Meetings
Back in the swing of things, sort of.
The barn crew worked on our shed again today and we are now 3/4 roofed and 1/2 sided. The mud is a problem for the lifts, but I hope that with a few more days of work that they will get it buttoned up. Then the mud wont be an issue. The biggest issue today was the wind……it picked up 10 sheets of roofing and knocked it off the lift and bent it. New roofing wont be here until Wednesday now.
Over the weekend we got to shoot a Ruger LCP, the little .380 with a laser sight on it. Man was I disappointed. You can skip the laser because it is pretty much a belly gun at best. I mean at best that’s all it is. We had a terrible time hitting paper at 7 yards. The double action trigger pull was horrid as well. I guess I am spoiled with my Glock.
Got the new hitch put in the truck and got a new trailer on the way for the soil sampling rig. Will have to make some mods when it gets here……but that being said it will be a very nice addition to the fleet for this summer.
I didn’t get to the farm show at Louisville this year but it seems like everyone else did…….. wasn’t able to get much accomplished last week work wise. From what I hear, there was all kinds of expensive stuff there this year…..so its a good thing I didn’t go!
Now that the meeting schedule is pretty much down to one here and there I want to get cracking on soil testing work and getting equipment ready for farming the next few weeks. My hope is my “to do” list gets a lot smaller the next seven to ten days!
RWVA Project Appleseed IBC
Just returned from the Illinois Project Appleseed IBC. IBC stands for Instructor Boot Camp. The IBC is a training event to help mentor IIT’s (instructors in training) or Orange Hats to become qualified instructors or Red Hats. There are five stages of IIT from IIT0 to IIT4. I am currently an IIT2, so I have two more IIT progressions before I go for my Red Hat!
The weekend consist of reviewing and teaching the history and events of April 19, 1775 as well as polishing up on the marksmanship skills necessary to teach the shooting portion of an Appleseed weekend. To become an IIT you first have to have attended at least two Appleseed weekend shoots and shoot Rifleman, a minimum score of 210 on the AQT (Army Qualification Test) that has a maximum score of 250. Shooting Rifleman is not an easy task as a lot of experienced shooters think it might be. It took me three Appleseeds and a lot of practice in between them to master the skills necessary to score above a 210.
Instruction was done by Dond, Master Shoot Boss and State Coordinator for Illinois. Dond has a very unique way of approaching a COF (course of fire) for an Appleseed weekend that results in very high scores for the shooters by the end of the day. Small group sessions were done by Red Hats or instructors and shoot bosses to help polish up the things that were taught by Dond.
I had the privilege to be in small groups with Red Hats Wurstmacher, Castle Mountain, Shooter 30-06 and Tornado. These are not there real names but their “forum” names that they go by at the shoots. All of these folks are very passionate about the history and shooting that goes into a Appleseed weekend.
Castle Mountain reviews some of the history and teaches how to deliver the important points during a breakout session
Shooter 30-06 goes over the retreat of the British Regulars from Concord or the “Third Strike” using his “battle road map” during small group time.
Woodl practices explaining the AQT and how each stage of the AQT is to be shot during a breakout session.
It was a great time, made a lot of new friends and learned a lot to help me be a better IIT and one day a Red Hat!
Happening now on the farm.
Busy under-describes the amount of activity going on right now.
Finished up hauling my January contracted corn this week. Glad to have that done……..it seems like it took for ever and I guess it did with all the meetings I have had and time away from the place.
Pioneer came and got their seed beans so we spent part of two days loading semis. The big plus is we got it done before the rains set in!
Progress on the new building has come to a halt with the rain and winds so no new updates or pictures of progress on that front.
Waiting on the last of the planter parts to get here so we can start the rebuild on it.
Waiting on the last of the NH3 parts so we can start the rebuild on the anhydrous tool bar.
We did get the planter monitors back from AgExpress………… that’s good news!
The next few days will be spend trying to catch up on all the paperwork that has piled up between meetings and hauling grain.
All in all, I would rather shovel grain than push papers………..
KARTA Meeting Review
Last week, as you know by now if you read this blog or follow me on Twitter, I attended the KARTA meeting. KARTA (Link Here) stands for Kansas Ag Research Technology Association.
