GROW Podcast

Join experts from Landus as well as other special guests as we dive into the latest factors impacting farming operations in grain, agronomy, and more. Each month you can expect two timely episodes, one for all things grain, and the other for agronomy and more. GROW Podcast is brought to you by the Landus GROW Solutions Center. Subscribe today!

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SPECIAL EDITION: A Year in Review and Future Look with Matt Carstens

December 09, 2022

On this special episode of the Landus GROW Podcast, hosts John King and Ashley Kaldenberg welcome special guest, Landus President and CEO, Matt Carstens. If you missed the Landus annual meeting, this is a perfect opportunity to hear the highlights with additional candor and commentary direct from Matt. This brief session includes a recap of the board of directors election results and perspective on the importance of the election process. John and Ashley then jump right into the past fiscal year’s success and opportunities. Matt shares in depth the key areas of success and what he felt drove last year’s numbers. From top-line growth to strategic spending to improved supply position, all areas of Landus contributed to the overall company’s success and therefore the $8 million total payout to farmer-owners. Take a listen for the key drivers for achieving these results. Full of authentic perspective and fun moments, we hear Matt’s most memorable moment from 2022 and how it takes him back to his childhood recollections of the cooperative system he now leads. As is the Landus Way, the podcast shifts quickly to looking to the future and how we continue to build on success. Matt offers insights into the areas of focus for the upcoming year and what Landus will be concentrating on to most positively impact our farmer-owners for the future! If you’d like to view the full virtual meeting and access additional annual resources, visit the Landus website here. If you have questions, please reach out to the GROW Solutions Center at (515) 800-GROW (4769).

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Soybeans and the Biltmore Estate – Grain Episode

November 01, 2022

You are probably asking yourself what soybeans and the Biltmore Estate have to do with each other. Take a listen to this episode to find out and hear other interesting insights and intel from podcast guest, Grant Kimberley, Senior Director of Market Development at the Iowa Soybean Association (@IowaSoybeans).

Host, Ashley Kaldenberg, kicks off the podcast with a question on everyone’s mind. What is up with soybeans? Grant shares that some big things are happening with soybeans, from soybean crush plants to renewable fuels, soybean meal to exports, research to yield growth, and more.

Grant highlights the increase in 16 new crush plants and the drive for additional biofuels and renewable diesel. With the increase in oil, the offset is additional soybean meal. He talks about the advantage that domestic livestock producers should see as well as the opportunity for exports. Growth in soybean meal in rations, but also an increase in poultry and growth of aquaculture. There are also opportunities for diversified uses for soy-based products, aka Biltmore Estate connection!

The episode includes a discussion around a look at corn and soybean planting. An act of the Iowa Soybean Association is to support research and they are looking at genetics and soybean yield growth. Kimberley discusses urbanization and how we’ve gone from growing to consuming, and therefore need to figure out how to yield more and reminds listeners that soybean is an easy-access protein for livestock rations.

Ashley wraps up the episode by getting Grant’s thoughts on some of the geopolitical unrest and China. Grant outlines the resources in place and how the industry in China plays a large role in a continued positive collaboration to maintain levels of export.

For more information, please contact the Landus GROW Solutions Center at (515) 800-GROW (4769). If you aren’t a subscriber to this podcast, we encourage you to hit that subscribe button now!

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Red October – Agronomy Episode

October 11, 2022

On this episode, host John King and agronomist Dan Bjorklund sit down and talk about what they are seeing in fields and the market as harvest begins. From soybean cyst nematode to updates on the fertilizer market, this episode has you covered.

Dan spends time talking through soybean cyst nematode and how we must consider tolerance versus resistance and look at seed selection that offers both offensive combined with defensive as a path to dealing with this issue. Please click here to view the Landus Seed Guide and the genetics mentioned by Dan.

Also discussed was a growing concern -- tar spot. Dan and John explore thoughts on the impact of tar spot on this year’s yield and Landus’ approach for furthering research into tar spot at our Farnhamville research test plots. We will have a recommendation going into next year as to what we feel will be the best solution to manage tar spot. The Landus YouTube channel offers additional resources.

The fertilizer market is still messy and we are impacted by plants not working, lack of supply, the war, and the price of natural gas. John encourages listeners and Landus farmers to stay on top of their fertilizer needs by keeping in communication with their Landus representative or the GROW Solutions Center.

Finally, the episode closed with the Product of the Month. This time we featured YaraVita® PROCOTE™ and Titan® XC. This winning combination will maximize your production potential. Titan XC is used in dry fertilizer blends and helps growers get more out of their applied P & K fertilizers by increasing nutrient availability. ProCote delivers the micronutrients in an application that has 99% less granular dust and more consistent distribution. Check out this video by host John King. Learn more about ProCote and Titan XC here.

Titan® XC is a product of Loveland Products (@growloveland)

YaraVita® PROCOTE™ is a product of Yara International (@yara)

Connect with our host and guests:

John King – @JMKingLandus

Dan Bjorklund - @DanielBjorklund9

The GROW Solutions Center (515-800-GROW) can also assist with your questions and offer solutions.

