US Agriculture Study Tour DAGR*3170
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Sunday, 26 August - off to Chicago
Friday, August 24, 2012
Friday, September 23, 2011
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 6th 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.
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
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
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
Friday, September 2, 2011
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
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Il. Wednesday, 31 August
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
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
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Rosendale Dairy - Rosendale WI. Tuesday, 30 August
On our second day of the trip we toured a massive dairy farm called Rosendale Dairy. This farm is located in Rosendale Wisconsin, and houses 8400 cows in two 400 ft by ¼ mile long barns. There are 80 employees, and it takes 3 TMR mixers to keep the cows fed. Each cow gets milked 3 times per day; Rosendale milks 21 hours a day using two - 80 cow rotary parlors, leaving 3 hours of cleaning time between the milking shifts. The barns have 16 sections running the length of the barn, each holding 600 cows. The barns were built in 2008 and started out with only 600 cows - in 2010 they reached capacity with 8400 cows. This farm only houses fresh, dry, and lactation cows. Calves are in the barn for about one day before being shipped to another facility to be cared for.
One of the unique things about Rosendale is the way that they have chosen to ventilate the barn. The barn roof has no vents. All the air comes through the long walls of the barn through what looks like conjugated cardboard; water is run through this material on hot, humid days to help cool the barn. The opposite wall has fans which draw the air through. Inside the barn, walls come down from the ceiling within 8 ft of the floor, forcing the air to move along the ground. All the cows are comfortable and fly free with the amount of air moving through the barn. The stalls in the barn are bedded down with course sand which is recycled, sanitized and reused.
Rosendale milks mainly Holsteins, with a few Jersey and other cross breeds. There are no holding tanks; the milk is filtered, chilled, and pumped directly into 6000 gallon tankers, which transport the milk to a local cheese factory. Rosendale fills 12 of these tankers per day. The farm does not have a full time vet but many of the herds persons are trained to do a number of many vet tasks.
Rosendale farms has 3 large lagoons where all the waste is transferred. The haylage is stock piled into huge piles covered in bunker plastic and tires (see the picture with the bus in front of one to get an idea of how big they are). Feeding starts at 4:00 am and takes until 2:30 pm to finish. On an average day they breed 100 cows, and 24 calves are born.
This farm was amazing. It was neat to see everything that they process and do in one day.
Jenn Howe
Rushing Waters Fishery - Palmyra WI. Monday, 29 August
Today on our last stop of the day we visited the Rushing Water Fisheries. They produce 300,000 lbs of rainbow trout annually in outdoor ponds. Our tour guide Drew showed us the two hatcheries where they received 150,000 fertilized eggs 4 times per year. When we were in one of the hatcheries we were able to catch the 7-10 month old fish. Smaller fish stay in tanks in the hatchery, and then are moved outside into spring and well-fed ponds. Water from the wells comes out at 48oF. Drew told us that it take roughly 16-18 months before the rainbow trout is ready to be harvest. They only get females because the males are smaller and not as appealing. We learned along our tour that fish grow efficiently because they don’t use energy to keep themselves warm, or to supporting themselves since they are floating in the water. Rushing Water Fisheries only uses feed with no animal byproducts. Natural predators are a constant problem, so some of the ponds are netted. Customers can also borrow a fishing pole and catch their own fresh trout, which is then cleaned and packaged for them. A favorite saying of our tour guide is “maximize efficiency, maximize sufficiency.” At the end of the tour were able to see them cut the fish up. They sell all the fish fresh, not frozen and only harvest and process fish to fill orders. The “buy local” trend has helped their business, and they have no problem selling all they produce. Local grocery stores also carry Rushing Water trout. It is available bone in, bone out, fillets, and smoked.
Matthew Reesor
University of Wisconsin, Madison WI - Dr. Shawn Conley. Monday, 29 August
Our first stop of the trip was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Shawn P. Conley, State Soybean and Small Grain Extension Specialist, discussed his role at the campus, history of the campus, the agricultural sector in Wisconsin, the US Farm Bill, and the production sector.
An extension specialist is a cross between an OMAFRA employee and a University of Guelph employee; Shawn’s role at the campus is 60% extension and 40% research.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the most highly regarded agricultural research facility in Wisconsin and the surrounding area. The university campus sits 933 acres, and also has over 10,000 acres of research plots and trials throughout the state.
The university is driven by the “Wisconsin Idea”, which means everything done on the campus is not only done for the students or supporting industries, but also done for all the people of the state of Wisconsin. The majority of their financing for research comes from producers and companies, and then they can take advantage of the research data.
The US Farm Bill system began after WWII, to support the domestic agriculture industry. To describe it simply, it is a minimum price guarantee for agricultural commodities which is re-negotiated every 5 years. In reality, it is a complex program with many variables and loopholes, and often viewed as a subsidy by other nations.
One interesting fact is that if you look at a map, Wisconsin and Southern Ontario are parallel with each other. In turn a lot of the crop production data from Wisconsin could be applied in southern Ontario and vise versa.
Susan Simpson
Monday, August 29, 2011
University of Wisconsin, Madison WI - campus tour. Monday, 29 August
Today was the first day of our tour, and we started it off with a trip to the University of Wisconsin at Madison. First, we met with Dr. Shawn Conley who discussed the US Farm Bill and other aspects of farming in Wisconsin. Then we met up with our Campus tour guide, Cara. Cara is a Spanish and Environmental Sciences major and is a junior at U of Wisconsin. She took a one week course on how to give tours of the campus, so we knew she was well prepared to show us around the massive 933-acre campus. The campus is filled with large and small buildings that are both old and new, including 42 libraries. She showed us both styles of residence living: on the lake shore in the large old stone buildings versus the newer more apartment-style urban buildings. Because they are situated between two lakes, they are able to have their own fleet of sailboats for students to use. Abraham Lincoln signed the bill in 1848 which made the University of Wisconsin a land-grant university, allowing them to develop and expand because of the cheap land. Because of this, he has a statue on campus which people will rub for good luck. It is also tradition to sit on his lap once you have graduated. The most interesting part about the campus was the fact that they produce their own dairy products from their own dairy herd! How cool is that! All in all, it was a beautiful campus and I would love to have the opportunity to visit again.
From the dairy state,
Sarah Jackson
Hello Madison, WI. Sunday, 28 August
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Departure Time.
Attention Students,
Please be at Campus by 12 p.m. on Sunday August 28th. The bus leaves at 1 p.m. sharp outside the RDC building.
Please be at Campus by 12 p.m. on Sunday August 28th. The bus leaves at 1 p.m. sharp outside the RDC building.
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