Syngenta and Bayer CropScience have entered into a long-term business agreement relating to a key plant biotechnology trait. Under the agreement, Syngenta has granted Bayer CropScience a worldwide, non-exclusive license for use of VIPCOT insect control technology in cotton.
Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA) invites you to their July 26 community stakeholder event in Overland Park, Kan. Following the luncheon, KBA also will hold a special briefing regarding a new KBA partnership that will be announced that day with the USDA.
Farm Journal Media announces the addition of Lesly Weber to the Project Development Team as Director of Government Relations.
In light of rapid expansion of glyphosate-resistant weeds, an initiative, called Respect the Rotation, is being facilitated by Bayer CropScience and is intended to spur grower adoption of the key elements of Integrated Weed Management.
Throughout the day, hundreds of research scientists, producers, technology company representatives, equipment manufacturers, input dealers, agronomic consultants, software developers, educators, government personnel and policymakers have been pouring into the Mile High City from 40 different countries to look back on the past 20 years of precision ag innovations and to work together on the future of maximizing the potential of the world’s farmlands.
At the opening reception tonight, I caught up with Dr. Raj Khosla, the chairperson of the 10th ICPA and a professor at Colorado State University. He told me with 300-500 participants from such a wide variety of places around the world, he expects a large part of the conversation will be on the hot topic of food security.
“Precision agriculture has been mentioned as one of the solutions in meeting food security. Populations are increasing. People’s eating habits are changing.” And to meet those increasing demands, Khosla says they have to figure out how to translate some of the precision ag techniques used in the U.S. and apply them to lesser-developed countries. He says meeting the food demands of these growing countries could literally transform those societies.
“When you’re tummy is hungry is hard to listen to anything else other than feeding itself. There’s an opportunity for precision ag to contribute to lesser developed countries, smaller field sizes by coupling the technology and the [large labor markets].” He says it is just as important to use the same amount of labor to grow the larger quantities of food so precision agriculture doesn’t end up putting those workers out of jobs.
Khosla says precision agriculture is putting the right inputs in the right place, at the right time, and in the right manner. It’s a great conversation, and you can download or listen to Khosla’s interview at ICPA here: Dr. Raj Khosla
Zachary Larson, Borlaug Summer Intern, is on location at Nanjing Agricultural University and providing us with updates this summer of his trip. Here’s his latest. You can also find a photo album he’s got started here: Borlaug Summer Intern Photo Album. The internship is being sponsored by the Iowa State University Plant Sciences Institute.
I would have to say that the last week has been one of the best I have had here in China, and it has made me fall in love with Nanjing, doing lab work, and the inevitable heartbreak that will come when I will have to leave Nanjing in just a week.
Beyond an ordinary week, I have had the chance to meet my best friend , see the craziness of the Nanjing train station, and get a better handle on my lab work as I finally get past some of the initial errors.
As far as my recent lab work, I have been doing rather well. While I am still very inexperienced, I have finally gotten a handle on solely running PCR, gel, and DNA extraction experiments without too much contamination or lab error. To be honest, I know that my lab work has offered no useful data to Wang Jia, the student I have been working with. But, I realize the most important thing that I can take away from my experiences and apply to other labs is that scientific research is pretty much worthless without knowing how to do the basics of the experiment and repeat the experiment without a large margin of error or difference. (more…)
I am going to find out how agriculture protects water quality and improves
soil health at this year’s Conservation Technology Information Center, Conservation In Action Tour. The tour will take place in the Virginia/Maryland area and looks like it is at capacity. Yesterday was the last day to get registered but you can probably still get in if you call today.
I just spoke with CTIC Executive Director, Karen Scanlon, who says this has become the organization’s marquee event. We’re going to “visit farms and farmers in east central Virginia who run profitable operations and provide communities with valuable ecosystem services.” That sounds like fun to me. I’ll be getting to know CTIC and its members and thought a great way to start was a conversation with Karen about their mission and what we’ll be doing on the tour.
Karen Scanlon Interview
The Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) is a national, public-private partnership that envisions agriculture using environmentally beneficial and economically viable natural resource systems.
CTIC, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, is comprised of members of ag industry, ag publications, ag associations, conservation organizations and producers and is supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and other public entities.
It is our mission to champion, promote and provide information about comprehensive conservation and sustainable agricultural systems that are beneficial for soil, water, air and wildlife resources and are productive and profitable for agriculture.
My coverage of the tour is being sponsored by CTIC and AGROTAIN. Thank you!
