Telling the Story of The Great American Wheat Harvest

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Chuck

Here’s a great looking group of custom harvesters. This is from the U.S. Custom Harvesters booth at Commodity Classic. I met another one of these road warriors that will be featured in the upcoming film documentary, “The Great American Wheat Harvest.” He is Dan Misener, second from the right.

Dan’s business is Misener Family Harvesters which has been in business since 1969. It is truly a family business. That family business will be one of the ones featured in the documentary which is now in production. The documentary will tell their story as they follow the harvest north. Dan says around mid April they get started and work a week or so from each stop over a period of 6-7 months. That’s a long stretch away from home!

The Great American Wheat Harvest is a project that will help people understand where a loaf of bread comes from. Dan says, “We can’t let somebody else tell our story. We need to tell our own story.

You can listen to my conversation with Dan here: Interview with Dan Misener

AgFanatics Talk About the Markets

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Cindy

In the newest AgFanatics podcast, our friends Cory and Nick give some explanation as to what has caused the significant retreat in grain prices, after last Thursday’s USDA report. What does the future hold and what could we see in next Wednesday’s WASDE report? Tune in to find out!

The AgriVisor AgFanatics podcast is updated twice weekly and can be found on Itunes or right from the front page at www.agrivisor.com.

2014 International Year of Family Farming?

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Chuck

During our weekly AgChat session last night several folks interjected messages about a United Nations sanctioned initiative called the 2014 International Year of Family Farming, Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth. So I had to look at it and can’t say I like what I see. If you click around their website you’ll see some pretty mixed messages. There is a lot of feel good rhetoric about family farming and losing people to the cities. Then you’ll find a video with a page title “Do we really need industrial agriculture?” It’s on YouTube and I couldn’t get past more than a minute or two to realize these folks have an agenda that is not compatible with reality and common sense. It’s just the tired old messaging that farming today is all “industrial” and the evil corporations are taking over the world. You’d think we’re all going to die unless we do what they want. This video is produced by Food MythBusters and the Real Food Media Project. I hate to think of what they hope to teach kids.

I can empathize with the challenges presented by a changing world and changing technology. It does make it tough to make a living from a small patch of ground even here in America. But you’ll also find messages in here about how bad subsidies are. I’m just curious how these folks think they’re going to fund all their feel good programs. Where do they think the money will come from? My bet is that it will be subsidies they want which will then be “good subsidies.” I can’t support this kind of effort and as far as I’m concerned anything with the United Nations involved is suspect.

What do you think? I work in the ag media realm and have my whole career. I saw broadcasting, especially on the radio side, change as consolidation happened and we no longer had truly local ownership. I didn’t cry over it and ask the government to help me. New technology offered us some great new opportunities. Throw in some hard work too! Voila. I’m making a living. I think this can apply to farming today. It is changing and will continue to change. Instead of looking at the work agribusinesses are doing to become more efficient, produce more and safer food, and do so in a sustainable way, as evil, how about looking at it with thanks and gladness that hard working people are making a positive difference that will reap benefits in countries all over the world. Corporations are not faceless entities. They are a business model populated by real people who are also trying to make a living and working very hard at it. I think they need to be rewarded for their work!

It looks like this effort has been going on for a while. Some pretty outdated stuff on the website, especially the blog.

Precision Pays iPad mini Winner Happy Farmer

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Chuck

Here’s our happy Precision Pays iPad mini Giveaway winner, Nick Leibold. Thanks to his wife, Kendra, for taking the photo. She says Nick will put it to good use on the farm.

Since Nick is standing in front of a John Deere tractor I wonder if he’ll have to get one of their new custom mobile device mounts for the cab! I’m sure we’ll see more and more of those popping up on the farm accessory list!

We thoroughly enjoyed our contest and want to thank everyone who entered once again. Hopefully we’ll get to do it again soon.

World Backup Day

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Chuck

Happy Easter which is falling on World Backup Day. Have you taken the pledge?

The World Backup Day Pledge

I solemnly swear to backup my important documents and precious memories on March 31st. I will also tell my friends and family about World Backup Day – friends don’t let friends go without a backup.

It is very important that you should not only do this today but very regularly. Your data may very well be “your business” quite literally. It is here at ZimmComm New Media. We archive the masters of all our photos, audio and video files. This is important to everyone including agencies, media, agribusiness and farmers.

I get asked about this quite a bit and have been meaning to write about it. World Backup Day reminded me to get it done.

Here’s our work flow for backing things up.

1. Local computer backups

Each of our computers has a local backup of all data. For our PC’s I have them automatically backup to our shared server. The server is a computer itself that resides on our office network system. We’re currently using an HP Home Server unit that has a capacity of about 4TB of data. Each computer is backed up weekly or in the case of a laptop, whenever it is connected to the network after being on a long road trip. The server has built in syncing software which allows us to create custom settings for each machine’s backup. You can use other software on your computer to sync straight to an external hard drive. I use a program called SyncBack for this.

