Soil and Water Conservation Society Meeting

On Tuesday I attended the annual meeting of the Illinois Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society.  I have been a member since 1980.  We had a diversity of speakers and all were interesting.

Jarrod Hudsonof Beck's Hybrids, an independent seed company, gave a demonstration of their Crop Health Imaging service.  They have used it to determine need for fungicide and also, the need for rescue nitrogen.  The service seemed like it could be very useful for the price of $2 per acre.   

Mary Lee Faupel and Michael Fricke are attorneys who work with farmers.  They did a good job covering land ownership and who controls the land.  It was a good review of part of a long ago Ag Law class.

Robert Wolf of Wolf Consulting and Research LLC discussed spray nozzle technology.  As a retired Professor he is available to help set up research, train, and consult.  His point was that if you have spray drift issues (and who doesn't?) you need to select nozzles and pressures to reduce the chances of drift,

I heard Tim Smith of Cropsmith discuss nitrogen management for the second time this year.  I am not sure if it was a better presentation than the first one or if I listened better, but he did a great job of telling us why we need to take a comprehensive approach to nitrogen management in order to maximize yield and minimize damage to the environment.