SabrEx

Back in the 90's, I got very interested in biological products when Dr. David Kukendall at the USDA Lab in Maryland discovered competitive rhizobia baceterial strains while researching sugar beets. I helped to facilitate the commercialization of the strain and soybean inoculation has never been the same since.

While doing that, we found that Dr. Gary Harmon at Cornell was trying to hybridize beneficial soil fungi called trichaderma and on the 22nd try, it worked. T-22 was created and I got even more plant benefits from it than I did with USDA bradyrhizobia inoculant in soybeans!

A company called Advanced Biological Managment was formed to market these new discoveries. I have become one of the main farmer type on the ground people to explain how these work to farmers. My phone and email is very busy this time of the year. How to use these discoveries hit Crop Talk quite often and here is a reply of one dealer-farmer I got started in the 90's on how SabrEx works.

"In my observations, Sabrex performance is affected by several factors: Soil type, hybrid root strength, hybrid relative maturity, fertilizer management, water availability, and disease pressure.

Soil type: the lighter the soil, the more likely you are to see a yield increase. I have seen yield increases in black soils, but the bump is due to one or more of the other factors.

Hybrid root strength: hybrids with weaker root systems respond to Sabrex. Sabrex increases root mass and stalk diameter and enables these hybrids to uptake more nutrients, especially when disease pressure is higher.

Hybrid maturity: shorter season hybrids show more responce to Sabrex because their "window of opportunity" for peak yield is smaller. Again, I have seen it work well in long season hybrids too, but it is due to one of the other factors.

Fertilizer management: Sabrex helps scavange nutrients and therefore will show more response when nutrients are normally placed farther away (broadcast fertilizer or manure) than compared to banding nutrients close to the row.

Water availablitity: Drought during critical times (pollination or grain fill) can limit yields if the roots cannot access enough water. If water is abundant during these times, then Sabrex won't boost yield unless other factors come into play.

Disease pressure: Corn on corn and heavy manure applications will elevate fungal diseases of both the leaves and roots. Fungicides like Headline can help with the leaves, while Sabrex can help with the roots.

Sabrex is not a cure all. Occasionally, it will actually reduce yield due to the fact that root growth can take away energy from grain fill when all other stresses are low. The graph below shows three years of data on Sabrex and yes it does show an occasional yield reduction. But overall the yield average is very positive. A plot on your own farm will determine if the hybrids and the management that you are using will be a good match for Sabrex."

I used the graph for today's picture. I put SabrEx on every seed or plant I plant or transplant. The science is that good.

You can find out how to order yours by calling ABM in Van Wert, Ohio at 877-617-2461.

Ed Winkle

Meatless Mondays

As many Catholics observe meatless Fridays during Lent or all year long, I thought this might be a good subject this morning. This is about school programs that are considering or have gone to "meatless Mondays" and I wanted your comments on it. I received this in an email this morning.

"I thought this might interest some of you.

We are seeing the Meatless Monday program promoted in Lewis County MO schools. A brochure promoting Meatless Monday was sent home with 2nd graders promoting this program. (Copy of the flyer sent home is labeled scan0017.) As you can see at the bottom it is “brought to you by your school food service department.”

This program is an attack on animal agriculture, and not truly an dietary program as it is presented through the school lunch program. I know several people have already been in contact with the Lewis county school district administration to visit about this and the school has apologized and agreed to send home information with kids next month promoting the benefits of a balanced diet that includes meat proteins.

I share this with each of you for multiple reasons.

1. As a person involved with agriculture we should properly educate those in our local communities (schools in this situation) on the professional practices we use to provide safe healthy food for them and their children

2. As a person involved with agriculture in a rural community you likely support your local school district with significant property tax revenue and you should be aware of the information your school is sharing.

3. We all want the children in our communities to have a safe and healthy diet. This dietary information should be based of scientific fact and not a groups political motivations.

I would encourage each of you to keep an open dialog regarding these type of issues with local school board members and school administrators on topics such as this. The link in the letter below has good info regarding this as well.

Have a great week and a safe spring.

Chris Robnett

1891 Maine St Suite 6

Quincy, IL 62301

Office 866-795-6188

Dear,

Dr. Elizabeth Parker, our immediate past chair, forwarded me your email with the scanned document on Meatless Monday, suggesting I get in touch with you. The Animal Agriculture Alliance, along with a coalition of industry stakeholder organizations, developed a number of resources to specifically address the Meatless Monday campaign – which you probably know was created by long-time NY animal rights activist & heiress Helaine Lerner and her husband and marketing guru Syd Lerner.

Attached is a 4-page brochure in .pdf format we developed specifically on this campaign, and you can find many additional resources on our website at this link.

All of these materials are free and downloadable, and we encourage you to share them with your school administrators and all others you feel could benefit from having these resources. This campaign has been around about 8-9 years, but has only become trendy and has experienced fairly rapid growth in the past 2 years.

