Category Archives: Audio

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Excerpts

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ZimmCast 347In this week’s program you’re going to hear why the Agri-Marketing Conference is such an important program to have on your schedule each year.

I’ve taken some excerpts from two of our keynote speakers, Peter Sheahan and Ross Shafer as well as an interview with one of our Conference Planning Committee members, Scott McClure, and put them into a program. Let’s get started in show order with Peter Sheahan. Peter talked about “Making it Happen: How To Turn Good Ideas Into Great Results.” Peter talks about how you take good ideas and then execute. It’s in the execution that you take those ideas and innovate!

Next we’ll move along to Ross Shafer who spoke on “Are You Still Relevant?” Of course we’d all like to think we’re relevant. One of the first things Ross says that sticks with me is the idea of “quit going to ag meetings.” He highly suggests going to meetings for other industries. He says that you’ll hear ideas in those meetings you’ll never hear in an ag meeting. That might be just what you need to stay relevant!

And finally we’ll visit with Scott McClure, Brighton Agency, who was our Vice Chair of this year’s NAMA Conference Planning Committee. Scott says the success of this year’s Conference is a combination of the enthusiasm in our industry and the coming together of one of the largest gatherings of people we’ve had in a decade. Scott also says he worked on a great planning committee this year and gives them the credit for coming up with a really good program that included speakers like Peter and Ross.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Program

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, for their support.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

MGEX Debuts Canadian Conference Call

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MGEXThe Minneapolis Grain Exchange has been doing a monthly conference calls with commentary on USDA crop and supply/demand reports for many years. Now they are doing the same for their friends north of the border.

Today was the inaugural MGEX conference call in conjunction with the Stats Canada agricultural data releases, following the release of March Intentions of Principal Field Crop Areas, 2012 report. The call included commentary on the data from Dennis Cajigas from Zaner Group. The first call had several Canadian journalists tuned in, as well as farm broadcaster Al Gustin of KFYR in Bismark, ND who asked about the impact recent developments regarding the Canadian Wheat Board may have had on this year’s planting intentions in Canada.

All of the MGEX conference calls are posted on the exchange website – links right on the front page. Contact Rita Maloney or Joe Victor at MGEX if you would like to receive notices about upcoming calls.

Listen to today’s MGEX Canadian crop conference call here: MGEX Canadian Conference Call

NAMA Membership and Conference Attendance Growth

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The 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference was a good one with an attendance near the record set in 2000 according to National Agri-Marketing Association President Beth Burgy, Broadhead. I spoke with Beth during the conference and agreed with her statement at our board meeting that it is really nice not to have major “issues” to be dealing with. However, the NAMA Executive Committee and Board are still working on the NAMA Strategic Plan and are continuing to explore ways to fully and successfully implement it. Beth says we have a “youth movement” going on in NAMA and lots of opportunities exist within the industry. Beth says she’s having a wonderful time as President and looks forward to the rest of the year.

You can listen to my interview with Beth here: Beth Burgy Interview

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

NAMA 2012 Marketer of the Year Award

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The NAMA Marketer of the Year Award is the organization’s highest honor for an active member and this year the recipient is Greg Guse, Paulsen Marketing. Pictured is Greg receiving his award from Rich Jefferson, AEM/AG CONNECT Expo, Professional Recognition Committee Chair (left) and NAMA President Beth Burgy, Broadhead.

You can listen to Greg’s remarks after receiving his award here: Greg Guse Award Remarks

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

NAMA 2012 Agribusiness Leader of the Year

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The NAMA Agribusiness Leader of the Year is the organization’s highest award. Receiving the 2012 award is John Becherer, United Soybean Board. Here’s John (right) on stage at the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference receiving his award from Rich Jefferson, AEM/AG CONNECT Expo, Professional Recognition Committee Chair (left) and NAMA President Beth Burgy, Broadhead. John was introduced by Rich and I recorded the remarks we heard from them for you.

You can listen to John’s remarks after receiving his award here: John Becherer Award Remarks

2012 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

BASF Indiana Great Grower is Ahead on Planting

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Another of the BASF Great Growers we will be following during the 2012 season is Kip Tom of Tom Farms, a multi-generation, family owned operation in northern Indiana. Tom Farms traces its roots to 1837 and today has nearly 18,000 acres of seed corn, corn and soybeans in seven Indiana counties and another 4,000 acres of seed production in Argentina.

