to — is key. The increased
availability of nitrogen will promote
increased plant growth to get the
crop to canopy faster, decreasing
soil temperature and increasing
mineralized nitrogen.
The higher organic matter soils
do have a greater potential yield.
However, they already have an
advantage with increased organic
matter. They also have a greater
potential for saturation and thus
leaching and denitrification. Applying
foundation nitrogen applications
early (fall, preplant, or very early
side-dress) should have a nitrogen
stabilization product added to protect
against nitrogen loss in these more
saturated environments.
Planning with understanding
A good plan is more than just applying
higher amounts of nitrogen to the lower
organic matter acres and less to the
higher organic matter acres. While
practices like variable rate nitrogen
have been in the industry for years,
associating nitrogen rate to yield
potential was not getting us to the best
answers. Incorporating knowledge of the
environment, organic matter, and other
interactions can lead growers to a more
robust nitrogen program. The team at
Advanced Agrilytics is ready to assist
in your ability to get the right rates on
the right acre, increasing the likelihood
of consistent yield and return on your
nitrogen investment. Connect with
our team at: advancedagrilytics.com/
contact-us
©2023 Advanced Agrilytics All rights reserved.
 ICYMI
TUG-OF-WAR
Where will the farm bill spend $20 billion jackpot?
F
arm state Republicans in Congress are
clear about it: $20 billion earmarked
last year for USDA conservation
programs, with a priority on climate
mitigation, may be spent on other farm
bill needs. Arkansas Senator John Boozman,
senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture
Committee, said, “All funding sources must
be considered when it comes to providing
the resources necessary to provide a rein-
forced safety net, agricultural research, rural
development, and other priorities.” House
Agriculture Chairman Glenn Thompson
says production agriculture is his top priority
in a farm bill year.
By contrast, Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsack said the 2023 farm bill should
include pathways that will allow small and
midsize producers to make a living off the
land rather than having to rely on off-
farm income. In speeches to farm groups
last month, he used the administration’s
initiatives to develop markets for climate-
smart products, expand independent meat
processing, and encourage local marketing
of farm goods as examples of ways to create
or increase farmer revenue.
“As we begin this process of discussing a
farm bill, it’s pretty simple,” he said at the
8 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
National Farmers Union (NFU) convention.
“We have to ask ourselves, do we want a sys-
tem that helps a few — good people, don’t
begrudge them their profit — or do we
want a system that helps many and most?”
While divergent, the approaches are not
mutually exclusive. Each would require
funding, and the $20 billion in climate funds
may be the only new money available for the
farm bill. It could be imperiled by maneu-
vering over the debt limit and proposals
to balance the budget. For example, a bloc
of conservative House Republicans has
targeted for elimination “wasteful climate
change spending,” including the $20 billion
given to USDA.
Farm groups — pointing to rising pro-
duction costs, volatile market prices, and
increased tensions with China — asked last
month for “sufficient budgetary resources”
in the farm bill to strengthen commodity
supports and crop insurance. Higher refer-
ence prices were the most frequent farm
program request. Environmental, wildlife,
and recreation groups want Congress to
protect “the largest investment in agricul-
ture conservation and rural communities
in decades,” meaning the $20 billion for
conservation. USDA spends about $5 billion
a year on land stewardship,
so the climate change funds
would allow a large increase
in conservation activities.
USDA already is put-
ting some of the climate
money to work. It divided
$850 million among four
popular conservation pro-
grams — Environmental
Quality Incentives Program,
Conservation Stewardship
Programs, Agricultural
Conservation Easement
Program, and Regional
Conservation Partnership
Program — for use this year.
In Case You
Missed It
AGRICULTURAL BIOTECH
GMO Corn Dispute
Intensifies
T he Biden administration
requested technical
consultations with Mexico over
its agricultural biotechnology
policy, the first formal step toward
a trade challenge under USMCA
rules. Mexico bars entry of GMO
corn used for making tortillas but
accepts GMO corn for livestock
feed and industrial use. Mexico
is the largest customer for U.S.
corn exports and is forecast to
displace Canada as the overall No.
2 market for ag exports.
MARKETING
Stricter Rules For
‘Product of USA’ Label
U SDA says it will ensure
truthful labeling with
a proposed regulation that
would allow “Product of
USA” and “Made in the
USA” labels to be used on
packages only if the meat,
poultry, and eggs in them
come from animals born,
Illustration: Dynamic Graphics,2007, Getty Images
raised, slaughtered, and processed in the INTERNATIONAL TRADE USDA’s long-term baseline,
United States. At present, the voluntary Three-Year Decline coincided with farmers’ waning
labels can be used on foreign meat that is Forecast for Ag Exports belief in exports as an ever-
processed in U.S. plants. The meat industry
said the rule may violate trade agreements,
while consumer groups applauded it. Canada
A global economic slowdown will combine with
inflation, higher interest rates, and the strong
dollar to pull down U.S. ag exports by 12%,
growing outlet for crops and
livestock. In a Purdue survey in
February, only one-third of
said it would oppose a revival of mandatory bottoming out at $166 billion in 2026 from this year’s farmers said they expected
country-of-origin labeling. forecast of $190 billion, said USDA economists. exports to increase over the next
Exports would decline across the board with grains five years, down from 72% in
DISTRIBUTIONS POLICY and soybeans hit the hardest. The projection, part of 2020.
Farm Safety Net Cushions
Big Operators the Most

D ue to consolidation, farm supports increasingly

are paid to the largest producers, who have
household incomes far above the rest of the
country, said analysts at a seminar convened by a
free-enterprise think tank. The stream of money
to large operators is a stark contrast to depictions M VERIX™ DRIVE DOLL R TO OUR BOTTOM LINE
of the farm program as a safeguard for small
family farms. Large operators get the lion’s share
of supports because payments are tied to volume
of production; reformers say 80% of commodity
subsidies go to 10% of farmers. An annual USDA
report says the largest farms, with sales of
$1 million or more annually, operate nearly 26%
of U.S. farmland, up 6 percentage points in a
decade. Some 3.9% of the 2 million farms are in
that category; a decade ago, it was 3%. “We are
shifting payments to higher-income households,
both because of the practice of consolidation and
… the design of the programs,” said University of
Maryland Agriculture Professor Jim MacDonald.

CIVIL RIGHTS
Equity Commission Calls
for USDA-wide Reform The Outback MaveriX™ Precision Package drives efficiency into every

F rom its top officers down to its local

offices, USDA needs to institutional-
ize equity in its programs and its opera-
Hydraulic
level of your operation. Efficient use of inputs combined with reduced
labor and minimal fatigue take efficiency to the next level. Now
available in your choice of Electric Wheel, Steer-Ready or Hydraulic
Steering, you have the options for any machine on your farm.
tions, said an administration-appointed
Equity Commission after a yearlong study. The Outback MaveriX™ is engineered to grow with your operation.
Steer-Ready
The commission made 32 recommenda- When you are ready to implement RTK or the next level of precision, you
tions in an interim report, with a final simply unlock that next level of accuracy. The Outback MaveriX™ is the
report expected by the end of the year. It new standard in Simplicity, Performance and Value.
said the deputy secretary, who oversees Electric Visit us online at OutbackMaveriX.com
USDA’s day-to-day operations, should
take the lead in institutionalizing equity
at USDA and be given the power to see
that agencies operate without bias. USDA
has paid $3 billion since 1999 to resolve
Find your local Outback Guidance dealer at Outback Guidance
lawsuits by Black, Native American, and 2207 Iowa Street
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This article was produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment
Reporting Network, an independent, nonprofit news organization producing
investigative reporting on food, agriculture, and environmental health.
 THE FIRST
GLEANINGS TRACTOR
WEIGHED
14,000 POUNDS
AND PRODUCED
30 HP.
Compiled by
Chelsea Dinterman

The word
tractor was
coined by
the Hart Parr
company
in 1903.

In 1938, Minneapolis-Moline Co. released

the first completely enclosed tractor.

BY 1923, 75% OF THE TRACTORS

PURCHASED IN THE U.S. WERE
DEVELOPED BY FORD.
The first GPS
In February 1979, receiver was
thousands of farmers
drove tractors to part of a 1996
Washington, D.C., as collaboration
part of the American between John
Agriculture Movement. Deere and NASA.
Source: National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution Archives, AgDaily.com
10 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023 Artwork: Getty Images, Designer, KKStock, ClassicStock, Mark Reinstein
 Q&A
The Successful
Interview
TAYLOR PURUCKER
How soil testing can help you plan crop nutrition management.
O
By Megan Schilling
ne word that seemingly sums up
everyone’s goals in agriculture is
“optimize.”
Optimize your inputs; optimize
your valuable time; optimize your
crops’ performance.
One strategy to implement that can help
you optimize the health of your crops
in the long- and short-term is soil
sampling and testing.
Taylor Purucker, crop nutrition
lead of eastern North America
for Mosaic, says that up to 60%
of crop yield is dependent upon
soil fertility. Today’s high-yielding
hybrids and varieties remove
nutrients at higher rates and for
longer periods than in the past.
“What this tells me is
that without a solid crop
nutrition foundation, it
is difficult to capitalize on
practices like seed technology,
pesticides, yield, or other growing
season management,” he explains.
Greater nutrient demands might require
more frequent or more specific soil testing
programs to set the crop up for success.
“Regular soil testing can help make sure
growers and crop consultants are applying
the right amount of fertilizer in a way that
optimizes both yield and economic return,”
Purucker says.
SF: What do you recommend to farmers
getting started?
TP: First, set your own goals and realize it’s
OK to ask a lot of questions, especially if
you’re just starting out. Ask:
• What am I testing for?
• What do I need to evaluate?
• How do I track this over time?
• And what is the end goal? Considering
current input and commodity prices, do I
want to maintain yields with fewer inputs,
or do I want to maximize yield with the
same amount of inputs?
Illustration: Lauren Crow
mark the depth to ensure
you’re always at the same
level, and keep the probe at a
90° angle to the soil.
Finally, consider your
Every field is unique. You have to goal and objective in
consider factors like field history, cropping taking a soil sample. If
system, yield level, and organic matter. it’s to create a fertilizer
There is a lot of research from land-grant recommendation for
universities that gives guidance based on soil phosphorus, for example,
test patterns and economical rates or yield- there are certain depths
optimizing rates for a specific nutrient. That soil labs require because of
helps us design crop nutrition programs that the way they’ve calibrated
will supply nutrients throughout the entire their recommendations.
season. Oftentimes that’s a 6-inch
soil core. There are
SF: How often is soil testing other nutrients that are
recommended? mobile in the soil, such
TP: At a minimum, every two as nitrogen, where the
years in high-yield systems. recommendations are based
And whether that is in the fall on a 12-inch soil core. This
or spring, the important thing goes back to knowing what
to keep in mind is consistency. If your objective is for which
a grower or crop consultant is nutrients you are looking
sampling in the fall, I would at and often starts with a
encourage them to continue conversation on soil testing.
to sample and track how yield
and nutrient levels change over SF: What other advice do
time. you have?
Part of developing a good crop TP: I always say that
nutrition program is understanding what growers have to understand
the numbers mean on a soil test report. I what works best in their
strongly encourage growers to work with farming system. The way
their crop consultants and just understand that they apply fertilizer
that the numbers that come back are an might be slightly different
index that help us estimate the amount of than their neighbor and can
nutrients that will be available throughout certainly dictate the way
the year. fertilizer is applied, at what
time of year, and with what
SF: How do you maintain consistency? product. It’s important to
TP: One factor to consider is being mindful understand what the
of which lab you send samples to. Different numbers mean, both for
extraction methods across commercial labs nutrient availability and soil
will change the numbers you see on soil test health tests, because some of
reports. Be consistent with what you request those are still being
from a lab. Labs may report nutrient levels developed and can change.
in pounds per acre or parts per million, Ultimately, understand the
which need different interpretation, so be goal, implement what
aware of how numbers are reported. works best, and incorporate
And just like the time of year, you should the 4Rs of nutrient
be consistent in the depth that you take management (right source,
samples. I recommend that you take a soil right rate, right time, and
probe and with a piece of tape and marker, right place).
April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com 11
 15 MINUTES
WITH A FARMER

BRENT RENDEL
SF: What is the best and
worst part about being
involved in agriculture?
BR: The best part is that
Navy veteran takes a science-minded approach to farming.
everyday is a new start. Even
By Chelsea Dinterman, Assistant Agronomy Editor whole network of Extension and industry when you’re in the combine

B
Chelsea.Dinterman@agriculture.com | @CDintermanSF people I reach out to for advice. every day, that only lasts
rent Rendel’s family has farmed their for a week or two. No two
homestead for longer than Oklahoma SF: How did you get involved in on-farm years are alike and no two
has been a state. Yet, returning home research? crops are alike. I like that
to Miami in the far northeastern BR: My college degree is in mechanical my schedule is very fluid. I
corner of Oklahoma wasn’t a part engineering, and after graduation I was a might have a general idea
of his original plan. An Oklahoma State nuclear engineer for the Navy. The whole of what I’m going to do, but
University graduate, Rendel spent his technical background of engineering has you never know for sure.
postcollege years in the Navy always been attractive to me. My first Something might break and
working as a submarine officer exposure to actually doing on-farm suddenly I’m a repairman
and nuclear engineer. research was when Oklahoma State for a day.
“When I got out of college, the was trying to expand their in-field The worst part is that
last thing I wanted to do was stay use of the GreenSeeker technol- nothing is guaranteed. I
in Oklahoma and farm,” he says. ogy they developed. We had some don’t have a job off the farm,
“But after about seven years in surprising results in that the sensor so I succeed or fail on the
the Navy, the only thing I wanted was saying I didn’t need any nitrogen farm. There are years that
to do was come back to the at all on a wheat field. I didn’t go by where I have to pay
farm.” In 1996, he became necessarily believe it, but for the privilege of farming.
a third-generation farmer. I went ahead and tried it Even in those years, you still
Today, Rendel takes a while doing all the other have to farm and try, and
science-minded approach to wheat normally. Low and be- that can be a daunting task.
farming by conducting on-farm hold, the field yielded just as good
research, hosting field days, and as all of the others. That sparked in SF: What excites you about
connecting with other farmers my mind that there has to be better ways the future of agriculture?
online. of doing things, and the only way to know BR: I’m excited to see a lot of
if it’s right or wrong is to test what works. farmers thinking outside the
SF: How does your military experience box. I think the internet, and
translate to farming? SF: What’s the best advice you’ve been particularly social media, has
BR: Farming is one of those glorious jobs given? played into that because it’s
where you’re your own boss. You get to BR: Don’t be afraid to fail. Even in the made a big world much
pay for your own mistakes, and you get the middle of a terrible drought with no soil smaller. I follow people on
reward of your successes. The Navy exposed moisture, I’m still going to plant my beans Twitter and a lot of them
me to the idea that there are a whole lot of and wheat. It’s either going to work or it’s don’t farm around here.
ways to do the same job. You also don’t have not. I can’t control whether it’s going to rain Consumers have been
to be the smartest person in the room. You or not, so I’ll worry about the things I can begging to have a stronger
just have to know who the smartest person control. You can’t be in the farming game connection to those that
in the room is, and listen to them. I’ve got a and not be willing to fail. produce their food, and now
we have that ability. I think
in another 10 years or so, a
Background: Brent State University Extension Miami, OK
lot of farmers and ranchers
Rendel grows 4,000 specialists to conduct Founded: 1891
acres of wheat, corn, and on-farm research. An Miami is the capital
are going to know their
soybeans in northeast avid Twitter user and of the federally recognized customers. It’s not going to
Oklahoma. He farms with field day host, he relies on Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. be this faceless economy
his mother and nephew collaborations to improve County Population: where I grow my corn, take
and works with Oklahoma his farm. 12,969 (2020). it to a grain elevator, and
that’s the end of it.

