The Sunbelt Ag Expo is just around the corner and yours truly will be there again this year thanks to Growth Energy. If you’re tweeting please use #SAE09 in your tweets. Then we can all follow along with the conversation. A diverse array of labor-saving products, cutting edge technology and interactive educational exhibits awaits visitors who attend the 32nd anniversary …
National Peanut Festival
It’s just about time for the National Peanut Festival. Farmers can apply for a ticket to Farmer Day which is November 2. The Festival runs October 30 – November 8. Approximately half of the peanuts grown in the United States are grown within a 100-mile radius of Dothan, Alabama. The National Peanut Festival (NPF) — the nation’s largest peanut festival …
Bret Cude New Leader of ISPFMRA
Bret Cude, Farmers National Company, has been elected President of the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. Others elected at the meeting were President-Elect Mark Wetzel, AFM, with Busey Ag Services, Decatur, IL, and Vice President Richard Grever, AFM, with Hertz Farm Management, DeKalb, IL. Fred L. Hepler, AFM, AAC, Wexford Capital, PC becomes Immediate Past-President of …
Why Farmers Are Using Social Media
There’s a good story about farmers using social media in the Fresno Bee titled, “Facebook draws a growing crop of farmers, Many in the ag industry are using Twitter and blogs to communicate, educate.” Cindy spoke with author Robert Rodriguez and pointed him to a few other folks to contact for the story. She is quoted in the article. The …
Zimfo Bytes
Pioneer Hi-Bred announced the company’s Pioneer Premium Seed Treatment offering for the 2010 planting season. The announcement by the Center for Science in the Public Interest naming potatoes to the list of the “Top 10 Riskiest Foods Regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration” requires some important clarification so as not to raise unnecessary alarm or confusion among consumers. …
Syngenta Seeds Striving for Control of Broad Leps
Syngenta Seeds calls them “broad leps” – farmers call them expensive – most people would just call them icky. They are a bunch of nasty wormy creatures – technically lepidopteran corn pests – that make up what Syngenta calls the “multi-pest complex” which costs growers over $1 billion each year in lost yield and grain quality. They include corn earworm, …
Happy World Egg Day
I’m only a little behind in saying Happy World Egg Day. Thanks to Novus International for bringing it to my attention. Of course the day is meant to raise awareness of the benefits of eggs and it was officially yesterday but better late than never. The photo below is from the Novus office cafeteria. Here’s part of the message from …
Big Interest in USDA Conservation Stewardship Program
Lots of farmers are interested in USDA’s revamped Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) – formally known as the Conservation Security Program. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Dave White announced this week that they received nearly 21,300 applications to participate in the CSP, covering more than 33 million acres nationwide. “NRCS has received enough applications to carry out conservation activities on …
Sustainability and Modern Farming
The new president of the National Corn Growers Association, Darrin Ihnen of Hurley, S.D., is the star of a new video on the subject of increasing sustainability in agriculture that debuted Oct. 3 on the television program This Week in Agribusiness. The short video features Darrin and other family farmers telling the story of how better management and modern technology …
Zimfo Bytes
ClimateMinder, Inc. offers farmers and greenhouse growers flexible new remote monitoring and control systems. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has presented the National FFA Organization with a contribution of $15,000 to support a new pilot contest through which students will produce videos creatively explaining the benefits and sustainability of modern agricultural methods. Less than 5 percent of farms saw an …