Noting that no two years are alike when it comes to farming, Kip says 2011 was definitely a “unique year” but they still did well. “One thing we’ve learned about this business is we treat it as manufacturing and we have a ‘pick list’ that if something is occurring in our weather that requires a change, we know how to adapt,” Kip said. “Yields were surprisingly better than we thought they would be.”

A wet fall kept them from getting some fall tillage done, which put some pressure on them to get work done this spring but they are off to a “fabulous” start. “We’re about 45% planted on commercial corn acres and about 15% planted on soybeans,” Kip says, which is ahead of schedule.

To deal with weed pressure, Kip says they use winter annual herbicides to control weeds like henbit, dandelion and chickweed. “We apply a herbicide on during the fall and early winter. Then we come in with a pre-emerge grass herbicide on our corn acres and follow up with Roundup,” he said.

However, Kip says they are getting concerned about the resistant weeds and he thinks BASF is being very pro-active in that area. “I applaud BASF and the other companies that have been working hard on new formulations that will allow us to stop resistance yet make sure that we’re good stewards with our neighbors,” he said, particularly noting the work being done on lower volatility Dicamba formulations.

Listen to or download my interview with Kip here and watch for more Great Grower interviews coming up. BASF Great Grower Kip Tom

How do you think this crop year is looking so far? Give your opinion in the BASF Production Poll.

National Ag Hall of Fame Season

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ZimmCast 346It’s actually called the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame which was “chartered by Congress to honor the American farmer.” According to NACHOF Executive Director, Cathi Hahner, their season kicks off on April 19.

“As spring approaches, we are ready for the new season of sharing about the importance of agriculture in daily life,” said Cathi Hahner, NACHOF director. “We invite everyone to learn more about where food comes from and experience our one-of-a-kind features such as historic machinery, farming related exhibits or exploring FarmTown USA.”

I spoke with Cathi about the 2012 season which she says offers, “a full line-up of events with seasonal favorites like spring Barnyard Babies for families and children, as well as the fall Linemans’ Rodeo featuring worldwide electric workers.”

Thousands of people visit the Center which sits on a 164 acre site next to Legends Outlet Mall and Kansas Speedway in Bonner Spring, Kan. The Center relies on dues, donations, facility rental and visitor fees since it doesn’t receive any state or federal money.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: 2012 National Ag Hall of Fame Season

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, for their support.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

Kip Cullers First in New BASF Great Growers Series

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We are starting a new series today for BASF Crop Protection called “Great Growers” where we will be following the progress of four farmers throughout the growing season from pre-plant to harvest.

Our first interview is with one of the most famous farmers in the country – Kip Cullers of Purdy, Missouri. To call Kip a “great grower” is an understatement, considering he holds the title of World Champion Soybean Grower with a record 160.6 bushels per acre set in 2010. Even with last year’s “horrible” season, Kip still managed to break 100 bushels an acre. So, what about this year?

Kip says he is already planting away down in southwest Missouri and some of his corn has already started emerging. “We planted for 12 straight days and never shut the planters off,” he said. “It’s just been unbelievable.”

While Kip was very disappointed with his 2011 crop, he says it has not had much of an impact on his plans for this season. “I haven’t seen a year like that since 1980 so we’re just on track to do everything like normal,” he said. Winter in Kip’s part of the country was the same as pretty much every where else. “It’s just crazy how warm it was,” Kip said. “Mildest winter I’ve ever seen in my life.”

As pleasant as it was, the mild winter combined with a warmer than normal March has led to increased weed pressure. “The weeds are absolutely horrible,” Kip says. “We’ve got crabgrass that normally doesn’t come out until May” along with henbit and chickweed. “But we used the Kixor technology along with some Roundup and that just burns it down within seven days. Then we come back over the top later on.”

Kip says he is planning to plant more corn and soybean acres this year and he is really pleased right now with his barley crop on which he used Headline at the flag leaf stage. “It’s the best barley I’ve ever raised,” he says.

Listen to or download my interview with Kip below and watch for more Great Grower interviews coming up soon!

