Andy's Angle

This might be a record - I'm going to talk about agronomics rather than politics for two weeks in a row ... I promise a return to your regularly scheduled punditry next week.

I wanted to spend some time discussing Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) this week because I saw a LOT of it last week on the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour. In fields from Western Indiana to Northern Iowa, this potentially yield-robbing disease appeared in everything from pockets of affected plants to entire fields impacted by SDS. Agronomists tell us that now is a critical time to scout soybean fields for Sudden Death Syndrome.

According to Ohio State University soybean experts Anne Dorrance and Pat Lipps, SDS is a fungal disease of the Fusarium variety. "Symptoms of SDS begin as small, bright, pale green to yellow circular spots on the leaves," the researchers point out. "As the disease progresses, brown to tan areas surrounded by chlorotic tissue develop in between the veins. More importantly, soybean plants with SDS also have substantial amounts of root decay and discoloration of roots and crown." When scouting fields for the disease last week, I observed varying stages of disease development, from early display of those symptomatic circular lesions, to fields where significant acreage displayed the characteristic brown tint of more developed SDS.

So what causes this disease? The fungus lives in the soil, meaning once a field is infected, a producer will be managing the disease for quite some time. Dorrance and Lipps tell us that some growing seasons will present higher levels of SDS thanks to Mother Nature. "Some of the factors that favor disease development include high soil moisture during the vegetative growth period and unseasonably cool temperatures prior to or during flowering and pod set." Gee, do those conditions sound familiar to anyone this year?

Agronomy Research Scientist Jim Trybom at Pioneer Hi-Bred International says SDS is a fairly troublesome disease often ranked second only to soybean cyst nematode (SCN) in causing decreased yields and economic loss.

"Because SDS is more weather-related, its impact and reach can vary year to year and area to area," says Jean Liu, Pioneer research scientist, soybean pathology. "This year in April, many areas had warm conditions, then two or three weeks of cooler weather in May. Growers who planted soybeans shortly before or during the period of cool, moist conditions (i.e., from late April to mid-May) need to pay attention, because SDS fungus can infect roots as early as seedling emergence. Early infection would aggregate the problem and cause greater yield reduction compared to late infection."

If you've observed SDS in your field, there isn't a lot you can do about it ... this growing season. The importance of scouting for SDS now is in doing effective preventative maintenance next growing season. "Growers must clearly understand the extent of infection in each of their fields to effectively manage SDS," Pioneer's Trybom says. "If SDS is identified, growers need to maintain the field history and select varieties with higher tolerance to SDS in the future. Variety selection and good field drainage are some of the best tools available to counter most disease threats."

In addition, Trybom recommends growers focus on planting the most problematic fields last, managing Soybean Cyst Nematode (SCN), improving field drainage, reducing compaction, evaluating tillage systems and reducing other stresses on the crop. The Ohio State researchers agree, listing resistant variety selection as the top management tool for SDS. They also recommend examining your crop rotation practices, considering a rotation that only puts soybeans in an affected field once every three years.

SDS isn't the end of the soybean production world. Some seasons, like this one, it will be worse than others.

Companies like Pioneer and Monsanto are diligently developing more traits to help farmers manage the disease, and seed companies across the country offer more resistant varieties each season. Scout your fields early and often, and good luck this harvest.

This video features my friends Sam & Laura Sutherly, who farm near Troy, Ohio. This is a great example of how to introduce folks to the people who raise and produce our food. Great work Sutherly family!

For the last eight years, I've spent a week each August as a scout on the ProFarmer Midwest Crop Tour. My first year, I was pressed into service by the National Association of Farm Broadcasting as a stringer reporting on each day's Tour findings. From that first Tour, I requested the assignment annually; the Tour is something of a "working vacation" for me. This week I'm once again out walking corn and soybean fields across the Cornbelt.

The Crop Tour isn't the only Tour of its kind, but it is certainly the largest and the most well known. Farmers take part in a wheat quality Tour in the plains earlier in the year, and I'm aware of smaller regional Tours in various states looking at the condition and progress of area crops. What makes the ProFarmer Tour unique, however, is its scope and its longevity. For the better part of two decades, crop scouts have walked the fields of the seven states that make up the overwhelming majority of corn and soybean production in the U.S.

