Do you feel it? It’s that itch to turn over some dirt. The snow was necessary to add moisture to the topsoil, but now you’re ready to scratch that surface. So let’s turn up the heat and start making some decisions.

As you pull out the machinery and prepare to plant your crops this spring, why not consider planting a variety trial? Now, we all have our comfort zone seeds – those tried and true, top-performing varieties planted year after year. But what about all the new varieties you might be missing?

Instead of planting a quarter or more of the same thing, why not try a box of a new variety and grow it alongside your old standby? This will allow you to take a closer look and compare how the new varieties measure up. It will help minimize your risk while offering proof of performance.

Give your local Seedex dealer a call or contact me, Mike Dohman, and we’ll help you find the cure to what ails you.

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Our Sales and Research did get all of their plots harvested. Once again Seedex varieties had above average revenue per acre when compared to the competition. We also heard from many of our customers who were very happy with their Seedex sugarbeets. You can view the 2012 plots here and on our web site seedexseed.com. Make sure to visit with me or your local Seedex dealer about our different varieties and which field in your rotation they would work best on. We have discovered a number of new traits in our varieties that are more specific for your farm needs.

Mike

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Students who demonstrate community involvement and extracurricular excellence will each receive a $500 scholarship for college. This scholarship is our way of acknowledging the success of our growers’ children and helping support the next generation of growers in our region.

The scholarship recipients are:

Sarah Barclay of Grafton, North Dakota. Sarah is attending the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota. She is the daughter of Don & Susan Barclay.

Cody Brantner of Felton, Minnesota. Cody is attending North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. He is the son of Kelly & Teresa Brantner.

Michael Backman of Herman, Minnesota. Michael is attending North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. He is the son of Tim & Marilyn Backman.

Margaret Ferry of Manvel, North Dakota. Margaret is attending The College of Saint Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota. She is the daughter of Tim & Rhea Ferry.

Many quality young men and women applied for the scholarships this year. We would like to thank all the applicants and wish you the very best. Here’s to a successful year of learning and growing in our communities!

Mike Dohman

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The seed has been delivered and planting has begun. Our Seedex dealers have received 100% of the varieties and seed treatments they had on order for their customers. Growers have also received over 99% of their first choice in seed size. Did I mention that this was all completed almost a month earlier than last year? With that said, I would like to extend another big THANK YOU to the production, processing and shipping personnel at Seedex. We take great pride in delivering exactly what you, our customers, order.

We are now busy planting grower strip trials with our dealer and grower cooperators. Later this year, there will be data to share on how they are progressing. Feel free to stop by the plots and take a look with your dealer any time.

We hope your spring planting is timely and that the growing season treats you well.

Regards,

Michael

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Published in Farm & Ranch Guide website, on Wednesday, March 14, 2012

In communities across our nation, no tradition runs deeper from generation to generation than that of working on a family farm.

By working alongside their parents, grandparents and neighbors, young people learn important life skills and values – the values of hard work, personal responsibility and perseverance. They learn how to problem solve and work on a team to get things done.

Agriculture is a way of life; but now the federal government wants to fundamentally change that way of life.

In September 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a new child labor rule that would ban youth under the age of 16 from participating in many common farm-related tasks. The government is now trying to tell farmers and ranchers: “We know what’s best for your children, and what they should and should not be doing.”

Recently, we received some good news when DOL announced it would withdraw and “re-propose” the parental exemption portion of the rule. If the rule had been implemented as it was written, parents would no longer have discretion over the responsibilities they gave their children on farms or ranches jointly owned and operated by multiple family members.

While this announcement was a bit of good news, the Department’s action is not close to being enough. The entire rule must be withdrawn. If the remaining portion is implemented, the education and training of the next generation of farmers and ranchers will be severely disrupted.

The DOL is still proposing to do away with successful farm safety programs like cooperative extension, 4-H, and FFA, which play a critical role in training and certifying young people to safely carry out farm and ranch activities.

The Department has ignored research that shows such programs improve safety habits of young people and instead criticizes them for being too locally driven and lacking federal direction. Their solution is to nationalize these programs and have them run by the DOL in Washington, D.C.

Local experts should be the ones conducting safety training programs to educate our nation’s young people. And parents and communities should be allowed to look after the best interests of their families and citizens.

The remaining portion of the rule would also prohibit youth from participating in common farm activities such as operating a tractor, cleaning out stalls with a shovel and wheelbarrow, and rounding up cattle on horseback. To most young people growing up on a farm or ranch, these jobs are just part of their daily routine.

One example that truly demonstrates the DOL’s limited understanding of what it takes to provide our nation’s food supply is this: they propose limiting youth from exposure to direct sunlight if the temperature reaches a certain limit once you factor in wind velocity and humidity. How is a farmer supposed to comply with that? Hire a meteorologist?

One would think that before making such drastic changes to farm labor rules, the Department would identify reliable evidence and data that shows a need for these changes. But DOL admits it lacks the data to justify them. Furthermore, according to the National Farm Medicine Center, youth-related injuries from farm accidents have declined by nearly 60 percent from 1998 to 2009.

Ask any farmer or rancher about the importance of safety, and they would tell you that safety is a top concern. But they would also tell you that critical to the rural way of life is being able to train and encourage the next generation to safely and successfully begin a career in agriculture.

If the DOL’s proposal goes into effect, not only will the shrinking rural workforce be further reduced, and our nation’s youth be deprived of valuable career training opportunities, but most importantly – a way of life will begin to disappear. The future of agriculture depends on stopping this vast overreach of executive authority and protecting individual rights. I have shared my concerns and the concerns of many farmers and ranchers with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis now on two separate occasions.

