AG Mag 1 AG Mag NorthCentral Illinois Rooted in Family The family farm is rich in history. How is the next generation being prepared to carry on the traditions? Corn still king? It is, but soybeans are being worked more into the mix on Illinois farms. Raining supreme: Spring and summer rains seem to have put an end to drought. Farmers Forum: Local farmers talk about the biggest challenges facing agriculture. A Publication of Shaw Media Summer 2014
Transcript
AG Mag 1
AG MagNorthCentral Illinois
Rooted in Family
The family farm is rich in history. How is the next
generation being prepared to carry on the traditions?
Corn still king? It is, but soybeans are being worked more into the mix on Illinois farms.
Raining supreme: Spring and summer rains seem to have put an end to drought.
Farmers Forum: Local farmers talk about the biggest challenges facing agriculture.
A Publication of Shaw Media Summer 2014
2 Summer 2014
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012013-00484AC
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AG Mag 3
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4 Summer 2014
Articles and advertisements are the property of Bureau County Republican. No portion of the NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Ad content is not the responsibility of Bureau County Republican. The information in this magazine is believed to be accurate; however, Bureau County Republican cannot and does not guarantee its accuracy. Bureau County Republican cannot and will not be held liable for the quality or performance of goods and services provided by advertisers listed in any portion of this magazine.
Alex T. Paschal, Jermaine Pigee,Dixie Schroeder, Ken Schroeder, Kathleen A. Schultz, Terri Simon,
Jake Waddingham, and Christi Warren
Published byBureau County Republican
800 Ace RoadPrinceton, IL 61356
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AG NorthCentral IllinoisMag
10COVER STORY
Family plan Keeping the farm in the family these days
requires having a succession plan.
Business is buzzingA rural Princeton man and his brothers
are doing their part to keep the honeybee population alive and well.
Index
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IndexLearn & returnScott Fairfield teaches his Stark County High School students about agriculture and more, then hopes they return to the area to start their careers.
Crazy, maybe; but not lazy
Gene VandeVoorde and his wife, Marilyn, of rural
Annawan seldom sit still. They say it keeps them young.
26CENTERPIECE STORY
Bean counting NorthCentral Illinois farmers talk about the when, where and why of planting soybeans.
Against the grainBureau County farmer Calvin Standley has devised a grain tillage cart that appears to be unique. How’s it working? The first harvest “went without a hitch.”
Blue heaven for farmersAg Focus LLC has created a weed killer so effective that NorthCentral Illinois farmers call it “holy water.”
Market freshThe farmers market in Hegeler Park in LaSalle, like many in the region, is thriving because “it’s just a good, healthy business,” one operator says.
46SPRINGFIELD SPOTLIGHT
Quiet sessionWith their focus on budgets and
pensions, did state lawmakers have any impact on agriculture?
38
How to thrive, rain or shineIs there such a thing as drought-proof farming? Illinois farmers share how they beat the heat.
41
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AG Mag 9
Peak performance is smart planning. Is your air handling system no longer performingat its peak? It could be your airlock. It’s crucial that a rotary airlock maintain a constant airpressure or vacuum difference between the Inlet and Outlet ports. The airlock applicationshould not be taken lightly because an improperly applied airlock can lead to a variety ofproblems:
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10 Summer 2014
Coming back to the farm and surviving financially requires a plan
KEEPING IT ALL IN THE
FAMILY
Illustration by Alex T. Paschal/
NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
BY GOLDIE CURRIE AND KEN SCHROEDERFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
E van Hultine of Princeton, a fourth-genera-tion farmer, always had it in mind he would someday take over his family’s operation.
After high school, he earned a bachelor’s degree in horticulture at the University of Illinois. The plan was to come back home business-ready to be the successor of his family’s establishment when his father was ready to retire.
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Growing up, Hultine watched his father farm in the ’80s at a time when agriculture wasn’t as profitable as today. His father worked a full-time job on top of keeping up with the farm chores. Seeing that, however, never caused Hultine to second-guess his desire to keep the farm going.
Since then, changes in agriculture have allowed for what Hultine calls the “Big Ag Boom.” Throughout the years, prof-its have dramatically increased to allow farmers to be more competitive and even expand their operations.
CONTINUED ON 11�
AG Mag 11
This change also permits Hultine to work full time on his farm.
“The per-acre profitability has really increased in the last few years,” he said. “Instead of going by the normal cash flow, farmers have more income, which allows for their kids to come home and help build the farm.”
While it’s unknown what the future holds for farming, Hultine plans to con-tinue the family operation for genera-tions to come.
One of the big worries today for many farmers is, “How do I pass down my farm to my kids? How do I keep them from hav-ing to sell the farm in order to pay taxes on it?” The first step might be to stop thinking about the farm as just the land.
“Most farmers do not look at farming as an investment first,” financial planner Christian Cyr of Hennepin said. “It’s a cul-ture; it’s in the family; it’s in their blood. I try to bring reality to these farmers.
“Planning is hard. Succession plan-ning is a huge thing,” Cyr said. “Anoth-er thing is, unfortunately, sometimes small farms turn into big farms, and when you have that farm and it’s been in the family for three or four genera-tions, so many times you will end up with a family and literally 25 individuals own four tracts of land.
“Grandpa’s gone; great-grandpa’s long gone. Twenty of the family want to sell, and the other five want to keep it. There’s nothing in writing; the typical farmer lacks the planning.”
Cyr said that although it’s impor-tant to start thinking of the farm as an investment, the largest part of that investment is the land. The U.S. Department of Agriculture tracks the average price of farm land. For several years, the price in Illinois has risen about 3 percent a year. Since 2005, that figure has been – with two exceptions – from 12 percent to 25 percent. Farm-land that sold for $2,560 an acre in 2004 sold in 2013 for $7,800 – more than triple the original value.
“I help farmers set up entities – LLC’s, and if you set up one of these, then you actually own interest in an entity,” Cyr said. “If you want to sell your one twenty-fifth of a farm, you can say, ‘I own one twenty-fifth of this business;’ then you can easily sell it to a brother or sister or uncle or son. There’s a lot of things out there, and most farmers don’t consider them until it’s too late.”
One of the biggest problems with suc-cession planning is estate or inheritance taxes, especially with farms worth $5 mil-lion or more. Cyr said that’s not a prob-lem if you’re willing to take the right step.
“Unfortunately, most farmers do not want to set up what’s called an irrevoca-ble trust,” Cyr said. “If you put your farm
into an irrevocable trust in Illinois, it lives on forever. It survives what’s called the law of perpetuities, and it never dies. And if you never die, you never pay estate taxes. Technically, when you pass away, you don’t own very much, and therefore you don’t owe very much.”
Scott Stoller, of Dixon-based Ag Per-spective, said the goal of succession planning is a seamless transition when a farmer decides to pass the farm to the next generation. But for that to happen, a farmer needs a plan well in advance.
That planning involves lawyers and accountants and business consultants, which a company like Ag Perspec-tive, or others that a farmer knows and trusts, can help to facilitate.
“In reality, the grower has to own the decision [to start planning],” Stoller said. “And that is solely the most important part. ... Once he comes to that realization, we can help.”
The Iowa Farm Bureau launched a succession-planning program last
August called Take Root, said Nathan Katzer, the farm bureau’s farm business development manager since February.
Katzer said the idea came from farm-ers themselves.
The average age of a principal farm operator in the U.S. is 58, according to the 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture, which is the most current data.
In Illinois, the average is 57.8, up from 56.2 in 2007 and 53.2 in 1997.
The time for farmers to start thinking about succession planning is “today,” Katzer said, whether they’re young or old, because a successful succession plan involves a lot of conversations with many different people – family, business partners, advisers, lawyers and accountants.
“I think people I’ve interacted with and listened to view this as such an integrated process if they want to be successful,” he said.
���CONTINUED FROM 10
Goldie Currie/NorthCentral Illinois Ag MagEvan Hultine of Princeton has returned to work full time on the family farm. When his father is ready to retire, he hopes to take over the business. Hultine, a fourth-generation farmer, plans to continue the family operation for generations to come. “The per-acre profitability has really increased in the last few years,” Hultine said. “Instead of going by the normal cash flow, farmers have more income, which allows for their kids to come home and help build the farm.”
’’‘‘ There are a lot of heart strings to pull there. Some still don’t view their business as a business. It’s a way of life and not a
business. But today, it is a business.Scott Stoller, a grain merchandiser with Dixon-based
Ag Perspective, on the need to accept that a family farm is a business while making a succession plan
CONTINUED ON 14�
12 Summer 2014
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AG Mag 13
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Is some of this in
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Is some of this in
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Not in theirs – they are from out-of-state.
Know the facts! For More Information, Email [email protected] | www.wind-watch.org
14 Summer 2014
Marc Lovell, the assistant direc-tor of the University of Illinois Tax School, said establishing objectives of the succession plan and the children is a good starting point.
“When it comes to children, there is some sense of fairness,” he said. “But that can be a really tough thing for farmers. There isn’t a lot of liquidity to split up.”
The planning process should include consideration of current tax structures, Lovell said, to ensure the maximum amount can be passed to the descen-dants.
