Session topics to be discussed during the day include:
-Fertility Management for high protein and high yield
-Weed Management
-Disease and Insect Management
-Grain Marketing
Spokane Farmer Panel
Enjoy a panel discussion of what quality traits and characteristics your end-user customers are seeking from your wheat production.
Dr Pete Berry. Head of Crop Physiology, ADAS UK Ltd
Keynote Speaker:
Pete Barry is a crop physiologist and 14-year veteran of ADAS UK Ltd, an independent research and consulting firm that aims to improve production efficiency of food and feed.
His work focuses on improving performance and reducing pollution of cropping systems by understanding crop physiology, plant breeding and agronomy. Important areas of his research include: increasing crop yields sustainably, optimizing nitrogen nutrition of crops, use of precision farming technologies, and lodging control & plant growth regulation.
Improving wheat yields is a key part of Pete’s work, and ADAS is leading an initiative to raise European wheat yields, which culminated in a 2015 world record of 16.5 t/ha. ADAS has also produced a blueprint for maximizing UK wheat yields. Pete has been invited to speak on how to improve crop production in several European countries, Mexico and Argentina. He works with farmers, agronomists, breeders, fertilizer companies and agro-chemical companies and has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with BASF.
Prior to working for ADAS he worked as a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer at Nottingham University, where he also gained his PhD in ‘Predicting Lodging Risk in Wheat’.
David Perry
David is President, CEO, and Director of Indigo. He is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and built three innovative companies in the last 18 years, leading the last two through successful IPOs and to multi-billion dollar market capitalizations, and raising over $750 million, while generating significant returns for investors.
David was most recently CEO and Co-Founder of Anacor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANAC), a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing novel small-molecule therapeutics to treat infectious and inflammatory diseases. The company was acquired by Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) in 2016 for approximately $5.2 billion. David previously co-founded and served as CEO of Chemdex (NASDAQ: CMDX), later creating its parent company Ventro Corporation (NASDAQ: VNTR), a business-to-business marketplace focused on the life sciences industry. At its peak, Ventro was valued at $11 billion and was later sold to Nexprise.
David is Founder and Chairman of the San Francisco-based digital health startup, Farewell, and a Director of the human microbiome company, Epiva.
In 2000, David was named Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California by Ernst and Young. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Tulsa. He also attended the United States Air Force Academy, where he was a National Merit Scholar.
Mark Fowler
In 2016 and 2017, farmers could capitalize on high protein content in their winter wheat crop. Mark Fowler, vice president of overseas operations at U.S. Wheat Associates, draws upon years of professional experience to help growers understand how protein occurs, and what can be done to boost protein levels and gain more revenue per acre.
Mark Fowler wants wheat growers to think about how they can differentiate their grain based on quality in the marketplace. This, explained the vice president of overseas operations for U.S. Wheat Associates, can help farmers capture value when the opportunities present themselves.
“If you’re just selling across the scale at harvest, you are a grain seller—not a marketer,” Fowler explained. “If you are going to capture the value, you’re going to have to market your grain on your terms. You’re never going to be able to set the price, but you’ll be able to market it and get paid for the quality you have.”
The domestic and export wheat market is getting more competitive every year, and U.S. Wheat, in its work with overseas buyers, finds quality sets United States wheat apart on the marketplace. That extra marketability is vital to its mission to improving the profitability of all U.S. wheat farmers.
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Erick DeWolf
Erick DeWolf, Kansas State University: In 2017, wheat streak mosaic virus affected thousands of acres of wheat production in Kansas. Learn from Erick DeWolf, plant pathologist at Kansas State University, how the disease develops and spreads, and what you and your neighbors can do to stop it. Don’t miss this session!
Jeanne Falk-Jones
Jeanne Falk-Jones, area agronomist, Kansas State University: For the last two years, many winter wheat farmers who have managed for higher protein levels were able to garner a protein premium at harvest. Jeanne Falk-Jones will describe the protein/yield relationship to help you capture more value.
Dave Ahern
Dave Ahern, IntelliFarms: Growers who have on-farm storage systems are able to capture a premium on high quality and profit from basis capture. Dave Ahern will give tips on how to keep that stored crop in top condition.
On-farm grain storage can play a great role in many farmers’ marketing plans. And with today’s technology, farmers can know more about the grain they store in their bins in real time, according to Dave Ahern, sales manager with IntelliFarms, who spoke at Wheat U in Wichita in August. That’s all the better to find the optimal marketing opportunities down the supply chain.
“A lot of growers want to put up storage on their farms or grow the storage they have,” Ahern said. “Well, we need to think about what a bin can do, what is their market. When you’re thinking about storage, you’re thinking about capturing a market.” Many farmers go into on-farm storage without thinking about the end market they’re targeting, or a projected deadline for marketing the grain they store in their bins.
“We work with one farmer who said he realized that he grows a phenomenal product, but that he doesn’t like to market his grain,” Ahern said. There are many farmers like him, who are intimidated by storing grain because they either don’t have enough experience with their own facilities to ensure quality, or they store grain with no set plan where they will market it.
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Naomi Blohm
Naomi Blohm, senior market adviser, Stewart-Petersen: High Plains Journal columnist Naomi Blohm gives her outlook on where the wheat market is heading, and help you lock in a profit on the rest of your 2017 crop!
A glut of wheat in the world has dogged prices the last two years, but consumers are slowly chewing their way through wheat stocks. Prices should rebound sooner rather than later, said Naomi Blohm, senior market advisor for Stewart-Petersen.
“The worst of the prices are behind us. That’s the good news,” Blohm told growers at Wheat U in Wichita, Kansas, in August.
Since their peak in 2007-08, wheat prices have tumbled. For the next several months, Kansas City Board of Trade wheat prices will be locked into a sideways, back-and-forth tussle between $4.50 and $5.25 a bushel.
The fundamentals of wheat pricing are shifting, Blohm said. Corn and soybean acreage is on the rise, pulling acres out of wheat production. That’s happening even in traditional wheat regions, like Kansas, South Dakota and North Dakota. However, corn production in these fringe states is affected by drought and heat, which has reduced yield potential.
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