40th ANNUAL TOP FARMER CROP WORKSHOP
July 22-25, 2007 Purdue University
2007 Conference Agenda

Sunday Afternoon, July 22
Rooms 103, 120, 202, and 203 Pfendler Hall

3:00 Early Bird Help Session – B-21 Computerized Farm Budgets Corinne Alexander, Craig Dobbins, Alan Miller, Roman Keeney, George Patrick, and our teaching assistants Help is available for you to complete your Model B-21 Input Form.

4:00 B-21 for First Timers Howard Doster, Purdue Ag Economist Emeritus Howard will teach you how to debug your computer solutions, and test for changes in your crop rotation, machinery sizes, tillage system, and land rentals. Since 1968, he and colleagues have helped 7,000 farmers—mostly in the Corn Belt —use our linear program crop budgets.

5:00 Supper on Your Own Ask a teaching assistant for recommendations.

Sunday Evening
The Deans Auditorium, Room 241 Pfendler Hall

5:00 p.m. Registration and Get Acquainted Time Refreshments available in the lobby.

6:30 Workshop Introduction Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer and Bruce Erickson, Purdue Ag Economists Welcome and basic information. How to get the most out of the Top Farmer experience.

6:50 B-21 Base Case—Farm Management Implications of a Biomass Crop: How Could a Biomass Operation Change the Way You Farm? Klein Ileleji, Purdue Ag Engineer, and Bruce Erickson

7:10 Managing Data to Better Manage Your Operation Luc Valentin, Purdue Ag Economist Thanks to new technology and greater computational ability, data has become much easier to both analyze and collect. How can you use your accounting, precision agriculture, and other data to their fullest potential to make better decisions and improve your success?

7:30 Growing Your Farm Enterprise , Globally Carlos Mayer, Argentina farmer This South American corn, soybean and wheat producer will update you on how his operation is responding to higher grain and energy prices, and his plans to expand his operation.

7:50 Emerging Farmland Leasing Issues Steve Johnson, Iowa State Extension Ag Economist Do you actively pursue lease changes with your landowners? How are payment limitations affecting your leases? Steve will discuss some strategies being discussed with his clients. Then, discuss at your “table team” how you are managing through these rapidly-changing times.

Monday, July 23
The Deans Auditorium, Room 241 Pfendler Hall

7:30 a.m. Refreshments available in the lobby outside the auditorium.

8:00 Welcome: Why the Top Farmer Crop Workshop is Important to Purdue Sally Thompson, Department Head, Purdue Agricultural Economics

8:15 Opportunities and Challenges for Agricultural Producers in the Current and Future Bioeconomy Jill Nichols Euken, Iowa farmer and Assistant Director, Office of Biorenewables Programs, Iowa State University Agricultural producers are feeling the impact of the growth of the bioeconomy in almost every aspect of their business. Euken will discuss some potential technology and policy developments in the bioprocessing industry, and outline how these might affect producers.

8:40 Putting It All Together for High-Yield Corn: Strip Tillage, Automatic Guidance. and Nutrient Placement Tony Vyn, Purdue Agronomist Strip tillage has proven to result in yields comparable to chisel plow, both for corn after soybean and for corn after corn. However, corn yield performance after strip-till is also dependent on where the rows are relative to the strip-tilled berms, and to fertilizer bands. This session will focus on optimizing the system to achieve higher yields.

9:15 How Linear Programming Analyzes Your Operation Roman Keeney, Purdue Ag Economist Roman teaches the linear programming class—this will be a primer/refresher on how the program works, what it does with the numbers you provide, and how to interpret the output.

9:30 Using Cover Crops in the North Steve Berger, Iowa farmer Cover crops are good for capturing nutrients and holding soil, but incur additional costs and management. By his understanding of how carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients cycle, this cost-conscious Iowa farmer has been profiting from them for over twenty years.

9:50 Learning to Use B-21 Here's your first look at your farm solutions. Is this really your farm? Once you've described it correctly, you're ready to interpret the crop mix, machine size, and farm size signals.

10:10 Break, sponsored by Farm Futures Thank you to Farm Futures for sponsoring the refreshments at this morning's break.

10:30 Expanding Your Equipment Marketplace Chuck Lewis, TractorHouse.com, Lincoln , NE Many companies have achieved success by changing the fundamental of their markets. TractorHouse.com and sister publications MachineryTrader.com (construction) and TruckPaper.com (over the road) use the capacity of the Internet along with print to let you access auction results, research new and used equipment by horsepower, resource salvage parts from throughout North America, or post a want to buy—all free.

