Current Updates!
Winter has come! That white stuff (you know, that makes people forget how to drive) has hit the ground, and looks like it is here to stay until spring! The Sure Growth Team, for the most part, has completed soil sampling and are now looking to continue our professional development, taking in meetings & conferences across Western Canada. Read below to see what the team has been up to and what conferences we have hit this fall/winter so far!
Cheers!

The Soil is In the Bag! And boxed up and headed to the lab! For the most part, Soil Sampling is wrapped up for 2018! Thank you to all of our growers that helped us get this done as quickly as possible and put up with our constant phone calls and questions. With the delayed harvest, it pushed soil sampling back a smidge and we know that you guys all had other things on your mind than soil sampling, so big shout out to all of you for helping us get our job done!

It wasn't without hiccups though!!

1 Stuck - Achieved by Courtney 
4 Flat Tires - Justin took the cake with 2 of those, followed by 1 flat each by Courtney + Kevin
1 Blown Up Battery - Skillfully Accomplished by Courtney 
1 New Transfer Case & 1 New Front Drive Shaft - Courtesy of... Driving in Fields in 4 Wheel Drive for Months at a Time. 
And about 25 Soil Sample Tips were sent to the grave due to sampling in dry and frozen conditions this fall.

Our Summer Student Cali, other than getting a little muddy, walked out of the Soil Sampling Season Unscathed! Winning this year's Horse Shoe Award for not breaking anything!

Sure Growth recently attended the Precision Ag Conference on November 14th and 15th, listening to experts not only from across Canada but across the globe. We got to listen to some incredible speakers talk about Autonomous Machinery, Methods of Mapping Soil, Weather Stations, Water Drainage Methods, Satellite Imagery, Drone Technology and more! 

Everyone has data, but it is how you collect and utilize your data that makes the biggest impact on your farm. How can you use your data to make everyday decisions on your farm? What new forms of Precision Ag technology will work for you and your operation? 

Get in touch with Justin, Courtney or Terry if you are interested what we have learned and how it may be able to help you with your 2019 Season!

"Without change, there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable." - William Pollard

Justin and Courtney were very honored to receive an invite to the Corteva AgriScience Agronomy Update. It was a great day learning many things about Corteva as a Company and their products that they currently have on the market and some pretty incredible ideas that Corteva is focusing on for the future!

We started off the day learning about the company and the new name! Corteva (pronunciation in picture above) is derived from Cor - meaning Heart and Teva - meaning Nature. We also learned about some of the Core Values the company holds, such as to Enrich Lives, Stand Tall, Be Curious, Build Together, Be Upstanding, and to Live Safely. 

The Day continued on to really dive in deep to learn about the Group 4 Herbicide (Auxin) Mode of Action and how to help manage Herbicide Resistance. How the group 4 mode of action works, in a simple way one of the speakers put it, is "you grow yourself to death." We learned about the receptors on the plant and how the group 4 mode of action binds to those sites. The biggest stress at the event was, however, about herbicide resistance and what we can do to understand and help slow the spread and production of herbicide-resistant weeds. 

It was a great day of learning, and big Shout Out to Britni Keay for inviting us and giving us such a great opportunity to really advance our technical knowledge of Group 4 Herbicides. 

Get in touch with Justin or Courtney to set up a plan of attack for our 2019 Chemical Rotation. It is important to mix up those groups, and use herbicides containing multiple modes of action!

Crop Intelligence Meeting
Terry and Courtney made a trip out to Regina for a year-end review of 2018 Crop Intelligence Data and to strategize for the 2019 season!

The Crop Intelligence Team along with Elston Solberg from Earth Dirt Soil, put on a great afternoon, focusing on Water Driven Yield Potential and some of the agronomy used to help interpret this data. The most used analogy at the event was Crop Intelligence gives you more insight as to when you should pull the trigger, or even when you shouldn't pull the trigger. 

Elston shed some insight on some target numbers for growing wheat. At the end of the year if you hit 13.5% Protein in the grain, it means that you optimized your yield and your protein for the growing conditions. If you are less than 13.5% you left yield and protein on the table. Additionally, he shared that through tissue testing you can determine whether your crop has enough nitrogen to finish. If your tissue test show 4.7% Nitrogen at Flag leaf, you have enoguh N in the tank to finish the crop off for the season, if you are below 4.7% you need to take action for your crop quality.

"When you go to the doctor and get a physical test, that is like a Soil Sample. A Tissue Sample is like a blood test, it can tell you what has been going on in the past, what is going on today, and foreshadows the future."

Using Water Driven Yield Potential the team can help predict at that snapshot in the season, what yield you may be able to capture if you recieve average moisture for the rest of the season. Crop Intelligence has also added a "Rainfall Scenario" Button, allowing you to take the data today and run different rainfall scenarios to help predict what your yeild may do for the season. 

The Crop Intelligence team is also learning from every season! Based on the Crop Intelligence graphs, the agronomy team can tell things like, soil type at each soil sensor 10, 20, 30, 50 & 100 cm depths, with a new 70 cm sensor for the 2019 Season, herbicide injury, and more. 

Get in touch with Courtney or Terry to discuss Terrys' experniece with his Soil Probe in 2018, or to discuss how the soil moisture probe may be a benefit to your farm this season!