BROADCASTS.com

Samantha Schmidgall, the Agronomy Marketing Manager with Ag View FS in Walnut, IL, is driven by the cooperative foundation of her agricultural retail company.\xa0

\u201cIf we're not doing what our farmers and our farmer-based board want us to do, we're not checking the box of doing the right thing that day,\u201d she said.

In recent years, her farmer community has encouraged the company to embrace sustainable ag technologies and practices.

\u201cWe might have one or two growers that suggest, you know, hey, can you look at this? Can you see if this is cost effective for us? And when we find those things, we're implementing them across our company,\u201d she explained.

Over time, the addition of these conservation practices has evolved into a core philosophy of how they run their business.

\u201cTrying to be the leader in conservation is something that we truly take pride in and our customer owners do as well,\u201d Schmidgall said.

Agricultural retailers have a significant impact on the types of agronomic practices farmers adopt in the communities they serve.\xa0

Farmers rely on these companies for everything from seeds and inputs to essential agronomic advice. That role of trusted adviser gives retailers influence with the farmers they work with.

Trust In Food, in collaboration with Environmental Defense Fund, recently published a report called \u201cGrowing for the future: Business lessons from ag retail\u2019s conservation leaders\u201d.

The report notes, \u201cMore so than almost any other stakeholder, ag retailers are positioned to play an influential role in the continuous improvement of sustainability across the agricultural value chain.\u201d

But many retailers prefer conventional growing over sustainable ag.

\u201cRetailers can be a roadblock to adopting sustainable ag practices if they\u2019re not into conservation,\u201d said Field Work co-host Mitchell Hora, a farmer in Iowa.

That\u2019s why Hora, along with fellow farmer and co-host Zach Johnson, wanted to hear from folks on the retail side who have made conservation a top priority.

Malcolm Stambaugh works with Schmidgall at Ag View FS as a Crop Specialist. In 2012, he began working with his farmers to implement 4R nutrient management.\xa0

4R Nutrient Stewardship is an efficient framework for applying nutrients that emphasizes using the right fertilizer source, the right rate, at the right time, and in the right place.\xa0

Since 2012, Stambaugh has helped 16 growers participate in the 4R program, and was recognized as one of the 4R advocates of the year in 2019.

Along with their 4R work, Ag View FS encourages all their salesmen to use the \u2018maximum return rate on nitrogen,\u2019 or MRTN, tool to calculate the most profitable rate of nitrogen application for each grower.

\u201cJust to make sure that we're doing the right thing economically and we're doing the right thing agronomically,\u201d Schmidgall explained. \u201cIt doesn't do any good for anyone to put on an excess of nitrogen that's not getting used in the right way.\u201d

Schmidgall has seen that as more growers adopt conservation nitrogen application techniques, it sparks interest in the larger community.

\u201cWhen people in the area see that we have more of these enduring farmer 4R advocates\u2026 there's a lot of guys that are asking, \u2018How do I do that? How do I be a part of that?\u201d she said.

That initial interest in conservation opens the door for Ag View FS to introduce those growers to a whole set of sustainable practices that could benefit their operation.

\u201cIt's not only fertilizer, it's not only doing the 4R practices, but it's soil sampling on a grid. It's VRT (variable rate technology) application of lime, phosphates and potassium. It's no applications on frozen ground. It's utilizing cover crops,\u201d she said.

Schmidgall and Stambaugh see that it\u2019s going to take years to refine the best uses of newly developing conservation techniques. Right now, they\u2019re collecting data on the best uses of these techniques. That information will guide their company over the coming decade.

\u201cSo right now we're doing the legwork, doing the trials to figure out what's going to work, what isn't working,\u201d Schmidgall said. \u201cAnd if you're not working with an ag retailer who's interested in doing those trials and working with those products, there's a potential for you to get left behind.\u201d