We’re getting closer to the Ag Media Summit and the invites are coming in fast and furious. My favorite so far has to be from Ag Leader Technology (sponsor of Precision Pays).
Mission Precision II Recruits,
Ag Media Summit is fast approaching and Ag Leader is asking you to complete yet another mission. Visit the following link for your top secret video message and rendezvous information.
This mission is critical to readers – we need you!
Ag Leader Technology, Inc., released SmartPath – a new “drive and guide” guidance pattern. This pattern is available with any of Ag Leader’s manual guidance, assisted steering or automated steering products.
Big Iron’s unreserved online auction on June 23rd hosted bidders from 31 different states and 4 different countries. In the three days prior to the auction closing, the website had 440,868 views. Auctions are held on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has launched its first ever blog, Beltway Beef.
The AGCO Cash program, is available again in its “Field Rewards” campaign. By purchasing a minimum of $250 in qualifying parts, growers will receive AGCO Cash redeemable at participating AGCO Parts dealers between July 12 and Aug. 27, 2010.
Some sad news to pass along from the National Association of Farm Broadcasting.
Long-time Farm Broadcaster Lyle Romine of Fargo died this morning of cancer. He was 59 years old.
Lyle was Farm Director of the Fargo based American Ag Network, a regional network serving forty radio stations in North Dakota South Dakota and Montana.
Lyle was born and raised in Devils Lake, North Dakota. He is survived by his wife Terrie of Fargo, and a son and daughter-in-law, of Bozeman, Montana. A private memorial will be held at a later date.
Lyle was a member of NAFB for 29 years and he will be fondly remembered by hundreds of NAFB friends around the country.
The folks at Commodity Update have found that SMS text messaging has really gained ground among farmers and agribusiness. To prove it they had Millennium Research conduct a survey of farmers and found some very interesting information. I think this information should help agrimarketers feel comfortable about investing more in mobile, personal and direct forms of communication with members and customers!
“Mobile is the fastest-growing segment of the marketing mix, and now agricultural companies are leveraging this direct channel to build relationships with top customers,” says Joel Jaeger, president and founder of CommodityUPDATE, the leading provider of agricultural information to mobile phones.
Jaeger and his two brothers created the concept that became CommodityUPDATE in 2006 to gain access to market information in the field. The brothers, who run farming operations in Colorado and Belize, soon realized a need for the offering beyond their own operations. They began cultivating a new mobile communications channel that would engage farmers like no other. Today, producers receive CommodityUPDATE primarily through sponsored subscriptions. Companies leverage the channel to send supplemental messages, such as agronomic alerts, to growers.
Growers place unparalleled value on those CommodityUPDATE messages, according to survey data recently compiled by Millennium Research, Inc. in Minneapolis:
• 91 percent of farmers indicated the information they receive is important or very important; roughly the same suggested they would recommend the service to another farmer
• 80 percent correctly recalled the company that sponsors the CommodityUPDATE subscription, on an unaided basis
• 65 percent felt “more connected” to the sponsoring company (more…)
The Renewable Fuels Association just announced a new iPhone app – E-85 Fuelfinder (opens iTunes) to help flex-fuel drivers access the latest, most accurately geo-coded E85 stations throughout the United States. Can you say, E85 fuel? There’s an app for that! Hurry to get yours since it won’t be free for long.
This application will also work on the iTouch and iPad. The RFA will sponsor a free download for the first 500 users.
The E85 FuelFinder allows iPhone and iPad users all over the country to map out E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) stations most accessible to them, no matter their current location or destination. With the database embedded in the iPhone itself, this application is useful, even if the user is in a no-service zone. In addition, users have the ability to add a station as a “favorite” for quick and easy accessibility, view or update the price per gallon of E85 fuel at specific locations, access driving directions through Google maps, and directly contact a specific station via telephone. The cost of the application is $1.99, which you can download here, and is also available on the App Store. (more…)
BASF has launched a video series called Top Plots on YouTube. What do you think? BASF announces launch of “Top Plots” vlog featuring growers around the country telling stories of life on the farm.
Episode 1: In this first installment of the Top Plots Video Series, watch as David Hartz shares:
- This history of his family farm.
- His planning process for the year.
- The reasons behind his decision to use Headline® fungicide for an in-furrow use on soybeans and Stamina® and Charter® fungicide seed treatments.
-His decision to use Kixor® herbicide technology for the first time this spring.
