So Thursday of last week was the annual Ag PhD Field Day in Baltic, SD put on by Hefty Seed Company. It is a huge one-day event attended by upwards of 10,000 farmers and visitors from almost all states and many foreign countries. This is my seventh one, and it gets bigger and better each year. AgroLiquid had a good number of folks present to meet the attendees in out tent. Senior Business Development Manager Lonny Smith picked some of us up in Sioux Falls to take us where we needed to go. We were in a hurry but I didn't think he needed to go over 100! On closer examination it was 100 kilometers per hour which is like 62 mph. This rental van had Canadian plates and was for followers of the metric system only. Canadians! Give 'em 2.54 cm and they'll take 1.6 km.
Here is the entrance to the show grounds. We had a tanker on call in case any of the attendees needed fertilizer right away and it could follow them home.
Wednesday was set-up day. We actually had participants in two tents. The AgroLiquid tent and the Responsible Nutrient Management Foundation (RNMF) tent. Here Dale carries in some stuff while Galynn watches RNMF Board Members Kay Meyer of the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association (who has been in the blog several times) and John DeBoer of Midwest Labs get moved in.
Many vendors have give-aways to spark interest. But this is ridiculous. Sorry Stuart.
Probably the chance to win an Enduraplas fertilizer storage tank would be more desirable to most people. (Although probably not all people.) And how do you like the new inflatable logo? I had not seen that before, and you can't not see it here!
And now it was time for Brian and Darren Hefty to lead the throng of attendees down the main exhibit row to talk about the different things on display, including the AgroLiquid demonstration plots. This parade is a tradition and gives people an overview of what is there so that they can go back later and see more for themselves.
Thousands of people on the move all day.
We were pleased to have two of our favorites stop by. Here are Ray and Charlotte Bohacz who drove all the way from Hackettstown, New Jersey having a visit with Troy. I have shown them several times in the past, including at last year's show wearing their LIQUID shirts then as well. Looks like we need to get them some new one's with the new logo. Ray is a well known writer on engine technology, and this year they are AgroLiquid customers as well. They grow and sell sweet corn and vegetables to grocery stores and other places and used AgroLiquid on it all this year. They worked with The Mill in Eastern PA to get them set up.
Brian and Darren always bring a variety of speakers to the field day, including yield record growers to motivational people. Here is former University of Nebraska football coach Tom Osborn. He was head coach for 25 seasons from 1973 to 1997. I remember watching OSU lose to Nebraska plenty of times back in Stillwater. He coached three national champions in the Bowl Alliance/BCS era and his last five seasons they went 60-3. He talked about coaching with integrity and promising "opportunity" and not guaranteed things. Nebraska is still decent, but nowhere near what they were when he was coach. It was nice to see him in person and hear what he had to say about former days.
