EP10: More Important Things than Corn

The financial difficulties of the 1980s forced Marion to find more efficient and profitable ways of farming in order to stay in business. In 1985, Marion founded Calmer Agronomic Research Center, an independent, self-funded research center, with the goal of finding ways to reduce input costs and increase profitability for himself and other farmers. After a visit to then-world-record-holder Herman Warsaw’s farm in 1985, Marion became interested in narrow row corn due to the potential yield increase and input cost reduction. He would go on to build the world’s first 15-inch corn head in 1994, the world’s first 12-inch corn head in 2013 and the world’s largest corn head (at the time) that same year. Most recently, Marion invented the BT Chopper® Upgrade Kit system to enable factory corn heads to manage cornstalk residue more efficiently than ever, saving farmers time and money.