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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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From the Farm

Dr. Bryan Young of Southern Illinois University

VIDEO: Hearing from Expert in Weed Resistance Management – Dr. Bryan Young

The winter meeting season has given farmers a lot to think about and Dr. Bryan Young of Southern Illinois University is one of the people prompting thought. Recently Young and a couple of other academics helped plan a series of seminars sponsored by the Illinois Soybean Association to get farmers the latest information available. I attended the nearby seminar one of the events, the one where Young presented. This blog pulls together tweeting from the event and a video we shot with Young after the seminar was over.

Quite a bit of the day’s conversation was shared on Twitter, here … Full Article »

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Originally published
April 4, 2012 by Glynn Young

Teach Ag Day 2012

VIDEO: Celebrating National Teach Ag Day by Hearing from an Ag Teacher

There are days set aside to offer recognition for various foods, states, safety measures and careers. While we can’t possibly write blog posts about all of them, Thursday March 15 is a day that needs to be acknowledged. It is National Teach Ag Day. It’s the day set aside to acknowledge the work teachers of agriculture do every day of the school year and to pause and think about the importance of that job. It’s also a great time for students to give thought to pursuing a career in ag education.

I didn’t grow up in agriculture so … Full Article »

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Originally published
March 14, 2012 by Janice Person

Farmer Blogger

Farmer Bloggers Making Their Voices Heard

Since today is agriculture day, we thought a great way to celebrate would be to highlight a few of the people who are actively sharing their ag stories online. There are a lot of voices sharing their personal story about agriculture, so we thought it may be good to highlight a few of them now and then, so our hope is this will become a series.

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 … Full Article »

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Originally published
March 8, 2012 by Janice Person

FAN2050123

Wheat needs technological investments to ensure long-term sustainability

For thousands of years, wheat has been relied on as a key crop due to its versatility, nutritional value, and ability to be grown across a variety of climates and conditions. Even though overall wheat production gains have fallen behind corn and rice in recent years, wheat is the leading source of vegetable protein in human food and a major staple crop in many world areas.

Although the need for wheat continues to increase with the growing global population, wheat acres planted in the U.S. have fallen significantly during the past three decades, due in large part because farmers often … Full Article »

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Originally published
December 2, 2011 by Monsantoco

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Wagner Farms Focuses on Flexibility & the Future

Seeing the presentation farmer & rancher Val Wagner gave at the #140conf Small Town, some people naturally wondered about her farm. She took a little time to give me an overview of Wagner Farms (Monango, ND) after our presentations were completed. I wanted to hear how she and Mark ran their farm. And I wondered how they approached things that can elicit strong opinions – biotech or GMO seeds and the practice of buying or saving seeds.

As we visited, I couldn’t get over how comfortable she was on camera. And it certainly struck me again as I prepared … Full Article »



Originally published
November 3, 2011 by Janice Person

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Why would a farmer or rancher create a blog?

The title of this post is a question I’ve been asked several times. It seems people don’t understand what would lead a farmer to set up and maintain a blog. That sort of writing and content creation used to be the sort of thing communications professionals laid claim to. The process seemed intimidating to others. But social media changed all of that and has given rise to a new type of content – blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages that represent people’s individual passions.

But why farmers would want to blog is a question I’ve heard many times, even here … Full Article »

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Originally published
October 27, 2011 by Janice Person

Video: Passion for Sustainable Squash & Supporting Growers

Bill Johnson is a breeder with Seminis, the Monsanto global vegetable seeds brand for open field crops. He breeds squash for key vegetable markets around the globe.

Bill explains the importance of breeding squash to meet different cultural expectations and shares his lifelong passion for squash, which equals the passion he sees from vegetable growers who are committed to producing the best possible products.… Full Article »

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Originally published
October 27, 2011 by Monsantoco

Video: Sustainable Tomato Breeding Helps Meet Demand

James Frantz is a tomato breeder with Seminis, the Monsanto global vegetable seeds brand for open field crops. He gives us some background on the popularity of the tomato and how this popularity makes for challenging opportunities to help tomato growers meet constant demand by providing them the agriculture tools to grow consistent, sustainable products across various season and geographies.

Disease resistance is one of those important sustainable agriculture tools and Monsanto breeders are adapting products to match the unique growing conditions and disease pressures found across diverse regions.… Full Article »

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Originally published
October 24, 2011 by Monsantoco

Photo by Becky McCray via Flicker

What Can Farmers & Small Towns Gain Through Social Media?

More than 100 million people are said to be using Twitter. With all the buzz around the service – challenges about how many followers people have, tweeted photos appearing on the big screen in major stadiums, and every business having a twitter icon on their homepage – one would have to wonder what would small town people to use the service. That was exactly what I was able to learn at the recent 140 Characters Small Town Conference in Hutchinson, KS.

If you haven’t heard of the 140 Conferences, you may be interested to hear founder Jeff Pulver’s thoughts on … Full Article »

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Originally published
September 29, 2011 by Janice Person

Al Macius CV Coop

Farmers Learning from Each Other

I happened to be in one of the fields Johnny Dodson farms near Four Points, Tennessee with soybean farmers from the Midwest who came down south to see the issues on weed resistance that Johnny and his neighbors are facing.

Standing alongside a bus that’s pulled off the road to let people out into a cotton or soybean field is surely the way to draw attention. And although Johnny’s fairly humble about this sort of thing, he also knows he has a unique chance to help some farmers get more proactive on weed management.

He knows complacency is easy to … Full Article »

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Originally published
August 16, 2011 by Janice Person