August 1, 2025 • 45 mins
Join Tim Reinbott as he goes down memory lane with John Poehlmann, retired Assistant Director of MOAES. John and Tim have worked together for decades and will draw you into their conversation as they reminisce about colleagues, campus and research farm development, and various research projects.
Video Podcast Part One: https://youtu.be/ltv6rSn3UAA
Video Podcast Part Two: https://youtu.be/cygZLv2lfNQ
Transcript: 8-1-25 Tim's Take Episode 38 -History of MOAES with John Poehlmann.doc
#Specialtycrops #farmersmarket #cafnr #moaes
Visit https://moaes.missouri.edu/ to learn more.
The Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station (MOAES) extends CAFNR research to nearly 14,000 acres across the state to meet regional research and demonstration needs of agricultural producers and natural resource managers. MOAES has a storied history of major impacts in advancing science in agriculture, food and natural resources — locally, nationally and globally. These CAFNR laboratories provide research faculty with a wide variety of real-world conditions to test and develop strategies for agricultural production based on the geographical and climatic differences of our diverse state.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[♫]
(Tim Reinbott) Well, welcome to Tim's Take! And today we have a very special guest with us today,
John Poehlmann. Uh... John is... not only was he a graduate of MU College of Agriculture,
Food and Natural Resources. This probably wasn't even called that back in those days. It was just
(00:21):
College of Agriculture back in those days. (John Poehlmann) Exactly. (Tim) But then you served
35 plus years as the Superintendent of Bradford Research Farm and the Assistant Director of the Ag
Experiment Station over all the Experiment Farms across Missouri. So... welcome, John! (John) Well,
thank you! It's good to be here. (Tim) All right. And... and you retired a few years ago,
(00:43):
but you got a wealth of information and... about the history of the Missouri Ag Experiment Station,
and you really appreciate that. Now, when did the Ag Experiment Station come about? (John) Well,
I guess, uh... with the Land Grant Act, you know. And... and so the state of Missouri has
given what? Uh... several thousand acres. I... I can't remember how many. It... it could be as
(01:09):
many as 160,000 acres that they were able to sell and... and, uh... finance the... the college for
a while. So... it, you know, it wasn't always an easy thing to do. First, they had trouble
finding out where were we going to put this thing. (Tim) Right. Right. (John) You know, and a lot of
the farmers are skeptical of, uh... of college education for their sons because they've raised
(01:31):
their sons to look at farming a certain way and do we really want a liberal arts college to have an
impact on my son? So... (Tim) And it was kind of ironic, or interesting, that they put the College
of Agriculture at an established university. (John) Yes. Yes. (Tim) Because many of them,
like K State, were brand new universities. Or Iowa State. (John) And there was even a move to have
(01:53):
four different colleges of agriculture across the state. (Tim) Oh, okay. Just for... but you know,
transportation was a lot different back in those days. (John) Absolutely. Yeah. (Tim) But now
it's... it's... it's easy. But the.... our college though had a lot of land what is now part of the
campus. (John) Yes. Yeah. They had a section of land that was cam... that well, is... it's
all now campus, isn't it? (Tim) So about 640 acres that had the dairy farm, light beef farm. It had,
(02:20):
what? Orchards and vineyards and corn, soybeans, and everything right there! (John) Yeah,
if you're going to teach a young man how to, uh... how to learn about agriculture, you have to have
all those things right there. So the citizens of Boone County raised, I think, $3,000. I forgot
what the amount was. $3,000 or $30,000, and uh... and they had to put together a section
(02:45):
of land. So they did that in order to be the... be the county that actually hosted the... the,
uh... land-grant college. (Tim) And that was very important to get it here. (John) It was! (Tim) And
we're still very unique in that we have a college of agriculture, a engineering school, a med school,
a nuclear reactor, a vet school, and something else. That's the six things that we have. That's
(03:09):
very unusual. (John) Yeah, they didn't see that coming in the beginning. (Tim) No. And how many
decisions that we made in our career that we didn't fully understand, but we knew this is
a good idea. (John) Yeah. Right. Well... well, Tim... Tim and I both, uh... were superintendents
of Bradford Farm. If you look at the southeast corner of Bradford Farm, that... there was a
(03:30):
section of land there donated to the state in... in consideration of establishing a land-grant
college in Colombia. (Tim) Oh, really? (John) Yeah. So it goes back to 18 something or other, or
just after the Civil War, I think. (Tim) Wow. So we had that connection all the way back to there.
But you know, uh... campus grew though, didn't it? (John) It did! (Tim) And it started invading upon
(03:52):
our section of land. (John) Yeah. "We need, uh... we need a football field because the young men
would like to have a team. And you know, would you... would you be able to provide that for
us?" (Tim) And like you... like we talked about earlier, give somebody an inch, and they take a
mile. (John) Exactly. Yeah. (Tim) Well, then we had some important things like a hospital had to
come, and... (John) Yeah, World War II really had an impact on things, you know. You had the GI Bill
(04:15):
for one thing, so you had to have dormitories... so, uh... for... for the GI's coming back from...
from World War II. And... and at that time, the... the University Hospital was really established and
came into its own. And so some of the fields all... all of a sudden became practice fields
(04:35):
and... and places for dormitories and the like. (Tim) And... and there's still a few remnants
of... of this section. The Sanborn Field's still there. The Duley-Miller Plots are still there.
There's a... there's one livestock building that's still there on that part of campus. So, we still
have a few remnants of... of what we used to have there. (John) How many T buildings were on campus
(04:57):
when you were there? (Tim) I was in T12 for class. Lots of classes. Those temporaries. (John) Yeah.
'T' stood for temporary buildings. I don't know what... I know there was T14. That was poultry
husbandry, but... but I don't know...(Tim) T20 was one of them. I mean, there was a... there's
a lot. But it just took a while. (John) It did. It did. (Tim) Mhm. But, uh... time marches on,
(05:17):
and... and they moved out to essentially South Farm, didn't they? (John) They did. (Tim) The
college did. (John) Uh... one of the... one of the deans or... or the presidents had that farm just
across the way that it's now the golf course. And so, they wanted to establish that maybe as... as a
expansion room for the college. Really wasn't the type of territory and... and land and soil type
(05:41):
that they needed, so uh, several of the people, uh, said, "Well, we need to make... make plans for
the future." I think this is back in the 30s, actually. (Tim) It was. Yes. (John) You know,
before World War II. So, and so they started buying up land here at South Farm. (Tim) And
they bought, what? 1,200 acres or so by the time it was all said and done. (John) Yep. (Tim) Or
(06:02):
more. And it came from what? A dozen or so different... different owners. (John) I think
16 different owners. Uh, you know, I mean, some were small tracks land. Some were several hundred
acres. (Tim) And then we saw, uh... KOMU come on to... on... onto our farm, too. (John) Yeah,
"We need a place to build a radio station, and... and you've got a high hill out there."
So... (Tim) And TV station. (John) And TV, right? (Tim) And then USGS took part of it. (John) Yep.
(06:27):
What... one of the early, uh, people in heavy equipment, uh, thought we should have on the
north side of New Haven, we should have all the... all the, uh... well, the pork producers and...
and the beef producers, and everybody should have their headquarters there, and this would be... be
really a magnet, you know, for things like that. (Tim) Well, and talk about magnet, and... and now
(06:48):
at toward the end of your career, you were... you and the other associate deans were part
of getting Discovery Ridge as part of South Farm. (John) Yes. (Tim) You're thinking for the future,
and... and... and there are a few industries there, but I think MURR or MU... (John) Research
Reactor. (Tim) Yeah! Is... is going to be the next thing that... that goes there, and... and
that's... that was a good investment, I believe, that we can really expand. And... and you think,
(07:13):
well, what does that have to do with... with the college? It's a lot to do with the college
because again, working together. (John) Right. Well, and... and that's, you know,
so much of the research back in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s was applied research. You know, where a
farmer can take it home and... and put it to use that afternoon. And... and now we're... we're talking
(07:34):
about much more of the basic research because industry has figured out a way to capitalize on...
on the profits of, you know, of... of the applied research. So seed companies, fertilizer companies,
uh... uh... you know, chemical companies, uh... all provide those services to farmers that...
that used to be sought through the university. (Tim) So time marches on, so the university
(07:57):
changes. (John) It does. Yeah. (Tim) And... and it's still serving our stakeholders in a
different way. (John) Absolutely. Right. (Tim) You know what always amazed me in my career, what...
you'll see somebody working on a project and you think, who cares about that? And not having the
foresight to realize, that's the future! And then 20 years later, that is... that is... I'm
(08:19):
thinking about molecular biology and... and... and gene sequencing, they were working on that
when I was in graduate school. I thought, nobody's gonna care! But it was that basic research that
led to some big discoveries. (John) Yes! Well, you know, Maurice Gebhardt, at one time the,
uh... the wiper type of applicators? (Tim) Right. Right! (John) Was... was a big deal, and... and,
(08:43):
uh... Maurice Gebhardt said, "You know, we worked with these like 15 or 20 years earlier,
but we didn't have the right chemistry to make it work." And so, you know, it's... it's a time
when all the different factors of technology come together to make it work, and... and... and... and
that's important. (Tim) It really is. And... and we depended on those researchers to have
(09:06):
that foresight to... to know what's next. (John) Right. Right. Yeah. (Tim) And... and we've talked
a lot about the, uh... on the crop side, but the animal side, tremendous! You know, when I was in,
um... college, we talked about Holsteins 12 to 14,000 pounds of milk per year. Now,
(09:26):
if you're not averaging 25,000, you're not doing something right. (John) Yes. (Tim) And that's
all came from research. (John) Right. Yeah. And, you know, dairying is such a complicated, uh...
process. I mean, you have to take it all the way from your feed stuff to... to nutrition, you know,
to... to veterinary, you know... animal control, animal care, right? (Tim) Genetics! (John) Yes.
