Agronomy Articles
Growing Season
By Cody Plamp, Agronomy Department Sales & Marketing Manager
With spring right around the corner having an in-depth plan with your crop inputs will be critical this year. The one thing that I believe is more important this year than ever is soil sampling. With high fertilizer prices soil sampling will be critical to help you maximize the efficiency of tons purchased on the correct acres they need to be applied to.
Another key piece fertilizer-related this year due to the dry conditions is nitrogen stabilizers. CFC offers a couple different nitrogen stabilizers and with high fertilizer prices and lower commodities it is more important than ever to protect your investment when spreading dry urea this spring. Ask your agronomist about the different nitrogen stabilizers we offer and don’t forget to talk about our variable rate fertilizer program.
Our CMT program will also be a valuable way for you to maximize your fertilizer tons by placing the fertilizer in the correct parts of the field and building you soil per 2.5-acre grids or 5-acre grids to give you the maximum ROI possible on every acre. We seem to be in a dry weather pattern, so I firmly believe split-applying nitrogen is a key component to having a successful crop this year.
I’ve talked a lot about fertilizer tools for being successful, but we need to get fields clean and stay clean this year. With the dry weather weeds are going to be harder to kill more than ever so we must act fast and have a good multi-chemistry residual program put in place to make sure the crop (not the weeds) is getting all the moisture that is available. Talk to your local agronomist about the many different chemical plans we offer along with the competitive financing programs we offer.
Our farmers’ success is what strives to wake us up and do what we do every day. Communication with your agronomist is the most important tool you can have this spring. Spring is always a crazy time of year but with communication anything can be resolved. We look forward to serving our patrons in the coming spring weeks and throughout the growing season. We hope everybody has a successful, but more importantly safe, planting and 2025 growing season. Get a hold of your local agronomist with any questions or concerns.
4/11/2025
Agronomy Interns and Build Dakota
By Andy Stapleton, Precision Agronomy Manager
School is out and our Mitchell Tech and Lake Area Tech agronomy interns are reporting in. CFC is currently sponsoring 6 students through the Build Dakota scholarship and 2 students through our own scholarship program. We are also sponsoring a couple students that will be graduating from high school this spring.
The Build Dakota scholarship program is available to students attending any of the four South Dakota technical colleges and majoring in either Agronomy or Precision Agronomy. The program covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, equipment, technology, and tools. It does not pay for any housing or living expenses. After graduation, there is a 3-year commitment to work for the industry partner that sponsors the student.
The main duty the interns are tasked with is scouting crops and taking tissue samples for acres enrolled in our CMT program. They will be focusing on stand counts, seed depth, poor emergence, nutrient deficiency, and weed pressure.
A couple of the interns will also be piloting drones for aerial application of herbicide on pastures and fungicide on corn/soybeans.
If you know of any future Agronomy or Precision Agronomy students that would like a sponsorship, do not hesitate to reach out to Central Farmers Coop.
4/4/2025
Spring
By Levi Van Beek, Applicator/Agronomist, Irene
April starts just next week, and with things starting to ramp up, we need to start thinking about fungicide application. Speak with your local CFC agronomist who will have an advanced knowledge and understanding of fungicides, at your service. Try fungicide even on one field to see the positive gain of stalk health, moisture, and other possible ROI gains. There are certain programs that can get a fungicide onto one or many of your fields today. Central Farmers Coop is your one-stop shop for all seed, fertilizer and chemical, as well as a vast knowledge for all your agronomy needs.
3/28/2025
Agronomy Staff
 Jeff Schmiesing
Agronomy Dept. Manager
Cell: 605-940-7665
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 Allen Johansen
Agronomy Dept.
Purchasing Manager
Cell: 605-661-4882
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