Hefty Seed will host Summer Agronomy Event on Aug. 24

PRINCETON, Ill. — Hefty Seed Company Princeton will host the Hefty Summer Agronomy Event from 2 to 5:30 p.m. Aug. 24 at Senica’s Oak Ridge Golf Club, 658 East U.S. Highway 6, La Salle. Dinner will be provided.

Speakers for this event include Brian Hefty, CEO of Hefty Seed Company; Ernie Sanders, vice president of product development at Pivot Bio; and Fred Below, professor of plant physiology at the University of Illinois.

As CEO of Hefty Seed Company, Hefty is committed to helping farmers improve their land and environment through better agronomic practices and increase their operations profitability.

Hefty Seed Company was founded by Hefty’s father, Ron, who moved to South Dakota from Iowa in 1969 and was unable to source two of his favorite herbicides and one was terribly overpriced.

He used this obstacle as an opportunity, sourcing products from Iowa for himself and his neighbors providing the groundwork for their operation.

As vice president of product development, Sanders oversees Pivot Bio’s field trials, analyzing performance data to understand how products impact the environment and how they handle in different conditions.

Prior to joining Pivot Bio, Sanders spent 37 years at Monsanto, holding positions in research, technology direction and corporate strategy. He culminated his time as head of global launch and product expansions for seed applied solutions.

At the U of I, Below’s areas of interest include grain quality for processing, nitrogen use efficiency and nutrient uptake and partitioning, and crop production management evaluation.

He creates strategies to teach farmers and agricultural professionals the value of crop management decisions and develops systems to sustainably produce high-yielding corn and soybeans.

To do so, Below evaluates environmental, genetic and management factors that impact the productivity of corn and soybeans.

To register for the agronomy event, visit www.heftyseedprinceton.com or call 815-879-8720.