The National Dairy FARM Program (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) is now accepting enrollment in the Animal Care Program. This officially launches the second phase of the implementation process, which includes the start of on-farm evaluations for participating producers.
Farmer’s Independent Research of Seed Technologies (F.I.R.S.T.) has selected Farm Journal Media as its exclusive national media partner to publish and distribute its annual results.
John Deere and Successful Farming magazine’s Agriculture.com have recently launched an online game called “Steer Your Deere” to showcase the new ActiveCommand Steering (ACS) system.
Dow AgroSciences LLC announced it is acquiring the assets of the Colorado based seed company Grand Valley Hybrids.
Many people have no idea exactly how many products are made with corn as an ingredient, myself included. But I learned a lot about just how important corn is to our daily lives during today’s Iowa Corn Fed Game Day pump rally held at the Kum & Go in Riverside, Iowa.
Here are a few other things I learned today about the role Iowa corn farmers play:
60 cents of each gallon of E85 purchased stays in the state of Iowa
For each gallon of E85 you purchase, 85 cents stays in America; whereas if you purchase E10, only 10 cents stays in America while 90 cents heads out of our borders
Iowa boasts 40 ethanol plants that produce more than 3 billion gallons of ethanol each year saving consumers money at the pump with each mile they drive
Now since this promotion was pumping up football fans for the Iowa State versus Iowa game, here are two football facts:
Iowa is ranked #9 in the country; yet non-ranked Iowa State has the most difficult schedule this year
Iowa State is going to win this year’s football game
So where did I learn these nifty facts? From an actual corn farmer, Dick Gallagher, who was on hand to educate consumers about ethanol blended fuels as well as educate consumers about all the products that have corn in them..shirts, biodegradable plastics, carpet, tires, and more. They all use corn as one of their ingredients and whether you realize it or not, our lives would not, and could not, be the same without our corn farmers. So let’s take a moment to thank them. Thank you!
Speaking of our corn farmers, they are growing enough corn to meet all of our needs for food, feed and fuel, both here in America as well as overseas and they are doing it each year using less land.
Kum & Go was a sponsor of today’s pump rallies and they have been a long-time ethanol supporter. Matt Chase, with Kum & Go told me that 31 of their stores in Iowa sell E85, more than any other retailer, and all of their stations sell E10 blended fuels. This is a photo of Matt with Herky, the mascot of his favorite team.
The Iowa Corn Fed Game Day promotion is sponsored by Iowa Corn Growers Association and continues all week long leading up to game day on Saturday. The game begins at 2:30 pm CST but come early. Iowa Corn will have a booth set up at Krause Family Plaza at 10:00 am where they will hosting some fun games as well as the chance to win $5,000 in free food and $2,500 in free ethanol-blended fuel. You can also sign up online at www.iacornfed.com.
And one last cool fact to leave you with….Herky the Hawk is a HUGE fan of ethanol.
Thousands of corn acres have been under various types of stress this year, many under the stress of too much rain. Corn that has undergone too much stress doesn’t perform well causing a grower’s yield to be down, and thus his profit. However, growers who have used Bio-Forge have seen their corn manage stress much better, leading to higher yields.
Larry Litner, with StollerUSA, has been spending quite a bit of time with growers this summer and he has seen first hand how Bio-Forge has performed under these stressful conditions. He said that he has been impressed with its performance as have the growers.
“Even starting from the very early spring, we’ve had some wet, cold soils. Then we had a wet summer, so we’ve had a lot of wet stress on all crops, all year long,” explained Litner. He has been out in the fields almost all summer looking at different crops and he said he is seeing with Bio-Forge much better root development. Better root development leads to better performance and he said he’s seeing better pod set on the soybeans and better ear fill on the corn.
“I was checking some fields yesterday, saw a 30 percent increase on pod set with soybeans and we’re seeing 18 rows versus 14 to 16 rows on the ears of corn when we compare treated versus untreated,” said Litner.
Bio-Forge primarily helps to manage stress and by doing that helps the plant to develop a better root system. A stronger, more well developed root system can then better manage a multitude of issues including managing ethylene stress as it begins to accumulate during adverse conditions.
Many growers are applying Bio-Forge with their seed treatment but for for those who don’t, it can also effectively be applied to corn during the v4 to v7 stage of growth and to soybeans just prior to the R1 stage.
AgWired sponsor, Leica Geosystems, was very active at the Farm Progress Show. Here’s the team getting the job done when I stopped by. I spoke with Harlan Little, North American Business Manager, on the far right, to learn what’s new with Leica.
