AS WE GO ABOUT OUR DAILY LIVES facing and meeting challenges in our work-places and personal life, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the larger picture. Focused on specific goals and duties, we can miss significant developments until we step back and take a broad view.

Recently, the awarding of the Farm Progress Show to a site near Decatur every other year provided an opportunity to reflect upon the impact of disparate efforts throughout Illinois, when, taken together, a very clear picture emerges. Mid-Illinois is becoming a major global crossroad for both agribusiness and technology.

Contemplating the agriculture-related activities occurring within a broad band of Illinois between its borders with Iowa and Indiana, one quickly realizes just how much of the future of agriculture and economically related enterprises is being determined inside this region.

Begin at East Moline, where John Deere has been at the forefront of precision agriculture, a revolutionary development that allows producers to apply Global Positioning Systems and almost minutely tailor their farming practices to specific sections of a field. Deere has long been a driving force for improving agricultural efficiency through research and has successfully carried over that commitment into the technology-driven twenty-first century.

Traveling east toward Peoria, we find two more examples of why mid-Illinois is becoming the crossroads of global technology.

Caterpillar Tractor Company has a vital role in creating infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water management systems, and countless other elements that facilitate agricultural production. The company invests heavily in research and technology development.

Also in Peoria, we find the USDA's Research Laboratory, an important institution that explores the borders of knowledge and pushes them back to reveal new information and practices that translate to a stronger economy.

GROWMARK, a large agricultural cooperative is centered in the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area. It began as a farm supply cooperative for the Illinois Farm Bureau. Today, it is a major player in the value chain, serving farmers in a number of states and Canada with a variety of agricultural inputs and fuel. In an association with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), it owns and operates a number of grain elevators and grain origination sites.

Continuing to the east, we find the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a world- class research, teaching, and outreach institution. Here, major investments in biotechnology-such as the Institute for Genomic Biology now under construction and the new South Farms-constitute the cutting edge of scientific knowledge. Countless research projects are always underway, seeking to develop technology, products, and processes that increase efficiency and the quantity of food production. At the same time work is also being done to develop sustainable agriculture systems that are important to the long-term productivity of the food and agricultural system.

ADM, headquartered in Decatur, is one of the world's leading agriculture-related processors. Along with GROWMARK it is a major player in the movement of grain. Increasingly, ADM is moving into new areas, such as ingredients used in food manufacturing. And of course, ADM has played a vital role-if not the leading role-in the development and use of ethanol. Tate and Lyle, originally the Staley Company, also based in Decatur, pioneered starch manufacturing and other agriculture processing.

Finally, the entire region is populated to a significant extent with consulting firms that advise agriculturalists worldwide on topics from marketing and financial management to innovations in genomics and information technology.

Now a new factor has been added to mid-Illinois with the Decatur site's selection for the Farm Progress Show. Those who come to the Farm Progress Show will find themselves in a place, an area, where people come to learn about the future in agriculture.

It is easy to take the tremendous resources of mid-Illinois for granted or to fail to perceive their prominence in the big picture. But if we step back, the importance of mid-Illinois is clear as well as the challenge that it faces-how to best use these resources to create opportunity for Illinois farmers, Illinois industry, and the larger Illinois economy.

Given the track record of the enterprises and institutions of mid-Illinois, it's a good bet those questions will be answered in ways that will have exciting and positive outcomes for the people of Illinois.

(Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the December 2004 issue of Prairie Farmer magazine.)

- Dean Robert Easter

The planting intensions report just came out, however, there is time to change your mind on what to plant, as the weather changes and the fear of Asian Soybean Rust is still a factor. So what do you do about marketing your grain? The cost of storage is a factor; you are going to need cash to cover fertilizer and fuel bills this spring. Do I just sell when I need cash for bills or do I develop a plan?

Data on the "farmdoc" web site would suggest that selling grain before harvest in most crop years provides a better price than grain priced at harvest time or grain sold after harvest when the cost of storage and the cost of interest are considered. Historically only in short crop years do the price increase enough to offset the cost of storage and interest.

During planting you still need to take time to watch the markets relative to your yearly marketing plan. Ask yourself questions like: Is the grain I have in storage costing me money? Do I see any factors developing that will cause prices to increase during the planting season? Is the cost of holding grain to a late month reflected in the price? Depending on the answer to these questions, maybe you should sell grain. Remember you grow grain to sell it not to hold it.

