April 16, 2025 • 47 mins
We are joined by Rodrigo Werle and Andy Bensend this week to talk about Non-GMO Soybeans!
A few links our guests wanted to share with listeners:
https://unitedsoybean.org/about-the-checkoff/
You can find Rodrigo on X @WiscWeeds
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joe Ikley (00:00):
Joe, welcome back to the war against weeds Podcast.
(00:10):
I'm Joe Ikley extension weedspecialist at North Dakota State
University. Today's co host isAlyssa Essman at The Ohio State
Alyssa, how's it going in theOhio today?
Alyssa Essman (00:22):
Good starting to get the itch for we're wrapping
up plans for field season andmaking making all of our plans
Joe Ikley (00:28):
Yeah. So we're recording late March here.
for spring.
Probably listen to this in theearly middle part of April. So
folks will probably probably beplanting by the time we're
actually listening to this. Butspeaking of planting, we are
going to talk about soybeanstoday, so specifically, non GMO
soybean, and we have two guestson from the state of Wisconsin.
(00:51):
So we're going to start with arepeat guest. Rodrigo Werle, why
don't you, for those who eitherhaven't listened to a while,
haven't listened, let everyoneknow who you are and what you
do.
Rodrigo Werle (01:01):
Hey, Joe. Hello Alyssa, thanks for having me
here again. Always great to betalking to you. So for those of
you out there, Rodrigo Werle,I'm the extension weed scientist
at the University of Wisconsin,Madison.
Joe Ikley (01:15):
All right, and then the other guest today is Andy
Bensend, so Andy, why don't youintroduce yourself to the
audience and a little bit aboutwhat you do?
Andy Bensend (01:25):
All right, my name is Andy Bensend. I reside in
Northwest Wisconsin. Some peoplewould say we're almost
Minnesota. I don't like to goquite that far. Still support
the Packers. So, you know, we wepretty loyal to our Wisconsin
roots. Here. I'm a fifthgeneration farmer. Have a about
(01:46):
a 4000 acre cash grain operationhere in western Wisconsin,
growing corn, non GMO soybeans,and we do some winter wheat as
well, and we'll maybe talk alittle bit about that as we go.
But Rodrigo invited me to joinyou guys today because I do some
different approaches to some ofour weed issues that have had
(02:09):
some success with, and just wantto share some of those things.
Joe Ikley (02:12):
Yeah, perfect. And then that. That's the meat that
Andy Bensend (02:12):
Well the marketplace gives us an
we'll get into later. But Ifigured at the beginning we
should talk about someproduction of just non GMO
soybean. And so the first couplequestions Andy will be geared
incredible opportunity toenhance our cash flows and our
more towards you, but you know,thinking about soybean
our prices, our market pricesfor non GMO beans typically
specifically, what are some ofthe reasons and benefits that
you are growing non GMO soybean?
(02:43):
carry a nice premium over thecommercial varieties. Most of
our beans are going to Asia forfood, food grade uses. So we
like to talk about the fact thatthey're an IP or an identity
preserved. So our end end usersare specifically contracting
with the marketers for specificvarieties, and there are some
(03:05):
restrictions over just how wecan do that, but it's, it's not
an organic program at all. It'sa it's a IP program. The the
varieties have specific flavorprofiles or specific protein
profiles that they're lookingfor to make things like tofu and
Tempe and soy milk and miso andNatto. We don't grow any natto
(03:28):
varieties, but those are thekinds of soy foods that are
typically used in Asia.
Joe Ikley (03:35):
Yeah. Well, I Think we have the same marketing firms
that across our geography,coming all the way up here. So
very similar story to the NorthDakota farmers growing the same
non GMO beans and so yeah, thatobviously the specialty is
giving you a benefit for theexport market. And before we
really get into weeds and thosechallenges, what other
(03:55):
challenges are presented bygrowing non GMO soybeans?
Andy Bensend (03:59):
Well, one of the things that that we focus on is,
number one, the quality of thesoybean at harvest. So we're
we're very in tune at harvesttime to not end up with any
stains or dirt stains or grassor green stains on the beans. We
really want our our product tobe table ready when they get get
(04:20):
done processing and packagingthese beans, also, we have to
pay a lot of attention topurity. Our contract states that
they'd be GMO negative meansthat the beans are sampled and
they're checked for the presenceof those proteins that would
indicate either a roundup readyor e3 or extend soybeans, we
(04:43):
can't have any of those proteinspresent in the samples. We also
really, really work hard attrying to make sure that we
follow the protocols. There aresome chemicals that are a no no
in our contract, so we have todo the. That we're very, very in
tune with our soil quality.We're trying to have as healthy
(05:05):
a product as we can, trying tokeep our soils as healthy as we
can. Because, again, when we'redealing with the public, the
Asian community has not all ofAsia, but specifically Japan,
and to some degree, Korea andSoutheast Asia, the non GMO
beans carry a premium thatfollows all the way through to
(05:29):
the end product. And so whenthey put their name and their
label on something, they reallythey want to be proud of it.
They love to know the farmersthat are producing. So we've had
an opportunity to visit Taiwan.We've had an opportunity to
visit Japan and visit with thosebuyers who are using our beans.
And that makes an especiallyneat connection as well. We like
(05:51):
that. Actually, the company wemarket through is from North
Dakota, SB&B Sinner Brothers &Bresnahan, if those of you who
are listening know that familyhave been wonderful to work
with. They have a processingplant here in bloomer Wisconsin,
which is only about 30 milesfrom my farm, but have gotten to
be good friends with those folksand rely on them a lot in terms
(06:17):
of making sure that they findgood markets and and good
premium offerings for us, forfor that production,
Joe Ikley (06:25):
and they pick really good locations for their winter
meeting updates, as Rodrigo andI are aware of,
Rodrigo Werle (06:31):
yeah, one, one thing if I, if I may, here Joe
real quick. So Andy and I, wehad a meeting earlier this year
at the SB&Bfacility in bloomerwe were talking about, you know,
targeted herbicide applicationtechnologies with the growers in
the region, was a fantasticmeeting. But, you know, like
Andy talked about the quality ofthe beans we had when we were
(06:53):
there. We had the opportunity totour the facility, and we had
the chance to see the product.And like Andy said the quality
of those beans were just mindblowing, and they had their own
lab there for doing all thetesting and so on. So it was
quite impressive, and a really,really serious business there.
And in talking about SB and B, Ireached out to Scott center
(07:15):
yesterday, in preparation forthis conversation, I just asked
you know some numbers from Scottbecause I was curious about
adoption of non GMO soybeans inour neck of the woods here, Joe.
So what Scott shared with me isthat, you know, if you look at
North Dakota, Minnesota,Wisconsin, roughly 10 to 12% of
(07:35):
the soybeans, soybean acres arenon GMO. And then from those
about five to eight are for foodgrade, and the rest is used for
feed and also for seedproduction. Just so sharing some
numbers there, I thought thenumber was going to be around
five to seven, but what Ilearned is about 12% that that
was quite interesting.
Joe Ikley (07:58):
Yeah, let's find multiply that across the acres
in those three states, and thatgets to over a million acres of
non GMO soybeans. So that'sactually good perspective. Glad
you reached out to Scott,because it it shows this isn't
just a small market. These aresome significant acres in the in
the Upper Midwest, at least forthis discussion. And
Rodrigo Werle (08:15):
then, you know, one thing, didn't know, I'll
have Andy comment on this alittle bit, but you know, Scott
shared some really goodinsights. You know, the premiums
are very, very attractive,right? But you gotta be able to
manage that crop well, and we'regoing to get to that point a
little bit. But if all goeswell, and if you can maintain
your yield potential with thecurrent markets here, he's
talking about like $120 per acredifference there, you know,
(08:38):
associated to those premiums,which become interesting, right?
But then I think one, one pointthat Scott, you know, asked me
to kind of convey to theaudience, is the importance of
understanding the markets andand the buyers, right? Having
those buyers close by so youhave a good relationship, just
like Andy mentioned, he has agood relationship with SB&B's,
or growers are growing, youknow, they're growing a good
(08:59):
crop, but they can also sell itand benefit from it, right?
Joe Ikley (09:04):
Yep, no, definitely, all good stuff to add and so
glad you reached out to Scott,because I meant to and ran out
of time, you know. So the otherthing that'd be nice to just
touch on, before we shift gearsto weeds, we kind of alluded to
it, is, you know, some of the,I'll say chemistry prohibitions
of these contracts. And so thisis something our growers are
(09:26):
used to, particularly in the drybean market, where I feel this
question a dozen times a year.It's like, can I spray? In this
case, I'm thinking for driving,it's gonna spray glyphosate as a
pre harvest desiccations, likeon the label, yes, but always
check with your contract. And soI thought it'd be a good
question for Andy of you know,are there any of these things
(09:48):
that just pop out as a typicaluse pattern? Maybe for some
folks at these contracts,because of the importance of the
end user, or just practices thatwe don't use in these beans.
Andy Bensend (10:01):
Yeah the pre harvest desiccation is when we
were in Brazil Rodrigo weexperienced what their normal
harvest practices are, todesiccate using diquat. And that
would be a no no on ourcontract. We can't use anything
in the paraquat family at allthat that's specifically
(10:22):
specified in our contract. Andsame is true with glyphosate pre
harvest. So we have to avoidthose things. It's not a problem
for us that, you know, we're notlike in Brazil, there's a double
crop where they're really in ahurry to get the super early
corn planted, of course,following the soybean harvest.
(10:42):
Here, the best thing we canexpect to do is maybe get a
small grain, like a winter wheator a rye or something planted
for a cover. But typically wejust let the beans senesce and
mature naturally and and whenthey get to the moisture level
that we can deal with them inthe bin. That's that's when it's
go time, as long as we're notdoing any dirt staining on those
(11:05):
beans again, so if the stems arefull of SAP, we're going to get
dirt stains. So we have toreally be patient, you know,
with with the harvest. There areprobably some other cultural
practices that might be a no no,just because of the genetics,
you know, Non GMO beansspecifically don't have any
(11:26):
tolerance for a Dicamba of anysort, or or 2,4-D or the likes
of that. So it would be selfdefeating to try to use those
chemistries. She wouldn't havebeans left in a quick, hurry if
you did that, right?
