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Farm family management and transition planning are often cited as major challenges facing America’s growers. As an independently owned, family business, it’s an issue that’s close to our hearts – and our customers. That’s why Stine Seed Company is partnering with Successful Farming magazine for its Generating Success Conference August 11-12 in Des Moines, Iowa.

The 2011 Generating Success Conference is intended to help ag families be more profitable and achieve greater personal satisfaction from their farming operations. Jolene Brown will be the keynote speaker. Brown is a certified speaking professional with more than 20 years of experience working with farm families. She will provide take-home tools to improve the management, leadership and transition of the family business. Don Jonovic, Ph.D. will also speak at the conference. Dr. Jonovic has counseled business owners about growth and ownership transition since 1973.

The Generating Success Conference will broach important, and sometimes difficult, topics such as:

• The top 10 things that make or break a family business
• What do good businesses have in writing?
• How do you identify a good financial advisor?
• Ways to communicate with and reward family members
• Hiring and firing family members
• Beginning your strategic succession plan
• Stine’s family business story

Why it’s important

It’s estimated that 70 percent of U.S. farmland will change hands in the next 20 years, and 75 percent of retirement-age farmers have not identified successors. Stine Seed Company believes that transition planning is essential to ensuring that assets remain intact and family businesses continue to operate profitably. Stine is encouraging all farmers to create a transition plan to protect their operations and their livelihood.

Building a Legacy

Stine Seed Company is a privately held, family business that understands first-hand the importance of management and transition planning. Stine believes that a successful family business transcends multiple decades and can continue to get stronger with each new generation.

Stine Seed Farm was founded in Adel, Iowa, by Bill Stine in the early 1950s. His son, Harry, joined the family business in the mid 1960s and launched the company’s retail division in 1979. Today, Harry is still the guiding visionary behind Stine Seed Company’s breeding and genetics program and his sons, Myron and Warren, play integral roles in the daily operations and long-term planning of the business to protect the family’s legacy. The Stine family recognizes that each member has unique talents and abilities and they use each individual’s strengths to create a stronger company and better serve their customers. Myron is the vice president of sales and Warren uses his acumen for breeding and genetics as the company’s corn product technical advisor.

Generating Success attendees will hear the Stine family discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing their family business. They’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at the tactics the Stine family uses to navigate complex issues and become the nation’s leading germplasm supplier. 

Register now!

Attendees will gain access to an exclusive online community featuring video interviews with the Stine family, discussion boards and transition planning tools.

Join Stine Seed Company at this unique event and lay the foundation for your family’s future.  

During the last couple of weeks I have been fortunate enough to have been part of some educational meetings designed to help farmers tweek their management of corn to raise yields. Two of the methods talked about to help farmers raise yields are 1) higher planting population and 2) use of fungicides. At some point during each of these meetings a grower has stated they have tried one or the other, or both at the same time, and did not see any increase in yields. So I have started asking questions in order to uncover what went on to see these results, results which differ from all the data I have collected over the last ten years. The answer is simple but complicated at the same time.

The simple answer is when a farmer raises his planting population, but uses a hybrid that is not designed to be planted at high populations, yield does not increase. The seed industry is moving towards hybrids that are geared to maximize yields in higher populations, and at Stine that is a definite fact. The second part of the answer gets tricky, Why is the yield not going up?  That opens a can of worms, but some of the most common problems I have found are:

1. Genetics. Increasing plant populations will not work if you are using older genetics that are not optimized for higher populations (already covered that)
2. Fertility. If you are only fertilizing for 180 bushel corn, or there are only enough nutrients available for 180 bushel corn, then the field will only raise 180 bushel corn. This might mean a change from N applications to a whole fertility management makeover
3. Seed Placement.  If seed placement is mediocre at 29,000 plants per acre, at 37,000 plants per acre it will be downright unacceptable. At that point the misplaced seeds become weeds rather than yield-producing plants. Many times this problem can be corrected by slowing planting speed, making sure you are planting at the right depth, and making sure that the planter has been been adjusted and is level

