The arguments to increase the number of publicly funded conservation employees has admittedly run its course. Therefore, the need to update technology in soil and water conservation is blatantly obvious. We know we all need to accomplish more with less. Let’s end the pretext for our lack of progress, and get on with improving technology. Before you respond and tell me why this is impossible, let me provide a response to the Top 5 arguments I hear for not improving technology. #1: Soil and water conservation budgets are limited. Resources are …
What did you accomplish with all that taxpayer money?
It seems like “dollars spent” has become the new metric for reporting improvements in soil and water conservation. I totally agree, we should know how much money is being spent on protecting our natural resources, but I think “dollars spent” is a misleading way to report progress. Taxpayers are entitled to information that contains more specificity, such as tons of soil or pounds of nitrogen kept from entering water bodies. Better yet, progress reporting should include efficiency information such as the cost of saving a ton of soil (cost/ton …
The End or the Start?
This week I find myself sorting through a mountain of turbulent emotions. After a wonderful ride of 22 years, I am no longer the CEO of Agren. Last week, we inked a deal with a major agribusiness whereby they acquired Agren and our software. As I said, this announcement comes with a range of emotions. The process of selling Agren has come with feelings of sorrow and loss. I would be lying if I said this process has been easy. It is difficult to walk away from a life-time spent pursuing a passion and realizing the rewards of relationships …
What’s bugging Tom
I’m Tom Buman and this is what’s bugging me… Everybody wants to put their best foot forward. I get it. I realize it is important to report the good news, but when the good news is misleading, it bugs me. So here’s what’s bugging me. Yield vs. Profitability: For years, conservationists have criticized farmers who just look at yield and not profitability. But now, the headlines are espousing cover crops because they increase yield. Conservationists are on the cover crop bandwagon. I realize that cover crops are good conservation practices, but …
More hired men or more tractors?
Hybrid corn, a one-row corn picker and a hand-tied pickup hay baler were just a few firsts pioneered in Shelby County, Iowa, by my grandpa, Will Buman. By 1950, Grandpa, was farming over 1,000 acres of land. For one farmer with 3 sons and one hired man, that was a lot of land. But let me qualify that. Grandpa also owned 6 tractors; more than one tractor per field hand. And at the time, six tractors definitely exceeded the average farmer. Grandpa understood that technology, not workers, increased production. Grandpa also understood farming …
Big challenges to cut nitrate loading
Efforts are needed beyond the 4R's, including no-till or strip till, controlled drainage, cover crops, wetlands, buffers and landowner help. Reprinted with permission of Corn+Soybean Digest. In a blog post this spring, Tom Buman laid out the huge challenge facing Iowa farmers to voluntarily meet nitrogen loading reduction goals (https://www.precisionconservation.com//nitrogen-problem-numbers/). Noting that models demonstrate agriculture is responsible for 70 percent of the nitrogen and phosphorus load delivered to the Gulf of Mexico, Buman, …