Gifting can be a way to do that.Generally, an individual can give a tax
exempt amount of up to $14,000 a year to a person, Lovell said, and a couple can give $28,000. And it isn’t just cash, but there must be valuation to a gifted asset, he said.
The descendant also is entitled to a tax exemption on inheritance, Lovell said, which is $5.34 million for this year. Passing down assets through spouses also can help ease the tax bur-den on the next generation.
Without some sort of estate planning, the state’s default rules will be used when a farmer dies.
“You generally don’t want that with a farm, because it can get messy,” Lovell
said.While understanding tax structures
and putting a value on the family farm as a business can be a difficult conver-sation to have with a lawyer or accoun-tant, it probably will be no more dif-ficult than family discussions about the family’s history on the farm, the family investment, and desires for the future.
But those discussions are important to ensure that the next generation doesn’t run into the “curse of wealth” when
land is passed down that they are not interested in farming or a large amount of money is realized from the assets of the farm business.
“If people don’t understand where the family inheritance is coming from, they’re going to squander it, nine out of 10 times,” Katzer said.
There also needs to be acceptance that that farm is, in fact, a business.
“There are a lot of heart strings to pull there,” said Stoller of Ag Perspective. “Some still don’t view their business as a business. It’s a way of life and not a business. But today, it is a business.”
Once a farmer makes the decision to start planning for how the farm and assets will eventually pass down, the process can move at the pace the family is comfortable with.
It’s more important that the process start than it continue along a generic timeline. But it can start only after a realization – that a farmer’s working life may be coming to an end.
That realization is tough to come to, Katzer said, and can lead to difficult conversations about the future.
“Some farmers are terrified of not having anything to do,” he said. “They want to die with their boots on and have the farm be their legacy – and not the next generation.”
Matt Mencarini contributed to this article.
���CONTINUED FROM 11
Ken Schroeder/NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag Financial planner Christian Cyr of Hen-nepin said most farmers don’t look at farming as an investment first. When working with farmers, he said, it’s his goal to help them look realistically at their options.
AG Mag 15
BY GOLDIE CURRIE For NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
The 2012 Census of Agriculture is revealing new trends in farming.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released the final Census data and reported record sales moderated by rising expenses; agricul-ture becoming increasingly diverse; and farming and marketing practices changing.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released a statement with the data, saying it illustrates the power of USDA efforts to grow the economy and strengthen infrastructure in rural America.
“The Census shows the potential for
continued growth in the bioeconomy, organics and local and regional food systems,” the statement said. “USDA will continue to focus on innovative, creative policies that give farmers, ranchers and entrepreneurs the tools they need to attract a bright and diverse body of talent to rural America.”
An interesting highlight from the Census data shows that 22 percent of all farmers were beginning farmers in 2012, which means one out of every five farmers had operated a farm for less than 10 years.
Young, beginning principal operators who reported their primary occupation as farming increased from 36,396 to 40,499 between 2007 and 2012. That’s an increase of 11.3 percent in the num-ber of young people selecting agricul-ture as a full-time job.
Evan Hultine, a fourth-generation farmer from Princeton, talked about the reasons and opportunities that have
attracted more youth to the agriculture field.
Hultine represents just one of the many young farmers in the Bureau County area. He serves as District 2 Director of the Bureau County Farm Board and also represents District 4 on the Illinois Farm Bureau Young Leader Committee.
According to Hultine, one factor that’s attracting the younger generation is the growing trend of the local food move-ment.
“Looking at the movement, a big driv-ing force is people are now getting more comfortable in wanting to know where their food comes from and wanting to know the person who raises the food,” he said. “There’s more and more people, even the suburban younger generation, who are more interested in planting two or three acres and becoming more familiar with local food production.”
Data: More youths choose farming as full-time job
2012 ag census shows new trends
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Another big factor can be linked to what Hultine calls the “Big Ag Boom.” He said in the past few years, profits in farming have dramatically increased, and it has allowed family farms to be more competitive and expand their operations.
“This has allowed oppor-tunities to bring kids back to the farm, when that oppor-tunity wasn’t there 5 to 8 years ago,” he said.
What’s driving those profits? According to Hultine, it comes from a variety of things – change in weather climate, point-ing out the 2012 drought; more exports to China; and the demand for ethanol production.
“The per-acre profitabil-ity has really increased in the last few years,” he said. “Instead of going by the normal cash flow, farmers have more income, which allows for their kids to come home and help build the farm.”
���CONTINUED FROM 15
Source: 2012 Census data released by the USDA
Highlights of the 2012 USDA ag census
Jake Waddingham/NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
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AG Mag 17
F rom unpredictable and unco-operative weather to high input costs, successful farming takes a
thick skin, perseverance and the ability to work around obstacles.
One obstacle farmers hope to never have to work around – or fight against – is the federal government.
Still, for the past three years, Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) members have overwhelmingly said the federal gov-ernment and over-regulation are their biggest work-arounds and threats to long-term profitability.
And that government over-regulation talk is about to ramp up again – not only for farmers, but for a variety of small businesses – with the Environ-mental Protection Agency’s latest try at a government land-grab: Its proposed rule changes the waters of the U.S. out-lined in the Clean Water Act.
Since it was created in 1972, the Clean Water Act has helped to make signifi-cant strides in improving water quality in this country. The act regulates so-
called “waters of the U.S.” Until now, those have been defined primarily as waters that can be navigated. State and local governments have jurisdiction over smaller, more remote waters such as ponds and isolated wetlands.
However, the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seek to expand the definition of “waters of the U.S.” to include not only navigable waters, but also puddles, ponds, ditches, small wetlands and even land that resembles a stream during a rainstorm but is dry otherwise.
If the expanded definition is allowed, permits and other regulatory road-blocks – having to hire environmental consultants, for example – would stand in the way of conducting routine busi-ness activities like building fences, removing debris from ditches, spraying for weeds and insects and removing unwanted vegetation.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns report indicates that 640 businesses in Bureau County
employ 100 or fewer people. Among them are homebuilders, real estate agencies, aggregate producers and related small businesses.
They also would be negatively impacted as the proposed role would increase federal regulatory power over private property. The definitions would create confusion and because they were intentionally created to be overly broad, could be interpreted in whatever way the federal agencies see fit.
Agencies like the EPA and the Corps of Engineers are not charged with writing the laws of the land – Congress is. And when Congress wrote the Clean Water Act, it clearly intended for the law to apply to navigable waters. Yet these agencies seek to stretch the meaning in order to gobble up privately owned and managed lands.
Is a small ditch navigable? How about that dry ditch that fills with water only during a rainstorm? Or even that puddle in your backyard? Those bodies of water don’t sound navigable to farmers, either.
When ‘waters of the U.S.’ aren’t even waters
JILL FRUEHManager of the Bureau County Farm Bureau
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Donna Barker/NorthCentral Illinois Ag MagBeekeeper Todd Leopold checks one of 10 beehive sites that he has placed around Bureau and Putnam counties. Leopold and his brothers, Blake and Zane, both of Florida, began the Bureau County Honey Co. about 3 years ago.
What’s the buzz?Princeton man busy as a bee ... literally
BY DONNA BARKERFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
Todd Leopold of rural Princeton has a passion for keeping the honeybee popu-lation alive and well, and he’s fulfilling that passion with the start of the Bureau County Honey Co.
People don’t always realize that the world is dependent on the honeybee because
of its role in the food chain, Leopold said. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, honeybees pol-linate 80 percent of flowering crops, which constitute one-third of everything Ameri-cans eat. Also, people don’t tend to realize the honeybee population is very fragile.
CONTINUED ON 19�
AG Mag 19
Leopold began raising bees about three years ago, after he retired from the military. He and his brothers, Zane and Blake, both of Florida, were brainstorming about what they could do in retirement, and the discussion kept coming back to beekeeping. The brothers’ great-grandfather had been a beekeeper, and Leopold remembers his father telling stories of the great-grand-father and his beekeeping.
The brothers decided to do this bee-keeping business collectively, and the Bureau County Honey Co. was formed. Todd started with one hive at his rural Princeton property, while his brothers started with two hives each.
This year, in mid-June, Leopold was managing 112 hives at 10 different sites around the Bureau and Putnam coun-ties area. He and his brothers brought up 200 hives from Florida earlier this year, but a good number of those hives have been sold. During the busy sea-son, his brother Zane travels to Illinois to help manage the hives.
The whole process of beekeeping is pretty interesting, Leopold said. The bees are housed in a wooden box, which contains 10 wooden frames. Each frame has a foundation, called a plasticell, which is a plastic net-like sheet that has been coated with bees-
wax and is the surface on which the bee stores its honey and pollen.
The box has two sections, with the queen bee kept in the lower level. The queen bee can lay about 1,500 eggs a day, and it takes 21 days for an egg to hatch, Leopold said. The top level is where the worker bees do their work on the plasticell. The queen bee is too large
to get through the separation between the lower and upper sections of the box, he said.
Each healthy box can have 50,000 to 60,000 bees during the busiest times of the year. At slower times, there may be 15,000 to 30,000 bees.
���CONTINUED FROM 18
Donna Barker/NorthCentral Illinois Ag MagEach healthy box of bees can have 50,000 to 60,000 bees during the busiest time of the year.