Harlan says they’ve got a lot of interest in their touch screen units, the mojoMINI and mojo3D. He says farmers who stopped by loved getting their hands on them. Precision ag was in more evidence at this year’s Farm Progress Show than I can remember and one of the reasons is increased adoption in the industry. Harlan and I chat about what’s happening in the whole precision area.
John Deere has released its next version of the 8R Tractors that were originally released last year. This upgraded version integrates the “smart-tractor” concept into the row-crop tractors. I caught up with Cody Dicken during the Farm Progress Show to take a look at the new 8R Tractor and learn more about its new features.
“First and foremost, customers will notice new styles and new lights on the front grill. But quickly when they step into it, they’ll notice that the power levels have increased by about a 10-15 percent power increase depending on the model,” explained Dicken.
The 8360R and the 8360RT get up to almost 300 btu horsepower and Dicken continued, “From what we can see, these are the most powerful row crop tractors anywhere in the industry.”
One advantage of the new 8R Tractors is that farmers are easily able to integrate the new GPS technologies into their operations.
“Last year when we came out with the 2010 8R we introduced the Command Center on the seat. This year, we’ve taken the Command Center to the next level,” said Dicken. “We now have an option to enable the tractor with a touch steer display and the GreenStar applications are now available.”
With the Command Center, growers can also operate AutoTrack and SwatchControl Pro, which makes it easier for growers to be able to use the technology.
You can customize the tractor to meet your needs so it works from a small to medium operation all the way up to an extra large operation. Not ready for all the bells and whistles yet? Don’t worry. You can add technologies as your operation grows.
To learn more, visit your local John Deere dealer. They are accepting orders now and manufacturing will begin in January 2011 for delivery in time for next growing season.
This year during Farm Progress, Syngenta launched the Agrisure Viptera 3111 trait stack, its new breakthrough in pest control. Syngenta’s Grant Ozipko said that their customers are really excited about the product, and for good reason.
Syngenta customers who are participating in trials are seeing and experiencing a new level of control, the highest level of control soon to be available on the market according to Ozipko, as well as the broadest spectrum of control. Once Agrisure Viptera hits the market in time for the 2011 planting season, it will control 14 different pests including corn earworm, fall army worm, Western bean cut worm, and black cut worm, among others.
The protection is something Ozipko says growers are confident about when they plant the trait stack in their fields. “They’re going to have protection from planting all the way through harvest,” said Ozipko.
Ozipko continued, “At the end of the day, the grower is really driven by yield. We’re experiencing a 14 bushel benefit. Growers are excited about that 14 bushels per acre in the presence of corn earworm.”
This equates to about a half ton truck of grain on every acre and Ozipko said this is a pretty big yield loss if growers don’t control pests.
Regardless of environmental conditions, Agrisure Viptera is going to provide protection against pests. Many farmers in the Midwest suffered from excess moisture this growing season that can lead to mycotoxin or aflotoxin from pests that get into the corn ear. However, planting Agrisure Viptera can reduce damage from those pests, minimizing toxins and help the grower market his grain more effectively.
The most recent USDA/DOJ Public Workshop on competition in the livestock industry may be fading from people’s minds but we’re going to keep the issues discussed and presented alive, most importantly the proposed GIPSA rule that everyone seems to agree would have a profound impact on the industry. What kind of impact though is a source of significant disagreement.
You can watch a series of videos produced by the folks at American Angus Association that might help better educate you on this issue and help form your opinion of what needs to be done. Remember that we’re in a public comment period on this until the latter part of November, so please feel free to leave your comments directly via the web.
GIPSA interviews
Bill Rishel, an Angus seedstock producer from Nebraska, discusses potential impacts of the proposed GIPSA rule change. Bill Bullard of R-CALF USA discusses potential impacts of the proposed GIPSA rules on the US cattle industry. Colin Woodall of NCBA discusses potential impacts of the proposed GIPSA rule. Allan Sents of McPherson County Feeders, Marquette, Kan., discusses potential impacts of the proposed GIPSA rule on the cattle business. Jerry Bohn of Pratt Feeders discusses potential impacts of the proposed GIPSA rule.
Here’s an overview Angus Report with perspectives on both sides of the proposed GIPSA rule change. For more information, visit www.angus.org. I’ll be doing periodic posts during the public comment period for this issue in coming weeks that will include more interviews.
