We hear it in many arenas, yet sometimes fail to act: The key to success is planning, and preparation.  In essence, to perform at our best, we need to be ready! Gold medal athletes, airline pilots, doctors, and yes, even growers!

As part of AGSI’s Ready, Set…GROW! perpetual planning framework, we’ve identified the ‘Ready’ portion of this plan as anticipating your needs well in advance of when the snow begins to melt.  Just like all of those in the careers listed above, the reality is, as a grower, you really only have one shot at getting it right!  Why leave anything to chance?

In collaboration with many of our growers, we’ve identified Ten Critical Steps in Making Sure YOU’RE Ready:

1.    Evaluate this past growing season: Was I satisfied with my ROI?  Did I make the best decisions I could have possibly have made for optimal yield performance?

2.    Set Goals: Including yield targets, costs of production, and return on investment, based on past history and results as benchmarks for the coming years’ performance.

3.    Ever heard the phrase, “Get your ducks in a row?” - - Formulate Plans: an inputs plan, labour plan and financial plan address products, people, and resources needed to attain and surpass your benchmarks.

4.    Enter into a partnership: AGSI Solutions Team Players can assist in an in-depth crop production plan, and help guide you through the year!

5.    Soil Tests: Consider it your Ready, Set…GROW! Foundation: allows for complete, fully informed plans and recommendations.

6.    Consider years down the road: Have a defined crop rotational strategy in place, and select the proper seed variety for your field.

7.    Taking stock of Product Logistics & Timing: we’ve heard it’s a good idea to have everything at the farm-gate before seeding.  Is this a possibility for you?

8.    Overall Crop Nutrition: Know your options: Your partnerships with AGSI allow you to make the most informed decision about the different fertility options available to you, and the forms they are available in to ensure balanced overall plant nutrition.

9.    Mapping out a Crop Protection Plan: An AGSI Solutions Team Player can help you design the proper plan for your needs; taking into account past experience, and previous year’s weed reports, and your crop rotation strategy.

10.Mother Nature: Am I prepared to deal with whatever weather may come: proper planning allows for calculated adjustments (HINT: For anybody thinking ahead, that’s the ‘Set’ part)

Consult with your local AGSI & Partners Location today, to make sure you’re ready to be ready….when rubber hits the road!

Vegreville – AGSI Customers discuss the benefits of Fungicides, and Advanced Fungicides on their 2011 crops. 

Southwest of Vegreville, Alberta, two AGSI customers are now true believers in using Fungicides and Advanced Fungicides to increase their yields…by as much as a 17.4%. With rain pouring down this past spring - and the forecast showing even more to come, growers Brent and Lorne Wyllie made a decision to protect their crop investment. Their AGSI dealer arranged for a high clearance applicator to apply the product, when the window of opportunity presented itself.

The Wyllie’s saw the results in their plots right away: “When we walked the fields, the treated portions kept their leaf size better and less evidence of disease pressure was observed on the plant. As the crop continued to fill, we were starting to get excited over the kernel size. Although we could never see any visual evidence from the road, our brother happened to take an aerial photo of the entire wheat field with the plots late in the season. No doubt about it, there were clear borders of the protected and check strips in the wheat!”

The two farmers exclaim, “Come harvest time, the yield monitors and weigh wagon confirmed that these products do an amazing job. We were glad we didn’t leave too many acres untreated. Protein, germination, moisture, grade, and 1000 kw weight were all equal to or better than the check strips. The yield was the largest profitable factor in the scenario with as much as a 17.4% increase!”

Economic Analysis

 Untreated 

 Fungicide 

 Advanced Fungicide 

 Fungicide   (cost/acre)

$0.00

$12.98

$17.00

 Application   (cost/acre)

$0.00

$6.00

$6.00

 Total   (cost/acre)

$0.00

$18.98

$23.00

 Yield   (bu/ac)

63.00

71.00

76.00

 $/bu   (Nov Pro Price)

$7.31

$7.31

$7.31

 Revenue/acre

$460.53

$519.01

$555.56

 Net Revenue/acre

$460.53

$500.03

$532.56

 Profit   increase/acre vs. untreated 

-

$39.50

$72.03

As the calendar turns to 2012, and growers across the province work on their ‘Ready’ plans for next season, it is important to factor in all elements, and ensure results like those of the Wyllie’s.