12 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023 Illustration: Lauren Crow

THE BOTTOM
LINE

Forestry specialist Billy Beck

looks over a sustainable
oak harvest site at Brayton
Research, Teaching, and
Extension Forest in Delaware
County, Iowa. The resulting
large canopy gaps ensure
critical sunlight for oak
seedling regeneration.

domestic demand has been

strong too.”
Petrzelka says a sizable
drop in value occurs for
other hardwoods such as red
oak, hickory, ash, maple, and
cherry.
“Markets do change over
time, depending on what is
in style, but walnut has been

A ‘LOG-TERM’ INVESTMENT
king for quite a while,” he
says.
Russ Reed, a farmer from
Des Moines County, Iowa,
Proper forest management can benefit farm families for generations. started actively managing his
family’s forestland in the late
By Cassidy Walter, Business Management Editor look like in several decades and the uses they 1980s. While he has done a

A
Cassidy.Walter@agriculture.com | @CassidyARWalter intend for it, such as hunting and wildlife few harvests on the 250-acre
truck on blocks isn’t going any- habitat, he says. forest, he believes the best
where, even if the engine is running. In the state of Iowa, public foresters through harvests are yet to come,
Iowa State University Extension the Department of Natural Resources can and he sees it as a long-term
forestry specialist Billy Beck says help farmers develop a plan for free, but investment for his family.
that is exactly what an unmanaged private foresters are usually hired to handle “I know we’re going to
forest is like. timber harvests. pass along a piece of property
“It’s an untapped resource,” Beck says. that is a lot better than we
“There’s a ton of potential, but no one is A Valuable Asset found it,” he says. “That’s
familiar enough with how it operates to
maximize it.”
Beck says many farmers own forestland
B ob Petrzelka, forester and president of
Geode Forestry in southeast Iowa, says
landowners should start to think of their
a very good feeling for my
wife and I alone, and it will
be a stream of income …
in addition to cropland and, when properly forest ground as a valuable asset. and a pleasure for my future
managed, it can bring financial, ecological, He says the profits a landowner can family members who do like
and recreational benefits. expect to see from a timber harvest can vary to hunt. It’s a better timber
widely based on many factors, but the aver- for all purposes.”
Make a Plan age harvest brings in $40,000 to $50,000. He

P roper stewardship starts by working with

a professional forester on a forest manage-
ment plan, Beck says.
adds he has done many that brought in a
six-figure profit.
Walnut and white oak markets are “crazy”
Harvest Time

E xperts say a harvest done

without professional guid-
“That is basically your road map for where right now, he says. ance can result in serious
you are now and how you get to where you “In my 33-year career, this is the highest damage to the forest and
want to be,” he says. I have seen those two species,” he says. “A leave a bad taste in the land-
Foresters can help landowners think lot of the demand is for the export mar- owner’s mouth.
through what they want their timberland to ket (China, Japan, Vietnam, Europe) but “If you own timber,

Photography: Courtesy of William Beck, Iowa State University Extension April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com 13
 THE BOTTOM
LINE
continued
Logs are stacked from an oak
timber sale in southeast Iowa.
Below: A logger waits while a
skidder moves a downed log.
Loggers use extreme care to
prevent damage to residual trees,
streams, and roads.
you’re probably only going to do a timber
harvest once or maybe twice in your entire
life, and that’s why I think it makes sense
to involve a professional to help you do
that, as opposed to trying to take it on as a
do-it-yourself project,” says Joe Herring,
a forester with the Iowa Department of
Natural Resources. “There is no Kelley Blue
Book where you just go look up the prices
of timber.”
Petrzelka says he walks landowners
through the unfamiliar process and helps
14 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
ensure the harvest is executed
in a way that protects the
landowners’ goals and interests.
He starts with a visit to the
forest and then he consults with
the landowner on a path for-
ward. Trees ready for harvest are
marked and loggers are given
the opportunity to visit the prop-
erty and submit sealed bids.
Once a bid is chosen, he
drafts a contract to ensure the
farmer is paid in full before any
chain saws are started. He says
the contract contains impor-
tant terms such as how long the logging
company has to complete the job (typically
two years) and the ground conditions they
can operate in (typically dry/firm or frozen
ground).
“I always tell the landowner,
unless you’re going to sell the
land, there’s no reason not to give
them plenty of time to get it done
because if something happens to
the trees … it’s not your loss, it’s
the logger’s loss,” he says. “Once
the timber sale contract is
signed and the initial down
payment is made, the trees
are the logger’s and any loss
for any reason is their loss.”
A Messy Process
W hen harvest begins,
Petrzelka warns, “Even
when done under the best of
conditions, a timber harvest
can be visually striking.”
Loggers cut the trees for
the trunks, but the treetops
are left in the forest, which
Petrzelka says you want.
Treetops provide habitat for
wildlife and add valuable
nutrients back into the
ground as they decompose.
“It’s not pretty, but when
it’s done right the timber
starts to recover,” he says.
Herring emphasizes that a
harvest is a short-term event
in the big picture of manag-
ing a forest.
“Good forest management
also involves replanting and
sometimes thinning the
crop,” he says. “Just like with
farming, you don’t just plant
in the spring and then walk
away from the field until
October.”
To help with that manage-
ment, there are federal
incentives and likely state
and even local incentives
and cost-share programs. A
professional forester can
help you find the best
programs for you.
Cassidy Walter, business
management editor, covers
agricultural markets and
farm business for Agriculture.
com and Successful Farming
magazine. Email: Cassidy.
Walter@agriculture.com
Photography: Courtesy of William Beck,
Iowa State University Extension
 GO FOR THE
KNOCKOUT.

TO KNOCK WEEDS OUT, TRUST THIS FAMILY OF FIGHTERS — IMPACT CORN HERBICIDES FIGHTWITHIMPACT.COM
 YOUR
PROFIT
CBOT CORN WEEKLY
2019 2020
WATCH GRAIN MARKET MOVES IN EARLY APRIL
Three factors will indicate direction of prices.
I
By Al Kluis
watch price trends the first two weeks of
April to see if futures will spike up to an
important high or fall to a potential low.
We often see extreme moves in early April
after the release of USDA’s “Prospective
Plantings” and “Grain Stocks” reports at the
end of March.
In both April 2020 and 2021, corn and
soybean prices moved higher. All the grain
markets moved sharply higher in 2022 after
Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.
The timing of the highs and harvest lows in
the soybean market has been very consis-
tent the past two years. Meanwhile, the
corn market had an unusual price pattern
in 2022.
Corn futures put in a major low in
September 2021, rallied to a high in April
2022, then moved sharply down to a low in
July. This was unusual, as was the counter-
trend rally in corn futures, which rose to
16 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
2021 2022
the high in October 2022. After that, prices
fell to the low in December. Over the past
several months, corn futures have been in a
well-defined sideways trading channel.
For soybeans, an important low in
November 2021 was followed by a high
in early June 2022. The high in 2022 was
three weeks later than the seasonal high
in 2021. The low in 2022 came in three
weeks earlier than the low in 2021. In both
years, farmers who sold cash soybeans and
hedged new crop in May and June were
happy with the results.
Three Important Factors
to Watch in April
1. Bull spreads. Watch the futures alignment
of both the corn and soybean futures, and
what the spread does during early April.
For corn, the May futures have been gain-
ing on the July futures (in the grain indus-
try we call that “bull spreading”). As of this
900’ 0
850’ 0
800’ 0
750’ 0
700’ 0
650’ 0
600’ 0
550’ 0
500’ 0
450’ 0
400’ 0
350’ 0
300’ 0
250’ 0
This chart shows the weekly
closing price going back to 2019.
You can see the major low in
April 2020 at $3.00 per bushel.
From that low, prices rallied
to the May 2021 high at $7.75.
Prices corrected to the harvest
low in September at $4.88. From
that low, prices advanced to the
April 2022 high at $8.27. The
next low came earlier than usual,
when nearby corn futures bot-
tomed in July 2022 at $5.61. The
corn futures market rallied back
to $7.25 and has been in a broad
trading channel since then.
Chart Source: CBOT
CBOT SOYBEANS WEEKLY
2019 2020
writing, May corn futures are trading 10¢
over the July corn futures. In the soybean
market, the bull spreads are also working.
May soybean futures are trading 8¢ over
the July futures. Again, watch the trend
in early April. If the bull spreads kick into
high gear, then it’s a positive sign for prices
to move higher into May. If the bull spreads
collapse, then it is a sell signal.
2. Weather and early planting progress. An
early spring with rapid planting progress
usually has two impacts: more total plant-
ed crop acres and more corn acres. At the
Agricultural Outlook Forum in February,
USDA projected 228 million planted acres
(between corn, soybeans, and wheat). This
would be up 6 million acres from 2022.
An early spring results in more total crop
acres and usually more acres of corn. The
opposite is also true. A late spring with
major planting delays takes total planted
acres lower and will usually result in fewer
corn acres than projected. Last year, the late
spring resulted in more than 2 million fewer
acres in corn and 4 million more prevented
planting acres.
3. Energy prices. Corn exports are way
below last year. At this time, Brazil is filling
most of the global export demand at a sharp
discount to U.S. corn prices. That makes
the ethanol market more important than
ever. Recent Energy Information Agency
1900’ 0
1800’ 0
1700’ 0
1600’ 0
1500’ 0
1400’ 0
1300’ 0
1200’ 0
1100’ 0
1000’ 0
900’ 0
800’ 0
700’ 0
2021 2022
(EIA) reports show slowing gasoline de- This chart shows the weekly
mand. If energy prices move lower, then it closing price going back to 2019.
You can see the major low in
will impact ethanol and corn prices. I have April 2019 at $7.80. This chart
also noted a correlation in the past year be- shows the first major high after
tween crude oil and soybean oil prices. Last that in May 2021 at $16.77.
year, surging energy prices were positive Prices then corrected to the
harvest low in November 2021
for the corn and soybean markets. I hope it at $11.70, before rallying to the
will be again in 2023. June 2022 high ($17.85), and
Add it all up, and what should you do in correcting down to the harvest
April? We have recommended that farmers low in October at $13.50. Since
then, prices have been trending
have 60% to 80% of the cash 2022 crop sold higher. I plan to use any addi-
and 10% to 20% of the new crop hedged. tional rally into May and June to
The plan I have for 2023 is similar to the wrap up cash sales and get more
2022 plan. new-crop hedges in place.
If futures spike up in late April, then I
will make more cash and new-crop sales. If Al Kluis
prices move lower into late April, then I will Commodity Trader
wait and make more sales in May and June. Al Kluis has
By early July, I recommend that you have all been trading
grain futures
the cash grains sold. since 1974.
Sign up for a
Note: The risk of loss in trading futures and/ free trial to his
or options is substantial, and each investor daily morning
and/or trader must consider whether this email and
is a suitable investment. Past performance weekly
— whether actual or indicated by simulated “Kluis Report” by going to
historical tests of strategies — is not indica- kluiscommodities.com.
Kluis Commodity Advisors
tive of future results. Trading advice reflects
901 - 12 Oaks Center Drive
good-faith judgment at a specific time and is Suite 907
subject to change without notice. There is no Wayzata, MN 55391
guarantee that the advice given will result in 888/345-2855
profitable trades. kluiscommodities.com
April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com 17
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 CAN THEIR
PROBLEM BE
SOLVED?

next generation has the

character, personality, edu-
cation, skills, and experi-
ence needed by the business.
Remember, parents don’t
“bring in the kids.” Owners,
leaders, and managers hire
worthy employees earning
the right to labor, man-
agement, leadership, and
potential ownership.
Then there’s your wife.
She may be thinking, I’ve
been providing income and
benefits for this family and

CLARITY NEEDED FOR DECISIONS

working by your side for 35
years. When is it my turn? Do
you even hear what I want?
Do you also want reduced
Problem: Should a farmer expand the operation so his adult workload, less debt and stress,
children can join or scale back to enjoy retirement with his wife? and to travel?
If so, does expansion make

F
By Jolene Brown
or the past 35 years, my wife and I
have worked hard to build a progres-
sive and financially strong farm opera-
tion. We have two adult children who
want to come back to the farm. Our
daughter is working for a seed company,
and our son is graduating college this spring.
To justify two more paychecks and benefits,
my kids think I need to grow the business by
renting more land and upgrading equip-
ment. But then there’s my wife. She has been
employed off the farm and is retiring next
year. She also has worked by my side on the
farm. She wants to reduce our workload,
have less stress and debt, and travel. What
am I supposed to do?
– Submitted by email from J.D.
Solution:
business plans include a mission statement sense? How does this reduce
(core purpose of the business); brief history your day-to-day need to be
to give perspective and demonstrate stability; at the farm? How are you
description of the business (a completed reducing or transitioning
farm overview); current structure and personal debt commitment
detailed ownership; list of key players and for business loans? Does the
their roles (leadership, management, labor, plan demonstrate financial
advisers); goals; risk protection and insur- stability for the goals impor-
ance; financial information and documents; tant to both of you?
and succession plan. The plans are based on Before you rent more land
accuracy and transparency, and on best- and or upgrade your equipment,
worst-case scenarios. tether yourself to the
Also, each family member must answer: paperwork and advisers that
• Income needs: What is the actual amount of will foster informed
money needed annually for living? decisions and provide
• Source: How much of that need is expected alternatives. Include your
to come from the farm business? spouse, daughter, and son in
• Affordability: How does that fit into the the process. Remember, just
current and projected cash flow? because someone wants to
• Debt: Is financial security provided for debt? join the farm, doesn’t mean

Y ou are using a powerful word — “I,” not

“we.” With both the business team and the
marriage team involved, much is at stake.
• Retirement: Is financial security provided
for the senior generation?
• Buy-in: Is everyone (dad,
someone gets to join.

