Horizon Resources, with seven locations in northwestern North Dakota/northeastern Montana, is expanding the way they partner and grow with their farmer customers.
In the agronomy division, there has been a strong focus on offering specialized "all-encompassing" farm services to help customers/farmers be successful in their farming operations,” said John Salvevold, Horizon’s agronomy division manager.
In order to offer those specialized farm services, the division has hired several qualified experts in their fields, along with a new agronomist/outreach coordinator.
Salvevold hired Dr. Audrey Kalil, former NDSU plant pathologist at the Williston Research Extension Center, to be its agronomist/outreach coordinator in January.
“Dr. Kalil has exceptional knowledge in plant and root diseases and has done extensive work with pulse crops in western North Dakota and eastern Montana,” Salvevold said. “She is one of the most respected sources of information in raising pulse crops and managing disease issues in our trade territory.”
Kalil will work alongside the Williston Horizon Resource agronomy team, which has also hired a recent graduate of the Williston State College agriculture program for their summer internship program.
“I am excited to work with our summer intern and help her develop the skills she will use in her future career.” Kalil said.
Ahead of spring planting, Kalil coordinated with agronomist Austin Semenko on grower meetings ahead of spring to prepare farmers for the planting season.
She invited Dr. Michael Wunsch, NDSU Carrington REC plant pathologist, to help her give presentations on disease management in pulse crops at Horizon’s Williston and Zahl locations.
According to Salvevold, the farm services that Horizon Resources offers are a “total bundle” for farmers/customers.
They have invested in services that will help growers make the most use of existing pest management technologies, as there is a lack of new products coming onto the market.
“We are seeing increasing problems with resistance to pesticides that we have been using for many years, so it is important to plan ahead and manage resistance using crop rotations and rotating chemical modes of actions,” he said.
Because there is a lack of new herbicides, Horizon has adopted a new professional record-keeping program to track crop and pesticide rotations. They’ve also invested in knowledgeable people to make the most of the pest management program.
“With the emphasis on seed traits, we have not seen much for new herbicides, so we need to make the most of the products that we have,” Salvevold said. “In this business, anyone can sell chemicals, but we have really focused on hiring some of the best people in our trade territory and we are investing in technology.”
Horizon has employed qualified agronomists to scout fields for weeds, insect pests and diseases, and make recommendations, which are then uploaded to the program for the best management of that field in future years.
“This spring and summer are looking to be exciting times for Horizon Resources, as our agronomy staff plunges into their new program for farmers,” he said.
Salvevold said Kalil will utilize a DJI Mavic 3M high resolution aerial survey drone with both RGB (color/visible spectrum) and multi-spectral imagery capabilities to assist with crop scouting this summer.
The multi-spectral imagery can be used to assess crop health and this technology has shown promise in research settings to monitor the onset of disease in corn and sugarbeets.
Kalil said that while drones and multi-spectral imagery have been used in research applications, using the drone for crop scouting will be a new approach for commercial use for farmers in this growing region.
“This technology will allow us to assess crop health in ways we cannot in the visual spectrum. The RGB or color images can be used early in the season to assess plant population and weed density,” Kalil said. “As the crop grows, we can utilize the multi-spectral imagery to evaluate crop health and offer disease ratings, and then we can then use that data to assist with fungicide application decisions.”
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Kalil is excited to see how the drone will aid her in identifying diseases and making recommendations.
“I am also optimistic about using the drone to diagnose and track root rot. It is much easier to assess root rot from the sky because it can initially be sporadic and patchy, and it can be challenging to get a feel for how severe it is from the ground,” she said.
Kalil said she would start with looking for stunting, yellowing, and bare spots in the field following emergence. Root rot initially tends to follow where water goes in the field, and may appear streaky, but it will spread out from there with rain events as the pathogen moves through the field. Areas of compaction will have more severe symptoms, as well.
Last year, Kalil observed a lentil field with root rot impacting 50 percent of the field.
“Root rots can be a significant problem in peas and lentils, and farmers should be planting early to give the crop a head start before the soil reaches temperatures where the pathogens are more aggressive.”
In addition to planting early, treating pea and lentil seed with a fungicide will help manage other soil-borne diseases that prefer cool soil temperatures.
Kalil also plans to conduct on-farm trials to assess how products perform during the growing season.
“If farmers are interested in evaluating products or crop varieties before adopting them across the entire farm, they can work with me on setting up a trial and I can help collect and analyze the data,” she said.
This summer, Kalil will be evaluating an insecticide seed treatment offered by Corteva called LumiviaCPL. It is an insecticide seed treatmentfor wheat and pulse crops that protects against armyworm, cutworm, wireworm and grasshoppers. Lumivia is applied to the seed and provides a 45-day window of suppression following planting.
Kalil said some farms in northwest North Dakota/northeast Montana have experienced significant grasshopper damage in recent years.
“Over the past few years, growers have been using foliar insecticides to control grasshoppers, but there have been some instances where the grasshoppers move into the field before farmers have a chance to do their insecticide applications,” Kalil said. “In these cases, the grasshoppers caused a lot of damage.”
She will also be conducting an on-farm trial to evaluate fungicide seed treatment in field peas.
Kalil holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Minnesota and worked in the commercial inoculant industry in research and development for three years prior to entering her graduate program. She obtained her doctorate in plant pathology with a minor in plant breeding and plant genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied beneficial plant-microbe symbiosis.
Kalil supports the pulse industry as an associate director for the Northern Pulse Growers Association, Co-PI of the North Central Integrated Pest Management Center Pulse Crops Working Group, and co-producer of the Growing Pulse Crops Podcast Series.
Horizon Resources’ agronomy services include farm planning and record-keeping, soil testing, soil fertility recommendations and management programs, fertilizer delivery, custom application services, grain bill sales, crop scouting and now an in-house plant pathologist, Dr. Kalil.
“We have a Ph.D. on staff along with certified crop advisors, and not many ag dealers can say that,” Salvevold said, emphasizing that the Horizon Resources team is committed to customer service. “We understand that utilizing our services at just the right time is important to any operation, so we strive to make timeliness a top priority.”
Horizon has five full-service agronomy dealer/crop services locations along with two other locations in western North Dakota and eastern Montana.
Horizon Resources Williston also has a 16,000-ton fertilizer plant hub, which serves all of the agronomy locations.
“As Horizon Resources embarks on this new chapter, the cooperative remains committed to its core values of innovation, community involvement, and delivering solutions for success,” Salvevold concluded.
Photo: Horizon Resources was on the job in the fall spreading fertilizer. Now they are helping farmers prepare for spring planting.
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