The modern Tour traces back to much smaller affairs in the late 1980s. Today's effort includes two legs, one departing from Columbus, Ohio, and a western edition embarking from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The two groups of scouts meet in Austin, Minnesota, covering Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska along the way. Scouts travel routes that form a spider web configuration across the geography, with a group of three-four scouts taking each of roughly a dozen different routes from one state to the next. Along the way, they're stopping to scout fields roughly every 15-20 miles.

At each field stop along the way, scouts will gather data from adjacent corn and soybean fields, examining factors that will determine the corn yield and the productive potential of the soybeans. For corn, this means we're counting the number of ears in a 60-foot section of row, measuring the grain length of three of those ears, as well as the girth in kernel rows of that ear, and multiplying those numbers together in a "rough and dirty" yield calculation. We'll also gather information about the moisture content of the soil and relative health of the plants in the field.

For soybeans, we're not able to calculate a yield, per se, perhaps one of the most difficult things to explain to folks who've not taken the Tour themselves. With wide variability in maturity between fields, it's extremely difficult to determine a responsible yield calculation on soybeans in the third week of August. What we do measure is the number of pods per square yard, a figure that will give us some concept year over year of how that field might perform given an adequate finish to the growing season.

While the Tour won't be complete until after these lines go to press, I have a few observations that bear sharing. First, the corn crop is better than last year. In Ohio in particular, farmers got the crop in the ground earlier than last year, and the stands are by and large excellent. While there are definite and obvious pockets where corn was planted later, and then suffered from dry/hot weather through the pollination period, this crop appears to be much stronger than the 2009 edition.

Secondly, plant population matters. When I first went on the Tour, farmers were very interested in the size of the ears. Big, long ears, eight inches or better, were highly valued over the number of ears in a row. With eight years of scouting under my belt, I can tell you that 120 six-inch ears in 60' of row will yield a LOT more corn than 85 eight-inch ears in the same row. The more good ears you have in a field, the more corn you can harvest.

Finally, while the soybean crop is much healthier than last year, there's still along way to go before the crop is in the bin. We've walked fields this week still in full bloom. Those plants can still set more pods, meaning more beans. Without a good rain in the next week, however, those beans may not make any additional seeds, meaning fewer bushels.

Our Ohio Tour average, for example, indicated a 5.3 percent reduction in pods per yard from 2009, though I would say that's mostly due to differences in maturity over last year.

I highly recommend attending this Tour, or one like it. The opportunity to examine a dozen different fields over a four-day period is extremely enlightening. Likewise, the camaraderie with the three-dozen scouts who take the week to walk those fields is hard to discount.

I'm a Tour veteran, and proud of it. You can follow my Tour updates at Twitter.com/AndyVance, or on my blog at AndyVance.com.

I'm working late from my hotel room in Fishers, Indiana, our first stop on the ProFarmer Midwest Crop Tour. Day 1 took our band of merry men and maidens from Columbus to this suburb of Indianapolis via a dozen or so different routes across Western Ohio and Eastern Indiana. Along the way, scouts sampled corn and soybean fields every 15-20 miles, for a total of just under 90 different data points in Ohio alone.

The weather this year is perfect for the Crop Tour. The dews weren't as heavy, they burned off fairly quickly, the humidity wasn't as oppressive in the middle of the day, and by and large a scout didn't necessarily have to break a sweat to get the job done. This is my kind of Tour weather! For our group, which travelled due North from Columbus through Morrow, Crawford, Richland and Huron counties, then due West through Seneca, Wyandot, Hancock, Allen, and Van Wert counties, we saw some of the best corn in the state.

The crop is fairly well advanced, though as most of us already knew, there are basically two different crops to evaluate: the one planted in roughly the third week of April, and the one planted sometime after Mothers' Day. The early corn is by and large better than 200 bushels if it was managed anywhere near good. Folks who kept weed pressures at a minimum, which nearly all did, had no trouble getting North of 180-190 bushels per acre. In the one field we surveyed sub-150, pressures from Giant Ragweed (Glyphosate Resistant?) were significant, and I would presume to be a contributing factor. In the one field we sampled in Van Wert county at 155bu/ac, dryness was a key factor, as was early wetness. Late planting followed by dry weather is a recipe for crop stress.

