Kalb's crop consultation program attracts clients from across the world

Kalb’s crop consultation program attracts clients from across the world

From his farm in Dubois, Ind., Kevin Kalb and his family have continuously earned top scores in the National Corn Growers Association’s National Corn Yield Contest. Now Kalb shares with other farmers the tips he has learned through the years he has competed in the contest.

BY EMMA HOPKINS-O’BRIEN

Few farmers truly achieve celebrity status. However, one southern Indiana farmer’s success at a national level is bringing new opportunities. Kevin Kalb of Dubois, Ind., is gaining fame by winning multiple National Corn Yield Contests hosted by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) yearafter-year.

Broadcasted on RFD-TV, Corn Warriors is a television show based on the success of a handful of farmers in the NCGA’s National Corn Yield Contest, including Kevin Kalb.

That success has led Kalb and his friends to open a crop consultation program, and he is featured in a television show. As it turns out, growing a 409 bushel-per-acre corn yield will do that to a person.

“Live to Farm” is the show that features Kalb’s family on the RFD-TV and Discovery channels – thanks to his corn celebrity status.

On a more serious note, Midwest Advanced Crop Consulting (MACC) is the program Kalb has put together with the help of Terry Vissing to share his wisdom and recipes on growing high-yield corn and soybeans. MACC was founded on the brink of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the program to inadvertently lock itself into a mostly internet Zoom-based format, because MACC now has clientele quite far from Indiana. In January, Kalb and Vissing met in-person with a group of farmers in Dubois County to give new and perspective clients a feel for what goes on in the program.

“We have people enrolled in probably 30-35 states,” Vissing said. “And we’ve got a Canadian fellow here today, and we’ve got two South Africans who are involved – and we’ve got a French guy who actually farms in Ukraine now.”

Kevin Kalb poses with one of his 14 National Corn Yield Contest awards from NCGA.

Kevin Kalb’s wife, Shawn, has also enjoyed frequent success in the NCGA’s National Corn Yield Contest.

Sharing his knowledge

MACC is a three-year, membership-based group that meets by Zoom about three months during the planting season along with an in-person winter meeting. The program also includes at least one, big field day during the cycle in which members observe some of Kalb’s own fields. Being a 14-time winner of the NCGA’s National Corn Yield Contest, it’s easy to see why other farmers would want in on Kalb’s formula for success. He currently operates his family’s five-generation farm under the name Kevin Kalb Farms, where he raises turkeys along with corn and soybeans in Dubois County. Vissing, who works alongside Kalb in public relations for MACC, farms corn and soybeans in Marysville, Ind.

Having accomplished his own goals for producing corn, Kalb decided to spread the wealth, so to speak, in 2019. He created MACC to spare other farmers the mistakes he made to get to the current level of his operation.

“I became pretty good friends with Terry Vissing, and we were just talking about the national contest and how much we learned from it, and all the mistakes that we made,” Kalb said. “We thought maybe we could go out and help other farmers get to where we’re at. So, we share our knowledge a little bit. Instead of taking some of the other guys 10-15 years to learn what we have, we try to teach them in two or three years.”

MACC relies heavily on two techniques: The use of liquid fertilizer and an analysis of leaf tissue samples to track the plant’s nutritional needs.

Director of Midwest Advanced Crop Consulting (MACC) Kevin Kalb, at left, stands next to Terry Vissing, who partners with him in directing MACC.

Kalb has relied on NCGA to do a lot of soil and other testing on his fields. He said he has probably spent $150,000 on products that do not work over the years, and he believes the reason is a lack of attention given to soil health. Kalb and Vissing are tuned in to soil life and biology and believe that is how growers can get to the next level of productivity in corn and soybeans.

“So many of us were always taught by the universities to use dry fertilizers, but Kevin has found that the salts in the dry fertilizers are damaging the hair roots on the corn and keeping the yields down,” Vissing said. “We see guys here all the time restricting themselves and spending lots of money on dry fertilizers, and they don’t realize that it’s not getting up into their plant.”

Using a particular leaf from the plant, Kalb takes tissue samples once per week during the growing season to see if plants are pulling in the nutrients they need, thus making sure they are feeding the plant rather than just the soil.

Another “secret” in Kalb’s high-yield formula is the use of humic acids. These are extracts of the organic compounds that exist in humus — the major organic fraction of soil. Kalb and Vissing describe the effect on the soil as it being able to “breathe” better and lower levels of compaction.

“The fertilizer that you put out there — you just can’t put it out there and it miraculously goes into the corn plant,” Kalb explained. “It takes biology to do that, so we’re actually feeding our soil biology with the humics — the carbon and the sugars to stimulate them.”

Less inputs, especially fertilizer

Kalb’s formula cuts down on inputs, particularly where fertilizer is concerned. He says his fields are now down to using only half a pound of nitrogen per bushel of corn. He then uses those savings to spend on sugars and humics. His program aims not to spend more money on crop inputs, but to cut down on some inputs and use the savings to spend on more contributions to soil life and biology that will enable the fertilizer to get swiftly where it needs to go. This way of encouraging soil health is environmentally friendly, as it improves and nurtures life in the soil rather than degrading it, Kalb explained.