KARTA (originally KARA) was organized in May 2000 by a group of innovative Kansas producers, university researchers, and industry members who shared a common desire to learn more about production agriculture and continue to be a part of the leading technological and informational changes taking place on today’s farms
This year was the fifteenth annual conference. It was an applied workshop consolidating information about new and old technologies with a focus on supporting scientifically valid on-farm research efforts and increasing overall farm business profitability.
Topics included precision ag, social media, economics of travel logistics between fields and farms, on farm research, and crop nutrition as well as various presentations by industries on their new, current or trending technologies.
The Thursday night after dinner topic covered land rents and land values. This particular discussion was led by Dr. Terry Kastens & Dr. Kevin Dhuyvetter. I would call it the “Bear Pit” of KARTA. It was a fantastic discussion involving any and all attendees of the meeting. The topic was batted back and forth and ripped apart…and that was just the three hours or so that I stayed for it! Very good discussion…….
While the evening session or Bear Pit was my favorite part of the meeting, I must say that I give the entire meeting a “10″ as far as meetings go. It was very well organized, very well attended by producers and industry. It was an open exchange of information. Information was CURRENT, RELEVANT, FORWARD LOOKING and it was HONEST. It was everything that an agriculture producer meeting should be.
I think so highly of the meeting that I believe we need something like it here in Southern Illinois!
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I hate the usual “rubber chicken and roast beef” agriculture meeting circuit here in Illinois. Well, this wasn’t a rubber chicken meeting by a long shot………in my opinion it very closely resembled, for the production and precision side, what Farm Futures Management Summit is for the economic and business side.
I left there with that good feeling, that positive feeling of knowing that I had been rubbing shoulders with the progressive life long learners of agriculture. When that happens you know you have been to a good meeting……….yes their world is different than mine here in southern Illinois, but that doesn’t matter. It’s the mindset I look for. The mindset of being proactive vs reactive.
KARTA is a great proactive meeting………I highly suggest you attend the 16th meeting if at all possible.
What I found when I got home from KARTA
Paul Miller Construction had started on our new shop/office/warehouse.
Lots to do today, will have a write up on KARTA for tomorrow……..
KARTA meeting Salina, Kansas
Exhibitor hall at KARTA meeting. Good crowd of progressive thinkers. Should be a good meeting!
Questions to ask your input supplier.
I got a good question the other day and I thought I would share it with you.
The question was basically that an input supplier was looking for input from a grower on what they thought the future would look like to the grower, and how the input suppliers business fit into that world. In other words what can we do to keep or get your business in the future?
I like to turn the question around and ask how does the input supplier view the world and how does that view fit into my business plans? So I think I would ask them these questions to see what their view of the future and my business is:
- If you are to be my supplier of choice, what are you going to be doing to insure that you are providing me with inputs at the best cost to insure that we both make a profit?
- In these times of great volatility, what are you going to do to insure that you don’t get caught on the wrong side of the swings in input prices and have inventory that we either don’t want, or cant afford, because it puts us at a negative margin?
- If early prepay is going to be necessary to lock in the best prices, are you willing to give me letters of credit on my purchases that are still in your inventory?
- What is your vision of your company’s future and how does that vision fit with my farms vision and mission statement?
- You are my preferred supplier of choice, therefore how can I be you customer of choice to insure your success and make your day to day business life and mine easier?
- As farms consolidate what are your plans to equip yourselves to provide more timely service to larger operations and fit into their business plans?
The first three questions will most likely make them uncomfortable. Your asking them to bear their soul and they see those questions as trust questions vs. business questions. You must trust them if your doing business with them, but how are they relating to you as a business? Your suppliers have to understand that your trusting them. They also have to understand your a business that needs business assurances not just handshakes.
The last three tell you what they think of you as a customer…………and how you relate to them. Are you an income opportunity or a business partner? I hope they answer in a business partner manner…….if they don’t……red flags should appear because they view you as only an income source, instead of seeing you as a partner who will succeed when they succeed………..
I think we have to view our suppliers as our partners. That being said you only want partners who want you to succeed in your business. To me these questions tell me if they are my partner or just a guy trying to selling me bulk input commodities.