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SPECIAL REPORT: Landus 2022 Crop Tour Results Are In

September 07, 2022

Have a listen as host, Ashley Kaldenberg, talks with Account Leads covering all four Landus business units about findings from the 2022 Landus Crop Tour. The podcast begins with a brief overview from Reese Drenth, a Landus Grain Merchandiser and crop tour results coordinator.

Then Jon Boss from the Northeast, Dave Lemke from the Northwest, Nate Meyer from the Southeast, and Tyler Nelson from the Southwest review the yield results from our field data collection in their regions. They review corn and bean results and add commentary on what they are seeing in the fields. Number one theme, variability! However, with this information, we hope to help farmers plan and better manage their grain marketing efforts.

Outlined results are provided in the following slides. View them here. For questions or further input, please contact the GROW Solutions Center at (515) 800-GROW.

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The Tar Spot Maniac

September 01, 2022

In this jam-packed episode, we look at what is happening in the field and therefore had to address tar spot. Dan Bjorklund (@DanielBjorklun9), Landus agronomist, shares what he has been seeing anecdotally in Landus member fields. He and host, John King (@JMKingLandus), discuss factors, what they are seeing, and suggestions for how we manage for the future. As the guys mention, once you find and see tar spot it is already too late and at this stage of the growing season, they’ve seen little be effective.

John gives an update on the fertilizer market and summarizes the state of the market in his words, it is armageddon. Learn more here. With the volatility, John offers that the best advice to combat the situation is to stay close to your Landus team as we help navigate the market in real time and offer the best solutions indicative of the daily fluctuation.

We kick off the episode by introducing new Landus Team member, Brad Sherwin, who joins us as a Technical Agronomist Data Analyst. We will have more from Brad but he gave a glimpse into the predictive analytics program that he has developed that uses farmer’s own data on a field by field basis.

Our main feature this episode was Travis Belt (@tcbelt), Portfolio Lead with Brevant Seeds US (@BrevantSeedsUS). He sits down with Landus Southeast Business Unit Leader, Matt Brown, to talk about seed impact in the growing environment and some of the challenges being seen. They talk about the advantages of Brevant’s strategy to work direct with retailers and their ability to market global strength with local focus. The product of the month also features Travis, talking through some of the top Brevant corn hybrids that have that local focus for our farmer-members.

If you have any questions, please call (515) 800-GROW.

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Grain is Precious

August 15, 2022

On this episode of the GROW Podcast, Ashley welcomes Don King and Jon Setterdahl from Landus. They talk through the importance of infrastructure and physical assets for a cooperative. Don and Jon speak from experience on the aging cooperative assets seen all over Iowa, and how many cooperatives are having to initiate updates, rebuilds, and more. For Landus, discussion focused on the recent announcement of the $150 million incremental spend on Landus facilities over the next four years. Don and Jon provide a sneak peek at some of the projects in the works as well as what our farmer owners can expect in the next two to three years, making sure we are set up for success for the next generation of farmers!

Recent drone video footage of our new Mitchellville location here.

For more information, contact the GROW Solutions Center at (515) 800-GROW (4769).

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The End is Coming, but Watch out for the Future - Agronomy Episode

August 01, 2022

As harvest time is quickly approaching, it is time to be critically looking at the crops for this season and looking for what is to come. In this episode, our host, John King, sits down to talk with Dan Bjorklund, a GROW Agronomist, to discuss the current events of the growing season. Dan discusses the states of corn and beans currently through what types of yields we will potentially be seeing and some hazardous conditions emerging at the end of the growing season. Check out this quick video that Dan shot looking at stress tolerance of different hybrids here.

Also, in this episode, you will get the low down on the current fertilizer and input markets and their future predictions. Host, John King, discusses three major themes of the input market, which include the high control the global energy prices have, the concern of what the U.S. farmer will do with all of the P&K, and how the U.S. dollar is a haven for the U.S. exporters. Take a listen to hear more about how these markets are moving and what is expected to come within the coming months! Finally, in this episode, the featured product of the month is more focused on the premium fungicide market and the advantage of this for prevention of unpredictable conditions.

For more information or if you have questions, contact the GROW Solutions Center at (515) 800-GROW.

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There’s No Sweet Corn in Ankeny

July 11, 2022

While the focus of this episode of the GROW Podcast was on the rail advantage of Landus, host, Ashley Kaldenberg, couldn’t help but take the chance to get market insights from guest, Dustin Weiner, Landus Grain Merchandising Lead. Dustin explains why we haven’t seen sweet corn yet among other important intel regarding the current and future state of the markets.

Specific to rail, Ashley and Dustin explain the importance and advantage that rail provides Landus and our farmer-owners. Positioned on all 7 railroads, Landus offers a solution to move grain out of the Iowa market to opportunities downstream. The discussion sheds light on the importance of this behind-the-scenes role within the coop, as well as recognition of the employees that dedicate their efforts to these jobs. Take a quick listen to gain a better understanding of how corn and soybeans are moved throughout North America!