For our Macs I use Time Machine, which is part of the Mac OSX operating system. Time Machine backs up to a small local hard drive. I have tried many of them and the most reliable seem to be Seagate external hard drives. I travel with one that holds up to 500GB of data. This small hard drive also serves as a great place to temporarily store photos/audio/video until I archive them which I’ll go into later.

Regardless which type of smart phone or tablet you’re using today, this local backup can play an important role with them, not just your computer itself. If you’re using an iPhone or iPad then make sure you sync with iTunes often to keep your device backed up. I can just about guarantee you’ll be glad you did. The same goes with your Android device or whatever you may be using.

2. Cloud computer backups

Besides this local backup we use BackBlaze to back up computer data regardless of being PC or Mac. It is less expensive than other options and very simple to use. Some of those other options include Apple’s iCloud, which I use for syncing all my Mac/iPhone/iPad data, Google Cloud Storage, Dropbox, which we use for sharing all kinds of files easily, and of course services like Carbonite. There are lots of choices for cloud backups today. Their benefits include the fact that your data can be available from anywhere, anytime, if you need it. Continue reading →

MGEX Commentary on Plantings Report

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Cindy

A little more corn, a little less soybeans, more wheat and a lot less cotton – that summarizes the USDA 2013 Prospective Plantings report out today.

Corn growers intend to plant 97.3 million acres of corn for all purposes in 2013, up slightly from last year and 6 percent higher than in 2011. If realized, this will represent the highest planted acreage in the United States since 1936 when an estimated 102 million acres were planted.

Soybean acres are estimated at 77.1 million acres, down slightly from last year but the fourth highest on record. All wheat acreage is forecast at 56.4 million, up one percent, and cotton is expected to total 10 million acres, down 19 percent from last year.

The Minneapolis Grain Exchange held its usual crop conference call with reporters when the report was released today, with commentary by Brian Basting of Advance Trading.

Listen to the MGEX call here: MGEX Prospective Plantings call

BASF Promotes Comprehensive Pest Management

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Cindy

Behind every successful grower is science and strategy – both of which come together in a comprehensive pest management program, as BASF Technical Crop Production Specialist AJ Woodyard helped explain during the recent BASF Science Behind event. The program also featured farmers Randy Dowdy of Georgia and Kip Cullers of Missouri.

AJ emphasized that each farmers challenges are different, leading to each needing a different solution. The most important part is identifying the areas that need help and seeking an individualized solution.

“It’s always fun to do these events and work with guys like Kip Cullers and Randy Dowdy who are here at this event because they’ve got so many unique ideas and they think outside the box. I think that’s one of the things we always have to think about. Changing, thats another thing that I keep hearing coming up. We got to be willing to change. That’s something I challenge growers to think about. We can talk about what Kip and Randy do or what BASF is looking at but really what it comes down to is what are you looking at on your farm. What strategies are you implementing to get a feel for what’s working and what’s not working”

“What we like to do is take a look at a lot of different aspects of the production system. Coming off 2012 we all know the challenge and we all know what water means for crop production. There are a lot of other factors that we can manage to help mitigate against the stresses like a 2012. We look at fertility programs, genetics, nitrogen programs, cultural practices and then we focus a lot on the crop protection and overall plant health.”

BASF's AJ Woodyard at Science Behind

BASF Shows How Priaxor Performs

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Cindy

Spring is officially here, at least by the calendar, and Midwest farmers are preparing for a new year with the 2012 drought in the rearview mirror and a new BASF Crop Protection fungicide that combines two powerful active ingredients into the most advanced chemistry ever developed for a range of products, including soybeans.

During the 2013 Commodity Classic, BASF was able to show farmers how Priaxor™ fungicide worked last year to control disease, improve Plant Health and drive yield, despite the record drought conditions.

Technical Market Manager for Plant Health Dr. Gary Fellows explained that they performed nearly 60 on-farm trials last year comparing Priaxor to BASF’s premier fungicide Headline. “Over those locations, Priaxor outyielded Headline by two bushels to the acre,” he said. “Not only that, it was much more consistent in its level of response.”

Priaxor is powered by Xemium® fungicide, a new active ingredient that continuously distributes its chemistry throughout the leaf to deliver more consistent disease protection, combined with F500®, the same active ingredient in Headline®. “The addition of Xemium to Headline does increase the disease control and the spectrum is better with Priaxor,” said Fellows. “On the growth efficiency side, we can show that Priaxor actually has a better plant health effect than Headline by itself.” Perhaps most importantly, Priaxor has shown to outperform Headline in stress situations, like drought.

Listen to my interview with Gary here: Interview with Dr. Gary Fellows

You can find out even more about Priaxor in lots of previous posts, including several from Classic – from Jennifer Holland – from Caren Schmidt – from Brianne Reeves – and from some growers.

Check out more photos from BASF at Commodity Classic here

Soybean Registration for BASF Zidua Herbicide

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Cindy

There’s a new class of chemistry available now for soybean growers to help fight resistant weeds, including Palmer amaranth and waterhemp.

BASF’s Crop Protection division is pleased to announce federal registration of Zidua® herbicide in soybeans.