Do you know what you, your wife, your
daughter, and your son really want? You
all have much work to do before decisions
are made.
Begin by utilizing good business plans:
one that describes the current setup, and
another that describes the future if your
children are employed by the farm. Most
mom, daughter, son) 100%
committed to the changes
and working of the plan?
The answers are a first
glimpse of the viability of
supporting multiple family
units.
All of this assumes the
Jolene Brown is a professional
speaker, author, farmer, and family
business consultant. She shares her
passion, experience, and fun-filled
spirit with farmers and ranchers
across North America. Her tested
business tools provide leadership and management
solutions for the people who feed, clothe, and fuel the
world. jolenebrown.com

20 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023 Illustration: Matt Wood

MACHINERY
INSIDER ª
BUY A NEW SPRAYER OR GO USED?
New models are in scant supply; used sprayers are at like-new prices.
T
By Machinery Insider
ypically, year-old applicators would be
in short supply compared to those two
to five years old, but the marketplace is
inverted these days for two reasons.
Manufacturing of sprayers in 2020
Get Two Free Equipment
Appraisals What’s It Worth?
Be sure to cash
in on your two
free equipment
appraisals by going
to Agriculture.com/
whatsitworth. These
free appraisals are
based on actual dealer sales, auction purchases,
and wholesale transactions on selected equipment
built in the past 20 years. Used by banks, equipment
manufacturers, and equipment dealers all over North
America, the Iron Solutions equipment appraisal data
are now available to you! •
Photography: Courtesy of manufacturer
and 2021 was limited by a severe short-
age of components, and sprayer purchases
were light before 2020 due to depressed
commodity prices.
Last year, manufacturers figured out
work-arounds for the component shortages
APRIL, MAY AUCTIONS
April 8: Mensendiek’s Auction
(auctionsandrealestate.com) annual machin-
ery consignment sale in Columbus, Indiana
April 8: Simmons Auctions (simmons
auctionsva.com) 18th annual spring farm
machinery sale in Moneta, Virginia
April 10-13: Kraft Auction Service (kraft
auctions.com) Walkerton Farm & Equipment
Consignment online-only auction (preview
April 6-8, 10-12 in Walkerton, Indiana)
April 13 & 14: Brinkley Auctions (brinkley-
April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com
and began turning out
more applicators, which has
strengthened the number of
2022 model year applicators
on the market at press time.
One consistency in self-
propelled applicators is their
tendency to be feature-rich.
As we explored the most
popular 2022 John Deere
models (410R, 412R, 612R,
and 616R with the 410R
winning the popularity
contest), the abundance
of options and accessories
become obvious. Rare was
the listing that could be
considered pared down.
Today’s applicators
are purchased with a
dizzying array of options
such as upgraded lighting
(including LED boom lights
as seen in the applicator,
left), three boom widths,
traction control, hydraulic
tread adjustment, boom
air purge, direct chemical
injection systems, five-way
nozzle bodies, automatic
auctions.com) tractor and
industrial machinery auction
sale in Idabel, Oklahoma
April 26: Steffes Group
(steffesgroup.com) Colorado
Construction Equipment
auction at various Colorado
locations
May 18: CBM Auctions (bid-
cbm.com) equipment sale in
Lathrop, Missouri •
21
 MACHINERY
INSIDER
continued
boom leveling, deluxe cabs, and electronics
packages that offer automatic control of all
major sprayer functions.
All these additions certainly influence
dealer asking prices, accounting for the
differences shown in the Price Guide on
the next page, where we feature a spread
of self-propelled applicators listed from the
highest- to lowest-priced offerings.
The prices vary, but hours of use were
fairly consistent. Most of the listings in the
Price Guide fall into the range of 250 to
500 hours.
However, if you are in the market for
Equipment Trades
Are Treated as
Taxable Events
I f you are exchanging equipment, even if it
involves a purchase leaseback, consult with
your accountant to see whether that transac-
tion creates a tax liability. Tax law changed in
2019, making it necessary to “sell” an old asset
for the trade-in value and put the new asset
on the depreciation schedule at its full market
value, says Tina Barrett of Nebraska Farm
Business (nfbi.net). This can generate significant
taxable income. “You’ll want to make sure you
have planned on the recognition of this sale.
For many operations, this could be hundreds of
thousands of dollars in new gain,” she says.
Tax regulations preserve like-kind exchange
treatment for real property, but eliminate it for
personal property. “Equipment or livestock
‘trades’ will be treated as taxable events, with
the taxpayer computing gain or loss based upon
the difference between the amount realized
on the sale of the relinquished asset and the
party’s adjusted basis in the asset,” adds Kristine
Tidgren at Iowa State University's Center for
Agricultural Law and Taxation (calt.iastate.edu).
“The amount realized includes any money as
well as the fair market value of property (other
than money) received in the transition.”
To help explain this confusing set of rules,
Tidgren offers an example.
“Suppose Sam trades a tractor, with a fair
market value of $75,000 and an adjusted basis
of zero dollars, plus $50,000 cash for a tractor
22 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
ª
a 5- to 8-year-old applicator, the good dealer outside your area,
news is that sprayers of this age are in it is highly recommended
decent supply at dealer and auction lots. that you work with your
True, the tight supply of new and late- local dealer to complete the
model applicators has eaten into the older transaction.
used inventory in the past two years, but Besides the benefit of the
sprayers of this age, in good condition with dealer’s ability to make
moderate (2,500-plus) hours, can be found arrangements for
if you invest time surfing the internet. transportation, the good
In that regard, prime online searching will you generate from
sites include machinefinder.com (John Deere working with your dealer
dealers’ site), caseihused.com, tractorhouse. will pay off when that
com, and machinerytrader.com. sprayer needs support or
If you are interested in buying from a repair down the road.
with a fair market value of $125,000. For that More than ever, your tax
tax year, this transaction will be treated as a accountant or adviser will be
sale and a purchase. a significant business partner
“Sam must now recognize $75,000 in to help you work your way
recapture [the difference between the fair through the tax consideration,
market value of the traded tractor at $75,000 Tidgren says.
and its adjusted basis of $0]. This transaction According to the IRS,
will be reported on Part III of Form 4797 and anyone buying, financing,
taxed as ordinary income [no self-employment or leasing new or used
tax]. Sam uses the proceeds of the sale plus equipment will qualify for
an extra $50,000 in cash to purchase the new a Section 179 deduction,
tractor. provided the total amount is
“Thus Sam’s basis in his new tractor will be less than the yearly cap. For
$125,000, the full purchase price of the new farmers, that typically means
tractor. Sam can likely expense this amount. equipment, machinery, tools,
If Section 179 is not available, he can use 100% and software purchased
bonus to capitalize and depreciate the full between January 1 and
amount.” December 31. •
Photography: Courtesy of manufacturer
Population. Spacing. Uniform Emergence. These are
the keys to a great planting season and a great growing
season. If worn-out planter parts are costing you yield,
then don’t just replace them — upgrade them.

Performance Upgrade Kits from John Deere give you

all the confidence and performance of running a new
planter without replacing your planter.

Talk to your John Deere dealer to learn what options

are right for your planter.
JohnDeere.com/PlanterUpgrades
 PRICE GUIDE: Dealer Asking Prices on 2022 John Deere Self-Propelled Sprayers
MODEL HOURS PRICE BOOM SPECIFICATIONS**

! Cut along this line

410R 509 $536,770 120 ft. Carbon fiber boom, end row noz., hyd. tread, high flow, air purge, traction control, 5 noz., 420/80R46 tires

290 $516,890 Hyd. tread, ExactApply, fence row noz., 380/90R46 tires, air purge, high flow, boom level, stainless plumbing

366 $505,200 Hyd. tread, traction control, ExactApply, fence row noz., 380/90R46 tires, 5 noz., wheel slip control

292 $495,670 Hyd. tread, ExactApply, 380/90R46 tires, auto leveling, traction control, 3 in. fill, air purge, AutoTrac, RowSense

Boom level, hyd. tread, ExactApply, direct injection system, high flow, Auto Solution, ExactApply, air purge, fence row noz.,
355 $489,000
AutoVision

175 $479,000 15-in. noz., RowSense, traction control, boom level, AutoTrac

450 $470,000 Boom level, hyd. tread, traction control, high flow, 380/90R46 tires, air purge, fence row noz., Vision & RowSense

500 $469,900 Boom level, hyd. tread adjust, ExactApply, 380/90R46 tires, AutoSolution, traction control, air purge, AutoTrac Vision

250 $465,900 Boom level, hyd. tread, traction control, 15-in. noz., 380/90R46 tires

416 $459,900 Hyd. tread, traction control, ExactApply, 380/90R40 tires, Ultimate Visibility, AutoSolution, high flow

169 $458,827 15-in. noz., hyd. tread, Active Seat, boom level, 380/90R46 tires, fence row noz., AutoTrac Vision & RowSense

300 $434,900 Hyd. tread, traction control, 15-in. noz., boom level, Ultimate Comfort, Auto Solution, boom level, fence row noz.

412 $434,500 Custom Edition, Active Seat, 15-in. noz., air purge, AutoBoom, 380/90R46 tires, fence row noz., RowSense, hyd. tread

473 $429,900 Hyd. tread, 15-in. noz, high flow, AutoSolution, underframe shields, 3 in. fill, high flow, air purge

190 $405,000 100 ft. Boom level, hyd. tread, traction control, 15-in. noz.

412R 267 $569,500 120 ft. Boom level, hyd. tread, 15-in. noz., ExactApply

495 $549,500 120 ft. 15-in. noz., 380R90R46 tires, Ultimate Visibility, AutoSolution Control, high flow, Ultimate Comfort, Ultimate Lighting

359 $535,050 132 ft. Carbon boom, boom level, hyd. tread, traction control, ExactApply

500 $529,500 120 ft. Boom level, hyd. tread, traction control, 15-in. noz., ExactApply

300 $528,000 120 ft. Boom level, hyd. tread, traction control, 15-in. noz., ExactApply, Ultimate Comfort, 380/90R46 tires

Boom level, hyd. tread, ExactApply, 3 in. fill, auto solution control, fence row noz., foam marker, RowSense, 620/70R38 tires, air
300 $525,900 132 ft.
purge

310 $522,500 120 ft. Boom level, hyd. tread, ExactApply, BoomTrac, auto solution control, 3 in. fill, air purge, fence row noz.

602 $520,900 120 ft. Boom level, hyd. tread, 15-in. nozzle, ExactApply

280 $509,000 120 ft. Boom level, hyd. tread., ExactApply, BoomTrac, auto solution control, 3 in. fill, air purge, fence row noz., 380/90R46 tires

450 $505,000 120 ft. Hyd. tread, BoomTrac, air purge, 1,200 gal. tank, 3 in. fill, Autotrac, Ultimate Lighting, foam

300 $495,000 120 ft. Hyd. tread, BoomTrac Pro 2, air purge, 1,200 gal. tank, fence row noz., Ultimate Lighting

750 $439,900 132 ft. Carbon boom, boom level, hyd. tread, traction control, aluminum boom, auto solution control, high flow, air purge

Boom level, hyd. tread, ExactApply, product reclaim, row noz., high flow, dual flow meter, air purge, stainless educator, auto solu-
612R 721 $563,750 120 ft.
tion

650 $537,400 Boom level, stainless, hyd. tread, ExactApply, 4 tank injection, 1,200 gal. tank, traction control, Ultimate Lighting

322 $526,900 Boom level, 15-in. spacing, ExactApply, high flow, air purge, fence row noz., 420/95R50 tires
! Cut along this line

427 $504,500 Boom level, hyd. tread, BoomTrac, stainless, ExactApply, high flow, air purge, fence row noz., VF380/90R46 tires

458 $472,700 Boom level, hyd. tread, traction control, auto solution, foam, fence row noz., RowSense

Carbon boom, fence row noz., high flow, air purge, traction control, 5 noz. body, ExactApply, 20-in. spacing, slip control, 5
616R 258 $650,530 132 ft.
sensor boom leveler, 1,600 gal., hyd. tread

225 $623,700 132 ft. Carbon boom, fence row noz., stainless tank, high flow, air purge, traction control, 5 noz. body, 20-in. spacing, 1,600 gal.

300 $599,000 132 ft. Carbon boom, fence row noz., high flow, air purge, traction control, 5 noz. body, 20-in. spacing, 1,600 gal.

606 $545,400 120 ft. Carbon fiber boom, fence row noz., high flow, air purge, traction control, 5 noz. body, 20-in. spacing, 1,600 gal.

Data derived from machinefinder.com. All sprayers equipped with stainless steel tanks, 1,000-gallon tanks, and 20-inch nozzle spacing unless listed otherwise. *auto = automatic, auto solution =
Automatic Solution Control, boom level = boom leveling, 5 noz. = five nozzle body, 15-in. noz. = 15-inch nozzle spacing, foam = foam marker, high flow = high flow pump, hyd. tread = hydraulic tread
adjustment, noz. = nozzle
D o n’t L e a v e Y o u r S o y b e a n s Vu l n e r a b l e