Joe Ikley (11:41):
So I'm going to take the stained seed to transition
into weed control, because thatjust makes me think of all the
issues with night shades thathave gone away from any but can
come back, but some maybe nightshade will make you less maybe
it won't, but I think we'll,we'll go ahead and focus on your
region of and we'll shift gearsto weeds here. So what are the
(12:02):
problematic weeds in yourregion? And maybe as a general
and then specifically, you knowwhat? What's the biggest
challenges in your soybean crop?
Andy Bensend (12:11):
Well, in my soybean crop, and we've been
doing the non GMO beans for eversince the roundup beans came on,
this on the scene. And ofcourse, our area has all of the
notable weeds that the rest ofthe Upper Midwest does, the
waterhemp family, but our realNemesis here has been the
ragweed family. We have somecommon ragweed that has gotten
(12:34):
resistant to first rate. We havegiant ragweed that has changed,
and this is Rodrigo as well. Isreally I was gonna say. It's his
world house. It's hiswheelhouse. The giant ragweed
has developed an extendedemergence pattern where, instead
of 25 years ago, the ragweedwould all emerge in a very tight
(12:58):
window, and when they were theright size, you could hit them
with chemistry and basicallyeliminate the giant ragweed for
the season. And what's happenedis the ragweed has
genotypically, now developed theability to emerge sporadically
over an extended period of time.And so when you're trying to
(13:21):
control a giant ragweed with apost product, very, very
difficult to keep hitting thosenewly emerged weeds at the
proper time, because, forexample, using something like
flexstar, you can't sprayFlexstar all summer. It's just
too hard on the crop. And you'rebuilding up enough of that
product in the soil, it's goingto give you a grief when you
(13:42):
come along with the followingcrop. You have to start to think
about other strategies. Andwe've tried a number of things,
you know? We've tried the weedZapper, and we've we've tried to
change chemistries around usinglayered residual approaches. And
quite honestly, we haven't beenterribly successful with a lot
(14:03):
of those. The one thing that hasreally made a difference for us
is getting the winter wheat infollowing the soybeans, and that
gives us the opportunity to usesome chemistries in the winter
wheat to control the giantragweed very well, and then we
follow that with a good covercrop approach. We're using
(14:24):
medium red clover, and we'reusing a little bit of daikon
radish and a little bit ofpurple top turnips. And then
there's always some volunteerwheat that comes along. And so
we get a good multi speciescover crop going there. And the
medium red clover, of course,over winters really well. So the
next spring, we have a good, agood batch of media red clover
(14:47):
making some pre nitrogen for us.For the corn, I shouldn't say
it's free. Obviously have to buythe seed. But when it comes to a
soil quality impactor, I don'tthink you can do much. Better
than what medium red clover doesfor you, looking at the soil,
looking at the behavior thesoils after medium red clover is
(15:09):
just nothing sort of amazing.What it'll do for you, together
with the little bit of volunteerwheat that comes back there as
well.
Joe Ikley (15:18):
It sounds like a program you've kind of dialed in
over the years. And is that kindof the building around the the
soybean crop? Or, you know, howdid you kind of come across that
program?
Andy Bensend (15:27):
Well years ago, we used to, we used to broadcast
some clover seed in with thenitrogen on the wheat in the
spring. We're doing what wecalled frost seeding. That that
program is still works great ifyou're if you don't have the
weed control issues, but whenwe're trying to control the
ragweed in the winter wheat,obviously, that's in the same
(15:48):
broadleaf category that theherbicides that work on ragweed
really do a good job ateliminating the red clover. So
we had to modify our strategiesand planting the red clover make
it a little bit later, and thatallows us to, you know, to
accomplish both of our goals.The other thing that is really
(16:09):
neat about getting that covercrop on in the fall is we have,
we have all rolling soil,rolling fields up here. We're
90% probably, H, E, L, so wedon't have the nice flat ground
that you guys have in thevalley, for example. So we have
(16:29):
to be very conscious about thesurface water movements,
especially if we get heavyrains, and the cover crops just
really do a job for us there.And then the next spring, of
course, when the clover greensup and begins to grow
aggressively, it it gives us areally good shading impact and
really puts those giant ragweedseedlings at a disadvantage. And
(16:52):
they just don't, they don't giveus any grief. And of course, in
corn, we have great tools to usefor broadleaf control and corn
as well. So it just we can seeright to the line where we put
weed in the rotation and wherewe don't. It's remarkable.
Joe Ikley (17:11):
Yeah, it's great. And so before we kind of move into
some other things, Rodrigo justwondering from a statewide
perspective. So the top twoweeds I heard were water him for
pig weeds and then the ragweedfamily and the other calls you
get from some other folks in thenon GMO acre.
Rodrigo Werle (17:29):
Yeah no so I think, you know, just like love,
like listening to Andy him andI, we get on the phone all the
time and exchange ideas. I loveto see and hear what he's
dealing with. And I thinkdepends who you ask, right? But
when we do our surveys yearafter year, waterhemp is always
number one, and then giantragweed is always our number
two, okay? And then from thereon, if you're asking soybeans,
(17:52):
then you have, yeah, maybevolunteer corn. You have
lambsquarters, you know, like ingrasses. Now we're having more
problems with late seasongrasses, but those two top weeds
are always the top weeds, nomatter who you're asking. But
one thing that's really neatwhen we talk with non GMO
growers, have been non GMOgrowers for a long time.
Waterhemp doesn't seem to bethat bad of a problem for them.
(18:15):
Like waterhemp is for the, youknow, GM or conventional
growers, if you would. So itkind of, you know, flips the
scenario. And when you starttalking to them, our non GMO
growers, you may ask. Andy here,they've been using residual
herbicides forever, right?They've been using residual
herbicides because they didn'thave access to glyphosate, and
then liberty and list and, youknow, until recently, Dicamba
(18:38):
here. So that's kind of thechange there. So I love talking
with the non GMO growers,because they always kind of
point me to the direction of theresidual herbicides that work
quite well. So they got waterhemp under control, because
they've been using residualherbicides, right? We look at
the paper, you know, like wewere part of recently, had we
not stopped using residualherbicides, we would be in a
better position. That's what welearned from the non GMO growers
(19:00):
there. But then on the back end,what we've learned through our
research over the years is thatresidual herbicides,
unfortunately, are not aseffective on giant ragweed. So
residual herbicides areexcellent for water hemp, but
not necessarily for giantragweed, and that's because of
the nature of the plant, right,extended emergence window. But
if you look at the seed size,you know the giant ragweed seed
is about the same size as yoursoybeans. So it takes a lot of
(19:22):
herbicide in order to beeffective, and usually when
we're spraying, we're notspraying high enough rates.
Okay, so then what you need forgiant ragweed is post emergence
options, which we have in thetraded beans, but we don't
necessarily have as many in theGM beans there. So I think this
conversation is is fascinating,the way, you know, we position
our chemicals and how that goes.But I think what Andy mentioned
(19:43):
here, you know, crashing thatrotation and adding that winter
wheat plays a huge role. Youknow, some data in the
literature says that less than80% of, you know, giant ragweed
seeds survives the winter, andafter two winters, you have very
few seeds that are still viable.So by. Adding this other crop to
that rotation, you really helpmanage that soil seed bank. So I
(20:05):
think it gives moreopportunities for chemical
management and culturalmanagement, like Andy said, but
you also buy more time untilthose soybeans are back into
that rotation. So altogether,you know, diversifying the corn
soy rotation with that winterwheat, I think it opens up a lot
of opportunities. So at the endof the day, I think we're kind
of in a similar boat here, uppermidwest waterhemp, and we're
(20:26):
giant ragweed being the the topones there Joe.
Joe Ikley (20:30):
Yeah I think it's pretty similar in in our
geography. I mean, the one maindifference is we're spring wheat
more so than winter wheat. Soyou sprinkle in some grasses. So
green foxtail wild oat resistantto our group one and group two
post emergence herbicides.That's becoming a much bigger
challenge for us, and our giantragweed still behaves. It's in
river bottoms mostly, but commonragweed for us, yeah, that's
(20:53):
once we get group two and 14resistance. I'm almost, I'm
almost out of chemistry options.So it's, it's one I'm kind of
shifting my my focus on to tryand figure out something for
ragweed. But otherwise, yeah,pretty similar across the whole
upper midwest then and then, ifwe go further east, to the
person who caused all of ourragweed issues, Alyssa,
Alyssa Essman (21:13):
(laughs) yeah, yeah, we've, I mean, all the
species you listen and I agree,Joe, we have some of those PPO
resistance issues, and some ofour common ragweed populations,
especially in those areas wherewe have a lot of non GMO
production, so that causes someissues. And one of the questions
I had here, and I think Rodrigoyou alluded to this, is, you
know, there's a reallycomprehensive option for
(21:34):
residual herbicides, but when weget into non GMO, of course, we
lose those post options. So whatis your strategy when you think
about designing a post programfor non GMO soybeans for some of
these problem bleeds we'vetalked about, yeah,
Rodrigo Werle (21:47):
some really good questions. So I'll start off
here, and then I'll let you guyschime in you as well, Andy, if
you want to share yourexperiences. But the one thing I
want to say is, you know, wehave a graduate student here
Guilherme Chudzik and he lookedat planting times of soybeans,
right? Because there's thistendency of planting our beans
earlier and earlier before westarted the call here. Andy was
(22:07):
actually kind of, you know,playing around, saying that, you
know, pretty soon here, he'sgoing to be getting a call from
Dr Shawn Conley telling him tostart planting, right? But the
one thing that we're learningthrough his research, and I'll
take a closer look at all ourtrials, the earlier we plant,
the more weeds we gotta dealwith, right? And that kind of
makes sense. The problem is, theearlier you plant, to optimize
(22:28):
your yield potential, you'regonna have more of those weeds.
And if you have limited tools,that's where it becomes very,
very tricky. So one thing thatwe learned through Guilherme's
research, focusing primarily ongiant ragweed in the southern
part of Wisconsin is if you werea little patient. I think Andy
used that word before patient.If you don't rush, you'll plant
those beans. If you, instead ofdoing like in April, wait to
(22:49):
plant them until mid May, youhave an opportunity to either
burn down herbicides or preplant tillage, to eliminate at
least 50% of the giant ragweedcohort before planting. All
right, because if you'replanting in mid April, you're
going to be dealing with all bedealing with all the cohort of
giant ragweed that starts comingup in April. Now, if you delay
your planting time and theneliminate that cohort, so it's
(23:10):
all about understanding whatyou're going up against, right?
