Spring is here, and the winter meeting season is over. Farmers are back in the fields, and the cycle renews. It’s a good time.

The winter meeting season is a good way to begin each crop year. Seeds of ideas are planted, and yield benefits down the line. I am always on the lookout for quotable quotes, or comments that stay with you. Memorable. There was no shortage of quotable quotes in the 2018 meeting season.

We can’t put all the quotes here in this short space, but here are a few that stuck with me:

“Don’t write this technology off. We have a finite set of tools to deal with, and we’re breaking them and not replacing them. We’re going to run out of tools, particularly for soybeans. We need every option that we can get. If you’re going to use it (dicamba) this year, use some common sense. Try to follow what we talked about.” --- Dr. Alan York, North Carolina State University William Neals Reynolds distinguished professor  emeritus of crop science, at a dicamba training session in Yanceyville.

“Be really careful what you take out of your system. You might save $30, and it might cost you a couple of hundred pounds of yield. If you do the math, you might be going in the wrong direction.” --- Dr. David Jordan, N.C. State Extension peanut specialist, at an Extension peanut meeting in Rocky Mount.

“A long time ago I had somebody tell me that it was important to know why. If a fellow only wanted to know how, he would end up working for the man who knew why. I’m here to tell you that if you can find out why, that’s where profitability lies for the most part.”  --- Sampson County, N.C., farmer Jay Sullivan at the 29th North Carolina Commodities Conference in Durham.

“If you’re not checking for plant bugs on your farm, I suggest that you do so.” --- N.C. State Extension Entomologist Dr.  Dominic Reisig at an Extension cotton meeting in Wilson.

“The first thing is getting more from what we do with fertilizer through placement. We need to get the crop as uniformly up as possible. We need to get it up as quickly as possible, and that all depends on putting a solid root system under that crop.” --- N.C. State Extension Corn Specialist Dr. Ron Heiniger at the 29th North Carolina Commodities Conference in Durham.

“I think the genetic potential for corn today is 800 bushels. There is no way Randy Dowdy (the Valdosta, Ga. grower who was the top finisher in the 2016 contest with a yield of 521 bushels per acre irrigated) or myself have captured all the genetic potential. If 800 is the actual number and the country averages170 bushels, we have a long way to go.  I think down the road we as producers will tap into the higher yields, but it will take a team effort and favor from the good Lord." --- Charles City, Va. farmer David Hula, the 2017 National Corn Growers Association Yield Contest winner with a yield 542.270 bushels per acre, at the 29th North Carolina Commodities Conference in Durham.

“If you grow soybeans in the South, I am adamant that regardless what group you are planting that you use fungicides because you are protecting that pod.” --- Davie County farmer Kevin Matthews, the 2017 North Carolina Soybean Yield Contest winner with a yield of 107.4 bushels per acre, speaking at the SC AgriBiz & Farm Expo in Florence.