48 / SEEDWORLD.COM JUNE 2019 “BLOOD MAKES THE GRASS GROW” is what I thought I heard from our former college football linebacker, manufacturing engineer Justin Kean. He said his college football coach had used that line to motivate his players. From nearby I heard Kelly Wolfe, our CFO, utter the same words, which he had heard from his commanding officer while serving in the military. Justin explained that sports were a big part of his life growing up, teaching him important lifelong lessons about how to cope with failure and suc- cess, how others depended on him and how integ- rity, perseverance, aptitude, trust, and confidence are all important for success. Most of all, Justin said that sports had shown him what happens when you get complacent and aren’t on the offense. In the end, you and your team get beat because the other side had a “want to win” desire instead of a “want to not lose” attitude. Kelly elaborated that it’s the same in the military. Commanders know that getting results requires action. Winning takes effort. Standing still may get you killed. Coaches and command- ers both pound it into your head “BLOOD MAKES THE GRASS GROW! ” Get out there and get busy! The same is true with business and life, nothing happens without someone first taking action. Even with our best efforts, we know we won’t win them all. That’s when it’s our blood making the grass grow. The only way to find out who you are as an organization is to take action. Live your life and run your business with a sense of urgency. “Discuss, decide, do” is one of our mantras. Do things and keep your foot on the gas. We are only here for a short while, so use your time wisely and urgently. Those early lessons we learned from sports and military experience have shaped our adult lives. Working together and having each other’s back are ingrained. Little did those coaches and commanders know that what they taught us about making the grass grow would encourage us for the rest of our lives. BloodMakestheGrassGrow ROBIN O’MARA PRESIDENT, O’MARA AG SERVICES romara60@msn.com omara-ag.com/ THE INTEREST IN industrial hemp is currently like nothing I have experienced in any ag marketplace. Sorry to use the term again, but it is the Wild West! After I spent two days in late March at the NoCo6 Hemp Expo in Denver with a diverse attendee group, I saw an article in Seed World that likened industrial hemp production to the early development of corn. The article is not about hemp, it's about corn. However, if you are involved in the current proliferating wave of industrial hemp production, the article has some relevance. Human selection transformed the maize plant to grow from teosinte, its ancient, humble, nearly unrecognizable ancestor, into a modern plant that produces high yields and can be efficiently harvested. I made the connection between corn and industrial hemp following NoCo6 discussions about the chal- lenges for processing and conditioning both hemp seed and hemp biomass One takeaway (and there were many) is the fact that harvest processes are not yet standardized. What are we harvesting for: seed, oil or fiber? How will we do it: by hand, combine, forage harvester or some other new method? All good questions with answers that eventually will lead to consistency in prod- uct. Much of harvest uncertainty stems from the hemp plant itself. It produces large, tough, fibrous stems that will damage most existing harvest equipment. The "friendly" part of the plant is extremely oily and tacky which causes addi- tional issues like bearing failures and prolonged efforts to cleanout harvesting equipment. Both of these issues cause problems for production and neither is easily solved. So back to the previously referenced article which touches on the genetic development of corn to meet the needs of the marketplace and con- sumers. The same needs exist in developing industrial hemp as were impor- tant in corn’s early market development. Good traits need to be leveraged and bad traits need to be minimized. We at least need to breed out the crazy stem! A plant that is simple to harvest and process and yields better oils, seed or fiber should be the target. The idea may frighten some in the hemp industry. However, most of what we cur- rently identify as corn was developed long before mega conglomerate seed compa- nies were involved. The basic development of corn happened through natural selec- tion, breeding and hybridization processes. The same could be used to develop indus- trial hemp into greater opportunities for all of us. IndustrialHempIs FollowingCorn’sFootprints JON MORELAND PETKUS NORTH AMERICA MANAGING DIRECTOR moreland@petkus.de petkus.de