GOSHEN COUNTY – Area farmers, ranchers and agriculturists convened at The Bucking Horse Grill south of Torrington for the sixth annual Meyer Seeds Crop Shop on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. 

The 2021 Crop Shop included presentations from Pioneer Agronomist Chase Sauder, Corteva Product Agronomist Mike Wardyn, Pioneer Territory Manager Casey Jagers and President-Meteorologist Don Day of DayWeather, Inc. 

Participants were greeted at the door, offered a multitude of educational materials, given Pioneer merchandise and offered a chance to view and handle state-of-the-art farm equipment being used and sold by WyoBraska Precision, a division of Precision Planting operated by Garrett Meyer. 

“We are so thankful to have this great of a turnout,” Linda Meyer said. 

The Bucking Horse Grill was abuzz with approximately 70 attendants. Many of them shared stories of the successes and failures they experienced during last year’s growing season as they waited for the beginning of the presentations.

Linda Meyer opened the meeting with a presentation of the company’s new website, meyerseeds.com. The Meyer Seeds website offers a convenient and efficient way to view the Pioneer seeds sold by their company and a listing of the services they offer. Linda showed participants how they could view the variety of corn, soybean, sunflower, alfalfa and corn silage seeds available for purchase, including information about each hybrid.

In addition to the information provided from meyerseeds.com, the website directly links customers to the Pioneer website, pioneer.com, where they can learn more about the different hybrids offered by Pioneer. 

Sauder presented next, providing statistical data from the previous years’ harvest. In addition, Sauder provided some helpful tips for planting this spring. Sauder told attendants to plant as early as they can to maximize their growing season. 

Sauder said those who planted corn seed in April 2020 had an average yield of 208.13 bushels per acre while those who had planted in May 2020 had an average yield of 187.3 bushels per acre.

He recommended farmers manage their water from beginning to end, control insects, keep the plants as happy as possible while they are in the key growing stages and utilize the tools available to them. 

Wardyn led the next presentation. He displayed some of the new hybrids offered by Pioneer and discussed some of the different benefits of using Pioneer seeds. 

“Pioneer is the leader in corn,” Wardyn said. “Pioneer has done it the longest and has the best genetics out there.”

Crop shop attendees were provided with a three-course meal for lunch. After lunch, Don Day of DayWeather, Inc. provided an extended forecast for the year ahead.

“Sea surface temperatures changed rather quickly out in the Pacific Ocean.” Day said. “It went from a warmer phase to a colder phase.”

According to Day, this change of phase in the Pacific Ocean will lead to a cold and droughty winter. This year’s La Niña presence in the Pacific has caused the Pacific Ocean to be at its coldest since 2012. 

Day said those in southeastern Wyoming can expect to see another year similar to 2012 and expects to see a continuation of the arid weather experienced in the summer of 2020. He also explained how an uptick in severe weather would likely be due to the La Niña weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean. 

Day summarized, telling meeting attendants to expect a cold winter with a drier and warmer than average spring and summer 2021. He said March could have some moisture, but April will likely be dry with few storms. Day then expects June, July and August to be drier than average.

Hay prices will likely increase this year as well due to La Niña, according to Day. 

“La Niña is not good for hay production,” said Day.

Day said it is likely there will be a number of small storms which will help with grass growth in the early spring, but likely won’t continue throughout the year. Day added, long, continuing storms with high moisture are unlikely for this year.

Meyer concluded the event by thanking Day for his presentation and with a mention of Day’s product, WeatherSlant. WeatherSlant is a service offered by DayWeather Inc. providing everyone in southeast Wyoming and Colorado’s Front Range with “custom daily forecasts that come directly to your phone. Handcrafted forecasts by a real-life meteorologist to help you better manage and plan your business.”

Meyer Seeds has been in operation since 2016 and takes pride in its focus on customer relations, focusing on one-on-one relationships with their customers, according to Linda.

“One of the things Brett and I do, we have our crop shops.” Linda said. “We go above and beyond all the time; from seed delivery to time spent with other customers. We really do care about our customers!”

Linda told the Farmer, “before Brett was a sales agent, he talked to farmers all around the area. He was not afraid to give them advice. Pioneer sought Brett out, because he believed so much in it.”

Brett is an award-winning fifth-generation farmer who takes pride in what he does for area farmers. Meyer Seeds offers a multitude of services for farmers across the state of Wyoming.

Meyer Seeds allows customers to not only buy seed from them, but also store the seed in their buildings. Brett said he is currently in the planning stages of erecting a new warehouse. He hopes to have the warehouse finished by their fall field day, the last week in August. 

In addition to the seed sales, Meyer Seeds offers drone surveying of fields, deliveries, seed storage and Garrett Meyer’s WyoBraska Precision Planting Service. 

Garrett spends his time taking customers’ existing planters and upgrading the components to the latest, state-of-the-art equipment. Rather than spending large sums of money for a new planter, customers can update their currently owned equipment, according to Brett. 

Visit meyerseeds.com or call Brett at 307-575-0325 for more information.