USDA expects more corn, wheat and cotton to be planted this year, but slightly less soybeans, according to the Prospective Plantings report released this morning. Corn growers intend to plant 92.2 million acres of corn for all purposes this year, up 5 percent from last year and 7 percent higher than in 2009. If realized, this will be the second …
Corn Growers Challenge Nestle Exec Comments
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has taken issue with comments made last week by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the billionaire chairman of Nestle, during a “CEO Speaker Series” moderated by Time editor Michael J. Elliott at the Council on Foreign Relations. It’s an interesting conversation in which Brabeck-Letmathe comes off as insufferably arrogant, discussing how he and a bunch of other …
Agricultural Impact of Disaster in Japan
The disaster in Japan due to the earthquake and tsunami is terrible, especially in terms of the loss of human life. Our hearts and prayers go out to the people who have lost their life or loved ones. Cindy and I had the opportunity to visit Japan when the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists held its annual Congress there in …
FAPRI: Farm Incomes Up But Not Biggest Driver in Consumer Price Rise
The amount consumers will be paying for food at the grocery store could jump this year, but rising farm incomes won’t be the biggest factor in that increase. The latest report from the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri shows there will be good farm incomes in the U.S. this year … a record …
GROWMARK Media Day Tour
I had the opportunity for the first time to attend the GROWMARK media day this week to learn a little more about this large and diverse farmer cooperative. Among our stops was the Christian County FS facility in Millersville, a new 12,000 ton facility primarily for DAP and potash. “We moved from five facilities down to this one facility,” said …
FMC Puts Authority XL on Display
Here’s what’s new from FMC. At the Commodity Classic I spoke with Matt Foster, FMC, about Authority XL which was just recently launched. This is the fourth brand in the Authority portfolio which he says is a nice fit in the “I-70 corridor.” We’re at planting time so hopefully weed management decisions have been made but it’s not too late …
Bayer CropScience Agrees to Purchase Hornbeck Seed Company
Yesterday Bayer CropScience held a press conference via web and phone to announce its agreement to purchase Hornbeck Seed Company Inc., a privately-held company headquartered in DeWitt, Arkansas, USA. The seed company supplies soybean, rice and wheat varieties to the southern U.S. market. I was dialed in to the call and am sharing it below for your listening pleasure and …
Marketing and Risk Management With AgriVisor
Here’s the latest installment of our “Getting To Know GROWMARK” series. We’re going to talk risk management with Cory Winstead, AgriVisor, a joint venture between GROWMARK and the Illinois Farm Bureau. AgriVisor is a full service Agricultural Advisory firm that works closely with you, to provide a complete set of Agriculture Risk Management tools and Marketing services that are unique …
Pioneer Partners With NBC Learn
At the Commodity Classic Pioneer announced a “partnership with NBC Learn, the education arm of NBC News, to bring science to life for high school students in Iowa and Illinois. The program is focused on building students’ understanding and interest in agricultural science by providing innovative, video-based educational resources to schools at no cost.” I spoke with Todd Frazier about …
AGROTAIN Presents University Nitrogen Efficiency Research
AGROTAIN continues to line up the university research on the performance of their products that control nitrogen loss. At the Commodity Classic earlier this month, plant science professors from the University of Kentucky and the University of Delaware presented some of their findings during a press conference. They were also available to talk with growers at the AGROTAIN booth and …