John Deere Pavilion, Moline Il. Saturday, 03 September, 2011

We visited the John Deere Pavilion in Moline, Il, which is basically a museum of the history and development of the John Deere company.  It also indicated how and where the company started.  In the pavilion there were many life sized tractors, balers,  and sprayers all on display for the public to look at. There were also interactive displays where you could use JD equipment;  with one you could try your hand at using excavation equipment and on another you could learn how to use John Deere’s GPS guidance system through a virtual planting and spraying system.

At the pavilion I learned that John Deere settled in Grand Detour, Illinois, built his first plow and began an agricultural revolution.  After buying Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company in 1918,  tractors became a big part of the business.  In 1947 John Deere relocated his factory to Moline, Illinois;  9 years after moving to Moline John Deere became the 6^th largest plow manufacturer.   Now John Deere is a dynamic company and is a major competitor for not only agriculture equipment, but also  lawn care, forestry, and construction equipment.

Jonathan Aarts

Pioneer Livestock Nutrition Center - Johnson Iowa. Friday,02 September

Today after we went to the Pioneer Headquarters we went to the Pioneer Livestock Nutrition Center, which is just outside Johnson Iowa.   There they do research on inoculants and the digestibility of Pioneer grain and forages in swine, lambs and cattle.

They seal forages in  vaccum sealed packs, as well as in packed PVC tubes and  ferment them to test different Pioneer inoculants and forages.  They also  put the haylage in a device made from syrofoam and put them in a cooler and measure the gases coming off of the haylage at different temperatures. They have found that when they use inoculants with corn silage,  it  works well with most varieties of corn, but for haylage,  some inoculants only work on certain varieties.  

With their feeding trials,  they have sealed totes of feed, and use one tote of feed per day.  The beef feeding trials are from 56 to 84 days.  The totes are treated with different inoculants so they can see how the animals react to how the hayage  ferments.  They also use fistulated steers to test digestibility.  Small nylon bags with feed samples are put in the animals stomach for 48 hours. 

Andrew Warboys

Pioneer headquarters - Johnson Iowa. Friday, 02 September, 2011

This morning we traveled to Johnson, Iowa to the Pioneer headquarters. Pioneer is owned by DuPont and is the world’s leading developer and supplier of plant genetics. Pioneer was started in 1926 by Henry Wallace and was called the Hi-Bred Corn Company.  Their business involved developing and selling hybrid corn varieties to farmers. This new hybrid corn was revolutionary as it increased yields. Pioneer today sells more than corn;  they also sell wheat, soybeans, canola, sunflower, alfalfa, sorghum and much more.

Our tour was lead by Megan who works in public relations; she started it off by giving us a slideshow presentation all about Pioneer and what services they have to offer to farmers. Next we had a presentation from the Pioneer HR rep about job opportunities in Pioneer and all the different kinds of jobs from research to production techs, and why Pioneer would be great to work for. After that we all hopped on board the cool green Pioneer bus and headed across the road to visit the greenhouses.

At the greenhouses, Megan talked about how they breed plants and how much work it takes to make a successful hybrid. From the time they first come up with an idea till they sell a seed takes 10+ years. She showed us their “fast” corn plants,  which grow and develop quicker than normal plants so research can be done so much faster. After the greenhouses we loaded the bus again and went to see the test plots on the original Wallace farm. They had a display of all the crops they sell and had native corn plants that today’s corn came from. They had corn from each country they sell to and the Mexican corn was super tall. They had nitrogen trial plots for corn and soybean plots too. It was cool to see how much research is done for the bag of seeds we plant.

Tim Danard

Cargill Wet Corn Milling Plant - Eddyville Iowa. Thursday, 01 September

            Today, we went to the Cargill Wet Corn Milling Plant in Eddyville, Iowa. Cargill is the single largest purchaser of corn in the world and consists of seventy- five business units.  It is still a privately held company and was founded in Conover, Iowa in 1865.  They employ 161,000 people in sixty-six countries around the world.  Cargill purchased the Eddyville location because of a surplus power generation station on site; it still supplies steam and 12 megawatts of electricity to the facilities.    This location is also has good access to raw materials (corn), new products, and access to railways and trucks.  In total the plant covers two thousand acres and employs 500 people.  Furthermore, the plant consumes 250,000 bushels of corn per day.

We first toured the grading facility where each load of corn that is brought in is tested for mycotoxins, test weight, broken kernels.  Each load of corn is probed four times to be tested. The probe is a hydraulic arm with a vacuum tube inside of it. Loads  get rejected if the corn is over ten parts per million of mycotoxins. In one day, 375 truckloads of corn be processed through the plant. 