Talk to your AGSI Solutions Team Player today about your options to ensure optimum yields this coming season - - It’s never too early to be ready!

Before you know it, we’ll be turning the page on yet another Calendar year – and we don’t have to tell you that it went by in a blink!  Or, that before you know it, the machinery will be getting fine-tuned, geared up, and out in full force to get your crop in the ground!

As part of our Ready, Set…GROW! Philosophy at AGSI, we believe you can take critical steps now to make sure you’re in prime position to succeed at go time!  It’s simple…have a plan…be ready, so you’re set to GROW!

What exactly does it mean to be ready?  It means knowing that the year really doesn’t start when the snow melts…in reality, your perfect plan starts now… and its foundation: The Soil Test!

Says Andrukow Group Strategic Solutions Coach Wayne Rolston: “The soil test is really the key to balanced crop nutrition and overall plant health.  We have the tools to identify and satisfy your field’s specific nutritional needs; and a healthy crop equals a healthy return.”

Adds Rolston, “Without a soil test analysis, you’re only guessing at what your crop needs….and there are too many elements involved to just make a guess.”

Consider these examples:

• Your soil may be lacking Phosphorous, inhibiting root system development and lengthening the number of days to ripening and maturity.  A soil test analysis identifies required phosphorous levels to meet your crops targeted yield – and an eye on how to achieve them by utilizing the proper tools from the AGSI toolbox.
• Innovations in application timing and technology allow for risk management by matching optimal nutrition elements to a crop’s growth stage.  The soil test identifies your field’s specific “healthy diet,” ensuring ultimate crop performance.

An easy metaphor can be mentioned here.  Like a doctor making a prescription after a check-up, your AGSI Solutions Team Member is among the best in the business at providing interpretations, analysis, and making specific recommendations to maximize your yield potential.

But again, it all starts with the Ready Process...and building a bursting bin from a proper foundation – The Soil Test!

Talk to your AGSI Solutions Team Member today about your 2012 plan; and about our joint Precision-Ag Technology venture Point Forward Solutions, to ensure you’re putting your best bin forward!

Central Alberta – October – Enhanced root development and shorter maturation periods due to Specialty Product application.

More producers in the Provost area are believers in AGSI Exclusive Product Canola Boost, after harvesting very healthy, excellent yielding crops.  Both of the growers we talked to agreed that Canola Boost increased their plant’s vigour, and led to enhanced root development.

AGSI Customer Lyndon Flad, who farms near Provost, noticed dramatic improvement in many areas: “What impressed me was how healthy the crop that was treated with Canola Boost was.  I saw longer, straighter pods, no green seeds, and the root development was much better – which of course leads to a much healthier plant.”

Variety 1:             w/ Canola Boost – 46Bu/ac

w/ Canola Boost + Boron – 56.4Bu/ac

Variety 2:             w/ Canola Boost – 53 Bu/ac

Variety 3:            w/ Canola Boost – 51 Bu/ac *(Historical Returns average 38-39 Bu/ac)*

“My greatest advantage was  basic – for every $15/acre, I received $120/acre in return using Canola Boost and Boron – Great investment in my books!”

Brian Stempfle operates Stempfle Farms in Provost, and applied Canola Boost to 900 of his acres

“I was amazed with plant flowering…much brighter and longer lasting,” explains Brian.  “The plants matured five days earlier than normal, which really helped in a condensed season.  Overall, I’d say I saw approximately 1800-2000 more bushels this year, and with today’s prices, that’s somewhere in the neighbourhood of a $20,000 increase in revenue.”

AGSI customers are seeing the results of this exclusive product, and see it as an integral component in their successful Agronomic Plans.  Talk to your AGSI Solutions Specialist today to aim higher in your fields as well! 

Succeed with Cereal Boost and Canola Boost – exclusively available with Your HOW TO, GO TO PEOPLE!  We want you to:

Central Alberta – September - AGSI Grower’s maximize their potential by aiming higher, with Cereal Boost and Canola Boost.

The praise is pouring in from some local AGSI customers who saw their yields pick up significantly this season. They say the exclusive AGSI specialty products Cereal Boost and Canola Boost played a major role in their increased production, overall plant health, and maturity.

Blair Schurman, of B&L Enterprises near Provost, Alberta was expecting to see 30 Bu/ac on his canola plots – the norm for this piece of land.  Says Schurman, “This spring the canola was not advancing like the rest of the canola in the area, so I decided to use canola boost.”