(09:50):
Oh, simply. Yeah. (Tim) Yeah. And I know when I ask the dairy folks about that, depends on
who you ask. If it's a dairy geneticist, it's a genetics... genetics. If you ask the... more of
the feed... on the feed stuff, they'll talk about how the feeds are so much better now. So... so
it... it does go forward. (John) Yeah, I remember Don Schindler and I were talking to... to John at
(10:12):
the dairy farm one time, and... and John was... was plotting how, uh... production increased,
you know, per cow over a certain period of time. And so I asked, "So what... what do
you attribute that to?" And he said, "Well, I attribute it to better forages, you know, that
we have." So... (Tim) Right! Right. And... and being able to, uh... uh maximize their... their
(10:32):
efficiency of those. I think we feed cattle... cattle less, produce more milk than we ever...
than we ever have, so that's fantastic! (John) I always remember Bill Donald at one time was,
uh... doing a... a study, and it was looking at... at, uh... being able to take pictures of weeds
(10:54):
and, you know, have a... have a machine come along and... and weed that out And... and it didn't get
much traction, especially with our farmers. They said, you know, "That's... that's Star Wars type
of stuff. We're not interested in that." But uh... and it still hasn't maybe come to the
fruition it can, but... but that's a technology that if you think of, you can go to non-chemical,
(11:16):
uh... you know, production, especially in horticultural crops, uh... that's... that's on the
plane now. (Tim) You know, that's right. You think back, some of those faculty members that were
working on some of these ideas, you think, "My goodness! You're crazy!" Like the nutty professor,
but they were on to something. They were just like, maybe like what Maurice Gebhardt said,
"We just haven't got the other technology yet." But once we put all this together, we... that we have
(11:40):
something because what you really described, what Bill Donald's working on. It's what John Deere
has now with its, uh... See and Spray Technology. (John) Yeah, See and Spray. Yeah! (Tim) So... so
it has come, you know, a long, long ways. (John) I... I had to tell... we had a professor looking
at, uh... legumes that you can put in pastures and had a group of young farmers that were on tour,
(12:01):
and... and, uh... they... they said, "Well, you know, what about these? You know, where would we
get these?" And... and he said, "Well... well, you have all these, uh... these legumes already." And
so they got all excited that, you know, we can... we can produce these. So, and he kept refill...
the... the reference kept being made to, uh... the Latin name of the plant. (Tim) Sure. (John) And
(12:26):
finally they asked, "So, is there a common name for these plants?" And he said, "Yes,
there... you'd call them sticktights." (Tim) Really? (John) And at that point,
the farmer said, "We're ready for the next stop now." But... but if you think about soybeans,
I mean, soybeans arrived as a forage crop, right? (Tim) Right. (John) And you know,
through breeding and... and the like and selection, made that into the major oil
(12:50):
crop that goes into plastics, fuel, and... and so many other things. (Tim) Oh my goodness,
it... it... it never ends! How much... it's just not for food. It's for everyday parts
of life. (John) Yes. Yeah. And arabidopsis. (Tim) Yes. (John) So, you probably know more about that
than I do. (Tim) Well, that was one of those ones that we had a... a geneticist, Dr. Redei,
(13:15):
working on this little mustard plant, this little weed, and we thought, why would anybody want to
do that? But because it had a simple genome, he was able to learn a lot. And still today,
that is the standard for basic genetic research. (John) Yes. Yeah. (Tim) And he's known all over
the world. He's... he's one of those folks that's known more outside the United States than he is
(13:38):
even here in Columbia. (John) Yes. Yeah. (Tim) You know, that... that impact that he had. (John) So,
and I... you know, that continues with the basic research that... that we've got now. I don't, you
know, I don't know that we are training farmers as much as we are training scientists and people
for the industry, you know, in the... in the land-grant colleges. (Tim) Do you remember that
one guy that used to inject soybeans out there? (John) Oh, was his name Dale Blevins? Had this
(14:02):
guy with him called Reinbott or something? (Tim) Yeah! [laughing] Crawled around on his hands and
knees injecting. But that was fun! I mean, that was some basic research, and that's how we had to
do it then. You know, now there's... there's other ways of doing it, but that was some of the... just
how we... that... that we started that. (John) An intensive care unit of soybeans that had its own,
(14:24):
uh... uh... IV drips for each one. (Tim) Exactly. Exactly. And another... a grad student came up
with that, Larry Grabau. His wife was a nursing student, and he started looking at
what she was doing, said, "Hey, I can do that with soybeans!" (John) Yes. (Tim) So that's how
that all came about. And even today, how many of those neat things are happening out in the field
(14:46):
that we just don't realize where that's going to go. (John) Right. Right. And... and you know,
I remember Dr. Minor had a graduate student from Brazil that... that, uh... would graft the top of
one soybean plant to the base of another soybean plant. All this was done at about, I don't know,
3 inches tall, you know. And... and he was doing dozens, probably hundreds of these and,
(15:10):
uh... it was just... just amazing, you know, what they discovered from that. (Tim) Oh,
gosh! And... and you talk about Harry Minor, you know, he did a lot of very applied research,
checking out to see if what the farmers are doing, that they'd been... the products they'd
been sold actually work. (John) Yes. (Tim) And sometimes they found out they didn't
work. (John) He was at a conference once, and he had to present the results of a certain product
(15:35):
that was being touted as... as a... as a wonder drug almost, and it may still be sold. And...
and so he explained that they put on zero amount of control. They put on the regular... half rate,
the regular rate, double rate, 10 times the rate, 100 times the rate, and a thousand times the rate
(15:56):
that was suggested for this. And he said at the end of the... of the year, there was no
significant difference, no statistical difference in any of those. And a person from that industry,
uh... raised his hand in the back of the room and he said, "Uh, but I've seen this work before." And
I remember Dr. Minor's, uh... answer was, "Well, it might work on some farms, but it didn't work on
(16:20):
our research farm. (Tim) Right. And that's so important. And that's why we do research,
you know, to help the farmer, and this long legacy that we have had here. Um... what I
liked about like guys like Harry Minor is he saw an issue, he would start doing... he would... he
would... he would address that. (John) Yes. (Tim) Him and Maurice Gebhardt, many in that... in that
(16:43):
generation, that really what they looking at, trying to help the farmer. (John) And try and
refine it for his variety testing. I remember Harry Minor and... and Carl Morris's technician
broke down on the side of the road. And... and while they were waiting for another truck to come
rescue them from campus, he started drawing, "These are the major corn production issues. And so we
(17:05):
want... we want a field of, you know, testing the hybrids at each one of these locations." And, uh...
it, you know, was... it was just interesting to me that how you make the most of... of idle time like
that and still, you know, do the planning for it. (Tim) Well, you know, I always say my best ideas
come... come together during church. But I say the reason is because I'm relaxed, my mind's clear,
(17:27):
and I come up these... these ideas. (John) And you're awake, too, so that's... (Tim) I'm awake!
Yeah! Oh, that's right. That's right. You know, I can still remember lessons that many of these
taught me in just in passing. You know, uh... Maurice Gebhardt said, "You... you get a study,
you do it the first year, you learn how to do it right, and throw that data away, and... and... and
(17:50):
then do it again." (John) Right. Well, and... and they had long-term studies back then. I... I don't
know how many long-term studies, uh... would be around anymore. (Tim) Uh... well, they do... they
did there's like five-year studies. (John) Yes. (Tim) And, um... now because of granting funds,
you got two, maybe three years, if you're lucky. (John) Yes. (Tim) So... so it's very, very quick,
(18:14):
and... and you have to turn that around. (John) I had the opportunity once to look at the pastures
at Bradford that USDA pasture research, uh... was doing. And I had Jerry Matches, uh... you know,
one... one of the greats as far as I'm concerned in that, uh... along with Jerry Nelson and Dave
Sleper. I don't think Joe Baldridge was along at the time, but... but I remember Jerry Matches
(18:39):
saying, "You know, I can probably do three more long-term research," (And I think he was talking
seven years maybe in a pasture research.) "...uh, in my lifetime, my productive lifetime." And...
and, uh... you know, that had quite an impact on me. You know, what... what can you get done as
a scientist or... or even not a scientist in your lifetime? (Tim) You know, I remember years later,
(19:02):
uh, Jerry Nelson was doing long-term alfalfa studies, you know, persistence, and he said,
"I only got time to do one more." (John) Yes. (Tim) Because it takes seven or eight, ten years
to do... to do a study, so you got to make the most of it. And... and... and those folks really
gave back to agriculture. And that's what really impressed me is that they all had that land-grant
(19:24):
spirit. (John) Yes. (Tim) They all with... with teaching, outreach, research, they were all
involved in that. (John) Any field day that we had in any part of the state, um... you could expect
them to be there. You know, if... if... if it was a area that had pasture or forage production or...
or in Harry's case, grain production. (Tim) Now, you know what, uh... Jerry Matches said about you
(19:49):
one time? (John) Oh, I'm not sure. (Tim) "Never has anybody promised so much but delivered so
little." No, no! He didn't say that. He didn't. That was actually one of our research centers
down in southwest Missouri that was very droughty. (John) Yes. (Tim) Looked beautiful in the spring,
but then just all fell apart by... by July. (John) Yeah, I always said if you're a real...
real estate person, you need to sell land in the Ozarks in the spring. (Tim) In the spring! Yes!
(20:15):
Exactly. Exactly. But you know, one of the things that, and we just discussed this the other day,
probably some of the more drought resiliency we have in our... in our experiment station is
through here in Central Missouri. (John) Yeah. (Tim) We've had some droughts, but not like the
other parts of the state do. So, we're very blessed. I don't know if it's because of the
river or what that... that we're very resilient, and... and we need that close to campus. That's
(20:40):
what's so important. (John) Yeah. Even in 1980 when your irrigated corn test may not have
broke double digits, you know, uh... for... for yield, bushels per acre, uh... there are still,
you know, several varieties that... that stood out from... from the rest. (Tim) Right! You found
out something. I always say, "Adversity breeds opportunity." (John) It does. (Tim) Because you
(21:02):
can learn something from it. And that's what we're in the business of is always learning.