10:50 Biofuels: The Road Ahead (aka - Lessons Learned from the Western Corn Belt) Steve Johnson, Iowa State Extension Ag Economist From flexible farmland lease arrangements to commercial cellulosic ethanol production, it's just not quite the same any more. Expanded risk management strategies are required to capture fleeting profit margins and adapt to new supply chain management rules.

11:10 Taking Some of the Bumps Out of Corn on Corn Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Agronomist With corn on corn, the rules are different! $4 corn can change our thinking about many agronomic practices—nitrogen management, disease, tillage. Ken will touch on the fundamentals to help ensure your success.

11:50 Farm Risk Survey and Free Lunch, or Lunch on Your Own

1:00 Within-Season Nitrogen Management on Corn Using Reflectance Sensors Harlan Palm, University of Missouri Agronomist Can we let the corn tell us how much nitrogen it needs to reach economic optimums? See and hear about field-scale results of sensor-based, variable-rate nitrogen application. This precision ag technology may help you manage escalating nitrogen prices while minimizing risks of environmental impact.

1:30 His Equipment Works Two Jobs Todd Welch, Indiana farmer Todd shares planters and a sprayer with an uncle who farms nearby, and his corn head also works two jobs—the other in Kansas. By the time corn harvest gets geared up here, the head will have finished its toil there. From the savings, Todd benefited by upsizing his recent combine purchase.

1:45 Managing Lease Arrangements with Landowners Panel discussion with selected crop producers, David Bechman, Farmers National Company, and Sandy Weaver, Farm Service Agency, USDA. Moderated by Alan Miller, Purdue Ag Economist Fluctuating markets and uncertain yields make it difficult to arrive at equitable agreements. Interact with panel members to discuss options for cash or various share leases, program ramifications and limitations, maintaining positive relationships with landowners, and topics introduced by meeting participants.

2:20 Plan Success, Enjoy Life! Kevin Spafford , Legacy by Design, LLC, Chico , CA Today's farm owner must look beyond the urgent needs, daily tasks, and seasonal routines, to consider the elements necessary to achieve lasting success. A comprehensive succession plan will address the needs of the family, the desires of the owner, and the demands of the business. Kevin will help you assess your situation and walk you through the five keys to a comprehensive succession solution.

2:50 Break Refreshments available in the lobby outside the auditorium.

3:15 The Demand Led Bull Market In Corn: Can US And World Farmers Keep Up? Dan Basse, President, AgResource Company US and world corn demand are expanding faster than production taking stock/use levels to lows that have not been seen since the early 1970's. Can the world plant an additional 24 Mil acres of corn in 2008 to satisfy this demand? Or what price levels are needed to slow new bio fuel plants coming on line? For at least the next 3-4 years, the world corn price curve has shifted upwards. AgResource lays out the groundwork why producers need to adjust their marketing program to benefit from the upcoming extreme market volatility.

3:35 Managing Stored Grain Insects with Ozone Linda Mason, Purdue Entomologist What protects us from harmful radiation coming through the atmosphere, eventually degrades to leave no residue, and kills storage pests? Ozone! Ozonation is a new organic process that helps grain managers preserve high quality grain through those difficult summer months.

3:50 Extreme Precision Crop Protection   Scott Shearer, Ag Engineer, University of Kentucky   Their system for precise nozzle control has already more than paid for itself in just its second year of use at the Mike Ellis farm.  Your fields may or may not all be as irregularly-sized as those farmed by the Ellis'—Scott will walk you through the economic considerations for your farm.

4:10 Tracking the Value of U.S. Farmland Murray Wise, Westchester Group, Inc, Naples, FL U.S. farmers and associated agribusinesses are dealing with both local and global shifts not before seen—in demographics, population, and income, as well as demand from biofuels. With these kinds of uncertainties, how does one get a grip on future directions?

4:30 What's worse: Herbicide-Resistant Weeds Costing You Money, Your Time, or Both? Bryan Young, Southern Illinois University Weed Scientist The list of herbicide-resistant weeds continues to grow even during the age of glyphosate-resistant cropping systems. Costs associated with managing these weeds can range from a few dollars per acre to triple your previous investment for weed control. However, the valuable time you allocate towards managing these resistant populations may have to increase and become your greatest burden.