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 SHOP
HACKS
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE SHOP HACK
Check out the top entries from our Shop Hack: Stock the Shop Contest.
F
armers are the original inventors,
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That’s why we received more than 150
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had to submit original ideas related to shop
work or getting repair and maintenance
tasks done around the farmstead or in
the field.
Our panel of experts selected the top 16
shop hacks, which will be featured in a sweet
16 bracket-style contest this month. If you’re
looking for ways to make your shop more
organized, the shop hacks include innovative
storage racks and a custom-built cart for
26 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
To watch videos of the shop hacks
and vote for your favorite, scan
this QR code using your
smartphone’s camera.
SHOP HACK ABOVE: When packing grease in wheel winner will be featured in
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Go to Agriculture.com/shophacks to see
the top entries and vote for your favorite.
Once the final four advance, the experts
will select the champion shop hack. The
Photography: Meredith Operations Corporation
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Photography: Manufacturers
 Data shows not all soils
sequester carbon, even when
farmers use practices like
no-till and cover crops.
uch fanfare
M accompanies
programs
that pay
farmers to sequester green-
house gases such as carbon
dioxide, methane, and ni-
trous oxide in their soils. Yet,
questions linger as research
casts doubt on whether the
promise equals reality.
“Just about everywhere we
look, there are claims about
carbon sequestration being
akin to the holy grail for
agriculture and, by exten-
sion, the environment,” says
Ben Palen, a fifth-generation
Kansas farmer and manager
at Ag Management Partners.
“There is nothing wrong
with modest improvement,
but often the promise and
the reality do not match.”
“I worry that we are
selling ourselves a pie-in-
the-sky dream we might
not realize, and that it could
come back to bite farmers
and ultimately not get us
Photography: Manuel Breva Colmeiro, jukree,
rasikabendre, of Getty Images
By Laurie Bedord
Executive Editor, Agronomy & Technology
any further down the road
toward reducing greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere,”
says Gregg Sanford, senior
scientist, Department of
Agronomy at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison.
Reining in the Hype
bout two decades
A ago, Sanford began
reading scientific
literature that suggested
certain farming systems could
help combat climate change by
sequestering carbon in the soil.
“We love to support farm-
ers and incentivize them to
do things that benefit society,
but we also put a ridiculous
amount of pressure on farm-
ers to save us from every-
thing,” Sanford says. “I don’t
feel the science is there to say
that if you do these practices
(e.g., cover crops, no-till, etc.),
you’re going to sequester
carbon across the board. In
some cases, we will, but in
many cases, we won’t.”
Findings from his doctoral
work and a decade of subse-
quent research by Sanford and
colleagues bear that out. The
data challenges the climate
impact of reducing soil tillage
and questions how much car-
bon cover crops can sequester
in some circumstances.
“Even with best manage-
ment practices like no-till
and cover crops, we’re losing
carbon in the upper portion
of the soil that we’d expect
to be able to improve with
management,” Sanford
says. “The data also shows
that carbon is being lost in
soil horizons, as much as a
meter deep. Those losses
are likely due to a combina-
tion of historic vegetation,
current management, and
a changing climate and are
much harder to change via
farming practices like cover
crops or no-till.”
In 2009, Sanford began
analyzing archived soil
samples from the Wisconsin
April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com
Integrated Cropping
Systems Trial (WICST) that
had been collected in 1989
and comparing them to
contemporary soil samples
to see if the practices he had
been reading about had
sequestered carbon over a
20-year period. Launched in
1989, WICST spans conven-
tional, organic, cash-grain,
dairy-forage, perennial bio-
energy, and livestock grazing
systems. The trial is one of
the most diverse long-term,
large-scale cropping systems
experiments in the world.
Sanford says the systems
at WICST are representa-
tive of what’s happening on
the landscape in the Upper
Midwest and, therefore,
provide an excellent window
into what may or may not be
building soil carbon.
“Our grain systems include
corn, soybeans, wheat, and
our dairy-forage systems
receive manure and include
perennial forage crops like
29
 alfalfa,” he says. “Across the
board, we have seen declines
in soil carbon in our grain
systems regardless of man-
agement (e.g., conventional,
organic, tilled, no-till, cover
crops). Our dairy-forage rota-
tions have also incurred losses,
although at a slower rate, like-
ly because of the reduction in
tillage, application of manure,
and deep-rooted perennials.”
It is only in their grassland
systems, whether it’s rotation-
ally grazed pasture, CRP, or
prairie, where they can doc-
ument carbon sequestration
in the surface soils. However,
Sanford says that in many
cases they are still observing
losses of carbon at depth.
Results may Vary
ne of the caveats
O with soil carbon
sequestration,
Sanford says, is there are
places in the United States
where certain types of ag
management will be able to
build soil carbon resources,
but results may vary.
“There are going to be
areas where, despite our best
efforts, we continue to lose
carbon simply because the
amount being respired as
carbon dioxide from the soil
due to the microbial turnover
of organic matter is going to
outpace the residue carbon
being returned,” he says.
“And that gets tricky because
the climate is getting warmer,
speeding up the process of
soil organic matter turnover.”
What’s relevant for farm-
ers in terms of maximizing
carbon, Anna Cates says, is
whether they can maximize
how carbon helps with other
functions.
“Can they maximize
how much organic matter
is building soil structure?
Can they maximize how
much organic matter is
delivering organic nutrients
30 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
“The area in the U.S. we now call the
Corn Belt was once almost entirely
covered by tallgrass prairie with
deep-rooted perennial plants, grazing
animals, and regular fires.
for the crop?” says Cates, grain commodities like corn carbon in this region, but
assistant Extension professor, and soybeans. It took a long it’s a big change and a hard
University of Minnesota. time for those deep-rooted, pitch to make. Maybe there
diverse, and perennial prai- are things we can do to our
Transformational ries to accumulate that soil dominant systems today to
Change Needed carbon,” he says. “The annual make them ‘behave’ more
he main way to systems we have replaced the like perennial systems.”
T build soil organic
matter is by
prairies with invest less in
root biomass because they’re
To test that hypothesis,
researchers created nested
adding plant biomass while focused on producing grain. experiments in some of the
simultaneously keeping as During any year, there are large plots at WICST. At
much of the carbon cur-
rently in the soil from being
also long stretches when
there is nothing covering the
one end of the spectrum,
they are just reducing tillage
respired as CO2 by limiting soil, even if it is no-tilled.” or adding cover crops. At the
soil disturbance. Sanford If the prairies built these soils, other end, they are reducing
believes that to make a big should we consider emulating tillage, adding cover crops,
impact on soil carbon and what they can do in our pro- adding manure, and trying
use it as a tactic to mitigate duction systems? It’s a question to diversify the rotation. As
climate change, a transfor- Sanford and others are asking. they head into their fourth
mational change must occur “To get soils in the season, the impact on the soil
in agriculture. Midwest back as close as we is being tracked, and they
“The area in the U.S. can to those tallgrass prairies are just now starting to dig
we now call the Corn Belt to stabilize or accrue carbon, into the data.
was once almost entirely we need to switch from An approach that Palen
covered by tallgrass prairie farming systems dominated believes holds promise is a
with deep-rooted perennial by annual crops to systems closed-loop system involving
plants, grazing animals, and dominated by or exclusively crops and hogs. A project
regular fires. Over thousands built around perennials, he is currently working
of years, the prairies created perennial forages, or grasses,” on replaces commercial
the fertile, carbon-rich soils Sanford says. “That is our fertilizer with hog manure.
we now farm for annual best hope for building “Hopefully, we will achieve
Over thousands of years, the prairies
created the fertile, carbon-rich soils
we now farm for annual grain
commodities like corn and soybeans.”
Gregg Sanford
senior scientist, Department of Agronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
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 Scan the QR code with your cell phone’s
camera to read the report “Soil carbon lost

Gauging Attitudes from Mollisols of the North Central U.S.A. with

20 years of agricultural best management

Toward Carbon Farming practices” authored by Gregg Sanford, senior

scientist at the University of Wisconsin-

B en Palen, a fifth-generation Kansas farmer and manager at Madison and other researchers.
Ag Management Partners, recently surveyed 50 farmers to
learn about their attitudes toward carbon farming. He says the more about the Truterra money is like gravy on top
most revealing question asked farmers to rate carbon markets, carbon program, Bahr says of my mashed potatoes. It’s a
on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 as an opportunity that provided it seemed like something reward for taking care of the
good financial and environmental benefits). The average reply worth exploring and joined land the way I should.”
was slightly over three. the program in 2021. The Payment is based on how
“Comments that led to that low rating included (a) no
Kansas farmer also sits on much carbon has been stored,
recognition of good practices that I’ve already done for years;
the program’s advisory board which is quantified through a
(b) no clearly defined rules, and vaguely written contracts; (c)
too much paperwork; and (d) practicalities of changing some
where he and other farmers combination of modeling and
practices because of site-specific conditions,” Palen says. • can provide feedback. soil sampling. Growers are
Like most central Kansas paid $30 an acre for every ton
farms, Bahr’s land is diversi- of carbon sequestered, which
carbon-neutral grain, which DeJong-Hughes also fied, handling alfalfa, corn, can vary year to year based on
will be fed to the hogs, and believes we are missing an milo, soybeans, wheat, and crop rotation.
then they can be sold as car- opportunity when it comes to a cow-calf herd. His soils To get a feel for the
bon-neutral pork, creating fossil fuels. “We know how range from good black dirt program, Bahr enrolled only
a closed-loop system,” Palen much carbon is emitted from to sandy loam. a portion of the acres he
explains. “There’s a lot of diesel fuel. It’s harder to quan- “While we may be talking covers. “In some of my fields,
opportunity there for carbon tify carbon sequestered in the about carbon, this program is I don’t think it quite fits like
credits by replacing com- soil,” she says. “The programs more about soil health, which I want it to, but there are
mercial fertilizer but also by pay to sequester carbon, but is a journey that doesn’t hap- other areas where it fits
scrubbing the methane out carbon is also not being emit- pen overnight,” he says. “I’m well,” he says. “We’ll
of the hog manure.” ted through diesel fuel because employing certain practices continue to evaluate where
a farmer makes less tillage like no-till and cover crops we’re at, and if I feel good
Healthy Skepticism passes across the field.” because they are what is best about it, I’ll consider adding
s with any new Palen also notes the po- for my soil; the carbon credit more land.”
A concept, healthy
skepticism about
tential for generating carbon
credits by reducing commer-
soil’s ability to sequester
carbon is a good thing.
cial fertilizer rates via the use
of certain biostimulants. For
What’s the Takeaway?
“In the Upper Midwest,
we have some of the highest
instance, he suggests bench-
marks for nitrogen use could
I n all these discussions about carbon markets, Anna Cates,
assistant Extension professor, University of Minnesota, says
farmers not only need to pay attention to their soil functions,
organic matter soils in the be established on a local or but also check the contracts to make sure they’re not stuck
world, so it’s going to be regional level, and farmers with the bill if soil carbon doesn’t rise.
difficult to make them better,” could earn carbon credits by “If you want to join a carbon market, especially in the Upper
says Jodi DeJong-Hughes, demonstrating a reduction Midwest, make sure you understand what happens if the sam-
University of Minnesota in use based on a reference ple shows you have not sequestered carbon, which could be
Extension soil and water point or benchmark. “That through no fault of your own,” she says. “You could have grown
quality educator. “What I sort of approach might a beautiful cover crop. You could have successfully grown
tell farmers is that it’s a slow provide more transparency no-till corn and soybeans and still not see your organic matter
process to build organic and legitimacy for both number move.”
matter, and while I don’t buyers and sellers of carbon The higher the organic matter is, the harder it is to improve
know if the carbon markets credits,” he says. it. Jodi DeJong-Hughes, University of Minnesota Extension soil
are for you, reducing tillage Initially, Kevin Bahr was and water quality educator, says if your organic matter is over
4%, it’s going to take a very long time to build more soil carbon.
and adding cover crops are among the carbon program
She also says she would like to see farmers paid by the practice
great for the soil.” skeptics. As he learned
rather than be on the hook for a certain carbon number by the
end of the contract.
Laurie Bedord, executive editor, “Ultimately, no-till, cover crops, and integrating livestock
agronomy & technology, covers are fantastic practices that have so many benefits to the farm
agronomy and technology topics for that should be the focus. And carbon is this fantastic thing that
Successful Farming magazine and
Agriculture.com. She also leads the SF may come along with it,” says Gregg Sanford, senior scientist,
College Edition. Email: Laurie.Bedord@ Department of Agronomy at the University of Wisconsin-
agriculture.com. Madison. •

