An Enchanted Evening on the Water

I know many of you have been looking forward to hearing about our evening at the National Corn Growers Association Yield Contest recognition banquet. To begin, I must tell you that it was absolutely enchanting! When Monsanto puts on an event to recognize their sales men and women and their successful farmers they put their ALL into it. Tyne and I began our evening pinning corsages on all the wives of the National and State Corn Growers Yield Contest winners (we tried our best not to draw blood). We boarded the Star Ship, and were greeted by the most hospitable crew you could possibly imagine. The decorations, recognition stage, food, and fireworks were all immaculate. Best of all however, were the people. We met farmers as well as Dekalb and Asgrow dealers from the states of Nebraska to New York. The farmers and their families were in good spirits, and almost everyone I spoke to said their favorite part about the evening was meeting all the wonderful people. I had the privilege of interviewing one such man from Milner, North Dakota.

Tom Mund along with his wife, son, and daughter-in-law made the long journey to Tampa to receive recognition for second place in the State for the irrigated crop division. Tom and his son grow irrigated corn (Dekalb), soybeans, navy beans, and wheat. The past couple of days, I have heard farmers rave about their seed dealers and Tom was certainly no exception. He said, "We have a wonderful female dealer that knows her stuff better than a lot of men. She comes around and looks at our test plots and advises us about new varieties -- that's very valuable to us because they often become our chosen variety in the future." While visiting with Tom, I asked about the value of a high quality seed. Despite a lack of rain, Tom said, "we had a fantastic crop for the amount of moisture we had." He also called the genetics in today's varieties "just unbelievable." Tom's dad watched over the combining this year and could not believe that the farm was rolling in 180 bushel dry land corn after going without rain for such a long period of time. Tom's award winning story is a true testimony to the value of Monsanto genetics. In addition to a successful crop, Tom's farm goes back four generations. Tom himself has been farming since 1969, and has been farming with his son for the past ten years. Tom's favorite portion of the evening was "the conversation with farmers and Monsanto representatives as well as getting ideas from fellow corn growers." Tom encourages young farmers to get involved anywhere they can represent agriculture and be educated on how to represent it well. He stated, "Go to the National meetings and listen to the fantastic speakers -- my experience in various organizations has exposed me to a tremendous amount of very intelligent people. And they always say if you're going to be a leader and be successful, follow a good leader."


The evening ended with a bang, literally. Colorful fireworks lit up the sky just before we headed back to shore. Celebrating with successful corn growers from around the United States was a wonderful experience for everyone involved.