Jack Plot Vegas

Louisiana is represented here at the JackPlot!™ Vegas Competition by Jon Carter and Scott McKay. Jon is from Collinston and is “almost” a daddy. Listen to an interview with them here. Team 9 Interview

Gene Wollenburg and Larry Edgar are from Nebraska – another of the rowdy Husker teams! Gene is a third generation farmer from Dewitt. Best of luck.

Team 10 Interview

Make sure you check out the whole photo album and get ready to vote for your favorite team!

Official JackPlot!™ National Competition photo album

One of our two teams from Iowa is Gene Riles and Rick Demaray. Gene is from Sheffield, Iowa and both are currently in the second game of round one at table 1. Listen to an interview here: Team 7 Interview

Team Eight is from Ohio. They are Mike Gorman and Jeff Howard. Mike is a grower from Trenton, Ohio.

Team 8 Interview

Make sure you check out the whole photo album and get ready to vote for your favorite team!

Official JackPlot!™ National Competition photo album

Dan Martensen and his trusty agronomist Clete Kamrath from Nebraska are Team Five in the JackPlot!™ Vegas Competition – one of our two Husker teams. A ten year farming veteran, Dan likes romantic comedies and football – hope that helps in the competition! Listen to an interview with them here: Team 5 Interview

Team Six consists of David Ring and Calvin Sietz of Indiana. Our Hoosier team is hoping to head back home winners after the competition – wondering how they will load that big screen TV on the plane!

Team 6 Interview

Official JackPlot!™ National Competition photo album

We’ll call Tim Dufault and Todd Summerfeld of Minnesota our team number 3. We would like to come up with names for these teams, but for now they are just numbers. This team is one of two from Minnesota. Listen to an interview with them here: Team 3 Interview

Team Four is Todd Versback and Dennis Storandt of Wisconsin – one of two teams from Wisconsin. Todd is a grower from Viroqua and he has been farming for a quarter century.

Team 4 Interview

Official JackPlot!™ National Competition photo album

Okay – let’s meet the teams – in no particular order.

We’ll take Tommy Gordon and Brian Morris of Alabama first – sounds good, since it starts with an “A.” Tommy is the grower on the team and he is from Athens and Brian is his agronomist. They are now competing in the second game of round one on Table 1. Listen to an interview with them here: Team 1 Interview

Team Two consists of Herb Litwiller and Darren Roelfs of Illinois. Herb is a farmer from Heyworth and Darren is his agronomist from Hudson. Herb has been farming for 45 years – so we’ll see how he does in the game!

Team 2 Interview

Make sure to check out the photos here in the photo album and enjoy the fun with us!

Official JackPlot!™ National Competition photo album

The JackPlot!™ National Competition is officially underway here at the Las Vegas Hilton with our hosts Josh Krenz and Nathan Stryker. Everyone is serious and intense – well, not so much – but the winner will fly home with a 42″ plasma flat screen TV. Meanwhile, the audience is having a good time answering questions themselves for prizes!

There are 16 teams split up into four tables with four teams at each table playing each other for the first round. A total of four games will be played and the scores will be accumulated.

The object of the game is to have the most bushels at the end – kinda like farming! In order to do that, you have to make good planting decisions. The teams consist of a farmer and his agronomist, so they work together to make it happen.

Official JackPlot!™ National Competition photo album

The JackPlot!™ National Competition welcome dinner featured a pep talk on the real life competition to grow better and healthier crops with improved genetics.

John Romines, Director of Seed and Agronomy sales for Winfield Solutions and CROPLAN GENETICS®, says its a great time to be in agriculture. “Our goal is to create sustainable food production that will ultimately feed the world and a growing population,” he said.

He explains that the JackPlot!™ game and promotion were developed to help growers learn about what they call “Answer Plots” which are educational initiatives nationwide that are sponsored by CROPLAN GENETICS and local seed retailers. “JackPlot!™ is an offshoot of all the information and knowledge required to make good decisions,” John says.

There are 138 sites across the country to help train the retail sales network across the co-op system and educate growers. “It’s really about what we call ‘R to the Seventh Power’ – the Right genetics, with the Right traits on the Right soil types planted at the Right plant population in the Right crop rotation with the Right crop protection products and the Right soil fertility management,” he says.

Listen to an interview with John here – John Romines Interview

The Official JackPlot!™ National Competition photo album is up and running now on Flickr. Check out the photos here and keep checking back as it will continue to be updated during the event.

The games begin tomorrow, but the fun begins tonight at the JackPlot!™ Vegas Sweepstakes Competition with an opening get together dinner.

The venue is the Las Vegas Hilton, one of the original big hotel casinos in Vegas. Once it was the largest, but its still pretty big at nearly 3,000 rooms! The slot machines are ever-present, of course.

Tonight, all the competitors get to meet each other and get ready to have a fun and exciting competition over the next couple of days!

We’ll start the official JackPlot!™ Vegas photo album later tonight. Stay tuned!

Welcome to the official JackPlot!™ Vegas blog, sponsored by CROPLAN GENETICS® seed!

I will be your official JackPlot!™ Vegas blogger and I am getting in the spirit to head for the Silver State tomorrow to watch the games begin.

Participating in the sweepstakes are sixteen crop producers from across the country.  The competition focuses on crop production insight and expertise and is based on the The JackPlot!™ agronomic board game. They will be teamed with CROPLAN GENETICS® expert agronomists and will compete for “bushels” of production by answering agronomic questions.

The JackPlot!™ game is a board game that features Dan, the Answer Plot® Man. CROPLAN GENETICS operates more than 125 Answer Plot locations across the country, where producers can access hands-on education and training related to crop production and agronomic issues, working directly with expert agronomists who focus on local growing conditions and needs. Many of the agronomic topics covered at the Answer Plot sessions are addressed in the JackPlot!™ game.

The December tournament is the culmination of the JackPlot!™ National Competition and Sweepstakes, which began with the release of the JackPlot!™ game in February 2008. Check out the bios of the players on the side bar of this blog and stay tuned in to vote for your favorite!

Welcome to the JackPlot!™ finals competition website.  Not sure what JackPlot!™ is?

JackPlot!™ is a CROPLAN GENETICS® and Answer Plot® based board game. The game is based on a year in time. Just like in real life, growers have to withstand the elements of winter, spring planting, growing season and harvest to hold onto as much yield as they can. Hopefully with the help of their local agronomist and by attending the Winter Grower Meeting and the Answer Plot® Knowledge Events, growers can plan well and gain enough insight to protect and increase their yield. The player with more yield than other players (the neighbors) at the end of the game (the grain elevator), wins!

Feel free to play the game online.

This website will bring you all the action from Las Vegas and the national JackPlot!™ competition finals including pictures, interviews and video clips.