THE LEADER AN EARLY RISER’S GUIDE TO WHAT’S BEST AND WHAT’S NEXT IN SEED.

LUKE ANDERSON MAY NEVER WORK ANOTHER DAY IN HIS LIFEBy: Scott Burditt, Dairyland Seed Field Reporter

Luke Anderson is, among other things, a Dairyland Seed dealer. His busy schedule has at times made him consider hiring someone to help him sell seed. There’s enough business to make the numbers work. Emotionally, however, he’s just not ready.

“I love helping farmers put the right seed in the ground. The appreciation I get is incredibly rewarding,” Luke says, pausing to add, “and I have to say it’s not something I want to give up.”

Luke is one of those people who embodies the saying “if you do what you love, you’ll never work another day in your life.”

Anderson Seed Farms Inc., located in Forman, ND sells seed for Dairyland, owns and operates a certified seed business, and farms cash crops. No matter which hat Luke wears, he draws from lessons learned earlier in life.

“Watching my grandpa, seeing how passionate he still is, has taught me some things. He makes me that much more appreciative of the business I’m inheriting,” Luke says.

Luke’s grandfather, Charles Anderson, and Charles’ brother began conditioning seed and selling it 1958. Now 91 years old, Charles still loves to be around the farm.

The late Tom Strachota, former Dairyland General Manager, imparted a few lessons too. Tom used to tell him to always be honest and straightforward, that he wouldn’t always make the seed sale, but when he did, he’d be making it the right way.

“I learned not to promise things we can’t do. At the end of the day, we go home knowing we didn’t value a sale more than our integrity.”

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On-Farm Evaluation of New Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Meet the Dairyland Seed Family: Joe Matschull & Matt Breuer . . . . . . . . . . 3Enlist™ E3 Soybeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Increased Winterkill Potential for Alfalfa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62019 GENI Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6Contacts for Spring Agronomic Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

SPRING 2019

Luke takes a break atop Dairyland boxes that are now being filled and shipped to customers for the 2019 season.

2 SPRING 2019

ON-FARM EVALUATION OF NEW PRODUCTSBy: Rod King, Eastern Regional Agronomist

Every year there are numerous new products available to crop producers. Many of these are presented with a lot of data; others are offered with little supporting information, or data generated only by the folks selling the product.

How do you make good decisions on what products to select and use on your farm? This includes corn hybrids and soybean varieties, as well as other inputs. These are often difficult decisions and always include financial implications – will the product pay for itself and return a benefit above the input cost? Is it superior to what I am now using (or doing)? Often there are claims made that need to be thoroughly tested before investing in a product.

Growers today have great tools available for on-farm research and comparison. With the georeferencing capabilities of most planting and harvesting systems, well-designed on-farm trials and comparisons can provide valid and valuable data for making management decisions.

Examples would include comparing corn hybrids or soybean varieties, comparing tillage methods, different fertilizer applications, or the use of fungicides.

On-farm research must be set up carefully in order to gain accurate and useful information. Here are a few tips:

Decide what you want to investigate: What is the question you are trying to answer? It is best to include only two treatments:

• A control, or your usual practice, and a challenger treatment. It is possible, with careful planning, to test multiple treatments with good results.

• A good example would be that of a multi-hybrid test plot.

Design the study carefully:

• Strips across the field?

• One treatment on half the field with the other treatment on the other half?

• Blocks within the field to make sure all treatments are on the same soil type?

• Match treatments to the equipment: Planting and harvesting equipment and management must match up.

• Randomize (if at all possible) so that any treatment has an equal chance of landing in any particular location.

• Replicate for best results: Plant and harvest multiple strips of each treatment.

• Pay special attention to plot layout: Rows must be perpendicular to tile lines and must equally fall across any different soil types within the field. This is often challenging and may make some fields unsuitable for this kind of on-farm research. It is better to not put out a study than to have it biased from the outset by different treatments being placed on different soil types, drainage patterns, etc.

• Make and record observations throughout the growing season.

• Plan your harvest and data analysis before planting any study. Begin with the end in mind, and you will have a much better chance of gaining usable information

Plan to test a new input at least two seasons, preferably three, before making a whole farm decision.

A carefully constructed on-farm trial, whether it be for hybrid or variety comparison or for other inputs, can yield valuable results that can add profit to your operation in the future.

For assistance in setting up valid on-farm trials, feel free to call your Dairyland Regional Agronomist. (Contact information can be found on Page 8 of this issue.) We’ll be happy to work with you.