(Tim Reinbott) Well, we're continuing our discussion with John Poehlmann. And John,
you know, you mentioned field days. And you know, during... during the, what? The 50s and 60s,
we really expanded across the state with different research centers across the state,
and they all had their field day, and... and that was a great way of getting information out at one
(21:26):
time. (John Poehlmann) Yeah, it was. It was part social, you know. (Tim) Right. Right. (John) You'd
have farmers together. And at one time, I was a Young Farmer Adviser here for the Columbia
chapter, and what... what struck me was that farmers up at Harrisburg didn't know farmers down
in Ashland. Now, it... you know, maybe less of that, but... but it was... it was kind of neat to,
(21:47):
you know, to see those two those folks meeting and comparing notes and... and just... just doing
shop talk on that. (Tim) Yeah. Well, it's kind of like our professional meetings. Probably more got
done in the hallway than... than in... inside the... the... the meeting itself. (John) Yeah,
certainly. Sure. (Tim) You know, people just... just talking. But that was a great way to get
the in... this information out that all these researchers were doing. (John) Exactly. And
(22:10):
if I can quote Harry Minor one... one other time, he said, "John, you know, I can go to a field day
and from the questions the farmers ask, I can have more research ideas to do than, you know, for the
next year than I can... I can ever take care of." (Tim) And... and that's true! Because they have...
they... they're some of the most creative people, the farmers. They... they're... they're making
(22:31):
their livelihood, so they got to have some... they need to know some answers! (John) Yeah, I
had someone, uh... someone focus on... on another person saying that they're a great observer,
but they're a poor interpreter. And I think that's where the field days came in, you know. Well,
I see this happening, you know, a... a maybe a purple... purple streaks in... in corn. So,
(22:52):
what does that mean? You know, and... and they... they could tell you what... what that was. Is
that... is that a deficiency? Is it cold weather? Is it genetic? You know, or what? (Tim) And they
could get that personal relationship with these researchers. (John) Absolutely. Yeah. Because
they'd see them year after year, usually the same, you know, the same people. Some of those
would change, so we'd come in special... bring in specialist, uh... you know, for you know, what...
(23:15):
whatever the topic was and... and... and do that. (Tim) You know, talking about farmers,
um... my dad made a ob... this is a personal rel... a personal, um... uh... story. He...
he observed (this is back in the late 70s into the 80s), he said, "You ever notice that when we
grow grain sorghum versus corn and follow it up with soybeans, following grain sorghum, we don't
(23:40):
have to have near the herbicides applied as we do following corn." Well, I was undergraduate at the
time, and I asked a weed science professor, and he kind of blew me off. Said, "Oh,
that's because you plant milo later and you put more herbicide on." Well, I didn't believe that.
I didn't... I didn't take that for no. So when I got into the... into the situation where I could
do some of my own research, I got with a couple of the faculty members, and we did the study,
(24:05):
and my dad was right! And what my dad was observing was called allelopathy produced
by the grain sorghum that inhibited weed growth. And we actually published that, and my biggest
regret is it's "Reinbott and Kremer" instead of "Reinbott, Reinbott and Kremer" (John) The
(24:26):
way it should have been. Yeah. Yeah. So, and you know, and... and farmers are always... (Tim) Oh,
yeah! (John) ...coming up with these observations, you know, because they have the... the varied soil
types and... and climates, you know, microclimates that they work in. (Tim) Right! And... and... and
they'd say, "Well, can you do this? Can you do that?" And sometimes, "No, we can't yet, but we're
(24:48):
working on it." (John) Yes. Yeah. (Tim) So, that probably reached a heyday, what? Midpoint in your
career? Probably in the 80s? (John) Maybe even before I started, you know. (Tim) That that really
reached the midpoint, didn't it? (John) Yes. Yeah. (Tim) And... and then we started seeing,
uh... kind of slip away? (John) Right. And... and I credit the, uh... you know, seed companies,
(25:09):
the... the, uh... beef organizations, uh... what... whatever you... you know, there are
out there because they provide that service to farmers. You know, and... and frankly, they
probably do a better job of packaging it than we do. And there's... there's a financial incentive,
you know, to them that they can see, uh... exactly back from that because of the... of the... the
(25:34):
relationship they have with the farmer. They... we sell you a product. We want you to do well. We...
we want our product to do well, and here's the support we'll give you. (Tim) But you still needed
the unbiased research from the MU. (John) Yes. Yeah. (Tim) You still needed that to... to weed
out... that may not be, if you really look at the return on investment, not as good as you think it
is. (John) People still sell snake oil 2.0. Yes. (Tim) Right. And... and something I also noticed,
(26:00):
some of the... even today when we have field days, often our ag economist are the ones that get the
most attention. (John) And that's what we heard in, uh... 19... well, probably 2000. You know,
we did a review of farms and centers and... and, uh... one of the things that came... came up,
you know, with the advisory committees is, you know, "Yes, we want to know, you know, management
(26:24):
practices, but we also need to have the economics combined with that, so... so you can tell us,
you know, what's it worth and... and what's it going to cost us to... to do that?" (Tim) You know,
you even mentioned the word so... soil health a while ago, and that's a big thing,
but one of our soil scientists kind of scolded us at a... at a meet... at a professional meeting
(26:47):
because he said only about 10% of all soil health manuscripts talk about yield. And you got to have
both of them together. (John) Yes. (Tim) Because you can talk about great soil health all you want,
which is good! But how's it impacting the bottom line? (John) Yes. (Tim) And we need to know
that. (John) Yeah. Well, you know, I think back to... to the beginning of, uh... of the College
(27:10):
of Ag, and... and... and even third world countries these days, you know, if, uh... if you rely on
that crop and... and someone says, "Well, if you use this seed, it'll produce time and a half of
what your seed does," but you can't risk not being able to feed yourself or... or meet your payments.
And so, so there's... there's a great deal of risk in... in products that when you change after
(27:33):
you know that something is working, you know, to find something that's working
better. (Tim) Right. And... and that's what... and let the research take... take that risk until
they figure it out. (John) Yes. (Tim) Then you can. You mentioned third world countries. How
many students from other countries came through our... our experiment stations and still do? Just
(27:53):
tremendous! (John) Yes! Yes. Well, and I recall a... a conversation years ago of they said,
you know, these... these students come over here, they do well, you know, and we... and we hope that
they can go back to their country, and when they go back, they can improve the agriculture there,
you know, because they have... they have this knowledge. Then all of a sudden, the government
(28:15):
snatches them up because they have their doctorate or something like that. And uh, you know, and...
and we want that to happen because they're smart people, but unfortunately, you know, agriculture
is still left without a good leader and without a good researcher. So... (Tim) And you know,
one of the things that I learned from them is how wasteful we are with... with... with our food.
(28:36):
They cannot often, those students, cannot believe we don't... we don't try to grow something on
every inch of land that we got. (John) Yes. (Tim) Or... or we leave so much out in the field. "Why
did you do that?" (John) Yes. Or even some of our advisory committee members, I know, tell us that,
"For a research farm, you know, I've got to make every acre that I own, you know,
pay for itself." And, uh... he said, "You need to do the same thing," so... (Tim) But we also have
(29:01):
to have good uniform land. (John) We do. Yeah. And I know at Bradford, we always kept one area
back because we knew it was low in phosphorus and, uh... that we kept that back for... well,
for the soil scientists that needed to do a low phosphorus soil study. (Tim) Right. Well,
you all even changed the gravel on the road for your soil scientists so you wouldn't...
so you wouldn't lime it by accident. (John) Yeah. Certain roads in the... in what we call the soil
(29:26):
fertility areas were... were not limestone gravel. Yeah. (Tim) But you know, I'm utilizing one of the
fields on the annex that... that y'all purchased because it was about... it was on the west side of
a gravel road for how many? 75 years? The pH is about one unit more there. (John) From from one
side to the other? (Tim) Uh-huh. So I use that to my advantage for research projects. So...so you
(29:49):
got to take advantage of what you got though, too. Low fertility or... or maybe some high pH that
happened naturally. (John) Yeah. Well, you did some work down in Southwest Missouri and... and
the pH... I mean, the soil phosphorus down there was... (Tim) In the single digits. (John) Single
digits. Yes. (Tim) Yes. (John) Yeah. (Tim) And sometimes that... that's a good point. We have
these research stations across the state because they offer different... different challenges for
(30:14):
the farmers that we need to help... to help address. (John) Yes. Yeah, and I, you know, I think early
on in the college, or not... not even in the college, the farmers were suspect of fertilizer
because they said, "We think it burns our crops." And it's... and, uh... and I think what... what
one of the deans assumed at that time was that you got to... you got... you got a quick growth in
(30:38):
the spring, but uh... but it couldn't keep up in the fall because it didn't have the root system.
So, so we, you know, we... we have, again, uh... an observation, but maybe not a good
interpretation of it. (Tim) Right! Exactly! And that's what the part of the researcher's job is.
So we went through this, you know, our heyday of field days. Industry started doing some. But we
(31:00):
were still fairly consistent into the 80s, but then we started seeing that starting to slip,
didn't we? (John) Yes. (Tim) More and more. And then you and... and one of the faculty members
who just passed away, Bill Wiebold, had a great idea. Would you talk about your... your great idea
about going away from a traditional field day to something more focused? (John) Yeah. Well,
I think the year before I started Bradford, which was, uh... 1977, they had 800 people at
(31:25):
field day. And over the first few years, uh... after that, you know, we slipped to 500 and...
and 400 and... (Tim) And was this because of you? (John) Yeah, it could be. [laughter] It could be.
But... but... but we got to a point where... where we said, "You know, it's mainly us. We have a
few farmers here and that's... that's our target. We have lots of industry folks. We have lots of
(31:47):
government organizations. And that's... that's a worthwhile endeavor, you know,
to... to get together and... and, uh... and... and recognize what everyone else is doing." But...
but we wanted to do something that we felt was more meaningful and... and was valuable. So, we went
to a workshop type of a... of a process where... where you'd have some instruction maybe inside,
(32:09):
and then you go out to the field and... and, uh... and actually put to practice what... what you
had learned. (Tim) And some of this was train the trainer. (John) Yes. (Tim) Because you would train
these Extension folks or industry folks, and they would go out and... and make a big impact across
the... across the state. (John) Yeah. We had the crop injury diagnostic clinic that was started
and, uh... you know, Kevin Bradley was... was a big player in that, uh... early on and... and, uh...
(32:35):
some others, you know, weed scientists before that. But we'd also have, uh... the geneticists,
you know, come in. I... I remember Bill Wiebold had us extracting DNA of our own, you know,
from that and, uh... and... and other, you know, other topics of... of, uh... Laura Sweets with,
uh... pathology, you know. (Tim) Wayne Bailey with entomology. (John) Yeah. (Tim) I mean, it was
(33:00):
so many. And... and I think like... like... like you're mentioning, it wasn't just Extension people
doing the training, it was our basic scientists too coming in too... (John) Yes. (Tim) ...to help
with this. And... and it was very, very, very popular. And of course, the uh... professionals
could earn, um... continuing education credits which was... which is very important. (John) Yeah.