I have enough guys trying to sell me bulk input commodities………………..
The Bear Pit
The Bear Pit tonight at the Farm Futures Management Summit. A massive amount of brain power!
I had better be on my A game tomorrow when I speak!
New Year: Updates and Changes Coming
Well, it’s 2012, or something like, that and January is going to start off with a bang so to speak. A very busy month ahead for Robertson Farms. First up is the Farm Futures Management Summit followed by the KARTA meeting shortly there- after. Throw in a IEMA meeting, K9SIL meeting and some other training meetings and the bigger part of the month is gone.
In between those meetings I hope we see the start of the new machine shed as well as getting the new (to us) NH3 bar home so we can put the VRT controller on it. There is a planter to rebuild as well as the backhoe and dozer to work on. So we need to hit the ground running and not look back.
Plus if the weather allows we need to pull a few soil samples, grain to haul and some scraping to do.
Fun and busy!
If that wasn’t enough……..there’s more! First thing in the spare time is a revamp of the website. I have been wanting to a major revamp but have not had the time with all the other stuff going on this fall. The revamp will coincide with two new business ventures we are going to be entering into here on the farm. Can’t say much about them right now but I think some folks will be surprised at what we have planned. These will bring new opportunities for us in agriculture as well as begin to pave the way for the next generation of Robertson’s to enter the the operation.
Hopefully we will be making some announcements in the next 30 days or so……………..
Don’t be alarmed if I miss a day posting this month with all that’s happening.
It looks to be an exciting and busy winter!!!
krfarm year in review
Instead of the “Year in Review” recap that is typical this time of year, how about something different…….
My Top 5 Blogs of 2011
#1 ICCA Board works to kill off CPAg Certification
#2 Combines, Grain Bins, Grain Trucks and Bush Hogs
#3 Harvested Nitrogen Plot Today
#4 Corn Harvest Begins for Some
My Top 5 Categories Viewed in 2011
#2 Soil Testing
#4 Ham Radio
#5 Guns
2011 was a record year for krfarm.net
Almost 27,000 unique visitors who made 77,000 visits this year with 835,000 page hits while they visited. December, November, September and May were the biggest months for visitors and page content viewed.
Thanks for visiting! Thanks for commenting! Thanks for telling your friends about us!
We are going to try and ramp it up a notch for 2012…….stay tuned!
Farm Futures Management Summit 2012
Well its that time of year again, time to sign up for the Farm Futures Management Summit. This is the second year that I have been asked to speak and am looking forward to not only speaking but just attending the meeting itself. I just love this meeting and think it is the best meeting of the year and not because I am speaking. It is just one of those meetings where the line up of speakers is relevant, current and forward looking and not reflective and re hashing the same old wore out research or topics.
Its fresh. Its alive…………..that is the best way I know how to describe it. I always leave St Louis with a positive outlook even in those years when their wasn’t a positive outlook to see on the horizon.
I think the reason why is that all the other meetings I attend during the year are based on reacting to what is happening in the agriculture world after it happens. The speakers at the Summit focus on being proactive and managing what is happening in the agriculture world before it happens. The information gained at this meeting has help me be a more profitable farmer each year. No its not one big thing that David Kohl or Mike Boehlje say or that Moe Russell or Daryl Dunteman point to but its the trends they talk about and all the little things that add up to something big that make the difference.
So I have taken to labeling meeting invites I get anymore into two categories: Reactionary and Proactive. Then I try hard to make all the Proactive meetings I can attend and fill in with the Reactionary if I need to.
The problem is, in my opinion, that most of agriculture is focused on being reactionary………… A result is that a lot of meetings beat the same old dead horse to death. Reactionary meeting invites fill my inbox and mail box. Proactive meetings seem to be few and far between these days. They exist and you must seek them out and you will have to travel to get there but that is a small sacrifice to pay for the empowerment they give you.
So I hope to see you in St Louis for what I anticipate will be the great PROACTIVE meeting of the year…………. I wouldn’t expect anything else at the Summit.
ICCA board works to kill off CPAg certification.