32 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023

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 CROPS
This diagram shows the drainage
tile process from capture to
entering the waterway.
COPING WITH EXTREME
WET WEATHER
Field drainage systems bring benefits to soil and water health and
the potential for significant yield increases.
By Alex Gray, New Products Editor
I
Alex.Gray@agriculture.com
ntroduced to agriculture in the United
States in 1838, the practice of tiling fields has
become increasingly important as heavy rain
events occur more frequently.
The frequency of extreme, single-day
precipitation events remained mostly
steady between 1910 and the 1980s but has
risen substantially since then, with climate
change as a major contributor, according
to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
During the entire observed period
between 1910 and 2020, the portion of the
country experiencing extreme single-day
precipitation events has increased at a rate
of about half a percentage point per decade.
Such weather events often leave fields over-
saturated with water.
While irrigation practices add water
where soil is naturally dry, drainage systems
remove from the soil excess water caused by
rainfall, floods, or a high water table.
Root growth requires about equal
amounts of air and water to be present in the
34 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
soil, meaning desaturation through drainage
can create optimal conditions for crops, ac-
cording to Iowa State University Extension
and Outreach.
Drainage tiling has become a bit of a
misnomer as the practice has evolved. Tiling
was introduced to the United States by
Scottish emigrant and farmer John Johnston.
“The first kind of tile was made from
clay, similar to terra-cotta roofing tile, and
they would hand-lay tile in fields for water
to drop into and drain off,” says Darla
Huff, director of agriculture for Advanced
Drainage Systems (ADS). “Over time, they
got more sophisticated with all kinds of
different shapes of clay tiles.”
Marty Sixt and Ronald Martin, who
founded ADS in 1966, invented the modern
plastic corrugated pipe drainage system. If
installed correctly, it is engineered to last up
to 100 years, according to Huff.
In modern tiling practices, tile drainage
is typically installed at a uniform depth 3
to 4 feet below the soil’s surface and spaced
across the field 60, 30, or even 15 feet apart.
Excess water trickles through the soil into
the pipes and is carried off
to a designated drainage
site, with flow controlled by
various gates throughout the
system.
Historically, gates had
to be manually opened to
release water into drain-
age sites. Now automated
systems allow farmers to
monitor and manage their
drainage remotely, plus they
can set an automated sched-
ule based on the time of year
and field conditions.
Once installed, tile drain-
age takes three years to fully
settle into optimal impact
for the field, where it can
provide up to a 30% increase
in yield, says Huff. A 25-
year study conducted by
Ohio State University found
similar results, seeing a 30%
average increase in corn and
soybean yields.
Every dollar invested
in drainage creates a $1.90
payback when growing
corn and at least $1.20 when
growing soybeans, on aver-
age, according to Michael
Maierhofer, market develop-
ment specialist at ADS.
Field Benefits
D rainage systems can turn
previously unproductive
fields into profitable land.
Chad Henderson farms
about 7,000 acres of wheat,
beans, and corn in Madison,
Alabama, and about a quar-
ter of that land is irrigated.
Until 2021, Henderson
had only a few spots of tile
across less than 10 acres,
but in July of that year, he
tiled about 90 acres, mostly
with 30-foot centers but
decreasing to 15-foot centers
in wetter areas. Installation
took less than a week, and
Photography: Courtesy of ADS
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 CROPS
continued
managing your water,”
Lift stations are a key component says Huff. “It’s making
to any drainage, allowing farmers
to control when water exits the sure you’re using every
system. ounce of water you have
on your field in the
appropriate way, keeping
nutrients in the soil where
they belong, instead of
running off and going
into a stream.”
A drainage system will
carry off some nutrients
as well, but manual or au-
tomatic gates can prevent
adverse effects such as
algal bloom in local water
sources. For Henderson,
this was an investment
worth making for the
environmental benefits
alone.
“As farmers we’re all
about efficiency. We’re
also about trying to make
the land better, and
Henderson was able to immediately plant [drainage tile] is one of
soybeans on the ground in mid-July, yielding the steps that we can take to do that,” says
around 15 extra bushels per acre despite the Henderson. “We don’t always glean the
abnormal time of planting. rewards of the things we do, but maybe the
“After tiling, we were getting 250 to 300 next generation will.”
bushels of corn in some areas that we’ve
never grown a crop off of,” says Henderson. Installation Safety
This boost in yield was registered in small
parts of Henderson’s fields, divided into
spots of tile coverage of 2 to 7 acres each.
I nstallation details depend on specific factors
such as water table level, soil texture and
class, elevation and slope, and cropping
In addition to yield benefits, drainage can system.
also help fields dry faster, providing farmers Farmers can opt to work with a contractor
with a larger window to plant and harvest. or install the drainage system themselves.
Henderson says he could start planting Jason Brown, president of Mid America
up to a week earlier during the first season Trenchers, says in his experience, farmers
after drainage tile installation. He previously with less than 2,000 acres often have more
would plant the top of the hills, while he time to handle a project like this, and they
waited for lower elevations to dry. With will install the system themselves and work
the drainage system installed, fields dry with their neighbors. He’s also seen larger
out more uniformly, enabling him to finish farms buy the necessary equipment and turn
planting sooner. it into a commercial business.
Tile drainage can also benefit the Contractors can handle the assessment,
environment. Removing excess water can planning, and construction phases for a til-
reduce surface erosion. With less water in ing project. For his installation, Henderson
the ground, soil is also capable of absorb- worked with a contractor.
ing more applied nutrients, producing less “I’ve learned over the years that if you’re
runoff. going to do something for the first time,
“Drainage is a conservation effort; it’s you need to get somebody that does it all the
38 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
time,” says Henderson.
Before starting, contact
the local Natural Resources
Conservation Service office
to get permits. Craig Potts,
a member of the Drain Tile
Safety Coalition, recom-
mends calling the 811 line in
your state to get any utility
lines marked and avoid po-
tential disaster during the
dig.
Requesting a “Design”
ticket from 811 notifies
operators of underground
utilities near your digging
sites and puts out a request
for maps and other detailed
information to help plan the
project.
“It could be real serious
hitting a high-pressure
pipeline, whether it’s gas or
liquid,” says Potts. “The con-
cern is you could experience
equipment damage, or your
workers could get killed.”
Potts recommends sched-
uling a meeting between
the tile installer and utilities
locator to design the tiling
plan. The installer should
mark planned locations for
digging so the locator can
best mark where utilities
are. Also, installers need to
consult with state zoning
requirements to determine
the minimum clearance on
either side of the pipes.
Farmers who install tiling
regularly start at either
30- or 60-foot centers and
expand from there depend-
ing on in-field results.
“I don’t know any farmer
that has ever installed a tile
system and regretted it,” says
Huff. “I joke that it’s like a
tattoo. You can’t do it just
once — usually if you get
one, you get two. Everybody
does it more than once.”
Photography: Courtesy of Jack Gjesvold
 SF CARBON
CONNECTION
Dust storms carry more than soil. They
also contain soil carbon that blows from
farmers’ fields.
WHERE DID THE SOIL GO?
Farmers who want to sell carbon need to conserve
their topsoil first. Losses from erosion are stunning.
T
By Raylene Nickel
he images are familiar: gray clouds of
soil billowing from crop fields in a dry,
windy spring and road ditches filled with
snowbanks crowned with brown.
All tell the story of soil erosion. The
images, which have prevailed across decades
and generations, seem an inevitable outcome
of farming.
The true story behind these familiar
sightings and the volume of erosion they
represent is breathtaking. The historic loss of
soil, when tallied across the most vulnerable
topographical areas of the Midwest, may
amount to 57 billion metric tons of topsoil
and its carbon lost over the past 150 years of
farming.
Native Prairie Remnants
T he staggering measure of loss comes
from research done at the University of
Massachusetts (UM). Members of the
research team visiting the Midwest had
been intrigued by sites where remnants of
native prairie butted up against farm fields.
Characteristic of these sites was a sharp drop
in elevation from native prairie to tilled
40 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
high rate of historical soil
loss indicates that present
measurements by other
sources underestimate both
the historical rate of erosion
and the rate of erosion that
continues.
Results of the study,
titled “Rates of Historical
Anthropogenic Soil Erosion
in the Midwestern United
States,” were published
online in 2021 by the journal
Earth’s Future.
The study was inspired
by earlier UM research
estimating soil erosion in
the Midwest. In the earlier
study, researchers used satel-
lite imagery obtained during
the dormant phase of the
growing season to compare
differences in soil color to
estimate erosion rates. The
study, “The extent of soil loss
across the U.S. Corn Belt,”
fields, indicating the extent to which the was published in 2021 in
native prairie had been eroded. Volume 118 of Proceedings
The researchers measured the differ- of the National Academy of
ences in elevation between these two land Science.
uses at 20 sites in nine states — Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, A-horizon Soil
Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Erosion
South Dakota. They did high-resolution
topographical surveys across erosional
escarpments to calculate how much soil had
ÒB y developing a relation-
ship between soil loss
and topography, we found
been eroded. that A-horizon soil has been
“We used an association between the eroded from roughly one-
measured reduction in soil thickness and third of the Midwestern U.S.
topographic curvature to predict regional Corn Belt,” says Thaler.
soil erosion occurring since the beginning of
farming to the present,” says Evan Thaler,
57
a member of the UM research team now
working as a scientist at the Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico.“We
estimate that the rate of soil loss comes to 2
millimeters in thickness per year across the billion
hilly areas [in the states we studied],” he says. The amount of
“The soil loss amounts to 22.5 metric tons metric tons of
per hectare per year, or about 10 tons per topsoil lost over
acre per year.” the past 150 years
While the study does not measure ongo- of U.S. farming.
ing rates of soil erosion, Thaler suggests the
Photography: Courtesy of Jodi DeJong-Hughes, University of Minnesota
Data Source: University of Massachusetts
©2023 LOVELAND PRODUCTS, INC. All rights reserved. All of the trademarks and service marks displayed are marks of their respective owners. Always refer to product labels for use rates and directions. Check state registration status before using.

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A fence line comparison done by
the University of Massachusetts.
“Prior estimates indicated none of the Corn
Belt region has lost A-horizon soils.”
B ecause carbon is the main component of
The A horizon constitutes topsoil built
by the native prairie. “Prior to European
settlement in the mid- to late 19th century,
the vegetation was primarily tallgrass prairie
with some savanna and woodlands,” says
Thaler. “The native prairie vegetation fos-
tered the accumulation of thick A-horizon
soils. In the decades following European
settlement, the prairie was plowed, and the
landscape was rapidly and extensively con-
verted to row crop agriculture. For example,
in Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois, less than 0.1%
of the original tallgrass prairie remains.”
Soils where the A-horizon layer of soil
has been completely removed are commonly
classified by USDA as Class 4 eroded soils,
notes Thaler. Classes 1, 2, and 3 represent
soils that have lost topsoil in the amounts
of 25%, 25% to 75%, and greater than 75%,
respectively.
42 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
“Because the A horizon has the largest
fraction of soil organic carbon within the soil Can Eroded Soil
profile, it is a key component of water and Be Rebuilt?
nutrient retention and soil productivity,”
says Thaler. “The loss of A-horizon soil has
removed as much as 1.4 petagrams, or 1.5 W hile management
practices may
improve soil health and
billion tons, of carbon from hillslopes, reduc-
rebuild carbon-rich soil
ing crop yields in the study area by around
organic matter, these
6% and resulting in $2.8 billion in annual
improvements cannot
economic losses. restore eroded soil to
“Soil degradation diminishes soil fertility its original state, says
by removing organic matter and nutrients,” Richard Cruse, Iowa State
he says, “and without countervailing prac- University agronomist.
tices, such as fertilization and genetic crop His is a sobering
enhancements, leads to reduction in crop reminder that any amount
yields. Fertilizer use, however, does not fully of soil erosion represents
restore the productivity of eroded soils, and losses that cannot be
because fossil fuels are required to generate retrieved.
the energy needed to produce fertilizers, the “Soil organic matter is
use of fertilizers to increase yields in degraded just one component of the
soil is not sustainable.” topsoil,” he says. “Other
components are those
Much of the carbon held within the
materials that glaciers
topsoil eroded from hilltops and side slopes
deposited. These clay
likely remains buried in lower areas within particles make up the min-
the field, suggests Thaler. “Restoring carbon eralogy of the soil, and the
to degraded soils therefore has potential to makeup differs by region.
both reestablish soil function and sequester If we put organic matter
atmospheric carbon dioxide,” he says. back in the soil, it’ll be a
lot better than it was with
Opportunity Exists lower levels of organic
soil organic matter, increasing organic mat-
ter in the soil in degraded areas presents an
matter. But it won’t be as
good as it was before the
erosion occurred.” •
opportunity for farmers, says Richard Cruse,
Iowa State University agronomist. Not only the soil is huge, and it’s going
does the building of the organic matter se- to get even bigger.”
quester carbon, but it also boosts crop yields Practicing no-till in
without increasing inputs. combination with growing
Improving the soil’s ability to store water cover crops or other crops
is a critical way that increasing levels of soil year-round is key to
organic matter help crop yields. “Water is building the organic matter
the critical thing crops need,” says Cruse. that will restore health to
“Building soil organic matter improves soil degraded soils. “It’s
structure, and this improves water infiltra- important to protect the soil
tion and retention.” surface at all times and
The need to improve water availability in grow the root biomass that
soils is becoming more critical. “Increasingly, will provide a smorgasbord
we’re experiencing warmer and drier mid- for soil life,” he says.
and late-season growing conditions for “Having surface cover and
crops,” says Cruse. “Our models indicate having biomass under-
that our weather systems are going to be- ground close to the surface
come even hotter and drier, especially during are key to building healthy
grain filling. The need to maintain water in soil.”
Photography: Courtesy of Evan Thaler, University of Massachusetts
 4O
SEASONS
THE LONG VIEW
The 82-year-old Lin Warfel looks back at a life rooted
in family, farming, and community.
P
By Gil Gullickson
ull up a chair. Pour yourself an iced tea
in the cool of the evening. And listen
to what Lin Warfel has learned over
a lifetime of farming and community
involvement.  ended with the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack
The Tolono, Illinois, farmer and land-
owner will tell you how a tragedy helped
form a special relationship with his grandfa-
ther. He’ll tell you how he saw a niche early
in his farming career that set him apart from
others. Plus he’ll tell you what he looks for
in farm renters.  farm, and my grandfather [Alfred Warfel]
“To me, farming is family and communi-
ty,” he says. “It’s not living somewhere way
off and then coming for two to three days
and then going away.”  Warfel says. “He was extraordinarily frugal.
Pitchfork Lessons
W arfel’s farm history is rooted in the Great
Chicago Fire of 1871. His great-grandfa-
ther, H.J. Bialeschki, used money saved from
helping to rebuild Chicago to buy the home
farm near Tolono in 1882.
Years later, Warfel’s father, Orville
(Hank), graduated from the University of
Photography: Gil Gullickson
never said a thing, but
someone told me years later
that he about cried when he
saw what I did to his new
pitchfork.”
Warfel’s mother remar-
ried when he was 9. “My
stepdad was terrific,” Warfel
says. “He could have easily
been an engineer because he
was gifted with machinery.
After Sunday dinner, we
would also debate. I would
argue one side, and he’d ar-
gue the other, and afterward,
we would switch sides. It
was wonderful preparation
for being involved in farm
group and school board
work.”
W
Starting out
arfel began farming in
1962 during an era where
crop surpluses and low
prices ruled the day, with
much grain put in govern-
Illinois (U of I) and taught vocational agri- ment storage. Still, Warfel
culture before taking over the farm in 1940.  leapfrogged from farming
“When my dad graduated, he was also 160 acres his first year to 500
commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the [U.S.] acres the second. 
Army,” Warfel says. The farming career “One thing jumped out
at me,” he says. “If I got into
on Pearl Harbor. Eventually, his father land- seed production, I could
ed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was killed increase my corn income,
in action in France on Aug. 3, 1944.  and do the same thing with
“My mom was a widow at age 29,” Warfel seed wheat and soybeans.
says. “I was 3 years old, and my sister was Within a few years, 100% of
4½. My grandparents moved back to the my 500 acres were in seed
became a surrogate dad to me.”
40
The two bonded. “I loved him, and he
loved me, and he treated me so beautifully,”
If a hammer or saw fell off a truck, he’d pick
Seasons
it up and use it for the rest of his life.”
His grandfather once splurged and Farmers typically get
40 growing seasons
bought a new pitchfork. “I was up in the in their lifetime. That’s
barn, throwing down hay with this brand- 40 years to hone
new pitchfork. Since I was so little, the han- practices, preferences,
dle was long and kept banging into things. and perspectives. This
series highlights those
So, I went into the shop, put it in a vise, and lessons.
cut the handle so it would fit me. Grandpa
April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com 43
 4O
SEASONS
continued
Lin Warfel enjoys
biking in his rural
community.
production. It was extra work, but it helped
catapult my farming operation.”
Profits continued to grow in the go-go
1970s, when crop and farmland prices
boomed. 
Times changed, though, in the early 1980s.
To curb double-digit inflation, the Federal
Reserve Board cranked up interest rates that
peaked at 19% to 20% (23% in Champaign
on farm operating loans). Meanwhile, grain
and farmland markets plunged.
“My wife [Kay], God bless her, un-
derstood,” Warfel says. “Her dad was an
accounting professor, which led her to
understand dollars and cents. We bought no
new clothes, took no vacations, no anything.
“It was the only time in my life where I
lost sleep,” he adds. “I ended up taking my
books to a banker I got to know through
Farm Bureau. He told me I still had some
A t his peak, Warfel farmed 2,000 acres with
net worth, but in another six months it could
be gone.”
Not all news was bad, though. “He also
told me, ‘I think you can make it if you
hang on just a little longer. I’m seeing some
positive recovery signs, and interest rates
44 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
are coming down. That’s going to
help farmland values rise. The gen-
eral business economy is also coming
back in that people are once again
buying things. There are no guaran-
tees, but if I were you, I would hang
on. Good luck.’ ”
Warfel recovered. “Things were
still tough in 1984 and 1985, but the
value of my farmland started to come
back.” Later in the decade, commodity
prices also began to bounce back.  somed into Mike’s two
Community Involvement
W arfel, though, was always in-
terested in more than farming.
“I’ve really had three careers, one in
farming, one with Farm Bureau and
farm policy, and one with education
administration.” Besides serving on a
local school board, Warfel was a trustee
at Parkland College in Champaign,
Illinois, for 24 years.
Warfel learned much from civic ac-
tivities. “One time, I was chairman of
the school board and we were having
financial difficulties,” he says. “It was
during the era of [former presidential candi-
date] Ross Perot, who loved to use charts. So,
I used a chart to show income and expenses
heading in opposite directions. A lady in
front popped up and said, ‘Mr. Warfel, those
are the facts. I don’t care about facts. We
know what we want.’
“Well, the room erupted in laughter
and cheers. It was a fantastic lesson in that
understanding that while you can lead
with emotion, it’s real work to sell the facts.
Whether it’s the stock or grain market,
emotions play a huge role. Eventually the
facts rule, but you need to also consider
emotions.”
Winding Down
his brother-in-law. “We were farming like
crazy when I hit 55 to 60 years old. I started
backing off on the farming side and paying
more attention to the long view. I became a
new trustee at our local community college
[Parkland College],” he says.
That’s when Warfel rented out his farm
to two neighboring brothers, Jason and
Brian Wishall. “When I was
younger and moved to this
farm in 1972, I tried hard
to grow seed corn here. My
neighbor Mike, who was a
really sharp guy, helped me
deliver my seed corn to the
plant. Mike quickly realized,
‘Hey, there’s extra money in
seed corn,’ ” explains Warfel.  
This relationship blos-
sons now farming Warfel’s
farm. “They’re sharp young
fellows,” he says. 
Renting to local farmers
appeals to Warfel. “There
are farmers who come in
this area from far away with
a bunch of machinery and
then they are gone,” he says.
“In the long term, they don’t
buy anything here. They’re
not drainage commissioners.
They’re not school board
members. They’re not Lions
Club members. They’re not
church members. They’re
not here.”
What’s Ahead
A t 82 years old, Warfel still
retains the enthusiasm of
a major league rookie on
opening day. He’s fascinated
by what Alvin and Heidi
Toffler wrote in their book
“Revolutionary Wealth.” 
“They note that mankind’s
first revolution was a shift
from being hunter-gatherers
to farmers,” Warfel says.
“The second was the
industrial revolution. We’re
living in mankind’s third
great revolution now, driven
by computers. Wherever you
are on planet Earth, you can
buy, sell, teach, and learn if
you have high-speed internet.
It’s having a tremendous
impact of lifting everyone’s
[economic] boat.”
Photography: Gil Gullickson
 TUNED INTO
TECH
Kelly Klosterman
TEACHING TECH
Precision ag consultants help farmers learn how to make
the most of the tools available to them.
By Alex Gray, New Products Editor
P
Alex.Gray@agriculture.com
recision ag advancements have
boomed in recent years as the agricul-
ture machinery industry races to put
out the latest and greatest. The rapid
changes in technology aren’t greeted
with enthusiasm by all farmers, and that
creates a role for precision ag consultants
such as Kelly Klosterman of Wright
Implement.
“We need to educate farmers why they
need [precision technology]. If we can’t
do that as a dealership, we’re failing our
customers,” says Bruce Westerfield, the
vice president of large ag and technology at
Wright Implement, a John Deere dealership
with 15 locations in Kentucky and Indiana.
“You get somebody set in their way saying
they don’t need it because they’ve done it
that way for 20 years. It’s hard to change that
attitude.”
One way Wright Implement combats
this mind-set is by running the precision ag
department through its service department,
rather than the sales department.
46 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
nology and understand it.”
In her role, Klosterman
visits with farmers to
teach them about how the
Operations Center could
help improve their yields or
to clean up their account to
streamline use. She is there
from the very beginning to
help farmers become com-
fortable with the software,
discovering their general
ability to work with tech-
nology and guiding them
through the initial steps to
demonstrate the technology’s
value.
Klosterman was raised on
Bruce Westerfield a farm and has been around
agriculture her entire life;
she was a teacher before
joining Wright. Those
teaching skills have served
Klosterman well in her
current role.
“The people I work with
want to learn, and they want
“The reason we do that is we want the to use technology,” says
technicians and our precision ag specialists Klosterman. “To be able
on the same playing field,” says Westerfield. to help them and see them
“We want them to be talking, training, succeed — that’s rewarding.
communicating — it works for our benefit. I’m teaching these farmers
If you don’t have that communication with about technology, and how
the customer, and they can’t understand how it can help their farming
the technology on the machine works, are operations.”
we really treating the customer right?” For those interested in
Wright Implement has hired precision a career in precision ag
consultants since 2021. The consultants work technology, Westerfield
closely with Wright’s salespeople, precision says to learn as much about
ag specialists, and service technicians to technology as possible and
address the issues farmers are facing. how to communicate that
Klosterman joined the Wright Implement information effectively.
team as a precision ag consultant in 2022. “Learn communication
She works with farmers to educate them on skills along with the
John Deere’s Operations Center farm man- technology, and it will
agement system and the JDLink telematics benefit you wherever you
system. Some of those she encounters are not want to go,” he says.
aware of the tools available to assist them in “Everyone has a different set
their operations or they are overwhelmed by of goals in life, but one thing
the technology. is for sure: If you can
“I completely get it,” Klosterman says. communicate about technol-
Her job is to overcome that mind-set and get ogy, your career can go in a
them “to a level that they will use the tech- variety of directions.”
Photography: Alex Gray
HARVEST GOOD DATA
AND THE YIELD WILL FOLLOW.