CONTINUED ON 20�
20 Summer 2014
When the plug is pulled on the top of the box and bees fly out in a swarm, it’s an amazing sight, Leopold said. Honeybees have an internal system, sort of like a GPS, which they follow as they fly about looking for food from nearby vegetation. The bees typically can fly up to about 2 miles before they head home to their queen bee, he said.
Harvesting the honey and pollen from the frames within the box time generally happens twice a year. In the spring, the bees like to feast on dandelions, black locust trees and white clover, with the spring harvest typically beginning in July. In the fall, the bees feast on plants like milkweed and goldenrod, with harvest usually begin-ning in September. After the fall harvest, the Leopolds will transport their bee hives back to Florida for the winter.
Most of the marketing of the Bureau County Honey Co. is done by word of mouth from satisfied customers, though the honey is sold by
local businesses, including Wyanet Locker in Wyanet, Ammas’s Studio and Optimal Health, both in Princeton, and Boggio’s Orchard and Produce in Granville. Leop-old also sells to a large dis-tributor in Wisconsin, who sells the honey to other com-panies and markets.
Of course, raising bees poses challenges, including
the occupational hazard of bee stings, Leopold said. Beekeepers wear protective clothing and veils, but they aren’t foolproof.
Keeping a colony of bees alive and healthy involves different challenges.
For one thing, the bee population is fragile because of pesticides and chemicals used on lawns and fields, Leo-
pold said. Also, bees are very sensitive to mites, which are small bugs that can destroy an entire colony. And Colony Collapse Disorder causes bees to fly out but not come back, for no known reasons. Bee-keepers expect a loss of up to 20 percent each year.
In addition to running the Bureau County Honey Co. as a business, Leopold and his brothers are passionate about encouraging others to become backyard beekeep-ers, maybe starting with only one or two hives. Beekeep-ing is important to the envi-ronment and food chain, plus it’s enjoyable, he said.
“When you go out and you open up a box and see all the pure honey, and to know what God has created and how the bees have done all this, it’s an amazing feeling,” Leop-old said. “Our minister once asked, What makes you know there is a God? Well, when I’m out there in the field and look-ing at what this insect does and what it does for us, it gives me an overwhelming feeling. It’s hard to put that feeling into words sometimes.”
���CONTINUED FROM 19
Donna Barker/NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag The Bureau County Honey Co. sells its sweet treats at a variety of area establishments. The bees that make the deli-cious concoction spend their winters in Florida. They reside in Illinois the rest of the year.
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AG Mag 21
BY GOLDIE CURRIEFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
Paul Barrett is a program coordina-tor for Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists at the University of Illinois Extension. He also is the vice president of the Illinois Valley Beekeepers Asso-ciation (IVBA) and teaches programs to the bee club on pollinators, plants for the pollinators, native pollinators and beekeeping.
According to Barrett, the University of Illinois studied Colony Collapse Dis-order and listed several factors – from feeding sugar water to the bees to using insecticides for the small hive beetles and Varroa mites to using insecticides on crops.
“Most of the beekeepers I talk to, and in the IVBA, don’t use any chemicals or insecticides for the small hive beetles or Varroa mites,” he said. “We use traps and other techniques to keep them out.”
A lot of talk about Colony Collapse Disorder has circled around Neonicoti-noids, which is a new class of insecti-cides used in the past 20 years to con-trol a variety of pests. Unlike contact pesticides that remain on the surface
of the treated foliage, Neonicotinoids are taken up by the plant and transported to all tissues — leaves, flow-ers, roots, stems, pol-len and nectar.
“Neonicotinoids are not a high enough strength to kill the adult worker bee, but they feed the pollen to the brood [baby bees] and it kills them,” Bar-rett said. “Bees’ life expectancy is six to eight weeks. Without any new bees, the hive dies.”
According to Barrett, Neonicotinoids include Clothianidin, Thiamethoxam and Imidacloprid. Clothianidin and Thiamethoxam were approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the mid ’80s, and Imidacloprid was approved in 1994. He said all three of those Neonicotinoids were banned from use in Europe on Dec. 1, 2013, because they were linked to killing off bees.
“The EPA has delayed any act to
review until 2018,” he said. “It took the EPA 11 years to ban DDT insecticide.”
Barrett explained the EPA 3 years ago lifted the restricted use of Imidaclo-prid, which affects the nervous system of the bees so they become disorien-tated and can’t find their way back to the hives.
“The beekeepers are finding hives with honey still in them. No dead bees – they just didn’t come back,” he said. “There have been no studies on native bee decline, like the Mason and Blue, but they are disappearing, also.”
It’s important to check the label of a pesticide for the active ingredient of Clothianidin, Imidacloprid, Thia-methoxam or Acetamiprid. Why is it so important?
“Seventy-one out of 100 crops that provide 90 percent of the world’s food is pollinated by bees,” Barrett said.
Anyone unsure how to treat a pes-ticide problem may call Barrett, who receives numerous calls daily from people about trees, shrubs, lawns and all sorts of bugs. His services are free through the University of Illinois Exten-sion Office.
He may be reached at 815-433-0707.
What is happening to the bees?
Paul Barrett Says
Neonicotinoids are contributing
to Colony Collapse Disorder
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22 Summer 2014
BY LYLE GANTHERFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
Scott Fairfield, the agriculture teacher at Stark County High School in Tou-lon, wants the 90 high school students enrolled in the ag program classes to learn about future job opportunities in the industry.
“We try to make classes relevant to what students need during high school and beyond,” said Fairfield, who has taught for 31 years, 19 of them at Stark County High. “We need to let students know what other areas rely on agriculture in terms of the number of jobs reliant on this indus-try. It is important to tell students about possible careers and to see if they like one to pursue for their post-secondary education.”
Learning more than ag Stark County teacher hopes students will stay in area after schooling
Lyle Ganther/NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag Stark County High School ag teacher Scott Fairfield works with students on a project at the Toulon school. Fairfield said he hopes students will want to return to the area to live and work in agriculture. CONTINUED ON 24�
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Town of residence: ToulonCounty of residence: StarkOccupation: Agriculture educator,
Stark County High School in ToulonDo you have a farming or ag-related
background? I grew up on a family farm near West
Jersey. I credit my farm background and my years in 4-H and FFA with pro-viding me a quality work ethic that I still use today.
Why is ag education important to you?
Agriculture education is critical to the present and future survival of this state, country and world we exist in every day. There are important jobs in the agricul-ture industry that remain unfilled every day due to a lack of qualified graduates. Three hundred career areas in addi-tion to production agriculture are avail-able for students to choose for future employment.
What challenges do you face when teaching young people about agricul-ture?
There are several challenges that I face just teaching, let alone teaching stu-dents about the agriculture industry. Today’s high school student has many
things happening in his or her life. There are several different paths a student’s life can take, and I feel, as educators, we need to make sure we provide students with the information they need to make smart choices. Better time manage-ment skills learned as a student will lead to more effective time manage-ment as an adult in the workforce. The daily work ethic and self-discipline on behalf of the student affects their rate of success for the remainder of their life.
What ag-related subjects do you see students most interested in?
Students have high levels of interest in subjects that offer “hands-on” training such as agriculture mechanics, agricul-ture construction, animal science, plant science, and horticulture. Interest in biotechnology applications in agronomy and animal science draw inquiries from students.
How many of your high school students go on to pursue a degree
in agriculture? I would estimate anywhere between
20 and 25 percent of the students I see on a daily basis would end up in some area of the agriculture industry. There are additional students that I do not have in agriculture class that also plan to pursue careers in agriculture after high school.
Do you have any words of advice for high school students who want to pursue an agriculture degree?
Have an open mind about your educa-tion. Be a sponge and absorb as much information as you possibly can about the world around you. Take classes about topics you don’t know anything about and learn. Education does not happen only between the times of 8:10 a.m. and 3:04 p.m. Learning is a life-long process.
What character traits make a good farmer?
The most successful farmers have an outstanding work ethic and are the best problem-solvers in the world on a daily basis. They are the most important, yet least respected, people on this planet, and that has to change for the benefit of our future.
The Scott Fairfield file
24 Summer 2014
Fairfield said the ag pro-gram’s classes prepare stu-dents for the last two years of high school and beyond at a community college, trade college or university.
“We are trying to keep stu-dents in a rural area after high school, due to an aging workforce, by telling them what jobs are available that they may not have real-ized rely on the agriculture industry,” he said.
Students can prepare for their future by getting consumer education credit for graduation through ag business classes or science credit for plant and animal agriculture classes.
“It is important to tell stu-dents about possible careers and to see if they like one, [so we can] keep them in the Stark County area after they get their post-secondary training,” Fairfield said. “We try to tell students what they need in terms of their educa-tional requirement for career and technical education.”
Fairfield credits a quality staff, excellent community support, and administrative
support as keys to achieving those goals for students in a small, rural high school in Illinois, like Stark County, which has a student body of only 290 students.
“Even though we are small, we have a wide amount of classes available to students,” Fairfield said. “We also have dual credit classes through community colleges like Black Hawk East [in Galva], so students can start their post-secondary education before high school graduation.”