5:00 The Status of Crop Recordkeeping in 2007 Ted Macy, President of MapShots, Inc. The rapid adoption of GPS-enabled field hardware has made automated crop record keeping a reality on most farms. However, growers face many challenges utilizing this data. Ted will discuss what agricultural software vendors are doing to help growers use this data profitably.

5:20 Adjourn to the Purdue Agronomy Farm

Monday Evening

6:00 Pork BBQ at Agronomy Crops Research and Education Center (ACRE), located approximately 5 miles northwest of campus at 4540 U.S. 52 West. Thank you to Tate & Lyle for sponsoring this evening's meal.

Getting a Grip on the Future of Biofuels Niles Hushka, CEO, KLJ Solutions and North Dakota farmer Bio-energy technology is shifting rapidly, but who will invest in unproven methods? Existing distribution systems are being challenged—“bigger is better” may not be. Who will manage and operate these new systems? While uncertainty rules our future, today we know—it is a very good time to be a farmer.

Extreme Precision Crop Protection Demo Scott Shearer and colleagues will demonstrate their precise nozzle control system on a hard-surfaced area at the farm—so you can see firsthand how the electronics and mechanics work together—and the resultant accuracy of the spray patterns.

Grain Storage Pests Demo The ozone generators that Linda Mason will show you at Purdue's grain storage site could be easily set up on your farm. Experience an out-of-this-world way of managing those bugs!

Remote Sensing for Corn Tom McMurren, John Deere Agri-Services Remote sensing as a technology has been available for years, but it has not found a place on most Midwest farms. Can higher-resolutions and a quick turnaround enable enough payback from input savings or increased yields to justify this system?

Tuesday, July 24
The Deans Auditorium, Room 241 Pfendler Hall

7:30 Refreshments available in the lobby outside the auditorium.

8:00 New Technologies for Your Operation Ben Kaehler, Traits and Technology Licensing Manager, Dow AgroSciences Hear about some of the newest traits and technologies in the pipeline from one of the top players in the crops biotech market. Likely our cropping futures will be delivered more and more through technologies in the seed, but how?

8:20 More Demand for Corn Than Just Energy Bill Nash, Hedge Desk Manager, Tate & Lyle Ethanol is just a component of a broader bioeconomy of plastics, food, and industrial products that have been a growing piece of corn usage. Bill will share his thoughts about how producers should align themselves with future demand—how to know what these grain customers want, and how to ask the right questions.

8:40 Agronomics, Economics, and Managing N on Your Farm Tim Smith, Cropsmith, Inc. High fertilizer costs have accompanied grain price increases—so the focus remains on maximizing nutrient efficiency. ISNT, the new soil organic N test, can help us better understand how various soils can supply this nutrient. Cropsmith utilizes the ISNT to help characterize soils and pinpoint the economically optimum rate.

9:00 Value in Documenting Carbon Credits Dewey and Rachel Van Wynsberghe, Ohio farmers The dollars per acre are currently pretty small, but these farmers see justification in documenting their practices as the debate about global warming bubbles ever hotter.

9:10 More Corn: More Storage Chris Hurt, Purdue Ag Economist Grain storage and handling needs will increase by nearly 20 percent by 2010. What are the implications for grain marketing, including basis levels, seasonal price patterns, and returns to storage?

9:30 Learning to Use B-21 Here's your next look at your farm solutions.

9:50 Break, sponsored by Farm Works Software Thank you to Farm Works Software for sponsoring the refreshments at this morning's break

10:10 A Four-Seasons Approach to Grain Marketing and Beating the Average Bill Fordham, retired Illinois farmer and President, C&S Grain Market Consulting As a grain producer, how many windows of pricing opportunities will you have for your crop? Beating the average price is very difficult; can you do it? Learning how to find these selling windows and beating the average adds to your bottom line, and can be done.

10:35 Business Equity (Land Price) Discussion Craig Dobbins, Purdue Ag Economist A demand-driven grain market has also driven up land prices. Land is many farmers' primary equity base, and the largest crop production expenditure in the form of per-year land charges (rent). What does the recent survey show? What drives this market?

10:55 Tire and Traction Performance   Dennis Buckmaster, Purdue Ag Engineer   Tires are where the rubber hits the...um…field. No slip is bad.  Some slip is good!  Too much slip is terrible. This topic will likely have the most direct impact on your field efficiency—an update on tire selection, inflation, tractor weighting and distribution, soil compaction, and recent research findings. 

