When most Midwesterners think about Hawaiian agriculture, pineapples and coconut trees leaning out over calm, blue water are about all that comes to mind. Many would be surprised to know that there are corn breeding facilities in Hawaii. During the six months of the year that corn doesn’t grow in the Midwest, the Beck’s breeding team doesn’t just sit idle. Every day, progress is made to advance new genetics and to improve seed for our farmers. For years, Beck’s used winter nurseries in Chile and Mexico to grow corn in the North American off-season until 2016, when there was an opportunity to invest in U.S. soil where corn can grow year round. Beck’s just celebrated one full year and three corn crops at our new Beck’s Hawaii Facility in the town of Kekaha on the island of Kauai. Last winter, when most folks in Indiana were shoveling their driveways, Beck’s employees made over a million hand pollinations in the corn breeding nurseries. Each pollination is a new chance to create an inbred line that could be a part of the next hot hybrid.

This year, as a way to give back to the community of Kekaha on the island of Kauai, the 11 full-time employees at the Kekaha facility planted about an acre of the farm in pumpkins to be given away.

Join Jonathan Perkins and Joe Bolte at the Southern IL PFR Site for this latest PFR Report as they evaluate the planting depth study they are about to harvest.

In spring of 2017, multiple PFR Proven™ products and practices were identified for wheat. One of these practices included the application of fungicide at flowering (Feekes 10.5.1) with proven products including Caramba® and Prosaro® 421 SC. As a result of the success with these fungicide products and the practice of applying them at flowering, Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR)® team wanted to determine if applying them even earlier could be a PFR Proven practice.

When it comes to knowing and hunting deer, most of us probably consider ourselves pretty well versed. I have found, however, that there are some whose knowledge and experience go far beyond my own on this subject. C.J. Winand is one of America's top white-tailed deer biologists. This man knows as much about deer as Jimmy Dean knows about sausage. Seriously though, he does know his stuff about deer. Much of this biological and behavioral knowledge can come in handy to those of us who hunt deer. I will do my best to accurately pass along what I have learned about deer biology from C. J. Winand.

In this latest PFR report, I discuss the Fungicide Placement Study in OH where we are comparing the 360 UNDERCOVER vs Over the Top application of Headline AMP® at the VT growth stage. Are there coverage differences between the two applications? Will there be a difference in yield?

In this latest PFR Report, PFR Agronomist, Miles McGovney, discusses the Soybean Seeding Rate Study. This particular study, which is part of our PFR Partner’s program, is in Algona, IA.
 

Last week, I had the opportunity to help with Beck’s PFR University. For those of you that don’t know, PFR University is a unique opportunity for farmers to visit Beck’s headquarters and spend two days learning and gaining additional PFR insights on new products and practices that they can then implement on their own farms.

Nelda Mitchell grew up on a dairy farm. As a girl, she milked cows twice a day, 365 days a year. “On leap year it's 366 days, and it’s rain, shine, sleet or snow. Ball game, party, whatever, you still had to milk cows.” She recalls.

Kyle Wilson is proud to honor his family’s traditions and help write the next chapter of their history in agriculture on his southern Utah farm. Along with his wife, Shelley, and their three children, Kyle raises vegetable crops, including heirloom tomatoes, and small livestock

“Keeping and maintaining relationships is one of the most important things you can do in your career.”

Those are the words of Beck’s CEO, Sonny Beck. After last week, I would say that everyone in the 2017 intern class had the opportunity to connect and create relationships at the Intern Professional Development Workshop.