(33:22):
For certified crop advisor program. (Tim) Right. Right. And uh... but... but then again,
when things are really good, they start getting copied. (John) Yeah. (Tim) And again,
industry started doing the same thing, you know, with their own people. (John) Sure. (Tim) So...
so we started seeing the numbers go down again. (John) Well, and but, you know,
what always intrigued me about these workshops was that you got the high-tech. You've got the new...
(33:47):
new chemistry. You've got the new seed coatings. You've got the new coatings on fertilizer. How
do you apply that? When do you... when do you time it in there right? But some of the basic
information was still the weed ID. You know, that was always a big deal to... to... to look at...
at the identification of weeds and... and crop diseases. Uh... you know, some... some very basic,
(34:10):
uh... type of... of information that you can apply every day. (Tim) Right. And
maybe what's... what's hot right now. What, you know, we... like right now frogeye leaf spot. I
remember when I was an undergraduate, we didn't even know what that was. (John) Yeah. (Tim) And
because I know one of our pathologists talked about it in class, and the professor thought,
"Nobody cares about that. That's not going to be an issue in Missouri." Well,
(34:31):
30 years later it was. So, so you just never know. You get some of that basic background. And then at
these workshops and clinics, and also field days that we still have, that's where you can find out
the hot topic that... that... that people are... are worried about. (John) Absolutely. Yeah. And
uh... and it's... and it's hard to be present and... and have up-to-date information because
(34:54):
some of that's just developing as... as that season goes along. (Tim) So now... so now I
think we're in this... in the third phase of this. We went from field days to targeted workshops, and
where we do a lot of our work now online. (John) Yes. (Tim) Our videos. And Cheryl and I are...
are learning shorter the video the better. (John) I... I like that, personally, you know. (Tim) Oh,
(35:17):
when I had to go try to figure out how to do something the other day, I... I found the shortest
video possible and looked at it two or three times until I figured it out. (John) Yes. Well,
you know, whether... whether... whether I'm trying to replace a water pump on... on my car or... or
whatever, that's... that's kind of the go-to thing. And, you know, farmers are like that,
too. Can they take off, um... a day to go to a field day and, you know, or... or at night can
(35:43):
they, you know, pull up from the... from the internet the... the YouTube that they need to
see to solve their problem? (Tim) Right! (John) Or learn about it. (Tim) Right! Because I was,
uh... a certain weed I was curious about, and I did it in the evening on... on YouTube, you know.
I look at things like that to try to figure it out. So... so it... so it... it... it is changing
(36:05):
in our colleges. Agriculture is constantly changing with that. (John) Yes. (Tim) I think,
though, the best thing about field days that you cannot replace is lunch. (John) Well, that's a
big draw. (Tim) It is! And the... and the snacks and... and everything part of that, but... but
also getting the ideas off different folks. I've presented at a lot of field days. I'm kind of like
(36:31):
Harry Minor. I come back with a whole lot of good ideas. (John) Yes! You know, it's everybody brings
what's... what's important on their plate and, uh... there may be something entirely new to, you
know, to you. But... (Tim) And... and... and the other thing that I liked about the live field days
that... and we still have, we have these workshops and clinics, and the students get to cut their
(36:54):
teeth talking about their research. They get used to being out in front of people talking, and right
before you went to... to the other way, the... the... the workshops, you had a field day, and
I talked... I talked at that, one of those, about... about my research, my graduate student research.
And my dad drove up, 250... 275 miles to come to it, and I was terrible speaker at the time. And
(37:21):
I... I remember thinking, "Man, I did a terrible job." And I remember my dad in... in the truck
going back to our house, trying to come up with something good to say. (John) Well, and... and
then you became this preacher style. (Tim) That's right! But... but you have to learn! And only way
you're going to learn is to get out in front of people, and that's what's so important with,
(37:42):
um... giving students that opportunity. (John) It is. Yeah. And it doesn't matter if you go into
industry and... and deal with farmers at that point, or if you go into education and... and,
you know, university research and... and teach. You know, it's... it's important to know how to...
how to deliver your message. (Tim) Right! And in a... in a... in a way that they understand
(38:03):
it. (John) Yes. Yeah. Well, I... I think, you know, developing the confidence is always the
first part of it, and... and part of your delivery is going to make a difference on that. You know,
when... when we started on field days, uh... a lot of the faculty and... and the... the deans would
load up on a train, and... and they'd stop at several different places across Missouri, and they
(38:24):
would... they would discuss, you know, different, uh... different scenarios and maybe soil health,
maybe a selection of the best animal or what have you. Then they went to a truck and what? "Clover
is Prosperity" type of a... of a thing. (Tim) Right! (John) So, so we... we've... we've gone
out to the, you know, to the... to the people, and I guess we're still doing that through podcast and
(38:47):
things like that, aren't we? (Tim) Yeah, we really are. Things haven't changed that much,
but... but... but they just... the how we do it's a little bit different. (John) The delivery.
Yeah. (Tim) Yes. (John) Yeah. (Tim) Well, you talk about field days, uh... if you read much
about when they have farmer... farmer field... farmer days here at MU. (John) Yes. (Tim) You
turn... people all come to here, and it'd be a week-long event, and... (John) Yeah. Well,
(39:11):
and I don't know what it is now. It's... it's, uh... it used to be the last week of January
or... (Tim) Right! (John) ...1st of February that... that the beef producers would meet
the... the certified, uh... seed companies, you know, public seed companies would... would meet.
Uh... we'd have... we'd have our Ag Day barbecue and Dr. Hedrick would make this, uh... prime rib at...
(39:37):
at that time, and... and I remember that... that part. (Tim) I missed out on all this. (John) Well,
you missed out on a good thing. (Tim) I did! I did! I did. But that's... and but that's still...
that's still part of that socialization, you know, among... among farmers to... to really
get good ideas and the researchers. (John) Yes. A friend of mine that was with ALM Corporation,
(40:01):
uh... he said, "You know, we'll be able to contact people in different ways, but that face-to-face
communication is still important." (Tim) Can you go anywhere hardly without seeing somebody that
you knew? I mean, that... that you've worked with or known through... through your... through your
work? (John) Well, my nephew says not, so... (Tim) That's right! (John) I don't know. (Tim) Yeah,
(40:22):
it's amazing! And not only is it in Missouri, you were part of a couple of national organizations,
you know, the... the American Society of Agronomy, as well as the Research Center Administration
Society. And so you've known... you knew people all over the United States. (John) Yeah. You know,
we go... (Tim) And the world! (John) Well, we had, uh... we... we had the group overseas,
(40:44):
uh... the developing research equipment, you know, and so I went to Versailles and,
uh... Germany and... and in England... Cambridge, England, different conferences. And Clarence
Swallow from K State was... was the person that really got me interested in that. And... and,
(41:05):
um... you know, we often think that we're the lead, and I was talking about when we
had a lateral move irrigation system, and... and the... the gentleman from Israel said,
"Yes, yes. We've had that for years." You know, yeah! So it's just a matter of... of,
uh... you know, who's there and can present that. (Tim) But you know, one of the things that you
(41:26):
also did is that you hired the right people to do some of this. I think like hiring Benton Naylor,
for example. What he did to improve the equipment for everybody going across the state. You know,
you mentioned earlier Harry Minor's group going across the state, that he... he was able to get
their equipment in good shape that they could... so that they could do this and not break down.
(41:47):
But also, the equipment he fabricated... (John) Yes. (Tim) ...for the researchers
was tremendous. (John) Yes. Yeah. Being able to take an idea and make it into a workable piece of
equipment was... was one of Benton's strengths. And... and, uh... you know, maintenance was also
part of it. When... when we hired him, a little Massey 35 combine that I don't think Benton
would even fit inside anymore, uh... I think he spent almost a month just welding up the... the
(42:13):
inside of that combine. And I remember Carl Morris saying, "Boy, did that run smooth after that," you
know. So... (Tim) Well, I think they also... he was saying, "Let's fix it. Let's change all the
bearings so we don't have to change when they're in harvest." (John) Yes. Yes. (Tim) "When you're
200 miles away. Let's... let's get this. Let's stay ahead of all this." Having somebody being
(42:34):
able to help with that was tremendous. (John) It was. Yeah. Uh... and... and Benton was, you know,
he's... he was a good welder. He's a machinist. Uh... you know, and he knew agriculture,
too. So... (Tim) And then someone... someone else just quickly, uh... you hired was Eric
Lawman. Eric was fantastic working with the researchers. He actually understood how it all
worked. (John) Yes. (Tim) And he was really good. And... and I inherited both of those going out,
(42:59):
and some of the researchers didn't have a technician, but he could be that person that...
that got the equipment ready for them and planted and... and make sure it... it was up and...
and... and taken care of. (John) Now, I remember a complaint somebody had against Eric one time was,
uh... "Well, you know, we're going to plant this plot, and he's out there digging in the
ground all the time, looking where at seed depth and placement." I said, "Hey, if... if you don't
(43:22):
do that," (Tim) That's right! (John) "There's a price to be paid!" (Tim)That's right. Cuz once he
got it right, then he was ready to go. (John) Yes. (Tim) But he was going to make sure it
was done right. And... and that's so important to have those type of staff that can make sure
you do a good job. (John) And as we go forward, you know, we're getting fewer and fewer maybe,
uh... people that actually grew up on a farm and actually used the planters and things like that.
(43:43):
So, so it's... it's important to have that service provided that... that, uh... the person knows how
to do this in case a... a scientist doing basic research wants to take that... that research to
the field and how do we do that? (Tim) That's right! Because many of our scientists anymore
did not grow up on a farm. (John) Right. (Tim) Or even grow up in this country. So,
(44:05):
they're not... they're not used to it yet. (John) Yeah. We had, uh... we had... we had, uh...
postdocs from Kenya that said, "We have... we have good soil. We have irrigation. We have good seed.
