September 2015

The GROWMARK system annually awards those members achieving financial success dur-ing their respective fiscal years in five categories. To receive an award, the member must be in the top 20% of all GROWMARK members.

For the fiscal year ending August 31, 2014, Southern FS achieved the top 20% award for its return on invested capital. Return on invested capital measures the financial return of the investment held by the company’s sharehold-ers.

Pictured left to right: Jim Spradlin, CEO of GROWMARK, Alan Kirby General Manager of Southern FS, Rollo Burnett Presi-dent of Southern FS, John Reifsteck, Chairman of the Board and President of GROWMARK.

GROWMARK system annual awards for financial success

Ben HarrisCongrats to Ben Harris who

recently became a CCA (Certi-fied Crop Advisor). He passed the comprehensive agronomy exams given by the American Society of Agronomy. Ben is currently at the Murphysboro location as a Custom Appli-cator.

Page 8 • September 2015 • Farm Bureau News

One of Southern Illinois’ most celebrated attractions is the Shaw-nee Hills Wine Trail and this year marks its 20th anniversary. Being the oldest wine trail in the state of Illinois, the Shawnee Hills Wine

Winter wheat is a crop that is very important to many produc-ers in Southern Illinois. We sometimes struggle with wheat production in our area due to

Southern Illinois Wheat Management Tips…adverse weather conditions. As your cooperative, we want to work with you to maximize production and reduce risk for your wheat acres. Here are

Shawnee Hills Wine TrailTrail started in 1995 with only three wineries; Alto Vineyards, Owl Creek, and Pamona Winery. In twenty years the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail has grown to twelve different and distinct wineries.

With the variety of wineries on the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail there are endless activities and events going on in the coming months.

The weekend of the 7th and 8th of November there is the Autumn Inspiration event along the wine trails. There will be a highlighted food and wine pairing at each one of the wineries. This will be a great event for people to get to experience several of the different wineries learn a little more about the wine produced right here in our backyard.

Another great event coming up will be The Gala on November 14th. This Gala will be hosted at the Carbondale Civic Center from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. and will consist of different speakers and door prizes. For more informa-tion on the event you can visit the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail website at www.shawneewinetrail.com.

Besides the events listed above there is something going on every weekend on the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail and with this being the 20th anniversary of the wine trail there is no better time to get out and visit your favorite local win-ery. More information on events and the wineries themselves can be found at the same website listed above.

Southern FS Board of Directors approved purchasing 27 acres of land and building a new fertilizer plant east of Pinckneyville on Route 154 N., then on Blue Bunting Road. Southern FS broke ground on August 3rd. Construction of a 3,600 ton fertilizer blending building, along with moving the anhydrous ammonia tank from the Pinckneyville Fairground Road facility out to the new facility will take place this fall. Our goal is to have the new facility ready for spring of 2016. We hope with this new updated fertilizer blending facility and anhydrous ammonia that we will be able to service our customers in a more timely fashion.

ventional tilled or no-till, make sure you are starting weed free. Other available herbicides pro-vide help in reducing winter annual broadleaf competition and grasses. These products can be effective tools for manag-ing weeds in your wheat crop. There may be doublecrop re-strictions with some herbicide products.

Fertility Management• Soil sampling is the most im-

portant first step in successful wheat management!!! Fields should be sampled every four years no matter what the crop rotation.

• Apply lime to adjust pH to near neutral – 6.5 to 7.0.

• Consider gypsum or sulfur ap-plications

Nitrogen• Uniform application of N is

key. Excessive N can increase disease pressure and lodging, and may decrease over winter-ing ability.

• Apply 20 to 40 pounds actual N in the fall.

• In split N applications apply 30 to 50 pounds actual N in mid to late February before tillering begins. Thin stands or stands with fewer tillers should get higher rates.

• Second application should sup-ply enough actual N to bring total to 60 to 90 pounds in moderate to good yield po-tential fields and 90 to 120 pounds in fields with good to high yield potential (higher N rates would be aided by an application of Palisade growth regulator). Do not count the 20 to 40 pounds applied in the fall. Second application can be delayed until stem elongation or jointing begins.

• Single applications of N should be made near the beginning of jointing. SFS testing has shown the highest yields apply-ing a single application in late March or early April

• Liquid N may be applied with streamers to help reduce plant burn.

Phosphorus• Build soil levels to about 50

pounds per acre depending on the P supplying power of the soil in the field. In many fields in Southern FS P levels are at or above optimum.

• Adequate P levels help the plant develop a strong root system, tiller properly, and improve its winter hardiness.

Potassium• Build soil levels to about 260

pounds per acre depending on the CEC of the soil in the field

• Adequate K levels help improve winter hardiness, plant stand-ability, and also maintenance of plant health during periods of stress and disease.

