It's summer. Between planting, scouting and spraying, you probably have oodles of little league games, a week or two of summer vacation and perhaps a few dance recital weekends. Are you effectively using your smartphone to manage your busy schedule? If you're anything like my family, I'd say no. Here's a list of apps I can't do without. Also, I've included some tips on how to get the most out of them. CalenMob: Back when I used an Android phone, I started…

Continue Reading

A Rebuttal to the Monsanto Protestors garnered a lot of attention. The GMO haters turned out en masse to tell me why I was an idiot (and a few other things I can't print here) on this topic. One thing came through crystal clear – nearly all of them want GMO labels for our food supply. Another thing was clear – very few of them understand how food makes its way from the farm to the fork. I’ll start by addressing the farm to fork information gap that…

Continue Reading

Last weekend, GMO haters decided to protest Monsanto. On Twitter, Monsanto sent out a Tweet that included my blog on the “research” that says glyphosate is to blame for every disease/health condition known to man. Since the headline was “Let’s Blame Monsanto’s Glyphosate for Everything! (or not),” I got a few hate Tweets. Apparently anti-GMO protestors in the midst of blaming Monsanto for everything didn’t appreciate the irony of such a blog…

Continue Reading

In the rush to cash in on the “organic” buzz, seemingly everything is organic these days. Even stuff that’s always been organic now has “organic” emblazoned across its packaging. Last weekend, I spotted a pallet of organic soil at Home Depot. What?!! I assume the little white fertilizer balls are the only inorganic ingredients added to typical potting soil. Organic Marketing 101: don’t put the fertilizer balls in, slap organic on the bag, and mark…

Continue Reading

A year ago, I was at a crop technology media event. Honestly, I can’t remember if it was a Dow AgroSciences or Monsanto event. I Tweeted about the expected release of either 2,4-D- or dicamba-tolerant soybeans. The first response was from a central Illinois farmer. He said, “Tell them to hurry up. We need this technology now!” Last week the USDA ordered an Environmental Impact Study be conducted on both of these technologies. My colleague Mindy Ward, Missouri…

Continue Reading

With more rain on the way and not a planter to be seen in my neck of the woods, yesterday, I thought “Geez, is anyone planting?”  I took to Twitter and posed that question to Illinois farmers. Judging from the response, it appears I wasn’t the only one wondering. In short, they’re going like gangbusters north of I-80. A lot of them will have logged nearly an entire week of corn planting depending on whether they stayed dry with this latest line of…

Continue Reading

Used to be, you needed a printing press and barrels of ink if you wanted to be heard in this world. Today, you just need an internet connection.  Yesterday, a friend sent me a link to this Reuters’ article that essentially says glyphosate is to blame for every health issue known to man. I surfed around and found the original paper, which was published in a physics journal called Entropy. Say what you will about journalists, but most of us are naturally skeptical. Maybe I…

Continue Reading

Yes, it will be mid-May before most of you are planting corn. Deep breaths. So, what to do in the meantime? Well, you could catch up on routine medical maintenance. Why is it farmers are so good at maintaining equipment, but only go to the doctor if an appendage has literally become detached from the body? I pondered this with a farm wife yesterday. After multiple doctor visits, her fears were confirmed – her husband had skin cancer. Luckily, her persistence meant they were…

Continue Reading

Computers: love em, hate em … eh? Regardless of how you feel, they’re part of everyday life…for the most part. By in large, when folks are conducting a business transaction in person, they still prefer a human cashier. Case in point, the automated cashier lines at grocery stores, lumber yards and the post office are typically ignored by the masses. It’s quite the oddity in a nation where one of the largest retailers (Amazon) doesn’t even have a…

Continue Reading

This spring, chances are you’ll be spending a lot of time in the tractor. I’d wager I’m with most young farmers when I ask, “What in the world did you do before tablets and smartphones?” In all seriousness, this slideshow from Wired has boggled my mind. The article looks at “The 12 Cell Phones That Changed Our World Forever.” The first BlackBerry doesn’t show up until 2003. At this point, savvy Wall Street types were able to be linked…

Continue Reading