If I have heavy giant ragweed,I'm not going to tell that
grower to plant early. I'm goingto tell them, delay that
planting time, do a good jobstarting clean, right, like we
talked about, and then you goon, you give up potentially in a
little bit of yield potential,right? But if you don't control
that giant ragweed, that giantragweed is incredibly
(23:31):
competitive, that you that yourpotential is going to be gone
through weed competitionanyways. So for those scenarios
where we have giant ragweed, andeven common ragweed, for that
matter, delaying that plant, andeven though you might lower your
yield potential a little bit,might be a benefit for weed
control. So it's a fine balancehere between, you know that
planting time, and trying tooptimize yield control, or weed
(23:53):
control and yield potential. Sothat's one thing. The other
thing, across the Midwest,there's a lot of resistance to
ALS herbicides, right? I thinkAndy and I were starting to talk
a little bit about thisyesterday, waterhemp. You know,
when we do other screeningshere, more than 90% of our
waterhemp is als resistant.That's not a surprise. Felipe
(24:14):
Fauci, my program has found thatabout a third of the giant red
weed that we screen here is alsoals resistant. Okay, so we have
ALS resistance. That's okay, butbecause of that information, I
think a lot of folks are takingals chemistry away from their
programs. However, one of thevery few effective options for
residual control giant ragweedare our ALS herbicides, where
(24:35):
they can be used, whether isyour chlorine, your own first
you know, or your classic, yourfirst rate or your pursuit,
depending where you're at andwhether those can be used when
they're used pre and accordingto research, if you put an ALS
in combination with the PPOherbicide, whether it's valor
Spartan or Flexstar when you'recombining in a group two and a
(24:58):
group 14, we do tend to getreally good residual control of
both giant ragweed and commonragweed. So my message is, maybe
we have started to take alschemistry away, but once you
take your als chemistry awayfrom your residual herbicide
program, you start having a lotof large seeded species come
through. So I urge our growersto take a closer look at those
(25:19):
programs and not remove that alschemistry from the residual
program, because even though wehave resistance out there, when
they're combined with somethingelse, they still provide good
value. And I don't know whatyour guys's observations and
recommendations are, but this iskind of where I stand it.
Joe Ikley (25:36):
It's the same for us. The only thing is, we lose more
tools. Is as you know, as he ledsome regional efforts, and I'm
always a problem child, yeah, sowe don't have chlorimuron and
fomesafen. We can't use preemergence north of I 94 so
majority of acres for me. Butyeah, so we look a couple of
those tools based on where we'reat, but otherwise, yeah, the
same thing. If you're gonna getthat value out of that group 2,
(25:59):
specifically thinking aboutragweed. Get it on at planting.
Andy Bensend (26:04):
Yeah, we've been, we've been, of course, trying to
do a good job of burn downearly, with early, early 2,4-D
or glyphosate to start clean,like Rodrigo has to share with
us, and then at planting time,or right there about we've been
using some sharpen and Outlooktogether, which is verdict, and
(26:29):
also perhaps Zidua We've beenusing anthem Max, which is Cadet
and Zidua. And so as long as wecan spray before the bean
emerges, we can still useglyphosate. And so glyphosate is
kind of a no brainer for us, aslong as the beans are not above
(26:50):
ground. And then coming backwith our after for our post, we
like flex star and warranttogether, which is warrant Ultra
So here again, you start to seeour layered residual approach,
where we're relying to controlthose small seeded broad leaves
with that, either the, you know,the the grass control products,
(27:14):
basically, but they also controlthe small seeded broad leaves.
And then we'll still put, we'llstill still put some pursuit in
there, and tie that togetherwith an old chemistry the
basagran us, I think, a littlebetter ability to control the
ragweed that maybe gotten alittle bit taller, where
(27:35):
normally, once you get to a fourleaf ragweed, they're just about
impossible. But by having somebasagran in there, I think we
can handle those all right. Westill can't. If they're six or
eight inches tall, you've stilllost the battle. But the four
inch tall weeds, I think thebasagran gives us quite a bit of
help there. And then you still,then have kept your if you
(27:57):
really have some hot spots, youcan still come back with those,
those burners, those diphenylethers, whether it's cobra or
whether it's some other form ofthat. But, yeah, we just never,
never let her put off the gaspedal, on the on the herbicides,
trying to keep those ragweedsunder stress the whole time. One
(28:18):
of the things that I've hadseveral discussions with Rodrigo
on and that is using the cerealrye, following the corn. Now
plant cereal rye and then to seeif we can roller, crimp and
create a a weed mat with thecereal rye to control the rag
(28:40):
the giant ragweed in particular.And because giant ragweed is
incredibly competitive, and itlikes to reach and stretch for
sunlight by roller crimp and therye down when it gets big enough
to really do some good, you haveto wait for an thesis if you
want the rye to stay down. Andthe problem for us is is that
(29:00):
gets to be a little bit late inthe season. But we've had, we've
had some pretty good success,roller, crimp and rye down. The
biggest problem there is the thetillers don't stay down. You get
the main stems and but thetillers don't like to stay down.
So we'll come back with a littlebit of clethodim to clean those
tillers up, but I've had equalyields roller crimping with no
(29:24):
other herbicides, where I'veused my chemical program and
side by side, split the fieldand and relied on the roller
crimp dry. And there are somenumbers of how much vegetation
are needed. My memory is thatsomewheres around two to two and
a quarter tons of dry matter peracre or biomass per acre. I
don't know if it's dry matter orbiomass. I can't remember that,
(29:46):
but it's, it's a it's basicallyabout waist high. You have
enough vegetation to reallycover that ground and do a
pretty good job with weedcontrol without used herbicides
at all. Now the catch our cropinsurance says that we have to
terminate the cover crop priorto emergence. Or in the case of
(30:08):
no till, they'll give us anextra seven days. So within
seven days of emergence, theywant the cover crop material,
rye, roller, crimp down, ifthat's how we're going to
terminate it, or we canterminate it with chemistry. But
that flies in the face ofplanting soybeans early to pick
up the extra yield. Well, I'mgoing to plant a few beans this
(30:30):
year, ultra early. I know thatwe're going to have weed
pressure, but where I've got apretty good stand of rye,
hopefully established, androller crimp the rye and the
beans together and see if I canget enough beans to survive
through that I know there won'tbe insurable unless our May
changes their mind, but so far,they've told me No, but I'll
(30:50):
have a few without without cropinsurance, just to see if I can
prove the concept. The thehypothesis is I gain enough
yield by planting early and Idon't damage the beans to the
point where I'm when I knockthem out of the stand by roller
crimp and late. One of thethings that I've done is I've
(31:11):
gone out to North Dakota andpicked up some of your gardener
rye, which is an earlier ryevariety. I bought a semi load of
it last year and planted rye onabout 1100 acres of of corn
after harvested for grain, whichgets to be a little bit late,
but the rise there, it was uplast fall, so we'll see what
things look like this spring.It's just I'm always fooling
(31:33):
around trying to find anotheropportunity to maximize my weed
control at the same timereducing my input expenses, and
couple that together with thefact that if I can be successful
with this, I'm going to wrap itup on more acres. If I know that
I can do a good job, then I'vegot a legitimate argument, after
(31:54):
a few years of data, to go backto RMA and say, well, here's
what my data shows me.
Joe Ikley (32:01):
This is sounds like, you know, the other, the other,
I'll just call it a challenge ofweed control is you're just
constantly tinkering, you know,take that easy button away that
a lot of folks would like tolean on, sometimes too much and
just lot of refinement over theyears, is what I'm hearing.
Andy Bensend (32:18):
Well, the organic industry has been doing things
similar to that, but they, theyhave the same rules. They have
to terminate, you know, beforethe before the beans are up. I
don't know how well they getthat done, unless they're
waiting until the 20th of May toplant the beans. Because we're,
we're, we're very rarely atanthesis before the first week
(32:39):
of June.
Alyssa Essman (32:41):
So, Andy, I'm curious if you have some folks
who are maybe interested in nonGMO for the premium, but kind of
nervous about this sort ofdifferent management. What would
be some of your suggestions forfolks starting out in this non
GMO space?
Andy Bensend (32:55):
Oh, that is a good question. When people ask me
about non GMO production, thefirst thing I like to talk to
him about is, are they preparedfor the extra work involved in
keeping your combine, yourharvester, clean and and pure.
And the same thing with theplanting equipment. One of the
(33:15):
secrets that we use to keep ourdifferent varieties separate is
using different row widths. Sowe know, for example, if it's
drilled, it's variety a, and ifit's in rows, it's variety B,
and then maybe to some degree,the row width can also
differentiate further. We madethe choice some years ago that
we would go all non GMO, or wewould go none, because of the
(33:40):
fact that when you havecommercial beans and they have
traits, you cannot tolerate anychance of contamination. And
those years, when we did sometrial work where we had the non
GMO beans and the GMO beanstogether in the same field, we
treated them all like non GMObeans, and when we harvested
(34:02):
them, they went on the truck andthey left the farm immediately.
We did not use any opportunityto contaminate in any way, shape
or form. So that would be thefirst thing be prepared for the
extra, extra work involved. Thesecond thing you need to be
prepared for is marketing wise,most of your non GMO buyers want
(34:24):
to operate on what we call abuyer's call basis. In other
words, the marketing company,sbnb, in my case, will call me
and say, I need six loads ofbeans next week. Are you able to
bring them? And they typicallywill give us a choice. Do we
want to bring them or not? Butthey're not going to haul them
(34:45):
all to market at once, and soit's probably important that you
have a place to store the beans.If you've been one who likes to
harvest and take them to theelevator. Non GMO beans might
not be a good fit unless yourbuyer is willing to take. Them
at harvest, and some buyers willthey have enough storage, or
some buyers will take some butthey'll give you a little
(35:07):
smaller premium for those beansthat you deliver at Fall
Harvest. So that would be thesecond consideration. Thirdly is
make sure that you understandthat your management may have to
be a little more precise. Youknow, you may have to be a
little more accurate with thetiming on herbicides. You may
(35:27):
have to be a little bit moreconcerned about the timing at
harvest, because you want tomake sure that the quality is
there. So attention to detail isgoing to be more important for
you. And then the only otherconcern is make sure you have a
bigger bank account, becauseyou're going to make a little
more money. You may earn it, butyou're going to, you're going to
(35:48):
experience a little higherincome per acre, which is the
fun part.
