“Happy Agronomy Week everybody!”
This is agronomy week and it winds down today after a week of saluting the professionals in the agronomy field, men and women who are dedicated to helping farmers be successful each year.
This is the fifth consecutive year DEKALB®, Asgrow® and Deltapine® brands have sponsored Agronomy Week. Pete Uitenbroek is a brand lead who says the purpose of the week is “to provide recognition to all those folks like your local agronomists, seed dealers, and extension office folks that really add so much value and partnership to grower success every year,” Uitenbroek said. “So, for us as you think about planting season kind of kicking off, what a great time to take a pause and celebrate and have a little fun before we get out there and really throw up our sleeves and get to work on this this crop.”
He says as new technology and the number of seed and input choices have expanded, the role of the agronomist is more important than ever.
“If you think about the number of decisions that a farmer needs to make day by day and week by week, it’s ever expanding,” he told MAT. There’s more new and innovative and complex solutions that farmers are evaluating all the time, and so to have that trusted advisor in a local agronomist, somebody that knows you, that knows your acres, that knows how you manage your crop, it’s critically important.”
A new wrinkle this year revolves around a new FFA scholarship program. Friday is the final day that DEKALB, Asgrow and Deltapine will donate $10 for every farmer question submitted.
“If we think about the individuals that are going to drive the innovation and lead agriculture for the next hundred years, you don’t have to look much farther than FFA,” Uitenbroek said. “So, we wanted to take the opportunity to put some fuel in that engine, so we hosted the television program on Thursday night where folks could call in and ask questions live, and we donated $100 to FFA for every question that was asked live on the air.”
Submit your question Friday at AgronomyWeek.com or on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #Agronothon.