What can go wrong?" (Tim) Yeah. (John) And the redwing blackbirds cleaned their clock twice that
year. So... (Tim) And it comes from experience. All right. You know, John, we could go on and on
(44:27):
and talk about this because there's so... so much to talk about, but I really appreciate that you
came out and... and... and... and talked about this. And let's get together again and maybe get
two or three more of us, and we can all really get into big discussion. (John) Oh, boy! Yeah! Well,
it was... it was good being here. And... and it's, you know, it was a rewarding, uh... career for me
to do that. And... and I always appreciated this young graduate student named Tim Reinbott coming
(44:52):
into the office, and... and we'd sit down and talk for a while. (Tim) Oh, I'm surprised you didn't
kick him off the farm a few times. We're not going to talk about that pig roast. [laughter] Well,
this is Tim's... this is it for Tim's Take, and we'll talk to you next time.
[♫]
[♫]
(Tim Reinbott) Well, welcome to Tim's Take! And today we have a very special guest with us today,
John Poehlmann. Uh... John is... not only was he a graduate of MU College of Agriculture,
Food and Natural Resources. This probably wasn't even called that back in those days. It was just
(00:21):
College of Agriculture back in those days. (John Poehlmann) Exactly. (Tim) But then you served
35 plus years as the Superintendent of Bradford Research Farm and the Assistant Director of the Ag
Experiment Station over all the Experiment Farms across Missouri. So... welcome, John! (John) Well,
thank you! It's good to be here. (Tim) All right. And... and you retired a few years ago,
(00:43):
but you got a wealth of information and... about the history of the Missouri Ag Experiment Station,
and you really appreciate that. Now, when did the Ag Experiment Station come about? (John) Well,
I guess, uh... with the Land Grant Act, you know. And... and so the state of Missouri has
given what? Uh... several thousand acres. I... I can't remember how many. It... it could be as
(01:09):
many as 160,000 acres that they were able to sell and... and, uh... finance the... the college for
a while. So... it, you know, it wasn't always an easy thing to do. First, they had trouble
finding out where were we going to put this thing. (Tim) Right. Right. (John) You know, and a lot of
the farmers are skeptical of, uh... of college education for their sons because they've raised
(01:31):
their sons to look at farming a certain way and do we really want a liberal arts college to have an
impact on my son? So... (Tim) And it was kind of ironic, or interesting, that they put the College
of Agriculture at an established university. (John) Yes. Yes. (Tim) Because many of them,
like K State, were brand new universities. Or Iowa State. (John) And there was even a move to have
(01:53):
four different colleges of agriculture across the state. (Tim) Oh, okay. Just for... but you know,
transportation was a lot different back in those days. (John) Absolutely. Yeah. (Tim) But now
it's... it's... it's easy. But the.... our college though had a lot of land what is now part of the
campus. (John) Yes. Yeah. They had a section of land that was cam... that well, is... it's
all now campus, isn't it? (Tim) So about 640 acres that had the dairy farm, light beef farm. It had,
(02:20):
what? Orchards and vineyards and corn, soybeans, and everything right there! (John) Yeah,
if you're going to teach a young man how to, uh... how to learn about agriculture, you have to have
all those things right there. So the citizens of Boone County raised, I think, $3,000. I forgot
what the amount was. $3,000 or $30,000, and uh... and they had to put together a section
(02:45):
of land. So they did that in order to be the... be the county that actually hosted the... the,
uh... land-grant college. (Tim) And that was very important to get it here. (John) It was! (Tim) And
we're still very unique in that we have a college of agriculture, a engineering school, a med school,
a nuclear reactor, a vet school, and something else. That's the six things that we have. That's
(03:09):
very unusual. (John) Yeah, they didn't see that coming in the beginning. (Tim) No. And how many
decisions that we made in our career that we didn't fully understand, but we knew this is
a good idea. (John) Yeah. Right. Well... well, Tim... Tim and I both, uh... were superintendents
of Bradford Farm. If you look at the southeast corner of Bradford Farm, that... there was a
(03:30):
section of land there donated to the state in... in consideration of establishing a land-grant
college in Colombia. (Tim) Oh, really? (John) Yeah. So it goes back to 18 something or other, or
just after the Civil War, I think. (Tim) Wow. So we had that connection all the way back to there.
But you know, uh... campus grew though, didn't it? (John) It did! (Tim) And it started invading upon
(03:52):
our section of land. (John) Yeah. "We need, uh... we need a football field because the young men
would like to have a team. And you know, would you... would you be able to provide that for
us?" (Tim) And like you... like we talked about earlier, give somebody an inch, and they take a
mile. (John) Exactly. Yeah. (Tim) Well, then we had some important things like a hospital had to
come, and... (John) Yeah, World War II really had an impact on things, you know. You had the GI Bill
(04:15):
for one thing, so you had to have dormitories... so, uh... for... for the GI's coming back from...
from World War II. And... and at that time, the... the University Hospital was really established and
came into its own. And so some of the fields all... all of a sudden became practice fields
(04:35):
and... and places for dormitories and the like. (Tim) And... and there's still a few remnants
of... of this section. The Sanborn Field's still there. The Duley-Miller Plots are still there.
There's a... there's one livestock building that's still there on that part of campus. So, we still
have a few remnants of... of what we used to have there. (John) How many T buildings were on campus
(04:57):
when you were there? (Tim) I was in T12 for class. Lots of classes. Those temporaries. (John) Yeah.
'T' stood for temporary buildings. I don't know what... I know there was T14. That was poultry
husbandry, but... but I don't know...(Tim) T20 was one of them. I mean, there was a... there's
a lot. But it just took a while. (John) It did. It did. (Tim) Mhm. But, uh... time marches on,
(05:17):
and... and they moved out to essentially South Farm, didn't they? (John) They did. (Tim) The
college did. (John) Uh... one of the... one of the deans or... or the presidents had that farm just
across the way that it's now the golf course. And so, they wanted to establish that maybe as... as a
expansion room for the college. Really wasn't the type of territory and... and land and soil type
(05:41):
that they needed, so uh, several of the people, uh, said, "Well, we need to make... make plans for
the future." I think this is back in the 30s, actually. (Tim) It was. Yes. (John) You know,
before World War II. So, and so they started buying up land here at South Farm. (Tim) And
they bought, what? 1,200 acres or so by the time it was all said and done. (John) Yep. (Tim) Or
(06:02):
more. And it came from what? A dozen or so different... different owners. (John) I think
16 different owners. Uh, you know, I mean, some were small tracks land. Some were several hundred
acres. (Tim) And then we saw, uh... KOMU come on to... on... onto our farm, too. (John) Yeah,
"We need a place to build a radio station, and... and you've got a high hill out there."
So... (Tim) And TV station. (John) And TV, right? (Tim) And then USGS took part of it. (John) Yep.
(06:27):
What... one of the early, uh, people in heavy equipment, uh, thought we should have on the
north side of New Haven, we should have all the... all the, uh... well, the pork producers and...
and the beef producers, and everybody should have their headquarters there, and this would be... be
really a magnet, you know, for things like that. (Tim) Well, and talk about magnet, and... and now
(06:48):
at toward the end of your career, you were... you and the other associate deans were part
of getting Discovery Ridge as part of South Farm. (John) Yes. (Tim) You're thinking for the future,
and... and... and there are a few industries there, but I think MURR or MU... (John) Research
Reactor. (Tim) Yeah! Is... is going to be the next thing that... that goes there, and... and
that's... that was a good investment, I believe, that we can really expand. And... and you think,
(07:13):
well, what does that have to do with... with the college? It's a lot to do with the college
because again, working together. (John) Right. Well, and... and that's, you know,
so much of the research back in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s was applied research. You know, where a
farmer can take it home and... and put it to use that afternoon. And... and now we're... we're talking
(07:34):
about much more of the basic research because industry has figured out a way to capitalize on...
on the profits of, you know, of... of the applied research. So seed companies, fertilizer companies,
uh... uh... you know, chemical companies, uh... all provide those services to farmers that...
that used to be sought through the university. (Tim) So time marches on, so the university
(07:57):
changes. (John) It does. Yeah. (Tim) And... and it's still serving our stakeholders in a
different way. (John) Absolutely. Right. (Tim) You know what always amazed me in my career, what...
you'll see somebody working on a project and you think, who cares about that? And not having the
foresight to realize, that's the future! And then 20 years later, that is... that is... I'm
(08:19):
thinking about molecular biology and... and... and gene sequencing, they were working on that
when I was in graduate school. I thought, nobody's gonna care! But it was that basic research that
led to some big discoveries. (John) Yes! Well, you know, Maurice Gebhardt, at one time the,
uh... the wiper type of applicators? (Tim) Right. Right! (John) Was... was a big deal, and... and,
(08:43):
uh... Maurice Gebhardt said, "You know, we worked with these like 15 or 20 years earlier,
but we didn't have the right chemistry to make it work." And so, you know, it's... it's a time
when all the different factors of technology come together to make it work, and... and... and... and
that's important. (Tim) It really is. And... and we depended on those researchers to have
(09:06):
that foresight to... to know what's next. (John) Right. Right. Yeah. (Tim) And... and we've talked
a lot about the, uh... on the crop side, but the animal side, tremendous! You know, when I was in,
um... college, we talked about Holsteins 12 to 14,000 pounds of milk per year. Now,
(09:26):
if you're not averaging 25,000, you're not doing something right. (John) Yes. (Tim) And that's
all came from research. (John) Right. Yeah. And, you know, dairying is such a complicated, uh...
process. I mean, you have to take it all the way from your feed stuff to... to nutrition, you know,
to... to veterinary, you know... animal control, animal care, right? (Tim) Genetics! (John) Yes.