The Farm Progress Show last week was a huge success, especially for the Farm Progress Show 2010 fuel sponsor Star Energy. They provided all the biodiesel, along with FS Companies of Iowa and Renewable Energy Group (REG). This is the company’s second year providing fuel for all the farm equipment along with generators and such things as gators with Dieselex Gold, a diesel fuel blend enhanced with a 20 percent blend of soy-biodiesel manufactured by Ames, Iowa based REG.
I spoke with Jason Stauffer, Energy Management Specialist/Area Sales Manager for Star Energy about why this sponsorship was so important to his company. He said that there is no better way to demonstrate the benefits of biodiesel than people seeing it in action.
One benefit of biodiesel is its ability to reduce emissions, which in diesel vehicles often present themselves in the form of an unpleasant odor emanating from black smoke. You only have to add a B2 blend to begin to see these issues disappear and when you fuel with B20, you get nothing but clean air as Stauffer noted that many people who stopped by their booth said they didn’t see or small a thing.
Although this particular sponsorship is focused on biodiesel, the company also provides E10, E85 and propane to farmers around Iowa. They have 23 retail locations where farmers can fill up their equipment or an operation can sign up to have the fuel delivered right to their farm.
“We made the choice years ago not to use regular unleaded,” said Stauffer who continued by saying its been a great move for them.
Just like selling renewable fuels to the agriculture market is a no-brainer for them, so is their fuel sponsorship for the Farm Progress Show in 2011.
If you live in Iowa, then you understand the frenzy that surrounds the Iowa vs. Iowa State football game. The Iowa Corn Growers Association surely does and realized that this game is a great way to educate Iowans about how many products are made with corn – more than 4,000. Some of the everyday products made with corn include toothpaste, milk, the tires on your car, drywall, bubblegum, and more.
I spoke with Mindy Williamson, the Iowa Corn Growers Director of Communications, to learn more about the benefits of their Grid Iron sponsorship, known as Iowa Corn Fed Game Day. “We like to call it the Super Bowl of Iowa because Iowa and Iowa State is our biggest rivalry here,” said Williamson.
This is their second year sponsoring the series, and it includes the Iowa vs. Iowa State football game, basketball game and wrestling match.
“The Iowa Corn Growers in Iowa wanted to get together and talk about things other than ethanol,” said Williamson. “We love ethanol as corn growers but we know there are also 4,000 other products made from corn. We want Iowans to know what those are and how those affect their life.”
Williamson said that one benefit of the sponsorship is that it gives them a venue to educate people about how many products use corn. Another benefit is that they want to bridge the gap between food and fuel and this is a way to do that. “There’s not a competition there. There is plenty of corn. We are excellent at growing corn for both markets,” explained Williamson.
Iowa Corn Growers have launched a promotion to bridge that gap along with the Iowa Corn Fed Game Day. They are giving away $5,000 in groceries and $2,500 in ethanol. You can sign up on online at www.iacornfed.com or at the upcoming football game or even during some of the pump rallies leading up to the game which are being held September 7, in and around Iowa City. Flex-fuel vehicle drivers can fill up their tank with E85 for .85 cents and any driver can sign up to win food and fuel. Herky the Hawk will also be there to get everyone jazzed up for the game. If you miss the pump rallies, then come on over to the Krause Family Plaza Friday, September 11 starting at 10:00 am. CT.
We hope to see you there rooting for your favorite team! Go ISU! Oops, did I write that…
You can learn more about the Iowa Corn Fed Game Day events by listening to my interview with Mindy here. Iowa Corn Fed Game Day
New Holland is going social and in this week’s program you can learn all about it from Digital Brand Engagement Specialist, Rebecca Yates. I spoke with Rebecca at the Farm Progress Show to learn about how New Holland is using social networking channels like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
One of the components of their launch into the new media world is the “Social Media Cow.” The cow will have an official name sometime in the future Rebecca says. Right now it is traveling the farm show circuit, raising awareness and New Holland is encouraging kids and adults to go to their Facebook page and suggest a name. The social media cow is an inflatable that has signs pointing to New Holland’s social media channels. During the show I saw families using it as a photo opportunity.
Hear all about what New Holland is doing in the social media world in this week’s program: ZimmCast 272
As the months go by, the farming landscape continues to change and take on different shapes. The rectangular fields that were once bare are now covered with crops, and some are spotted with round bales. It’s the changing of the seasons.