We moved on to the other part of the plant but first we had to change into long pants,  fill out a questionnaire and put on PPE.  Then we toured the first part of the mill, which was fifty degrees celcius! This is where the corn gets separated into its components; it then moves on to the refining part of the plant.  This part of the plant breaks the corn down to food products, such as; sweeteners, dextrose, corn syrup, sweet bran, crude corn oil, and citric products.  To make these food products the plant uses seven million gallons of water per day. They make the equivalent of one hundred and sixty thousand one pound tubs of margarine per day. They also process corn into ethanol that is only sold for fuel; they produce thirty-five million gallons of ethanol per year. After touring the massive plant we were all in awe.

            In conclusion, powering the entire facility takes seventy-five megawatts of electricity per day. Cargill as a company focuses on engaging employees, satisfying consumers, enriching communities and profitable growth. They’re business motto is “valuing people, creating results”.

Reuben Vanderploeg

Cargill Grain Terminal - New Boston Il. Thursday, 01 September

The Cargill grain terminal in New Boston, IL is Cargill’s newest terminal along the Mississippi River.  The facility is presently under construction and is set to be finished this October. The facility is made up of 4 upright cement silos holding 72000 bu of storage each, with a 60000 bu shipping bin for off loading on to river barges, at a rate of 47000 bu per hour. The grain is brought to the facility by semi truck, this facility is capable of unloading a semi truck in approximately 2 min.

Barges come in on the Mississippi strapped together 3 wide and 5 long and are pushed buy a tug boat. Each barge is 38 ft x 198 ft, and  hold 57,000 bushels of corn.  The barges run on the Mississippi from mid March to mid December.  Corn is carried to the Gulf of Mexico, where it is transferred to ships for export.   The barges often carry coal or fertilizer on the trip back.  The tug boats operate with crews that form two shifts so the tugs never stop running, and they typically work 30 days on and 30 days off.  Barges cannot be loaded at this terminal if the river rises 18 ft above the average river level, and only need 9 ft of water to run in.

  The new facility replaces an old Cargill wooden grain terminal; the original facility was 70 years old and had been shut down due to being unsafe. Cargill is spending approximately 9 million dollars for the demolition and reconstruction of the new facility. When the facility is finished the new terminal will employ 4 fulltime workers and an extra person during harvest to operate the grain dryer. Cargill chose to replace the facility with concrete silos rather than steel bins. Concrete comes in at twice the cost of steel bins but it will last twice as long and the concrete will withstand the water pressure if and when the Mississippi floods its banks. Concrete was also decided to be used because of space issues, there is a limited space between the water and the town.  Steel bins are extremely wide at the bottom, requiring a large area, where as silos are taller and require a smaller area.

Aaron Bakker

Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Il. Wednesday, 31 August

               Today we toured the Chicago Board of Trade, or as it is called today the CME Group (Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group).  The C.B.O.T. was established in 1848, and today is the largest trading center in the world.  Commodities such as corn, wheat, and soybeans are traded here. Also the livestock and financial markets operate out of the C.B.O.T.  There are two trading floors based in Chicago, and the other is based in New York. In Chicago, there is the grain and energies floor, and the finance and livestock floor.

               As technology advances, more and more of the trading is done on a system called Globex. This is an easy way for CME group members to access the markets and make trades without having to physically be on the trade floor. This was first introduced in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but did not become overly popular until 2003. Today the trading floors are a lot more “tame”, then in the past. This is due to the advancement in technology, allowing for electronic trades to occur.  Today 85% of the futures contracts and 75% of the options contracts are traded using Globex.

               When over looking the floor, it looks like a world of its own. There is a certain dress code, and what appears to be a whole new language. Different colour coats are worn to represent various positions on the floor. Speculators wear many different patterns in order to stand out among the crowd. Different brokers wear different colours, depending on the companies they work for.  There are also clerks out on the floors that overlook all the trades and enter them into the system once they are traded. These people wear blue coats and are employees of the CME group.

               There are certain signals used along with the open outcry system. It is impossible to learn them all just by a 45 minute tour but there are some basic ones our tour guide mentioned. Whether you face your palm towards your body or away from your body determines if you are selling or buying a contract. To determine how many contracts you are selling you can hold up 1,2,3, fingers and so on. Different positions on your body represent increases in “zeros”. For example on your chin, 1 finger is 10 contracts. One finger behind your head is 1000. Grain commodity contracts are 5000 bushels in size, whereas livestock contracts are 40,000 lbs. per contract.

