The Rural Voice, 1982-12, Page 7Taralan Corporation representatives get the calculator out to do some computation on an ear of corn. Left to right: Dave Dann. field
representative; Ray McDonald, regional manager; and, Dr. S.M. (Mac) King, vice-president of technical services. Dann is the local
representative for Huron. Perth and south Bruce.
Using crop consultants
for higher productivity and profits
by Gregor Campbell
Taralan Corporation would like to ,
eliminate tiite work "assume" from the
business of crop management with its
unique consulting system.
The Illinois -based company sells no
product. The precision multifactor crop
production system is the service it sells.
Taralan believes there is no need for the
hard sell, the proof will be in the pudding.
The service will both prove and pay for
itself in increased yields, productivity and
profits. The company is in the market for
the discriminating and progressive far-
mer.
Headquarters of the crop consulting
corporation is in Geneva, Illinois with a
regional office in London, Ont. Taralan
was incorporated in 1972 and is now
active in 12 American states, with eight
I ulltime employees and 60 field represen-
tatives. It has been working with clients in
Manitoba and Saskatchewan for the past
live years, and has been active in Ontario
since late 1979 where it now has a fulltime
staff of six people.
"We do not have a magic potion or
magic method," says Dr. S. M. (Mac)
King, Taralan's vice-president of techni-
cal services. We are teaching improved
crop management. The top farmer is
willing to be taught when his productivity
and his profits show the results of the
teaching. Correctly applied science and
mathematics are the heart and soul of the
Taralan system along with the conviction
that crop growing is the implementation
of a precise science and not an art.
The system originated in Illinois with
founder and former Taralan president Dr.
John Strauss. Dr. Strauss, who died three
years ago, held a Ph. D. in soil fertility
and plant nutrition from Purdue Univer-
sity in Indiana. He first used mathematics
to express crop growth while studying
peanuts at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
after World War 11. Then he becathe a
pioneer in the field of liquid fertilizer, and
as a businessman, operated plants in four
states. Later he worked for two large
chemical companies specializing in high
analysis suspension fertilizers.
Dr. King, a 1948 B. Sc. grad from U. of
G., met Strauss at Purdue while working
towards his master's degree. He got his
Ph. D. in soil science from the University
of Wisconsin, and later worked at
Michigan state University and with Inter-
national Minerals and Chemical Corpora-
tion.
Both King and Strauss had a faith in
facts and figures and their varied inter-
relationships during these years which
they later developed, refined and patented
as Taralan's multifactor precision crop
production system. Inputs such as nutri-
tional, biological and physical condi-
tions of soil balance, local weather and
THE RURAL VOICE/DECEMBER 1982 PG. 7