Although the technology to make round hay bales has been around since the 1940s, this particular farming practice didn’t become commonplace until the late 1970s and early 1980s. Traditional “square” bales are relatively easy to handle and they stack up neatly; but it takes a whole crew to gather a field of square hay bales and get them to the barn.
A field full of round bales, on the other hand, can be made in part of an afternoon by one person on a tractor, pulling a round-baling machine. Round balers are fast and they are more reliable than square-balers. Round bales, which typically weigh 700 to 900 lbs., are more moisture-resistant, and pack the hay more densely (especially at the center).
And, round bales add their own shape and beauty to the harvest landscape. It sure is pretty ‘round here. Read more here.
FMC Corporation announced the promotion of Matt Foster to the position of Product Manager in the company’s North America Crop Marketing group, Agricultural Products Group.
CGS TYRES announced a $43.81 million investment to build a new agricultural tire production plant in Charles City, Iowa.
Farmville is fun, but if you think you might have real “dirt in your veins,” take the next step and see what it takes for a California farmer to grow real broccoli, harvest real rice or manage a real herd of dairy cows. You can be there in the time it takes to click your mouse thanks to Know a California Farmer (http://www.knowacaliforniafarmer.com/). This interactive farm and ranch experience is brought to you by hundreds of farmers throughout the nation’s number one agricultural state. They represent farms and ranches small and large, organic and traditional. They are the people who actually produce the food you eat and the plants you grow in your backyard.
At www.KnowACaliforniaFarmer.com, California farmers and ranchers post personal photos, upload videos and write interesting blogs about real agriculture in California. Meet former roadie-turned-dairy-farmer Dino Giacomazzi as he shares his passion for the family business, which has been around since 1893. Read Jennifer Thompson’s blog where “talking grapes” is her second language and she will explain why California grapes make the best wine in the world.
And, it’s a two-way street at www.KnowACaliforniaFarmer.com. Our farmers and ranchers want to get to know you, too. Log on, post comments and ask questions to a real family farmer.
The American Farmland Trust has announced the winners in its 2010 America’s Favorite Farmers Markets contest. More than 50,000 people across the country cast their votes, and these are the top ones selected in each category:
Each and every one of the 1200+ farmers markets that enrolled in the contest helps ensure that our communities have farms growing and raising the delicious fresh food we all crave. By providing us with a place to purchase regional foods, farmers markets help keep farmers on the land so that they can continue to provide fresh food for our tables as well as community economic benefits and a wonderful place for us to gather.
We want to thank each and every one of the farmers market managers and customers who made the contest happen though their participation. Throughout the campaign thousands of people, along with bloggers and the media were talking about the contest helping to promote farmers markets on both the local and national level! We certainly went a long way toward reaching our goal of making a national splash about farmers markets and the farms they support!
The complete list of the top 20 in each category is available here.
Actually it’s a Sony Bloggie Touch and it looks like a good addition to your gadget bag of stuff. Think: Good for field demonstration videos at harvest time!
Just pull the Bloggie™ Touch camera out of your pocket and you’re ready to capture Full HD video and 12.8-megapixel still shots at a moment’s notice. You’ll notice the elegant simplicity of a single record button and a large touch screen for showcasing your shots. All the fun is stored on built-in memory, and you can easily upload your movies to your favorite social networking sites like Youtube™ and Facebook™.
Weighing a mere 4.5 ounces and sporting a svelte profile, this compact video camera is made to move. And there are no messy cables. Just swing out the built-in USB arm and connect directly to your compatible computer.
Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has picked up the World Food Prize Foundation’s Norman E. Borlaug Medallion, recognizing world leaders whose actions have benefited mankind but who would not normally be eligible for the World Food Prize.
This World Food Prize Foundation press release says Annan was befittingly awarded the medallion during the first-ever African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in his home country of Ghana:
The award is in recognition of Annan’s international leadership as Secretary-General of the United Nations and as chairman of the board for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. In both roles, Annan has brought significant attention to the issue of global food security, most notably in establishing the UN Millennium Development Goals during his time at the United Nations.
“Over the past decade, no one has done more than Kofi Annan to bring attention to the critical issue of global food security around the world nor in fulfilling Norman Borlaug’s dream of bringing the Green Revolution to Africa,” said Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation. The World Food Prize Foundation was founded by the late Dr. Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner who has been called the “father of the Green Revolution” for his breakthroughs in wheat production that helped save over a billion lives, and who had a passion for ending hunger in Africa.