However, we need to continue to make our voices heard and try to prevent this rule from going into effect. Please visit www.KeepFamiliesFarming.com to share your thoughts about why the family farm is important.

We know that rural America’s values are not always Washington’s values. Together, we can make certain this destructive rule does not move forward, and can protect and preserve our values for the next generation of American farmers and ranchers.

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Overall, Seedex varieties did quite well despite the conditions – late spring planting, above average rainfall and above average disease pressure. In fact, Seedex varieties outperformed competitors by an average of 1.8 ton and.61% sugar in our farm testimonials. That’s not a bad harvest for a year that was less than ideal.

In this year’s coded trials,  had two varieties in the top ten  and three in the top 12.

This year we’ll be offering Nipslt Suite and Metlock as new seed treatment options. These new treatment options are just two ways Seedex uses research to try and help your bottom line.

The time to order is just around the corner. Contact your dealer and learn about which of our latest varieties is right for your field.

And should you get stuck when the snow shows, visit us on Facebook. www.facebook.com/Seedex. We post interesting photos and videos on there, so be sure to “like us” and leave a comment.

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There are stories up and down the Valley of fields yielding less and some are being destroyed. The take home message is to make sure you visit with your Seedex dealer to pick the best variety for your specific field in the coming year.  Our research crew has started harvesting the trials and we have a lot of data on disease tolerance.

If you have harvest stories you would like to share,  give myself or your Seedex dealer a call. We welcome your input.

Have a safe harvest.

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Published September 9, 2011
Farm & Ranch Guide
Page 13 

To the editor:
Agriculture has deep roots in America’s history.

To insure America’s freedom is to study our past history. This country learned a good lesson years ago. Sugar history shows us that after 40 years, in 1974 when the U.S. Sugar Act expired, the world price skyrocketed to 60 cents a pound. American consumers suffered. Then it dropped to 3 cents a pound and forced many sugar beet and cane farmers out of business, but consumers found no savings in their food prices.

To protect the taxpayers from sugar prices and the insecurity of supply, in 1981 Congress included a sugar program in the Farm Bill. It stabilized the price at a reasonable level, and assured American consumers and giant sugar users such as candy, cereal and soft drink makers a reliable and high quality supply of pure natural sugar.

American farmers are one of the most efficient farmers in their practices. Keeping in mind today’s high cost of production, sugar beet farmers in irrigated areas spend between $1000 and $1100 an acre. On the other hand, sugar cane farmers invest $1100 and $1200 an acre especially around the Florida’s everglades where sugar cane farmers have been sentenced to pay $300 million over 20 years to restore the Everglades.

Comparing American sugar farmers and our industry with foreign countries we discover 110 foreign countries subsidize sugar production, consumption and trade in some way. This makes sugar one of the most heavily subsidized and therefore distorted markets in the world. The present sugar program gives stability to U.S. sugar price and ensures plenty of sugar on our grocery shelves.

The European Union (EU) overhauled its sugar policy in 2005. They sharply reduced their domestic production and became dependent on foreign imports. Now, six years later in today’s highly volatile world sugar market, the consequences of being so dependent on foreign sugar suppliers are starting to surface.

Rationing sugar should bring back a lot of bad memories for America – we were in the same situation during World War II and were forced to ration sugar in 1942 because of foreign supplies dried up.

In fact, our sugar policy is different than EU’s policy because it operates at no cost to taxpayers and without subsidy checks to producers. The sugar program was constructed by Congress to ensure an adequate supply of homegrown sugar and local jobs in rural areas.

Despite the lessons of America’s past and the EU’s present, some in Congress are again looking to make us dependent on foreign supplies. Four bills have been introduced to destroy the sugar program that insures our market with sugar, provides jobs and annual income.

Current bills addressing sugar policy are:

S.25 by Senators Shaheen (N.H.) and Kirk (Ill.) introduced Jan. 25 “stop Unfair Giveaways and Restrictions Act of 2011.” Cosponsors Paul (Ky.) and Durbin (Ill.).

S.685 – Lugar (Ind.) introduced March 30 “Free Sugar Act of 2011.” Cosponsors Paul (Ky.) and McCain (Ariz.).

HR1385 – Pitts (Pa.) – Davis (Ill.) Introduced April 6 – “Free Market Sugar Act.” No other cosponsors.

HR 1739 – Dold (Ill.) – Blumenauer (Ore.) introduced May 5 – “Free Sugar Act of 2011.” Cosponsor Moran (Va.).

America is already more dependent on foreign suppliers than most would think. Trade deals have forced the United States to be the second biggest sugar importer in the world – imports account for approximately one-quarter of the market – and low prices in past years forced 33 U.S. sugar facilities to close between 1996 and 2008.

History is a wise teacher and if we look back and learn from our past mistakes we will prosper from this great teacher.

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I have forgotten how long we have been in the current wet cycle.
I will never forget my grandpa’s words of wisdom on the farm. He would prefer a dry year over a wet year any time.

With excessive amounts of rain comes our share of disease. Scouting fields the last couple of weeks, you can see plenty of Aph and Rizoc. Fields that got planted late are struggling the most. The bigger the sugarbeet root, the more natural tolerance there is for the plant to fight off an infection. With the later planting and warmer soil temps, the beet plant is having to fight for its life. In general, the crop is coming along and looks fare for now.

Some dryer weather would sure help.

Anybody have connections with good old Mother Nature?

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