I read with much loathing how the American Society of Agronomy/ICCA Board is going to make the Certified Professional Agronomist (CPAg) certification part of the Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) program. Very disappointing, but expected, knowing how much control the fertilizer dealers have in the ASA/ICCA anymore.
The ICCA board continues to, in my opinion, to work at destroying all other agronomist certifications while promoting and selling fertilizer sales people as professional agronomists at the expense of all others. They have now succeeded with killing off the CPAg by taking a higher standard and making it part of a lower standard I suspect they will work on the other soils certifications in the future as well.
The CPAg was really the only certification for professional agronomists and not those who were trying to make a buck pushing a product. There is no certification for those who are not tied to sales other than some of the independent consulting organizations who offer a “jacked up” certification program that is pretty much a joke as well.
The whole “A CCA can be TSP’s for NRCS” line is also bogus, as many of the plans done by fertilizer dealer CCA’s in this area were rejected because they can’t follow directions or make sound agronomic recommendations. Plus, there is very little TSP work do be done with most all agencies out of money.
Most of the CCA continuing education credits are done in-house by the big chain dealers so their getting sales training and calling it education. Illinois CCA is an even bigger joke as they don’t even publish or give notice of meetings where CCA credits are available, other than their own convention. Just look at their website. They haven’t updated meetings since 2008/2009 and haven’t updated it at all since the last state CCA convention. So the state board does little to help CCAs or CPAg’s that are not affiliated with a dealer get any continuing education credits.
Yes, I am a CPAg, an unhappy CPAg after reading this announcement. I have also been a CCA for almost 20 years, I think. I will have to very seriously rethink renewing my certifications and membership in the ASA this year. There is little reason to be certified anymore.
My New Bag Phone
Remember bag phones? I do. When I got one it was the best thing in the world. Or it was but it wasn’t. You could make calls from your vehicle and if you really wanted to you could hook a battery up and sling it over your shoulder and carry it with you. The battery didn’t last long, it was heavy and wasn’t worth the trouble. There was no caller ID, no missed call alert, no nothing, just a phone. It worked great as a phone allowing you to make those calls you needed to make. It was a tool of convenience.
Today, as predicted then, your cell phone is now your do all computer, phone, text, email, internet, phone book, Twitter, Facebook, weather radar, grain market ticker and a list of apps and downloads for whatever else your into. It is your way to stay connected to the world. You can literally do everything you need to do in your office on your phone while sitting in your vehicle or café or where ever. You’re connected.
Connected. Well pardon me while I disconnect myself. If all of this “being connected” is the eight lane information super highway, when I am taking the next exit for the information super cow path. You all know what a cow path is don’t you? That little worn down dirt tail in the cow pasture, a trail with grass on both sides, an occasional cow patty in the middle of the path and beautiful scenery on both sides. Have you forgot what a cow path is?
The last few weeks, ok really off and on for the last few months I have experimented with my new bag phone. No I don’t have a real bag phone, but I have turned my Droid into a bag phone. It says in my truck. I don’t carry it when I am out of the truck or working around the farm. It says in the truck. It stays in the tractor or combine when I am working in them because it is a safety device. I have been stunned at the amount of work I can get done without my phone on me. I can work without the constant calls, emails, Twitter updates, market updates and so forth.
In short my “new” bag phone has allowed me to get blue collar work done that my white collar phone wouldn’t let me.
Now let me be clear: I have made a lot of money with my Twitter account the last two years give or take a month. Not in selling a service or product on Twitter but just in having the largest research community in the world reporting information to me that allows me to make farm decisions quicker. I don’t care about Brittney Spears or some junk like that on Twitter, I care about the dollar, grains, crude, potash and the like. Yep there is money to be made with Twitter. You have lots of people willing to share freely what they know and you have to get dialed in but there is money to be made off that info for any farming operation.
Same thing with those market and product updates sent via text message. But I don’t need play by play information taking up my day and phone call after phone call in between those Tweets or texts to keep my hands busy on the phone vs. on the work at hand. So by conscious effort, I have taken the first exit I could find off the paved eight lane super information highway and found the fist cow path I could take. I have even begun to change how I do email and have found more peace of mind in it all.