(09:50):
Oh, simply. Yeah. (Tim) Yeah. And I know when I ask the dairy folks about that, depends on
who you ask. If it's a dairy geneticist, it's a genetics... genetics. If you ask the... more of
the feed... on the feed stuff, they'll talk about how the feeds are so much better now. So... so
it... it does go forward. (John) Yeah, I remember Don Schindler and I were talking to... to John at
(10:12):
the dairy farm one time, and... and John was... was plotting how, uh... production increased,
you know, per cow over a certain period of time. And so I asked, "So what... what do
you attribute that to?" And he said, "Well, I attribute it to better forages, you know, that
we have." So... (Tim) Right! Right. And... and being able to, uh... uh maximize their... their
(10:32):
efficiency of those. I think we feed cattle... cattle less, produce more milk than we ever...
than we ever have, so that's fantastic! (John) I always remember Bill Donald at one time was,
uh... doing a... a study, and it was looking at... at, uh... being able to take pictures of weeds
(10:54):
and, you know, have a... have a machine come along and... and weed that out And... and it didn't get
much traction, especially with our farmers. They said, you know, "That's... that's Star Wars type
of stuff. We're not interested in that." But uh... and it still hasn't maybe come to the
fruition it can, but... but that's a technology that if you think of, you can go to non-chemical,
(11:16):
uh... you know, production, especially in horticultural crops, uh... that's... that's on the
plane now. (Tim) You know, that's right. You think back, some of those faculty members that were
working on some of these ideas, you think, "My goodness! You're crazy!" Like the nutty professor,
but they were on to something. They were just like, maybe like what Maurice Gebhardt said,
"We just haven't got the other technology yet." But once we put all this together, we... that we have
(11:40):
something because what you really described, what Bill Donald's working on. It's what John Deere
has now with its, uh... See and Spray Technology. (John) Yeah, See and Spray. Yeah! (Tim) So... so
it has come, you know, a long, long ways. (John) I... I had to tell... we had a professor looking
at, uh... legumes that you can put in pastures and had a group of young farmers that were on tour,
(12:01):
and... and, uh... they... they said, "Well, you know, what about these? You know, where would we
get these?" And... and he said, "Well... well, you have all these, uh... these legumes already." And
so they got all excited that, you know, we can... we can produce these. So, and he kept refill...
the... the reference kept being made to, uh... the Latin name of the plant. (Tim) Sure. (John) And
(12:26):
finally they asked, "So, is there a common name for these plants?" And he said, "Yes,
there... you'd call them sticktights." (Tim) Really? (John) And at that point,
the farmer said, "We're ready for the next stop now." But... but if you think about soybeans,
I mean, soybeans arrived as a forage crop, right? (Tim) Right. (John) And you know,
through breeding and... and the like and selection, made that into the major oil
(12:50):
crop that goes into plastics, fuel, and... and so many other things. (Tim) Oh my goodness,
it... it... it never ends! How much... it's just not for food. It's for everyday parts
of life. (John) Yes. Yeah. And arabidopsis. (Tim) Yes. (John) So, you probably know more about that
than I do. (Tim) Well, that was one of those ones that we had a... a geneticist, Dr. Redei,
(13:15):
working on this little mustard plant, this little weed, and we thought, why would anybody want to
do that? But because it had a simple genome, he was able to learn a lot. And still today,
that is the standard for basic genetic research. (John) Yes. Yeah. (Tim) And he's known all over
the world. He's... he's one of those folks that's known more outside the United States than he is
(13:38):
even here in Columbia. (John) Yes. Yeah. (Tim) You know, that... that impact that he had. (John) So,
and I... you know, that continues with the basic research that... that we've got now. I don't, you
know, I don't know that we are training farmers as much as we are training scientists and people
for the industry, you know, in the... in the land-grant colleges. (Tim) Do you remember that
one guy that used to inject soybeans out there? (John) Oh, was his name Dale Blevins? Had this
(14:02):
guy with him called Reinbott or something? (Tim) Yeah! [laughing] Crawled around on his hands and
knees injecting. But that was fun! I mean, that was some basic research, and that's how we had to
do it then. You know, now there's... there's other ways of doing it, but that was some of the... just
how we... that... that we started that. (John) An intensive care unit of soybeans that had its own,
(14:24):
uh... uh... IV drips for each one. (Tim) Exactly. Exactly. And another... a grad student came up
with that, Larry Grabau. His wife was a nursing student, and he started looking at
what she was doing, said, "Hey, I can do that with soybeans!" (John) Yes. (Tim) So that's how
that all came about. And even today, how many of those neat things are happening out in the field
(14:46):
that we just don't realize where that's going to go. (John) Right. Right. And... and you know,
I remember Dr. Minor had a graduate student from Brazil that... that, uh... would graft the top of
one soybean plant to the base of another soybean plant. All this was done at about, I don't know,
3 inches tall, you know. And... and he was doing dozens, probably hundreds of these and,
(15:10):
uh... it was just... just amazing, you know, what they discovered from that. (Tim) Oh,
gosh! And... and you talk about Harry Minor, you know, he did a lot of very applied research,
checking out to see if what the farmers are doing, that they'd been... the products they'd
been sold actually work. (John) Yes. (Tim) And sometimes they found out they didn't
work. (John) He was at a conference once, and he had to present the results of a certain product
(15:35):
that was being touted as... as a... as a wonder drug almost, and it may still be sold. And...
and so he explained that they put on zero amount of control. They put on the regular... half rate,
the regular rate, double rate, 10 times the rate, 100 times the rate, and a thousand times the rate
(15:56):
that was suggested for this. And he said at the end of the... of the year, there was no
significant difference, no statistical difference in any of those. And a person from that industry,
uh... raised his hand in the back of the room and he said, "Uh, but I've seen this work before." And
I remember Dr. Minor's, uh... answer was, "Well, it might work on some farms, but it didn't work on
(16:20):
our research farm. (Tim) Right. And that's so important. And that's why we do research,
you know, to help the farmer, and this long legacy that we have had here. Um... what I
liked about like guys like Harry Minor is he saw an issue, he would start doing... he would... he
would... he would address that. (John) Yes. (Tim) Him and Maurice Gebhardt, many in that... in that
(16:43):
generation, that really what they looking at, trying to help the farmer. (John) And try and
refine it for his variety testing. I remember Harry Minor and... and Carl Morris's technician
broke down on the side of the road. And... and while they were waiting for another truck to come
rescue them from campus, he started drawing, "These are the major corn production issues. And so we
(17:05):
want... we want a field of, you know, testing the hybrids at each one of these locations." And, uh...
it, you know, was... it was just interesting to me that how you make the most of... of idle time like
that and still, you know, do the planning for it. (Tim) Well, you know, I always say my best ideas
come... come together during church. But I say the reason is because I'm relaxed, my mind's clear,
(17:27):
and I come up these... these ideas. (John) And you're awake, too, so that's... (Tim) I'm awake!
Yeah! Oh, that's right. That's right. You know, I can still remember lessons that many of these
taught me in just in passing. You know, uh... Maurice Gebhardt said, "You... you get a study,
you do it the first year, you learn how to do it right, and throw that data away, and... and... and
(17:50):
then do it again." (John) Right. Well, and... and they had long-term studies back then. I... I don't
know how many long-term studies, uh... would be around anymore. (Tim) Uh... well, they do... they
did there's like five-year studies. (John) Yes. (Tim) And, um... now because of granting funds,
you got two, maybe three years, if you're lucky. (John) Yes. (Tim) So... so it's very, very quick,
(18:14):
and... and you have to turn that around. (John) I had the opportunity once to look at the pastures
at Bradford that USDA pasture research, uh... was doing. And I had Jerry Matches, uh... you know,
one... one of the greats as far as I'm concerned in that, uh... along with Jerry Nelson and Dave
Sleper. I don't think Joe Baldridge was along at the time, but... but I remember Jerry Matches
(18:39):
saying, "You know, I can probably do three more long-term research," (And I think he was talking
seven years maybe in a pasture research.) "...uh, in my lifetime, my productive lifetime." And...
and, uh... you know, that had quite an impact on me. You know, what... what can you get done as
a scientist or... or even not a scientist in your lifetime? (Tim) You know, I remember years later,
(19:02):
uh, Jerry Nelson was doing long-term alfalfa studies, you know, persistence, and he said,
"I only got time to do one more." (John) Yes. (Tim) Because it takes seven or eight, ten years
to do... to do a study, so you got to make the most of it. And... and... and those folks really
gave back to agriculture. And that's what really impressed me is that they all had that land-grant
(19:24):
spirit. (John) Yes. (Tim) They all with... with teaching, outreach, research, they were all
involved in that. (John) Any field day that we had in any part of the state, um... you could expect
them to be there. You know, if... if... if it was a area that had pasture or forage production or...
or in Harry's case, grain production. (Tim) Now, you know what, uh... Jerry Matches said about you
(19:49):
one time? (John) Oh, I'm not sure. (Tim) "Never has anybody promised so much but delivered so
little." No, no! He didn't say that. He didn't. That was actually one of our research centers
down in southwest Missouri that was very droughty. (John) Yes. (Tim) Looked beautiful in the spring,
but then just all fell apart by... by July. (John) Yeah, I always said if you're a real...
real estate person, you need to sell land in the Ozarks in the spring. (Tim) In the spring! Yes!
(20:15):
Exactly. Exactly. But you know, one of the things that, and we just discussed this the other day,
probably some of the more drought resiliency we have in our... in our experiment station is
through here in Central Missouri. (John) Yeah. (Tim) We've had some droughts, but not like the
other parts of the state do. So, we're very blessed. I don't know if it's because of the
river or what that... that we're very resilient, and... and we need that close to campus. That's
(20:40):
what's so important. (John) Yeah. Even in 1980 when your irrigated corn test may not have
broke double digits, you know, uh... for... for yield, bushels per acre, uh... there are still,
you know, several varieties that... that stood out from... from the rest. (Tim) Right! You found
out something. I always say, "Adversity breeds opportunity." (John) It does. (Tim) Because you
(21:02):
can learn something from it. And that's what we're in the business of is always learning.
(Tim Reinbott) Well, we're continuing our discussion with John Poehlmann. And John,
you know, you mentioned field days. And you know, during... during the, what? The 50s and 60s,
we really expanded across the state with different research centers across the state,
and they all had their field day, and... and that was a great way of getting information out at one
(21:26):
time. (John Poehlmann) Yeah, it was. It was part social, you know. (Tim) Right. Right. (John) You'd
have farmers together. And at one time, I was a Young Farmer Adviser here for the Columbia
chapter, and what... what struck me was that farmers up at Harrisburg didn't know farmers down
in Ashland. Now, it... you know, maybe less of that, but... but it was... it was kind of neat to,
(21:47):
you know, to see those two those folks meeting and comparing notes and... and just... just doing
shop talk on that. (Tim) Yeah. Well, it's kind of like our professional meetings. Probably more got
done in the hallway than... than in... inside the... the... the meeting itself. (John) Yeah,
certainly. Sure. (Tim) You know, people just... just talking. But that was a great way to get
the in... this information out that all these researchers were doing. (John) Exactly. And
(22:10):
if I can quote Harry Minor one... one other time, he said, "John, you know, I can go to a field day
and from the questions the farmers ask, I can have more research ideas to do than, you know, for the
next year than I can... I can ever take care of." (Tim) And... and that's true! Because they have...
they... they're some of the most creative people, the farmers. They... they're... they're making
(22:31):
their livelihood, so they got to have some... they need to know some answers! (John) Yeah, I
had someone, uh... someone focus on... on another person saying that they're a great observer,
but they're a poor interpreter. And I think that's where the field days came in, you know. Well,
I see this happening, you know, a... a maybe a purple... purple streaks in... in corn. So,
(22:52):
what does that mean? You know, and... and they... they could tell you what... what that was. Is
that... is that a deficiency? Is it cold weather? Is it genetic? You know, or what? (Tim) And they
could get that personal relationship with these researchers. (John) Absolutely. Yeah. Because
they'd see them year after year, usually the same, you know, the same people. Some of those
would change, so we'd come in special... bring in specialist, uh... you know, for you know, what...