Joe Ikley (35:53):
So following up to that, that's kind of the, one of
the last things I had on my listof maybe some other things to
watch out for. And so I get thisquestion, and I need to follow
up on it. But since there's aspecialty crop and there's these
other traits you want, you know,are there any varieties or
classes, I guess you've comeacross that might have a little
(36:14):
bit more risk of crop injury tosome of these conventional
chemistries that we use.
Andy Bensend (36:18):
Rodrigo may have a better answer than this. I don't
know if I would say they'reriskier from a crop injury
standpoint, but certainly weknow that not all varieties are,
by their very nature, very smallseeded bean and they are
typically planted at a higherpopulation to make up for that.
(36:38):
Consequently, they are a littlemore susceptible to diseases
like white mold. So if whitemold is an issue for you, you
might not want to start out witha natto contract. The second
thing I'll tell you is that mostof these companies that are
buying non GMO beans have apretty good idea which varieties
(37:01):
growers to have the best luckwith, and they'll tell you. The
other way you can tell it is ifthe if the premium is really,
really high on a variety, it'sprobably really, really high
because it's got some nuancesthat make it a little trickier,
a little more difficult to besuccessful with. So I always
caution guys, don't start outwith the one that's got the
(37:22):
biggest premium, because thatmight be the hardest one to be
successful with. Leave that tothe pros, and then eventually
you'll be a pro, and you can trysome and figure it out on your
own, but, but that, I think,would be good advice,
Joe Ikley (37:36):
and that not specifically why I have the
question, because you're peopleare probably sick of hearing
Rodrigo, listen, I pushingmetribuzin and going with higher
rates because it's still areally good tool, and that,
that's the one that I'm ageneral concern for more injury
and to begin with, across anysoybean. But you know, the natto
growers having that smaller seedare just a little little more
(37:58):
precautious about upping therates on some of these residuals
compared to, you know, whatthey've previously used, just to
avoid that early injury. And sowe need to actually do the
research. And Rodrigo, I don'tknow if you've tested other ones
to see if there are increasedsensitivities.
Rodrigo Werle (38:14):
Uh, no, that's a good point. There on the the
metribuzin comment you just madeJoe, the one thing we do tend to
see a lot some varieties arereally sensitive to our PPOs,
right? We were talking aboutPPOs as part of the program, so
certain varieties that arehighly sensitive to either
Spartan or Val or sprayed brief,but like Andy said, usually you
(38:36):
know the person that's sellingyou the seed or promoting
certain variety. They alreadyhave that information that the
growers would have the know how.So, as Andy said, before you
dive in, you know, gatheringsome additional information on
the sensitivity of thosevarieties to either metrobusine
or the PPOs, I think, isincredibly important.
Joe Ikley (38:55):
Alright, Rodrigo, any concluding thoughts from the
weed scientist,
Rodrigo Werle (39:01):
no, I think I really, as I always enjoy, you
know, listening to you guys. Andthen now being part here, to me,
is awesome, and having a specialguest here, Andy, is even more
special. And then, for those ofyou who might be wondering, I
think Andy briefly mentionedthat we were together in Brazil,
right? So I just want to give alittle more information Andy
myself and a group of farmersand Wisconsin crop consultants
(39:23):
with Carlo spirit is at NorthDakota State University. We
spent two weeks in Brazil,right, Andy in February, and we
had a chance to tour around. Soif you're wondering why Andy was
talking about that, because wewere we traveled together for a
couple weeks there, and thenthose were very, very special
weeks, because we got to see alot of Brazilian agriculture,
(39:43):
but we also formed some amazingfriendships. And that's why, you
know, I just, you know, likewhen Joe reached out to me to
talk about the podcast, it'slike, I know exactly who I'm
going to call here, and Andy,because of our good relationship
here, he's, he, you know, hejust made the time to be here
with us today. So it's, it's abig community. And small
community at the same time, andI think we're always learning
from each other. And I just wantto, you know, commend you guys
(40:06):
on what you're doing, becauseyou know, you know, fostering is
ability of folks to exchangeexperience. This is what
agriculture is all all about. Sojust sharing our, you know,
knowledge and helping oneanother, it's how we keep moving
this thing forward. So thank youguys. Ah, so much for having me
again.
Andy Bensend (40:23):
If you ever go to Brazil with Rodrigo, just know
that he's worth his weight ingold because he speaks the
language and so those of us whocan't utter their first syllable
of Portuguese, to be able tohave guys like Carlos and
Rodrigo along, that just made itawesome. It really was a
wonderful opportunity. And ifyou ever get the chance to visit
(40:45):
to see what our neighbors to thesouth are dealing with and their
production challenges, somethings are exactly the same as
we struggle with here, but somethings are completely different.
It really helps you to thinkoutside the box when you see
what production methods looklike and the scale that they
happen in other parts of theworld. So thanks for the
(41:07):
opportunity Rodrigo, to travelwith you. It was great.
Joe Ikley (41:12):
That's something we tell every undergrad who
complains about, why do I haveto learn Latin names of weeds?
Because someday you want aninternational trip, and it's a
lot easier to communicate whenyou know the Latin name, when
you go to different countries.So we should, what we should do
is then, Andy, want to make sureyou have any, you know, final
thoughts about, you know, justnon GMO soybean, or anything
(41:34):
that popped in your head thatyou'd like to cover here before
we conclude, I'd
Andy Bensend (41:39):
like to put a plug in for the soybean Checkoff
Program as a as an institution.You know, every bushel of
soybeans that's marketed paysinto the soybean check off
program one half of 1% half ofthat money stays with your local
state organization, and half ofit goes on to the United Soybean
(42:01):
Board, and that money is thefarmers money. I serve on the
marketing board here inWisconsin, and as a board, we
take our responsibilities veryseriously, and that is to give
the farmers a return on thatinvestment to things that either
make their production moreprofitable, that build markets
for them as exports to createnew uses like tires and tennis
(42:26):
shoes and firefighter foam. Butall of those things that are are
invested in and our biggestpartners, usually on the
production side, are universityextension researchers, of which
we recognize folks like Rodrigoand Dr Sean Conley and the whole
(42:47):
list of them, I think everystate I'm guessing, the list
that you plug into thatsomewhere in Ohio. But it's
really a wonderful program, andthe wisdom that was instilled in
that check off program at itsearly inception that allowed it
to go well beyond inflationmeasures, because the half of 1%
(43:10):
goes up and down in value at thevalue the bean does compared to.
And I don't like to pick oncorn, but our corn growers in
Wisconsin are stuck at a flatnumeric number, and so as corn
get to be worth more money, thatnumber for corn doesn't change.
It only changes when theproduction increases. So there
was a lot of wisdom back many,many years ago, when when this
(43:33):
program was started. And I knowthere are some farmers that
think it's a total waste thatthat money they would rather
have in their wallets, Iunderstand the desire to have
more money in your wallet. Well,then grow some non GMO beans,
but don't take the check offaway, because it's like taking
the the semen tank away from adairy breeder. I mean, that's
his future. That's where theinvestments are made to increase
(43:56):
the profitability of the crop wegrow. And there is, you know
that that's not governmentmoney. That's not That's not
money that comes from thegeneral coffers. That's money
that people who grow thesoybeans invest back to make
sure that they have bettermarkets, that they have more
efficient production, that theyhave new technologies, that they
(44:17):
have new varieties, and theyhave new products all the time
being developed. I just can'tsay enough good about Joel.
That's my plug.
Joe Ikley (44:24):
I love it. I think I can speak for Rodrigo and
Melissa and myself, that we takethose check off funded projects
very seriously at the state andregional and national level. So
say we certainly try to do thebest we can. And like I said,
take that seriously, because weknow how important that that
money and that research is.
Rodrigo Werle (44:46):
us, supporting us. So thank you so much. Yep,
Joe Ikley (44:50):
and then, before we fully send this out So always
like to give guests a chance topitch if they want to be found,
where we can find them, eitheron social media or websites. And
so, Rodrigo, I know you've got awebsite in social media, so I'll
(45:12):
start with you.
Rodrigo Werle (45:13):
Yeah, thanks, Joe. So wiscweeds.info is our
website. And then for folks thatare on, you know, Twitter or X
@WiscWeeds
Joe Ikley (45:23):
All right, then, Andy, if you wish to be found.
If not, that's perfectly fine.
Andy Bensend (45:28):
It's Wisoybean.org but our soybean extension
specialist likes to use hiscoolbean.info I think that's
still a good website. We enjoypoking a lot of fun at some of
our researchers in just just tomake, make, make light of some
(45:50):
serious issues sometimes, but wereally have a great working
relationship with ourresearchers here at the
University of Wisconsin.Wisconsin is 13th in total
soybean production, if I'm notmistaken by states, and if I'm
not mistaken, is North Dakotanumber two
Joe Ikley (46:07):
always varies by year, but acres are usually
around four. It's certainly topfive and and then production.
We're not quite two because someof our some of our acres at West
don't have the yield per acrebasis
Andy Bensend (46:21):
or up there? Yeah, you're in the top five. I knew
that for sure. So historically,you know you were not even a
soybean producing state. So talkabout a remarkable transition
from what was 50 years ago andwhat you are today. Well, it
Joe Ikley (46:39):
still surprises people when I say between six
and 7 million acres is kind ofour average for soybean acres,
and every every time itsurprises people. So yeah, and
that's all because of researchand a lot of effort in the whole
soybean industry. So it'scertainly been a great benefit
for the North Dakota economy.But with that, I do want to
(47:00):
thank Rodrigo, thank you forcoming on again. Andy, thank you
very much wonderful, wonderfulhaving you on and kind of loved
hearing your experiences asalways. We thank the listeners
for tuning in, and please tunein next week for another war
against weeds podcast.