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days — and seasons — ahead. Operations Center also integrates with a host
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 DISEASE
PLAYBOOK

“When I get out into

SDS kills plant roots long before the field, the first thing I
the disease is seen above ground.
do is extract plants with
foliar symptoms,” says Nick
Frederking, an AgriGold
agronomist. “Then I’m
evaluating that plant as a
whole.”
1. Stem canker is evident on
the plant exterior. Sunken,
dark brown lesions will
climb the stem and hit at
every node level.
2. Brown stem rot can be
identified by splitting the
soybean stem in half. Brown
or decaying pith tissue will
be evident.
3. Red crown rot can be
seen at the soil line as a red
streak or noticeable red
fungal structures on the
exterior base of the stem.
4. Sometimes, sudden death
syndrome can be confirmed
by a blue-green fungus on
the soybean’s root.

A FUNGAL FOE
Distinguishing SDS from
look-alikes is vital to making
good management decisions.
“It’s very easy to label
Sudden death syndrome kills yields with little warning. those other diseases as SDS,
By Chelsea Dinterman, Assistant Agronomy Editor and we have active ingre-
Chelsea.Dinterman@agriculture.com quickly the foliar stage of the disease devel- dients to control SDS,”
@CDintermanSF

I
t’s farmers’ worst nightmare. A seemingly
healthy soybean field dies right before their
eyes, just months before harvest from sudden
death syndrome (SDS). The disease is consis-
tently rated one of the most damaging to U.S.
soybeans, reducing yields by up to 25%.
ops once that toxin moves into the leaves.”
The disease dramatically reduces yield in
two stages. The root rot stage prevents plants
from taking in adequate nutrients, causing
stress on the plants, while the foliar stage
prevents photosynthesis, Mueller says.
Identifying SDS
Frederking says. “If it’s not
SDS, we don’t have a lot of
options for those other three.
We have to manage those
with variety resistance.”
If SDS treatments are not
controlling the disease, plant
diagnostic labs can help

T
Disease Life Cycle
he fungal disease starts soon after planting,
rotting the roots but not causing obvious
SDS can be hard to identify in fields even
after symptoms appear.
“It’s tricky because SDS has a lot of look-
confirm which pathogen is
present.

harm to the plant. Symptoms can go un-
detected until the plant reaches the repro-
ductive stage, when toxins produced by the
fungus move to the leaves.
“It sounds like a really slow death,” says
Daren Mueller, an extension plant pathol-
ogist at Iowa State University. “The name
sudden death syndrome comes from how
alikes,” Mueller says. “To really confirm it, Managing Outbreaks
you have to get out of the vehicle and look
at the symptoms on each individual plant
because there are subtle differences.”
O nce the disease has been
identified in a field, there’s
no in-season management
Common look-alikes include brown stem that can prevent yield loss,
rot, stem canker, and red crown rot. These but that doesn’t mean there’s
fungal diseases all show foliar symptoms of nothing farmers can do.
interveinal chlorosis and necrosis. “You don’t get SDS every

Photography: DS70 Getty Images April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com 49

 DISEASE
PLAYBOOK
continued

Predicting SDS
Ron Baruchi, president and
CEO of Agmatix

T o help farmers make

year,” Mueller says. “When you do have a an SDS outbreak.
high SDS year, it’s good to get out and take A wet spring and heavy rainfalls in
notes on what fields it’s shown up in and August contributed to greater SDS pressure
what percentage of the field it’s in.” in 2022.
“A wet spring can help phase one — root
Evaluate Varieties rot,” Mueller says. “Phase two is when that
better management
decisions, start-up Agmatix
is standardizing and analyz-
ing years of data.
“There are so many
different digital tools, but
nobody speaks with one
another. There is a lack
of connectivity and a
standardized way to curate
data and translate it into
real models that work,” says
Ron Baruchi, Agmatix CEO.
“Our unique approach is
this task of data standard-
ization from experiments
and trials because this is
an area where data is high
quality. We found that we
can make lemonade out
of lemons faster and much
more scientifically sound.”
In a recent SDS trial, the
company derived data
from 90 SDS field trials
conducted over five years
in six separate studies.
The data was divided into
three classes of susceptibil-
ity: no disease, moderate
disease, and severe disease.
The final model was able
to predict a field’s class
with 80% accuracy.
“We intend to increase
that accuracy by getting
more data in the envi-
ronmental space,” says

H igh SDS years are also an opportune time

to evaluate seed choice.
“There are good levels of resistance out
toxin moves, and you need heavy rainfalls
for that to happen.”
Planting early can also cause problems.
there, but if there’s a couple years without Moderately cool, wet soils can boost fungal
high SDS development, farmers might miss development.
out on how resistant or susceptible the vari- “When we try to manage this disease,
eties are,” Mueller says. “It’s good to get out we’re looking for varieties that have some
and check whatever ratings you had. Take genetic resistance against SDS first,”
advantage of the bad situation and get your Frederking says. “If we want to plant early
homework done so you can make better and our varieties don’t have that genetic
decisions in future years.” resistance, then we may need to utilize some
SDS is caused by a soilborne pathogen, of the chemistries that have active ingredi-
but other conditions can increase the risk of ents against SDS.”
Sagi Katz, Agmatix vice
president of agronomy.
That includes data on soil
types, untreated seeds vs.
treated seeds, and soils that
had or didn’t have SDS the
previous year. Then that
information is compared
with the environmental
conditions such as planting
date and soil moisture to
give a better prediction for
future use. •

50 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023 Photography: Courtesy of Agmatix

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All rights reserved. 21-FMC-3126 02/23
 CROPS
Monitoring crops throughout the
season can help you stay ahead of
problems in the field.
AGRONOMY TIPS TO MAXIMIZE YIELD
Set your operation up for success.
By Chelsea Dinterman, Assistant Agronomy Editor
Chelsea.Dinterman@agriculture.com
T
@CDintermanSF
he longer days and warmer weather
indicate planting is just around the
corner. Before rushing out to the fields,
consider these five tips for maximizing
yield and making the most of the 2023
growing season.
Target Conditions, Not Dates
I t’s tempting to schedule planting by date, but
planting into good soil conditions is far more
important. Target soil temperatures of at
least 50°F., and be sure to keep an eye on the
weather forecast.
“We really can’t control the weather,
but we can try to change some of our
management tactics to maximize yield
potential,” says Kevin Gale, an AgriGold
agronomist. “There’s talk of transition from
La Niña to El Niño going into this growing
season, so it could be a fairly tight planting
window.”
In addition to knowing the rain outlook,
tracking daily temperatures before and after
planting can help maximize yields.
I n an ideal world, Licht says farmers would
52 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
“Look at the five- to seven-day forecast,”
says Mark Licht, an Iowa State University
Extension cropping systems specialist. “Cold
spells can be detrimental to germination,
especially in corn.”
While rising soil temperatures are the
first thing to look for, other conditions are
also important. Correct soil moisture 2 to
4 inches below the surface is key to getting
seeds placed properly while avoiding
compaction problems.
Many farmers try to plant soybeans earlier
in the season to maximize yield potential,
but a return to basics may be beneficial in
years when planting gets delayed.
“For Iowa, May 20 is a critical date
because that’s when you start to see yield
loss,” Licht says. “The logic of planting corn
before soybeans is because after May 20, corn
yields drop off much quicker than soybean
yields.”
Get in the Fields
scout each field once a week. While that may
not be sustainable for those working a large
number of acres, scouting
is key to understanding the
crop’s progress throughout
the season.
Taking detailed notes
on planting conditions,
emergence rates, and stand
counts can give farmers the
tools needed to make better
decisions next season while
also providing a baseline
expectation for the current
crop.
Scouting early and often
can also offer a leg up when
it comes to weeds, diseases,
and pests looking to steal
valuable yield potential.
“Scouting is going to
be really important in
determining what your
weed scope is and making
timely applications,” Gale
says. “Don’t let those weeds
grow too big.”
Waterhemp is one of
the biggest weed concerns
this year. Targeting
herbicide applications
while waterhemp is less
than 4 inches tall can help
maximize control.
“As waterhemp grows
taller, you have a lot more
growing points on the plant,
making it harder to control
those big weeds,” Gale says.
Widespread herbicide
resistance makes early
control of waterhemp
imperative. Once established,
the weed can grow up to
an inch per day and spread
250,000 seeds per plant.
Monitor Corn Crop
Concerns
A s the economics point
to heavy corn acres this
year, corn-specific problems
should be top of mind. First
identified in the Midwest in
2015, tar spot is a growing
Photography: Bloomberg Creative, Getty Images