Other Nutrients• Base need and application of

sulfur and micro-nutrients on a recent soil test and plant tissue analysis. Some secondary and micronutrients may enhance plant appearance but do not add enough yield for an economic return on the dollars invested in the products themselves.

• Wheat has shown the most response to sulfur on coarse textured, low organic matter fields. As we have less available Sulfur, response has become more consistent.

Fertilize for Both Wheat and the Following Crop• When applying P and K to the

winter wheat crop, don’t forget to apply enough to cover the needs of the crop that will be planted into the wheat stubble!

Foliar Fungicides• In the past several years, we

have had a significant increase in the availability of effective foliar fungicides for control or suppression of foliar diseases such as Septoria, Leaf Rusts, Glume Blotch, Powdery Mil-dew, and Tan Spot. Fusarium Head Scab is difficult to pre-dict and control because of its dependence on a narrow range of weather conditions for incidence and spread. We have seen more tolerant win-ter wheat varieties and better fungicidal control. A two pass fungicide system is ideal. Us-ing products like Quilt Excel followed by Prosaro at bloom have significantly improved yields for growers in our area.

Harvest Management• Wheat that is left in the field

much beyond maturity is sub-ject to sprouting in the head and loss of test weight if rain occurs for several days or if it occurs on and off over an extended period of time. It is relatively easy to dry wheat, and harvesting at moistures above optimum for dry wheat can help maintain quality, test weight, and yields.

Additional Information On Winter Wheat Production• As your cooperative, we are

pleased to offer you many of the products, services, and solutions that can add to winter produc-tion profitability on your farm. If you have questions about products or practices that we recommend, please call your Southern FS Crop Specialist.

some wheat management sug-gestions.

Herbicides• Wheat herbicide options.

Whether you are planting con-

Farm Bureau News • September 2015 • Page 9

2014

2014 GROWMARK Essay Contest

By Tim Fulton (Propane Operations Manager)

Propane fired grain dryers gets overlooked sometimes as a safety concern, therefore we “skimp” on how we install our gas supply. I grew up on a farm in Southern Illinois and I can tell you that our propane grain dryer was never a priority until we needed it in the fall. Then my dad and I would rush to get it working. We had a hose running from the tank along the grass to our grain dryer. Chances are it was still hooked up in the spring when my mom got ready to mow grass around those grain bins. Does this sound familiar?

As I look back, I think to my-self, we sure were lucky. It could have easily been an accident waiting to happen. In my new role as the Propane Operations Man-ager, I see some of those scary situations that could be potential accidents that have been over-looked because “it’s been like this forever” attitudes. Consider this, your grain dryer installations may be between 10-40 years old. How many things do we keep around that long without updating?

So let me talk about Southern FS and our propane service and employees. First of all, Southern FS follows NFPA58 (Nation-al Fire Protection Association) codes. These codes are in place for a reason. Chances are an ac-cident caused a change in how these codes were interpreted. Plus as we update gas fired dryers, changes in design cause changes in installation. Obviously there were older grain dryer installa-tions installed before these codes

LP Gas Fired Grain Dryer Safety- from a farm boy perspective

were being enforced. So just because you have not had a prob-lem with your grain dryer doesn’t mean you have a safe grain dryer installation. Southern FS service personnel are kept up to date on any changes to code. Our employ-ees understand the importance of safety and take your investment seriously.

Please call Frank Miner our service manager at (618) 457-5919 to schedule an evaluation of your grain dryer system prior to harvest.

Summer 2015 is almost over, and even though it still may be hot out we are all scratching our heads wondering if the choices we made this past year were the right ones.

Soon we will know if the seed was right; the rate, the drainage, the fertility, and if it’s not, what will you do about it? Rain has been our biggest challenge of the season and it has kept us out or drowned us out time and time again all spring and summer. Al-though the corn is set and we are living with our choices of how we got it in the ground, there were late soybeans going in all over the Southern FS territory. We will very soon see how our decisions impacted our crop this year.

Some growers have already taken their first steps towards thinking about how we are go-ing to do a better job in spring 2016. On July 28th, 29th, and 30th

Precision Planting held their first Regional Summer Conference called Worms Eye Summer Con-ference. It was held on a dealers farm in Wadesville, IN. We had a great turn out for our first event, with a total of about 170 growers getting to go through the event. The days were focused around the basics and really getting a closer look at how we see/read what we see in the field. Overall the day was a success, we took a lot of information from the day and look forward to sharing more of the information with you on your own operation and having these events in the future.

Now with September here, I wonder how many of us are ready to go to the field. Harvest will be here before we know it and one of the biggest impacts on our farm will be made for next season. Harvest will tell us how we did but

Making Changes for Next Seasonmost of us are now running yield monitors to help tell us where the field did good and where it did bad so we can work on, improve, and push all areas in our fields. A harvest monitor will give you a report card on how you did, but if you don’t have it ready to go and set up right you could make bad decisions based on bad information.