(47:21):
As always, we thank you forlistening to the war against
weeds podcast. Just anotherreminder, you can find our
podcast hosted on the CropProtection Network, or CPN, for
short. So this is another greatresource that's driven by
extension, scientists atdifferent universities for pest
management. And with that, wewill see you next week on the
war against weeds podcast. You.
Joe, welcome back to the war against weeds Podcast.
(00:10):
I'm Joe Ikley extension weedspecialist at North Dakota State
University. Today's co host isAlyssa Essman at The Ohio State
Alyssa, how's it going in theOhio today?
Alyssa Essman (00:22):
Good starting to get the itch for we're wrapping
up plans for field season andmaking making all of our plans
Joe Ikley (00:28):
Yeah. So we're recording late March here.
for spring.
Probably listen to this in theearly middle part of April. So
folks will probably probably beplanting by the time we're
actually listening to this. Butspeaking of planting, we are
going to talk about soybeanstoday, so specifically, non GMO
soybean, and we have two guestson from the state of Wisconsin.
(00:51):
So we're going to start with arepeat guest. Rodrigo Werle, why
don't you, for those who eitherhaven't listened to a while,
haven't listened, let everyoneknow who you are and what you
do.
Rodrigo Werle (01:01):
Hey, Joe. Hello Alyssa, thanks for having me
here again. Always great to betalking to you. So for those of
you out there, Rodrigo Werle,I'm the extension weed scientist
at the University of Wisconsin,Madison.
Joe Ikley (01:15):
All right, and then the other guest today is Andy
Bensend, so Andy, why don't youintroduce yourself to the
audience and a little bit aboutwhat you do?
Andy Bensend (01:25):
All right, my name is Andy Bensend. I reside in
Northwest Wisconsin. Some peoplewould say we're almost
Minnesota. I don't like to goquite that far. Still support
the Packers. So, you know, we wepretty loyal to our Wisconsin
roots. Here. I'm a fifthgeneration farmer. Have a about
(01:46):
a 4000 acre cash grain operationhere in western Wisconsin,
growing corn, non GMO soybeans,and we do some winter wheat as
well, and we'll maybe talk alittle bit about that as we go.
But Rodrigo invited me to joinyou guys today because I do some
different approaches to some ofour weed issues that have had
(02:09):
some success with, and just wantto share some of those things.
Joe Ikley (02:12):
Yeah, perfect. And then that. That's the meat that
Andy Bensend (02:12):
Well the marketplace gives us an
we'll get into later. But Ifigured at the beginning we
should talk about someproduction of just non GMO
soybean. And so the first couplequestions Andy will be geared
incredible opportunity toenhance our cash flows and our
more towards you, but you know,thinking about soybean
our prices, our market pricesfor non GMO beans typically
specifically, what are some ofthe reasons and benefits that
you are growing non GMO soybean?
(02:43):
carry a nice premium over thecommercial varieties. Most of
our beans are going to Asia forfood, food grade uses. So we
like to talk about the fact thatthey're an IP or an identity
preserved. So our end end usersare specifically contracting
with the marketers for specificvarieties, and there are some
(03:05):
restrictions over just how wecan do that, but it's, it's not
an organic program at all. It'sa it's a IP program. The the
varieties have specific flavorprofiles or specific protein
profiles that they're lookingfor to make things like tofu and
Tempe and soy milk and miso andNatto. We don't grow any natto
(03:28):
varieties, but those are thekinds of soy foods that are
typically used in Asia.
Joe Ikley (03:35):
Yeah. Well, I Think we have the same marketing firms
that across our geography,coming all the way up here. So
very similar story to the NorthDakota farmers growing the same
non GMO beans and so yeah, thatobviously the specialty is
giving you a benefit for theexport market. And before we
really get into weeds and thosechallenges, what other
(03:55):
challenges are presented bygrowing non GMO soybeans?
Andy Bensend (03:59):
Well, one of the things that that we focus on is,
number one, the quality of thesoybean at harvest. So we're
we're very in tune at harvesttime to not end up with any
stains or dirt stains or grassor green stains on the beans. We
really want our our product tobe table ready when they get get
(04:20):
done processing and packagingthese beans, also, we have to
pay a lot of attention topurity. Our contract states that
they'd be GMO negative meansthat the beans are sampled and
they're checked for the presenceof those proteins that would
indicate either a roundup readyor e3 or extend soybeans, we
(04:43):
can't have any of those proteinspresent in the samples. We also
really, really work hard attrying to make sure that we
follow the protocols. There aresome chemicals that are a no no
in our contract, so we have todo the. That we're very, very in
tune with our soil quality.We're trying to have as healthy
(05:05):
a product as we can, trying tokeep our soils as healthy as we
can. Because, again, when we'redealing with the public, the
Asian community has not all ofAsia, but specifically Japan,
and to some degree, Korea andSoutheast Asia, the non GMO
beans carry a premium thatfollows all the way through to
(05:29):
the end product. And so whenthey put their name and their
label on something, they reallythey want to be proud of it.
They love to know the farmersthat are producing. So we've had
an opportunity to visit Taiwan.We've had an opportunity to
visit Japan and visit with thosebuyers who are using our beans.
And that makes an especiallyneat connection as well. We like
(05:51):
that. Actually, the company wemarket through is from North
Dakota, SB&B Sinner Brothers &Bresnahan, if those of you who
are listening know that familyhave been wonderful to work
with. They have a processingplant here in bloomer Wisconsin,
which is only about 30 milesfrom my farm, but have gotten to
be good friends with those folksand rely on them a lot in terms
(06:17):
of making sure that they findgood markets and and good
premium offerings for us, forfor that production,
Joe Ikley (06:25):
and they pick really good locations for their winter
meeting updates, as Rodrigo andI are aware of,
Rodrigo Werle (06:31):
yeah, one, one thing if I, if I may, here Joe
real quick. So Andy and I, wehad a meeting earlier this year
at the SB&Bfacility in bloomerwe were talking about, you know,
targeted herbicide applicationtechnologies with the growers in
the region, was a fantasticmeeting. But, you know, like
Andy talked about the quality ofthe beans we had when we were
(06:53):
there. We had the opportunity totour the facility, and we had
the chance to see the product.And like Andy said the quality
of those beans were just mindblowing, and they had their own
lab there for doing all thetesting and so on. So it was
quite impressive, and a really,really serious business there.
And in talking about SB and B, Ireached out to Scott center
(07:15):
yesterday, in preparation forthis conversation, I just asked
you know some numbers from Scottbecause I was curious about
adoption of non GMO soybeans inour neck of the woods here, Joe.
So what Scott shared with me isthat, you know, if you look at
North Dakota, Minnesota,Wisconsin, roughly 10 to 12% of
(07:35):
the soybeans, soybean acres arenon GMO. And then from those
about five to eight are for foodgrade, and the rest is used for
feed and also for seedproduction. Just so sharing some
numbers there, I thought thenumber was going to be around
five to seven, but what Ilearned is about 12% that that
was quite interesting.
Joe Ikley (07:58):
Yeah, let's find multiply that across the acres
in those three states, and thatgets to over a million acres of
non GMO soybeans. So that'sactually good perspective. Glad
you reached out to Scott,because it it shows this isn't
just a small market. These aresome significant acres in the in
the Upper Midwest, at least forthis discussion. And
Rodrigo Werle (08:15):
then, you know, one thing, didn't know, I'll
have Andy comment on this alittle bit, but you know, Scott
shared some really goodinsights. You know, the premiums
are very, very attractive,right? But you gotta be able to
manage that crop well, and we'regoing to get to that point a
little bit. But if all goeswell, and if you can maintain
your yield potential with thecurrent markets here, he's
talking about like $120 per acredifference there, you know,
(08:38):
associated to those premiums,which become interesting, right?
But then I think one, one pointthat Scott, you know, asked me
to kind of convey to theaudience, is the importance of
understanding the markets andand the buyers, right? Having
those buyers close by so youhave a good relationship, just
like Andy mentioned, he has agood relationship with SB&B's,
or growers are growing, youknow, they're growing a good
(08:59):
crop, but they can also sell itand benefit from it, right?
Joe Ikley (09:04):
Yep, no, definitely, all good stuff to add and so
glad you reached out to Scott,because I meant to and ran out
of time, you know. So the otherthing that'd be nice to just
touch on, before we shift gearsto weeds, we kind of alluded to
it, is, you know, some of the,I'll say chemistry prohibitions
of these contracts. And so thisis something our growers are
(09:26):
used to, particularly in the drybean market, where I feel this
question a dozen times a year.It's like, can I spray? In this
case, I'm thinking for driving,it's gonna spray glyphosate as a
pre harvest desiccations, likeon the label, yes, but always
check with your contract. And soI thought it'd be a good
question for Andy of you know,are there any of these things
(09:48):
that just pop out as a typicaluse pattern? Maybe for some
folks at these contracts,because of the importance of the
end user, or just practices thatwe don't use in these beans.
Andy Bensend (10:01):
Yeah the pre harvest desiccation is when we
were in Brazil Rodrigo weexperienced what their normal
harvest practices are, todesiccate using diquat. And that
would be a no no on ourcontract. We can't use anything
in the paraquat family at allthat that's specifically
(10:22):
specified in our contract. Andsame is true with glyphosate pre
harvest. So we have to avoidthose things. It's not a problem
for us that, you know, we're notlike in Brazil, there's a double
crop where they're really in ahurry to get the super early
corn planted, of course,following the soybean harvest.
(10:42):
Here, the best thing we canexpect to do is maybe get a
small grain, like a winter wheator a rye or something planted
for a cover. But typically wejust let the beans senesce and
mature naturally and and whenthey get to the moisture level
that we can deal with them inthe bin. That's that's when it's
go time, as long as we're notdoing any dirt staining on those
(11:05):
beans again, so if the stems arefull of SAP, we're going to get
dirt stains. So we have toreally be patient, you know,
with with the harvest. There areprobably some other cultural
practices that might be a no no,just because of the genetics,
you know, Non GMO beansspecifically don't have any
(11:26):
tolerance for a Dicamba of anysort, or or 2,4-D or the likes
of that. So it would be selfdefeating to try to use those
chemistries. She wouldn't havebeans left in a quick, hurry if
you did that, right?
