One of the first things I asked her was just what “organic” means. She says it’s a sustainable method of farming that uses on-farm produced inputs. “Only products that have met the organic regulations are allowed to carry the organic label in the market place.”
She was at the show to help educate people about what they’re doing and to promote organic farming. She says their mission is to not only to promote but also to provide farmers with the tools to be successful organic farmers.
Apparently there is a growing market for organic products. Harriet says that the market is growing 20%/year. She says that organic products get a premium price. For example, she says that organic corn has been selling for $11/bushel and soybeans at $16 - 18/bushel.
Listen to my interview with Harriet here:
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At last week’s Farm Progress Show (yes, I know, but I’m getting caught up) I met Jim Moellenberndt, New Holland Business Manager, Cash Crops. He was proudly displaying the “largest combine in North America” because “Size Matters.”
He’s standing next to a 9080 CR Combine. He says, “It’s the largest combine in North America, 523 Max HP. It’s just a real awesome machine.” He says they’ve had one running on a wheat harvest job and that it has done a fantastic job. A lot of people have been approaching him and commenting on the horse power, saying they remember using one with 90 HP.
I asked him if they gave quantity discounts for these monsters. He says they’ll gladly “work with you” all the way up to a half dozen! They were taking orders at the show for a July 2009 delivery. Get your name on the list today!
You can listen to my interview with Jim here:
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The potential for increasing yields exists everywhere if you ask Michael Doane. Michael is the Sustainability Team Lead for Monsanto. He spoke at the Monsanto discussion on sustainability on the 2008 Farm Progress Show last week. After his speech, I caught up with him and we spoke more about how he thinks the world will answer the global food demands of the future.
While Michael says a big portion of global food needs will be met in developing countries that have a huge potential for improving crop yields, he says there is still a lot of opportunity for increasing yields in the already yield-efficient U.S. Modern technology such as biotech, Michael says, means farmers in the U.S. still have a landscape that’s wide open with opportunity.
“If you just look at some of the yields that have been achieved in some very optimized conditions, it suggests that we’ve got a long ways to go before we’ve tapped yield potential [in the U.S.],” Michael said. (more…)
Thirty-three percent of the land’s surface is used for food production. That’s the figure that John Hoffman, Iowa farmer and President of the American Soybean Association puts out there. He says that 33 percent makes up 55 percent of the land that’s arable. So, we’re already using more than half the arable land out there to feed the world. Much of the rest, John points out, is mountainous, desert or protected forests and parks. In short, John is basically saying, ‘what we’re already using, is all we’ve got.’ Plus, he adds, we have to produce more… ‘with what we’ve got.’
“We’ve got to grow to feed double the amount of people on the same amount of arable land.,” John said. “We don’t want to encroach on fragile rainforests as Michael said or encroach on grasslands. So we need to find a way to do that. I think from my experience, my travels, my knowledge on my own farm, that the way we’re going to do that is unequivocally with biotechnology.”
Biotechnology, Hoffman says, is the answer for feeding the future and protecting our environment.
“We’ve got to feed that growing world,” John said. “We’ve got to step up to the plate and provide fuel, food, fiber, feed and I think American agriculture world agriculture will be able to do that and its through biotechnology.” (more…)
Pioneer is offering a new, free service that it says can give farmers more: more information and more uses for that information. Pioneer Hi-Bred’s FIT mapping combines GPS data with a free mapping service offering farmers detailed information about their crops, where they’re growing their crops and whether they’re growing them in way that maximizes their resources. Did I mention it’s free?
I caught up with Lisa Baumhover at the 2008 Farm Progress Show and we talked about just what FIT mapping does offer farmers and how easy it is to use. You can listen to my interview with Lisa here:
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At the Farm Progress Show I got to meet the Canadian farm boy who is now the President and CEO of IRON Solutions. He’s Darwin Melnyk and he comes from western Canada.
IRON Solutions had some major activity this summer when they were acquired by StarVest Partners, a New York venture capital firm. Darwin says the firm has given them the mission of radical and rapid growth. I haven’t been real familiar with the company but I learned that they’ve had a long history of providing data, evaluation and appraisal tools for equipment dealers. He says, “People say we’re kind of like the Kelley Blue Book of the the tractor business.”