The ProFarmer average for Ohio on 89 samples is 165.60 bu/ac, up 3.6% over last year's Tour average of 159.73, and well above the three year average Tour yield of 150.93.

Soybeans, on the other hand, were mostly later planted, and still very much growing and setting pods. The first samples we counted, from Morrow to Huron counties, were fairly mature, and set pods in the 1,200-1,500 pods/square yard range. As we turned West, however, the beans in many parts were still blooming, and had set perhaps 400-800 pods per yard. These beans were very, very healthy, and with the right amount of precipitation, should put on some additional pods and have great yield potential. If the remainder of the season is dry, however, all bets are off.

Several readers of my ongoing Tour coverage asked questions about soybean yield and corn kernel depth. I tackled these issues in a video on my Facebook page. My page also features pictures from the day's events for your viewing enjoyment. We'll have my day's interviews on BuckeyeAg.com first thing in the morning, and I'll have more from Bloomington, Illinois tomorrow night.

My thanks once again this year to Pioneer Hi-Bred International for sponsoring ABN Radio's coverage of the ProFarmer Midwest Crop Tour. Feel free to send me your questions, and stay tuned to all the above listed sources for the latest in how the crop looks across the Eastern Corn Belt!

The 2010 ProFarmer Midwest Crop Tour is officially underway!

I'm covering my seventh or eighth Tour this year, and I'm thrilled. This is my "working" vacation every summer, where I get away from the office and the ABN County Fair and Festival Tour Powered by Propane (and this year away from school, too!), and get to play crop scout for a week. The gist of the Tour is that 38 Crop Scouts on the Eastern leg spend the week crisscrossing Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota scouting corn and soybean fields. Meanwhile, our counterparts on the Western leg are covering South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota doing the same thing.

What are we looking for? Along with the general condition of the fields and the crop, we're specifically counting the number of soybean pods in a square yard, and performing a "rough and dirty" yield calculation on the corn fields. I'll be "live Tweeting" the Tour again this year, and uploading pictures and video on the ABN Facebook page. Additionally, we'll have exclusive audio on demand at ABNRadio.com featuring farmers, commodity brokers/traders, and other folks serving as Crop Scouts this week.

Finally, I'll offer some commentary each night right here on my blog. Between all those sources, you'll be as close to the Crop Tour as you can possibly get without actually getting in the truck and taking the trip. Which, by the way, I heartily recommend. As one of the "veterans" on Tour, I can tell you that this is one of the most enjoyable things I get to do all year long.

My first Crop Tour was during my tenure as Farm Director at WRFD-AM in Columbus. The National Association of Farm Broadcasting asked me to be the official NAFB representative on the Tour that year, and I've been touring ever since. For a kid who spent more time in the pasture than in between rows of field crops, it was a great opportunity to learn a lot more about corn and soybean production from great farmers all across the Cornbelt. Perhaps that social interaction, as much as anything, is one of the hallmarks of the Tour, and a key reason why I come back.

We have a large number of "rookies" on the Tour this year, but at least 18 of the Scouts on the Eastern leg this year are vets like me, and guys I keep in touch with through the social media universe. I'll share some of their stories throughout the week, and you'll get to hear their commentary in our exclusive audio coverage.

My thanks once again this year to Pioneer Hi-Bred International for sponsoring ABN Radio's coverage of the ProFarmer Midwest Crop Tour. Feel free to send me your questions, and stay tuned to all the above listed sources for the latest in how the crop looks across the Eastern Corn Belt!

I realize I'm writing this a few days post facto, but it's been a busy week, so indulge me. Lindsay and I were once again privileged to host the Ohio State Fair Sale of Champions. This marks the fourth year we've anchored the live television broadcast in partnership with the Ohio News Network. For us, this is the most important event of the year. As kids who grew up in 4-H and FFA, showing livestock is a key part of what shaped us into passionate advocates for Ohio agriculture. Most importantly, we value the work and dedication these students put into their projects, and in turn, the money they raise through the Sale of Champions for the Youth Reserve Program.

