Extended planting season ends

GRAYMONT, Ill. — Aaron Rients wears a lot of different hats — farmer, seed dealer, board member and field trialist, among others.

“I farm around 1,000 acres. I farm with two other guys and our total acreage between the three of us is about 1,500,” Rients said.

“We’re partnering to hopefully reduce our costs, both annual and equipment purchases. Not everybody has to own everything. We share equipment. We each own certain things to help. Then we can have a little bit nicer equipment and still put a little more in our pocket to take home, too.

“This is our fifth year doing that and things work out well between the three of us. My father still helps in-season driving a tractor, planting or at corn harvest driving the grain cart.”

Rients is a fourth-generation farmer in Illinois. His great-grandfather immigrated from Germany and farmed in the Dana area in the north-central part of the state.

His grandfather and family then moved to the Graymont-Flanagan area, where the family has been farming ever since.

Planting Season

Rients’ planting season stretched over about a month due to weather conditions.

“I’m a seed dealer, so we did test plots first. We planted one field of 4.0 soybeans on April 18 and my test plots were planted April 22. Three or four days later we got rain and it got cold. One of the test plots had a little damage to it — emergence issues — just like everybody else’s corn at that point. It was the same with the soybeans with some emergence issues,” he said.

“The test plot corn recovered well enough. I think we’ll be able to collect data on that. It was a big enough patch, but it all pretty much came up. I had to replant like eight acres of soybeans out of a 40-acre field.

“I think it was around the May 15 time frame by the time we got back in to plant. We planted the bulk of our acres then and finished up about 300 acres of soybeans and 200 acres of corn at the end of May. We got done before Memorial Day. I think the last planting day was May 26.”

Seed Dealer

He started his seed dealership with LG Seeds in the fall of 2010. Rients Seeds offers a full line of corn and soybeans.

“Chuck Porter from Pontiac was the dealer. I had been going with him to meetings for a long time and when Chuck retired, the district sales manager approached me about being a seed dealer,” he said.

“I’d been working at Roeschley Hybrids, south of Graymont, after high school until then. So, I already had a background in the seed industry. This was my way to get back to the farm full time and do that.”

He added Golden Harvest for Enlist soybeans in 2020 and now sells both LG and Golden Harvest.

“Now I’m kind of fine-tuning and picking the cream of the crop from both companies,” Rients noted.

“I was kind of hesitant at first to be dual branded, but I think in hindsight it’s actually working out well. I wouldn’t want to take on any more than that. That’d be too much.

“Each company has their own things that I like about them and work well. So, it’s good that you can kind of cherry-pick those things.”

On-Farm Trials

Test plots are a regular part of Rients’ farming operation, looking at both hybrid and variety performance and agronomic strategies and possibilities.

“I work with both the seed companies on the test plots. They both publish the data, and I can show that data, as well as the other data to people,” he said.

“Beyond the seed test plots, I’m always doing some in-field testing. This year, I’m working with a company, Agrauxine. I knew the rep when he was with a previous company. He knows my background in in-field testing. We’re doing some different stuff both in corn and soybeans for that company.”

Agrauxine offers biologicals, foliar fertilizers, inoculants and other products.

Rients also has an on-farm soybean seed treater as part of his seed business.

“I have that option to be able to treat with other products and test things like that. We tried Agrauxine’s ABI 120 soybean inoculant system on some different products of my own for my own data collection and for their testing,” Rients said.

“They have a powdered version of ABI 120. So, if people don’t want to send their seed off to get it treated, they’ve got a powdered versions they can put in their seed tender if you’ve got an applicator or you can just do it by the scoop-full.”

Latest, Greatest

With new agriculture technologies coming into the market seemingly on a monthly basis, Rients is willing to try new products in field trials and seek more knowledge on what is and isn’t the latest and greatest.

“Reading is definitely the key in trying to pick up on something within a year of it becoming mainstream. You just have to keep reading to see what’s going on. Also, obviously, talking to others and having that interaction with somebody is important,” he said.

Other Hats

He’s served on the Central States Threshermen’s Reunion board for over a decade and is currently second vice president.

The 76th annual event, the second oldest steam show in the United States, will be held Aug. 29-Sept. 2 at Threshermen’s Park north of Pontiac. It draws visitors from across North America.

His involvement began in 2005 during a chance conversation with Bill Carroll, a long-time dedicated member of the Threshermen’s Reunion board.

“I enjoyed Cub Cadet tractors and Bill had built a custom kind of a teal colored four-seater Cub Cadet tractor. He was in at Stoller’s getting parts and he heard me talking about my Cub Cadet and what parts I was ordering. He gave me his business card and said I should come out to the Threshermen’s show and bring my tractor,” Rients said.

“It went from there. I helped with the tractor pulls. My grandparents took me as a child. Probably my favorite memory there was all of the Caterpillar toys that one vendor had who would come every year.”

Rients also joined the Livingston County Humane Society board this past December.

“I’m kind of in charge of the maintenance and the property side of that organization, taking care of the buildings. I still help out with the other things, fundraising and different things like that,” he said.

“We’re adding some additional grass space. The adjacent property had been farmed for a long time. We’re going to plant the grass and then next year try to have more play spaces for people to take the pets out and play with them and give the animals more interaction and time out there. We’re always looking for volunteers.”