Mosanto

^Inside Monsanto Tent^

Monsanto tent

The first booth I visited at Husker Harvest

Days was the Monsanto booth. Inside the 

big tent were many desks that one could go

to for information. One that particularly 

interested me was the desk that had mason

jars set out on display. Each jar had a substance

showing each stage of the ethanol process, 

staring with corn and ending with ethanol. 

While at the Monsanto site I learned about 

Acceleron seed treatments. Acceleron 

complements the performance of Monsanto

corn, soybean and cotton products. It will

first be available in 2009 with Roundup

Ready 2 Yield soybeans. 

One last thing I did while visiting Monsanto

was the Discovery Tour. Monsanto had a plot 

set up across the street from their main tent

that displayed all their projects. They had test

crops that had shown the effects of a drought,

insects, herbicides and pesticides. The most 

interesting thing I saw was the breeds of corn

and soybeans that were grown in the early 1900's 

compared to the breeds of corn and soybeans

being used today. The difference between the

two crops was staggering. 

I've been busy.

Hello all. I would like to apologize for my lack

of posts during the last two weeks. I've been 

really busy with homework and studying for

my first round of tests. I plan to put a few new

posts up tomorrow since my afternoon is open,

other than the fact that I'm giving blood. Sorry 

again!

Southern Power District

The Southern Power District (SPD) had a demonstration

displaying the dangers of live wires. They held a tree 

branch up to the wire to demonstrate why it's dangerous.

They also put a hot dog on a pole to demonstrate a human 

finger touching a live wire and displayed how rubber

boots and tires can and will spark and attempt to catch

on fire. It was very interesting and you got 

to see the guys from SPD almost light stuff

on fire.  

This is a picture of the SPD demonstration set up.

"...In John Deere Green..."

Even though I am a country girl, I'm actually not

a big fan of country music. However, I love the 

song John Deere Green by Joe Diffie. Which 

leads to my point, I love John Deere tractors. I 

loved to ride in them with my dad when I was little.

I hated the International because I would always hit 

my head on the back window when I rode with him. But anyway, being a John Deere fan I had to 

stop by the lot. They had presentations running 

throughout the days. I went to one, but unfortunately 

I missed most of it because I had to take an important

phone call regarding some volunteer work I'm going to 

be doing with the Girl Scouts. 

I walked around a little bit after the presentation and I 

think my favorite thing there (besides all the shiny green

tractors) was watching all the dads taking their little

boys around to look at the tractors. They would climb

up into the tractors and combines and get so excited. 

It reminded me of my little brother.

811

On Wednesday I visited a tent that had information

on 811. I found out that it is a number that anyone

must call before they want to dig anywhere. You must

call the number at least two business days, but no more

than 10 days, before you want to start work. You give

the Digger's Hotline your location and they will notify 

the affected utilities of your dig site. Those utilities 

will then let you know if its okay to dig where you

want to dig. It was a very informational booth. The

really great thing about this booth was that the man 

I talked to was really nice and informative, and he

gave me a post-it note holder that clips onto the visor

in my car. 

Fellowship of Christian Farmers, International

Have you ever been walking around Husker

Harvest Days and noticed that everyone you

walk by is hauling around a walking stick?

I remember the first HHD I went to. A friend

and I wanted one so bad. We asked probably

five people where to find them.

They can be found at the tent of the Fellowship

of Christian Farmers, International.  When I

was visiting the tent this year, I found out 

that the group has built churches and does 

outreach programs in Russia, Albania, 

Jamaica and other various countries. The group 

helped storm victims in the Midwest 

this summer and it goes around to farm shows

like HHD to spread its word. 

To get a wordless walking stick, wordless 

hiking stick, wordless yardstick or wordless

braided rope, you have to sit down with one of 

the men in the tent. You receive your stick with a

string of beads on it, or just the string of beads to be

put on your rope and a pamphlet on what the beads 

mean and how to incorporate them into your life.