Oh I like to go to the over pass and watch the fast cars go by, but there is something, maybe more to be gained by taking the cow path.
So if you need me, send me a text, email or Tweet. Call me and leave me a message. Just as soon as I get back in the truck I will check my bag phone and get right back to you. Don’t worry I haven’t left the world of technology, still on Twitter, Facebook and blogging, just taking a break and listening to the cows moo, the birds chirp, the wind blow and the bugs talk while I work.
Everyone is an expert, just ask them.
I seems that we are bombarded with experts at every turn anymore. If there is no one to serve as an expert, someone seems to always self appoint themselves. In some cases there are gatherings of experts walking all over each other trying to get to the top of the expert pile. Most of these folks while possibly well meaning or even good hearted generally have no clue what the heck they are talking about or they come across so absorbed in their own self promotion that they are not tolerable.
Case in point #1: I got a notice that a person to whom I have a very casual knowledge of had passed away. Upon following a link to read what happened I found a gaggle of experts on a discussion board that not only knew what happened to him and how it happened, but his life story in many details. The kicker is that the 4 or 5 pages of comments were dominated by three or four people who were telling all the other people they were wrong. The funniest post was were one person commented on the deceased’s connection with Illinois, to whom the lead expert on this fellow admitted he didn’t know he had any ties to Illinois then wanted proof that the commentator knew what he was talking about. Funny to me but I can just imagine how sad it might have been for any of the family members who might have happened upon this mess. I do know the “one” head expert mentioned above in this discussion, he is an expert on everything he talks about, just ask him. He is one of the skid-marks in the underwear of life that we, regrettably, cant dispatch in a burlap bag with a concrete block tied to it over a bridge into the river.
Case in point #2: While I was trying to find some ballistic information online I came across a discussion on how the .17HMR was not suitable as a coyote round and would not kill anything bigger than a prairie dog. Having dispatched coyotes, at range, with my .17HMR I thought that I must hurry out into the fields and tell these coyotes go get up and run along, despite the smell and decay, as they must be mistaken that I had killed them. The expert was using all kinds of “math” and “physics” to show that the .17 lacked the punch and power to take a dog down beyond 50 yards etc so forth at nausea. Despite testimonials and the comments of a real hunting expert (a person acknowledged as knowing what he was talking about), this fellow held to his guns that you needed a big gun to kill coyotes at range. Maybe coyotes in Ohio wear bullet proof vest or their fur is like Kevlar due to difference in their winters or something. Despite this expert, I still dispatch ole wile coyote with a .17HMR at every opportunity.
Case in point #3. I have been bombarded with propaganda to attend a farmer/consultant field day on growing corn and soybeans like a “high yield expert”. I do attend field days, when there is something to learn or there is a topic of interest. Its just part of the learning and educational process that farmers must go through if they are going to compete and stay profitable. That being said this particular field day is a big JOKE. Its put on by a couple of self promoted and self proclaimed experts whom I wouldn’t let on my farm. One half of this Abbot and Costello team I have know and been some what acquainted with for over 10 years through a friend. They are only about the sale and what they are selling today is better than what they sold yesterday. Did I say this was a joke already? What do they know? NOTHING. Most of what they are going to present is either stolen from universities, picked from other companies with similar products or services and other field days or is not proven with independent non biased research and is only being used to end up selling a couple of products that they get kick back for. Yet, with no industry certifications or qualifications, they have set themselves up as experts, and got the backing of people who should know better, on growing high yield crops and are fleecing attendees for big money when its all said and done.
Case in point #4. The University of Illinois Extension. A complete Chinese fire drill of experts who have never “been there or done that” trying to tell the world how much they know about the real world. Nuff said there.
Yes, I have had my fill of experts this year already. That is why I wont be going to any more field days, conferences or meetings other than a very select few for the remainder of the year. That is also why I have assigned junk and spam status to a lot of emails from experts and why I have erased several talk and discussion boards from my internet favorates.
The result of riding myself of so many experts is that my blood pressure is much lower lately.
Trust me, I know what I am talking about…………..
BSPC Meeting
I am speaking today at the BSPC winter meeting. AutoCopter is speaking now, I am on next.
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