Pioneer Field Day

After driving north of LaRue, Ohio Tuesday, we made it to the Bruce Goodwin Field Day on SR 28 west of Blanchester.  It's a field day I don't want to miss, not because of his great crop production but because of his friendship.

I first met Bruce back in the 70's when I was the agricultural education instructor at Blanchester.  He did not live in the school district but was close enough I tried to recruit him for our Young and Adult Farmer program I was trying to build on top of my daily classroom instruction.  He and his neighbors participated and we became good friends.

We had a common interest in machinery.  He lived near McHenry Equipment, the local Oliver farm equipment dealer.  As that brand faded away, our shared passion for farming never faded.

I became his county agricultural educator in 1987 and we set out to prove Pioneer wheat was better or not better than the other available wheat varieties.  My picks won a few times but Pioneer has always had such a strong soft red winter wheat breeding program that I usually ended up proving that Pioneer was better.

Tuesday was no failure either.  His corn plot showed some 230 bushel yields on my first counts.  It is outstanding corn, especially for Clermont Silt Loam.  I often said if you can farm there you can farm anywhere.  The soil is old and weathered and tight and the rainfall is frequent.

He planted one hybrid at 42,000 plants per acre and 36,000 plants per acre.  He had 43 ears on the higher population and 35 on the lower one but the yield calculated the same.  The 43 ears had one ear with Diplodia which shows the increased disease pressure with the higher population.

It's one of the best field days a person could ever attend if you are in the agricultural business.  Many of his suppliers and even his competitors were in attendance.

Bruce's farming operation and Pioneer seed business is a class act.

No wonder so many want to keep an eye on Bruce Goodwin.

Ed Winkle