Yield map of the fungicide by hybrid study at the Dairyland Seed Wabash, IN research farm, 2018

3 SPRING 2019

JOE MATSCHULL Meet Joe Matschull who works in the West Bend warehouse. Joe has been with Dairyland Seed for five years and in that time his role has grown from warehouse employee to include spring van delivery driver and the EH&S (Environmental Health & Safety) Focal Point.

In his role of EH&S Focal Point he maintains, reviews, implements and trains on the various safety programs and policies for all employees at the West Bend location. As the Focal Point, he also works with on-site contractors to ensure that tasks are completed safely.

“I enjoy the opportunities that the safety aspect of my job gives me. It allows me to look at the things we do on a regular basis and see them in a different light. That way I can assess if we are doing things in a safe manner or if there is room for improvement. This allows all of us at the company to be able to go home to our families safe and sound every day,” says Joe.

Joe’s role in the warehouse involves setting up the loads for deliveries, loading and unloading trucks and assisting with warehouse administrative duties. During the busy spring shipping season, Joe travels from Minnesota to Indiana and Ohio. Chances are if you need a last-minute change of seed, extra seed, GENI plot seed or a weekend delivery, you might see him in either in the truck we call DS-240 or the van. Making farm deliveries is a fun part of Joe’s job. He adds, “It’s nice to be able to put faces to all of the names that I see on a daily basis.”

Free time and weekends are spent on his family vacation property in Door County. When he’s not in Door County or working on home remodeling and landscaping

projects, you can find Joe out on the open road trying to get lost on his Harley.

In 2011 Joe graduated from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls with a Bachelor’s Degree in Horticulture. During college and for a few years after he worked for a landscaping company. Joe was born and raised in Greendale, Wisconsin, and currently resides in Slinger.

MATT BREUER Truck Driver and Maintenance Tech, Matt Breuer, has worked for Dairyland Seed for eight years at the Western Customer Service Center in Mt. Hope, Wisconsin. Matt’s truck driving duties involve delivering and picking up seed as well as assisting with loading seed in the warehouse and rebagging. Site and equipment maintenance at the Mt. Hope facility are also his responsibility.

Matt says, “Getting to see the different farming operations across the region makes my job enjoyable.”

Born and raised in Cassville, Wisconsin, Matt grew up on the family dairy farm. Matt

adds, “We made small square bales ALL summer long”. Matt continued his passion for agriculture by completing the Farm and Industry Short Course at the University of Wisconsin Madison in 1992. In 2014, he took second place in Dairyland Seed’s Wisconsin Soybean Yieldmaster contest.

Prior to joining the Dairyland Seed team, Matt worked at Sub-Zero in Madison. Now Matt and his family operate the Breuer family farm and raise 1500 to 2000 head of Holstein steers annually along with a small herd of beef cows. Fields of alfalfa, corn and soybeans surround the farm.

Matt and his wife Lea have three children: Jake, 19; Ruby 16; and Jared 14 and a dog named Bubba. (Lea is also an employee of Dairyland Seed and works at the Mt. Hope office.) The family looks forward to sharing time together in the outdoors on fishing trips or UTV’ing together.

Matt Breuer and his children Jake, Ruby and Jared.

Joe Matschull

MEET THE DAIRYLAND SEED FAMILY: JOE MATSCHULL AND MATT BREUER

4 SPRING 2019

ENLIST E3™ SOYBEANS

Exceptional weed control. Ease of use. Excellent yield. Enlist E3™ soybeans offer the most advanced trait technology available in soybeans, providing a new standard for weed control and yield performance. Tolerance to 2,4-D choline, glyphosate and glufosinate allow you to use Enlist Duo® or Enlist One™ herbicide to get tough weeds out of the way, so each Enlist E3 soybean can achieve full genetic potential.

“The genetics were top-notch. The Enlist beans yielded really good and met my expectations.”

— Kevin Miller, Ohio soybean farmer

“After application, I could see no evidence at all on the beans. There was no burn or wrinkling of leaves at all. The crop tolerance is a big value.”

— Josh Turner, Missouri soybean farmer

WIDE APPLICATION WINDOW

Enlist E3™ soybeansNo later than R2 (full flower)

Enlist E3™ soybeans have no plant-back restrictions after using an Enlist™ herbicide for burndown.