We appreciate your interest and your willingness to share the facts about this campaign and its efforts to limit choice as well as to move people – children in particular – to a vegan diet. I’ve cc’d Sarah Hubbart & Kerry Lynch in our office on this email so if you need anything additional or have further questions, please give one of them a call as I’m out of the office until Friday at various meetings. Sarah can be reached at (703)562-1413 and Kerry at (703)562-1411.

Thanks and we’d love to hear what feedback you receive after meeting with the school administrators.


Best regards,

Kay Johnson Smith

President and CEO

Animal Agriculture Alliance

703.562.1412

Election

I just deleted another five robocalls off the answering machine. No wonder everyone has lost interest in political races, even this important one coming up. I sent this piece to LuAnn and she said "I regret that I am a bit like some of the comments that basically say….we have been broadcast to death by these folks….has it brought jobs? No."

Ohio is a Super Tuesday state with the second most delegates available behind Georgia. I voted early before the polls closed Friday here at 6 p.m. LuAnn will vote in Martinsville tomorrow on the way to work. We are never so complacent we don't vote because every time I hear of a soldier hurt or lost, I have to vote. I just have to.

I supported Mike Huckabee last year. I really like the man and wish he was president now. He was in town Friday for the taping of his third show on the Republican Primary, this one on jobs.

It was appropriate he come to Ohio and to Wilmington to talk about jobs. We are still hurting from the loss of DHL and the 9000 jobs there and the huge rollover effect it has on our 3 little rural counties of Clinton, Highland, and Fayette and even neighboring counties.

None of the candidates made a personal appearance that I know of. They blew in, taped the show and blew out. Ron Paul didn't even take the time to come to Wilmington.

The program is running on FOX News and was first aired Saturday evening at 8 p.m. Just the beginning of the show alone reveals the enormous loss of a like-new $300 million dollar facility sitting empty. DHL invested $3 billion in improvements before closing it. It's beyond understanding but gives a clue of how tough economic times are in the United States compared to 2007. I encourage you to at least watch the beginning of the program.

The interview went well too but it really was the same old questions and the same old answers. The candidates look tired. Maybe this is not the way to elect a president. There were a couple of twists though from the locals asking questions and I thought it shed light on the best candidate.

LuAnn's right though, they have beat this thing into the ground. I will just be happy when the TV commercials and robocalls stop. It's more fun watching tulips blooming.

Ed

Gardening To Do

Steve Boehme at Good Seed Farm got me to thinking about getting ready to garden and all of the things I need to do for our landscape. We were near his place yesterday but didn't know if he was open yet. Sure enough, he was.

Our friend Dutch in West Texas was running the tiller in his garden and I told him we could be doing that here, too. It's time to start thinking about gardening and time to get some onion and lettuce seeds planted. I might even plant some very early sweet corn!

Our garden is the only place I don't notill and some of my friends like to tease me about that. I till because I don't spray the garden and tillage is my main source of weed control. In the field, it is cheaper, more profitable and more resourceful to not till and run the big sprayer to raise crops.

I didn't drive my Dakota to Cleveland so I never had the tool box with my soil probe in it. Becky mentioned they wanted their soil tested and it was so wet there, a probe would have worked best instead of a shovel to obtain the samples. They hope to plant blueberries and peach trees as they are so close to Lake Erie. I have no idea what their soil is like but their weather is conducive to those fruits that are hard to grow here.

As growing degree days advance, I really need to kill all the broadleaf weeds in the lawn so my grasses have a better chance to compete. There is always so much to do on a 5 acre landscape with all the bins, barns and driveways. The semi's have cut deep ruts into the yard on the edges and there is lots of repairing to do.

The garden needs to be plowed first so I hope to call the fellow tomorrow to plow our garden for the first time. It's only been tilled the few years we have gardened here and the weeds really need to be buried so we can start with a clean slate. A good dose of manure would be nice to plowdown too but I have plenty of residue to turn under. It almost looks like a notill garden because it has been managed pretty close to that with only a little tillage between the rows after the plantings.

This could be an early year to plant as the ground has been fit for tillage a couple of times already as I have mentioned in recent blogs. We saw a big patch of daffodils in full bloom near my mother's farm yesterday in Sardinia. They are on a protected southeast facing slope and they could fool you that "spring has sprung."

Actually we are still in "sprinter," not spring and not winter. It got down to 30 degrees Fahrenheit last night after the big storm came through. There are snow flakes blowing in the chilly air but it will be 60 again in a few days. The wood and pellet stoves are going full blast.

Maybe we can duplicate that good garden we had six years ago. What's on your gardening to do list?

Ed

Tornado Warning!