One of the things they’re doing is expanding their reach to farmers who have known them online at IRON Search, which is a portal to listings of almost 60,000 machines and various pieces of used farm equipment. In fact, Darwin says they just re-skinned the site (re-designed it for you non web developer types).
The other big news at the Farm Progress Show is their deal with the Farm Progress publications to create regional inserts like the one Darwin is holding in this picture. He says it’s their print interface to their digital service. Now that’s a reverse move from what we normally see isn’t it?
I had to ask him his thoughts about farmers being online and companies using the web as a communications mechanism. He says, “I would encourage my colleagues in the ag industry to focus on it. It’s not if, it’s when, it’s happening all the time.” He says the web provides a great opportunity because of the ability to provide rich content. “The amount of information we can give to a farmer for very little money or no cost is unprecedented in the history of communications.” Amen, brother.
The program this week ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. Since we’ve been at the Farm Progress Show you get to listen to “Work in Progress” from Rotacool. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 185 (17 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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At this summer’s farm shows you’ll see the folks at the Propane Education and Research Council providing support to various state groups. Here at the Farm Progress Show, Mark Leitman stopped by the AgWired table in the media tent.
Mark says that farmers are stopping by their exhibit and have been talking about propane powered tractors they’ve had or still have. He’s heard a lot of fond memories.
At the Iowa state exhibit they had a Roush F-150, powered by propane, on display. Mark says they’re promoting energy efficiency across the board. He says it’s a good time to look at becoming more energy efficient and deciding to do either more maintenance on grain dryers and heaters or perhaps replacing them.
PERC will be sponsoring AgWired coverage of some upcoming shows that include the Farm Science Review in Columbus, OH and the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA. I think you can count on learning more about what’s going on in the propane business.
You can listen to my interview with Mark here:
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While I’m on the subject of hay equipment from New Holland, let’s add one more item. This one is the new H5270 Tedder.
In the haymaker’s race against the rain, a New Holland H5270 six-rotor pull-type tedder provides the edge by fluffing heavy, damp crop and distributing it evenly for faster drydown.
Dave says one of the improvements in this model are that “it’s a very easy unit to get down the road or through a gate” since it folds up to a 10ft. width. I asked him how business was doing and he says it’s very good this year. He’s had many positive comments from growers and suspects that many have waited a long time to replace their hay equipment. Right now he says they’re in the market to buy.
You can listen to my interview with Dave here:
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Small square balers aren’t the only new balers from New Holland. How about those big square balers?
I spoke with Colin Skoronski in the New Holland exhibit about this big BB9060. New Holland is certainly making some style changes which you can see in the rounded edges for example. Colin says they’ve made a lot of improvements in this line of balers. One of them is an increase of about 5% in bale density.
When I asked him about feedback he says, “The guys are excited. The hay industry is going well. More and more guys are looking at the productivity of the big square bales.” When it comes to service he says, “Top Service is a program that commits to the customer that we will take care of his problem. New Holland is committed to keeping that customer running.”
You can listen to my interview with Colin here:
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New Holland had a lot of new equipment on display. One item getting a lot of attention was their new small square baler. One of the reasons is a retro-vintage logo on the side.
I spoke with Mark Long, Marketing Specialist in the Hay and Forage group. He says they just introduced the new small square baler and that it’s been about 15 years since they’ve made this many improvements. To let growers see where those improvements have been made, they’ve made little cards on magnets at each spot on the unit. They’re handing out number coded flyers with information about each location of an improvement. That makes it very easy to see what’s new.
Mark says their focus is on serviceability and durability. They’ll be celebrating their 700,000th small square baler this October. He says that over the years the market for the small square balers has backed off but the company hasn’t forgotten what got them here.
You can listen to my interview with Mark here:
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I have a lot of photos from the Farm Progress Show that I really like. Of course, taking them with my new Nikon D300 is a big part of why I like taking them. Laura and I have almost 400 in the photo album so far. I think she’s still got some to add to it.
This is one of my favorites though. It was just one of those instantaneous opportunities. What do you think? It’s in the album if you want a bigger version.
I know Susie Decker on the right but I didn’t get the names of the movie stars to her left. Anyone know? If so, please post in comments. Thanks.