Morningglory Palmer amaranth1

Lambsquarters Waterhemp

Giant ragweedCommon ragweed

Marestail1 Velvetleaf

Even the toughest weeds don’t stand a chance, including:

The Enlist™ weed control system: an easy fit for your operation.• Enlist E3 soybeans are compatible with nearby nonsusceptible crops, such as

soybeans without the Enlist™ trait, corn, peanuts, alfalfa and wheat. You can apply Enlist herbicides on Enlist E3 soybeans planted right next to these nonsusceptible crops without a buffer.

• A wide application window and the versatility of Enlist herbicides make them easy to incorporate into your weed management plan.

Dairyland Seed has a large crop plan for next year and will have a large supply of Enlist™ E3 soybeans in

Groups 0 through 3 for the 2020 growing season!

5 SPRING 2019

Luke and his wife, Amy, represent the fifth generation on his family’s farm. The first family members arrived from Sweden. The father of his great grandfather (great, great, great grandpa) carved a dwelling from the side of a hill and lived there until he eventually received logs floated down the Red River for constructing the original farmhouse. There were no trees nearby back then.

“It’s no longer standing, but it was a massive, beautiful home. Four stories from the cellar, with an elevator to the attic, and one of the first homes with a duct system and central air.”

Luke and his dad along with three full-time and two part-time employees farm approximately 5,000 acres with about 2,500 of that planted to beans, 1,700 wheat, and 700 corn. The corn is a cash crop. Wheat goes mostly for seed. About 30 percent of their soybeans get conditioned for Dairyland customers, with the rest going to market. Over the years, he’s cleaned just about every crop you can think of.

The business began conditioning and distributing Dairyland Seed soybeans, and selling Dairyland Seed corn, soybeans and alfalfa, back in 2002.

“Their breeding program and Dr. Bill Campbell, who was just a genius when it came to plant breeding, are what initially intrigued us about Dairyland,” Luke says. “We know they put out a variety because it works, not to fit a marketing plan. Their research continues to inspire me to invest our money in raising and selling their seed for farmers to buy.”

From late November to mid-March, Luke and his team clean and condition wheat seed five days a week, running it through three mills to achieve a pure end product. Soybean seed production

begins in mid-March and runs to planting season. At that point, “winter relaxation mode” is officially over and their workload intensifies. After harvest, the process starts all over again.

Luke’s passion is helping farmers place the perfect variety, whether for disease characteristics, yield or soil type, with support from Dairyland Seed.

“One of the best things about working with Dairyland is that, even though the company has grown, I can call the lead corn or soybean agronomist, who could be anywhere in the U.S. dealing with anything, and they’ll stop, answer the phone, and tell me what they think of my seed recommendation. Or I’ll call my District Manager, who also has vast knowledge. You don’t get that kind of access with other big seed companies.”

To build his seed business, he’s embraced social media marketing, in part because he’s never been comfortable with the traditional approach of knocking on doors.

He can post a video on Facebook of seed being bagged or treated and reach a couple of thousand people. Before he knows it, farmers will inquire about his varieties. Some just want contact information, others have placed orders, even from 60 miles away.

Luke prefers this modern connection to farmers. It fits his desire to embrace change, be aggressive, and focus on growth, all behaviors that he believes align with Dairyland Seed’s ongoing pursuit of new technologies, traits and varieties.

The Anderson Seed Farms mission is simple: Do business with integrity and offer a great product.

“I truly love watching him work,” says Amy. “I love seeing his passion for helping farmers.”

If doing what you love is contagious, Luke and Amy’s kids may become the sixth generation to serve local farmers.

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The original farmhouse, built in 1906 by Nils Dahlstrom, whose descendants still live in the area, boasted a one-person elevator operated with a counterweighted rope system. The family used the elevator to ferry items from floor to floor, mostly laundry from the cellar to the attic for air

drying. The grand home was the first in the Forman area with a central heating system, hot and cold water, and indoor plumbing.

Amid a beautiful Great Plains sunset, Luke works to get DSR-1215/R2Y soybeans out of his field. The family farmhouse sits in the background.

6 SPRING 2019

Planting season will soon be here meaning now is the time to begin looking at how alfalfa fields fared over the last six months. Knowing the increased risks can help you and your crop team make the best decision for what increased needs a stand left in rotation may have or how to adjust the overall plan to accommodate seeding new alfalfa fields.

It’s no secret the dairy economy continues to operate on razor-thin margins causing decisions to be made

with cost as the leading factor. The average alfalfa stand can be profitable for four to five years under normal weather conditions and management, but the past few years have taken a toll on both. The last major alfalfa winterkill event for the upper Midwest occurred in 2012-2013 meaning that many alfalfa stands established at that time have already reached their peak profit potential and are over-due for replacement. Older stands are more susceptible and will be hit the hardest

after this past year’s variable weather patterns and additional cost-cutting decisions.