After you turn the screen on, take a look at your GPS signal and make sure you are re-ceiving a signal, this is important because with-out a GPS you will not map your fields. Once you have confirmed that I would suggest seeing what firmware/software you are on and updating your system if there is an update for you. When you do this all of your sensors and modules should update as well so confirm that the screen sees them and that they are healthy, if it does not see them check the mod-ule to see if it has power. Next you will want to go to the top of the clean grain eleva-tor and find your flow sensor. You will want to inspect it for wear and clean off any debris that is on it or behind it. Starting the year with a clean machine is best, so you know when you do your calibra-tions that debris won’t affect your results. While you are in the clean

grain elevator turn the paddles until one is pointing straight up and measure the distance from the paddle to the deflector plate or clean grain elevator, whichever you have. For all combines with

Ag Leader system this will be 3/8” to 5/8” except for CLAAS com-bines then its 1” to 1 ¼”. If you have a Precision Planting system use the gauge that was provided in your install kit. (Note: if you have adjusted the top of the paddle and chain assembly for your right measurements and the chain is

loose, adjust the tension from the bottom so you don’t disrupt the top that you just changed.) When you are done with that move out of the hopper to the side of the clean grain elevator and check

your moisture sensor. Take the moisture sensor out and with power to the system rub your fingers on the proximity switch and make sure the cleanout motor works. After rein-stalling the moisture sen-sor, remove the cleanout auger and make sure both the auger and the chamber that it sits in, are clean from top to bottom. Once that checks out, move back to the cab and do a temperature calibration, a vibration calibration, and a distance calibration. Last, double check your con-figurations to make sure they match your combine. Don’t forget to run through your harvest calibration in the field and if it’s a new system there will be some other steps to take. If you have other questions please feel free to call our Precision Farming team here at Southern FS.

Even though 2015 has so far been a trying year, we can learn from it and make better management decisions next year. Remember, it is easier to see problems on a bad year than a good year. Our crops tell us what is going on in the field, we just need to know how to read it. Good luck and stay safe this fall.

Page 10 • September 2015 • Farm Bureau News

Foundations for Success

Several Southern FS employees attended Foundations for Success at Monmouth, IL. It is a weeklong training of in-field experience to help improve agronomy skills. Dr. Howard Brown, GROWMARK, leads the intensive training along with other members. Some items discussed during the week: weed identification, herbicide modes of action, how precision equipment and information management are progressing, fertility and soil structure, and diseases and pests that affect our crops. Southern FS employees that attended were Nathan Pfaff, Jeremy Harris, Eric Tabing, Ben Harris and Kevin Schabacker.

Jordon Gearing from Vien-na, Ill. is a mechanic working out of the Marion central shop.Zach Rister is joining the

Eldorado plant as the location manager. Zach is a graduate of Murray State with a Bach-elor’s degree in ag business. He lives in Harrisburg with his wife Stacey and children Kale and Laney.

New Employees

PERC (Propane Education and Research Council) has partnered with GSI and Mathews Co., two key providers of grain drying systems, to bring new, more ef-ficient grain dryers to market. The Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) is seeking a limited number of agriculture producers to demonstrate select, new propane-fueled equipment and collect valuable research data through the Propane Farm Incentive Program. As part of this initiative, PERC hopes to place a variety of equipment on farms and agribusinesses in various parts of the country. In return, applicants who are selected to take part in the program will be paid a financial incentive for their participation. New, high-efficiency upright tower grain dryers and high effi-

PERC Incentive Program for New Grain Dryer Installationsciency horizontal low profile grain dryers can qualify for the Propane Farm Incentive Program. Listed below are sample grain dryers that qualify for the program; however, similar tower and profile grain dryers from other manufactur-ers can also qualify. The offer is $5000.00• Mathews 10’ to 12’ Tower

Series• Mathews Trilogy Series Grain

Dryer• GSI X-Stream Grain Dryer

The Propane Farm Incentive Program in not a rebate program.• The purchase of any propane-

powered equipment does not guarantee eligibility for an incentive and not all applicants will qualify for an incentive.

• PERC may deny an application for an incentive for any reason,

even if all eligibility require-ments are met.

• PERC recommends that pro-ducers interested in participat-ing apply to the program at www.propane.com/farmin-centive prior to making their

equipment purchase. Note that equipment purchases must be made within 60 days of apply-ing.

• For questions regarding the Propane Farm Incentive Pro-gram, please contact your

equipment dealer, propane dealer, or contact PERC at 202-452-8975.

Southern FS will help you facilitate your application. For more information please call 800-224-5960.