Steve And Vanessa Larocque

Steve Larocque is a farmer & agronomist who lives in Three Hills with his wife, Vanessa and children Ava and Wyatt. They run a small farm but the bulk of his time is taken running a successful consulting company. He is also a Canadian Nuffield Scholar.
http://www.beyondagronomy.com/index.htm
He has a number of large clients with very sizeable acreages including a Huddderite colony. For these customers, he gives a multitude of services – planning, paddock inspections, machinery decisions, chemical acquisitions and soil & tissue testing.etc. For his paddock inspections he utilises a quad bike and can cover large area fairly quickly. While in the paddock he will report on seeding depth, emergence, growth stage, weed no’s type and growth stage, recommendations for both chemicals and macro and micro nutrients.

Steve in His Mobile Office

We met with the Stoller rep who gave Steve some growth stimulant products (Gibbrelic Acid & Cytokines) with micro nutrients included. Steve wants to test these products to see if it can quicken the plants move to the vegetative stage very quickly and then slow the reproductive phase to slow down ripening. In large areas across the Canadian prairies their growing season is only 100 days. Ours in the Lower North of SA is double that at 200 days. The days are longer and there is more light intensity but they can suffer from frost at both ends of the season.
http://www.stoller.com/stoller2/index.php
Each week Steve and Vanessa put out a newsletter called “Beyond Agronomy” which goes to all his clients and others who pay a small service fee. They are a very good source of information. Vanessa is the Editor in Chief. Other projects they are involved with are bio-fuels and methane digestion.