The results speak for themselves:

RR Canola 1:            42Bu/ac                                    RR Canola 2:            48.2Bu/ac

RR Canola 3:            48.7Bu/ac                                 RR Canola 4:            38.9Bu/ac

“I was pleased, because the treated canola had no greens and matured 7-10 days earlier before the crop that went untreated.  As of Saturday, September 17^th, all the treated canola is in the bin, and at much higher than the 30Bu/ac that I was expecting!”

AGSI grower Alois Schaab, of AK Farm Ltd out of Cactus Lake, Saskatchewan applied Cereal Boost to his Unity seed this year, and was very impressed with the increase in yield:

Liquid Fertilizer WITHOUT Cereal Boost:            45Bu/ac

Liquid Fertilizer WITH Cereal Boost:                     50Bu/ac

“The Cereal Boost treated wheat grew very uniformly and was very healthy,” explains Alois. “The non-treated was more up and down, and was less uniform.” “I used Cereal Boost to treat barley too, and my yield was 60Bu/ac, when my year over year average has been 50Bu/ac,” beamed a very satisfied Alois.

An AGSI exclusive, Cereal Boost and Canola Boost worked in these fields…it will work in yours too!  Talk to your AGSI Solutions Specialist today, about these exclusive Boost Products and aim higher with them in your next Agronomic Plan!

Ready, Set…GROW! With AGSI; Your HOW TO, GO TO People!

We have all seen the disease triangle more than we care to recall in the marketing and advertising from our friends the chemical companies.  While we may be immune to the image itself, we really need to stop and consider its message. That message is: there is ALWAYS the opportunity for disease to propagate and set up shop in your fields. Wind, rain, soil, boots, insects, animals and equipment are all methods of transportation to disease spores, so we need to be cognizant that of the fact that the disease has many opportunities to infect, no just when the "ideal" conditions are present.

But, having previously been a seed rep, crop rep, chemical rep, field scout etc. I have heard many and all justifications for not spraying fungicide.  On the flip side of the coin, I have also heard to woeful cries of the canola producer who wished he had sprayed every acre - after the fact. Below is a compilation of these laments and woes from the last few years - see if you recognize your own voice in some of these. But also, pay close attention to the reasons you SHOULD spray a sclerotinia fungicide - I don't type just because I like seeing the clicking of the keys drive the dog crazy, I do it to remind producers of the reasons they need to protect their investment. And to remind you of why, in November of last year, you told me you would never not spray again.

5 reasons to spray fungicide on your canola for sclerotinia in 2011

1- Even if your bald spot is dry and sunburnt, your boots will still get wet in your canola. Remember – canola has a microclimate under all that crop canopy that is the perfect moist, warm environment to host spores, mushrooms and yield-robbing sclerotinia. Even if its been dry, hot and windy in your part of the world, chances are its damp, moist and disease-y under your canola leaves.

2 - There are golf tees off the green! But even if you don’t see the tee-shaped mushrooms – the risk is there. Trust me. Looks can be deceiving. Often, the mushrooms (apothecia) don’t release spores when you are looking for them – spores can also reside in the soil for up to five years, or they can travel on the wind like other diseases. So, even if there are no mushrooms in your fields – how confident are you in your neighbours scouting abilities?

3 - You spent big bucks to plant it - take care of it! Certified hybrid genetics, 2 applications of herbicide, maybe some insecticide - we get it. You're tired of spraying. But don't give up now! You can lose a significant percentage of yield to sclerotinia if it infects your canola.  So when your field is yellow - you should be spraying it.

4 - You will make your AGSI agronomist feel good about themselves. You know the reasons you need a fungicide, and so do we. We have been telling you for years. Showing you in your own fields and your neighbours. Let your AGSI agronomist know that their words will no longer go unheeded!

5 - Because you wish you had last year...

5 reasons you didn’t spray fungicide in 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007....

- It didn’t rain yesterday

- You were at the lake

- You are sick of spraying

- You don’t want to have to combine 60 bushel canola, it seems like a lot more work

- Canola prices are too high, then you'll have to get rid of all that cash before year end

It's like losing those last 10 pounds. You will eventually get to the gym. You will run to the mailbox and back...tomorrow. You will stop eating the doughnuts at AGSI Provost. You will spray fungicide on your canola this year.  Sound familiar??