BTW. All of the Farm Progress Show staff, like Susie-Q here, were extremely helpful and always smiling and happy. How do they do it?
Since I started renting a golf car at shows like the Farm Progress Show, I’ve wondered why I ever did without. The golf car man at the Farm Progress Show was Chris Miller, M & M Golf Cars.
They rent 2, 4, 6 seat cars as well as other vehicles. He says people started registering to rent cars the first of June. The company had over 400 rentals booked prior to show time.
I know they were busy and he says, “This morning (first day) at 7am, everybody wanted their car by 7:05am, which was impossible.” Although things got chaotic he says they got them all out and everybody seemed to be enjoying the show.
You can listen to my interview with Chris here:
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There were a LOT of reasons about 1,000 Farm Progress Show visitors visited the DTN exhibit in Boone, Iowa this week. But, the biggest reason was probably the chance to win $25,000. Aside from scoring the dough, though, visitors also had the chance to score some valuable marketing and weather tips from DTN experts. DTN representative Teri Thiele says visitors could get advice on how to understand markets and commodities so farmers could understand and make decisions about them on a daily basis.
DTN was also showcasing its new market space product that Teri says offers farmers inventory management system control. She says farmers can then buy and sell their grain and other commodities online. Young farmers she says are really embracing mobile technology.
I spoke with Teri about the technology DTN is bringing to farmers in the office or in the field and what trends farmers seem to follow with mobile technology. You can listen to my interview with Teri here:
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The Farm Progress Show had a lot of international visitors like these guys from Brazil.
I just happened to walk in to the BASF tent and met them. Several of their group actually work for BASF in Brazil. Their tour leader is Fernando Dellazari (3rd from right). He says they had 17 guys on this trip. I asked him what he thought of the Farm Progress Show. “So beautiful. We can see what is the best I think today in the world.” He says they also have big farm shows in Brazil but lag behind in getting the latest technology compared to the United States.
You can listen to my interview with Fernando here:
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I feel a little like I’m suffering from Post Farm Progress Show Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PFPSTSS). Even a cup of homemade Rocket Fuel hasn’t gotten me moving too fast yet. How about you?
While I was packing up yesterday Gene Hemphill, New Holland Media Room Sponsor Extraordinaire, noted that we have a lot of “gadgets.” I prefer the T-word (tools). So between Laura and me, we had multiple still and video cameras (8), audio recorders (3), computers(3), tripods (2), and a variety of other things (power strips, cleaning supplies, cords, fans, etc. We needed those tools to take about 900 still photos, shoot 10 video clips, conduct over 40 audio interviews not counting press conferences and have a live webcam/cast going for most of the show from our media tent table. I think I’ve still got about 9 interviews to edit and post.
If we didn’t get to your exhibit and get an interview done, we are sorry. It was a busy 3 days for a couple of agribloggers. The rain on Wed and internet access issues kind of slowed us down too. I know there were a lot of you public relations professionals out there working hard to get us to stop by but we couldn’t get to everyone. Don’t stop trying though. You can see Laura at work at the AgWired table in the top photo.
So long from the Farm Progress Show. Laura and I have a lot more to offer in the coming days.
We’re packing up and getting ready to hit the agriblogging highway. Actually, we’re running behind and we might actually be in the media tent when Secretary Schafer arrives. If so, we’ll do a short interview for posting later.
So, thank you to BASF and New Holland for once again sponsoring our coverage of the Farm Progress Show.
Representing one of the host families here at the Farm Progress Show is Dick Isaacson, pictured here at the exhibitor’s welcome reception.
The Farm Progress Show’s new, permanent biennial site wouldn’t be possible without the cooperation of local landowners. Host families include Eric and Carol Ziel, along with Eric’s parents, Bob and Mary; Dick and Judy Isaacson and his mother, June; and Alan and Jennifer Schoff.
“We are really lucky to be working with these fine farm families,” notes Jungmann.
Dick says his family farm comes up to the east side of the exhibit area. He says they tried to grow some corn there but the weather was just too wet this year. I asked him what he thought about having the show at his farm. “It’s really been exciting and it’s been a great attraction in central Iowa.” He says it’s a chance to see a lot of technology in a small place.