Botanica, The Witchita Gardens is receiving $100,000 from Cargill which will be used in the creation of the “Cargill Children’s Farm.”
. . . an interactive, interpretive, multisensory area within “The Downing Children’s Garden.” The project is part of a multiphase, 27-acre expansion for Botanica. The first phase of this expansion is the Downing Children’s Garden, which is scheduled for completion in 2011. The Cargill Children’s Farm will help children learn about, and better understand, rural farm life, including sustainable agriculture, responsible water utilization and good environmental stewardship.
“The Cargill Children’s Farm will allow every visitor to connect with nature through a themed area that will teach people about gardening, tending and harvesting crops,” stated Jody Horner, president of Cargill’s U.S. meat business based in Wichita. “This will be a fun, safe, interactive place for children, teachers and parents to learn about where their food comes from and how it is produced. Given Cargill’s historical roots stemming from origins in the Midwest grain business 145 years ago, this is a perfect fit for our community support and we’re delighted to be involved.”
You can follow the progress on the Downing Children’s Garden on their blog, Peepholes In The Fence.
I just got my flight information entered into the Boelte-Hall airport pickup invitation for the Agricultural Media Summit. The folks at Boelte are once again welcoming AMS attendees and getting us where we need to go. I’m really looking forward to seeing industry friends and colleagues the end of next week.
Be sure to get your picture taken with “Boelte Bull” at the Welcome Cruise Sunday night. Then stop by our InfoExpo booth Monday or Tuesday for a game of darts with a chance to win a prize. We’re looking forward to seeing you in St. Paul!
It’s hard to believe that we’ve been doing work for the Missouri Beef Industry Council for over 6 years. MBIC was the first ZimmComm client and we’re proud to still be working with them and can’t say how much we appreciate their confidence and support.
Today the MBIC was doing what all state Checkoff organizations are doing and that’s working on the budget for the next fiscal year. So they’ve been sitting through presentations and I was just happy to get them all up and in a group photo so they could work a few kinks out.
One of the projects we do for the MBIC is produce their weekly podcast which was a first for the industry. It’s now called Checkoff Chat. I also had the opportunity today to record several episodes which will be used in upcoming weeks. We did some statistics checking on Checkoff Chat downloads for this year only and there are episodes that have been downloaded as many as 2,800 times!
Many of these folks will be in Denver the week after next for the Cattle Industry Summer Conference where I’ll be Beef Board Blogging once again.
Corn growers are in Washington, DC taking care of business. It’s the semi-annual Corn Congress.
Corn farmers from across the country will gather in Washington the week of July 12 for a series of team and committee meetings, Capitol Hill visits with lawmakers and the semi-annual Corn Congress, where grower-leaders from 28 states will elect four new members of the National Corn Growers Association Corn Board. You can hear NCGA President Darrin Ihnen talk about it: Off The Cob
One of the activities that took place today was the presentation of the President’s Award.
National Corn Growers Association President Darrin Ihnen today presented the President’s Award to Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) during NCGA’s Corn Congress events in Washington, D.C. The President’s Award is given annually to a leader who has worked to advance issues important to corn growers and agriculture.
Dotting the landscape of the greater Midwest are what I like to refer to as equipment bone yards. It’s the shallow gravesite for many a used, worn-out, retired truck, spray rig or cattle trough. They tirelessly decorate the hills as though saying, “Someone was once here. We worked hard, and now it’s time to rest.”
In this day and age of reuse, reduce, recycle, it’s hard to fathom why and how these bone yards have grown to be the size of an implement dealers’ yard. Isn’t there some way to dispose of the metal? To reuse the parts? Or sell it as an antique? Those cattle troughs would be a pretty unique petunia planter along the side of a house, don’t you think? And a stock tank, a perfect swimming retreat.
Or maybe it’s the mindset of a farmer: let nothing go to waste…I might need that again sometime. How often I’ve just tosses something aside because of my 2-year rule (if it hasn’t been used in 2 years, throw it out).
Maybe I should start my own bone yard. I’m sure the neighbors would love that.
Syngenta is sponsoring the inaugural Syngenta Almond Scholarship Program. Applications are currently being accepted, and the scholarship is open to high school seniors and college students (excluding seniors) interested in pursuing a career in agriculture who currently reside or attend school in California and are involved in the almond-growing industry.
Planalytics will host the AgriBusiness Weather Intelligence Symposium on Thursday, July 22nd at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark. Featured speakers include retailers, marketers and other experts sharing first-hand success stories of how they improved performance by incorporating Planalytics weather insights and intelligence into their business operations.