               The Chicago Board of Trade is a highly secure building. To enter the building you must go through a security check, similar to one at the airport. They practice fire drills periodically to ensure that everyone knows where to exit the building. The C.B.O.T. has twelve sources of power, so it is highly unlikely that it would ever be affected by a power outage. These precautions must be taken because this is the center for a lot of valuable information. This is the place that keeps the world markets running, and the world markets would be greatly affected if this information were altered in any way.  

               In forty-five minutes we had a very quick overview of what goes on at the CME group, but there is a lot more to learn.  To understand the “ins and outs” of this organization it is almost as though you would have to be a part of it.  It was a little overwhelming to think that the trading floors we were overlooking are where the commodity prices are determined. It is interesting to think that everything that is determined on those floors effects all of us one way or another, from selling our own crops to buying our cornflakes for breakfast. All in all this way was an interesting tour and we all enjoyed immensely. 

Hilary Duenk

Farm Progress Show – Decatur IL. Wednesday, 31 August

Today we travelled to Decatur Illinois to go to the Farm Progress Show. The show first started in 1953 Armstrong, Illinois and is now considered the best in the nation.  This show offers visitors an opportunity to see equipment, seed and chemicals as well as stage entertainment, seed test plots, field demonstrations and vehicle test tracks.  There are now over 600 exhibitors demonstrating  state of the art information and technology available for today’s agriculture producers.  The countries top agribusinesses plus many regional and local manufacturers and suppliers are regular exhibitors.

We had the opportunity to test drive Dodge trucks, Chevrolet trucks, Honda ATV’s and gators.  We had the opportunity to see major companies such as John Deere, Case IH, Massey Ferguson, and New Holland. We also got to see some of the smaller companies such as Claus, Hagie, Versatile, Kubota, Kinze and many more. 

There were lots of agricultural seed companies with test plots or with demonstrations showing how their crops handle different diversities within the land. This gives the farmers an opportunity to compare technology, and traits to try in order to  increase efficiency and profitability on their farms.

This farm show also gives non-farm children and adults an opportunity to learn about the agricultural industry and what is needed to go into making food.  The also get an appreciation of all the different seed companies and tractor companies.

This farm show also gives agriculture schools an opportunity to show off their programs and attract new students, show parents what they offer, and how the students can choose different agriculture paths.

We were also able to see Rodney Atkins in concert after the farm show ended. This was a nice opportunity to visit and meet with different farmers from all across the United States and watch a great concert.
Karen Moyer

Roche Farms feedlot - Columbus, WI. Tuesday, 30 August

When we arrived at the Roche Farm feedlot we were met by Kevin Roche. He farms with his 2 brothers and their father is around to help out as well. There are also two full time and one part time employees. The feedlot houses 1300 head of steers at a time. The Roche family also farm 4900 acres of soybeans, corn and wheat. Twenty-five percent of crops grown go back into the feedlot to for feed.

Holstein steers are brought in at 380-420lbs. The farm has holstein steers because of the large supply of them in Wisconsin. Steers leave the farm around 1310 lbs. All steers are castrated before arrival. Most of the steers are owned by the Roches, but some are raised on contract.  Rations consist of corn silage, hay, modified wet distillers grain, ethanol by-product that is a corn syrupy texture and wet gluten.  The animals are feed a TMR mix twice a day. Pens of 120 are shipped about once a month.

One barn is a manure pack and another has cement or rubber slats.  They find that rubber slats improve performance and more animals can also be in pens with rubber slats.  When they add bedding to pens, they also add waste drywall which they find eliminates the ammonia in the manure and helps it compost better.  They also use some corn stalk bedding, and find it absorbs about 75% more liquids. To deal with their dead stock,  they have it picked up,  which costs about $15.00 a head.  Kevin was surprised to hear that we will compost deadstock as large as steers in Ontario.

The farm started to compost all its manure about 3 years ago. Once a pile is started it needs to be turned 2-3 times a week. Piles are monitored and they like to see a temperature of about 130 ^oF. If the temperature is higher, the pile needs to be turned more frequently. After 9 weeks the compost is near ready, and may need to be turned about once a week.  All the finished compost is spread on their fields in the fall. Composting is not very common in Wisconsin.

All their grain corn goes for ethanol production. The ethanol plant that their corn is shipped to is community owned. They have their own storage and ship corn to the plant year round.

Karen Booker