“I think the advantage learning from us, and our group, is we make a living farming ourselves,” he said. “I mean I don’t know how you can learn better than from farmers that are trying to make money and be the most efficient they can. Chasing high yields is great, but you’ve got to make money doing it and address the soil biology.”

David Wolmack shares the progress his farm has made since enrolling in the MACC program three years ago.

Dubois, Ind., farmer Kevin Kalb teaches a class of corn and soybean growers about soil health at one of MACC’s in-person meetings in Dubois, Ind.

David Wolmack, who is in his third year of MACC, has seen marked improvement in his yields and stood in front of the 30 or so newbie MACC clients to prove it by sharing his yield results and tissue samples.

“One thing you’ll learn in this group is that stuff that’s been true for the last 50-70 years is not true anymore,” Wolmack said. “Even 10 years ago, if you talked to people planting corn in April, they would say that’s too late. And now we’re planting corn in June. Two years ago, I planted the first field of corn I’d ever planted on June 2. And it was one of the best yields of corn I’ve ever had.”

Wolmack’s father, who had been 88 years old at the time, said he had never seen corn yields like that in his life. Kalb said what sets MACC apart from other consultation programs is the concept of farmers teaching farmers — every grower in the group is willing to give up information such as what they see on their farm that works or does not work, and together they analyze it.

“For one thing, everybody gets to see not just our high yield recipe that we use, but they get to see our average tissue samples,” Kalb said. “They get to see 100 percent of everything that we do on our farm to help make us successful. We teach them why we use it and help them understand why we do what we do and how much more economic they can be with their fertilizers.”

Growers can learn more about the MACC program by going online to www.midwestadvancedcrop.com

“ The fertilizer that you put out there – you just can’t put it out there and it miraculously goes into the corn plant. It takes biology to do that. ’’

Kalb family wins two national corn yield categories and place in others

Perennial corn yield champion Kevin Kalb and his family can be found all through the leaders of the National Corn Growers Association’s (NCGA) 2022 National Corn Yield Contest. Kalb, a corn grower from Dubois, Ind., once again won the Strip, Min, Mulch, Ridge-Till Non-Irrigated division with a yield of 360.1445 bushels.

Kalb finished nearly 25 bushels more than secondplace finisher Dale Hadden of Jacksonville, Ill.

Kevin Kalb and his daughter, Nikia, both won categories in the NCGA’s 2022 National Corn Yield Contest.

Winning the No-Till Irrigated category was Brandon Cardinal of Oaktown, Ind., at 307.5487 bushels.

The No-Till Non-Irrigated division was swept by the Kalb family. Kevin’s daughter, Nikia, won the category with a yield of 355.7383 bushels. Kevin’s wife, Shawn, was second at 350.0314 bushels; and another daughter, Rhylan, was third at 350.0301 bushels.

Another child, Emmersen, was third in the Conventional Non-Irrigated division with a yield of 340.0538 bushels. That category was won by Cory Atley of Cedarville, Ohio at 366.3266 bushels.

U.S. farmers planted and harvested a large crop in 2022 despite an array of weather challenges. The 27 national winners in 9 production categories had verified yields averaging 340.7245 bushels per acre, compared to the projected national average of 172.3 bushels per acre nationwide. The National Corn Yield Contest is now in its 58th year and remains NCGA’s most popular program for members.

“Corn plays an incredibly important role in so many aspects of life in America and abroad,” said Lowell Neitzel, chair of NCGA’s Member and Consumer Engagement Action Team. “This contest offers a unique opportunity for all farmers to take part in the innovation and creativity that move our industry forward. Contest winners, at the national and state levels, find new ways to excel while using a variety of techniques. Ultimately, the data generated and insights found by farmers and input providers enable U.S. farmers to continue to meet the future demand for critical food, feed, fuel and fiber.”

For more than half a century, NCGA’s National Corn Yield Contest has provided corn growers with the opportunity to compete with their colleagues to grow the most corn per acre, helping feed and fuel the world. This has given participants not only the recognition they deserved but the opportunity to learn from their peers.

Kevin Kalb, Shawn Kalb, Nikia Kalb and Emmersen Kalb all were leaders in the Non-Irrigated categories in the statewide contest, too.

Winning the No-Till Irrigated category was Brandon Cardinal of Oaktown, Ind., at 307.5487 bushels, which was slightly better than Jerry Wishmeier, Brownstown, Ind., who had a yield f 307.2239.

Adam Motz of Bourbon, Ind., won the Strip, Min, Mulch, Ridge-Till Irrigated division in Indiana with a yield of 318.7866 bushels. That was less than one bushel better than Kevin D. Smith of Rochester, Ind.

In the Conventional Irrigated division for Indiana, Brooks Cardinal, Oaktown, Ind., won with a yield of 309.6519 bushels. Kathy Little of Hebron, Ind., was second at 286.2328 bushels.

Visit www.ncga.com/NCYC for the complete list of 2022 National and State winners.