Precision Ag News 5/20

Carrie Muehling

  • Register now for “Soil Health: The Foundation for Regenerative Agriculture,” on July 30-31, 2020. Registration is required to attend. This is a free, 2-day virtual event. Join to advance the opportunity that improving soil health offers to address climate change, water quality, food production, biodiversity, and many other pressing issues.
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposed rule to establish requirements and procedures for the issuance of guidance. Agricultural Retailers Association President and CEO Daren Coppock issued a statement in support of this action.
  • The Equipment Dealers Association is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 Dealer’s Choice and Gold Level Awards. The Dealer’s Choice Award is presented to the top-rated manufacturer in each of EDA’s four membership categories based on results of the annual Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey.
  • Wilbur-Ellis announced the launch of two new potassium fertilizer technologies, TILL-IT KOMPOUND™ and FOLI-GRO KILO®. These highly soluble, carbon-based potassium fertilizers drive bio-activation in soil or as a foliar-applied product. FOLI-GRO KILO® is a single-source potassium acetate fertilizer. TILL-IT KOMPOUND pushes both potassium and sulfur into plants through soil or fertigation applications.
  • On this World Bee Day, May 20, remember BeSure!, Growing Matters’ second annual stewardship campaign geared toward protecting honey bees and other pollinators that are critical to our ecosystem and food supply. The campaign runs through July, and we’re encouraging farmers and applicators to use best practices during the growing season to ensure pollinator health stays top of mind.
  • Unit sales of agricultural tractors and self-propelled combines in April 2020 rose in the U.S. according to the latest data from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, putting total unit sales year-to-date roughly flat with 2019. U.S. total farm tractor sales rose 12.3 percent in April compared to 2019 while U.S. April self-propelled combine sales inched up 4.1 percent. Only heavy-duty (100+ hp, articulated 4WD) tractors declined in unit sales in the U.S. That puts total YTD sales of all farm tractor units down 0.6 percent for 2020, and combines down 10.1 percent in the same period.
  • Benson Hill announced it has contracted 30,000 acres to advance its cutting-edge soybean varieties through partnerships in the consumer food, animal feed and aquaculture markets. Grown across a wide geography within the United States, Benson Hill’s non-GMO soybean product line combines superior nutritional qualities and oil content with highly competitive yields, offering benefits from seed-to-shelf.
  • Heliae® Agriculture continues to expand as it builds its efforts on promoting regenerative agriculture and soil health to the Delmarva, Kentucky, and Carolina regions. Chris Templeton will work with distributors to implement the PhycoTerra® product line into their recommended grower applications.
  • The Purdue Ag-Celerator will invest $100,000 in an agriculture technology startup that was selected for the investment following the semiannual Ag-Celerator Demo Day. Leaf Spec Ag Technologies took first place in the Spring 2020 Demo Day, which was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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