Reference to Bubble Map mentioned can be viewed here.

For questions or assistance, call the Landus GROW Solutions Grain Team at (515) 800-GROW #2.

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Carbon…A Bit Like Bitcoin

June 27, 2022

As the market strives to create some liquidity for carbon credits, farmers are left with many questions about how carbon credit programs work, the value, and how to take advantage. On this episode, our host, John King, sits down with Molly Toot, GROW Business Leader, and Nila Johnson, GROW Data Team, to talk about the growing popularity of carbon programs and the carbon market. Through the discussion, they share how Landus and the GROW Solutions Center are positioned to help the farmer better understand what these programs entail and how we can be a resource to navigate the options. Landus works with programs, such as Carbon by Indigo (@Indigoag), a leading offering in the space. Help us gauge your interest in carbon programs by completing this short three-question survey -- https://forms.office.com/r/Uu1ceLdJU5https://forms.office.com/r/Uu1ceLdJU5

Also on this episode, you’ll get the scoop on the fertilizer and chemical from John, as well as what we are currently seeing in the fields from, GROW Solutions Center agronomist, Dan Bjorklund. You won’t want to miss these outlooks and benchmarks for your operation. Finally, the featured product of the month is a Landus private label product coming soon, a slow-release nitrogen product with 24% nitrogen and a full 1% boron.

If you have questions or would like more information, please reach out to the GROW Solutions Center at (515) 800-GROW!

@JMKINGLANDUS

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Beans, on Beans, on Beans – Grain Episode

June 13, 2022

Landus offers a unique position for farmers’ soybeans through the soy production facility in Ralston, IA. This facility crushes more than 25 million bushels of beans each year and is one of the largest mechanical processing facilities in the world. In this episode join guest, Brandon Finke the lead of the Landus Animal Nutrition department, as he walks listeners through this asset and the valuable products manufactured. Learn about SoyPlus, the high bypass soybean meal that is used within the dairy industry, and how the facility has expanded to meet the increased demand.

Host, Ashley Kaldenberg, also spends time diving into the oil product and the hot topic of renewable diesel, and how Landus can play a role in this discussion through the Ralston facility and the demand for farmers’ soybean oil. This is a new frontier and Landus has positioned our farmer-owners to be a key link in meeting this demand and creating programs that offer all stakeholders opportunity due to owning our crush facility. Soybean demand will be high and continue to remain high! Listen to this episode to understand the levers driving this demand.

For questions or comments, please reach out to the Landus GROW Solutions Center at (515) 800-GROW or email growsc@landus.ag.

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Expectations Set, Reality Met – Agronomy Episode

May 23, 2022

On this episode of the GROW Podcast, host John King explores a paradigm shift shared by Van Wall Equipment owner, Don Van Houweling. Rather than looking at equipment needs from planting to harvest, Van Houweling shares that his team is transforming this view to focus tillage to tillage, aiming for a fully engaged customer. As the leading John Deere dealer in Iowa, Van Wall Equipment (https://vanwall.com) is leveraging the importance of data and how equipment can ease data gathering for farmers. With 67% of acres in Iowa planted with John Deere equipment, according to Van Houweling, they have a huge opportunity to harness farmer data efficiently. Van Houweling shares his insights on the equipment landscape now and for the future. We encourage you to check out the Van Wall location nearest you. (https://vanwall.com/locations/)

This month’s Product of the Month is Take Off® LS from Verdesian (https://www.vlsci.com). Scott Ahrenholtz and Dave Schwartz from Verdesian join the episode to explain the details and benefits of this nitrogen fertilizer manager. Take Off LS allows plants to more efficiently assimilate carbon and utilize nitrogen. For more detail on Take Off LS, click the following video or check out more information here.

For more from these wonderful guests, be sure to visit their websites or follow them on social.

Van Wall Equipment - @vanwall

Verdesian - @verdesian

The GROW Podcast is brought to you by the Landus GROW Solutions Center – (515) 800-GROW; growsc@landus.ag

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Pin the Tail on the Donkey – Grain Episode

May 09, 2022

While this grain market is no game, it feels a bit like we are blindfolded, aiming at a moving target when making decisions. In this episode, Landus host, Ashley Kaldenberg, is joined by StoneX Risk Management Consultant, Jake Moline. Moline works closely with Landus and gives his perspective on the grain markets, how farmers can manage risks, and the benefits of working with a cooperative, such as Landus, to do so. Kaldenberg and Moline take a careful look at old crop, Dec 2022, and Dec 2023. Through their discussion, they’ll talk about the understanding of profitability, varying ways to define risk, the value of crop insurance, working with trusted partners, and so much more. For additional insights, click here to view both soybean and corn seasonal reports for November and December.

If you’d like more information, please contact the Landus GROW Solutions Center grain team at (515) 800-GROW, #2. Also, for more tips direct from our guest or StoneX, you can follow Jake Moline @jake_moline or @StoneX_Official.

Please remember to subscribe to this podcast and share a rating! If you have comments or topics that you’d like us to explore, please send those to communications@landus.ag.

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