11:15 Crops, Weather, and Risk Assessment Elwynn Taylor, Iowa State University Agricultural Meteorologist Dryness caused by the localized drought of 2005 was essentially corrected over the winter season. The most recent widespread drought in the Corn Belt was in 1988 and studies indicate that the longest drought-free interval is 23 years. With several environmental indicators pointing to increased risk, the crop weather update is a must for all producers.

11:50 Lunch on Your Own

1:00 Career Management for the Farmer CEO Bernie Erven, The Ohio State University Ag Economist Emeritus Ever-larger farm operations with more complex decisions by farmer CEOs demand new and higher-level skills. In light of family relationships, rural traditions, and the ties of ownership, how can you break these barriers to become the manager you need and want to be?

1:40 Soybean Rust: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Don Hershman, Univ. of Kentucky Extension Plant Pathologist Hear details on the current soybean rust situation, including a blow by blow description of what has transpired to date. Hershman will predict what is in store for the remainder of the 2007 growing season, as well as discuss current fungicide use strategies for soybean.

2:15 Benefiting from Their Storage Capacity Ty Brown, Indiana farmer Ty and family purchased a country elevator for their operation a few years ago, and have implemented vertical tillage for their continuous corn acres. Now they are better positioned to add more corn acres—vertical tillage provides a high-yield production environment, and with 140 percent of their production in storage capacity, they capitalize on the carry and basis appreciation.

2:25 Spatially Intense Subirrigation/Drainage Robert Meiners and Mark Miller, Agrem Marketing Land is a finite resource, but what about expanding production capacity instead of acres? If irrigation, drainage, and fertilization could be accomplished through one (albeit large) investment, and even on rolling terrain, could the increased production and environmental benefits make this pay? Agrem is applying technology not previously available to drive down costs and cause you to rethink agricultural water management.

2:50 Break Refreshments available in the lobby outside the auditorium.

3:20 Food, Feed, & Fiber + Fuel = A New World for American Agriculture Bill Richards, Ohio farmer, and former NRCS Chief Renewable energy can play a key role in national security and economic stability. And, Bill says we have the technology to do this without hurting, and perhaps even actually benefiting the soil quality of our crop growing areas. Bill co-chairs the steering committee for 25x'25, which aims for 25 percent of our energy from renewable resources like wind, solar, and biofuels by the year 2025.

3:40 Real-Time N Sensing in Corn Jack Gerhardt , Minnesota farmer Nitrogen fertilizer is typically the single greatest corn production variable expense, yet tracking N is fickle and its application is typically anything but precise. Can real-time sensing improve precision enough to justify another trip through the field? What if rain keeps you out? Learn from a grower who is profiting from this new technology.

4:00 Powerful Tools to Make No-Till Your Most Profitable Center Ed Winkle , Hy-Mark Consulting, LLC. Ed has been combining a powerful set of principles to make continuous no-till more profitable and sustaining than other practices on his and client's farms across the US . Find out how to grade your cropping operation with tools top farmers are quickly grasping.

4:20 Do Cover Crops Pay? David Brandt, Ohio farmer This corn, soybean, and wheat farmer uses a cover crop following his wheat to help him produce nutrients, save soil, build soil tilth, and ease planting. With higher energy and fertilizer prices, the advantages become even greater.

4:35 Creating Value from the Data You are Capturing Dan Frieberg, Premier Crops, LLC Farmers are capturing and mapping layers of data, including yield, soils and soil samples, applied fertility, and management practices. But beyond generating "pretty maps" many have struggled to convert all this data into information, knowledge, and decisions. Real-world examples of using your own data to generate greater profits will be shared.

4:55 Bringing Technology to Bear Ken Rulon, Indiana farmer Ramping up low-productivity soils, or under-managed land, is key to long-term profitability. Managing the point where timeliness, technology, and land intersect drives productivity and free cashflow. These are high times for agriculture, but tough times will follow the good. How we reinvest the windfall will determine who survives the rough road ahead.

5:15 Adjourn to the Trails 

Tuesday Evening

6:00 The Trails: Relax Outside the Trails Party House The Trails is located approximately 5 miles northeast of campus at 325 Burnett's Road. From campus, go east down the hill to River Road (marked U.S. 231). Turn left on River Rd. , it will become State Rd. 43. Follow SR 43 north about five miles to Burnett's Rd. Turn right on Burnett's Rd., proceed ¼ mile, it is just past the bridge on the right.