Ample and frequent fall rain put additional stress on alfalfa stands that saw either record-breaking rainfall or wide-spread drought throughout the summer. To add insult to injury, most states in the upper Midwest saw extended periods of low wind chills on bare ground followed by above-average snowfalls, mid-season thawing causing ponding and ice dams, and several

INCREASED WINTERKILL POTENTIAL FOR ALFALFA IN 2019By: Sara Hendrickson, Forage Leader

(Continued on Page 7)

A gathering of Dairyland Seed hybrid corn strip plot cooperators, known as GENI (Genotypic ENvironmental Interaction) Cooperators, attended a two-day event at the American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin.

The program kicked off with soybean and forage breakout sessions. Rod Moran was excited to present data for our new soybeans for the 2019-20 season in addition to introducing the new Regional Agronomists. (Contact information for all can be found on Page 8 of this issue.) Sara Hendrickson led the forage breakout which included an update on HybriForce and silage results from 2019. Dr. Phil Cardoso, Associate Professor of Animal Sciences from the University of Illinois spoke on “Bridging the Gap Between the Agronomist and the Nutritionist”.

Monday’s General Session focused on corn and the emphasis

that Dairyland Seed places on hybrid corn testing.

“Strip testing corn hybrids is of critical importance based on the environmental sensitivity of corn due to its genotypic and phenotypic makeup,” said Ryan Mueller.

T.J. Strachota added, “As no one can guarantee the weather, it is vital to understand how these unique sets of genetics respond to a variety of environments.”

Ryan Mueller reviewed the outstanding 2018 first, second and third place finishes for DS and HiDF hybrids in University and FIRST trials. Dairyland Seed has the highest yielding hybrid in three different states university trials. FIRST trial performance was excellent with 202 Top 10 finishes!

Chad Colby from Colby Ag Tech gave an entertaining presentation on “Ag Technology...Where We’re At..and Where We’re Going”.

The day concluded with a social and a banquet.

2019 GENI MEETING

Ryan Mueller, Corn Lead Product Manager

7 SPRING 2019

occurrences of mixed precipitation. These extreme winter weather events on top of a stressful growing and harvest season created the right conditions for increased winterkill come spring.

Walk each field and analyze the stand. As plants break dormancy, there are two main areas to look at when determining the health status of an alfalfa plant:

Above Ground: Check for asymmetrical or uneven growth. New shoots should be emerging equally from all parts of the crown. If you only see a few shoots emerging, or they are only emerging from one side of the plant, it may indicate that problems exist below the soil. Count the number of plants and the number of stems per square foot to ensure your stand has the potential to meet your goals for yield.

Below Ground: All productivity above ground for alfalfa depends on the health of the root system. You can easily check this by digging alfalfa roots out of the soil using a spade or shovel. Tear or cut the crown and root in half to take a look inside; the flesh of the root should be firm and white in color. If you see brown or reddish lesions in the center of the root, it is a sign that an infection has occurred. The level of infection will determine if the stand will last only a few years, or if you should rotate to some other crop. If the roots are soft and dark yellow with a rotten smell, the plants are likely dead.

If you take a look at your alfalfa fields, both above and below ground, it can help you decide if the stand will be productive in the coming year. If you have questions on the status of your alfalfa stands or want more information on managing alfalfa for a successful 2019, please contact your Dairyland Seed District Sales Manager or Regional Agronomist.

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8 SPRING 2019

Dairyland SeedP.O. Box 958West Bend, WI 53095-0958

www.dairylandseed.com // 800.236.0163

®, ™, SM Trademarks and service marks of Dow AgroSciences, DuPont or Pioneer, and their affiliated companies or their respective owners. ©2019 Dairyland Seed.

CONTACTS FOR SPRING AGRONOMIC SUPPORT

Central Regional AgronomistDan Ritter219-863-0583dritter@dairylandseed.com

Eastern Regional AgronomistTerry Jones419-630-3115tjones@dairylandseed.com

Eastern Regional AgronomistRod King574-596-6721rking@dairylandseed.com

Northern Regional AgronomistBranden Furseth608-513-4265bfurseth@dairylandseed.com

Western Regional AgronomistBrian Weller507-456-3034bweller@dairylandseed.com