Today, weather is a constant front page subject with weather patterns and predictability changing in the last 20 plus years. Climate is hot-button issue seemly to everyone and even a religion to a large part of the population. There are even predictions of the end of humanity in the next 10 years due to weather. The atmosphere, continually changing all the time, is the best predictor of weather. The United States have three satellites that track and monitor the atmosphere. Because the atmosphere is constantly changing weather prediction is no-where near a sure thing. In fact, predicting accurate weather is only 80% accurate within 7 days and drops to 50% for predictions over 10 days. Predicting weather for the next 10 years is impossible! Changing for millions of years, weather will continue to change for the next millions of years with or without man.

To the farmer, weather has always been an everyday concern. They plan their planting, input applications, field maintenance, harvest etc. based on weather expectations and predictions. Reliable weather predictions are critical to their planning and eventually their success, if they are prepared. A big part of the Growers Mineral Program is to be prepared for expected and unexpected weather conditions with proper soil management and clean non-toxic fertilization. When your soil is balanced and fertility applications are timely, in the right place, at the right rate and the right source your harvest can survive and sometimes even surprise, when mother nature doesn’t provide idea weather conditions.

This summer, Jim Halbeisen (Growers Mineral Director of Research) and I saw first-hand all kinds of extreme weather situations, fire smoke filled days, spotty rainfall, extreme dry conditions and even golf ball size hail damage. Farmers had their challenges and then some this year. One of our farm visits this year was in Albany Minnesota with Growers Mineral customer Jeff Wenning. The season had been very dry and in need of rainfall and a week before our visit, mother nature hit Jeff’s rented farmland with golf ball size hail, shredding the corn plants and leaves. Jeff even had $10,000 worth of damage to his pick-up. A real mess! With hesitation and not anxious to visit the damaged field (because Jeff thought it would be a total loss), we proceeded to the field. As we approached the field, we noticed almost all the plants had extensive damage (shredded leaves and stalk issues). Thinking Jeff’s assessment may be correct, we traveled through the field and to our surprise noticed the ears were in pretty good shape. I remember Jim Halbeisen saying “in all his years, he had never seen anything like this. Extreme damage to the leaves and stalks, but still a decent crop.

Jeff had applied 3 tons per acre of high calcium lime last fall and used Growers Mineral Solution at planting and during the season with foliar applications. His yield was 150 bushels per acre. Not bad considering the area corn yield average was 100 bushels.

What we experienced at Jeff Wenning’s farm and many other Growers Mineral customers this summer was true testament to the Growers Mineral Solution program. Weather can be a farmer’s best friend or worst enemy. But a prepared farmer can survive and even thrive when others don’t. Growers Mineral Solution has been preparing farmers for success for almost 70 years, even when mother nature has other ideas. Be Prepared!

This is an excerpt from the Winter Growers Solution (2024) written by Chris Kohls, National Sales Manager.

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Weather: Are You Ready?

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