Published March 9, 2019 | By Mike Petersen
Image Above: 2019 Commodity Classic Serious discussions with Doug Peterson and Pat McNaught, both Territorial Reps.
The 2019 version of the Commodity Classic held in Orlando, Florida brought some very interesting topics of discussion to the Orthman Manufacturing booth this year. A small group of farmers from North Carolina visited us and see that their soil conditions merit using the strip till system in their soils that can irreversibly harden. Two farmers from Kentucky in the area bordering the Karst region of the state and wanting to visit about their soils with ‘fragipans’ and how No-Till has been unsatisfactory. Their conversation was much to do about water movement in the soil profile as well as root development being retarded from getting deep. Some folks from Ontario, Canada stopped and visited regarding their strip-till successes and some of their challenges. Several of the National Corn Grower contest winners stopped who placed either #1 or #2 in the Irrigated No-Till/Strip-Till category and asked for some further suggestions and advice. That was very thought provoking and allowed us time to congratulate their success since three of them were 1tRIPr owners. Some folks from the Wasatch Front area of Utah came by and asked about the 1tRIPr and their concerns of pulling so hard, once we found out what their soil conditions were like – oh now we can help. Had some New York growers stop in and ask would strip till work in their environment. Spoke with cotton and corn growers from Texas, Georgia, Alabama and 1 from Arkansas. There were two men who stopped from Australia. Many men and families stopped from Nebraska, the home of Orthman Manufacturing and were glad to see us in the booth and representing the best strip-till machine on the market, their words not ours but we fully agree with their assessment. The couple of people I spoke with from central Michigan first were so happy to be where there were temperatures 85 degrees warmer than back up north. Then we discussed strip-till in the state of Michigan, sugar beets, potatoes, corn and soybeans. The Illinois growers that stopped by and visited had many questions regarding fertility, prices of fertilizer and fertility effectiveness with the Orthman 1tRIPr.
As you can see we had a smattering of people from all across the United States and then neighbors in Canada as well as Aussies. One of the major seed corn companies presented in their booth a well thought out and descriptive analysis of root types in corn and how they right now are the only ones I know of that rate their corn hybrid selections on root types. You all might be surprised who that company is – AgriGold. Syngenta, Bayer, DuPont-Pioneer, LG; the rest of you growers are asking for the same. My suggestion to you folks, keep after them to rate root structures as has AgriGold and find out how tillage interacts with better tillage systems and fertility placement.
The 2019 Commodity Classic was great this year. Not only friends were met with, some acquaintances rekindled and new connections we made. Stay tuned for Orthman is stepping out to lead the way in Precision Tillage, Precision fertilizer placement, Root Zone management and as well soil resources management (water and erosion). Keep in touch as we are not a “me too” company, we are leading.
by: Michael Petersen, Lead Agronomist-Orthman Manufacturing, Inc.