BASF Great Grower Kip Cullers

Founding Fathers Beer Helps Armed Forces Relief Trust

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Here’s a beer our Founding Fathers would be proud of. It’s named, “Founding Fathers Beer.” Right now distribution is limited but there are a number of states where you can find it. If you do find and purchase some Founding Fathers Brew you’ll be helping a good cause. Listen to their new jingle: Founding Fathers Beer Jingle

Founding Fathers Beer, a new American lager both owned and brewed in the United States that will donate half of its profits to the families of military troops, is now available in Tennessee. Operation Homefront Tennessee and the Armed Forces Relief Trust will receive 50 percent of the profits from Founding Fathers Beer sold in Tennessee.

Founding Fathers Products, a company dedicated to producing products that represent the ideals embraced by early America, launched Founding Fathers Lager in Minnesota and North Dakota last November, and recently debuted Founding Fathers Light Beer. Both the Lager and the Light are available in Tennessee, and will soon be available in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

“The largest breweries in America are now foreign-owned,” said Phil Knutsen, founder and CEO. “Founding Fathers is not only owned and brewed in America, but half of the profits will go to those serving in our armed forces and their families. We are thrilled to be introducing a new American beer choice that will both taste great and compete with the major, national foreign-owned brands.”

Founding Fathers was established in 2009 by Knutsen and a team of investors who believe retail shelves need more American-made products that serve an important cause.

Total Grain and Fertilizer on Track

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Total Grain Marketing (TGM) handled 70 million bushels of grain at its 31 locations in Illinois last year and this year is likely to be even more.

During the recent GROWMARK media tour, we visited TGM and South Central FS in Casey (that’s pronounced Cay-zee) and learned about that facility in particular which was created when the two entities joined in 2010 as part of the GROWMARK and FS member companies partnership that was started in 2006.

“We have an 8 million bushel elevator, it is on the CSX railroad, we are a 90 car unit train express load shipper, and handle about 16 million bushels of grain a year,” South Central FS CEO Randy Handel said. That express loading process can rival a pit stop in the Indy Car Series. “We have 15 hours from when the train comes to load it, grade it and put the train back together and have it ready for the CSX to take,” he says, noting that they can load 1,000 bushels a minute – or 90 cars in six hours or less.

Randy says the venture between South Central and TGM has been very successful. “It’s been a win-win for our local grain producer in that it has helped enhance their margin, it’s been profitable for us as a company, but we’re a local cooperative so in turn it’s profitable for our owners and members,” he said. Most of the grain goes to the southeast to the poultry market and ADM and Bungee on the bean market.

We also got to visit the brand new GROWMARK-owned fertilizer facility on the same site. “It is a 25,000 ton dry fertilizer blend facility and a 10,000 ton solution facility and this is the first spring we are using it,” Randy said. The fertilizer facility also benefits from being right on the rail line. “It’s a very good location being on the CSX track and it’s good sharing the resources with our grain elevator and it’s a very strategic location.”

Listen to my interview with Randy Handel here: South Central FS CEO Randy Handel

See more photos from the TGM visit here: GROWMARK 2012 Media Day

From Arkansas Farm to BASF Weed Control Expert

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We have interviewed Dr. Dan Westberg many times over the past several years about BASF Crop Protection products, particularly his work with Kixor herbicide technology. But, we took a few minutes to get to know dapper “Dr. Dan” a little better at this year’s Commodity Classic.

Dan’s interest in weeds goes back to his roots. “I grew up on a small farm in northwest Arkansas and I started to work when I was in college at the (University of Arkansas) Altheimer lab with the weed science group,” Dan said. “So I got very interested in weed science and controlling weeds in row crops and helping growers solve the problems that they had.” He got his Masters in Weed Science at Arkansas and his PhD from North Carolina State University and then took a field position with Sandoz.

He joined BASF 21 years ago when the company bought the Sandoz corn business, and that allowed young Dr. Westberg to see the world. “For the first couple of years I got to travel internationally to develop markets outside of the U.S.,” he said. “It was a great opportunity to visit Brazil, Argentina, virtually every country in Europe, particularly France and Germany.”

In 2002, Dan became responsible for the global development of Kixor herbicide technology and was able to play a role in its launch. “You don’t get the opportunity more than once in a career to work from start to finish with an active ingredient, so it’s been really rewarding,” he said.