Fairfield said he would like to see all 290 Stark County High School students in the ag pro-gram, but he knows that is not possible with schedules.
“We have 40 students in the FFA program, a student leader organization in ag edu-cation. We have seven classes a day. We have eight occupa-tional areas we teach students in, where they are required to do problem solving and thinking to modify a project to make it work – working with others in a group setting, but still requiring individual-ized work, staying on task and working in a time frame.”
���CONTINUED FROM 22
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AG Mag 27
Rotation seems to help give better yielding crops in the dry years, she said.
“We’ve seen that on our own farm and neigh-boring farms, though this may not be true for other farmers,” she said.
Covert said the soybean crop is important for the United States, representing the largest export dollar value in agriculture for the past several years. At least 60 percent of U.S. soy-beans are sold internationally.
Record yields predictedSeveral factors indicate that demand should
remain high this fall for corn and soybeans, but the June 30 USDA acreage report exceeded March expectations, sending prices on a down-ward spiral. Illinois and Iowa had the largest gap in soybean forecasts from March to June, both running about 500,000 acres above earlier expectations.
Darrel Good, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois, said current crop and weather conditions have the nation on track for record corn and soybean yields, perhaps result-ing in surpluses that could send prices plum-meting in the 2014-15 market year.
“The sharp decline in corn prices following the release of the USDA reports put December corn futures about 35 cents [7.6 percent] below the spring crop insurance price,” Good said. “Crop revenue insurance will provide some revenue protection for those with high levels of coverage if prices continue to decline.”
Soybeans could see a more precipitous drop than corn, Good said.
“Soybean prices also declined sharply follow-ing the reports, with November futures moving within about 20 cents of the spring crop insurance price,” Good said. “There appears to be more downside potential for soybean prices,” he said.
Good said soybean stockpiles could exceed 400 million bushels by Sept. 1, 2015. That kind of surplus could mean a substantial year-over-year decline in the average price of soybeans, from more than $13 this year to $10.50 next year.
In the photoDon Meyer grows corn and soybeans in rural Amboy. Although
soybean prices have been better the past few years, he doesn’t see a big rush to that crop in northwest Illinois.“In this part of the state, I see people sticking pretty much to their regular rotations,” Meyer said. “I planted mostly corn again, and am filling in with some soybeans.”
Photo by Alex T. Paschal/NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
CONTINUED ON 28�
Bill Read Marshall County farmer said he knows he will
plant about 1,000 acres of corn and
700 acres of soybeans each
year
Sharon Covert Bureau County farmer soil type,
slope of the land, and moisture are
determining factors in
what to plant
THE ROTATING WORLD OF SOYBEANS
26 Summer 2014
BY DONNA BARKER AND PAM EGGEMEIERFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
M arshall County farmer Bill Read has been farming since 1973, taking over for his dad in 1991.
A lot of factors come into play in deciding how many acres will be planted in which crop each year, Read said, adding it is the type of soil and the slope of the land that are the first con-siderations, rather than market price.
Read planted 1,188 acres of corn and 489 acres of normal soybeans this spring, plus 129 acres in wheat, 36 acres of oats, and 170 acres of alfalfa. He will also put in 113 acres of soybeans behind the sweet pea crop and an additional 96 acres of soy-beans behind the wheat crop. In total, Read will have 698 acres of soybeans to harvest this year.
Read said he knows he will plant about 1,000 acres of corn and 700 acres of soybeans each year. Then he looks at how many acres of wheat he wants, knowing he will plant soybeans after the wheat. In some wheat fields, he will plant soy-beans behind the wheat for a couple of years, and then plant corn there the next year. On fields with the better soil, he likes to rotate two years of corn, followed by a year for soybeans.
Q�Q�QRead also raises 150 head of stock cows, which plays a factor
into how much hay he will plant. On one of his farms, the land-lady wanted enough soybeans planted this year to fill an old crib, so he planted just enough beans to fill the crib, Read said.
From her perspective, Bureau County soybean farmer Sharon Covert said soil type, slope of the land and moisture are some of the main factors that go into a farmer’s decision whether to plant soybeans or corn. A lot of variables go into the farming opera-tion, she said.
Covert and her husband, Jim, farm about 50 percent corn and 50 percent soybeans on their rural Tiskilwa farm in Bureau County.
They like the 50/50 ratio because they feel there is less disease when they rotate crops. Also, there tends to be better weed con-trol, and the 50/50 ratio seems to help conserve moisture more.
Area farmers talk about when, where, why
THE ROTATING WORLD OF SOYBEANS
28 Summer 2014
Demand remains strongCorn and soybean demand should
hold steady, as fewer farmers feed the world. Good said soybean demand in China continues to grow.
“Nationwide, we export about half of the soybeans we produce, and about 60 percent of that is exported by China,” Good said.
The U.S. ranks third in soybean meal exports, behind Brazil and Argen-tina. Brazil is ranked first in soybean oil exports, followed by the U.S. and Argentina. American soybean produc-ers keep a close eye on South Ameri-can production, especially since the U.S. has become an importer of their crops.
“In 2012, South America has some production problems, but they rebounded with very large crops the last 2 years,” Good said. “Historically, you’ll see about 10 [million] to 15 mil-
lion bushels from them, but this year 90 million bushels are projected from South America.”
Alternative energy continues to boost demand for corn and soybeans, but profitability still is the main consider-ation.
“Ethanol and biodiesel definitely help keep prices strong,” said Emerson Nafziger, professor of crop sciences at the University of Illinois. “We’ve always had more corn in Illinois, and I really don’t see any big shifts between corn and soybeans.”
Nationally, biodiesel production was up 37 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Informa-tion Administration. Industry esti-mates show that biodiesel demand has increased soybean value by 74 cents per bushel between 2006 and 2012.
Despite the rapid growth, biodiesel still has a long way to go to catch up with the ethanol industry. Infra-structure and geography still largely determine how much alternative
energy factors into farmers’ market-ing plans.
The ethanol market is more readily accessible than biodiesel, serving as another push toward corn.
While there are ethanol plants in Clinton, Iowa, Rochelle, Lena, Hen-nepin and Annawan, biodiesel infra-structure is still in its infancy. Adkins Energy in Lena and Annawan’s Patriot Renewable Fuels have biodiesel proj-ects planned.
“Biodiesel has come in fits and starts,” Good said. “We’ve seen a fairly signifi-cant increase in ethanol growth since 2006. The ethanol market is peaking now, and we no longer need to expand corn production for that. I expect slow growth in the ethanol market going for-ward, and biodiesel may start to catch up.”
Nafziger agrees that demand for soy-beans is growing on the world markets. Unlike ethanol, the biodiesel industry has been relatively unscathed by the argument that using grains for fuel causes food inflation.
“An overall strong world economy is important in demand for all commodi-ties,” Nafziger said. “It helps soybeans that there is a demand for high-protein diets. Also, the food versus fuel argu-ment hasn’t touched biodiesel like ethanol.”
���CONTINUED FROM 27
’’‘‘ The ethanol market is peaking now, and we no longer need to expand corn pro-duction for that. I expect slow growth in
the ethanol market going forward. ...Darrell Good, University of Illinois agricultural economist
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AG Mag 29
BY DUSTIN JOHNSONFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
There is no doubt that this year has been one of the most challenging mar-keting environments that farmers have ever encountered. This summer has been particularly volatile.
Up until the June report, soybean acres were largely under-reported, which created an artificial premium and complacency in both the corn and soybean markets. Regardless of what the market was telling us, as producers it was allowing the opportunity to lock in profitability through forward cash sales, futures/options, and crop insur-ance at the time.
But how do you know when to pull the trigger on grain sales, or what strategy to implement? The truth is no one can predict what the market will do, just as no one has perfected the long-term weather models. That is the reality of farming; we have to take what Mother Nature gives us. Knowing that the mar-ket cannot be “beat” is the first step to
operating the farm like a true corpora-tion, capturing market opportunities while they exist.
Traditional break-even analysis will not cut it, either. We don’t need to know that $8 corn is needed to turn a profit if your farm yields only 50 bush-els an acre. Half the time these formulas produce erroneous break-even values because they don’t account for projected indemnity payments. True hedging is all about looking at the entire “matrix” of possibilities. You need to know where your profitability will stand whether corn is at $8 or $3, and at the same time if your yield is a record or the worst ever.
Once we know future revenue at
every scenario, we can perfect it using “what-if” strategy testing before imple-mentation. With the price of corn suppressed, many producers are close to receiving an indemnity payment. Those producers may benefit to know where and how much to expect from these payments to avoid panic selling if corn gets oversold.
Testing strategies is one of the best ways to avoiding serious marketing mistakes that can cost big dollars and lost opportunities. Developing a plan that fits your risk requirements and overcomes your marketing shortfalls is invaluable.
We challenge every farmer to become better marketers, and hope-fully, we can smooth out the volatil-ity that has plagued our markets in recent months. There is a more stable way of doing business using today’s technology.
– Dustin Johnson is a senior analyst for AgYield.