The man you are sitting with will then explain the

meaning of the beads. I was told that the beads 

are basically the bible explained in color. The 

colors are:

     -Gold = Heaven

     -Dark (Black) = Sin

     -Red = Christ's Blood

     -White = Snow

     -Green = Growing in Christ

It's a very interesting speech to listen to, and it only

takes about five minutes. If you choose the rope to

take home, then you get a ticket and go pick your 

colors to make a rope. The colors are then put onto

this rope spinning contraption that the group has and 

they'll twist or braid your colors together to make a 

rope. In true Husker fashion I picked the colors red,

white and black. I'm going to tape it to the wall in my

dorm room to add some color to the plain white walls.

Visiting this tent is definitely a must when attending

 HHD.  

Antique Tractor Show

When I was walking back to my car after the 

show today, I stopped by the Antique Tractor

Show. I didn't gather much information about 

the group, but I did pick up a brochure about

the Lester F. Larsen Tractor Test and Power

Museum. It's in Lincoln on East Campus and

its easy to find, I drive by it all the time. I took

a lot of picture because I love old tractors, 

so enjoy.

Exhibitors at HHD support the FFA

    As I was leaving the Monsanto tent this morning 

I ran into my old FFA Advisor, Heath Ahrens. 

Our chapter would always send kids to HHD 

to work and to learn about job opportunities 

and get information on colleges. We would 

usually help the presenters in the "Rural Life"

tent and hand out bandanas at the Dodge tent. 

This year, however, the chapter was contacted 

by the Nebraska Pork Producers. So as I was 

catching up with my old advisor, we walked 

to the Pork Producers tent. I got so see a 

bunch of my friends that are still in high 

school, and witness them "hard at work."  

A few of the girls were cutting pork 

tenderloins into small pieces while another 

was putting the pieces into cups to serve to

the visitors of the booth. Two other girls were 

manning a wheel that spun. The wheel

would land on a category and they would ask

you a question testing your knowledge on 

all things pork. If you got the answer right,

you got a squishy Nebraska Pork Producers

pig. I got one, and I think it's really cute. 

It's really great that exhibitors at HHD

want to support a great organization like

the FFA. I think that there are other chapters 

that work for other exhibitors, but I'm not

sure who. I might look into that tomorrow. 

Tomorrow is the Big Day

Ah finally, I'm writing my first post. I just found out that I received 

this amazing opportunity through Monsanto on Friday, so my week

up until now has been a little crazy. I was excited when I found out 

that I was going to Husker Harvest Days because my parent's house

is about a 35-40 minute drive from the HHD site, so I get to stay at 

home for three days. Plus, HHD is always fun and educational, and

it's a great opportunity to build up your free pen collection.

It was so refreshing to leave the city and make the two hour drive

on I-80 back home. I love watching the size of civilization grow 

smaller and the number of fields slowly increase as I'm driving 

on the interstate. Of course, I'm sure I'll be ready to get back 

to Lincoln by Wednesday, and my trek all over campus to get

to classes on Thursday is going to seem like a nothing commute

compared to walking around HHD for two days.

I was doing some research today, trying to plan which booths

I want to visit and looking up the ones that I have to visit for

one of my classes, when I came across an article in the Nebraska

Farmer HHD 2008 edition. It was titled How HHD got off the

drawing boards and I found it quite interesting. 

I thought I would put some fun facts about HHD on here:

-Husker Harvest Days was born in 1978 thanks

to the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce

officials, area business  leaders and Nebraska Farmer.

-The first show was held October 10-12, 1978. 
-The number of exhibitors at HHD has nearly tripled 

since the first show in '78.
-The show is the largest irrigated farm show with

about 860 irrigated acres.

 

As my first post comes to a close, I would like to thank Monsanto

and everyone involved with the Future Ag Journalist

Fellowship program for giving me and other college

students the opportunity to write for you.