The 33rd Annual Onion Showcase at Story Farms in Roswell, Idaho, took place late in August. This event focused on both internal and external customers.
The first hour and a half of the event catered to internal employees from all different departments from the Parma location to give them a visualization of the Onion crop and the end result they are working to be a part of. The internal department interaction was also attended by some key customers to bring full circle the departments who prepare Onion seed and customers to meet and discuss critical needs.
The next part of the showcase was dedicated to all customers within the Northwest region and showed appreciation for their continued support of Bayer vegetable seed products. This time was filled with discussion and evaluation of the entire Onion product line and the results of each variety in yield and quality. International guests from China and growers from Argentina also were in attendance to learn from the US market information.
During lunch two guest speakers provided added value brainware to Bayer Vegetable Seed customers. Peter Rogers, Bayer Plant Pathologist spoke on onion pathology and relevant disease issues that are commonly seen in the Treasure Valley of Idaho. He also offered the additional service to our customers of disease identification and prevention from his lab in Brooks, Oregon. Growers also took part in a disease identification quiz. To complete the quiz growers had to identify 6 common symptoms from samples that showed sign of the disease either on the foliage or the bulb. This was followed up by a talk by Chad Faaborg from Industrial Ventilation. He spoke on how to properly set up your crop for storage and how to achieve the best result for a quality marketing season.
“As a Treasure Valley Onion team we plan and look forward to this day all season. A tremendous amount of preparation and planning surrounds this day. The accomplishment we desire is that each grower leaves this trial with information that helps them advance their program on their farm. I for sure want to thank everyone who had a part in making this day a success” Lyndon Johnson, Account Manager Onion
For more information, please visit www.bayer.com.