Agronomically, most of us are “land grant” educated. Land grant universities were established with the Merrill Act in the 1860s and served to make the higher education affordable to the masses, including a lot of farm kids. By design, they had an agricultural focus – both in research and education. Even if we did not attend our state’s Land Grant or follow their sports teams, they are the foundation for most of the industry’s agronomic knowledge.

Sometimes life events leave a mark for generations. The Great Depression created generations of frugal farm family survivors. Feeding a family was a challenge – holding on to a farm was almost impossible for many. The "frugal stamp" wasn't just left on the parents but their children and many times passed on to another generation.

I don't like it when people generalize about the characteristics of a demographic group – like when people say, "Bald men are better-lookin." There are always exceptions that make those generalizations flawed.

I'm writing this before one of our great American traditions with agricultural roots – Thanksgiving – originally a time to be thankful for the bounty of the harvest. The 2017 crop year harvest has been a surprise to many. How is it possible to produce so much with such adverse growing environments? Here are just two Iowa examples:

The age-old agronomy equation is, "Yield Equals Genetics (G) by Environment (E) by Management (M)." There is a lot of focus on using data to measure hybrid and variety performance, in other words, to sort out the "G" part of the equation. That can start with your own data and but it can also include being part of "group, pooled or community" data. This allows you to anonymously see yield results from both genetics you planted and didn't plant. Being able to filter results by rainfall, GDU's and soils helps to address the factors that make up the "E" factor and get closer to apples-to-apples comparisons.

Sometimes “averages” can be your worst enemy.

Premier Crop Systems is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has appointed Darren Fehr as President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors effective immediately. Fehr previously held the position of Director, Sales & Marketing with Premier Crop Systems and will succeed Dan Frieberg. As Dan transitions toward retirement, he will remain actively engaged in the company as Vice President, Technical Services.

When I’m visiting with growers and advisers, I frequently say that maps are a great way to view data, but the real power lies within the data file that the map represents.

Is it possible that 3 and 2 can equal more than 5? That's the concept of synergy – when the "whole equals more than the sum of the parts". Within our company, we talk a lot about agronomic synergies. We see it in data analysis and we believe that discovering and capitalizing on agronomic synergies is an exciting part of our future in using data to make better decisions. 

I have never liked the warning "you don't get a second chance to make a first impression." It always seems to futile and irreversible. But one example that I encounter frequently relates to how variable rate applications were first positioned by the ag input industry. Years ago, when GPS was first allowing us to measure differences within fields and variable rate controller technology was being pioneered, the value proposition presented to most growers was "this will save you money."