Last week was the 73rd year for American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS 2018 & Seed Expo and like this year it was full of changes for the industry. Besides having several new company names, ASTA changed the layout of the trade show so that all the booths were located on the same expo floor. “We’re always trying to improve …
CropTrak Continues Expansion
CropTrak, a leading global SaaS platform utilized by Agribusiness and Food Companies for compliance data capture and reporting, has hired Stewart Dainty as Director, Key Accounts. An Iowa native, Dainty is based out of Des Moines and brings 25 years of agricultural industry experience in data and engineering analytics technology to CropTrak. He began his career with a degree in …
#ASTACSS Student Video Award Winner
Iowa State University PhD candidate Kevin Falk received the grand prize this year in the American Seed Trade Association’s (ASTA) second annual “Better Seed, Better Life” student video contest during the CSS 2018 & Seed Expo in Chicago this week. The award was presented to him by Kerry Grossweiler of BASF, which sponsors the ASTA Communications Committee. The contest is …
USDA Under Secretary Ibach at #ASTACSS
USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Greg Ibach spoke to attendees at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS 2018 and Seed Expo during a Plant Breeding Innovation session, toured the trade show, and met with media on Thursday in Chicago. Ibach discussed the importance of innovation in plant breeding, as well as coming regulations for GMO labeling, …
Seed Treatment Tour at #ASTACSS
A new feature this year at the ASTA CSS & Seed Expo was a Seed Treatment Education Tour in the expo. Groups of attendees visited ten different booths in rotation where they heard a ten minute presentation from each company. I caught one of the groups in the Bayer booth. Doing the presentation is Greg Ginisty, SeedGrowth Product Manager. You …
BASF Launches Vault® IP Plus and Obvius® Plus
BASF has expanded its soybean seed treatment portfolio with the launch of Vault® IP Plus seed treatment and Obvius® Plus fungicide seed treatment, recently registered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Both products will be commercially available in September 2019. I spoke with BASF’s Justin Clark to learn more about these products. With the launch of Vault IP Plus seed …
Precision Ag Bytes 12/5
Raven Industries, Inc. announced the release of AutoBoom® XRT, the latest advancement in boom control. Solinftec, a digital agriculture company that grew quickly in Latin America by making sugar cane and row crop operations more efficient, announced plans to establish operations at its U.S. headquarters near Purdue University to bring high-tech solutions to American farmers, creating 90 jobs in 2019 …
Major Seed Companies after the Mergers
The past two years have seen major changes in the agricultural seed industry and some of the traditional companies have different names and different players. That’s why the “Majors after the Mergers” panel was a big hit at the ASTA 2018 CSS and Seed Expo this week. Dan Basse, Ag Resource, moderated the panel which consisted of Jim Collins, Corteva; …
AGCO Presents 13th Operator of the Year at ARA2018
AGCO Corporation presented its 13th Annual Operator of the Year award to Jerry Born of Fairmount, North Dakota at the 2018 Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) Conference & Expo last week in Boca Raton, Fla. The award recognizes the value of the hard work professional applicators do caring for crops and customers across the country, as well as their involvement in …
ARA Installs New Chairman
Troy Johnson of Wilbur-Ellis was installed as new chairman of the Agricultural Retailers Association during the closing session of the 2018 ARA Conference and Expo in Boca Raton, Florida this week. Johnson succeeds John Oster of Morral Companies in the position. Pictured here left to right are Oster, Johnson, and ARA CEO Daren Coppock. Johnson shared with attendees his commitment …