“It is a great honor to receive this award in my home country Ghana. We are making great strides in putting farmers and agriculture at the center of our development,” said Annan, who received a standing ovation from over 600 people in the audience. “Public and private partners are working closely together to transform Africa’s agriculture to benefit smallholder farmers and increase food security and nutrition in Ghana and across the continent.”
“We have left farmers to sink or swim without help for far too long,” Annan said. “After decades of neglect, agriculture has returned to the development agenda. Now it is time to bring together the many players – from farmers to CEOs – to achieve rapid, large-scale results that will put an end to hunger and poverty.”
Annan, who was recognized in 2001 with a Nobel Peace Prize in part for his work to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, now serves as chairman of the board for AGRA … a group that works for a food-secure and prosperous Africa through the promotion of rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers.
Don’t forget, this year’s World Food Prize’s annual international symposium will be held in Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 12-16 and focuses on “Taking it to the Farmer: Reaching the World’s Smallholders.” David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, and Jo Luck, president of Heifer International are honorees at this year’s event.
Whoa Nelly AgWired peeps. Have you seen how BIG Big Bud is?
Big Bud is the world’s largest tractor and one of the biggest draws at this year’s Farm Progress Show. He was built by hand (all the Big Bud’s manufactured were done one at a time, no assembly line was ever used) and topped out at 27 feet long, 20 feet wide, 14 feet tall and weighing 100,000 pounds. Big Bud is the baby of Ron Harmonn, birthed in 1977 in Montana. The inspiration was derived for the need for a better tractor to plant and grow cotton.
Until this week, Big Bud had been on display in a farm museum in Dyersville, Iowa (the home of the famous ball field from Field of Dreams). He was moved to Boone, Iowa by Crop Production Services (Agrium), a company that provides agricultural inputs to farmers around the country.
Steve Sopher, an area agronomist with Agrium told me that they brought Big Bud in to give growers a walk down memory lane, and that he did. Between 15,000 – 20,000 people came to see Big Bud in person over the three days. It is estimated that nearly 100,000 people were at Farm Progress from around the world, so you can bet that most spent some time checking out Big Bud – and they won’t forget his enormity any time soon.
For those of you who missed out on this amazing piece of history, Sopher said that he will be back at the 2011 Farm Progress Show. You can also watch this video.
The 2010 Farm Progress Show is a wrap and even with some weather issues it was a good one. To wrap it all up I spoke with Show Manager, Matt Jungmann. He says that after 4 inches of rain on Tuesday night, what they accomplished on Wednesday was like a miracle. Since that overnight rain incident everything went very well. The Tuesday and Wednesday crowds topped the show when it was in Boone two years ago. Although we didn’t get to have field demos for the second two days Matt says Tuesday’s demos went great with corn harvesting at 150 bushels/acre. Matt says exhibitors are already talking about next year. I’m sure it will be a good one too!
You scream, I scream we all screamed for ice cream during this year’s Farm Progress Show. The weather may have been damp and somewhat dreary, but it didn’t stop the crowds from enjoying some homemade ice cream from Beekmans Homemade Ice Cream. They made vanilla, chocolate, peach, and raspberry delights right on site. All the ingredients came from local farmers in Boone and they even used solar power to charge the batteries.
Michelle Beekman, a Co-Owner, said that she has been with the company for six years, but it was started by her mother in 1998. She was also kind enough to let me watch her make a batch of ice cream and I caught the final moments on film. This particular batch was peach ice cream.
I however, have an infinity for raspberry so my perfect choice was raspberry swirled with vanilla and it was worth each and every calorie!
The Farm Progress Show might be over for this year, but you can still try out Beeckman’s ice cream at other Iowa events. Visit them at www.beekmanshomemadeicecream.com.
Commodity group leaders always make time to visit with the media at Farm Progress Show. One of them I spoke with yesterday was Rob Joslin, President, American Soybean Association. Rob is a soybean grower from Ohio. In the photo he’s on the left and speaking with Stu Ellis. I asked him about the issues that ASA is working on and the biodiesel tax extension is number one since with Congress allowing it to expire last year it has “virtually idled the vast majority of the domestic biodiesel industry” which he finds very disappointing.
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.
The most recent USDA/DOJ Public Workshop on competition in the livestock industry may be fading from people’s minds but we’re going to keep the issues discussed and presented alive, most importantly the proposed GIPSA rule that everyone seems to agree would have a profound impact on the industry. What kind of impact though is a source of significant disagreement.
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
