President Donald Trump welcomed representatives from a number of agricultural organizations to the White House Thursday to talk about the $16 billion in trade assistance announced by the administration. “I have directed Secretary Perdue to provide $16 billion in assistance to America’s farmers and ranchers. It all comes from China. We’ll be taking in, over a period of time, hundreds …
Alltech Working Together for a Planet of Plenty™
ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference wrapped up Tuesday with president and CEO Dr. Mark Lyons sharing his new vision for the company and inviting more than 3,500 attendees to join in “Working Together for a Planet of Plenty™.” Thirty years ago, his father, Alltech’s founder Dr. Pearse Lyons, took the stage at the same conference. He had committed Alltech to …
USDA Announces More Trade Aid for Farmers
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced several actions that USDA will be taking to assist farmers in response to trade damage from unjustified retaliation and trade disruption. President Trump directed Secretary Perdue to craft a relief strategy to support American agricultural producers while the Administration continues to work on free, fair, and reciprocal trade deals to open more …
FCA Board Chairman Dallas Tonsager Dies
Farm Credit Administration board chairman and former USDA under secretary Dallas Tonsager died Tuesday of lymphoma in Falls Church, Virginia. He was 64. Tonsager was appointed to the FCA board by President Barack Obama in 2015 and was designated chairman and CEO in 2016. Prior to that, he served as under secretary for rural development at the U.S. Department of …
IBM Expands Global Agriculture Platform
IBM is forging into the global agriculture industry, using predictive technology to provide solutions for farmers in various geographies. IBM announced the global expansion of Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture, with AI technology tailored for new crops and specific regions to help feed a growing population. For the first time, IBM is providing a global agriculture solution that combines predictive …
Precision Ag Bytes 5/22
While farmers struggle to get crops in the ground, barge traffic ferrying fertilizer north is at a standstill. As concerns about fertilizer availability intensify, Helena Agri-Enterprises, LLC is working with farmers to find alternative ways to meet the nutritional demands of their crops this season, especially nitrogen. Helena recommends adding a nitrogen stabilizer to stretch supply as far as possible, …
GROWMARK Launches AgValidity Platform
GROWMARK is partnering with startup technology companies with its AgValidity testing platform to bring new research and developments to its member companies and farmer customers. “We kind of saw this opportunity where we potentially could be the conduit or the connecting point between these really smart, innovative people that had great ideas but maybe didn’t have farm experience or access …
GrainCoat App Streamlines Grain Marketing
Like many farmers, Sean Arians also has a job that sometimes takes him away from his agriculture operation. Arians needed an easier way to manage grain marketing activities, so he developed the GrainCoat application. “Cloud spreadsheets and shared spreadsheets are sometimes tough to keep up to date and I really wanted an application that I could take with me on …
Precision Ag Bytes 5/15
The National Corn Growers Association welcomes Nicole Hasheider, who joins the organization as director of biotechnology and crop inputs in the St. Louis office. U.S. sales numbers of ag tractors and combines were up in almost every category, according to the latest Association of Equipment Manufacturers sales data. Total 2-wheel-drive tractors experienced an 11.8 percent growth in sales from April …
Bayer Reacts to Latest Glyphosate Trial Result
A third case over the herbicide Roundup resulted in a jury awarding a California couple who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma more than $2 billion in damages, the largest award so far. The jury found that Monsanto “acted with malice, oppression or fraud” for failing to warn about the risks of spraying Roundup, which became part of Bayer last year. A press …