The Youth Reserve is one of the most impressive youth development programs in agriculture. Since its creation in the late '90s, the program has served to reward junior exhibitors who participate in the Ohio State Fair. Funds for the program come from the dollars received over a cap that is placed on the amount an exhibitor can receive from the Sale of Champions. The funds from the program are distributed among carcass contests, scholarships, the outstanding market exhibitor program, the outstanding breeding exhibitor program, showmanship, skillathons, 4-H and FFA. The Youth Reserve Program has awarded 20,000 youth exhibitors more than $1.5 million since its inception.

This year, the Sale was historic. Breaking six of eight records, shattering several of them in fact, and setting the highest Sale gross in Ohio State Fair history, it was a night we'll all remember for a long time.

For me, I'll also remember it as the night agribusiness really stepped to the plate. We welcomed several new buyers into the Sale this year, and welcomed home a few buyers from yesteryear, too. The Sale is known for the staunch support of perennial buyers like Kroger, Meijer, Charlie Cox, the Vivona Family, and my good friend Steve Rauch. These buyers have each supported the sale for at least a decade, along with several of their business partners like Park Farms or the Union Stock Yards.

In addition to those stalwarts, a trio of agribusiness firms made their presence known in a big way. JD Equipment, Elgin Service Center, and S&S Volvo/GMC purchased the Grand Champion Steer for $65,000. The highlight of the sale, the Grand Champion Steer has traditionally been the domain of heavyweights like Kroger and Rauch. This year, these three firms partnered to support Ohio agriculture, and tell the story of the farm kids who make this state special. JD, with stores in London, Lancaster, Marion, Washington Court House, Wilmington, and Easton (Columbus), made their Sale of Champions debut a few years back, but really made a splash by partnering with two new buyers.

Elgin Service Center, makers of the K Building and dealers in top shelf grain handling and storage equipment, had already decided they were taking part in the Sale this year long before the Fair started. S&S, selling trucks to several farms and agribusinesses in Northwestern Ohio, joined the group to congratulate their mutual customer the Heintz family. It always excites me when agricultural businesses get involved in the Sale of Champions, and especially when they take a run at the Champion Steer.

Likewise, we were once again thrilled to chat with Eileen Kale of Kale Marketing in Richwood. The Sale lost a key supporter, and more importantly we all lost a close friend, with the passing of Eileen's husband DeLyn this year. The Kale Family, including nephew Troy who is a major driving force in the family business, are one of my favorites at the Sale. In addition to the work they do at the Sale of Champions, Kale Marketing support numerous county fair sales as well. Eileen carried on the Kale legacy this year, and I'm especially excited that she's still pulling DeLyn's tractor on the OSTPA/NTPA circuits.

Along with making new friends, we welcomed back an old friend. Bob Evans Farms joined the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation to purchase the Reserve Grand Champion Market Barrow. Bob Evans himself is one of the "Founding Fathers" of the Sale. He, along with legends like Governor Jim Rhoades, Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, and livestock auctioneer Merlin Woodruff brought the sale from a simple idea to being one of the most famous livestock sales in the world. Absent from the festivities for several years, Farm Bureau leveraged a growing partnership with the restaurant chain and food company to get the Bob Evans name back in the ring. It was truly special, especially considering that Bob Evans purchased 20 out of 23 Champion Barrows at the Ohio State Fair from 1957- 1984. The company donated the meat from the barrow to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank.

Here's the full recap:

The results of the 2010 Sale of Champions are as follows:

Grand Champion Market Beef
Exhibited by: Danielle Heintz, Auglaize County
Purchased by: S & S Volvo and GMC Trucks of Lima, OH; J.D. Equipment; Elgin Service Center
Price: $65,000
Cap: $21,000

Reserve Grand Champion Market Beef*
Exhibited by: Andy Sloan, Richland County
Purchased by: Steve R. Rauch Excavating and Demolition
Price: $30,000
Cap: $10,000

Grand Champion Market Barrow
Exhibited by: Haley Clinker, Defiance County
Purchased by: Meijer, Inc.
Price: $42,000
Cap: $9,000