Now the weed control expert’s big focus is on helping farmers fight glyphosate resistant weeds. “Glyphosate-resistant Palmer Ameranth has really taken over the mid-south and the southeast to the point that growers are losing some of their fields to this weed,” he said. “And this last year in 2011 was a tipping point for waterhemp in many areas of the Midwest. Certainly the southern third to half of Illinois and Missouri are probably already there with the level of problems that they have with waterhemp and it’s something that we need to start dealing with proactively.”

BASF has a number of tools in its herbicide portfolio to deal with problem weeds. “It actually represents ten different sites of action that we can bring to bear on these weed populations. It’s the most that anybody has in the country,” Dan says, noting that they can tailor specific programs to different areas of the country. BASF’s pre- and post-emergence products include Verdict, Status, Op-Till Pro, and Armezon – among others.

Learn more about Dr. Dan Westberg and BASF herbicides in this interview: BASF's Dr. Dan Westberg

Domestic Wine and Sweet Tea Vodka

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ZimmCast 345Just wanting to get back to the land was a desire that led Ann and Jim Irvin to a piece of property near Charleston, SC that is now home to Irvin~House Vineyard and the Firefly Distillery. This was one of the tour stops for the Agricultural Relations Council annual meeting crew. We spent several enjoyable hours there doing some wine tasting as well as sampling some Firefly.

I visited with Ann Irvin to learn how they got this beautiful place started. Ann says she grew up on a farm and wanted to get back to that lifestyle. At first they were just interested in having a place to go and have a garden. But they found a larger piece of property and after a drive through central Florida where they stopped at a winery they got the idea to start their own winery. They grow their own grapes and have learned along the way.

Irvin~House Vineyards is the only domestic winery in Charleston, SC. We grow the grapes, harvest them, make the wine, and bottle our wines on the property.

There is nothing quite like a stroll through our vineyards and the surrounding property. A large pond stocked with fish. Walking trails. Abundant birds and wildlife scampering about. Old oak trees with Spanish Moss shading the property. This is the true character of South Carolina’s Lowcountry hertitage.

Even the grapes we grow have Southern roots. Our wines are hand-crafted from the humble muscadine grape . This sweet grape with a fruity aroma grows practically everywhere in the South. People tell us how the taste of muscadines transport them back to their childhood.

In addition to the winery, the Irvins also work with a local tea plantation to make the first ever hand-crafted sweet tea flavored vodka called Firefly.

The Firefly Distillery is located on Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina, 30 miles south of Charleston. We don’t have the bright lights of the big cities. The pace is a little slower down here. We have plantations, hundred-year-old oak trees and dirt roads. Everyone is your neighbor and folks enjoy relaxing on the front porch swing, on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It’s where you can hear the crickets chirping at night and you can still see the fireflies light up the sky. It was this wonderful environment and the special ingredients found right in our own backyard that inspired us to created handcrafted vodkas unlike those made anywhere else.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: The Irvin~House Vineyard

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

Fast Stop General Store More than Convenience

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If you want to fill up with E85, get your propane tank refilled, grab some food for your llama and new Muck boots for spring field work, satisfy your sweet tooth with bulk candy, pick up some locally produced noodles and Fluffy Burgers for dinner, enjoy some Champ’s chicken for lunch, order a new garage door, and maybe bring your truck around back to the diesel pump – then the Fast Stop General Store in Effingham, Illinois is the place for you.

Operated by South Central FS, the Fast Stop General Store has something for everyone, according to store manager Bryan Dahnke. “We’ve tried to make this a destination for people, because they can get gas anywhere, they can get a candy bar anywhere, you can’t Illinois homegrown products anywhere,” Bryan told me when we stopped by the store on a GROWMARK media tour last week.

It is definitely a destination stop. Over 100 locally produced products line the front wall of the store including jellies, jams, salsa, noodles, and candles, with more in the freezer like the Matoon, Illinois trademarked Fluffy Burgers and other local meats. In the feed section you can get food for every animal from dogs and cats, to hogs and cattle, to rabbits and llamas. Along the back wall is the garage door display. “As part of South Central, we own Altamont Overhead Garage Doors, and that’s a good business for us,” Bryan said. In addition, they have grain handling and diesel truck facilities in the back of the store.

