Ag PhD Field Day takes place July 30th

Jul 30, 2015

Day will include demonstrations and guest speakers

Farmers in and around the Sioux Falls, South Dakota area are invited to the 2015 Ag PhD Field Day being held by Brian and Darren Hefty at their farm in Baltic, South Dakota.

“The goal of the Ag PhD Field Day on our farm is for you to learn as much as you can in one day about new and current technologies so you can increase your profits and yields on your farm,” wrote Brian Hefty. “We will have lots of field plots and demos, educational sessions, corn & soybean yield champs from across the country speaking to you about their strategies, and some hands-on activities that will hopefully make this day a great learning experience for you.”

Corn field

The interactive event will feature the Hefty brothers’ competition plots go up against yield champions including Randy Dowdy (503 bu/ac of corn), David Hula (454 bu/ac of corn), Steven Albracht (459 bu/ac of corn) and Matt Swanson.

Other demonstrations will include spraying and tillage while technologies like crop protection, irrigation, fertility and seeds will be explored.

Guest speakers from different walks of life will be on hand to share their experiences.

Dr. Robert Fraley, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Monsanto will talk about the current and future states of agriculture.

Actor John Ratzenberger, best known for playing Cliff Calvin on Cheers, and former NFL tight end and Hall of Fame coach Mike Ditka will visit with the farmers as well.

Join the conversation and tell us if you’re going to attend the Ag PhD Field Day with the Hefty brothers. What are some issues you’d like to discuss while there?

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.