Mikkel Pates,Agweek

FARGO, N.D. — Ed Goerger of Wyndmere, N.D., is most known for his agricultural credentials in the Red River Valley, but in the past three months, he’s been barking up a new tree — Rascal Spots.

Goerger, an organic farmer and agricultural inoculant distributor, recently was at the Northern Ag Expo in Fargo pushing those farming products he has been selling for two years, but also showing show-goers a new product of his own that is designed to help rid dog owners of those pesky bald spots in their yards.

“There are 52 million households with dogs in the United States,” Goerger says. “We’re hoping to penetrate that by 1 percent in the first two years, and then build form there.”

Dealing with the turf market product isn’t too far afield from the agricultural market, because “you’re working with soils and plant health, so it’s very transferable knowledge,” says Goerger, but this is a first time with an internet sales strategy.

Valley farm roots

Goerger went to North Dakota State University in Fargo for agricultural economics and later earned a master’s degree in business administration in international trade from the University of Mary in Bismarck, but his career is in farming.

He started farming with his father, David, in 1983. The two farmed conventionally for many years before Ed decided to get into the organic market in the late 1990s.

David died in 2001.

In 2003, Goerger changed the name of the farm to Damasa Organics, a play on the first names of his children — David, Marie and Samantha. The farm today produces blue corn, soybeans for the tofu market, wheat and rye.

In 2008, Goerger started using products from TerraMax Inc., based in Cottage Grove, Minn. The products are largely inoculants for soybeans, but also for corn and wheat. Essentially, the products use a unique strain of bacteriato “fix” nitrogen on roots of monocotyledonous wheat and barley crops same way that soybeans and other “dicots” do.

Each of the crops has its own inoculant.

“They use the same parent bacteria on all of these products,” he says, noting that’s called azospirillum.

TerraMax has a patent on an invention that extends the shelf life on the azospirillum bacteria. The company was established in 1998. Typically, the bacteria would live for six months and TerraMax has found a way to extend the life to two years.

“We were getting results and — along with the organic line — they had a commercial use line for conventional growers,” Goerger says.

He became a distributor in 2008, and has a territory of the eastern third of North Dakota and northwest Minnesota.

For wheat, the TerraMax product costs about $4 an acre, Goerger says. “Average results” are 5 bushels per acre better than an untreated production, and a protein increase of about 1 percentage point.

“Protein is the big thing I’m pushing,” Goerger says.

The research data was collected on a Hutterite colony, Goerger says.

A corn product is similar, and some research has been done in land grant institutions. Goerger says a $4 per bushel inoculant has averaged a 7-bushel-per-acre yield increase on corn, based on South Dakota and Nebraska tests.

On soybeans, a conventional inoculant is used and the azospirillum product is added.

“We say that with the regular inoculant (rhizobium), we see about a 2-bushel-plus yield advantage,” he says.

But this is a story about dog spots.

Rascal Spots

Late in 2008, a new idea occurred to Goerger.

“I had dog urine spots in my yard, and I talked to a soil scientist that I had known through my ag work,” he says. “I asked, ‘You have a product that helps with saline soils in field applications. Do you have something that might work with applications like this?’ He said, yes, but they’d need to adjust the formula.”

He tried some of the product on his own lawn in late April and says he saw results by the end of May. By August, he arranged for the quantities to be delivered, and tested the product at other friends’ houses.

He incorporated Natural Solutions in July 2009, and partnered with Arday Ardayfio, a graduate of Concordia College who had been in banking, but is working with marketing in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

“It’s our product, something we’d selling on a private label,” Goerger says, noting that it’s separate from his ag business.

Goerger is a believer in scientific process and has had experience in business.

He’s a former board member of the North Dakota State University State Board of Agricultural Research and Education, which advises the institution on research priorities for agriculture. He has business background as a former board member for both Spring Wheat Bakers, a farmer-owned cooperative, and Earthwise Processors, two former farmer-owned businesses.

Rascal Spots hasn’t been researched, per se, but he says that will come.

“We haven’t had time to get third party verification,” he says.

He plans to approach some university that specializes in turf research. He says households have the problem with urine spots, but so do some parks and other municipalities, so there is a big market.

In the meantime, Goerger is selling it.

His marketing plan is to use the internet and social media to put the product’s name out.

“Word of mouth,” he says. “Good results will bring referrals. Several friends have tried the product this past fall. “We’re confident enough to offer a money back guarantee, within 30 days of purchase.”

Natural Solutions guarantees that within 30 days of treatment, the spot will be 50 percent smaller than nontreated spots. Goerger says in reality the spot will probably be 80 percent smaller.

A one-quart bottle, with a garden hose applicator, runs $34.95 and treats 5,000 square feet. Shipping is $9.50 with U.S. Post Office express shipping, guaranteeing delivery in less than three days, anywhere in the country.

For optimum results, Goerger says treatment should be repeated every six to eight weeks.

Information: www.rascalspots.com.