Today’s blog post is written by Sarah who I met through Twitter where she uses the handle @houseagbuilt. Sarah teaches elementary school in the Sacramento, California area. She came from a farming background and remains passionate about food and farm. She always knew she wanted to teach too so it seems only natural that she’d combine the two. When she was looking for some materials, we connected and I sent her a box from Cotton’s Journey I had as well as getting her in touch with a California cotton farmer. She learned alot in the process of teaching her kids about cotton too! She got in touch interested about cotton and that gets you all you need to know to read her post.

My first graders recently got the opportunity to learn about cotton.  We did a four week agriculture unit and our focus was cotton.  We learned the structure of a cotton plant, what a cotton plant needs to grow, where cotton grows in the US, what we use cotton for, and even got to see real cotton!  It may be hard to image that a beginning first grader (a 6 year old) can understand so many things about cotton, so I will explain how I broke it down for them using Cotton’s Journey and some patience.   

First, we drew a picture of a cotton plant and labeled it.  I put the cotton plant picture on page 26 of Cotton’s Journey – Curriculum and Activities for the Classroom under a document camera (can also be done on an overhead) to enlarge it and traced it with pencil.  During class, I traced it in marker as the kids watched and we talked about the parts of a cotton plant and wrote them. (As you can see from the picture, a few weeks later we attached a real part of the cotton plant onto our pictorial.)

 A few weeks later, they drew and labeled their own cotton pictorial.

Our next step was to make a mind map.  A mind map is a graphic organizer that helps kids (and adults) to organize what they are learning.  I printed all of the pictures from google images and laminated them so I can use them again next year.  We started with the mind map blank and added one picture at a time and talked about each as we added it.  This took us two days.  The first box we filled in was the description, during this time I passed out each part of the plant and they got to see it and feel it (some even smelled it).  My class loved looking at the real cotton – they had never seen cotton before and probably never would have if a farmer hadn’t have sent us some! 

The completed mind map:

That evening their homework was to talk with their family about cotton. Which they shared with the class the next day. 

A few weeks later the students completed their own mind map all by themselves.  The reason I did it a few weeks later is because I wanted to kids to be very familiar with cotton and the mind map we completed so they would have no problem completing it themselves. 

We also made a map (I enlarged and traced the inserted Cotton Belt map – to replace page 24 – the same way I did the cotton plant pictorial).  I should have done this over two days but we finished it in 1 day – I just had to keep them engaged by having them repeat the names of the states to me then when they would start talking about visiting a certain state I would challenge them to “read” me the names of all of the states I had written – they loved that!

I added a compass to the map and our city.  A week later they drew their own cotton belt map.  I have to admit this WAS HARD for them – I had two students cry (and this was after they had drawn the cotton plant AND done the mind map).  I still made them “try their best” but it was frustrating for them and I wouldn’t make them do this again so early in the year.  The week after they drew it using a blank piece of paper, I gave them the blank map so all they had to do was label each state and that worked much better.

Using the mind map from above (that was still displayed in our classroom) to write sentences about each picture.

The students told me the sentence about each picture and I wrote what they said.  This took two days.

Next, we took the sentences and made an All About Cotton Book.

 We wrote one sentence on each page and had to use a sentence from each box and make up a closing sentence for the last page.  This took us two days and we did one page at a time.  

Overall, our unit went very well!  My students still talk about cotton (at recess) – it is pretty cute.  They still write about cotton during writer’s workshop and on their writing homework.  They ask me to read their clothing labels to see if they are wearing cotton (and are so excited when it is cotton).  I even had a parent tell me that her daughter sits her grandpa down every day after school and teaches him about cotton.  How cute is that!

If you want to read in more detail about our ag unit, please visit my blog The House That Ag Built and don’t miss the adventures of Flat Aggie! 

Thanks for having me Janice and THANK YOU for the kit!  You rock!