Lessiter Publications, Inc., has launched a new 18-week video/blog series, entitled “Shipping Out.”
Ten soybean farmers from around the country will have the opportunity this month to see for themselves what their soybean checkoff investment is funding.
The United Soybean Board’s third annual “See for Yourself” program begins on July 26 in St. Louis and ends on July 31 in Mexico, the number one importer of U.S. soybean meal. Along the way, participants will tour several facilities that represent various end users of U.S. soy and have the opportunity to interact with USB farmer-leadership and provide their perspective and feedback on the checkoff. Several of the checkoff’s areas of focus, including animal agriculture, international sales, development of new soy uses and efforts to protect and increase yields of U.S. soybeans, will be highlighted on the tour.
Farmers who will be taking part in the trip are: Aaron Brandt of Missouri, Barry Alexander of Kentucky, Brian Cassady of Iowa, James Checkel of Minnesota, Bert Greenwalt of Arkansas, Loren Hylton of Indiana, Todd Oglesby of Mississippi, Dawn Scheier of South Dakota, Reginald Strickland of North Carolina and David Williams of Michigan.
AFBF, in partership with the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, presented the awards and research funding to scientists, teachers and high-school students for exemplary innovation in the field of agricultural science.
“The winning candidates from each category have demonstrated a hunger for forward-thinking scientific knowledge,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “The fruits of their work will be seen as America continues to leads the way in agricultural science innovation.”
The winners included Oregon State University professor Patricia Kennedy and USDA researcher Thomas Jackson who each received the CCFF Agricultural Science Distinguished Scientist Award and $25,000 in research funding. CCFF Agricultural Science Educator Awards were presented to Crystal Retzlaff, an agriculture educator at Oconto Falls High School in Oconto Falls, Wis., Lisa Konkel, an agriscience educator at Big Foot Union High School in Walworth, Wis., and Byron Ernest with the Lebanon Community School Corporation in Lebanon, Ind. Three high school students received CCFF Agricultural Science Student Awards and $5,000 – Rosemary Chapple, a senior at Waterloo High School in Waterloo, Ill., Stephanie Hoskins, a senior at Lincoln Park Academy High School in Fort Pierce, Fla., and Jake Carlson, a junior at Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove, Calif.
The Dorm Room Diner just sounds like it would be a great gift for your college student. I found a link via one of my Twitter followers. So I checked it out and the first thing that caught my eye was “beef” and I love beef (all other types of meat too). Here’s what Dulce Taylor says on her cookbook website about dorm room cooking and starting the project.
I felt a little like Julia Childs and made everything from Beef Stroganoff to Chicken and Dumplings.
I was the envy of the dorm. I started eating better, had lots more energy and looked great (no freshman fifteen here)! By the end of spring semester, I had a whole pile of delicious recipes that my friends kept begging me to make!
Everyone was begging for my recipes!
When I came home for the summer, I realized that a lot of other college students (you included) could benefit from the easy, simple recipes I had used that year. So, my mom helped me put this cookbook together…and “The Dorm Room Diner” was born.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has just started its first official blog, Beltway Beef. Here’s the first post from blogger Mike Deering.
It is a pleasure to welcome you to the the first-ever blog of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. We are excited to engage in this new initiative and sincerely hope you are just as thrilled to have this blog as another resource at your disposal.
NCBA is stepping up its efforts to not only keep you informed, but also engaged. “Beltway Beef” affords you the opportunity to learn and express your views. You can rest assured we’ll be listening. This blog is intended to serve as a sounding board for the U.S. cattle industry. We will be covering mainly policy issues that impact U.S. cattle producers and rural communities. However, we may stray away from strictly policy-related issues from time to time. We also hope to provide a little entertainment now and then!
As we start this new project, feel free to offer any suggestions!
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
David conducted a presentation on delivering expert opinion via social media to an audience at the start of International Poultry Expo week. He's got some great information about who consumers trust and how you can use today's consumer behavior to help communicate your message.
Long-time Farm Broadcaster Lyle Romine of Fargo died this morning of cancer. He was 59 years old.
The folks at 
Ten soybean farmers from around the country will have the opportunity this month to see for themselves what their soybean checkoff investment is funding. 
AFBF, in partership with the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, presented the awards and research funding to scientists, teachers and high-school students for exemplary innovation in the field of agricultural science. 
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