Reserve Grand Champion Market Barrow*
Exhibited by: Alec Bremek, Logan County
Purchased by: Bob Evans Farms; Ohio Farm Bureau
Price: $27,000
Cap: $6,000

Grand Champion Market Lamb*
Exhibited by: Rachael Overs, Logan County
Purchased by: The Kroger Company
Price: $45,000
Cap: $9,000

Reserve Grand Champion Market Lamb*
Exhibited by: Madison Banbury, Knox County
Purchased by: Kale Marketing; Huffman's Market; Burkhart Farm Center; Ohio Racing Industry; Direct Feeds
Price: $22,000
Cap: $6,000

Grand Champion Meat Chickens*
Exhibited by: Tyler Gray, Union County
Purchased by: The Kroger Company; Park Farms
Price: $27,000
Cap: $5,000

Reserve Grand Champion Meat Chickens*
Exhibited by: Garrett Shafer, Miami County
Purchased by: Concessions by Cox; Amusements of America; Event Marketing Strategies; Brian Shenkman
Price: $14,500
Cap: $3,000

2010 total sale: $272,500
2010 amount earned for Youth Reserve Program: $203,500

*indicates new record

Records broken include:
Reserve Grand Champion Market Beef, previous record was $27,000 set in 2009 by the Kroger Company; Reserve Grand Champion Market Barrow, previous record was $26,000 set in 2008 by Meijer, Inc.; Grand Champion Market Lamb, previous record was $30,000 set in 2001 by the Kroger Company; Reserve Grand Champion Market Lamb, previous record was $17,500 set in 2006 by Kale Marketing, Burkhart Farm Center and J.D. Equipment; Grand Champion Meat Chickens, previous record was $18,000 set in 2001 by the Kroger Company; Reserve Grand Champion Meat Chickens, previous record was $11,500 set in 2008 by Kale Marketing and Burkhart Farm Center.

It was a great night. We'll have DVD's of the live television broadcast available for purchase on the website next week.

Livestock shows are an abstract concept. I’ve been going to county, state and national agricultural expositions all my life, so I’d never given much thought to what an “outsider” might think upon seeing their first steer or heifer show. Last week, with the conclusion of the Ohio State Fair, I had reason to pause and consider just such an occasion. One of my oldest and dearest friends, upon listening to me retell the glory of the Sale of Champions (the most successful edition in its history, raising over $200,000 for youth scholarship and development programs), asked me some very pointed and insightful questions about these exhibitions.

Sometimes it takes what, at first, seems like an obvious question to really get the mind working.

Today’s 4-H and FFA members likely give little thought to the ultimate origins of the modern livestock show. What my FFA Advisor once referred to as “Little League for farm kids” holds a few similarities to those fairs and farm shows of old, but their actual purpose for existing is far different today than a century ago.

The first county fairs and country farm expos were very basic affairs that evolved as a way for farmers and breeders to quite literally show off their stock, both for marketing and instructive purposes. In those days, before technologies like Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer, a breeder might use such livestock shows as a way to evaluate his herd, or as a tool for selecting the next replacement female or herd sire. These early shows were also good barometers for determining trends in the evolution, so to speak, of the species.

Look back at black and white photos from livestock shows in the first thirty years of the 20th Century, and you’ll see how vastly different an animal looks today than from that era. Everything from body size and shape to confirmation and temperament is different. As the demands of the market and the needs of the farmer changed with time, so then did the selection for certain traits and characteristics. Livestock shows were a way for the industry to literally see the trends, and learn what influential thinkers were looking for as they evaluated the stock in the competition.

Today’s livestock shows still fill those needs, to an extent. Breeders certainly use these events to showcase their stock and promote their farm operation. Showing your animals, however, is not the only venue from which to do such promotion. From the Internet to trade publications, breeders have more opportunity to market their produce today than at any point in history.

Shows, therefore, have taken on more of a competitive nature, and therein have become excellent metaphors for life. Livestock projects in 4-H and FFA teach young people work ethic, responsibility, animal husbandry and well-being, fiscal discipline, and management skills. By working hard and learning a great deal about the proper management and care of the animal, the student can do very well at any given competition. Animal selection, nutrition, and handling are all acquired skills that will serve these students well later in life, as well.

