This Week in Ag #19

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Huma®, Inc.

Rain makes grain. Those words are as old as farming itself. In the nation’s breadbasket – the three I states, which produce 42% of our corn and 37% of our soybeans – there’s concern over the lack of rain. That triggered a major movement in the grain market. Drought officially grips 100% of the I states. When I was visiting my family farm in western Illinois two weeks ago, corn leaves were already rolling as a defense mechanism to conserve moisture. They have not received any rain since. The corn continues to grow, but it has been affected, as during these past few weeks ear size is being determined. Less than half of the corn in Illinois is rated good-excellent. Soybean leaves are puckering in many areas. Over three-quarters of the topsoil in Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan is rated as short to very short. Corn markets were up 25 cents on Friday, soybeans jumped 50 cents. But domestic weather isn’t the only factor pushing soybeans, which have already climbed $1.65 this month. The US dollar now stands at a one-year low against Brazilian currency. Why does this matter? Brazil is the USA’s biggest competitor on the world export stage. With two-thirds of American soybeans exported, a weaker dollar makes US soybeans even more attractive. [Read more…]

This Week in Ag #18

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Huma®, Inc.

In the sports of track and swimming, relay races are often the most exciting events of the meets. You know the concept: a team of usually four athletes races as they follow each other in succession, showcasing performance and precision. For a split moment, while handing a baton or projecting yourself toward the pool as your teammate touches the wall (while your toe remains on the block) both athletes are simultaneously performing. There’s a similar practice in farming called relay cropping. [Read more…]

This Week in Ag #17

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Huma®, Inc.

Today we commemorate one of the most important dates in history, D-Day. In 1944, the fate of the world literally depended on the success of this amphibious invasion. The bravery of our soldiers abroad – and the perseverance of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers in the factories at home – were paramount to our ultimate victory. But so was our nation’s ability to feed our allied troops. [Read more…]

Welcome to Huma®: Humic Solutions with a Human Touch

By Jonathan Plehn
President,
Huma®, Inc.

I am extremely proud to officially unveil our company’s new branding and name. We are now Huma®– a 50-year-old legacy ready to be reintroduced to the world! It is a strategic decision to shorten our name from Bio Huma Netics® (BHN) to Huma®, and we are confident that this progressive move is in our company and our customers’ best interests. [Read more…]

Welcome to Huma! BHN has a new name.

This Week in Ag #16

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics®, Inc.

If the TV show MythBusters ever did a program on farming, there are several common myths about farmers they could bust. [Read more…]

This Week in Ag #15

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics®, Inc.

“Your rows sure are straight.” Those may have been the most pride-filling words I ever heard. They were first spoken to me by one of my landlords, Orville Larson, the spring after my dad passed away and all farming operations fell entirely on me. Orville made a habit of driving out to his farm to see how things looked. He stopped in to see me the day he checked on his crops, and those were the first words he spoke. That same day, I received the same compliment from my dad’s best friend, who was regarded statewide as one of the top farmers in Illinois. That’s when I knew I was a farmer. [Read more…]

This Week in Ag #14

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics®, Inc.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That popular saying could just as easily apply to planting corn. It’s impossible to recover from planting time mishaps. Don’t believe it? Try this. Walk into a cornfield where plants have recently emerged. Identify a plant that’s shorter than the rest (some call these runt plants). Tie a ribbon to the small plant and watch it all season. That plant will likely never catch up to the size of its peers. It may not even produce a harvestable ear. But it will drain water and nutrients. My friend Steven Abracht – 11-time NCGA national yield contest winner – famously called these plants weeds. [Read more…]

This Week in Ag #13

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics®, Inc.

Corn came screaming out of the ground in just five days on my farm at Agricenter International in Memphis. Other than the seed and herbicide, I’m using 100% Huma Gro® products. My belief is that you don’t just farm the crop, you farm the soil. These Mid-South soils have low organic matter levels, so the pre-plant application included Huma Gro® Zap® to help add life to the soil; Breakout®, Max Pak® and Calcium for fast, uniform emergence and sustained vigor; and for macros we applied Super Nitro® and Super Phos®, along with X-Tend®. Right behind the planter, we made another pass of Super Nitro®, Super Phos® and X-Tend®, along with Acuron herbicide. [Read more…]

This Week in Ag #12

By Fred Nichols
Chief Marketing Officer,
Bio Huma Netics, Inc.

#Plant23 is well underway. From the time seeds are sown, how many days should it take for crops to emerge? That can vary greatly, from days to weeks. But for many crops, it’s not really about calendar days, but Growing Degree Days (GDD). [Read more…]

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