As a follow-up to “Market Sharks”, an article that was all about the fertilizer world markets, I thought you might be interested in my take on what has driven up costs of crop protection products for the summer 2022 application season.More
Each summer we are fortunate enough to get a handful of future agriculturists. This summer is no exception as we welcome five students who will have the opportunity to apply their classroom learning in real-life situations. From the fields and the shop to the office and the road, we’re excited for them to begin their adventure as our 2022 intern class.More
By: Justin Hunter, Sales Agronomist
Tar spot in corn has been a hot topic in the Midwest for the last few years. Most farmers in eastern Iowa have probably heard of the detrimental yield impact it has caused in areas of Illinois but have yet to see it affect their crop – so most are probably thinking, ‘what’s the big deal?’ In order to acknowledge the threat of tar spot, one must first understand how the disease disperses, infects and damages the crop.More
Growing up, Matt Eickert spent a lot of time helping his grandpa with his livestock and row crop operation. You could say that’s where his passion for agriculture first started. He continued his involvement in the industry in high school and college. During his senior year of high school, he completed a work study program with a seed dealer near his hometown of Bryant. Matt attended Kirkwood Community College then Iowa State University where he earned his degree in agricultural studies in May 2021. More
Traits are the alphabet soup of letters and numbers listed after a hybrid’s number. It is so confusing that Michigan State has a two-page document to help explain and break down the differences in insect traits to practicing agronomists. What makes this business so complicated beyond the various input and output traits, is the fact it’s constantly evolving; in the last two years, we have seen big shifts in herbicide traits with Enlist™ and XtendFlex® soybeans. Now it is corn’s turn: there are many new corn traits on the near horizon from Bayer, Corteva and Syngenta.More
By: Mark Stutsman, COO
As we prepare for the upcoming growing season, many of us are left to ponder, ‘what has made fertilizer so precious?’
Fertilizer pricing today is a complicated matter with many players sitting at the table: world markets (the big bully), energy costs and clean air initiatives (the cousins), supply and demand (the married couple), trade restrictions and tariffs (our friends from the East Coast) and freight rates (the mover and shaker).More
A friendship and a partnership. Since the late 70s, Galen Mears and Ron Stutsman have been friends and partners in business. That’s also about the same time that Galen built his first portable liquid poly-phosphate processing unit to make ammonium phosphate fertilizers – the reason there’s a big cloud of steam coming from our campus a few times every year.More
After 31 years, Tom Sieren is hanging up his hat as our anhydrous ammonia facilities manager.More
Although new to our agronomy sales team, Curt Miller is no stranger to the agriculture industry or precision ag. In his new role, Curt will be working out of our K&B location in Fairfax, spending his time bringing value, profitability and knowledge to our ProVantage customers.More
Managing nitrogen is the most important nutrient for optimizing corn yields. Mismanaged nitrogen is the most expensive nutrient program for a grower to get wrong. Too little nitrogen and you have shorted your corn yield. Too much nitrogen and you have wasted your money and a nutrient that has potential to cause environmental issues. How can we be sure that we are the most efficient with our applied nitrogen? Timing and placement.More