When it comes to fungicides, the simple answer is if you apply a fungicide and the yield does not go up, then disease was not a yield limiting factor. The tricky answer is figuring out why disease was not a limiting factor. Some things to consider are:

1. See all of above.
2. Defensive genetics. Using a hybrid with a strong defensive package can limit losses due to diseases; however, it is also common that the most defensive hybrids usually do not deliver maximum yields, so that means that top end yield may not be there to begin with.
3. Application error.
4. Weather. Sometimes weather conditions simply do not favor diseases; in most cases this means that conditions were dry, and as a result top end yield was probably not realized anyways
5. Too little, too late. Farmers sometimes see a distressed crop mid-season and want to help it out, so they spray a fungicide in the interest of plant health.  Unfortunately, in many cases there usually was a bigger problem early on (too wet, too dry, lack of weed control, etc.)

My main concern is that farmers evaluate every aspect of corn management. If you look at something new and it does not work, try and figure out why instead of dismissing that aspect of corn management. A lot of times it is a combination of things--not just one thing--that causes yield gain or loss. As always, contact your agronomist and get their opinion on why things may or may not work.

Have a safe planting season!

Growers have spent the past several months making important decisions to plan for maximum crop performance this year. Many hours have been spent analyzing soil sample data in order to make the right fertilizer application decisions to balance nutrients in the soil. Time has also been spent looking at different herbicide programs in order to eliminate weed competition. Once the crop is planted and growers begin scouting, the plan is to look for problems in the field that need to be corrected, such as unwanted weed or insect pressure. However, nutrient imbalances are often not visible until they are severe enough to have already created a yield loss.

For an in-season nutrient check, consider submitting a tissue sample to the lab for analysis. Tissue samples measure nutrient status, the flow of nutrients to the plant tissue during the growing season. Just because the soil samples for a field show adequate nutrient levels available for plant uptake, this does not always ensure that the nutrients in the plant are adequate. For example, last season the excessive rainfall and lack of sunlight created some obvious visual deficiency symptoms. Plant tissue samples were taken and all nutrient levels were adequate in the plant, except Nitrogen. This analysis determined that the plants were healthy, growing and taking up nutrients; most of the Nitrogen, however, had been lost. The problem was corrected by simply applying more Nitrogen. 

Many times when we go to the doctor for a physical, a blood test is part of the routine for checking your overall health. Why not take a tissue sample to the lab in order to determine the health of your crop?  Below are some links I found that do a great job outlining procedures for submitting and analyzing plant tissue samples:

http://www.algreatlakes.com/PDF/factsheets/ALGLFS34_Plant_Tissue_Testing_for_Row_Crops.pdf

http://www.algreatlakes.com/PDF/factsheets/ALGLFS35_Plant_Tissue_Testing_Sufficiency_Levels_of_Row_Crops.pdf

A bug native to Japan, Korea and China is the latest invasive species that has been brought to the Midwest through international trade. Called the brown marmorated stink bug, like all stink bugs it releases a chemical as its defense mechanism when threatened. Like the Asian lady beetle, the insect can invade houses in the fall. The bugs do not cause damage to homes, but will cause a bad smell when disturbed. When the stink bugs are found inside the home they can be vacuumed up and disposed of. Bugs collected in vacuum cleaner bags should be disposed of immediately because the bugs will definitely stink. If homeowners want to use insecticides to keep the bugs out, they can use them on the exterior of the home, similar to Asian lady beetle control.

In other parts of the country the brown marmorated stink bug has been a pest in homes for a couple of years before it becomes a crop pest. It causes major damage to fruit crops by leaving spots of dead tissue where it feeds on the fruit.

The stink bug also can cause problems in corn and soybeans. They will feed on corn kernels and soybean pods. The damage done to the husks and pods can also create an area where disease can easily enter the plant, causing even more damage.

The stink bugs can be controlled using insecticides. Any of the pyrethroids will easily control the pest. However, these products will also destroy some of the beneficial insects that are present.