I didn’t grow up in agriculture so I didn’t have high school classes where we talked about farming and other areas of agriculture. I didn’t have the benefit of college level classes in plant genetics or molecular biology. In fact, I was well into college before I ever even consider agriculture at all. But in schools across rural America and in some cities, the need to teach agriculture has been recognized and embraced. That’s where you can find ag teachers preparing students for high-demand careers in cutting edge industries like biotechnology, renewable energy, engineering, food production, and more. They also teach students how to be leaders and prepare them to take on the challenges of the next generation.

These are some of the some of the people we can thank for encouraging students–who are good in science, engineering, business, and more–to consider agriculture for their future. Recently while I was at a weed management seminar in Illinois, I just happened to sit down next to Bill Waggoner, an assistant professor of agriculture at Kaskaskia College in Centralia, Illinois.

Bill was nice enough to take time to talk with me about some of the things he and his students are involved in. I talked to him during FFA Week for high school and was looking forward to the collegiate meeting and the end of the semester so students would be getting practical experience. He said the future is bright for students wanting a career in agriculture because demand is currently outpacing people entering the job market. That’s a unique occurrence in today’s economy.

If you would like to know more about ag education, or talk to teachers of agriculture, there are a couple of great online options:

• Social Media Discussion — #AgEduChat is a bi-weekly Twitter-moderated conversation that brings together former and future agricultural science teachers, as well as any others interested in agricultural education, to discuss issues and topics surrounding ag ed. #AgEduChat is held on Sunday from 7-8 pm EST. Make sure to follow @AgEduChat and you can see what’s happening by looking at the Twitter search string #AgEduChat. #AgEduChat is moderated and run by Drew Bender (@drewbender), an agriscience teacher from Ohio. Feel free to contact him with any questions regarding the #AgEduChat conversation or Twitter. The chat also has a Facebook page for AgEduChat to provide reminders about the chat.
• The National Council for Agricultural Education which has a number of resources for teachers.

Did you have an ag teacher who made a difference for you? What would you tell a student who’s considering being an agricultural educator?

With the number of voices, sadly we can’t highlight them all, but hopefully our readers will find it advantageous to discover blogs telling the story straight from the farm, ranch or science bench. The diversity of voices and stories is incredible. Through the posts we are showcasing today, you get a feel for the day-to-day routine of calving or the perspective of someone who has worked in biotech.

Kansas farmer and ag teacher Glenn Brunkow is a couple of weeks into calving season. Having new calves on the farm is an exciting time, but Glenn also shows what the days look like as we move through the weeks. For folks like me who didn’t grow up around livestock, it brings an all new understanding to the word chores!

The Truth About Calving Season

Calving season is entering its second week at our place. It is one of my favorite times of the year, kind of like Christmas each morning. Life is good, for now. However, it is not without its pitfalls and shortcomings. The progression from giddy excitement and wonderment to pain and suffering is something that evolves over about six weeks.

Week one, the alarm goes off at 5:30, you bound out of bed with a song in your heart and springs on your feet. Your clothes are laid out by the foot of the bed in anticipation of a great day. The supplies needed for greeting newborns into the world are carefully laid out and double checked the night before. Your chore clothes are hung by the back door, clean and crisp, your boots standing at attention next to them.

The brisk winter air greets you, putting a glow on your cheeks, the grass sparkles with frost. You find the first calf of the season nestled in a warm place being licked clean by his adoring angelic mother. You pause for a second taking in the wonderment of new life. Then you gently tag the calf with a bright shiny tag that matches his mother’s. Life is good. Continue Reading The Truth About Calving Season

Indiana corn, soybean and popcorn farmer Brian Scott saw some things floating around the net he wanted to give his opinion on. He talks Monsanto technology agreement that people frequently mislabel as a contract about seed.

