Betsy Smith has helped farmers in west-central Indiana as an agronomist for some three decades. Master Farmers Del and Tammi Unger, Carlisle, rely on her services, as do many other farmers in the area. She serves as a crops adviser in her role with Ceres Solutions, a farmer co-op operating in west-central Indiana.
Recently, Smith was recognized by a commercial company, CropMetrics, and was awarded the first ever Most Outstanding Leader in Precision Irrigation Solutions award. CropMetrics provides soil moisture probes and also operates a Web portal to aid farmers in scheduling irrigation.
Ceres Solutions works with CropMetrics to make their products and services available to Ceres Solutions customers.
A number of the customers Smith works with have irrigation on at least part of their land. While west-central Indiana has some high quality farm land, there is also a fair amount of sandy land. It can be very productive if irrigated and treated correctly, Smith says.
Smith does a good job of pairing soil moisture monitoring with tissue sampling and recommendations for adding fertilizer through irrigation water during the growing season, according to CropMertrics folks. Fertigation is a practice she has helped many farmers in the Wabash River Valley help develop over the years.
Occasionally you see Smith's name as a panelist in Crops corner and Bug Beat in Indiana Prairie Farmer. Her name also appears as a source in other articles. What you don't know is that every issue every year, Smith coordinates the panel for these two columns. She does it on behalf of the Indiana Certified Crop Advisers. All panelists on those columns are CCAs. The panel rotates every three months. The questions are based on current crop and pest production issues.
Look for the latest editions of Crops Corner and Bug Beat in the next issue of Indiana Prairie Farmer. Meanwhile, congratulations to Betsy on a well-deserved award.