Market volatility a challengeParticularly this year, marketing mistakes can prove costly for farmers
Kath Clark/NorthCentral Illinois Ag MagGene and Marilyn VandeVoorde pose for a photo next to one of the tractors Gene has restored. While the two spend several hours enjoying their grandchildren and hitting the dance floor, Marilyn said she never has to worry about her husband getting underfoot during the day, since she can usually find him at work with the tractors in his shop.
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AG Mag 31
BY TERRI SIMONFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
E ighty-year-old Gene VandeVoorde and his wife, Marilyn, lead an active
lifestyle.Their spacious rural Annawan
home sits in the midst of their two sons’ business – Vande-Voorde Sales – and the 1,000 acres they farm. A huge gar-den outside the home is filled with vegetables the couple will ultimately eat and share with others. But that’s just the begin-ning. ...
Q�Q�Q
Gene and Marilyn are known to cut a few rugs at area dance establishments, and their five grown children, 12 grand-children and two great-grandchildren are clearly the apples of their eyes and help keep Grandma and Grandpa on their toes.
That’s right – Gene and Marilyn sel-dom sit still, always involved in a vari-ety of activities, which they claim to keep them young at heart.
“I virtually do what I want” Gene said. “I feel good; [Marilyn] feels good. And we’re going to keep going and going and going.
“I might be crazy, but I’m not lazy,” Gene said, his eyes twinkling as he recited his motto for staying young and active.
But aside from all the aforementioned activities, VandeVoorde has another passion, a hobby, which continually takes him down that proverbial Memo-ry Lane. VandeVoorde restores tractors and other farm equipment.
“Tractors, corn planters, corn pickers, farrows, plows, augers, ... I do them all,” he said, and his workshop just down the road from his home is a testament to that statement.
Tractors, tractors and more tractors are parked every which way inside the building – all in varying stages of repair.
Gene VandeVoorde, 80, stays young by restoring old machinery
Kath Clark/NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag Gene VandeVoorde works on the motor of an old tractor at his rural Annawan farm.CONTINUED ON 32�
As he strolls around the building, he points to this one and that one – talk-ing about where he got the tractor and what he had (or has) to do to make it look brand, spanking new. Those trac-tors appear to be a part of the family, and he pats them every now and then as he must have patted his children’s heads when they were young.
“Every tractor has a story,” he said. “When I get them, they’re junk, basi-cally headed to the scrap pile.”
But, oh, what difference a few weeks can make! Gene said he has no trouble finding parts for the old pieces of machinery. Sometimes he robs a few parts off one tractor, only to take a few other parts off another ... and so the cycle continues.
“The first thing I do is take the motor apart,” he explained. “After I get the motor running, I drive the tractor to see what else can be wrong.”
He said he often has to rewire the machine, work on the wheels, and more. A fresh coat of paint makes the tractor look brand new, even though many are decades old.
Gene said he has restored tractors for many people throughout the years. And he doesn’t mind admitting he’s bought a few tractors in need of his tender
loving care for himself, including one from Manitoba, Canada, Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa and all over the state of Illinois.
Marilyn said Gene heads to his work-shop in the morning, comes home for lunch, and then heads back down to the workshop. When he arrives home for din-ner in the evening, he might be a little bit late, but she’s not too worried about it.
“My friends complain that their hus-bands are all underfoot,” she said with a twinkle in her eye that, coinciden-tally, resembles the one that belongs to her husband. “I tell my friends I don’t have to worry about that. He’s not in my hair because he’s not in the house.”
���CONTINUED FROM 31
Kath Clark/NorthCentral Illinois Ag MagGene VandeVoorde’s shop is filled with a variety of tractors and other farm machinery in various stages of disrepair. VandeVoorde’s hobby is to return the tractors to their original state.
CONTINUED ON 33�
AG Mag 33
Gene, who drove his first tractor in the field at the age of 6, said he was so small he couldn’t reach the clutch. Since then, he’s seen myriad changes, not just in farming, but also in the machin-ery that works the land.
“It’s all changed so drastically,” he said. “Why, I can remember my dad planting with a horse.”
But some things never change, such as Gene’s refusal to actually say how many tractors he owns. While he admits to restoring about 50 tractors for himself and others throughout the years – six of those last winter alone – he doesn’t want to say exactly how many of those tractors he calls his own, though one can speculate it’s in the double digits.
And what does Marilyn think about her husband’s tractor collection?
“Oh, we don’t talk about that,” he said quickly, while Marilyn just grins.
But while the Henry County couple don’t have much spare time, Gene did say he’s thinking about starting a new business. Again, his eyes dance with the mischief of a young boy, as he makes a statement he’s probably recited many times.
“Yep. I’m thinking about starting a new business,” he said. “We’ll just call it monkey business.”
���CONTINUED FROM 32
Photos by Kath Clark/NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag ABOVE: Gene VandeVoorde sits atop a tractor he recently refurbished and restored. VandeVoorde said he’s restored more than 50 tractors. LEFT: Nuts, bolts and more can be found on a workbench in the shop.
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BY DAVE FOXFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
Deep in the heart of Bureau County, past Princeton and near Cherry, just across the tracks from Zearing, is the town of Malden. It’s surrounded by farmland, far as the eye can see.
Just outside Malden is Calvin Stand-ley’s grain farm. This is where the only known grain tillage cart in existence was invented by Standley, with help from his son, John.
The cart is actually a grain wagon, with a disc on the front and uneven tires on the back that separate it from an attached chisel plow. It’s pulled by a separate tractor alongside the combine that harvests the grain.
Neither Standley nor his patent attorney could find any other such contraption on file, so a patent has been filed.
Once the design was perfected by Standley, it was constructed by John Williams at the McHenry Machine Shop in Princeton last summer, and was put to its first test during the fall harvest last year.
Local farm features unique grain tillage cart
Photos by Dave Fox/NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag Calvin Standley is watchful as he moves his grain tillage cart (pictured on Page 34) to the field for a brief demonstration. The cart actually is a grain wagon, with a disc on the front and uneven tires on the back that separate it from an attached chisel plow. It’s pulled by a tractor, alongside the combine that harvests the grain. CONTINUED ON 36�
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Standley’s wife, Beth, operated the cart, “and the entire harvest went without a hitch,” Standley said. “The way it performed far exceed-ed our expectations.”
Benefits are numerous, he said.
“There’s much less soil compaction, for one thing,” he said, “since we’re mak-ing only one pass over the field instead of two or three. That means more water is going down into the ground instead of run-ning off and causing ero-sion.”
Fuel savings are expected to be a big plus for the same reason, Standley said.
“The tractor pulling this thing uses more fuel than just a tractor pulling a stan-dard grain cart, but still less than running equipment over the same field several times,” he said. Actual statis-tics and figures will be com-bined and analyzed this fall.
Additionally, more nitrogen is redeposited into the soil using this method. Obvi-
ously, the longer nitrogen sits on top of the soil, the more of it is lost in the environment and in run-off. With this pro-cess, though, much of it is put back into the soil imme-diately, effectively reducing fertilizer costs as well.
Microbial degradation – the breakdown of cornstalks and other plant parts back into the soil – needs to be done within two weeks of harvest
for maximum effectiveness as well, and that process also is greatly aided here.
“The benefits just keep pil-ing up for us,” Standley said, “and so far we haven’t found any negatives at all.”
Increased quality of life is a plus, too, he said.
“Obviously there will be less time spent in the field,” he said, “and that allows more family time and time
spent on other things.”This fall he also plans to
run a farrow and fertilizer application on the same piece of equipment, to test their effectiveness. He expects good results.
“The patent is very broad-based,” he said, “so we’re going to try lots of things with it.”
Two companies already have shown interest in the new implement, he said.
Woods Brothers in Oregon “came out and looked,” Standley said, “but they deal more with short-term equipment like mowers and things, so it didn’t real-ly fit with what they do.”
Case-IH also gave consid-eration to the cart, he said, “but their contract had way too many clauses in their favor to suit me.”
So what does the future hold?
“We’re taking it one day at a time,” Standley said with a smile, “but so far it’s all been good and we’ve had no drawbacks at all. We’re excited and hopeful for the future.”
Dave Fox/NorthCentral Illinois Ag MagCalvin and Beth Standley take a quick break next to their grain tillage cart after giving a field demonstration on their farm in Bureau County.
���CONTINUED FROM 35
AG Mag 37
T oday more than ever, people are interested in what’s in their food and how it’s grown.
Unfortunately, many people know little about agriculture – from my non-farm-ing neighbors here in Bureau County to those in more urban and suburban areas like Chicago.
I’ve been very interested in telling the story of agriculture and letting people know where their food comes from because misunderstandings and unan-swered questions can lead to distrust in common farming practices. Do you know what Bureau County farmers grow?Q 7.3 million bushels of soybeans
(2013).Q 53.8 million bushels of corn (2013).Q $28.7 million in livestock sales
(annually) – mostly from cattle and hogs.I’ve found that straightforward con-
versations and personal relationships can increase confidence in food and in farmers. The Illinois Soybean Associa-
tion supports the Illinois Farm Families initiative and U.S. Farmers and Ranch-ers Alliance (USFRA), which provide opportunities for farmers to connect with consumers and answer questions about food and farming.