The new crop has some risk to sell grain before it is harvested, however, historically in central Illinois the risk of a total crop failure is extremely small. If you have crop insurance and a low risk of crop failure it may be a reasonable thing to look at pre-selling a portion of your fall crop. There are a number of choices in marketing the new crop. A few examples are: Forward contract: Hedge to arrive with the elevator: Buy Puts on the Futures Market: Or sell futures in a traditional hedge. The key is not to ignore the marketing plan that you designed writing down your profitable price and what factors you would be looking at in order to sell your grain. Keep a careful watch on price movement during planting, some great opportunities may present themselves.

Topflight Grain Cooperative received the official notice of the ISO9001 Certification. The ISO Certification is very demanding and has taken the Topflight Employees over three years to achieve. Very few agricultural organizations in the United States have successfully implemented a quality management system that would stand up to the examination of an audit that is required for the ISO Certification.

The Certification is internationally recognized as a standard of quality and customer satisfaction. In Europe or Asia the ISO Certification is recognized as products that are better in the mind of the customer. This is a tremendous step forward for the future, to have a local grain facility with rail access to export markets for the farmers in Macon, DeWitt, Moultrie, Douglas and Champaign Counties.

The quality management system that Topflight Grain has put in place provides the framework for the documentation of a number of programs covering areas of identity preservation, segregation of export grain or to address bio-security issues. Topflight Grain has taken the first step in addressing a number of issues that are on the horizon.

Good Job Topflight Grain!

Macon County Master Gardeners will be showcasing several area private gardens, a Memorial Garden, Green Thumb vegetable gardens, as well as the Decatur Public Library Gardens in the ninth annual "How Our Gardens Grow" Garden Walk will be held on Sunday, June 12, 2005.

This year's collection of gardens offers a variety of styles, one of which includes an English/Victorian complete with orchard and greenhouse. Also included are water features, a small backyard garden full of whimsy and surprises, and the extensive Green Thumb vegetable gardens, which boast being the largest producer of vegetables in the entire county.

Tickets for the Garden Walk are $8 in advance and $10 on the day of the walk. The tickets have the addresses, descriptions and directions to each of the gardens. The self-guided tour will take place rain or shine from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. All ticket holders are eligible to win one of many great door prizes and need not be present to win.

Tickets may be purchased until Friday, June 10, 2005 at the Macon County Extension Office located at 2535 Millikin Parkway, Decatur. Other ticket locations include; Farmer's Market Garden & Gifts, The Garden Path, Williams Greenhouse in Mt. Zion, Backyards A Bloomin', Wild Birds Unlimited, Backyard Birds, and Cedar Lake Gardens & Gifts. Both adults and children must have a ticket to visit the gardens. Tickets may be purchased the day of the walk at the Decatur Public Library.

Tetanus, commonly called "lockjaw", is a bacterial disease that affects the nervous system. Bacteria can enter the body through even the smallest cut, scrape or wound. Deep puncture wounds caused by nails, knives or other sharp objects are especially susceptible to infection with tetanus. Tetanus is commonly found in soil, dust and manure placing those in the agriculture industry at high risk of infection. Symptoms of tetanus infection include headache, muscular stiffness in the jaw, stiffness of the neck, difficulty in swallowing, rigidity of abdominal muscles, spasms, sweating and fever. Symptoms begin eight days after infection, but may range in onset from three days to three weeks. Beyond being painful tetanus poses the threat of death from suffocation. Approximately 11% of reported cases of tetanus are fatal.

Vaccination is the easiest way to protect against tetanus. The availability of the Td (Tetanus/Diphtheria) vaccine has made tetanus a rare disease in the US. Almost all reported cases of tetanus occur in persons who have either never been vaccinated, or those who have completed a primary series but have not had a booster in the past ten years. According to the National Coalition for Adult Immunization, adults who have never been immunized should begin a 3-dose primary series over 12 months. The vaccine is very safe and effective. You cannot get tetanus from the vaccine. Recovery from tetanus may not assure immunity. Another infection could occur unless immunization is provided shortly after the individual's condition has stabilized.

For the sake of your personal health, and the security of your family, check to be sure you have been immunized and that you have kept up your ten year Td booster regimen.

* All adolescents and adults who deferred their regular booster during 2001-2002 because of shortages of the vaccine – the supply problems have been resolved.