Silent Shade Planting Company March 2015 Volume 3, Issue 1

422 Old Silver City Rd.

P.O. Box 534

Belzoni, MS 39038

Phone: 662-247-1214

Fax: 662-247-1217

TF: 800-844-1213

Find us online! Silent Shade Planting Company

P.O. Box 534

Belzoni, MS 39038

Jeremy Jack

SSPC Snapshots—January-March 2015

Granular—Big Data is a Big Deal

Crop Mix 2015 As we roll into another season, we face the difficult decision of what to plant. Some years, this decision process is easier than others. There are many factors that we consider: rotation, management, soil types, markets, planting, harvest and storage ca-pacity. Also, when the market demands a certain crop, we try to grow the maximum amount of acres within our constraints. The process starts out with the low hanging fruit. First, all rice acres from the previous year are typically converted to soybean acres because this crop rotation is an effective component of weed manage-ment in rice production. Second, economics comes into play. Stacie Koger handles the marketing of our crops. She studies current movements

in the ag commodity market, and with the help of her advisor at Top Third Ag Marketing, she makes recommenda-tions to Jeremy Jack on crop acreage based on market demand. From there, we group the crops by soil types and try to pick one or two crops per farm to ease labor and equipment management during plant-ing and harvest. Cotton, corn and pea-nuts usually demand the sandier ground while rice and soybeans prefer the clay soil types. While this is a very broad overview of a process that takes months of dis-cussions (and arguments) amongst our management team, our goal is to end with a great #cropmix2015.

#cotton2014

#corn2014

#rice2014

2015 Conservation Systems Corn Farmer of the Year

Trey and Stacie Koger at Granular headquarters in San Francisco.

Staff training on the new Granular app.

Last year, we were intro-duced to Granular. A com-pany based in San Francis-co with a mission of creat-ing software that makes the world’s farms the most effi-

cient they can be. Not only have several of our peers highly recommended Granu-lar’s software services, but Granular is also backed by three of Silicon Valley’s most inventive and reputable capital firms: Andreesen Horrowitz, Google Ven-tures, and Khlosa Ventures. I will say it has been a long time since I have been this excited about software in agriculture. Those close to me under-stand I have always been a frustrated computer geek. For a long time, I have been looking for an “all-in-one” software product that can take our data collection during the farm year and translate it into useable statistics to make us a more effi-cient farm.

I wasn’t “SOLD” on Granular by some hot shot sales man stopping by our office. Instead, we heard certain operations were working on this new program, and we actually contacted the staff and asked to set up a meet-ing. At this time, the program was still very basic, but Granular’s vision of its final software product and its staff con-firmed to me that we had made the right decision to contact them. While I have been utilizing precision Ag soft-ware for years, I have never seen a product that even attempted to do what they were going to do. This ERP sys-tem was the “all-in-one” system I had been looking for. Since then, we have incorporated Granular into our operation. I believe that it will not only be a game changer for us, but for the entire agriculture in-dustry. Keep your eyes on this one, it’s really cool.

Willard visiting DC for American Soybean Association meeting.

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Spring Burndown, 2015 Good Weather and Small Weeds Equals Good Weed Control

so we can plant into soil void of winter weeds. Overall, we have had less winter weed vegetation than in previous years. Perhaps this is because we were able to conduct so much fall tillage late into the fall months. Our fall appli-cation of Boundary herbicide has done a wonderful job of managing winter weeds on our light soils, as these fields are still clean and are ready to plant. Good weather dur-ing stretches of January and Feb-ruary have allowed us to spray a lot of fields with Gramoxone,

Dr. Trey Koger Senior Agronomist

product of choice. It is our goal to spray our rice acres as well as our peanut acres soon—that is, if the March rains, snow and ice would subside for a while so we can get our crops planted.

Why is 4H So Important to Us?

Emma Grace and the “Tankster” after finishing 7th in showmanship in the

State 4H show in Jackson.