I Occupy Our Food Supply Everyday

Today is the day. The Occupy movement is going to occupy the food supply. According to the occupiers and Farm Aid president Willie Nelson large corporations have too much control over our food. I won’t deny that there has been a lot of consolidation in the food and seed markets over the years, but that seems pretty common and big does not equal bad as some occupiers would have you think. Willie Nelson recently wrote “Occupy the Food System” for The Huffington Post. He ends his editorial piece by saying, “Our food system belongs in the hands of many family farmers, not under the control of a handful of corporations.”

As you may know I happen to be part of a family farm. I’m the 4th generation to work this land. I’ve seen a lot of posts online about how corporations control farms or farmers are slaves to “Big Ag.” People claim that we are beholden to them and have to sign unfair contracts to be privileged enough to use their seed. They’ll also claim that the contracts rope us into buying other inputs like pesticides and herbicides from the same company. We get a lot of our seed from big corporations like the “evil” Monsanto, and since Farm Aid seems to be jumping in with Occupy I wanted to know what they think about some of the genetically modified crops we grow on our farm. Continue reading I Occupy Our Food Supply Everyday | The Farmer’s Life.

Nebraska’s Dawn Caldwell writes about the way farmers and ranchers give back to their communities and how they find such great fulfillment by working in their communities.

Making sure there are food and clothes in the future…

I had no idea, nor had I even ever thought about those statistics before I saw the picture. Not to brag, but we cattle owners are a busy bunch! This made me think about the many, many people I know and how they choose to use their time. I have to say, I think rural people, in general, are very generous with their time, whether they have livestock or not. Guess what – we have to be. There aren’t that many of us in our neighborhoods to do stuff! Maybe that is why, for the most part, we are rather happy people. Oh, yes, there is the fresh air, wide open spaces, and on and on. But mostly, I think we live truly fulfilled lives. There is something about helping others out that just makes you feel good and have more energy to keep doing more.

The first part of the statement in that top picture, stating that nearly 1/2 of us volunteer with youth organizations is completely true to who we are. There is a broad, general knowledge that our youth hold the future of agriculture in their hands, hearts, and minds (all of you 4-H alums should catch a hint of the pledge in there). If we don’t stimulate the creativity, athletic ability and “cow-sense” in our young folks, we will be guilty of contributing to the ends of our means. And I don’t know about all of you, but I certainly want to be able to eat and have clothes to wear beyond my productive years, when someone else, hopefully our kids, have taken over the farming and ranching. Continue reading on Making sure there are food and clothes in the future… « Lady Of Ag.

A bit more on the scientific side of agriculture is where we usually find Steve Savage, who is a plant pathologist, who’s worked with agricultural technologies throughout his career. Since his perspective is a bit more technical, he tackles questions on a more in-depth, scientific basis both on his personal blog Applied Mythology and as a contributor to Biofortified. Recently Steve worked to explain how science fits with food.

What Should We Know About Foreign Genes In Our Food?

In a recent email exchange about the merits of mandatory “GMO labeling,” I was asked this question: “Why shouldn’t we be able to know what foreign genes are in our food?” It seems like a reasonable question to most people. After all, we are the customers; don’t we have a right to know what we want to know? The answer to that question is actually a lot more complicated than you might think. Let me explain.

What some people find “creepy” about the idea of “GMO crops” is that they contain genes from organisms other than the crop itself – hence the emotive term, foreign genes. Practical speaking, the novel genes in the commercial biotech crops grown around the world have come from either bacteria or viruses. To your average person, that might still sound creepy, but it needs to be put into perspective. Most people may not know it, but our diet is, and always has been loaded with foreign genes from bacteria and viruses and other living organisms (yeast, other fungi, nematodes, algae…). We don’t live in a sterile world. In fact there are a host of microbes whose natural role in the world is to grow in association with plants – including food crops. Except for the case of recently cooked food, these organisms tend to be alive and well when we eat them – genes and all. I’ll give a quick survey of the microbes which one finds on plants and whose foreign genes genes we regularly consume. Continue reading on What Should We Know About Foreign Genes In Our Food? « Biofortified.

Those are just a few of the things we’ve been reading in the ag blog space. Please let us know when you read or write something you think we should highlight in the future.

This will be my first time at the conference so I’m not sure what all to expect. I do know that several farmers I’ve met through Twitter & Facebook will be there. In fact, while I was blogging the Farm Bureau’s annual meeting, YF&R chairman and Michigan fruit farmer Ben LaCross took a minute to tell me a little bit about the group he represents.

There are lots of farmers in this group who are active on social media who I’m looking forward to seeing and some to meet for the first time!

• In January, I finally met Dana and Wilson Judice who grow sugarcase in South Louisana. Their blog Hey Hungry People talks about the crops they produce like sugar cane and soybeans as well as some of the things their family enjoys doing. They are both on Twitter too at @HeyHungryPeople and @DanaJudice.
• I’m sure I’ll see Jeff VanderWerff, after all he’s a Michigan native! Jeff’s a fruit and grain farmer who’s produced several videos for his YouTube Channel and now and then posts something to his blog Through the Windshield. His Twitter handle is @agsalesman.
• Friends Zach @zjhunn and Anna Hunnicutt @hunnidue will be there from Nebraska. They grow corn, soybeans and popcorn. Anna blogs on things as varied as teaching toddlers or living the farm life.
• Tennessee cattleman Brian McLerran @DiamondMFarms and his wife Samantha who’s an MD @McLerranMD will be representing my homestate. Sam’s blog pulls together her life in medicine, at home and on the farm with MommyDocFarmer.
• Finally, I hope to make it out to see the family dairy farm of Annie & Jerry Link while I’m in the area. She blogs at Dairy Discovery at SwissLane Farms and the Twitter handle @DairyDiscovery goes with it!

I’m missing a bunch of folks…. no doubt I’ll be tweeting about who I’m catching up with though so feel free to follow the conference at #YFR12 or follow my twitter stream at @JPlovesCOTTON.

In no way, does Monsanto control the government. We simply seem to have a shared goal of hiring good people.

There are a number of things that have to do with the way people make choices in their careers and the vast majority get to personal preference and drive. There are some things which Monsanto is impacted by or active in that should be noted:

1. Career Mobility in the US – I’ve worked for half a dozen different businesses. And although I’m not a baby boomer, the stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on folks a bit older than me, it seems like that is pretty much the norm. The stats show: “These younger baby boomers held an average of 11 jobs from ages 18 to 44. (In this report, a job is defined as an uninterrupted period of work with a particular employer.) On average, men held 11.4 jobs and women held 10.7 jobs.” Given that, one would expect that quite a number of people move between public and private employers. And it appeared that the number has likely risen from previous generations.
2. Clear loyalty – When I first went from one job to another that seemed closely related to the one I had left, it was clear to me and the two organizations involved that my allegiances had changed. I remember the time period involved more than a year of me excusing myself from meetings. That’s the same with many people in today’s changing job market as employment agreements require individuals to sever ties with previous employment and recuse themselves if there is any perceived conflict are commonplace. And the government takes it a step further with many employees having to swear to an oath of office.
3. Recruiting for Expertise/Experience – What drives Monsanto’s hiring practices? We are fairly transparent about it, even having a page on our career site about who we hire. The characteristics looked for include ability to engage in teams and networks across diverse groups, courage and candor as we face some of the world’s toughest challenges head on and being able to respectfully disagree is highly valued, agility – in the dynamic industry we operate within, flexibility and the ability to adapt to new situations creates more opportunities along the way for our customers and employees’ careers, initiative and foresight, and a results orientation
4. Working Environment – Monsanto is frequently mentioned as one of the best places to work in part because we encourage diversity, offer opportunities for new challenges and value innovation as well as making positive contributions to our communities. Being an agricultural firm, our employees are frequently connected to family farms where they see the positive impacts of our products.

As a tax payer, I hope the U.S. government is able to recruit good people who have a base of knowledge that helps the public greater good. That would require a diverse set of employees with experience in various areas of any given industry. Within agriculture, I hope there is a balance of people who know biotech and organic farming first-hand. I hope there are people who understand nutrition and can help set realistic programs into place. And I expect all who serve in the government to put that first, no matter where they’ve worked previously or hope to work in the future. They owe all of us that much since individually we are the ones funding their salaries.

Although I like to know how the business is doing and how shareholders voted on topics in front of them, the central part of the meeting for me has been participation of farmers. Maybe that’s because I’m working here everyday and feel like I have a really good feel for what we are doing in the business, but there is always so much to learn in talking to customers.

There are various groups of customers who advise our business. And for the last several years, some of those groups have coordinated meetings to go along with the annual meeting. This year was no different.

Hugh Grant visits with Missouri farmer Jason Bean before Monsanto's annual meeting

Hugh Grant, Monsanto’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, introduced each of them. There were nine farm families recognized today and they produce 13 different crops – corn, soybeans, cotton, wheat, canola, cattle, turkeys, timber, barley, field peas, sunflowers, potatoes and rice! After each was recognized individually, Hugh said “thank you for all you do to put food on our tables.”

The business portion of annual shareholders meetings is there are decisions that all shareholders have a voice in and all shareholders should be updated on what’s happening in the business. A lot of that is done between the time that the proxy and the annual reports are mailed out to shareholders, but the annual meeting still plays a role in providing that in-person visit.

Today’s meeting covered several decisions where votes were put in front of the company’s shareholders. Straight-forward votes like electing board members to new four-year terms went forward without discussion. There was some discussion from people who had questions about things that are going on in the company and some of the matters currently discussed in the public eye.

I’d love to hear from any of you who have been to annual meetings for publicly-held companies. Does this sound familiar?

Aloha From Hawaii Farm Bureau President Dean Okimoto

Last Friday, I was lucky enough to get out on a tour that helped me learn a little about Hawaiian agriculture. A highlight was meeting Dean Okimoto a farmer on Oahu who mainly grows baby greens, herbs and specialty vegetables for restaurants in Oahu or to sell through farmers’ markets. His family’s 16 acres on the windward side of the island dates back to the 1950s. And he is the current president of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation. Dean took the time to tell me a bit about his farm and the exciting agricultural community in Hawaii that includes farms which are very small in size compared to many on the mainland but with the year-round productivity farmers here have the possibility of being viable on such small acreage. At the same time, Dean talks about the importance of the ag community, both looking across different groups on the islands and those on the mainland as farmers have many shared interests that transcend farm size, production practices, etc. (Video of Dean Okimoto in original post.)

Farm Bureau Members Get to See Hawaiian Agriculture

Getting to make a couple of trips to our research station in Kunia, Oahu stands out for me among the week of meetings, events and dinners. I have to say, seeing farms that are distinctly different from others farms I’ve seen always gets my mind to wandering. Add that I’m seeing the farms with farmers who also find it unique and I could spend all day on these tours! The focus on water, land and labor is familiar and yet totally different! While our farm is focused on initial variety multiplication for corn and soybeans, I also had the chance to learn about some of the local crops grown on small farms. (Numerous photos in original post.)

One Farmer’s Reaction to the #AFBF12 Opening General Session

The general sessions during the annual meeting are huge – thousands of farmers from all over the U.S. come to them to get the latest news and information about agriculture and the Farm Bureau. To get the feel of the opening session from a grassroots perspective, I had Washington rancher George Irwin give me his impressions as well as tell me about his farm. One of the first things on the agenda that grabbed his attention was Hawaii Governor Neil Abecrombie talking about his commitment to get agriculture in the classroom and to get students hands-on knowledge about food production. George said his wife works with the 4H programs in their area and having seen first-hand how much can come from exposure to agriculture, he thinks the program would be beneficial to schools everywhere. The fact that diversity doesn’t divide but unifies the people of Hawaii is something that can really be built from resonated for George. The speech by Bob Stallman grabbed George as well as the agricultural industry is a good place to be. But he also took time to address a few issues like dust that need to be addressed. As the Farm Bureau looks at all the things that need to be done and how best to meet the challenges ahead, there is a lot of promise. (Video of George Irwin in original post.)

New Tool Available to Measure On-Farm Sustainability

Among the exhibitor seminars that grabbed time on the schedule of farmers attending the Farm Bureau’s annual meeting was a session Field to Market presented on their new Fieldprint Calculator. Field to Market is a collaboration of diverse organizations (including Monsanto) with interest in food, farm, conservation and the environment. Presenters showed a short overview video which does a great job of helping people new to the initiative understand the effort. Videos by the two primary presenters are part of the original post:

• Marty Matlock of the University of Arkansas talked about ways Field to Market is measuring sustainability, working on real metrics that farmers could use on their farm. Because there are so many different definitions of sustainability, making sure everyone understood the Field to Market guidepost — “meet needs of present while improving ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In looking at data over twenty years — 1987, 1997, 2007 — there is a dramatic shift where farmers have made dramatic changes to improve environment! In fact, Matlock said soil loss trends have improved by 30-70% in U.S. corn, soybeans and cotton!
• Brian Marshall, a grain farmer in Dekalb County, Missouri, has been using the calculator to run some real world data for his farm as well as look at hypothethicals on what would change if he made changes in his production practices. Marshall pointed out that the calculator let’s farmers compare to county, state & national average for energy use, etc. giving him a chance to see both where he’s doing a good job and where there is room for improvement. He can also save info for year to year, info is confidential and using the system was as easy as Facebook or online banking.

The entire post can be viewed here.

Opening the General Session with a Closer

The American Farm Bureau Federation’s Annual Meeting always closes the last general session with the awards to Young Farmers & Ranchers who have been competing for the Discussion Meet, Award of Excellence and Excellence in Agriculture. Yesterday I started the closing session by talking briefly to a great friend through social media, Michigan fruit farmer Ben LaCross, who has served as chairman of the national YF&R Committee for the past year. Ben does a great job summarizing the activities of the group from his perspective. I also recommend you read the a blog post or two on why young farmers and ranchers are here and the discussion meet to hear from two of the YFR participants. (Video of Ben is among the items on the original post.)

Well, I know that reading these posts isn’t like being there, but hopefully you have a feel for some of the things that really grabbed my attention. There were plenty more things to catch – the blog posts by others could help you get a more complete.

The words “farm bureau” sometimes get thrown around without anyone taking the time to step back and talk about the basics of the organization. So before the thousands of farmers gather, I asked a few of them to share their thoughts with us. I wanted them to give me a few of the basics: Who are they (farm name, location, what their farm produces)? What is the Farm Bureau?, Are they involved in Farm Bureau? If so how? What happens at local, state and national FB meetings? What is something Farm Bureau has done to help you, your farm or area?

Mark Lathrop from Northern California

I work for Sierra Pacific Industries, the largest private forestland owner in California. We produce lumber, millwork, windows and doors, and various wood fiber products. Although not your typical agricultural product, wood is something everyone uses on a daily basis, given the thousands of items made with cellulose fiber on the ingredient list.

I am currently on the Shasta County Farm Bureau Board of Directors, serving as 2nd Vice President. County Farm Bureaus work parallel with State Farm Bureaus to protect farms and ranches.

The California Farm Bureau Federation sets policy objectives for the benefit of California farms and ranches. Farm Bureau is committed to fighting onerous regulations, fees and taxes and policies that drive up the cost of farming supplies and services.

Farm Bureau, through various educational venues, conveys the important public benefits working landscapes provide, such as wildlife habitat, preserved open space, improved air quality, water and soil resources, carbon sequestration and a safe, nutritious and affordable food supply.

Farm Bureau is committed to ensuring farmers and ranchers have innovative tools and technologies to grow, harvest and market their products while competing with other states and nations, to overcome the higher cost of doing business in California that continues to put our farmers at a disadvantage.

Farm Bureau is committed to helping consumers understand where their food comes from, the challenges associated with producing a safe, affordable food supply and to ensuring consumer confidence in California-grown products.

Farm Bureau is committed to public and private investments in water and infrastructure improvements that support a healthy economy and environment.

One of the most important benefits that our CA State Farm Bureau provides is the ability to work on our behalf in the political arena when potential harmful legislation is pending.

Chris Chinn of Missouri

I farm in Missouri and we raise hogs, cattle, row crop, hay and my son Conner has some chickens with his grandma!

Farm Bureau is a grassroots farm organization that represents the values and priorities of farm families in my county, state and the nation. My county sets policy and we send voting delegates to the Missouri Farm Bureau annual meeting to help set state policy every year. Our State Volunteer Leaders then go to the AFBF Annual Meeting every year to help set national policy. Our policy is set by farmers who work the land and with livestock every day.

I am very involved in Farm Bureau (FB). I’m a county board member as well as a state board member. At our local, state and national meetings we discuss issues important to our farm and our ability to continue to farm in the future. We talk about implications of pending legislation and we (FB Volunteer Leaders) take positions on issues important to our farming community. This gives FB paid employees a guideline for the next year and helps them know how to express our concerns on the issues important to agriculture. At the local level we also donate money to charitable organizations and we hold fundraisers to help support sending Young Farmers & Ranchers to the annual state leadership conference. At the state level FB offers leadership training to county leaders and opportunities to serve on State committees. They also take farmers to Washington DC once a year so they can meet with their elected leaders and express concerns they may have.

You ask about one thing FB has done to help me/our farm: That’s a tough one because they do so much for us. FB is our lifeline on the farm. They keep an eye on important issues that may have a positive or negative impact to my farm. They help me stay informed so I can protect my children’s ability to return to the family farm. FB has helped take my message to state and federal leaders, as well as offering leadership training so I can become a more effective leader for my community, farm and family.

Learning More

With the meeting underway, the American Farm Bureau has an event blog where they have contributors from across the country in addition to their regular Farm Bureau blog which has contributions from members regularly. Many of the state organizations also have activities online as do many farmers. You can reach Mark through Twitter as @SustainableWood and read his blog Thoughts from a Knothead with Sawdust in His Veins. You can reach Chris through Twitter as @ChrisChinn and read her blog http://chrischinn.wordpress.com/

For the Corn Belt, there are great resources for us to work with in developing the best agronomic recommendations to accompany our corn products. In addition to work conducted by our own agronomists and entomologists, we are working with academics at universities in key corn-growing states. In some cases, we are working directly with growers on the individual field or farm level. This broad approach to developing agronomic recommendations is an important part of helping farmers manage challenging situations on farm, as well as ensuring the durability and stewardship of our trait technologies.

This week, we announced steps we are taking to ensure best management practices are implemented in 2012 for fields that were planted with our single mode-of-action corn hybrids that contain western corn rootworm protection and that were affected by significant corn rootworm pressure during the 2011 season.

Ty Vaughn, our U.S. corn product management lead, discusses several of the strategies that we’ve developed to ensure farmers’ productivity is optimized in the video on this blog saying:

Hi, I’m Ty Vaughn, the U.S. Corn Product Management Lead for Monsanto.

I want to talk to you a little bit about corn rootworm pressure this year. Every year, growers face a new set of environmental conditions as they optimize production on their farms. You add in high corn rootworm populations in some geographies, and a small number of growers faced challenges with their single mode of action corn technologies in 2011.

For 2012, Monsanto has developed several strategies to ensure farmers’ productivity is optimized:

• First, we are recommending that growers move to Genuity SmartStax RIB Complete, our two mode-of-action product. This product does a couple of things: it provides the yield that growers have come to expect; it simplifies refuge management through Refuge in a Bag solutions; it provides better insect control and ultimately, longer durability of our technology.
• Another option for growers is to plant Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans or another crop in order to break the insect population cycle in these local areas.
• Third, we appreciate some growers will have limited options and will plant single mode-of-action products because of their exceptional performance. For these small groups of farmers that have high corn rootworm populations in corn-on-corn systems, we are working to provide additional local agronomic solutions. These include foliar- and soil-applied insecticides and assistance in implementing these solutions.
• Finally, we will be following up with growers throughout the year to ensure they realize the performance they’ve come to expect from all of our products.

Related Academic Resources:

• University of Illinois Extension, “The Bulletin,” August 26, 2011
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln, “CropWatch,” September 22, 2011

Related Information from Monsanto:

• Monsanto Reinforces Commitment to Product Stewardship with Proactive Plan to Address Corn Rootworm Hot Spots
• Corn Rootworm Information
• Information on the 2011 Corn Trait Performance

As we visited, I couldn’t get over how comfortable she was on camera. And it certainly struck me again as I prepared the transcript. Val is a person who has a lot of I really could have talked to her all day, but she did have that 650 mile drive to get underway.

In the limited time we had, Val talked though the basics on their farm and how they approach planning for future seasons, a topic that is at the forefront in US farmers’ minds now as many are finishing 2011 harvest:

My name is Val Wagner. My husband Mark and I farm together in southern North Dakota. We raise corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa hay, cattle and four children.

In our area, we general have an idea what kind of crop rotation we want to follow but that’s really written down in a very soft pencil. Spring can surprise us with a lot of things. We’ve got to be willing to fluctuate and be flexible and the people we buy our seed from are also flexible so we can switch things up as needed. We have a crop consultant that we work with, who comes out with us on the land and looks at what actually our soils look like, our water levels, the types of things that we are dealing with, what the weather looks like its going to be… and he helps us decide what’s best for our farm and what would be best for what we want to do in the future.

A lot of farmers follow a somewhat normal rotation, especially with wheat and possibly no-tilling in corn or alfalfa and no-tilling in corn, things like that, but again, it all ends up being pretty flexible. If your land is nutriently strapped, because you had a really tough year, then you generally want to do something that is easier for the land so that the next year it can recover. An you have those opportunities to do those sorts of things.

On our farm, we buy seed every year. For us it’s easier to deal with…. Most of our seed salesmen are people we know, people we trust, people that we see day-to-day, that we work with and of us, it’s a cost of doing business. You know, its not going to make us or break us. It’s the same as buying fuel, the same as buying for my kids, buying their books and things like that. Its just the cost of farming. And I know farmers that save seed and things like that but it is not something we do. Its not something we do, it’s not part of our operation.

We definitely use biotech seed. Because again, we do… And it varies year to year. We do whatever is needed so that our farm is profitable, we want to be in business next year. We want to be in business ten years from now. So those decisions, it’s a case-by-case basis, we go back to it, we look it over. We don’t decide today this is the only way we’re going to do things. We are very flexible. The land is not black and white so you have to be willing to work with it and do those things that you need to do.

There is nothing that I would ever do to intentionally jeopardize my children’s ability to farm. It is not a decision I will make for them. If they decide to come back to the farm, I will gladly support them and do whatever I can. This is our way of being able to… We have to set a path for them… to show them we were able to do this for this long. You can do it. They are going to have different types of problems, different types of obstacles to overcome but we’re doing what we can right now. There is no way we would intentionally set up something that we thought would jeopardize their future.

We’re not talking about a farm from yesterday, we are talking about a farm for generations. We are truly trying to farm for the future.

Flexibility with an eye on the future. It looks like Val, Mark and their sons have a good roadmap for that long drive.