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WPIB FOCUS
continued from pg. 33 Roberge Joins Compeer Financial
Jim Roberge, a veteran of the Farm Credit System, has joined Compeer Financial as the organization’s chief diversified markets officer. He fills the role held by Mark Greenwood, who retired on January 17, 2022. Roberge, of Shorewood, Minnesota, has worked in the Farm Credit System since 1998, holding previous roles as senior vice president of commercial lending and lending operations at Farm Credit Services of America and regional vice president at CoBank. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in financial economics from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, and his master’s degree in business administration and management from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee. Since joining Compeer in November 2021, Roberge has spent time learning about the credit cooperative’s clients and commitment to agriculture and rural America.
PASSION FOR AGRICULTURE
“In my role at Compeer Financial, I’m
Jim Roberge joins Compeer Financial as the organization’s chief diversified markets officer. Mark Greenwood retired, January 17, after 24 years with the Farm Credit System.
looking forward to helping our clients continue to achieve their goals,” Roberge says. “I have a passion for agriculture and the clients and industries we serve.”
“I’m committed to living out Compeer’s mission of enriching agriculture and rural America in every interaction I have with our team and clients,” he adds. Greenwood, of Mankato, Minnesota, is retiring after 24 years with the Farm Credit System. “As I enter this next chapter, I’ve been reflecting on how rewarding it’s been to help our clients succeed, especially when they’ve faced challenges,” Greenwood says. “People are the best part of my job,” he continues, “the clients I’ve worked with, the team members at Compeer and our lending partners. I know I’ve been truly fortunate, and I’m thankful for all that I’ve been able to do in my career.”
WPIB Focus
Wisconsin Potato Assessment Collections: Two-Year Comparison
Month Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20 Jan-21 Feb-21 Mar-21 Apr-21 May-21 Jun-21 Year-to-Date
CWT 1,267,472.18 1,275,285.84 1,290,414.89 2,235,567.48 2,498,333.04 1,787,069.62 2,103,473.68 1,593,614.79 14,051,231.52
Assessment $101,400.66 $102,092.25 $103,233.20 $178,773.99 $199,895.60 $143,001.23 $168,209.03 $127,430.28 $1,124,036.24
Month Jul-21 Aug-21 Sep-21 Oct-21 Nov-21 Dec-21 Jan-22 Feb-22 Mar-22 Apr-22 May-22 Jun-22 Year-to-Date
CWT 1,292,191.75 981,540.84 933,052.68 3,515,638.42 2,529,632.08 2,033,264.21 1,948,049.95 1,869,405.13 15,102,775.06
Assessment $103,342.07 $78,594.28 $74,682.23 $281,175.63 $200,944.23 $162,677.29 $157,293.40 $149,552.31 $1,208,261.44
Micronutrients Fill Anti-Disease Role
Using what are referred to as “functional fertilizers” can keep crops one step ahead of plant stress, helping growers alleviate pressure on other components in the crop protection program, say nutrition specialists at OMEX® USA. Crop stress occurs when a plant encounters a limiting factor that prevents it from achieving optimum performance. There’s strong evidence of a connection between nutrition and crop health, says the company, which has examined combinations of copper and zinc, elements known to play a role in crop health. “Our research culminated in the formulation of Cell Power®
Above: There’s strong evidence of a connection between nutrition and crop health.
Zynergy™,” says OMEX® agronomist Dean Konieczka, “a fertilizer that acts like a fungicide without being one.” “Increasing the plant’s access to these micronutrients bolsters its defense mechanism, enabling it to better withstand pathogenic attacks, like from mildews, for example,” Konieczka notes, “and delivers a statistically significant impact on disease levels when applied earlyseason.”
“Zynergy can prevent the need for ‘fire truck’ curative treatments and ease management of tricky harvest intervals,” he concludes. What’s also interesting is how other products like Zynergy can create, as its own name suggests, a synergistic effect between foliar nutrition and crop protection.
PRIME THE PLANT
It has been observed how nutrition can effectively prime the plant to better respond to pathogenic attack,
allowing growers to use a lower rate of fungicide while maintaining an equivalent or even improved level of protection. Perhaps it makes sense to be fully focused on the value of foliar applications: leaves are a better receptacle for fertilizers. They have an active metabolism, thus enabling the leverage of adjuvants and the varying of application timing to target open stomata. OMEX has been following the same innovative path as its crop protection colleagues in finding ways to do more with less.
The company’s Cell Power® SizeN® technology relies on stabilized amine nitrogen. Because it’s less susceptible to volatilization, plants make better use of what’s applied. Likewise, growers who have become
– Agronomist Dean Konieczka
used to bulk applying calcium chloride can’t believe that Cell Power Calcium Gold, with its LoCal mechanism triggering the cell’s own uptake apparatus, delivers better, more consistent results with a fraction of the amount applied. Thinking holistically is not about wholesale replacement of plant protection chemistry. Instead, it’s about reducing dependence on it and extending the usefulness of the shrinking number of actives that are available.
The more quickly we can all adopt this thinking, the more benefit we’ll extract from it.
Learn more at www.omexusa.com.