For example, I attended a private screening of “Farmland,” a documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker James Moll, sponsored by Illinois Farm Families and USFRA. The movie offers an intimate, first-hand glimpse into the lives of six young farmers and ranchers across the United States, chronicling their high-risk/high-reward jobs and their passion for
a way of life that has been passed down from generation to generation.
Influential Chicago-area bloggers and Illinois Farm Families Field Moms attended and then participated in a panel discussion with Illinois farmers. I visited with movie-goers before and after the screening to answer additional questions one-on-one.
One Chicago blogger who’s toured several Illinois farms through the Illi-nois Farm Families Field Mom program wrote, “The film does a good job of de-mystifying aspects of the industry by opening up the gates and parading viewers through the barns and fields of America.”
Some Chicago-area moms are visiting the barns and fields of Illinois them-selves and sharing their experiences through their own blogs and the Illinois Farm Families blog at www.WatchUs-Grow.org.
Telling agriculture’s story fosters trust in farming
The farmers market in LaSalle at Hegeler Park is relatively new, having been around just a few years. However, it draws farmers from throughout the Illinois Valley area to bring their wares for an already faithful clientele on LaSalle’s northeast side.
Louise Stahnke of Plow Creek Farms and Bakery in Tiskilwa has been a longtime operator at farmers markets throughout NorthCentral Illinois and just this year added the LaSalle market to her schedule. On a rainy day at the market, she’s under her tent with breads, jellies and cook-ies spread out before her, all made from scratch from the farm’s garden. A teenager works the vegetable side, selling fresh rhu-barb, radishes and lettuce.
“It’s just a good, healthy business,” Stahnke said. “I’ve managed the bakery about 12 years, and I don’t want to work that hard at a storefront. We’ve just slowly expanded as we’ve had people to help.”
Mickie Pellegrini Is a regular customer at the LaSalle market, stopping in near-ly every week.
“It’s fresh, healthy and delicious,” Pel-legrini said. “It’s local, so you know it’s fresh.”
Paul Salander and his son, Ethan, sell lettuce and spinach at their stand, but their main crop is popcorn, with sev-eral varieties of homegrown kernels on the table. Salander’s main market is in Mendota, but the LaSalle market has been good for them.
“I’ve been doing this for 8 years,” Saland-er said. “When my dad died, I turned the farm in a different direction. With farm-ing the way it is in Illinois, I had limited resources to expand. I decided to look at a way to make each acre count, and that was with value-added crops. The down-side is it takes a lot more labor. It’s actually pretty easy to grow corn and soybeans, but crops like this are a little bit harder.”
Salander grows 30 different crops for farmers markets, and he said each has its own demands. When he’s not work-ing in his fields or the market, Salander reads up on ways he can organically increase production.
One recent customers at the market was the organizer of this year’s markets,
Kara Garten.“I’m just an intern at City Hall, and
when the woman who organized the market couldn’t do it anymore, I did it,” Garten said. “I go pretty routinely to markets. It’s locally grown and fresh.”
‘Fresh, healthy and delicious’Hegeler Park’s farmers market brings out vendors, buyers
Ken Schroeder/NorthCentral Illinois Ag MagA worker from Plow Creek Farms and Bakery in Tiskilwa sells strawberries and blueberries to Jim Rapp of Princ-eton at a recent farmers market.
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40 Summer 2014
Farmers ForumWITH DIXIE SCHROEDER/NORTHCENTRAL ILLINOIS AG MAG
Bob Beutke, Rutland“Right now, farm prices and costs are
issues. Our costs go up each year, piece by piece, and yet farm prices are tied to the market and are in flux. We don’t get a fair price for that.”
Gary Bruch, Granville“One of the things we have to do to
remain profitable is to teach or educate people as to what our needs are, that we are trying to be responsible to them and to the environment. It’s tough to be able to keep up with technology.”
Ken Beck, Mendota“It goes from moment to moment in
regards to the prices, in regards to the grain commodity prices. Now we are heading to more uncertainty. We are very cautious at the moment. The future does not look as bright as it did a few years ago. With the regulations that are coming together, it is troublesome. We in agri-culture have been pretty much sheltered throughout the last few generations. The people ... are about three to four genera-tions removed from knowing what actu-ally happens on farms today. There is no connection. The USDA label has been
known worldwide for years, but today that isn’t enough.”
Fred Seville, Leland“I would say that all the regulations
coming down on us are an issue. More and more this happens, for animals, for plants, for anything.”
Mike Kelsey, Granville“Risk management. A farmer must be
covered with appropriate crop insurance to cover your cost, as far as working goes.”
What is the biggest challenge facing
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Mike KelseyFred SevilleKen BeckGary BruchBob Beutke
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Alex T. Paschal/NorthCentral Illinois Ag MagRandy Faber actively uses test plots for his Pioneer seed corns on his farm in rural Sublette in Lee County. Faber said seed corns that are drought tolerant help to protect crops from dry growing seasons. “In a dry year, our yields don’t suffer too much, and that has to do with seed companies doing an excellent job protecting us,” he said.
BY DONNA BARKERFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
U nlike in recent years, drought conditions are not an overwhelming concern so far this year for Illinois farmers.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor for Illinois, only 2.82 percent of the state was experiencing any level of abnormally dry or moderate drought con-ditions by mid-June. That area covers portions of Carroll, Whiteside, Rock Island and Mercer coun-ties in the northwestern part of Illinois, along the
Iowa state line. The rest of Illinois showed no signs of drought or abnormally dry conditions.
Q�Q�Q
Quad Cities’ WQAD News 8 meteorologist James Zahara said soil moisture does become a concern each year for farm-ers. Shortages in precipitation, changes in evapo-transpira-tion, and reduced levels of groundwater can create stress and problems for crops. Fortunately, the early part of this 2014 growing season was good news for farmers, he said.
AN END TO THE
Drought concerns have been nixed, for now, in IllinoisDRY RUN?
CONTINUED ON 42�
42 Summer 2014
“Even though in the short-term, subsoil moisture lev-els have been dry in spots, the early spring rainfall has helped replenish the soil moisture that was hard hit the past couple of years,” Zahara said.
Zahara said droughts are frequently billion-dollar weather events and one of the top three threats to the world population (along with famine and flooding). Locally, for the past couple of years, the Quad Cities area has experienced some form of drought conditions. How-ever, that trend seems to be breaking as this growing sea-son advances, he said.
The meteorologist said the outlook through August did show signs that the weather and moisture pattern might be a bit more active, espe-cially when compared to previous years. With the more active weather pattern, tem-peratures are expected to be at or below normal during the three-month summer period.
Even further out is the likelihood of an El Nino
event devel-oping later this year, Zahara said. That could mean areas around the Midwest this winter could experience a 180-degree turn from last winter, with above-normal temperatures and a lack of subsoil mois-ture stored in the ground.
“But time will tell,” he said.Reports from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and Illinois farm experts showed a so-far, so-good outlook for crops in Illinois. After a wet and cool spring, which caused a late planting season for area farmers, the Agricultural Statistics Service in Springfield reported 76 per-cent of the corn crop to be in good-to-excellent condition by mid-June and 72 percent of soybeans in good-to-excellent condition. However, the most critical part of the growing sea-son was still ahead, according to University of Illinois farm economist Darrel Good.
���CONTINUED FROM 41
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No one would suggest that the Midwest is in a drought this growing season; in fact, Randy Faber, a farmer in Sublette in Lee County, said recently that fields might be a little too moist – thanks to summer storms that have swept through the area.
But how do farmers prepare for drought, just in case?
Faber uses a cultimulcher, which helps to seal moisture in his soil after tillage.
He’s lucky, though, he says. The soil near his farm in Sublette is denser, capable of holding moisture better than other parts of Lee, Whiteside, and Bureau counties, where soil can be sandier.
Drought-proof farming?Hybrids help
crops to survive prolonged dryness
Alex T. Paschal/NorthCentral Illinois Ag MagRandy Faber, who farms in rural Sublette in Lee County, has as many as 120 different varieties of corn planted on his 900 acres. With cross pollination, that number jumps to about 400, he said.
CONTINUED ON 44�
44 Summer 2014
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In those areas, farmers are more likely to install com-plicated irrigation systems, which – with corn prices as high as they’ve been, he says – pretty much pay for them-selves.
Science, too, is positively affecting the crop yield dur-ing times of drought. Both Pioneer and Syngenta offer drought-tolerant hybrid seed selected specifically for their dry-weather traits, like roots that dig deep into the soil, or stomata that close early in the growing cycle – thus retaining mois-ture. Combining plants with those more drought-toler-ant traits with other, high-yield corn varieties makes for crops that are better able to perform well during stretches of drought.
Emerson Nafziger, a pro-fessor of crop sciences at the Univerity of Illinois, explains:
“Today’s hybrids are improved for stress tol-erance, which includes tolerance to lack of soil moisture, in part because they are selected and grown under high populations, which confers the ability to compete better for water,” Nafziger says. “Hybrids are more vigorous and they grow faster, with larger root systems. This makes them better able to extract water.”
Faber uses Pioneer seed corn.
“There are a lot of seed corns getting to be drought tolerant, and they certainly do work,” he says. “In a dry year, our yields don’t suffer too much, and that has to do with seed companies doing an excellent job protecting us.”
