Print This Page2008 Husker Harvest Days
Strap on Your Boots, It's Showtime at Husker Harvest Days
Monsanto 2008 R&D Pipeline At a Glance
Discovering. Delivering. Yielding.
As Bob McCauley laced up his boots the morning of Sept. 9 and got an early start on his day, he knew it wasn’t going to be a normal day at the site in Grand Island, Nebraska. Since May, he has spent a large portion of his time preparing one-third of an acre for a three-day show--Husker Harvest Days. And now, he was going to be able to allow growers to see what he thinks is an intimate, yet extensive, technology showcase for the first time.
“This is the 31st year of the show and it happens to be my 31st year as an agronomist here,” McCauley said. McCauley is a Monsanto technology development representative in central Nebraska. “This is the first year that we’ve done this kind of a demonstration. We have a lot of technology and traits on the head of a pen out here, so to speak.”
“We’ve been able to display our technology showcase for the past three years at the Farm Progress Show and have had tremendous success in being able to share with our customers what we’re working on,” Andrew Duff, Monsanto Husker Harvest Days Show marketing co-lead, said. “So, we’re very excited to now bring that west to the Husker Harvest Show, which is the largest irrigated working show in the entire world.”
When Duff was asked the question “Why now?” his response was quick. “Understanding the recent attention and focus on water utilization and how we’re going to grow crops in the future to meet this future demand, certainly the western Corn Belt is a very critical part of that success,” Duff said. “Monsanto strives to increase production, while reducing water consumption so growers in the Western Corn Belt can maximize every ace.”
McCauley says even though he estimates about 30 percent of his calendar year was spent in the plot this summer, it was all worth it--especially talking to growers during the show and hearing their reactions.
“We can talk about traits and the pipeline to a grower, we can give them a piece of paper and show them what we’re talking about on a diagram, but there is a tremendous amount of value in actually seeing it. Then, the growers know it’s not just an idea in the back of somebody’s mind – it’s a reality,” McCauley said. “When they can actually see what we’re talking about, people can understand you and the product better.”
Farmers at the show agreed with McCauley and saw benefit in viewing Monsanto’s future technologies first-hand. “It’s valuable to come out here- there’s a lot of things here we don’t know about until we attend one of these functions,” Gale Williams, a 35-year farmer in Lincoln, Nebraska, said.”It tells us what’s on the horizon – it’s pretty exciting.”
Williams explained how much farming has changed since he was a young boy and the value biotechnology has brought to his farm. “I grew up on a farm as a boy where if we could raise 35 bushel corn that was very, very special.”
Husker Harvest Days runs September 9-11 in Grand Island, Nebraska. Both McCauley’s blog and a student blog are available to give more insight on the preparation and outcome of the event.