Joe Ikley (11:41):
So I'm going to take the stained seed to transition
into weed control, because thatjust makes me think of all the
issues with night shades thathave gone away from any but can
come back, but some maybe nightshade will make you less maybe
it won't, but I think we'll,we'll go ahead and focus on your
region of and we'll shift gearsto weeds here. So what are the
(12:02):
problematic weeds in yourregion? And maybe as a general
and then specifically, you knowwhat? What's the biggest
challenges in your soybean crop?
Andy Bensend (12:11):
Well, in my soybean crop, and we've been
doing the non GMO beans for eversince the roundup beans came on,
this on the scene. And ofcourse, our area has all of the
notable weeds that the rest ofthe Upper Midwest does, the
waterhemp family, but our realNemesis here has been the
ragweed family. We have somecommon ragweed that has gotten
(12:34):
resistant to first rate. We havegiant ragweed that has changed,
and this is Rodrigo as well. Isreally I was gonna say. It's his
world house. It's hiswheelhouse. The giant ragweed
has developed an extendedemergence pattern where, instead
of 25 years ago, the ragweedwould all emerge in a very tight
(12:58):
window, and when they were theright size, you could hit them
with chemistry and basicallyeliminate the giant ragweed for
the season. And what's happenedis the ragweed has
genotypically, now developed theability to emerge sporadically
over an extended period of time.And so when you're trying to
(13:21):
control a giant ragweed with apost product, very, very
difficult to keep hitting thosenewly emerged weeds at the
proper time, because, forexample, using something like
flexstar, you can't sprayFlexstar all summer. It's just
too hard on the crop. And you'rebuilding up enough of that
product in the soil, it's goingto give you a grief when you
(13:42):
come along with the followingcrop. You have to start to think
about other strategies. Andwe've tried a number of things,
you know? We've tried the weedZapper, and we've we've tried to
change chemistries around usinglayered residual approaches. And
quite honestly, we haven't beenterribly successful with a lot
(14:03):
of those. The one thing that hasreally made a difference for us
is getting the winter wheat infollowing the soybeans, and that
gives us the opportunity to usesome chemistries in the winter
wheat to control the giantragweed very well, and then we
follow that with a good covercrop approach. We're using
(14:24):
medium red clover, and we'reusing a little bit of daikon
radish and a little bit ofpurple top turnips. And then
there's always some volunteerwheat that comes along. And so
we get a good multi speciescover crop going there. And the
medium red clover, of course,over winters really well. So the
next spring, we have a good, agood batch of media red clover
(14:47):
making some pre nitrogen for us.For the corn, I shouldn't say
it's free. Obviously have to buythe seed. But when it comes to a
soil quality impactor, I don'tthink you can do much. Better
than what medium red clover doesfor you, looking at the soil,
looking at the behavior thesoils after medium red clover is
(15:09):
just nothing sort of amazing.What it'll do for you, together
with the little bit of volunteerwheat that comes back there as
well.
Joe Ikley (15:18):
It sounds like a program you've kind of dialed in
over the years. And is that kindof the building around the the
soybean crop? Or, you know, howdid you kind of come across that
program?
Andy Bensend (15:27):
Well years ago, we used to, we used to broadcast
some clover seed in with thenitrogen on the wheat in the
spring. We're doing what wecalled frost seeding. That that
program is still works great ifyou're if you don't have the
weed control issues, but whenwe're trying to control the
ragweed in the winter wheat,obviously, that's in the same
(15:48):
broadleaf category that theherbicides that work on ragweed
really do a good job ateliminating the red clover. So
we had to modify our strategiesand planting the red clover make
it a little bit later, and thatallows us to, you know, to
accomplish both of our goals.The other thing that is really
(16:09):
neat about getting that covercrop on in the fall is we have,
we have all rolling soil,rolling fields up here. We're
90% probably, H, E, L, so wedon't have the nice flat ground
that you guys have in thevalley, for example. So we have
(16:29):
to be very conscious about thesurface water movements,
especially if we get heavyrains, and the cover crops just
really do a job for us there.And then the next spring, of
course, when the clover greensup and begins to grow
aggressively, it it gives us areally good shading impact and
really puts those giant ragweedseedlings at a disadvantage. And
(16:52):
they just don't, they don't giveus any grief. And of course, in
corn, we have great tools to usefor broadleaf control and corn
as well. So it just we can seeright to the line where we put
weed in the rotation and wherewe don't. It's remarkable.
Joe Ikley (17:11):
Yeah, it's great. And so before we kind of move into
some other things, Rodrigo justwondering from a statewide
perspective. So the top twoweeds I heard were water him for
pig weeds and then the ragweedfamily and the other calls you
get from some other folks in thenon GMO acre.
Rodrigo Werle (17:29):
Yeah no so I think, you know, just like love,
like listening to Andy him andI, we get on the phone all the
time and exchange ideas. I loveto see and hear what he's
dealing with. And I thinkdepends who you ask, right? But
when we do our surveys yearafter year, waterhemp is always
number one, and then giantragweed is always our number
two, okay? And then from thereon, if you're asking soybeans,
(17:52):
then you have, yeah, maybevolunteer corn. You have
lambsquarters, you know, like ingrasses. Now we're having more
problems with late seasongrasses, but those two top weeds
are always the top weeds, nomatter who you're asking. But
one thing that's really neatwhen we talk with non GMO
growers, have been non GMOgrowers for a long time.
Waterhemp doesn't seem to bethat bad of a problem for them.
(18:15):
Like waterhemp is for the, youknow, GM or conventional
growers, if you would. So itkind of, you know, flips the
scenario. And when you starttalking to them, our non GMO
growers, you may ask. Andy here,they've been using residual
herbicides forever, right?They've been using residual
herbicides because they didn'thave access to glyphosate, and
then liberty and list and, youknow, until recently, Dicamba
(18:38):
here. So that's kind of thechange there. So I love talking
with the non GMO growers,because they always kind of
point me to the direction of theresidual herbicides that work
quite well. So they got waterhemp under control, because
they've been using residualherbicides, right? We look at
the paper, you know, like wewere part of recently, had we
not stopped using residualherbicides, we would be in a
better position. That's what welearned from the non GMO growers
(19:00):
there. But then on the back end,what we've learned through our
research over the years is thatresidual herbicides,
unfortunately, are not aseffective on giant ragweed. So
residual herbicides areexcellent for water hemp, but
not necessarily for giantragweed, and that's because of
the nature of the plant, right,extended emergence window. But
if you look at the seed size,you know the giant ragweed seed
is about the same size as yoursoybeans. So it takes a lot of
(19:22):
herbicide in order to beeffective, and usually when
we're spraying, we're notspraying high enough rates.
Okay, so then what you need forgiant ragweed is post emergence
options, which we have in thetraded beans, but we don't
necessarily have as many in theGM beans there. So I think this
conversation is is fascinating,the way, you know, we position
our chemicals and how that goes.But I think what Andy mentioned
(19:43):
here, you know, crashing thatrotation and adding that winter
wheat plays a huge role. Youknow, some data in the
literature says that less than80% of, you know, giant ragweed
seeds survives the winter, andafter two winters, you have very
few seeds that are still viable.So by. Adding this other crop to
that rotation, you really helpmanage that soil seed bank. So I
(20:05):
think it gives moreopportunities for chemical
management and culturalmanagement, like Andy said, but
you also buy more time untilthose soybeans are back into
that rotation. So altogether,you know, diversifying the corn
soy rotation with that winterwheat, I think it opens up a lot
of opportunities. So at the endof the day, I think we're kind
of in a similar boat here, uppermidwest waterhemp, and we're
(20:26):
giant ragweed being the the topones there Joe.
Joe Ikley (20:30):
Yeah I think it's pretty similar in in our
geography. I mean, the one maindifference is we're spring wheat
more so than winter wheat. Soyou sprinkle in some grasses. So
green foxtail wild oat resistantto our group one and group two
post emergence herbicides.That's becoming a much bigger
challenge for us, and our giantragweed still behaves. It's in
river bottoms mostly, but commonragweed for us, yeah, that's
(20:53):
once we get group two and 14resistance. I'm almost, I'm
almost out of chemistry options.So it's, it's one I'm kind of
shifting my my focus on to tryand figure out something for
ragweed. But otherwise, yeah,pretty similar across the whole
upper midwest then and then, ifwe go further east, to the
person who caused all of ourragweed issues, Alyssa,
Alyssa Essman (21:13):
(laughs) yeah, yeah, we've, I mean, all the
species you listen and I agree,Joe, we have some of those PPO
resistance issues, and some ofour common ragweed populations,
especially in those areas wherewe have a lot of non GMO
production, so that causes someissues. And one of the questions
I had here, and I think Rodrigoyou alluded to this, is, you
know, there's a reallycomprehensive option for
(21:34):
residual herbicides, but when weget into non GMO, of course, we
lose those post options. So whatis your strategy when you think
about designing a post programfor non GMO soybeans for some of
these problem bleeds we'vetalked about, yeah,
Rodrigo Werle (21:47):
some really good questions. So I'll start off
here, and then I'll let you guyschime in you as well, Andy, if
you want to share yourexperiences. But the one thing I
want to say is, you know, wehave a graduate student here
Guilherme Chudzik and he lookedat planting times of soybeans,
right? Because there's thistendency of planting our beans
earlier and earlier before westarted the call here. Andy was
(22:07):
actually kind of, you know,playing around, saying that, you
know, pretty soon here, he'sgoing to be getting a call from
Dr Shawn Conley telling him tostart planting, right? But the
one thing that we're learningthrough his research, and I'll
take a closer look at all ourtrials, the earlier we plant,
the more weeds we gotta dealwith, right? And that kind of
makes sense. The problem is, theearlier you plant, to optimize
(22:28):
your yield potential, you'regonna have more of those weeds.
And if you have limited tools,that's where it becomes very,
very tricky. So one thing thatwe learned through Guilherme's
research, focusing primarily ongiant ragweed in the southern
part of Wisconsin is if you werea little patient. I think Andy
used that word before patient.If you don't rush, you'll plant
those beans. If you, instead ofdoing like in April, wait to
(22:49):
plant them until mid May, youhave an opportunity to either
burn down herbicides or preplant tillage, to eliminate at
least 50% of the giant ragweedcohort before planting. All
right, because if you'replanting in mid April, you're
going to be dealing with all bedealing with all the cohort of
giant ragweed that starts comingup in April. Now, if you delay
your planting time and theneliminate that cohort, so it's
(23:10):
all about understanding whatyou're going up against, right?