Monsanto offers a different, genetically modified approach to drought-proofing their crops. Its Droughtgard trait, Nafziger explains, incorporates a gene that causes the plant to cut down on water loss rate for a certain period of time – when it’s dry just around pollination time.
The Droughtgard corn is targeted mostly toward farmers in drier regions of the country, and not in the corn belt much at all, Nafziger says.
When it comes to live-stock farmers, the best way to prepare for drought is to stockpile, Faber says. (In addition to corn and soybeans, he has a herd of stock cows.)
“I’m super conscien-tious about trying to have enough feed around in case it does turn out dry,” he says. “We’ve had some concerns in the past few years, so we’ve got plenty of pastures, and I always carry enough feed. You get prepared by stockpil-ing enough feed to get you through a dry year.”
���CONTINUED FROM 43
Alex T. Paschal/NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag To supplement his cattle feed, Randy Faber mows ditches and waterways for livestock on his farm in rural Sublette in Lee County.
AG Mag 45
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Growing to Serve Today’s Farmer
I’m also working on a proj-ect to tell the story of agricul-ture at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution. The exhibit, American Enterprise, will show how industry, man-ufacturing and agriculture move through history togeth-er, and will help visitors understand how advances in agriculture supply our food. This exhibit is scheduled to open in May 2015.
Internet research, films and museum exhibits help tell our story, but firsthand experience makes the strongest impact. For Bureau County residents, the story of agriculture is a local one, making firsthand experience a real possibility.
Bureau County farmers can make an impact in our own communities. As tractors roll through the fields, an open-door policy makes a differ-ence in how people perceive farming. Farmers should, and many already do, wel-come folks to the farm. But conversation is a two-way street. It is easy to fall into farmer-speak. I forget that my idea of an elevator (grain facility) may be very differ-
ent from someone else’s idea of an elevator (easier to take than the stairs).
For those who don’t farm, where do you go for answers to your questions about food and farming? Consider local farmers as the first source. After all, you know us. Our kids attend school together, and we shop at the same grocery stores. Ask us your questions, or ask if you can visit a farm. Just remember that this time of year, we’re very busy.
Experiences with Illinois farmers help us become more credible than the misguided information often found online and in mainstream media. As farmers, we want to be a trusted resource for food decisions or for forming opinions about agricultural practices.
Have questions about tell-ing your story or looking for answers from a local source? The Illinois Farm Families website, www.WatchUsGrow.org, is a great place to start.
Sharon Covert is director of the Illinois Soybean Associa-tion and a soybean farmer from Tiskilwa.
���CONTINUED FROM 37
BY KATHLEEN A. SCHULTZFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
You gotta see them chore!YouTube sensations The
Peterson Farm Bros., whose hilarious ag parodies of famous songs – such as Katy Perry’s “Roar,” which they turned into “Chore” – have brought them more than 23 million views from more than 200 countries over the past 3 years, will perform at this year’s Corn Picker Reunion 2014 near Walnut.
The three brothers, Greg, 23, Nathan, 20, and Kendal Peterson, 17, hail from Assa-ria, Kansas, where they work the family farm and, in their spare time, advocate for agriculture.
They also tour, and sell merchandise tied to their videos, proceeds from which go into their college fund and their local food bank.
They have a website, www.petersonfarmbros.com, and a Facebook page. In addition to their popular parodies, the boys also produce infor-mational videos, entertain-ment videos, and “Life of a Farmer” documentaries.
Kevin Larkey, father of Walnut’s old-fashioned farm festival, has been Facebook friends with the brothers for more than a year. He said he admires not only their talent, but their youthful enthusi-asm and the way they are bringing their ag education agenda to young people.
In fact, he’s working with Greg, the trio’s main ag advo-cate, to have him give a talk while he’s here to local FFA members and other students.
“I try to bring something new to our picking show every year,” Larkey said. “I like the idea that they’re
showing the youth what they do, with entertainment, so it doesn’t feel like it’s a total lecture.”
Corn picking is an old-fashioned harvesting meth-od. A tractor drives through the field with an implement attached at the front that picks, husks and deposits the corn into a wagon pulled behind the tractor.
This will be the fourth year
for the Corn Picker Reunion, which will be from from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 17 and 18 on the John and Judy Bolz farm at the northeast edge of Walnut. (Turn north onto Rodney Avenue from state Route 92 in Walnut and fol-low all the way down the gravel lane to parking.)
A $5 donation covers admission for both days for ages 13 and older.
Alan J. StremlauSenior Vice President /CEO2IÀFH�������������&HOO�������������[email protected]
BY JERMAINE PIGEEFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
Illinois lawmakers didn’t tackle a lot of issues affecting agriculture during the recent legislative session.
“It was a quiet year on the agriculture front,” said Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon. “Most of the session was focused on budgets and taxes. Because of that, there has been a pretty minor impact in most cases for farmers and the agriculture industry.”
But Demmer said the Legislature did pass a pilot program to authorize univer-sities in Illinois to research industrial hemp.
Hemp was banned in the 1970s and labeled a con-trolled substance, since it is related to marijuana. It con-tains a small amount of THC, which is the chemical that produces a high for mari-juana users.
“It’s not allowed to be grown in Illinois because of its close ties to marijuana,” Demmer said. “The law this year allows public univer-sities in Illinois who have agriculture programs to con-duct pilot project testing for hemp.”
Farmers would be more interested in a couple of things that didn’t pass: a repeal of the sales tax exemption on business pur-chases and regulations on wind turbine construction.
State Rep Donald Mof-fitt, R-Gilson, said that tax exemption on agriculture inputs is a benefit to farm-ers.
“A couple different times in the past year or two, leg-islators have tried to remove sales tax [exemption] on agriculture inputs,” Moffitt said. “If that were to hap-pen, that would put Illinois
farmers at a major disadvan-tage.”
If an agriculture purchase is related to the farming pro-cess, it is exempt from sales tax, Demmer said.
“The exemption basi-cally says if you went out and bought fertilizer to put on your yard, you pay sales tax on it,” Demmer said. “If a farmer goes and buys fertil-izer so they can grow crops, since its part of that produc-tion cycle, they do not have to pay sales tax on it.”
If the tax exemption were to be removed, Moffitt said, it would drive up costs for farmers. Because of that, Moffitt believes farmers would buy supplies across state lines.
Quiet session in Springfield on agriculture
Alex T. Paschal/NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, speaks Oct. 29, 2013, during a town hall meeting at Dixon City Hall. Demmer said “it was a quiet year on the agriculture front” in the Illinois Legislature, which, he said, was mostly focused on budgets and taxes.
CONTINUED ON 47�
AG Mag 47
“If the sales tax exemption is lost, it may cause farm-ers to go out of state for new equipment,” Moffitt said. “We were able to stop that and not let it advance.”
Demmer said consumers would be affected, too, by higher prices on farm goods.
“I will continue to oppose removing that exemption because it will make farm-ing a lot more expensive,” Demmer said. “It would end up raising the prices on food and increase the price of fuel because you are using corn to generate ethanol right now.”
Some lawmakers have
talked about removing the exemption because it would mean more revenue – from farmers and other businesses – for the state’s troubled budget.
Kevin Semlow, Illinois Farm Bureau director of state leg-islation, said the Legislature also failed to act on wind tur-bine regulations.
“We feel there should be standards for the construc-tion of those,” Semlow said. “The Department of Agricul-ture has a mitigation plan that we can put in place so there are standards in place across the state. However, this was not successful in getting done.”
���CONTINUED FROM 46
The Funny Farm
Submitted by Joan Gascoigne:I’m not sure Lucy was paying attention when I
went over the farm safety rules!
Contribute to The Funny FarmIf the mountain won’t come to Mo-haaaa-med ....NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag is looking for fun-on-the-farm
photos, like this one from Whiteside County, of Joan Gas-coigne’s acrobatic, unacrophobic goat, Lucy, for The Funny Farm, a new photo feature to be published in Ag Mag. Email your submissions, with captions and a phone number
for questions and verification purposes only, to: [email protected] Ag Mag.
Chris M Kieffer, AAMS®Financial Advisor200 Ace Road Suite 5Princeton, IL 61356815-875-6565
Member SIPCETY-4091B-A
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Drought and cold weather may keep you from getting the best results from your crops. Inflation and other economic factors could keep you from getting the best results from your investments.
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We Want to Help Grow Your Portfolio.
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Chris M Kieffer, AAMS®Financial Advisor.
200 Ace Road Suite 5Princeton, IL 61356815-875-6565
Drought and cold weather may keep you from getting the best results from your crops. Inflation and other economic factors could keep you from getting the best results from your investments.
While we can’t control the weather or the markets, we can review your investments and help you prepare for retirement.
We Want to Help Grow Your Portfolio.
Call today to schedule a complimentary portfolio review.
www.edwardjones.com
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Chris M Kieffer, AAMS®Financial Advisor.
200 Ace Road Suite 5Princeton, IL 61356815-875-6565
Grow your Portfolio.
Drought and cold weather may keep you from getting the best results from your crops. Inflation and other economic factors could keep you from getting the best results from your investments.
While we can’t control the weather or the markets, we can review your investments and help you prepare for retirement.