Few activities in today’s busy world bring so many important val-ues together in a synergistic way like 4H. Responsibility, work ethic, and animal husbandry are just a few of the major values that 4H brings together into one fun-filled activity for the entire family. Emma Grace Koger had a wonderful 4H show season this year with her pigs (names: Rascal, Pepper, and Tank). Tank was her favorite as

Watch out this fall and winter for both Audrey and Emma Grace Koger as they spend time showing their pigs and being involved with the Humphrey’s County 4H pro-gram. If you want to see more infor-mation regarding 4H, go to Face-book and visit Humphreys County 4H Livestock Association or visit msucares.com/4H_Youth.

Silent Shade Planting Company is proud to be a sponsor of the

World Catfish Festival! March 28, 2015 from 10 a.m.—4 p.m.

Live musical entertainment throughout the day with headline act—

Blackjack Billy

Arts and crafts booths set up throughout downtown

Special sales at downtown vendors

Great food (including fried catfish, fries and hushpuppies)

Free KIDS ZONE

5K Run/Walk at 8 a.m.

For more information go to www.belzonims.com/

Meet Our New Employees

We would like to introduce eight new employees who are starting this new crop year with us. Each of these employees came with var-ied experience, interests and skills, and we are so thrilled to have them a part of our team. Below are pic-tures and three quick facts about our new team members.

Every year is different with re-spect to winter weed manage-ment and apply-ing our “burn-down” herbicides

2,4-D, and Leadoff herbicides. This mixture has effectively con-trolled winter weeds and has done a wonderful job of control-ling difficult to manage weeds such as Italian Ryegrass, horse-weed, cutleaf, evening primrose, and many other winter broadleaf weeds. January and February’s mild weather has also allowed us to control weeds while they were small and actively growing. Every year is different, but thus far we have had an excellent burndown season. We still have some lingering rice and peanut acres to spray and manage win-ter weeds. It may be difficult to apply graminicide products such as Select on our rice acres to manage Italian Ryegrass due to its plant-back restriction to rice planting. Gramoxone may be the

Successful burndown results.

her and the “Tankster” spent a lot of quality time through the winter months preparing for showman-ship at the county, district, and state 4H shows. Emma Grace’s showmanship improved from last year, and she is already getting ready for the jackpot shows this fall and the 4H shows this winter. Emma Grace would not have the opportunity to show pigs and be involved with 4H if it were not for the hard work and dedication of two very special men. Rick Ainsworth and Wallace Outlaw spend countless hours at the pig barn and abroad finding the best pigs to continue to develop their breeding stock. We want to give a special thanks to Mr. Rick and Mr. Wallace for providing Emma Grace the opportunity to work with them and their pigs through 4H.

Name: Erion Hooker From: Belzoni, MS Start Date: 9/24/14 Position: Farm Employee About me:

Name: Cordary Scott From: Belzoni, MS Start Date: 2/11/15 Position: Farm Employee About me:

Name: Eugene Retief From: South Africa Start Date: 2/27/15 Position: H2A About me:

Name: Shaun Nell From: South Africa Start Date: 2/27/15 Position: H2A About me:

Name: Hanno Pienaar From: South Africa Start Date: 2/27/15 Position: H2A About me:

Name: Andre Vermeulen From: South Africa Start Date: 2/27/15 Position: H2A About me:

Name: Harm Venter From: South Africa Start Date: 2/27/15 Position: H2A About me:

Name: Renzo Van Leeuwen From: South Africa Start Date: 2/27/15 Position: H2A

1. Has a great sense of humor. 2. Favorite hobby: spending time

with family. 3. Loves to eat.

1. Graduated from Humphreys County High School.

2. Excelled in football and baseball during high school.

3. Loves to watch or play sports.

1. Has an outgoing personality. 2. Favorite hobby: hunting & fishing. 3. Loves farming and new challenges.

1. Favorite hobby: riding his bike. 2. Loves hanging out with friends. 3. Favorite food: Anything with

meat.

1. Never been afraid of hard work. 2. Loves farming. 3. Favorite food: T-bone steak with

fries

1. Started his own business at age 21. 2. Has a twin sibling. 3. Favorite food: anything his dad

cooks.

1. Bronze medalist in pole vaulting at his high school.

2. Favorite music: Afrikaans 3. Favorite hobby: fishing and hang-

ing with friends.

1. The only boy in his family with four sisters.

2. Favorite hobby: biking and hunting. 3. Favorite food: any South African

Braai Vleis

Emma Grace in action at the state 4H show.