Page B—Com Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 10,1996
Between The Rows
(Continued from Pago 2)
Erg-related sites, including
many commercial firms.
Access to the WWW requires a
PC with a relatively fast mod
em (14.4 kbps) and an account
with an access provider. Many
computer network services
such as America Online, Pro
digy, and CompuServe offer
Internet access. You can also
use the Internet to communi
cate and send messages back
and forth, provided you have a
mail address.
Last week, someone elec
tronically mailed a multico
lored field map of organic mat
ter variation to me.
Technology is also coming
fast in the areas of sensor tech
nology and variable rate appli
cation technology (VRT). At
the American Society of Agro
nomy Meetings this fall, a
USDA researcher reviewed
research that is being done in
the area of sensors mounted on
farm equipment. These
included crop sensors to mea
sure chlorophyll, moisture,
yield and populations, soil sen
sors to monitor moisture,
organic matter, and nitrate, pest
sensors to monitor weed popu
lations and ID, and equipment
sensors to measure flow rates,
ground speed, and draft force.
Many of these are under com
mercialization already.
Variable rate seed, fertilizer
and pesticide application
equipment is already available.
At the National Com Growers
Com Gassic last year. I visited
with vendors who were selling
planter attachments that would
vary seed drop depending on
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input from a previously gener
ated field map. One challenge
to this technology is under
standing what the critical fac
tors are to measure to use as a
basis for the rate adjustment
Agronomists are finding this is
not as clear-cut as they once
thought.
Another challenge is cost.
One vendor told me a VRT fer
tilizer spreader system could
cost a dealership $250,000. To
recover that kind of investment,
that piece of equipment needs
to be providing some type of
tangible benefit.
In addition to all of these
innovations, we have a spec
trum of new crop input pro
ducts that look exciting. These
include Bt com. herbicide resis
tant corns, a new N fertilizer
additive, and several new herbi
cides and two new granular
insecticides.
In addition, nearly every
farm magazine this winter has
had an article on narrow row
com, a topic we’ve been
researching for several years.
Unfortunately, space does
not allow me to cover all of
these innovations but several of
them I consider real
breakthroughs.
We know that all of these
technologies may not find their
place to production systems
here in our state, but our chal
lenge is to carefully consider
some of them and select the
most effective pieces.
Let’s do our homework well
and make the right decisions on
this new technology and avoid
the costly leam-by-experience
method.
Growers
Association
Growers Pick Responsive Ears
ST. LOUIS, Mo.—lf Bill
Northey had stuck to his plan,
the National Com Growers
Association (NCGA) would
have a different president this
year.
Northey, 36, grew up on a
farm in an area with deep fami
ly roots. His father and grand
parents farmed. They sowed
the seeds for a third generation,
but until his junior year of col
lege Northey had other career
goals.
“I always knew I wanted to
go into agriculture, but not
necessarily fanning,” the lowa
native said. “In college I
thought I’d go into farm man
agement. Then my grandpa
mentioned the possibility of
coming back. It made sense.”
The transition worked for
both. Northey could join an
established operation. His
grandfather could pass on his
life’s work.
Northey, his wife, Cindy, a
part-time nurse, and their three
daughters farm 800 acres near
Spirit Lake in north central
lowa. They live in the home his
grandparents built in 1950.
“It was a good chance for
me. For the next six to seven
years he was around,” Northey
said. “I got to spend time with
him and learn some of his
philosophy.”
Fortunately for the NCGA,
influence came from both sides
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of the family. Northey’s mater
nal grandfather was a past pres
ident of the lowa Farm Bureau.
“Grandpa Hill gave me the
interest in history and under
standing of agriculture—how
big it is, how important it is,
and that things don’t just hap
pen,” Northey said. “You
could see the impact individu
als and organizations had.”
History is important to
Northey. Not only does he find
it fascinating—his favorite
books tend to be biographies or
accounts of agriculture’s
past—but he also finds it useful
in coping with today’s issues.
Natural curiosity also works
for Northey. When he first got
involved with the lowa Com
Growers Association, he
delved into environmental
issues. That led to ethanol, an
on-going battle that requires
in-depth understanding of
highly technical issues and
history.
“I really believe things are at
a changing point for growers,"
Northey said. “We are making
change with farm policy, and
then we have com genetics that
will challenge us with more
com production and probably
contracting in corn that’s
focused toward end uses.”
Growers, Northey said, must
look at these developments and
figure out how they impact
farming operations. The asso
ciation must determine how to
help farmers cope with the
technology.
One area where NCGA can
assist is helping farmers grasp
the new computer-based con
cept hitting farms. Global Posi
tioning Systems, for example,
will be commonplace in just a
few years, Northey predicted.
“I think we’re on the front
edge of a lot of that, and 10
years from now there will be
some real substantive
changes,” he said. “We can’t
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just sit back and see what hap
pens to us and our association.”
Sitting back is something
you won’t see Northey doing,
at least in the near term. His
personal goal as president is to
take time to hear everyone’s
opinions. If time spent on the
phone is any indication, he’s
meeting that goal. During
harvest, Northey drove his
combine down the rows, left
hand on the wheel and right
hand holding a cellular phone.
During his first months in
office Northey traveled to
Washington. D.C. several
times. The budget reconcilia
tion was looming, and the
opposition was waging a war
against the ethanol. A patient
wife and devoted part-time
employee kept the wheels turn
ing at home.
Northey thrives on this type
of action. But he misses spend
ing more time with his wife
and girls. His girls, though, like
having a father in the limelight.
When the Des Moines Register
published an article featuring
him and National Com De
velopment Foundation Presi
dent Everett Nordine recently,
all three had to have their own
copy.
For the next year, Northey
must sacrifice some of that pre
cious family time for the
NCGA. In the end, he doubts
he’ll have any more impact on
the organization than most. But
as president, that’s not his job.
“The goal isn’t to leave your
fingerprints all over the associ
ation, but to make sure it’s
doing what com growers want
done,” he said. “Certainly as
president you have some
opportunity to make your own
impact, but in certain ways you
are more limited. Your role is
to facilitate what needs to be
done and to a spokesperson for
the organization, not for
yourself.”
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