We Want to Help Grow Your Portfolio.
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Member SIPCBRT-4549A-A
Chris M Kieffer, AAMS®Financial Advisor.
200 Ace Road Suite 5Princeton, IL 61356815-875-6565
Drought and cold weather may keep you from getting the best results from your crops. Inflation and other economic factors could keep you from getting the best results from your investments.
While we can’t control the weather or the markets, we can review your investments and help you prepare for retirement.
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Member SIPCBRT-4549A-A
Chris M Kieffer, AAMS®Financial Advisor.
200 Ace Road Suite 5Princeton, IL 61356815-875-6565
Drought and cold weather may keep you from getting the best results from your crops. Inflation and other economic factors could keep you from getting the best results from your investments.While we can’t control the weather or the markets, we can review your investments and help you prepare for retirement.
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48 Summer 2014
BY KEN SCHROEDERFor NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag
It’s a farmer’s dilemma.To control weeds, a farmer adds a herbicide
to his spraying routine. Over time, weeds grow resistant to the herbicide, which often leads to more herbicide used and a faster build-up of resistance in the weed. Accord-ing to the International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds, 25 different species of weeds in Illinois have developed resistance to herbicides such as atrazine or glyphosate.
There’s now a way around the problem. No, not increasing the herbicide – just improving the delivery medium.
At Bonucci Farms in Princeton, Ag Focus LLC President/founder Brian Freed pro-duces a fluid that has been called “holy water” among local farmers; its actual name is Blue Max.
Blue Max – ‘It’s back to basics, and it all works’
Ken Schroeder/NorthCentral Illinois Ag MagBrian Freed shows the individual controls for each of the filtration tanks for Blue Max. A nearby computer regulator will alert Freed via a self-programmed smart-phone application if there are any problems in the system. Freed, president and founder of Ag Focus LLC, devised a fluid that local farmers call “holy water” that controls weeds.
Holy terror on weeds
CONTINUED ON 49�
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“As farmers, it’s incumbent upon us to try to feed the world,” Steve Bonucci said. “If something doesn’t work, we can come to that conclusion pretty quick. We’ve been using this for 4 years, and we see the value in it. We think it’s been helpful in adding quality bushels to our production.”
Typically, spray water comes from a well and is hard from alkaline with iron and other contaminants. A typi-cal water source has a pH measur-ing between 7 and 8.5. Blue Max has a pH between 3 and 4, which most plants are more receptive to. Pro-ducing Blue Max starts with regular water.
“We take out all of the hardness – the calcium, the magnesium and the iron,” Freed said. “It’s all eliminated with any alkalinity and any sodium that’s in there. It’s pure. That way, when you put any products in [that], you’re applying to the crop, it works better.”
Resistance to certain chemicals some-times creates a tendency to use more product, Bonucci said.
“This takes you away from that because the way a plant develops resistance is by surviving an event,” he explained. “We’ve found by follow-ing the proscribed application, using this water for solubility, that it kills the
weeds and delays the amount of time a resistance might occur.”
Bonucci Farms manager Rod Grunloh said that after 4 years, the resistance problem is gone.
“We have no re-sprays,” he reported. “We’d go out and spray normally in the past. You’d go out later and ask, ‘Why didn’t it work?’ We don’t have that problem today, because we know we did right with just good, clean water. It’s back to basics, and it all works.”
Making Blue Max requires that the source water be analyzed for impuri-ties, then the water passes through a filtration process that removes each impurity individually.
Freed was told by many of his peers he wouldn’t be able to produce large vol-umes of the liquid or be able to process it without using a lot of space. Taking that as a challenge, he has assembled the equipment in a container the size of a small semitrailer.
Much of the technology is one-of-a-kind, with many pieces of equipment available on the market re-purposed for the processing. In addition, with the computer software installed in the system, Freed is able to monitor the process with a smartphone or iPad, sav-ing money by eliminating the need for someone to continually monitor the production and thereby keeping down
the cost – and price.The system at Bonucci Farms will pro-
duce 40,000 gallons in a 24-hour period. One of the last steps in the process is adding a blue dye to the water to make it easier to use.
“I used to not put a color in there. I had a guy mixing one day with glasses as thick as a soda bottle,” Freed said. ‘He was standing about 15 to 20 feet from the tank he was filling, and there was a sight gauge. I saw him mixing, and then he reached over and grabbed a bottle of blue dye, and shot it in the mix. I asked him why he did that, and he said, ‘It’s so clean, I couldn’t see the mark on the sight gauge unless I throw in some color.’ It’s also an indication that once you see that, we’ve done the treatment.”
There’s another additive that helps the water stay on the plant when it’s sprayed. A food additive called gwar gum keeps droplets from bouncing off the leaves without affecting the pH of the mixture, allowing the plants to get the most from the mixture and making for a more efficient coverage.
Blue Max is made at several places throughout the state and is available to individual farmers through Bonucci Farms and some local FS dealers for 30 cents a gallon. Blue Max can be picked up at those locations or deliv-ered.
���CONTINUED FROM 48
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50 Summer 2014
S ome days I’ll win, some days I’ll lose ... at least that’s what my mother always told me.
When I was a young calf, my mother would tell me stories of the legacy our family has to this farm, the champion legacy. My mom was a champion; my grandma was a champion; and even my sister was a champion ... and now I’m expected to be a champion. Before I can be a champion, though, I have to make it to the show ring. The ring will be a part of my story, because my life will be a constant run for the purple.
I was born on a cold, snowy, winter evening. At first my mom wrapped her body around mine and cuddled me to keep warm. In the morning, a human came and found me. He weighed me, vaccinated and helped me nurse on my mom, so I would stay healthy. The first few weeks of my life was spent in a pen with a few other cows and calves, until I joined even more pairs. I have always known who my mother was, but I never knew my father. I ask about him
from time to time, but my mother just tells me that I am a product of modern science. I have heard that my dad was quite a champion, too.
Winter transitions to summer, and I find myself getting bigger and stronger. I live a normal calf life, chasing butter-flies, hanging out with the other calves, playing tag and getting what they call the routine vaccinations. I keep notic-ing, though, that my older sister keeps disappearing on the weekends. Maybe she is going to shows like my mom said she did. I also notice that people are coming to look at me. They talk with my human for awhile, and then
they leave. My mom said not to worry, though, because people are beginning to notice me.
I find summer transforming into fall, and it is time to say goodbye to mom because it is weaning day. I am sorted to a different pen, away from most of my other friends. In this pen many things change. The humans put me on a halter and expect me to stand still and then walk. What do they think I am, a dog? After a while though, I just give in and do what they want. They have also started spraying cold water and soap on me. This was kind of a shock at first, but I kind of like it now. Then they started to blow the cold water off of me with what they called a blow dryer. This so called blow dryer blew warm air that felt good and made my hair fluffy. After they were done with the blow dryer, they brushed me out and put some good smelling spray in my hair. I was also fed different food that tasted sweet and crunchy, but I kind of like it.
Champion legacy: The ‘inside story’ of winning in the show ring
JESSICA CARLSON
Seventh-grader at Malden Grade School
CONTINUED ON 51�
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Fall turned into winter, and winter turned to spring. It is warmer now, and I can tell it is time to get seri-ous. We are getting a bath almost every day, and they are using more products on our hair. I am introduced to a show halter that is leather instead of rope, and a show stick that they use to rub my belly. Now instead of just standing still, they expect me to be able to stand still in a special pose. I am start-ing to like all this pampering though, especially since I get to go into an air conditioned building every day while everyone else is out in the heat.
Spring turns to summer and it is time for the first show. My human loads me into a trailer, and we set out on our journey. When we first arrive at the show I am very excited. There are many different people, calves and noises. We are at this new place for a few days, but one morning they wake me up when it is still dark. Then they give me a bath and blow dry me. When they finally feed me it is just starting to get light outside. I have decided that it is show day, and the mood is serious. I go into a grooming chute, where the humans make my hair look good; then they put a show halter on me, and we head to the show ring.
As I approach the show ring I get more and more nervous. When I see my competition, I start to doubt that I could win. My human
and I walk into the ring together; we are a team. The judge looks over all of us and places me first! Shortly after that we went back into the ring for the breed champion drive. Again the judge looks over all of us, and walks over to my human and shakes her hand. We won! We are mov-ing on to the grand cham-pion drive!
We go back to our stall for a while, for final touch-ups and primping. We stay here for only a short time and head back to the show ring. Now there are calves that look different than I look; they must be differ-ent breeds. We all walk into the show ring, and I start to wonder whether I can win and live up to the cham-pion legacy. We have been in the show ring for a long time. The judge keeps look-ing at me and then back at another calf. Then the judge approaches me and gives me the grand cham-pion slap on the back and shakes my human’s hand. The day finally came – the day I lived up to the cham-pion legacy.
Now I stand before my calf telling her of the champion legacy, the same thing my mother told me when I was a young calf. And as I look at the twinkle in her eye as she walks into the sunlit pasture, I know she has the heart of a champion.
Jessica Carlson is a seventh-grader at Malden Grade School and is an instrumen-tal part in maintaining her grandfather’s cattle farm in rural Malden.
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