Since we’ve had some rain yesterday and again overnight I thought the water drainage was pretty good. Dick says the whole exhibit area was graded to allow drainage to a catch basin. Seems to be working to me. As far as what this means to him and his family he says, “It’s meant a lot. You’re elated then you kind of go through the reality check that everybody is going to be coming by your place.” That’s given his family an excuse to go ahead and “catch up on 20 years of cleaning.”
You can listen to my interview with Dick here:
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Our Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, showed up here at the Farm Progress Show and started out at the ADM tent with Orion Samuelson and Max Armstrong.
After a brief opening statement he opened things up for some Q&A.
You can hear Orion ask the first question here:
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AgWired Live TV is now done for the day. We’ve been live from the media tent throughout a lot of the Farm Progress Show so I hope you’ve been able to see an application of what we can do with it. I hope it gives you some ideas.
Laura and I are getting ready to pack up and head home but our coverage will continue over the next several days as we work up more interviews and pictures.
We had a lot of rain overnight so it’s pretty muddy out here but the sun is out and I’m sure it will dry up and be a beautiful day in Boone, IA.
Laura and I are working up some content from yesterday and have a to-do list to get started on. You can be sure that we’ll have posts for you over the coming days. It’s not all going to get posted today.
It’s our understanding that U.S. Sec. of Ag, Schafer, is supposed to do a press conference at 4pm but I don’t think there will be any press here. Maybe Ken Root, WHO? Who knows?
Guess how many photos we've got in our archives that are tagged "farm." Let's just say, it's a lot..
Twittering Farmer
Farmers are twittering and then there's The Twittering Farmer.
He's Steve Tucker and my interview in this week's program. Steve and I discuss the story that featured him on CNN today and the feedback he's received which has been kind of overwhelming. He's a great advocate for agriculture who now has more Twitter followers than there are residents in his home town.
MOSES is the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service. At the Farm Progress Show, their outreach coordinator, Harriet Behar, visited the media tent.
At last week’s Farm Progress Show (yes, I know, but I’m getting caught up) I met Jim Moellenberndt, New Holland Business Manager, Cash Crops. He was proudly displaying the “largest combine in North America” because “Size Matters.”
and 
The potential for increasing yields exists everywhere if you ask Michael Doane. Michael is the Sustainability Team Lead for 
Thirty-three percent of the land’s surface is used for food production. That’s the figure that John Hoffman, Iowa farmer and President of the 
Pioneer is offering a new, free service that it says can give farmers more: more information and more uses for that information. Pioneer Hi-Bred’s 
At the Farm Progress Show I got to meet the Canadian farm boy who is now the President and CEO of 
The other big news at the Farm Progress Show is their deal with the Farm Progress publications to create regional inserts like the one Darwin is holding in this picture. He says it’s their print interface to their digital service. Now that’s a reverse move from what we normally see isn’t it?
At this summer’s farm shows you’ll see the folks at the 
At the Iowa state exhibit they had a 
While I’m on the subject of hay equipment from New Holland, let’s add one more item. This one is the new 
Small square balers aren’t the only new balers from New Holland. How about those 
New Holland had a lot of new equipment on display. One item getting a lot of attention was their 
I have a lot of photos from the Farm Progress Show that I really like. Of course, taking them with my new Nikon D300 is a big part of why I like taking them. Laura and I have almost 400 in the photo album so far. I think she’s still got some to add to it.
Since I started renting a golf car at shows like the Farm Progress Show, I’ve wondered why I ever did without. The golf car man at the Farm Progress Show was Chris Miller, 
There were a LOT of reasons about 1,000 
The Farm Progress Show had a lot of international visitors like these guys from Brazil.
I feel a little like I’m suffering from Post Farm Progress Show Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PFPSTSS). Even a cup of homemade 
couldn’t get to everyone. Don’t stop trying though. You can see Laura at work at the AgWired table in the top photo.
So long from the Farm Progress Show. Laura and I have a lot more to offer in the coming days.
Representing one of the host families here at the Farm Progress Show is Dick Isaacson, pictured here at the exhibitor’s welcome reception.
Our Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, showed up here at the Farm Progress Show and started out at the ADM tent with Orion Samuelson and Max Armstrong. 
Welcome to day 3 of the Farm Progress Show.
Farmers are twittering and then there's The Twittering Farmer.