Planning your management
strategy now can have big returns
at harvest.
concern with potential yield losses up to 50
bushels an acre. The fungal disease can be
exacerbated by certain weather conditions.
“Having a healthy plant is extremely
important for optimum grain fill and
high yields,” Gale says. “Paying attention
to humidity and rainfall is going to be
important in deciding when to apply
fungicides for maximum effectiveness.”
Like any year with potential for corn-
on-corn acres, corn rootworm could be a
significant issue this growing season. Called
the “billion-dollar bug,” corn rootworm can
decimate yields by feeding on plant roots
throughout the season.
“Corn rootworm is the biggest pest that
we tend to see year in and year out,” Licht
says. “We have been developing resistance
through the years. You might not notice it
from one year to the next, but if you look at
five-year spans, we’re probably seeing more
corn rootworm now than in the past.”
Conducting root digs and understanding
root damage this summer will allow
farmers to assess the effectiveness of their
management program, from seed traits to
insecticide applications.
“Unfortunately, with corn rootworm
there’s no real management you can do in
season,” Licht says. “Once you’ve lost your
Photography: Edwin Remsberg, Getty Images
R eaching out to trusted
roots, you probably already have a yield
penalty. Identifying the pressure you have so
that you can manage it differently next year
is going to be key.”
Protect Soybeans
W hen it comes to soybeans, layered
residuals are key to protecting yield.
“The best management strategy is to not
have a weed emerge,” Gale says. “We can
achieve that by using residual herbicides,
and the more residuals we use the better our
postemergence herbicides will work.”
Throughout the season, weather can have
a profound effect on the diseases that impact
a soybean crop.
“If we have a cold, wet spring, that’s going
to set us up for seedling diseases in both corn
and soybeans,” Licht says. “If it’s overly dry,
there’s another set of seedling diseases that
could set in, but it’s typically the cold and
wet conditions that are more problematic.”
Soybean crops don’t tend to see disease
pressure in the vegetative stages.
“Once we get into the middle part of the
growing season, high humidity and leaf
wetness start to become more of a concern,”
Licht says.
While conditions have not been conducive
to diseases such as sudden death syndrome
April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com
or frogeye leaf spot in the
past few years, both can
become problematic quickly.
Tracking the weather
and scouting routinely for
potential problems can help a
farmer stay ahead of disease.
Utilize Your Network
advisers can be a viable
way to save money and make
better application decisions.
Beyond the agronomist at
the local co-op, university
Extension agronomists and
other third parties can offer
useful advice.
“Learn how they’re
approaching things
because there can be some
differences,” Licht says. “This
is a game of trying to make
sure we get a good return
on that investment, and that
could be very important
depending on what happens
with the crop markets.”
A 2022 University of
Illinois study found rising
fertilizer prices one factor
that may increase break-even
prices to over $5 per bushel
for corn and $12 per bushel
for soybeans this year. These
price increases may leave
farmers tempted to change
their fertilizer strategy,
but Gale says early-season
nitrogen applications give
seeds an important boost.
“There’s been a lot of fall
ammonia put on, but we’re
still going to require some
nitrogen applied on the
surface or with the planter to
feed that crop prior to roots
reaching that ammonia,”
Gale says. “Feeding that
seedling early is going to
really get that crop off to a
quick start and satisfy that
need.”
53
 IRRIGATION
INSIDER
WEIGHING WATER OPTIONS
Revelations from research plots that capture all water use.
I
By Tharran Gaines
t’s believed that ancient Egyptians invented
the first scale in about 3100 B.C. Because
they did not yet use coins for trading goods,
they assigned values by weight to different
types of metals, including gold, silver, and
copper. Ironically, a large set of scales in
T hose lysimeters allow the research team to
Texas is still used to determine the value of a
precious commodity — water.
While producers have several ways to
measure rainfall and irrigation applied
to a field, the Bushland USDA/ARS
Conservation and Production Research
Laboratory in Bushland, Texas, literally has
a scale to weigh not only rainfall and irri-
gation, but also all components of the water
balance, including deep percolation and crop
water use, or evapotranspiration (ET).
In fact, the laboratory has four of the
devices, formally known as large weigh-
ing lysimeters. Each lysimeter contains an
undisturbed block of soil that measures
about 10×10 feet at the surface and is 7½
feet deep. The lysimeters are positioned on
scale platforms equipped with load cells,
all housed within accessible underground
enclosures. Two are located in the center of
fields irrigated by a lateral move sprinkler
54 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
ties. To understand what the
crop yield result of that scaling
down could be, we often
include a ‘deficit’ irrigation.
Since the lysimeters were
installed in the late 1980s, the
research team has gone from
high-pressure systems with
overhead impact sprinklers to
low-pressure sprinkler systems
and subsurface drip irrigation.”
Low-pressure sprinkler
packages have includ-
ed mid-elevation spray
application (MESA), with
drops positioned about 5 feet
above the ground surface,
and low-elevation sprinkler
application (LESA) with
nozzles about 18 inches
above the ground. The lab
also went from comparing
dryland fields to irrigated
fields to evaluating overhead
irrigation with SDI in 2013.
system, while the other two are irrigated by “We try to include at
a subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system. least three years of mea-
surements for a particular
Measure All Moisture crop in any of our crop
directly and accurately measure crop water
use (or ET), something that’s not possible
coefficient studies to capture
the year-to-year variation in
weather conditions,” he says.
with other methods, explains Gary Marek, “Unfortunately, there can
research agricultural engineer with the labo- be a perceived disconnect
ratory. Crop growth and yield data collected between what we’re doing
from the lysimeters and surrounding fields and what producers with
are used with seasonal ET to determine crop limited well capacities are
water productivities of sprinkler and SDI doing, since we’re trying
systems for regional crops. to determine the upper
“As well capacities decline, we need to be limits of crop production.
thinking about what limited irrigation is going to However, we continue to
look like in terms of irrigation systems and man- learn things that can help
agement,” Marek says. “However, in the research all producers irrigate more
setting, we still often irrigate for maximum yield, efficiently, including those
which means we’re supplying as much water as who are limited on water.”
the crop can use, called ‘full’ irrigation.
“We do this even though some groundwa- Yield Not
ter districts have already limited irrigation to Proportional
around 18 inches of water or less annually,” to Water Applied
he continues. “That’s because we’re trying to
determine unstressed crop yield potential and
associated crop coefficients that can be scaled
G rain production isn’t pro-
portional to water reduc-
tion. “We know, for example,
down for producers with limited well capaci- that corn can require as
Photography: Courtesy of manufacturer
 IRRIGATION
INSIDER
continued

Each lysimeter setup

(left) contains an
undisturbed block of
soil that measures
about 10×10 feet
at the surface and
7½ feet deep. In the
“basements” below
each of these blocks
of soil are scale
platforms equipped
with load cells, as
shown by Gary Marek,
research engineer
with the USDA/ARS
laboratory in Bushland,
Texas.

much as 30 to 34 inches of water to attain
a 250- to 300-bushel-per-acre yield, with
irrigation being a portion of that, depending
on rainfall,” he says. “However, we’ve also
shown that if we reduced the amount of wa-
ter applied by 25% with our deficit irrigation,
based on the full amount the crop will use, we
only saw about a 15% reduction in yield. So
that’s kind of been the target for a lot of guys
with limited well capacities.”
Corn has typically provided the greatest
return on investment, but it also requires
large input costs, Marek adds. “As those
costs increase, we have to look at the balance
and figure out where we see the greatest
efficiency.”
Subsurface drip irrigation is more effi-
cient. “It varies by year and crop, but overall,
we’re seeing a reduction of around 13% to
15% with subsurface drip irrigation com-
pared to the sprinklers using LESA nozzles,
with the same or better yields for SDI. There
have been some years when we’ve used up
to 6 inches less of water with drip compared
with the sprinkler,” he says.
On the other hand, SDI tends to require
a lot more management, he notes. In
addition to maintaining sand filtration and
back-flushing systems, producers must
monitor for leaks in the tubing. Subsurface
S ometimes, it’s the niche market that pro-
leaks are difficult to find once the crop has
emerged, and the practice makes it difficult
to water in dry fertilizer and to help with
seed germination in a dry year. “It’s difficult
to promote germination with a subsurface
drip system,” Marek admits.
“It can take a lot of irrigation to push wa-
ter to the surface,” he says. “Our deep, heavy
soils can hold most of that extra water, and
we have seen the crop use it during the rest
of the season. Folks with sandy soils would
not be so fortunate. Having to do that, or
missing leaks that occur, can offset water
savings you would otherwise realize with
drip irrigation.”
Cotton requires less water than corn.
“Considering the water savings cotton offers
and the availability of new genetics, it’s not
surprising that we’re seeing cotton migrate
north as an alternative crop to corn,” Marek
notes. “According to our field studies, you
can grow cotton using roughly 60% of the
water needed for fully irrigated corn. In
fact, in 2019, we grew three-bale cotton per
acre on just under 20 inches of total water,
including rainfall, irrigation, and soil water.
Unlike corn, which often yields more with
increased irrigation, cotton tends to produce
more vegetation with fewer bolls if it is
overwatered.”
Niche Markets Can Cut
Irrigation Water Use
vides an unexpected opportunity to reduce
irrigation. “The grain corn requirements
of beef feedlots have resulted in the region
being in a corn deficit, requiring corn to
be railed in from the Midwest,” he says.
“However, in recent years, we’ve seen an
influx of dairies to south Texas and other
states, creating a need for forage crops.
“Corn silage is expensive
to haul. That, of course, has
created a localized market
for corn silage for some pro-
ducers located near dairies,”
Marek continues. “Some
producers are growing it
on contract and concentrate
their water allotment on
fewer acres to produce max-
imum yields. Others simply
start out with the plan to
harvest corn for grain, but,
instead, cut it for silage if
rainfall is lacking.”
In either case, the irrigation
requirement is less than that
for grain corn that must be
irrigated later in the season to
fill ears. “We’ve grown silage
a couple years here at the
research farm, but it’s probably
something we should investi-
gate a little more,” he says.
Ultimately, Marek says
everything has its advantages
and disadvantages.
“Hopefully, what we learn
here will help producers
make informed decisions as
our research results filter
down through university
partners, consultants, and
the Natural Resources
Conservation Service
districts.”

56 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023 Photography: Courtesy of manufacturer


BEEKEEPER VETERANS PROTECT
NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY
The Heroes to Hives program provides free beekeeping
training to military members, veterans, and their families.
By Lisa Foust Prater, Family & Farmstead Editor
Lisa.FoustPrater@agriculture.com
M
embers of the military are trained to
protect our national security. With
the Heroes to Hives program, they
are helping protect pollinators and
our national food security by learn-
ing to become beekeepers.
This program provides beginner-level
knowledge, experience, and connections
to veterans, active-duty military members,
National Guard members, reservists, and
their dependents.
Since its inception in 2015, Heroes to
Hives (miffs.org/heroestohives) has trained
more than 8,200 beekeepers through its free
nine-month online beekeeping course.
The program runs each year from March
through November, with registration open
Photography: Courtesy of Heroes to Hives
November through February. Students
receive a monthly email with course con-
tent including prerecorded video lectures,
instructional videos, and handouts to go
through at their own pace.
In October and November, students can
take a test to earn a certificate of completion,
which is recognized by USDA as a year of
experience working in agriculture.
From Soldier to Founder
A dam Ingrao joined the Army in 2003,
serving as a Patriot missile controller.
While his unit was mobilizing for
deployment the following year, he sustained
a career-ending injury to his right ankle in
the line of duty. Since he was unable to be
deployed, he received a medical discharge.
“I had enlisted for six years and planned
April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com
FAMILY
Adam Ingrao instructs a Heroes to
Hives on-ground class.
to do my 20 and retire,”
Ingrao says. “I didn’t have
a plan B, and it was hard to
find purpose and figure out
what life meant after the
military. I struggled a lot.”
Ingrao received treat-
ment for his injuries from
the Veterans Administration
(VA) medical system. “The
opioid epidemic was going
on and the VA was hand-
ing them out like candy,” he
says. Once he was able, he
found work as a mechanic.
“I was using opioids and
alcohol to function through
the pain on a daily basis, and
it became a problem.”
In 2005, he had been out
of the Army a little more
than a year when he met his
wife, Lacey. “It was time to
reevaluate my life,” he says.
“We wanted to focus on
agriculture.”
Ingrao earned a bachelor’s
degree in plant science from
California Polytechnic State
University San Luis Obispo,
where he took his first
beekeeping class. “It spoke
to me in a way that nothing
had spoken to me since I left
the military,” he says. “I felt
like I could help my nation
by protecting this pollinator
that was in decline.”
He had found his calling.
“That first time in the apiary
was a spiritual experience,”
Ingrao says. “I had to be
present. I couldn’t think
about my injury or my
friends in the military who
never came back. I wasn’t
reliving the things that
were bogging me down.
57
 FAMILY
continued
Everything changed from that point on.”
While working on his PhD at Michigan State University
in 2014, he and Lacey, who has a master’s degree in psy-
chology, started a 2-acre urban farm in Lansing, which of
course included bees. “We were talking about the transfor-
mative experience beekeeping had in my life and decided
to see if other veterans would have the same experience. We
wanted to offer this to other vets, so we started this program
with support from Michigan Food & Farming Systems.”
Heroes to Hives Is Born
T he summer of 2015, the Ingraos welcomed five veterans
onto their farm. “They worked bees with me for nine
months,” he says. “The response from the veterans was
incredible, but the response from their spouses was even
more meaningful, saying, ‘I don’t know where he’d be if
it weren’t for this.’ It was clear they were experiencing the
same transformative experience I had.”
Ingrao started talking about the program around
Michigan, and the next year, 15 vets signed up. He began
working for Michigan State University Extension and
moved the program there, and Heroes to Hives took off.
Those first four years, it was open only to Michigan resi-
dents, but after receiving requests from across the country,
out-of-state participants were accepted beginning in 2019.
In addition to their work with Heroes to Hives and other
endeavors, the Ingraos own Bee Wise Farms in Newberry,
Michigan (beewisefarms.com). They produce lavender,
herbs, cut flowers, and honeybee products.
Today, Heroes to Hives is a nonprofit collaboration
between Michigan State University Extension, Michigan
Food & Farming Systems, Bee Wise Farms, University
of Missouri Extension, University of Minnesota, and
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
In Missouri, course participants can receive hands-on
training at the University of Central Missouri’s Mitchell
Street Farm, plus get region-specific management tips from
Extension beekeeping experts and network with regional
beekeeping organizations and service providers.
In Nebraska, coursework can be applied to the educa-
tional requirements for the apprenticeship level of certifi-
cation with Great Plains Master Beekeeping. Much like a
Master Gardener program, this regional network provides
training, education, outreach, and mentoring. Participants
can advance through the apprentice, journeyman, and
master levels at their own pace, and can also gain hands-on
knowledge at UNL’s Bee Lab Research Apiary.
Minnesota participants receive real-world beekeeping
training and can attend in-person workshops at apiaries in
Minneapolis and Rochester.
Ingrao says states have been added slowly to ensure qual-
ity. “I’m more focused on the sustainability of the program,”
he says. “We need to make sure our partners have the
58 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
Nick Kaminski demonstrates how to conduct a varroa mite check at the
Michigan Honey Festival.
finances and are dedicated to the program.” In-hive train-
ing in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Maryland will be added
next year, with more states to come eventually. The online
course, however, has been taken by veterans all across the
country and around the world.
Many participants ask about getting bees when they start
the program, but Ingrao says, “I tell our students, ‘You’re
collecting intel this year, like in the military. This is not the
year to do your mission. Do your intel and your recon and
next year you’ll have what you need for your mission.’ ”
The mission for Heroes to Hives graduates may be get-
ting further education, establishing their own beekeeping
business, seeking employment with commercial beekeepers,
or diversifying their current farms.
Student Success Story
O ne of those graduates is Marine veteran Nick Kaminski.
He had been beekeeping for three years, following one
bare-bones class and information he had found online.
“We had some challenges and failures — some pretty devas-
tating — but we’ve learned and grown through each of
those experiences,” he says.
“When I signed up for Heroes to Hives, I knew how to
handle hives but didn’t know the finer points of hive health,
nutrition, and integrated pest management,” Kaminski
says. “The experience I gained working with Adam and
Heroes to Hives made all the difference for me because
I could combine that technical knowledge with my own
experience and became a more well-rounded beekeeper.”
After the course, he added more hives and at Ingrao’s rec-
ommendation, signed up for a veterans entrepreneur pro-
gram through Grand Valley State University in Allendale,
Michigan. Unbeknown to Kaminski, it was actually a pitch
competition, akin to the popular show “Shark Tank.”
“I didn’t know at the time that I was going to win the
grand prize,” he says. “I invested that $5,000 straight into
the apiary and didn’t look back. My goal was to become a
commercial beekeeper.”
Today, Kaminski and his wife, Nicole, run Hickory
Tree Farm Apiaries (hickorytreefarmapiaries.com) near
Kent City, Michigan. The operation has expanded from a
stationary apiary in Michigan to a migratory operation in
multiple states. “He’s one of our greatest business successes,”
Ingrao says.
“I call my beekeeping journey a divine intervention,”
Photography: Courtesy of Heroes to Hives
 OLIVER