This morning the first news I read was at least 28 people are reported dead after a massive but predicted storm system roared through the Ohio Valley yesterday. I started watching the weather sources at 2:30 p.m. As one of the first tornados touched down in Kentucky, there was quickly 69 reported tornados on the ground within an hour or so.

How do these people get caught off guard with the warning system we have now? Do some people not use the available technology that predict and report dangerous weather? Obviously, yes.

I went to the chiropractor early yesterday and there was an Amish couple getting adjusted. I asked John how he got Amish clients and he said one of them found me and then they pass their results by word of mouth. He said on big days the hat rack is full of Amish hats.

He had concern they wouldn't hear about the tornado warnings because they don't use media. I explained that some bishops use a weather radio to warn their church about coming severe weather but word of mouth may not get to all the church members.

I am sure there are other reports out there but I am watching this report from MSNBC that we didn't see yesterday. All of the Cincinnati TV stations pre-empted their national news coverage that comes to us at 6:30 p.m. each evening for their own weather coverage. Each channel had teams of 3 who reported radar and other reports starting with local news at 4 p.m. and after.

I will add more as it comes along but we quickly learned that two died in Holton, Indiana where I was teaching a week ago, 2 in southern Ohio and 2 in northern Kentucky. Here is what Google news has so far for tornado news stories. One man was found dead on SR 133 outside of Bethel, Ohio and his mobile home was destroyed. Marysville, Indiana, a town of 1900 is reported as completely destroyed.

AM Sunshine asked in the Cafe what was in our "safe room" so I went down and took pictures. I found nothing but a dehumidifier and a furnace!

People do get caught off guard so we all need to stay abreast of the weather. Now they are predicting snow for these devastated areas!

You know, after watching all of these video coverages and talking to survivors, I think this is where the billionaires of our country could spend their money. Instead of giving it to our failing government, why not give it to these people who are in such need?

Ed

Mentors

My mentors are my trusted friends, counselors, teachers, and fellow farmers. I am blessed with some of the best mentors in agriculture, savvy fellows who share my passion for the truth and expressed in farming.

A farmer asked on Crop Talk this morning for books or resources to learn more about crop fertilization. After earning two degrees and a lifetime studying soil and crop science I suggested he find a mentor. I have planted my own crop since 1963 and more so in "retirement" the past eight years.

My best course and highest degree doesn't answer the nuts and bolts of planning, planting, nurturing and harvesting a crop. Hand's on experience can't be beat and there are hundreds of ways of doing it, though we have melted them down to a handful.

Two mentors called me on the phone this morning. We discussed fertilization, the weather and our families. Several others have emailed as we exchange the latest information we are reading, digesting and applying to our lives on our farms.

I have to go to Iowa once each year to see the application of the highest knowledge about agriculture I am interested in, though my trips to other states and conferences help fill the gap. I travel to Pennsylvania each year to see the latest in cover cropping and to Iowa for the latest in notilling and soil and crop fertilization.

When younger people ask me about my work and my happiness, I usually remind them that two things have been key to my happiness and those I have studied. One is the career they choose and the other is the spouse they choose. Those two crucial parts of life pretty much take up every waking hour of every day for me.

I am quite willing to share my experience in this blog and share my mentors where I feel they can help you when you ask a question I think they answer.

Who are your mentors? Who do you go to share your most personal or specific questions with?

My mentors help guide me in answering my questions and evaluating what went right and what can be improved. It's a big responsibility to mentor others when they come to you for answers. I don't take that lightly.

Dicamba Resistant Soybeans

Most Certified Crop Advisers in Ohio attended one of the Monsanto Resistant Weed meetings held at 3 different locations this week. I attended the one in Columbus and I thought Dr. Mark Loux gave the best summary on the resistant weed situation I have heard anywhere.

It's in most states and weeds have developed resistance to many different types of chemicals. The worst weeds like Palmer Amaranth or smooth pig weed, tall waterhemp, another pig weed and marestail are almost uncontrollable in many locations now.

I was surprised Monsanto had a farmer from West Tennessee on the program. He said Round Up had no value as a herbicide on his farm but admitted he was using the new dicamba resistant soybeans on his farm. They are not approved yet in the U.S. but should be by 2014 according to a news release issued today. They were developed at the University of Nebraska.

I don't see how this will improve the long term problem with resistant weeds. It looks like the horse is out of the barn on resistance and now weeds build up resistance to chemistry very quickly since they have conquered glyphosate. Dow will have 2,4-D resistant soybeans even sooner. I can't imagine spraying either chemical in mid summer around here with the problem of drift and succulent non target plants in susceptible condition. They claim we can control the drift with their expensive new versions of these chemistries.

Bayer published a guide called Herbicide Resistance Management Guide that lists the chemistries and label names and what weeds are resistant to them in the U.S. I would suggest you contact your Bayer representative and study it and these links.

Ed