At the conclusion of a livestock show is what if referred to as “The Final Drive.” This is where the winners of each class or division of animals shown re-enter the ring to compete for the overall title of Grand Champion at that particular show. In the spirit of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the show’s judge places each class of animals, leaving only a handful in the ring at the conclusion of the contest, and ultimately selecting a single winner. In life, we work hard and try to increase our knowledge so that we too might advance in our own endeavors, and ultimately end up in the “winner’s circle.”

The Final Drive, of course, isn’t all about winning the show. As the Judge at last week’s State Fair hog show pointed out, there’s only one “winner.” But did the other exhibitors really “lose?” While not dwelling on the warm-and-fuzzy cliché about all of us being winners, in this particular arena I can speak from experience. While I never won “Grand Champion” honors at a fair or show, growing up with livestock and the responsibility of caring for show cattle helped shape my life in numerous ways.

The reasons we show stock today may be very different from the farmers of yesteryear, but the benefits of working hard to make it to the Final Drive are every bit as real, and every bit as important.

One of the great things about moving our studios to The Ohio State University a couple of years ago is the unprecedented access we have to the University, and likewise that friends and guests have to us. We're often asked to host student groups like the Ohio Pork Youth Leadership Institute last month, and today the Ohio FFA Association's State Officer Team. The State FFA Officers recently (at the behest of my friend and fellow social media "agvocate" Dan Toland) entered the Twitterverse. In our conversations regarding social media, I opined that my involvement with Facebook and Twitter have taken a great deal of the time I previously dedicated to writing this blog.

I'm presuming that I'm not the only person to notice this phenomenon, but as I logged in here, I noted that I didn't write a single post during the Ohio State Fair. In previous years I seem to recall writing throughout the Fair about the various shows and events underway. One possible explanation, of course, is that I missed more of the Fair this year than I have at any point in the past decade due to my 20 hours of classes at Ohio State... The other possibility, of course, is that I shared my observations and activities via Facebook/Twitter.

So, what say you? What is the role of the blog relative to the whole Social Media sphere? Am I just a slacker, or are my pithy comments best contained in 140 characters or less?

I love football. I love everything about the sport, especially at the collegiate level. I didn't play all four years in high school, but the years I played in middle school and at the JV level were some of the most enjoyable. Kenny Chesney has a huge hit in the making with his new single "The Boys of Fall." Even better than the song itself is the video. It speaks for itself:

I remember playing this game when I was a kid in school, and it was the coolest thing in technology at the time. Now there's a "trailer" for a "film adaptation" of the popular educational game. It's all a parody, of course, but it's the funniest thing I've seen this morning:

I'm sitting in class at The Ohio State University, chatting about social media in the overall scope of an integrated marketing plan. On the school front, I've officially challenged my first grade in Biology 102 (the class I wrote about in last week's column) that I suspect may have been a little lower than earned due to my... vocal critique of the Professor's views on antibiotic resistance. I'll keep you posted.

On the news front:

The Beef Board/NCBA Rift Continues... As my colleague Chuck Zimmerman shares, CBB went on the offensive at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver last week, challenging "myths" discussed by NCBA leaders and members relative to the context of CBB's audit of NCBA's work with the checkoff. While the leadership of CBB continues its aggressive stance toward NCBA, the Federation of State Beef Councils took a very strong stance of their own, voting overwhelmingly to maintain its relationship with NCBA despite CBB's objections.

Speaking of Beef... I'm cooking this afternoon at the Ohio State Fair! For the third year, I'll represent the Ohio Beef Council in the Heartland Cuisine series of cooking demonstrations. Visit the Taste of Ohio Cafe presented by ABN Radio this afternoon at 5pm and I'll prepare this tasty recipe for you...

More on the Sherrod Case... For the mainstream press, the Shirley Sherrod flap is over and done. Move along folks, nothing to see here. As NewsBusters reports, however, there is (as always) more to the story. Likewise, Tom Blumer has plenty to offer on d'affaire Sherrod...