FOLLOW US ON

OLIVER

SEND NO
MONEY
NOW!
❑YES!
 FAMILY
continued
Kaminski says. When he was a child, a neighbor kept bees
and brought honey to his family, and he developed an in-
terest in bees. He got into beekeeping when his wife came
across an ad for a class on a bulletin board. “She signed me
up without asking me,” he says. “I’d never even mentioned
my interest to her.”
While technical knowledge is crucial, Kaminski says
mind-set is also important for beekeepers.
“Whether they have 10 or 5,000 hives, successful beekeep-
ers care about the well-being of the bees and the desire to
do well by them is intrinsic to their very being,” he says.
“It’s something that can only be described as a desire to
nurture, because at the end of the day, they may look like
insects to most people but they are a living, breathing ani-
mal that requires food, medicine, and caring. Honeybees
are livestock we use to produce food.”
Looking to the Future
A
s Heroes to Hives continues to grow and expand, Ingrao
says there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes,
including work with the Veterans Administration and
Department of Defense.
A handful of VA facilities offer beekeeping, including
the Manchester VA Medical Center in New Hampshire.
“Veterans in that program engage in beekeeping and
wellness activities in the apiary,” Ingrao says. “We’ve been
collecting outcomes on the therapy of beekeeping and
working to develop wellness practices with the VA for
other organizations to implement.”
Ingrao is also working with the Department of Defense,
offering beekeeping education to soldiers in recovery units
who are being medically transitioned out of the military
because of injuries.
The first group, from Fort Hood, Texas, is going through
the course now. They get all the materials at once outside
the regular course schedule, work through it at their own
pace as they recover, then take the test for their certificate of
completion.
Some Heroes to Hives graduates are becoming instruc-
tors themselves. “One of the more fulfilling experiences is
the opportunity to share my knowledge,” Kaminski says. “I
went through two instructor tours in the Marines, so I have
a good skill set for training.”
Ingrao is thrilled when his students go on to teach other
beekeepers. “A lot of our veterans
are looking for ways to give back
to the community,” he says.
“We are trained to be leaders
in the military. The civilian
world doesn’t necessarily look
at vets as leaders or instructors,
but they want to share their
knowledge. We give them the
tools to do that.”
60 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023
TEST KITCHEN
Bison Steaks With Grilled
Balsamic-Honey Peaches
Peaches grilled in a foil pouch make a
sweet, unexpected topper for bison steaks.
3 cups sliced peaches (3 medium)
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
4 10-ounce boneless bison top loin steaks, cut 1 inch thick
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
¾ teaspoon salt or kosher salt
1 Fold a 36×18-inch piece of heavy foil in half to make an 18-
inch square. Place peach slices in the center of foil. In a small
bowl, combine honey, vinegar, brown sugar, and ginger; drizzle
over peaches. Bring up two opposite edges of foil; seal with a
double fold. Fold in the remaining ends to completely enclose
peaches, leaving space for steam to build.
2 Trim fat from steaks. Sprinkle steaks with pepper and salt;
rub in with your fingers.
3 For a charcoal grill, grill peaches in foil packet and steaks
on the rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium
coals until steaks reach desired doneness and peaches are ten-
der, turning once halfway through grilling. For steaks, allow
14 to 18 minutes for medium-rare (145°F.) or 18 to 22 minutes
for medium (160°F.). For peaches, allow 15 to 20 minutes. (For
a gas grill, preheat grill. Reduce heat to medium. Place peaches
in foil packet and steaks on grill rack over heat. Cover and grill
as above.) Serve steaks with grilled peach slices.
Nutrition facts (per serving): 437 cal., 7 g fat, total (3 g sat. fat), 201 mg chol., 29 g
carb., 588 mg sodium, 2 g fiber, 23 g sugar, 62 g protein.
Bibb Salad With Honey Vinaigrette: In a small screw-top
jar, combine 4 tablespoons olive oil or salad oil, 2 tablespoons
white wine vinegar, 2 small finely chopped shallots, 4 teaspoons
honey, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon salt.
Cover and shake well. Arrange Bibb lettuce on four plates. Top
with sorrel leaves, purple mustard greens, sliced strawberries,
and walnuts. Drizzle vinaigrette over salad.
For recipe questions, email Lisa.FoustPrater@agriculture.com.
Photography: Courtesy of Heroes to Hives; Meredith Operations Corporation

Will This Strange Antarctic Squid
Solve America’s Memory Crisis?
New Deep Sea Discovery Proven to Be The #1 Natural Enhancer of Memory and Focus
H alf a mile beneath the icy
waters off the coast of
Argentina lives one of the most
remarkable creatures in the world.
Fully grown, they’re less than
2 feet long and weigh under 10
pounds…
But despite their small size,
this strange little squid can have
a bigger positive impact on your
brain health than any other species
on the planet.
They are the single richest source
of a vital “brain food” that 250
million Americans are starving for,
according to a study published in
the British Medical Journal.
It’s a safe, natural compound
called DHA – one of the building
blocks of your brain. It helps children
grow their brains significantly
bigger during development. And in
adults, it protects brain cells from
dying as they get older.
Because DHA is so important,
lacking enough of it is not only
dangerous to your overall health
but could be directly related to your
brain shrinking with age.
With more than 16 million
Americans suffering from age-
associated cognitive impairment,
it’s clear to a top US doctor that’s
where the problem lies.
Regenerative medicine specialist
Dr. Al Sears, says thankfully,
“there’s still hope for seniors.
Getting more of this vital brain food
can make a life changing difference
for your mental clarity, focus, and
memory.”
Dr. Sears, a highly-acclaimed,
board-certified doctor— who has
published more than 500 studies
and written 4 bestselling books
— says we should be able to get
enough DHA in our diets… but we
don’t anymore.
“For thousands of years, fish
were a great natural source of DHA.
But due to industrial fish farming
practices, the fish we eat and the
fish oils you see at the store are no
longer as nutrient-dense as they
once were,” he explains.
DHA is backed by hundreds of
studies for supporting razor sharp
focus, extraordinary mental clarity,
and a lightning quick memory…
especially in seniors.
So, if you’re struggling with
THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE. RESULTS MAY VARY. 23
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focus, mental clarity, or memory as
you get older…
Dr. Sears recommends a
different approach.
THE SECRET TO A
LASTING MEMORY
Research has shown that our
paleo ancestors were able to grow
bigger and smarter brains by eating
foods rich in one ingredient —
DHA.
“Our hippocampus thrives off
DHA and grows because of it,” MEMORY-RESTORING SENSATION: The memory-saving oil
explains Dr. Sears. “Without DHA, in this Antarctic squid restores decades of lost brain power
our brains would shrink, and our starting in just 24 hours.
memories would quickly fade.”
A groundbreaking study from DHA supplement that doesn’t an all-time high. I’ve always had
the University of Alberta confirmed come from a farmed source. That trouble concentrating, and now I
this. Animals given a diet rich in will protect your brain cells and the think I know why,” raves Bernice
DHA saw a 29% boost in their functions they serve well into old J. “The difference that Omega
hippocampus — the part of the
age.” Rejuvenol makes couldn’t be more
brain responsible for learning and
memory. As a result, these animals Dr. Sears and his team worked noticeable.”
tirelessly for over 2 years developing And 70-year-old Mark K. says,
became smarter.
a unique brain-boosting formula “My focus and memory are back to
Another study on more than
1,500 seniors found that those called Omega Rejuvenol. age-30 levels.”
whose brains were deficient in DHA It’s made from the most powerful These are just a handful of the
had significantly smaller brains — source of DHA in the ocean, squid thousands of reviews Dr. Sears
a characteristic of accelerated agingand krill — two species that cannot regularly receives thanks to his
and weakened memory. be farmed. breakthrough memory formula,
According to Dr. Sears, these are Omega Rejuvenol.
PEOPLE’S BRAINS ARE the purest and most potent sources
SHRINKING AND THEY WHERE TO FIND
of DHA in the world, because
DON’T EVEN KNOW IT they haven’t been tampered with. OMEGA REJUVENOL
Dr. Sears uncovered that “Omega Rejuvenol is sourced To secure bottles of this brain-
sometime during the 1990s, fish from the most sustainable fishery booster, buyers should contact the
farmers stopped giving their in Antarctica. You won’t find this Sears Health Hotline at 1-800-969-
animals a natural, DHA-rich diet oil in any stores.” 9744. “It takes time to manufacture
and began feeding them a diet that these bottles,” says Dr. Sears.
was 70% vegetarian. MORE IMPRESSIVE “The Hotline allows us to ship the
“It became expensive for farmers RESULTS product directly to customers who
to feed fish what they’d eat in the Already, the formula has sold need it most.”
wild,” explains Dr. Sears. “But in more than 850,000 bottles. And Dr. Sears feels so strongly about
order to produce DHA, fish need to for a good reason, too. Satisfied this product, he is offering a 100%,
eat a natural, marine diet, like the customers can’t stop raving about money-back guarantee on every
one they’d eat in the wild.” the memory-boosting benefits of order. “Send back any used or
“Since fish farmers are depriving quality-sourced DHA oil. unused bottles within 90 days and
these animals of their natural diet, “The first time I took it, I was I’ll rush you a refund,” says Dr.
DHA is almost nonexistent in the amazed. The brain fog I struggled Sears.
oils they produce.” with for years was gone within 24 The Hotline is taking orders for
“And since more than 80% of hours. The next day, I woke up the next 48 hours. After that, the
fish oil comes from farms, it’s no with the energy and mental clarity phone number may be shut down
wonder the country is experiencing of a new man,” says Owen R. to allow for inventory restocking.
a memory crisis. Most people’s “I remember what it was like Call 1-800-969-9744 to secure
brains are shrinking and they don’t before I started taking Omega your limited supply of Omega
even know it.” Rejuvenol… the lack of focus… Rejuvenol. Readers of this
So, what can people do to the dull moods… the slippery newspaper immediately qualify
improve their memory and brain memory… but now my mind is as for a steep discount, but supplies
function in the most effective way clear as it’s ever been,” says Estelle are limited. To take advantage of
possible? H. this great offer use Promo Code
Dr. Sears says, “Find a quality “My mood and focus are at SFOM423 when you call.
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 ALL AROUND
THE FARM

Handy Hitch Assistant

I have always had difficulty hitching up equipment
that has clevis hitches that drop down. To make the
process easier, I drilled a hole in each end of a light
piece of angle iron, about 10 inches long. In the holes,
I attached two very strong magnets. When preparing
to hook up my tractor, I set the hitch at the angle
needed and drop the magnets in place. Now I can
back up the tractor while eliminating a big challenge.
Dale Hansen
Wakefield, Nebraska

Fire Starter
I use a leaf blower to accelerate the starter fire I set in
windrows or brush piles. This speeds up the job and
decreases the number of starter fires needed to get active
and complete burns.
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Anderson, South Carolina

Extra Hand While Welding

Have you ever needed an extra set of hands while welding or
when tackling an odd job? To solve the problem, I created a
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long) to a 6-inch C-clamp. It is lightweight, portable, and extremely
handy.
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Easy Inlet Bin Fan Covers
We found plastic trays sold as floor protectors (available in
two sizes) for under Christmas trees work great to cover our
bin inlets when fans are not in operation. In the winter, they
keep snow and sleet from freezing on the fan blades, which
can cause fans to get out of balance and create premature
failure. In the summer, they prevent insect activity under bin
floors by disrupting warm airflow into that open area. The
protectors also prevent wind from causing the free-wheeling
fans undue wear year-round.
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Inwood, Iowa

Send Us Your Ideas

Successful Farming magazine invites you to share ideas with our readers.
Submissions should be precise. Include a sketch or photograph when
needed. If your idea is used in print, we pay $400 for the Idea of the Month,
$200 for ideas that appear with drawings, and $100 for unillustrated ideas.
All material submitted becomes the property of Meredith Operations
Corporation. If your idea is used, you give Meredith Operations
Corporation the right to use it in any manner. Enter idea(s), a daytime
phone number, email address, and complete mailing address at
Agriculture.com/ideaentry or mail to Successful Farming Magazine, All
Around The Farm, 1716 Locust Street/LS257, Des Moines, IA 50309-3023.

Illustrations: Lant Elrod April 2023 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com 69

ALL AROUND
THE FARM ¨

(See DMM 507.1.5.2); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send address corrections to Successful Farming, P.O. Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508. In Canada: Mailed under Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40069223; Canadian BN 12348 2887 RT. Your bank may provide updates to the card information
Successful Farming reserves the right to refuse nonqualified subscriptions. Subscription orders must show farm or ranch connections as owner, operator, or related occupation to subscribe at basic price: $15.95 per year in the U.S.; $27.95 (U.S. dollars) in Canada; $27.95 (U.S. dollars) overseas. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS.
Successful Farming (ISSN-0039-4432), April 2023, Volume 121, No. 4, is published monthly except for a combined issue in May/June and two issues in November by Meredith Operations Corporation, 1716 Locust Street, Des Moines, IA 50309-3023. Periodicals postage paid at Des Moines, Iowa, and at additional mailing offices.

we have on file. You may opt out of this service at any time. © Meredith Operations Corporation 2023. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless corrected delivery information is received within two years.
A New Life
For Scraps
This hydraulic press
was built using scraps
found around the shop.
For example, extra
2×2-inch square tubing
was used to make the
uprights.

PORTABLE HYDRAULIC PRESS

Idea of the Month: This device comes in handy when you’re in the field.

H
By Cory Hall
arold Fratzke,
Cottonwood,
Minnesota, has been
contributing ideas to
All Around the Farm
for over 40 years.
His most recent submission
came about because Fratzke
was tired of having to go to
the shop when he needed
something pressed. “I decided
to make a device that was
portable and useful,” he says.
Fratzke built a hydraulic
More ideas from readers on page 69.
press using scraps from
around the shop. The uprights
are made with 2×2-inch
square tubing. The top and
bottom are made using
railroad irons.
The top plate has a 2-inch
hole cut in it to allow for
pressing bearings, sprockets,
and gears. He uses a 20-ton
jack set between the ridges on
the railroad iron where the
railroad rails were originally
set. Fratzke says different
attachments can be made, as
needed, for bending
iron or pressing
shafts.
Harold Fratzke
Farm operation: Harold Fratzke farmed 900 acres of
mostly corn and soybeans in Cottonwood, Minnesota.
His son, Kent, runs the operation today. “The thing
about farming is it forces you to look for solutions to
problems,” Fratzke says. “That, and all the time spent
daydreaming in a tractor, created a great environment
for inspiration.”
Accomplishments: Fratzke was inducted into the
Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994 and has had
numerous inventions adopted into
the commercial world. Fratzke has
also had over 20 ideas published in All
Around the Farm.
Family: He and his wife, Lois, have
been married for 74 years. They have
four sons, five grandchildren, and eight
great-grandchildren. •

70 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com April 2023 Illustrations: Lant Elrod

Photography: Courtesy of Harold Fratzke
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