(23:15):
whatever the topic was and... and... and do that. (Tim) You know, talking about farmers,
um... my dad made a ob... this is a personal rel... a personal, um... uh... story. He...
he observed (this is back in the late 70s into the 80s), he said, "You ever notice that when we
grow grain sorghum versus corn and follow it up with soybeans, following grain sorghum, we don't
(23:40):
have to have near the herbicides applied as we do following corn." Well, I was undergraduate at the
time, and I asked a weed science professor, and he kind of blew me off. Said, "Oh,
that's because you plant milo later and you put more herbicide on." Well, I didn't believe that.
I didn't... I didn't take that for no. So when I got into the... into the situation where I could
do some of my own research, I got with a couple of the faculty members, and we did the study,
(24:05):
and my dad was right! And what my dad was observing was called allelopathy produced
by the grain sorghum that inhibited weed growth. And we actually published that, and my biggest
regret is it's "Reinbott and Kremer" instead of "Reinbott, Reinbott and Kremer" (John) The
(24:26):
way it should have been. Yeah. Yeah. So, and you know, and... and farmers are always... (Tim) Oh,
yeah! (John) ...coming up with these observations, you know, because they have the... the varied soil
types and... and climates, you know, microclimates that they work in. (Tim) Right! And... and... and
they'd say, "Well, can you do this? Can you do that?" And sometimes, "No, we can't yet, but we're
(24:48):
working on it." (John) Yes. Yeah. (Tim) So, that probably reached a heyday, what? Midpoint in your
career? Probably in the 80s? (John) Maybe even before I started, you know. (Tim) That that really
reached the midpoint, didn't it? (John) Yes. Yeah. (Tim) And... and then we started seeing,
uh... kind of slip away? (John) Right. And... and I credit the, uh... you know, seed companies,
(25:09):
the... the, uh... beef organizations, uh... what... whatever you... you know, there are
out there because they provide that service to farmers. You know, and... and frankly, they
probably do a better job of packaging it than we do. And there's... there's a financial incentive,
you know, to them that they can see, uh... exactly back from that because of the... of the... the
(25:34):
relationship they have with the farmer. They... we sell you a product. We want you to do well. We...
we want our product to do well, and here's the support we'll give you. (Tim) But you still needed
the unbiased research from the MU. (John) Yes. Yeah. (Tim) You still needed that to... to weed
out... that may not be, if you really look at the return on investment, not as good as you think it
is. (John) People still sell snake oil 2.0. Yes. (Tim) Right. And... and something I also noticed,
(26:00):
some of the... even today when we have field days, often our ag economist are the ones that get the
most attention. (John) And that's what we heard in, uh... 19... well, probably 2000. You know,
we did a review of farms and centers and... and, uh... one of the things that came... came up,
you know, with the advisory committees is, you know, "Yes, we want to know, you know, management
(26:24):
practices, but we also need to have the economics combined with that, so... so you can tell us,
you know, what's it worth and... and what's it going to cost us to... to do that?" (Tim) You know,
you even mentioned the word so... soil health a while ago, and that's a big thing,
but one of our soil scientists kind of scolded us at a... at a meet... at a professional meeting
(26:47):
because he said only about 10% of all soil health manuscripts talk about yield. And you got to have
both of them together. (John) Yes. (Tim) Because you can talk about great soil health all you want,
which is good! But how's it impacting the bottom line? (John) Yes. (Tim) And we need to know
that. (John) Yeah. Well, you know, I think back to... to the beginning of, uh... of the College
(27:10):
of Ag, and... and... and even third world countries these days, you know, if, uh... if you rely on
that crop and... and someone says, "Well, if you use this seed, it'll produce time and a half of
what your seed does," but you can't risk not being able to feed yourself or... or meet your payments.
And so, so there's... there's a great deal of risk in... in products that when you change after
(27:33):
you know that something is working, you know, to find something that's working
better. (Tim) Right. And... and that's what... and let the research take... take that risk until
they figure it out. (John) Yes. (Tim) Then you can. You mentioned third world countries. How
many students from other countries came through our... our experiment stations and still do? Just
(27:53):
tremendous! (John) Yes! Yes. Well, and I recall a... a conversation years ago of they said,
you know, these... these students come over here, they do well, you know, and we... and we hope that
they can go back to their country, and when they go back, they can improve the agriculture there,
you know, because they have... they have this knowledge. Then all of a sudden, the government
(28:15):
snatches them up because they have their doctorate or something like that. And uh, you know, and...
and we want that to happen because they're smart people, but unfortunately, you know, agriculture
is still left without a good leader and without a good researcher. So... (Tim) And you know,
one of the things that I learned from them is how wasteful we are with... with... with our food.
(28:36):
They cannot often, those students, cannot believe we don't... we don't try to grow something on
every inch of land that we got. (John) Yes. (Tim) Or... or we leave so much out in the field. "Why
did you do that?" (John) Yes. Or even some of our advisory committee members, I know, tell us that,
"For a research farm, you know, I've got to make every acre that I own, you know,
pay for itself." And, uh... he said, "You need to do the same thing," so... (Tim) But we also have
(29:01):
to have good uniform land. (John) We do. Yeah. And I know at Bradford, we always kept one area
back because we knew it was low in phosphorus and, uh... that we kept that back for... well,
for the soil scientists that needed to do a low phosphorus soil study. (Tim) Right. Well,
you all even changed the gravel on the road for your soil scientists so you wouldn't...
so you wouldn't lime it by accident. (John) Yeah. Certain roads in the... in what we call the soil
(29:26):
fertility areas were... were not limestone gravel. Yeah. (Tim) But you know, I'm utilizing one of the
fields on the annex that... that y'all purchased because it was about... it was on the west side of
a gravel road for how many? 75 years? The pH is about one unit more there. (John) From from one
side to the other? (Tim) Uh-huh. So I use that to my advantage for research projects. So...so you
(29:49):
got to take advantage of what you got though, too. Low fertility or... or maybe some high pH that
happened naturally. (John) Yeah. Well, you did some work down in Southwest Missouri and... and
the pH... I mean, the soil phosphorus down there was... (Tim) In the single digits. (John) Single
digits. Yes. (Tim) Yes. (John) Yeah. (Tim) And sometimes that... that's a good point. We have
these research stations across the state because they offer different... different challenges for
(30:14):
the farmers that we need to help... to help address. (John) Yes. Yeah, and I, you know, I think early
on in the college, or not... not even in the college, the farmers were suspect of fertilizer
because they said, "We think it burns our crops." And it's... and, uh... and I think what... what
one of the deans assumed at that time was that you got to... you got... you got a quick growth in
(30:38):
the spring, but uh... but it couldn't keep up in the fall because it didn't have the root system.
So, so we, you know, we... we have, again, uh... an observation, but maybe not a good
interpretation of it. (Tim) Right! Exactly! And that's what the part of the researcher's job is.
So we went through this, you know, our heyday of field days. Industry started doing some. But we
(31:00):
were still fairly consistent into the 80s, but then we started seeing that starting to slip,
didn't we? (John) Yes. (Tim) More and more. And then you and... and one of the faculty members
who just passed away, Bill Wiebold, had a great idea. Would you talk about your... your great idea
about going away from a traditional field day to something more focused? (John) Yeah. Well,
I think the year before I started Bradford, which was, uh... 1977, they had 800 people at
(31:25):
field day. And over the first few years, uh... after that, you know, we slipped to 500 and...
and 400 and... (Tim) And was this because of you? (John) Yeah, it could be. [laughter] It could be.
But... but... but we got to a point where... where we said, "You know, it's mainly us. We have a
few farmers here and that's... that's our target. We have lots of industry folks. We have lots of
(31:47):
government organizations. And that's... that's a worthwhile endeavor, you know,
to... to get together and... and, uh... and... and recognize what everyone else is doing." But...
but we wanted to do something that we felt was more meaningful and... and was valuable. So, we went
to a workshop type of a... of a process where... where you'd have some instruction maybe inside,
(32:09):
and then you go out to the field and... and, uh... and actually put to practice what... what you
had learned. (Tim) And some of this was train the trainer. (John) Yes. (Tim) Because you would train
these Extension folks or industry folks, and they would go out and... and make a big impact across
the... across the state. (John) Yeah. We had the crop injury diagnostic clinic that was started
and, uh... you know, Kevin Bradley was... was a big player in that, uh... early on and... and, uh...
(32:35):
some others, you know, weed scientists before that. But we'd also have, uh... the geneticists,
you know, come in. I... I remember Bill Wiebold had us extracting DNA of our own, you know,
from that and, uh... and... and other, you know, other topics of... of, uh... Laura Sweets with,
uh... pathology, you know. (Tim) Wayne Bailey with entomology. (John) Yeah. (Tim) I mean, it was
(33:00):
so many. And... and I think like... like... like you're mentioning, it wasn't just Extension people
doing the training, it was our basic scientists too coming in too... (John) Yes. (Tim) ...to help
with this. And... and it was very, very, very popular. And of course, the uh... professionals
could earn, um... continuing education credits which was... which is very important. (John) Yeah.
(33:22):
For certified crop advisor program. (Tim) Right. Right. And uh... but... but then again,
when things are really good, they start getting copied. (John) Yeah. (Tim) And again,
industry started doing the same thing, you know, with their own people. (John) Sure. (Tim) So...
so we started seeing the numbers go down again. (John) Well, and but, you know,
what always intrigued me about these workshops was that you got the high-tech. You've got the new...