According to 10 years of research and field trials, the residual weed control provided by Zidua herbicide lasts up to two weeks longer than other herbicides currently on the market, which helps protect growers’ yield potential.1 Research also shows Zidua herbicide provides up to 10 percent better performance than other residual herbicides in controlling Palmer amaranth and waterhemp.2

“Zidua herbicide provides growers with a new class of chemistry and is an excellent product on its own, but can also be used effectively with Kixor® herbicide technology,” said Greg Armel, Ph.D., Technical Market Manager, BASF. “Soybean growers can now combine the fast, effective burndown and enhanced residual control benefits of Kixor with the residual control of Zidua herbicide for long-lasting weed control.”

Zidua herbicide can be tank-mixed with Kixor herbicide technology products to form a preplant and preemerge combination that combats tough, resistant weeds with up to three different sites of action. Zidua herbicide can also be applied with a range of use rates, allowing soybean growers to select the best rate for their specific needs, based on soil textures in their fields.

Greg did a presentation on Zidua during one of the WIN Sessions at the 2013 Commodity Classic, when they had just heard the soybean residue tolerances had been established. “We’re very excited that Zidua is finally coming along and with its extended residual weed control on Palmer amaranth and waterhemp, it couldn’t have come at a better time,” Greg said. BASF received registration for Zidua in corn last June.

Listen to my interview with Greg here where he talks about Zidua and the importance of different sites of action to control resistant weeds: Interview with Greg Armel

New Documentary to Feature Next Gen Farmers

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Chuck

It is very encouraging to see major film projects taking a realistic and truthful look at farming in America today. Examples are “Harvesting the High Plains” and “The Great American Wheat Harvest.” Now here’s a new one that is not yet in production. It isn’t even titled yet but was announced last week. Working with the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance is James Moll, Oscar® winning and two-time Emmy® winning filmmaker. I visited with James to learn more about the project. He admits to knowing little about agriculture but I think that is a good thing. James takes a very unbiased look at his subject matter and lets the people he interviews tell the story. That is a lot like what we do here on AgWired!

James has decided to profile farmers and ranchers in their twenties, all of whom have assumed the generational responsibility of running the family business.

Made in cooperation with U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA®), the film will give us an up close and personal look at some of the young farmers and ranchers who grow and raise the food we consume daily, and into the latest farming procedures, practices, and technologies that are changing and improving the landscape of modern agriculture.
 
“I’ve always strived to make films that are unbiased testaments to the subject matter,” said Moll. “It’s about telling real stories that resonate. I’ve been looking for the right subject to tackle in my next documentary, and I’ve found the perfect topic in American agriculture.”

Learn more about James Moll’s new project in this week’s ZimmCast: New James Moll Documentary on Agriculture

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, Roundup Ready Plus, 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.

Precision Pays iPad mini Giveaway Contest Winner

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Chuck

Over on our sister website, Precision Pays, the winner of the iPad mini Giveaway Contest has been picked via random selection. He’s Nick Leibold of New Hampton, IA. Nick farms about 600 acres of corn and 400 acres of soybeans.

Cindy visited with Nick by phone to let him know about his winning and to learn a little bit about how precision pays for his family farming operation. He says he’s been using precision ag in his farming operation for about ten years now including auto steer, yield monitor and row shutoffs on his planter. He says, “On the planter I’ll do a split variety and that way when I harvest I know which variety is which and I can compare strips across the field. I use it a lot for variety selection.” He uses it to farm more efficiently.

When it comes to his new iPad mini he says his dealer says he can hook up an iPad to help him record the different varieties he’s planting and then take it out to the field later when he’s scouting and find spots where he has been.

Nick is also very involved with the Iowa Corn Growers serving on the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. It’s important to him to see that those corn checkoff dollars are being put to good use.

Listen to Cindy visit with Nick here: Interview with Nick Leibold

What do you think of our first Precision Pays giveaway contest? Want to see more product giveaways? Here on AgWired? Chime in using comments and let us know.

Harvesting The High Plains Documentary

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Chuck

Last year’s Midwest drought evoked images of the dust bowl of the “dirty 30′s”. But how many of you really know much about it or what it took to survive those trying times? Here’s one way you can get a glimpse into those times. It’s a film documentary called, “Harvesting The High Plains.” An advance copy is now available for purchase online. Additionally, the documentary is running on local PBS stations and you might want to consider calling your local station to request that they air it. Why? Because it is a very well done historical and inspiring look at how American ingenuity took the challenge of some of the most adverse working conditions you can imagine to farm the land and essentially created a whole new way to grow and harvest a wheat crop.

I want to share a conversation with the Director of the documentary, Jay Kriss, Inspirit Creative, in which we discuss how he got involved in this project. Jay is not only works in the film industry but also still farms wheat back on the family farm in Kansas. He has a direct personal connection to one of the main characters you’ll get to know in the film. The documentary is narrated by Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe. You’ll learn in our interview that he and Jay have a mutual connection which made Mike a perfect choice to handle this job. The documentary is sponsored by the AGCO Gleaner brand. Gleaner combine harvesters were born in Kansas and are a part of the story told in the documentary according to Kevin Bien, