About “Beyond the Rows”

Beyond the Rows is a Monsanto Company blog focused on one of the world’s most important industries, agriculture. Monsanto employees write about Monsanto’s business, the agriculture industry, and the farmer.avatar Monsantoco Posts

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About Kathleen Manning

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Kathleen Manning is a Social Media Specialist for Monsanto. She is the editor of the blog and is also the voice behind the Monsanto Twitter account. She received a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations with a minor in Journalism. Her professional interests include public speaking, educating others about agriculture and all things Twitter. Born and raised in the St. Louis area, Kathleen is an avid Cardinals fan and lives for baseball season. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family, making baked treats for herself and co-workers, and going to the gym (the two balance each other out quite nicely).
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Corn Earworm

New Corn Technologies Are Taking Down Some Major Pests

If you ask many corn farmers, aside from weather, pests are at the top of the list of factors that hurt their yields. Corn Earworm, Fall Armyworm, and Western Bean Cutworm can all impact yields due to destruction of corn kernels. Lucky for these corn farmers, scientists like the ones at Monsanto are working hard to develop traits and technology to combat these yield inhibitors.

This summer, Monsanto agronomists and farmers are taking a good look at our Genuity corn traits for corn and comparing how they stack up (pun intended) against insect pressure. A couple of weeks ago … Full Article »

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Originally published
August 2, 2010 by Kathleen Manning

News and Views - Corn

Clearing up Stories on Monsanto's South Africa Corn Crop

At the beginning of 2009, Monsanto learned that some of our farmer customers in South Africa were having issues with biotech maize they had purchased from us. What we found was that three of our white maize hybrids were experiencing a reduced pollination issue. In some cases, the variable pollination caused a reduction in the number of kernels. This issue directly impacted our customers and their ability to produce their crops.

A team of Monsanto employees traveled throughout South Africa’s corn planting areas to visit more than 400 farms, talk with farmers and determine the actual damage. Monsanto fully … Full Article »

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Originally published
April 30, 2010 by Kathleen Manning

Pardon Our Dust…

We will have to temporarily shut down comments to the blog until Monday, April 12 due to some maintenance we are doing on the site. Keep those comments on the tips of your fingers for next week!… Full Article »



Originally published
April 7, 2010 by Kathleen Manning

News and Views - Farmers in Field

The Perfect Week to Thank a Farmer, National Agriculture Week

As someone that didn’t grow up in agriculture (the closest I got was the 5 cow dairy farm up the street from my subdivision) I seldom thought about the importance of farming in my everyday life before I graduated college. Now that I work for Monsanto, I have had the opportunity to meet with farmers and I understand more about the challenging yet rewarding occupation these men and women have chosen.

National Agriculture Week (March 14-20) is an opportunity to connect to the people that are supplying the world with their food, fuel and fiber. Anyone who has ever met … Full Article »

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Originally published
March 16, 2010 by Kathleen Manning

A Holiday Hiatus

During the holiday season, Beyond the Rows will be taking a break from blogging to spend time with family and friends. We encourage you to do the same and come back after the first of the year.

Thank you for your readership. We all wish you a Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year!

Sincerely,

Mica, Glynn, Nick, Janice, and Kathleen… Full Article »

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Originally published
December 22, 2009 by Kathleen Manning

Monsanto’s Hugh Grant Named one of the World’s Best-Performing CEOs

The Harvard Business Review (HBR) has selected Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant as one of the world’s 50 best-performing CEOs. The list is included in the January/February 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review. Grant comes in at number 10.

From HBR:

“Today boards of directors, senior managers, and investors intensely want to know how CEOs handle the ups and downs of running businesses over an extended period. Many executive compensation plans define the ‘long term’ as a three-year horizon, but the real test of a CEO’s leadership has to be how the company does over his or her full … Full Article »

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Originally published
December 18, 2009 by Kathleen Manning

Even More Changes

Back in August I wrote about more changes coming down the line.

Starting this week you will be introduced to our four full-time bloggers, Nick, Janice, Glynn and Mica. Each has a different voice and a different perspective to bring to agriculture and this blog. I am excited that they will start sharing stories from farmers, scientists, seed dealers, and so many more people.… Full Article »

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Originally published
November 18, 2009 by Kathleen Manning

Video: Finding that Perfect Jack-O'-Lantern

The leaves are changing, it’s getting colder and the kids seem to be getting more hyper. Yes, the second best holiday (next to Christmas) for kids young and old is right around the corner. Halloween! Have you gone to the patch to pick out that perfect, round, orange jack-o-lantern yet? Did you know that breeding is the reason we have those perfect pumpkins?

A few years ago we produced a video about breeding the perfect pumpkin that I wanted to share. It is pretty interesting to hear about the different types of pumpkins and the different reasons they are bred. … Full Article »

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Originally published
October 22, 2009 by Kathleen Manning

Monsanto a Water Bully? Not So

Last week a misleading article about Monsanto appeared in The Guardian, a UK-based newspaper. The article made many inaccurate claims about Monsanto’s water use and our presence on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. The story gained a lot of attention and sparked a heated debate in the comments section, with participants from Molokai refuting Mr. Pearce’s claims. The buzz around the article spread when The Huffington Post featured Fred Pearce’s story. Due to the inaccuracies, my colleagues in the UK office responded to the story. Below you can find the letter we sent to The Guardian and posted to our … Full Article »

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Originally published
September 8, 2009 by Kathleen Manning

Farm Progress Tweets

One of the great things about Farm Progress has been the opportunity to put faces to many of the names I see online so often. During my time working the Social Media booth this morning, and then at an event later in the afternoon, I was pleased to meet a few people that I follow and @reply on a regular basis.

Twitter has been a great way to connect individuals with the same interests, especially when it comes to agriculture. The platform has been instrumental in bringing together a group that in the past year has become pretty close knit. … Full Article »

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Originally published
September 1, 2009 by Kathleen Manning