(33:47):
new chemistry. You've got the new seed coatings. You've got the new coatings on fertilizer. How
do you apply that? When do you... when do you time it in there right? But some of the basic
information was still the weed ID. You know, that was always a big deal to... to... to look at...
at the identification of weeds and... and crop diseases. Uh... you know, some... some very basic,
(34:10):
uh... type of... of information that you can apply every day. (Tim) Right. And
maybe what's... what's hot right now. What, you know, we... like right now frogeye leaf spot. I
remember when I was an undergraduate, we didn't even know what that was. (John) Yeah. (Tim) And
because I know one of our pathologists talked about it in class, and the professor thought,
"Nobody cares about that. That's not going to be an issue in Missouri." Well,
(34:31):
30 years later it was. So, so you just never know. You get some of that basic background. And then at
these workshops and clinics, and also field days that we still have, that's where you can find out
the hot topic that... that... that people are... are worried about. (John) Absolutely. Yeah. And
uh... and it's... and it's hard to be present and... and have up-to-date information because
(34:54):
some of that's just developing as... as that season goes along. (Tim) So now... so now I
think we're in this... in the third phase of this. We went from field days to targeted workshops, and
where we do a lot of our work now online. (John) Yes. (Tim) Our videos. And Cheryl and I are...
are learning shorter the video the better. (John) I... I like that, personally, you know. (Tim) Oh,
(35:17):
when I had to go try to figure out how to do something the other day, I... I found the shortest
video possible and looked at it two or three times until I figured it out. (John) Yes. Well,
you know, whether... whether... whether I'm trying to replace a water pump on... on my car or... or
whatever, that's... that's kind of the go-to thing. And, you know, farmers are like that,
too. Can they take off, um... a day to go to a field day and, you know, or... or at night can
(35:43):
they, you know, pull up from the... from the internet the... the YouTube that they need to
see to solve their problem? (Tim) Right! (John) Or learn about it. (Tim) Right! Because I was,
uh... a certain weed I was curious about, and I did it in the evening on... on YouTube, you know.
I look at things like that to try to figure it out. So... so it... so it... it... it is changing
(36:05):
in our colleges. Agriculture is constantly changing with that. (John) Yes. (Tim) I think,
though, the best thing about field days that you cannot replace is lunch. (John) Well, that's a
big draw. (Tim) It is! And the... and the snacks and... and everything part of that, but... but
also getting the ideas off different folks. I've presented at a lot of field days. I'm kind of like
(36:31):
Harry Minor. I come back with a whole lot of good ideas. (John) Yes! You know, it's everybody brings
what's... what's important on their plate and, uh... there may be something entirely new to, you
know, to you. But... (Tim) And... and... and the other thing that I liked about the live field days
that... and we still have, we have these workshops and clinics, and the students get to cut their
(36:54):
teeth talking about their research. They get used to being out in front of people talking, and right
before you went to... to the other way, the... the... the workshops, you had a field day, and
I talked... I talked at that, one of those, about... about my research, my graduate student research.
And my dad drove up, 250... 275 miles to come to it, and I was terrible speaker at the time. And
(37:21):
I... I remember thinking, "Man, I did a terrible job." And I remember my dad in... in the truck
going back to our house, trying to come up with something good to say. (John) Well, and... and
then you became this preacher style. (Tim) That's right! But... but you have to learn! And only way
you're going to learn is to get out in front of people, and that's what's so important with,
(37:42):
um... giving students that opportunity. (John) It is. Yeah. And it doesn't matter if you go into
industry and... and deal with farmers at that point, or if you go into education and... and,
you know, university research and... and teach. You know, it's... it's important to know how to...
how to deliver your message. (Tim) Right! And in a... in a... in a way that they understand
(38:03):
it. (John) Yes. Yeah. Well, I... I think, you know, developing the confidence is always the
first part of it, and... and part of your delivery is going to make a difference on that. You know,
when... when we started on field days, uh... a lot of the faculty and... and the... the deans would
load up on a train, and... and they'd stop at several different places across Missouri, and they
(38:24):
would... they would discuss, you know, different, uh... different scenarios and maybe soil health,
maybe a selection of the best animal or what have you. Then they went to a truck and what? "Clover
is Prosperity" type of a... of a thing. (Tim) Right! (John) So, so we... we've... we've gone
out to the, you know, to the... to the people, and I guess we're still doing that through podcast and
(38:47):
things like that, aren't we? (Tim) Yeah, we really are. Things haven't changed that much,
but... but... but they just... the how we do it's a little bit different. (John) The delivery.
Yeah. (Tim) Yes. (John) Yeah. (Tim) Well, you talk about field days, uh... if you read much
about when they have farmer... farmer field... farmer days here at MU. (John) Yes. (Tim) You
turn... people all come to here, and it'd be a week-long event, and... (John) Yeah. Well,
(39:11):
and I don't know what it is now. It's... it's, uh... it used to be the last week of January
or... (Tim) Right! (John) ...1st of February that... that the beef producers would meet
the... the certified, uh... seed companies, you know, public seed companies would... would meet.
Uh... we'd have... we'd have our Ag Day barbecue and Dr. Hedrick would make this, uh... prime rib at...
(39:37):
at that time, and... and I remember that... that part. (Tim) I missed out on all this. (John) Well,
you missed out on a good thing. (Tim) I did! I did! I did. But that's... and but that's still...
that's still part of that socialization, you know, among... among farmers to... to really
get good ideas and the researchers. (John) Yes. A friend of mine that was with ALM Corporation,
(40:01):
uh... he said, "You know, we'll be able to contact people in different ways, but that face-to-face
communication is still important." (Tim) Can you go anywhere hardly without seeing somebody that
you knew? I mean, that... that you've worked with or known through... through your... through your
work? (John) Well, my nephew says not, so... (Tim) That's right! (John) I don't know. (Tim) Yeah,
(40:22):
it's amazing! And not only is it in Missouri, you were part of a couple of national organizations,
you know, the... the American Society of Agronomy, as well as the Research Center Administration
Society. And so you've known... you knew people all over the United States. (John) Yeah. You know,
we go... (Tim) And the world! (John) Well, we had, uh... we... we had the group overseas,
(40:44):
uh... the developing research equipment, you know, and so I went to Versailles and,
uh... Germany and... and in England... Cambridge, England, different conferences. And Clarence
Swallow from K State was... was the person that really got me interested in that. And... and,
(41:05):
um... you know, we often think that we're the lead, and I was talking about when we
had a lateral move irrigation system, and... and the... the gentleman from Israel said,
"Yes, yes. We've had that for years." You know, yeah! So it's just a matter of... of,
uh... you know, who's there and can present that. (Tim) But you know, one of the things that you
(41:26):
also did is that you hired the right people to do some of this. I think like hiring Benton Naylor,
for example. What he did to improve the equipment for everybody going across the state. You know,
you mentioned earlier Harry Minor's group going across the state, that he... he was able to get
their equipment in good shape that they could... so that they could do this and not break down.
(41:47):
But also, the equipment he fabricated... (John) Yes. (Tim) ...for the researchers
was tremendous. (John) Yes. Yeah. Being able to take an idea and make it into a workable piece of
equipment was... was one of Benton's strengths. And... and, uh... you know, maintenance was also
part of it. When... when we hired him, a little Massey 35 combine that I don't think Benton
would even fit inside anymore, uh... I think he spent almost a month just welding up the... the
(42:13):
inside of that combine. And I remember Carl Morris saying, "Boy, did that run smooth after that," you
know. So... (Tim) Well, I think they also... he was saying, "Let's fix it. Let's change all the
bearings so we don't have to change when they're in harvest." (John) Yes. Yes. (Tim) "When you're
200 miles away. Let's... let's get this. Let's stay ahead of all this." Having somebody being
(42:34):
able to help with that was tremendous. (John) It was. Yeah. Uh... and... and Benton was, you know,
he's... he was a good welder. He's a machinist. Uh... you know, and he knew agriculture,
too. So... (Tim) And then someone... someone else just quickly, uh... you hired was Eric
Lawman. Eric was fantastic working with the researchers. He actually understood how it all
worked. (John) Yes. (Tim) And he was really good. And... and I inherited both of those going out,
(42:59):
and some of the researchers didn't have a technician, but he could be that person that...
that got the equipment ready for them and planted and... and make sure it... it was up and...
and... and taken care of. (John) Now, I remember a complaint somebody had against Eric one time was,
uh... "Well, you know, we're going to plant this plot, and he's out there digging in the
ground all the time, looking where at seed depth and placement." I said, "Hey, if... if you don't
(43:22):
do that," (Tim) That's right! (John) "There's a price to be paid!" (Tim)That's right. Cuz once he
got it right, then he was ready to go. (John) Yes. (Tim) But he was going to make sure it
was done right. And... and that's so important to have those type of staff that can make sure
you do a good job. (John) And as we go forward, you know, we're getting fewer and fewer maybe,
uh... people that actually grew up on a farm and actually used the planters and things like that.
(43:43):
So, so it's... it's important to have that service provided that... that, uh... the person knows how
to do this in case a... a scientist doing basic research wants to take that... that research to
the field and how do we do that? (Tim) That's right! Because many of our scientists anymore
did not grow up on a farm. (John) Right. (Tim) Or even grow up in this country. So,
(44:05):
they're not... they're not used to it yet. (John) Yeah. We had, uh... we had... we had, uh...
postdocs from Kenya that said, "We have... we have good soil. We have irrigation. We have good seed.
What can go wrong?" (Tim) Yeah. (John) And the redwing blackbirds cleaned their clock twice that
year. So... (Tim) And it comes from experience. All right. You know, John, we could go on and on
(44:27):
and talk about this because there's so... so much to talk about, but I really appreciate that you
came out and... and... and... and talked about this. And let's get together again and maybe get
two or three more of us, and we can all really get into big discussion. (John) Oh, boy! Yeah! Well,
it was... it was good being here. And... and it's, you know, it was a rewarding, uh... career for me
to do that. And... and I always appreciated this young graduate student named Tim Reinbott coming
(44:52):
into the office, and... and we'd sit down and talk for a while. (Tim) Oh, I'm surprised you didn't
kick him off the farm a few times. We're not going to talk about that pig roast. [laughter] Well,
this is Tim's... this is it for Tim's Take, and we'll talk to you next time.
[♫]
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com