If I have heavy giant ragweed,I'm not going to tell that
grower to plant early. I'm goingto tell them, delay that
planting time, do a good jobstarting clean, right, like we
talked about, and then you goon, you give up potentially in a
little bit of yield potential,right? But if you don't control
that giant ragweed, that giantragweed is incredibly
(23:31):
competitive, that you that yourpotential is going to be gone
through weed competitionanyways. So for those scenarios
where we have giant ragweed, andeven common ragweed, for that
matter, delaying that plant, andeven though you might lower your
yield potential a little bit,might be a benefit for weed
control. So it's a fine balancehere between, you know that
planting time, and trying tooptimize yield control, or weed
(23:53):
control and yield potential. Sothat's one thing. The other
thing, across the Midwest,there's a lot of resistance to
ALS herbicides, right? I thinkAndy and I were starting to talk
a little bit about thisyesterday, waterhemp. You know,
when we do other screeningshere, more than 90% of our
waterhemp is als resistant.That's not a surprise. Felipe
(24:14):
Fauci, my program has found thatabout a third of the giant red
weed that we screen here is alsoals resistant. Okay, so we have
ALS resistance. That's okay, butbecause of that information, I
think a lot of folks are takingals chemistry away from their
programs. However, one of thevery few effective options for
residual control giant ragweedare our ALS herbicides, where
(24:35):
they can be used, whether isyour chlorine, your own first
you know, or your classic, yourfirst rate or your pursuit,
depending where you're at andwhether those can be used when
they're used pre and accordingto research, if you put an ALS
in combination with the PPOherbicide, whether it's valor
Spartan or Flexstar when you'recombining in a group two and a
(24:58):
group 14, we do tend to getreally good residual control of
both giant ragweed and commonragweed. So my message is, maybe
we have started to take alschemistry away, but once you
take your als chemistry awayfrom your residual herbicide
program, you start having a lotof large seeded species come
through. So I urge our growersto take a closer look at those
(25:19):
programs and not remove that alschemistry from the residual
program, because even though wehave resistance out there, when
they're combined with somethingelse, they still provide good
value. And I don't know whatyour guys's observations and
recommendations are, but this iskind of where I stand it.
Joe Ikley (25:36):
It's the same for us. The only thing is, we lose more
tools. Is as you know, as he ledsome regional efforts, and I'm
always a problem child, yeah, sowe don't have chlorimuron and
fomesafen. We can't use preemergence north of I 94 so
majority of acres for me. Butyeah, so we look a couple of
those tools based on where we'reat, but otherwise, yeah, the
same thing. If you're gonna getthat value out of that group 2,
(25:59):
specifically thinking aboutragweed. Get it on at planting.
Andy Bensend (26:04):
Yeah, we've been, we've been, of course, trying to
do a good job of burn downearly, with early, early 2,4-D
or glyphosate to start clean,like Rodrigo has to share with
us, and then at planting time,or right there about we've been
using some sharpen and Outlooktogether, which is verdict, and
(26:29):
also perhaps Zidua We've beenusing anthem Max, which is Cadet
and Zidua. And so as long as wecan spray before the bean
emerges, we can still useglyphosate. And so glyphosate is
kind of a no brainer for us, aslong as the beans are not above
(26:50):
ground. And then coming backwith our after for our post, we
like flex star and warranttogether, which is warrant Ultra
So here again, you start to seeour layered residual approach,
where we're relying to controlthose small seeded broad leaves
with that, either the, you know,the the grass control products,
(27:14):
basically, but they also controlthe small seeded broad leaves.
And then we'll still put, we'llstill still put some pursuit in
there, and tie that togetherwith an old chemistry the
basagran us, I think, a littlebetter ability to control the
ragweed that maybe gotten alittle bit taller, where
(27:35):
normally, once you get to a fourleaf ragweed, they're just about
impossible. But by having somebasagran in there, I think we
can handle those all right. Westill can't. If they're six or
eight inches tall, you've stilllost the battle. But the four
inch tall weeds, I think thebasagran gives us quite a bit of
help there. And then you still,then have kept your if you
(27:57):
really have some hot spots, youcan still come back with those,
those burners, those diphenylethers, whether it's cobra or
whether it's some other form ofthat. But, yeah, we just never,
never let her put off the gaspedal, on the on the herbicides,
trying to keep those ragweedsunder stress the whole time. One
(28:18):
of the things that I've hadseveral discussions with Rodrigo
on and that is using the cerealrye, following the corn. Now
plant cereal rye and then to seeif we can roller, crimp and
create a a weed mat with thecereal rye to control the rag
(28:40):
the giant ragweed in particular.And because giant ragweed is
incredibly competitive, and itlikes to reach and stretch for
sunlight by roller crimp and therye down when it gets big enough
to really do some good, you haveto wait for an thesis if you
want the rye to stay down. Andthe problem for us is is that
(29:00):
gets to be a little bit late inthe season. But we've had, we've
had some pretty good success,roller, crimp and rye down. The
biggest problem there is the thetillers don't stay down. You get
the main stems and but thetillers don't like to stay down.
So we'll come back with a littlebit of clethodim to clean those
tillers up, but I've had equalyields roller crimping with no
(29:24):
other herbicides, where I'veused my chemical program and
side by side, split the fieldand and relied on the roller
crimp dry. And there are somenumbers of how much vegetation
are needed. My memory is thatsomewheres around two to two and
a quarter tons of dry matter peracre or biomass per acre. I
don't know if it's dry matter orbiomass. I can't remember that,
(29:46):
but it's, it's a it's basicallyabout waist high. You have
enough vegetation to reallycover that ground and do a
pretty good job with weedcontrol without used herbicides
at all. Now the catch our cropinsurance says that we have to
terminate the cover crop priorto emergence. Or in the case of
(30:08):
no till, they'll give us anextra seven days. So within
seven days of emergence, theywant the cover crop material,
rye, roller, crimp down, ifthat's how we're going to
terminate it, or we canterminate it with chemistry. But
that flies in the face ofplanting soybeans early to pick
up the extra yield. Well, I'mgoing to plant a few beans this
(30:30):
year, ultra early. I know thatwe're going to have weed
pressure, but where I've got apretty good stand of rye,
hopefully established, androller crimp the rye and the
beans together and see if I canget enough beans to survive
through that I know there won'tbe insurable unless our May
changes their mind, but so far,they've told me No, but I'll
(30:50):
have a few without without cropinsurance, just to see if I can
prove the concept. The thehypothesis is I gain enough
yield by planting early and Idon't damage the beans to the
point where I'm when I knockthem out of the stand by roller
crimp and late. One of thethings that I've done is I've
(31:11):
gone out to North Dakota andpicked up some of your gardener
rye, which is an earlier ryevariety. I bought a semi load of
it last year and planted rye onabout 1100 acres of of corn
after harvested for grain, whichgets to be a little bit late,
but the rise there, it was uplast fall, so we'll see what
things look like this spring.It's just I'm always fooling
(31:33):
around trying to find anotheropportunity to maximize my weed
control at the same timereducing my input expenses, and
couple that together with thefact that if I can be successful
with this, I'm going to wrap itup on more acres. If I know that
I can do a good job, then I'vegot a legitimate argument, after
(31:54):
a few years of data, to go backto RMA and say, well, here's
what my data shows me.
Joe Ikley (32:01):
This is sounds like, you know, the other, the other,
I'll just call it a challenge ofweed control is you're just
constantly tinkering, you know,take that easy button away that
a lot of folks would like tolean on, sometimes too much and
just lot of refinement over theyears, is what I'm hearing.
Andy Bensend (32:18):
Well, the organic industry has been doing things
similar to that, but they, theyhave the same rules. They have
to terminate, you know, beforethe before the beans are up. I
don't know how well they getthat done, unless they're
waiting until the 20th of May toplant the beans. Because we're,
we're, we're very rarely atanthesis before the first week
(32:39):
of June.
Alyssa Essman (32:41):
So, Andy, I'm curious if you have some folks
who are maybe interested in nonGMO for the premium, but kind of
nervous about this sort ofdifferent management. What would
be some of your suggestions forfolks starting out in this non
GMO space?
Andy Bensend (32:55):
Oh, that is a good question. When people ask me
about non GMO production, thefirst thing I like to talk to
him about is, are they preparedfor the extra work involved in
keeping your combine, yourharvester, clean and and pure.
And the same thing with theplanting equipment. One of the
(33:15):
secrets that we use to keep ourdifferent varieties separate is
using different row widths. Sowe know, for example, if it's
drilled, it's variety a, and ifit's in rows, it's variety B,
and then maybe to some degree,the row width can also
differentiate further. We madethe choice some years ago that
we would go all non GMO, or wewould go none, because of the
(33:40):
fact that when you havecommercial beans and they have
traits, you cannot tolerate anychance of contamination. And
those years, when we did sometrial work where we had the non
GMO beans and the GMO beanstogether in the same field, we
treated them all like non GMObeans, and when we harvested
(34:02):
them, they went on the truck andthey left the farm immediately.
We did not use any opportunityto contaminate in any way, shape
or form. So that would be thefirst thing be prepared for the
extra, extra work involved. Thesecond thing you need to be
prepared for is marketing wise,most of your non GMO buyers want
(34:24):
to operate on what we call abuyer's call basis. In other
words, the marketing company,sbnb, in my case, will call me
and say, I need six loads ofbeans next week. Are you able to
bring them? And they typicallywill give us a choice. Do we
want to bring them or not? Butthey're not going to haul them
(34:45):
all to market at once, and soit's probably important that you
have a place to store the beans.If you've been one who likes to
harvest and take them to theelevator. Non GMO beans might
not be a good fit unless yourbuyer is willing to take. Them
at harvest, and some buyers willthey have enough storage, or
some buyers will take some butthey'll give you a little
(35:07):
smaller premium for those beansthat you deliver at Fall
Harvest. So that would be thesecond consideration. Thirdly is
make sure that you understandthat your management may have to
be a little more precise. Youknow, you may have to be a
little more accurate with thetiming on herbicides. You may
(35:27):
have to be a little bit moreconcerned about the timing at
harvest, because you want tomake sure that the quality is
there. So attention to detail isgoing to be more important for
you. And then the only otherconcern is make sure you have a
bigger bank account, becauseyou're going to make a little
more money. You may earn it, butyou're going to, you're going to
(35:48):
experience a little higherincome per acre, which is the
fun part.