6:45 Steaks

7:15 TFCW 40 th Anniversary Special Recognition

7:20 Supply Chain Management in the U.S. Food System Bill Boehm, President, Manufacturing and Senior V.P., the Kroger Co. Bill is a part of the senior management team at Kroger, one of the world's largest food retailers. Kroger's food manufacturing division, which Bill leads, accounts for approximately one-half of Kroger's store brand sales. What consumers choose at Kroger ultimately drives much of our food production system—and your options as a farmer as the originator of that supply chain.

Wednesday Morning, July 25

The Deans Auditorium, Room 241 Pfendler Hall

7:30 Final B-21 Session. Refreshments available in the lobby outside the auditorium.

8:00 Your Farm a Tree Plantation ? Rick Meilan, Purdue Forester The energy captured by an acre of trees each year can far exceed that of corn—in fact, ethanol yields of 1000 gal/acre/year or more are possible—multiply that by $2 or $3 per gallon! One of the keys will be to separate the cellulose from lignin, and there is much to learn about how to efficiently gather and process cellulosic energy sources.

8:20 Tobacco is Supplementing Corn and Soybeans on This Illinois Farm J R Hubele, Illinois farmer How can burley tobacco compete with corn and soybeans on good Illinois land? Does what happened with the tobacco government program have any lessons for other crop programs? Learn how growing tobacco can be more addictive than smoking it!

8:40 Tying Field Notes to Office Records Robert Lucia, Agronomy Manager, Auglaize Provico, Ohio, and Mike Tsurney, FarmWorks Software Much progress has been made in streamlining precision in the field, but there has often been a disconnect with the information flow back to the farm and input supplier's offices. Bob and Mike are working on a system to connect these.

9:00 Understanding the Science Behind Biosolids Simon Bollin, Soil Solutions Co. Biosolids were the original crop fertilizers. Now with higher fertilizer prices, higher crop nutrient demands, and increasing amounts available from municipalities, livestock operations, and now bio-energy plants, it is time for a refresher—how do you best determine the value and any risks?

9:20 Need for Spatial Analysis in On-Farm Research Terry Griffin, University of Arkansas Ag Economist Terry will discuss three of the most important and least understood steps in conducting farmer-managed, field-scale, on-farm research: designing the experiment, collecting site-specific data, and analyzing the data for farm management decision-making. Commercialization of the combine yield monitor has given producers another method of collecting dense yield data with which to better understand production variability. Terry will discuss why appropriate spatial analysis techniques are necessary.

9:50 Break Refreshments available in the lobby outside the auditorium.

10:20 Farm Program Update Allan Gray, Purdue Ag Economist The 2007 Farm Bill will have enormous repercussions across the entire U.S. agricultural sector. What impact will policy changes have on livestock enterprises, conservation, and energy? What about program payments? These issues are sometimes hotly debated—join in the discussion with Allan at this year's workshop.

10:40 Alternative Future Biofuels Policies Wally Tyner, Purdue Ag Economist Congress and the Administration will be considering a wide range of approaches to stimulate development of biofuels in the future. These range from staying the course with the current fixed subsidy system, using a subsidy that varies with the price of crude oil, switching to an alternative fuels standard, and other options. Wally will review many of the options and discuss possible consequences of each.

11:00 New Technology, New Business Models, New Strategies Mike Boehlje, Purdue Ag Economist Your parents and grandparents' operations evolved and grew as machinery supplanted manual labor, just as you adapted as crop protection products and genetics replaced iron. Continuing technology change along with consolidation and vertical integration will evoke further evolution. What will be the new challenges this next decade—and how can you respond?

11:20 Questions and Discussion with Boehlje, Gray, and Tyner Join in on the discussion, ask questions, and challenge how these experts and your peers view current thinking.

11:40 Formulating the Strategy to Succeed Mike Boehlje Once the big picture becomes clearer, it becomes much easier filling in the parts and pieces to succeed. Mike will help guide your thinking as you consider the lessons of the last three days.

11:50 Wrap-Up and Evaluation Bruce Erickson, Purdue Ag Economist Have your comments ready. What did you like about the 2007 Top Farmer Crop Workshop? What should be improved? Make suggestions for the 2008 program.

Noon Adjourn