Bryan says the general store concept has worked very well for them. “From year one to year two, we increased about 30-35% in inside sales and about 30% in fuel and this year we’re still running about another 15% on fuel sales and another 35% on inside sales,” he said.

Listen to an interview with Bryan here and watch a video of the store below: Interview with Bryan Dahnke

An Interest in Pinterest For Kodak Gallery

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ZimmCast 344Since I’ve been seeing more and more interest in Pinterest in the AgWired community lately, the release about the Kodak Gallery mobile app being able to share photos to the popular social media site caught my eye. I visited with Trent Gruenwald, Sr. Product Manager, Social & Mobile Products for Kodak Gallery to learn more about it.

Trent says the app is available for both iPhone and Android. It allows you to upload photos from your smart phone, view all your Kodak Gallery photos, share your photos either individually, by photo album or group sharing. He says they are continuing to update the app based on feedback from users. Right now the new update is sharing to Pinterest which is only available for Android. It will be available for iPhone in the future. Trent says the Kodak Gallery app tries to combine all the different features you can find individually in other apps. One of the upcoming updates for the iPhone version will be the ability to print your photos.

AgWired fans know I’m a power user of Flickr and I don’t see that changing. However, I can see this app being very appealing to the agricultural community. For example, organizations running events might want to consider using it to create a shared photo gallery that allows attendees to add their photos.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: An Interest in Pinterest

KODAK Gallery is the leading online destination for storing and transforming photo memories—at their most life-like best—into a more high-profile part of people’s everyday lives and environments. Anyone can express their creativity by making a wide variety of personalized gifts such as photo books, greeting cards, and wall décor for themselves and others to enjoy. It’s also easy to share creative projects with friends and family through direct access to social media including Facebook, Twitter and many others.

In June 2001, KODAK, the world’s greatest and most trusted photography company purchased the groundbreaking Berkeley-based company, Ofoto which was founded in 1999. KODAK’s legacy of quality goes into every item that KODAK Gallery produces. We provide the same outstanding service and quality that KODAK customers have come to know and trust.

KODAK Gallery is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eastman KODAK Company.

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

Agricultural Public Relations Hall of Famer Lyle Orwig

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During the 2012 Agricultural Relations Council Annual Meeting Lyle Orwig, CEO, Charleston|Orwig, was inducted into the inaugural Agricultural Public Relations Hall of Fame. Here’s Lyle with his award in between past ARC President, Deron Johnson (left) and current President, Mace Thornton.

I visited with Lyle about his recognition at the meeting and he says he’s very honored and humbled to be part of the inaugural presentation and especially to be inducted along with an ARC founder, Don Lerch. Lyle talks about how the communications business has changed over the years from before we had integrated marketing and how agencies have adapted. When it comes to today’s social media world he says the role of the public relations professional has not changed but how a message is delivered has.

Listen to my interview with Lyle here: Interview with Lyle Orwig

2012 ARC Annual Meeting Photo Album

GROWMARK Legislative Priorities

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GROWMARK government affairs director Chuck Spencer shared some of the agricultural cooperative’s top legislative priorities on both the state and national level during the media day tour this week.

Chuck and other GROWMARK representatives participated in the Ag Day event Wednesday at the Illinois state capitol to talk with legislators about some of those priorities. “Obviously everyone in Illinois is very concerned about budget, the cost of operations, consistency of policies, predictability of regulation in our business climate,” Chuck says. “We are seeing agriculture in the very fortunate position of being able to grow in this economy. We want to continue to do so.”

Chuck says a specific priority on the state level is the “Keep it for the Crop” (KIC) by 2025 campaign, a legislative initiative that has passed the Illinois House and is moving through the Senate. “What is important about that is that it’s going to provide additional research dollars for stewardship programs,” in watersheds, nutrient movement, and maximizing efficiency, productivity and profitability.

National priorities include the farm bill, of course, but also issues related to pesticide application permitting (HR872), transportation (limited exemption for hours of service for agriculture) and renewal of the Pesticide Registration and Improvement Act.

Listen to my interview with Chuck Spencer here: GROWMARK's Chuck Spencer

Ag Secretary Vilsack & IA Gov. Branstad Press Conf.

