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AgGrow Solutions Hosts 7th Annual Summit

Growers and ag industry professionals gather at The Inn at Sentry World

“I’m a second-generation owner. My father started T.I.P. [Tatro Irrigation & Potatoes], in 1972, when he moved from Idaho,” related Steve Tatro in his welcoming remarks during the 7th Annual AgGrow Solutions Summit.

“We were an equipment manufacturing company specializing in custom steel conveyors. In 2006, my father retired, and my wife and I bought the company,” Tatro continued. “We have a third generation coming up in the company now.”

“In 2010, I was in Vancouver, British Columbia, at a golf course conference and was invited to listen to a gentleman talk about turf fertility and maintenance,” Tatro explained. “The owner of Redox was speaking our language.”

“Every other slide was of an ag field— potatoes, vegetables and fruit—and turf,” Tatro continued. “They were looking for someone east of the Mississippi River to be a distributor. In 2011, we launched AgGrow Solutions.”

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Thus began the AgGrow Solutions Summit, December 8, 2022, at The Inn at Sentry World in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Plant Fertility

Tatro and his dedicated team of agronomists host the AgGrow Solutions Summit each year to talk plant fertility, disease and pest stress defenses, crop growth, and yield, inviting Wisconsin potato and vegetable growers and ag professionals.

“Our goal is to present agronomic strategies to solve problems you face,” said Kenton Mehlberg, AgGrow Solutions agronomist, and emcee for the summit. “We are constantly looking for methods and products that will consistently work today.”

“Efficiency—we really believe in this,” Mehlberg stressed. “A healthy plant can defend itself against pests and diseases if you use a proactive approach and partner with people who share that mentality. If we are not advancing, we are losing.”

A plant’s nutrient balance, Mehlberg reasoned, determines its ability to carry out the metabolic processes. AgGrow Solutions aids farmers through data collection services, soil sampling, scouting, and targeted product supply.

Speakers at the AgGrow Solutions Summit included Eric Massey, regional agronomist from Redox BioNutrients. The company’s products are targeted toward soil health, nutrient and water efficiency, root development, and plant growth.

Reducing Inputs

“I know these products and what they can do. People are surprised when we talk about reducing phosphorus inputs and sustainable farming,” Massey said. “Kenton says they’ve been working on it for 10 years.”

“We can reduce as high as 90 percent phosphorus inputs,” Massey stressed. “How about potassium inputs? Are we getting any better at that? What’s your standard reduction in nitrogen inputs? Be proactive rather than reactive.”

“If a grower isn’t looking to reduce nitrogen inputs by 25-30%, they’re missing an opportunity,” Mehlberg chimed in.

Tatro put it this way: “We cannot continue to farm the next 50 years

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“We won’t be allowed to,” Massey agreed. “There are too many factors involved: environmental, regulatory, inflationary, political, and societal pressures.”

Redox’s products include Rootex, DiKaP, OXYCOM Calcium, Mainstay Si, PeneCal, H-85, P-58, Rx-780, Supreme and a host of Triplex plant nutrient aids.

“We don’t expect you guys to completely change your farming practices,” Mehlberg said, “but there are some things you can do with risk management. Once you put something onto your field, you can’t take it back out. We can help better manage that risk by getting inputs to the plant when you want them to be there.”

Other speakers included Jason Cook, a Redox agronomist from Idaho, and Bo Wink, an agronomist who moved to DeForest, Wisconsin, in 2012 while working with Syngenta, and who is now the newest member of the T.I.P. and AgGrow Solutions team.”

Microbial Products

Brett Maxwell, vice president of sales and marketing for Bio S.I., went through the key factors of microbial products, sustainability programs, and the carbon market and carbon credits.

“The carbon market is projected to be a $50 billion market by the year 2030,” he said. “There are going to be growers, just like you, getting checks. My goal is to get you where you need to be with your sustainability programs so you can be in the carbon market.”

“As potato and vegetable growers, you guys are already practicing a sustainability program on your farms whether you think you are or not,” Maxwell added. “Our ‘bugs in a jug’ are helping you with your sustainability program.”

Tom Wood of the Organisan Corporation said he comes from a background of using and applying chemistries as a fourth-generation farmer in Idaho, but got introduced to biological farming in 2011 or 2012. “Regardless of what your feelings are on sustainable, organic, and biological farming, that’s where the market is going,” he said. Organisan offers chitosan-based ag products such as adjuvants, wetting agents, fungicides, nematicides, and citric acids.

“The goal here is mode of action. Certain bugs become immune to chemistries. Blackhawk has become useless on corn out west. Using chitosan, we can make these chemistries last as long as possible, because they do work,” Wood assured.

After the presentations, a breakout session that included a questionand-answer workshop and discussion between growers, agriculture company reps and agronomists filled an interesting afternoon and concluded the 7th Annual AgGrow Solutions Summit.