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Time again for our ALCIVIA co-op talk, remember it is a company that covers the state of Wisconsin committed to getting farmers started on the right foot. You can always find out more, from cash grain bids right on down to who you can connect with on the local scene, go to ALCIVIA.com.

My guest today is Greg Springer he is the agronomy sales technician, he’s located down in southeast Wisconsin, but he’s keeping a bead and eye on all of the inputs that farmers are going to be looking for real quick here in the growing season of 2022.

I know Greg, you know everybody feeling the pressure to get going. One thing I think a lot of growers are also wondering, how are supplies looking? Let’s start off first off with those pre-emerge chemicals that we are going to rely on where we can.

Depending on how long it takes us to get into those fields how are some of your chemistries looking this year Greg as far as availability across all of your territories?

Oh, chemistry for the most part especially on free emergence is sitting really well with a lot of that doubt in the countryside for guys that are doing their own application and we have a lot in-house on the three side of things.  Then I know everyone’s big thing is was the roundup last fall and you know some of the chemistry stuff kind of is getting kind of tight we just have to be really fluid with the situation, be in touch with your provider on, hey, what can we get, do we have an issue with something can we switch to something? We’ve been pretty good about being able to do that so far this year. And then the other thing is with the way the roundup situation was that we placed a lot of premix products like a Halex GT or Acuron GT on a lot of farms already.

So, if we do get in a bind, whether it’s we get caught by rain and can’t get the pre on the corn, a lot of those Halex and Acuron products we can’t just move the rates around in one pass early post on that and we’ve had a lot of good luck with that.

Then on the bean side of things, same thing might get caught you know who knows, the windows look like they’re going to be pretty small this year. And brought a lot of older chemistry in that well it doesn’t quite work like it used to when it was being used as a one-pass system on beans but allows us to go in very early post-emerge on those beans and just get us a little bit residual to open up our window for our second pass which and be relatively cost effective.

Yeah, right that’s something else you’ve got to keep in mind, now the other good thing that you were pointing out Greg, and sometimes people forget you guys have been layering in supplies since basically last fall. You may not see it when you walk into the warehouse at your location, but you guys have that inventory stashed at multiple locations across the state don’t you?

 Yes, yes I was just on the phone this morning and we’re looking for a little bit of COC oil to get done and well we’re going to probably have to run up to Evansville to get it, but hey they got a pile of it sitting there. So, if we’re selling our favorite.

Yep good, good you know the other thing that a lot of people might be a little nervous about it’s been making the news nitrogen availability. Greg, you know we’re trying to manage that very valuable resource as best we can, because it’s so cotton picking expensive then there was some conversation about the rail lines backing off on volume. You still feel pretty good as far as ALCIVIA’s position in that?

Yeah, we took a very I’d say, a large and strong position last fall actually last summer on nitrogen whether it was urea or 32 and I think we’re sitting really good on it at the moment. I know we’re full and I know the big tank up in Evansville’s full. You know a lot of our buildings are full of urea so, no matter what kind of source of nitrogen you use I know we’re sitting extremely well at the moment.

A lot of just where our geo location is here with the south branches pulling a lot of product off the Illinois river or out of Dubuque when it comes to nitrogen, and then the guys up north in Durand, they’re going to be pulling off the Mississippi the north there. It gives us a lot of options we don’t really have to rely on rail as much when it comes to nitrogen.

I do know some of my colleagues that work in other parts of the country that you know that’s how they get a lot of their 32 endurance in season, but we do a lot of trucking, so the biggest problem is making sure we have truck drivers. Which luckily here in the last week or two we’ve been doing the H2A program for the last couple years and our South Africans are very hard workers have started showing up. So, I think we’re trucking shortage trucker shortage is going to start getting a little less short, but we’re always looking for drivers.

Yep, absolutely I understand that well good news for anybody that’s working with ALCIVIA then this spring it sounds like the supplies are there waiting for the weather to cooperate, and like Greg said even feeling pretty good about their transportation situation all the way around.

That’s Greg springer he’s the agronomy sales technician with ALCIVIA, he is located in southwest, southeast Wisconsin but, again as he said it’s a coordinated map across the state with all the ALCIVIA locations working together to provide you what you need when you need it.

As always, you want to get connected go to alcivia.com and that’s your ALCIVIA co-op update. There are so many options these days for planting gardens and flowers in your yard from annuals perennials and pollinators to vegetables herbs and more Blaine’s farm and fleet is your one-stop shop for all your spring seeds and planting needs.