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Today at 3pm, CDT, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad will hold a joint press conference to clarify facts surrounding Beef Products Inc.’s lean finely textured beef. We sure need some facts to get out into the consuming public on this. You can watch it live in the player window below. The press conference will be held in the Governor’s Large Conference Room, State Capitol, Des Moines, IA

Post Update: In case you missed the press conference you can listen to it here. I edited out the blips in the live stream feed. Total length is about 14.5 minutes.

Sec. Vilsack & Gov. Branstad Press Conference

Here are some notes from the press conference: Both Gov. Branstad and Sec. Vilsack strongly affirmed the safety of lean finely textured beef. Sec. Vilsack said,”Let me reiterate what we have said literally hundreds of times. This product is safe. No question about it.” He compared the inaccurate term “pink slime” to calling H1N1 “swine flu.” Branstad said their responsibility is to “correct smear campaign” re: lean finely textured beef with correct information. He said that Midwest governors will be taking media on tour of meat plants tomorrow where they will eat some LFTB! He called media coverage of this story “poisonous.” Sec. Vilsack applauds efforts like the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance to communicate better information about food production to consuming public. Gov. Branstad said he talked with representatives of Hy-Vee who have changed their decision not to carry LFTB products and will be giving their customers the choice to purchase the product.

An ARC History Lesson With Don Lerch & Paul Weller

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ZimmCast 343At the 2012 Agricultural Relations Council Annual Meeting, the first two members of the newly established Agricultural Public Relations Hall of Fame were inducted. Pictured below are Lyle Orwig, Charleston Orwig, (left) and Don Lerch, retired, with their awards. Before the award ceremony I visited with Don Lerch, who was a founding member of ARC and Paul Weller, Agri/Washington, who was the ARC Executive Secretary once upon a time. I’ll share an interview with Lyle in a coming story post.

In my conversation with Paul and Don I learned that ARC was founded to combat the very negative publicity that agriculture was receiving after World War II. Sound familiar? Don says it was due to the impact of science and technology on farming and fear and a lack of understanding on the part of the consuming public. So ARC was formed to mount an effort to try and overcome this problem by getting positive and truthful information into the media. In fact, many of the original members were in the media.

I hope you enjoy this conversation since it will give you a really good perspective on not only the Agricultural Relations Council but where we’ve been in the fight to get a growing non-farm public to understand where their food comes from.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: ARC History With Paul & Don

2012 ARC Annual Meeting Photo Album

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

BASF Personality Profile – Luke Bozeman

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BASF Herbicide Technical Market Manager Luke Bozeman has only been with BASF Crop Protection for a short time now, but he brings a wealth of experience, knowledge and enthusiasm to the company for helping growers get the most out of every acre.

In this BASF Personality Profile, we learn more about Luke, who was born and raised on a diversified farm in northwest Florida and received a degree in entomology from Auburn University. His first job was with Sandoz (remember them?) where he spent 13 years, “starting at their research farm in Mississippi and then the last seven years in Chicago as a product manager for Dicamba,” he said. Afterward, he spent several years in contract research working with several different clients, including BASF, and then spent 10 years with Monsanto working on seed traits.

Wanting to get back into the crop protection side of the business, Luke was happy to get the opportunity with BASF 18 months ago. “I am very excited about bringing new tools to the growers for controlling weeds in their crops,” Luke said.

A couple of up-and-coming products that he is particularly excited about are Zidua® herbicide and Engenia™ herbicide. Zidua will first be labeled for use in corn this year to deal with difficult weeds like waterhemp and pigweeds. “Zidua has a very long-lasting residual, up to two weeks longer than products commonly used now, and it’s also going to be very flexible,” Luke said. “Engenia is our latest dicamba innovation and has been developed specifically for use in the dicamba-tolerant cropping system being developed by Monsanto.”

Learn more about Luke, Zidua and Engenia in this interview: BASF Technical Market Manager Luke Bozeman

Then vs. Now — Cultivation

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I thought I’d take advantage of some of the technology sitting on my desk and change it up a little this week. I have the pleasure of listening to stories from my grandfather and thought maybe you all would like to hear them too, so I put grandpa on the spot and recorded snippits of our interview.

Today we’re going to get a lesson in field cultivation, a farming practice not many growers use because of successful weed control by applying herbicides to row crops.

So in my grandfather’s own voice he explains his lucky day. Listen to Grandpa explain

It’s history coming alive.

Until we walk again …