Joe Ikley (35:53):
So following up to that, that's kind of the, one of
the last things I had on my listof maybe some other things to
watch out for. And so I get thisquestion, and I need to follow
up on it. But since there's aspecialty crop and there's these
other traits you want, you know,are there any varieties or
classes, I guess you've comeacross that might have a little
(36:14):
bit more risk of crop injury tosome of these conventional
chemistries that we use.
Andy Bensend (36:18):
Rodrigo may have a better answer than this. I don't
know if I would say they'reriskier from a crop injury
standpoint, but certainly weknow that not all varieties are,
by their very nature, very smallseeded bean and they are
typically planted at a higherpopulation to make up for that.
(36:38):
Consequently, they are a littlemore susceptible to diseases
like white mold. So if whitemold is an issue for you, you
might not want to start out witha natto contract. The second
thing I'll tell you is that mostof these companies that are
buying non GMO beans have apretty good idea which varieties
(37:01):
growers to have the best luckwith, and they'll tell you. The
other way you can tell it is ifthe if the premium is really,
really high on a variety, it'sprobably really, really high
because it's got some nuancesthat make it a little trickier,
a little more difficult to besuccessful with. So I always
caution guys, don't start outwith the one that's got the
(37:22):
biggest premium, because thatmight be the hardest one to be
successful with. Leave that tothe pros, and then eventually
you'll be a pro, and you can trysome and figure it out on your
own, but, but that, I think,would be good advice,
Joe Ikley (37:36):
and that not specifically why I have the
question, because you're peopleare probably sick of hearing
Rodrigo, listen, I pushingmetribuzin and going with higher
rates because it's still areally good tool, and that,
that's the one that I'm ageneral concern for more injury
and to begin with, across anysoybean. But you know, the natto
growers having that smaller seedare just a little little more
(37:58):
precautious about upping therates on some of these residuals
compared to, you know, whatthey've previously used, just to
avoid that early injury. And sowe need to actually do the
research. And Rodrigo, I don'tknow if you've tested other ones
to see if there are increasedsensitivities.
Rodrigo Werle (38:14):
Uh, no, that's a good point. There on the the
metribuzin comment you just madeJoe, the one thing we do tend to
see a lot some varieties arereally sensitive to our PPOs,
right? We were talking aboutPPOs as part of the program, so
certain varieties that arehighly sensitive to either
Spartan or Val or sprayed brief,but like Andy said, usually you
(38:36):
know the person that's sellingyou the seed or promoting
certain variety. They alreadyhave that information that the
growers would have the know how.So, as Andy said, before you
dive in, you know, gatheringsome additional information on
the sensitivity of thosevarieties to either metrobusine
or the PPOs, I think, isincredibly important.
Joe Ikley (38:55):
Alright, Rodrigo, any concluding thoughts from the
weed scientist,
Rodrigo Werle (39:01):
no, I think I really, as I always enjoy, you
know, listening to you guys. Andthen now being part here, to me,
is awesome, and having a specialguest here, Andy, is even more
special. And then, for those ofyou who might be wondering, I
think Andy briefly mentionedthat we were together in Brazil,
right? So I just want to give alittle more information Andy
myself and a group of farmersand Wisconsin crop consultants
(39:23):
with Carlo spirit is at NorthDakota State University. We
spent two weeks in Brazil,right, Andy in February, and we
had a chance to tour around. Soif you're wondering why Andy was
talking about that, because wewere we traveled together for a
couple weeks there, and thenthose were very, very special
weeks, because we got to see alot of Brazilian agriculture,
(39:43):
but we also formed some amazingfriendships. And that's why, you
know, I just, you know, likewhen Joe reached out to me to
talk about the podcast, it'slike, I know exactly who I'm
going to call here, and Andy,because of our good relationship
here, he's, he, you know, hejust made the time to be here
with us today. So it's, it's abig community. And small
community at the same time, andI think we're always learning
from each other. And I just wantto, you know, commend you guys
(40:06):
on what you're doing, becauseyou know, you know, fostering is
ability of folks to exchangeexperience. This is what
agriculture is all all about. Sojust sharing our, you know,
knowledge and helping oneanother, it's how we keep moving
this thing forward. So thank youguys. Ah, so much for having me
again.
Andy Bensend (40:23):
If you ever go to Brazil with Rodrigo, just know
that he's worth his weight ingold because he speaks the
language and so those of us whocan't utter their first syllable
of Portuguese, to be able tohave guys like Carlos and
Rodrigo along, that just made itawesome. It really was a
wonderful opportunity. And ifyou ever get the chance to visit
(40:45):
to see what our neighbors to thesouth are dealing with and their
production challenges, somethings are exactly the same as
we struggle with here, but somethings are completely different.
It really helps you to thinkoutside the box when you see
what production methods looklike and the scale that they
happen in other parts of theworld. So thanks for the
(41:07):
opportunity Rodrigo, to travelwith you. It was great.
Joe Ikley (41:12):
That's something we tell every undergrad who
complains about, why do I haveto learn Latin names of weeds?
Because someday you want aninternational trip, and it's a
lot easier to communicate whenyou know the Latin name, when
you go to different countries.So we should, what we should do
is then, Andy, want to make sureyou have any, you know, final
thoughts about, you know, justnon GMO soybean, or anything
(41:34):
that popped in your head thatyou'd like to cover here before
we conclude, I'd
Andy Bensend (41:39):
like to put a plug in for the soybean Checkoff
Program as a as an institution.You know, every bushel of
soybeans that's marketed paysinto the soybean check off
program one half of 1% half ofthat money stays with your local
state organization, and half ofit goes on to the United Soybean
(42:01):
Board, and that money is thefarmers money. I serve on the
marketing board here inWisconsin, and as a board, we
take our responsibilities veryseriously, and that is to give
the farmers a return on thatinvestment to things that either
make their production moreprofitable, that build markets
for them as exports to createnew uses like tires and tennis
(42:26):
shoes and firefighter foam. Butall of those things that are are
invested in and our biggestpartners, usually on the
production side, are universityextension researchers, of which
we recognize folks like Rodrigoand Dr Sean Conley and the whole
(42:47):
list of them, I think everystate I'm guessing, the list
that you plug into thatsomewhere in Ohio. But it's
really a wonderful program, andthe wisdom that was instilled in
that check off program at itsearly inception that allowed it
to go well beyond inflationmeasures, because the half of 1%
(43:10):
goes up and down in value at thevalue the bean does compared to.
And I don't like to pick oncorn, but our corn growers in
Wisconsin are stuck at a flatnumeric number, and so as corn
get to be worth more money, thatnumber for corn doesn't change.
It only changes when theproduction increases. So there
was a lot of wisdom back many,many years ago, when when this
(43:33):
program was started. And I knowthere are some farmers that
think it's a total waste thatthat money they would rather
have in their wallets, Iunderstand the desire to have
more money in your wallet. Well,then grow some non GMO beans,
but don't take the check offaway, because it's like taking
the the semen tank away from adairy breeder. I mean, that's
his future. That's where theinvestments are made to increase
(43:56):
the profitability of the crop wegrow. And there is, you know
that that's not governmentmoney. That's not That's not
money that comes from thegeneral coffers. That's money
that people who grow thesoybeans invest back to make
sure that they have bettermarkets, that they have more
efficient production, that theyhave new technologies, that they
(44:17):
have new varieties, and theyhave new products all the time
being developed. I just can'tsay enough good about Joel.
That's my plug.
Joe Ikley (44:24):
I love it. I think I can speak for Rodrigo and
Melissa and myself, that we takethose check off funded projects
very seriously at the state andregional and national level. So
say we certainly try to do thebest we can. And like I said,
take that seriously, because weknow how important that that
money and that research is.
Rodrigo Werle (44:46):
us, supporting us. So thank you so much. Yep,
Joe Ikley (44:50):
and then, before we fully send this out So always
like to give guests a chance topitch if they want to be found,
where we can find them, eitheron social media or websites. And
so, Rodrigo, I know you've got awebsite in social media, so I'll
(45:12):
start with you.
Rodrigo Werle (45:13):
Yeah, thanks, Joe. So wiscweeds.info is our
website. And then for folks thatare on, you know, Twitter or X
@WiscWeeds
Joe Ikley (45:23):
All right, then, Andy, if you wish to be found.
If not, that's perfectly fine.
Andy Bensend (45:28):
It's Wisoybean.org but our soybean extension
specialist likes to use hiscoolbean.info I think that's
still a good website. We enjoypoking a lot of fun at some of
our researchers in just just tomake, make, make light of some
(45:50):
serious issues sometimes, but wereally have a great working
relationship with ourresearchers here at the
University of Wisconsin.Wisconsin is 13th in total
soybean production, if I'm notmistaken by states, and if I'm
not mistaken, is North Dakotanumber two
Joe Ikley (46:07):
always varies by year, but acres are usually
around four. It's certainly topfive and and then production.
We're not quite two because someof our some of our acres at West
don't have the yield per acrebasis
Andy Bensend (46:21):
or up there? Yeah, you're in the top five. I knew
that for sure. So historically,you know you were not even a
soybean producing state. So talkabout a remarkable transition
from what was 50 years ago andwhat you are today. Well, it
Joe Ikley (46:39):
still surprises people when I say between six
and 7 million acres is kind ofour average for soybean acres,
and every every time itsurprises people. So yeah, and
that's all because of researchand a lot of effort in the whole
soybean industry. So it'scertainly been a great benefit
for the North Dakota economy.But with that, I do want to
(47:00):
thank Rodrigo, thank you forcoming on again. Andy, thank you
very much wonderful, wonderfulhaving you on and kind of loved
hearing your experiences asalways. We thank the listeners
for tuning in, and please tunein next week for another war
against weeds podcast.
(47:21):
As always, we thank you forlistening to the war against
weeds podcast. Just anotherreminder, you can find our
podcast hosted on the CropProtection Network, or CPN, for
short. So this is another greatresource that's driven by
extension, scientists atdifferent universities for pest
management. And with that, wewill see you next week on the
war against weeds podcast. You.
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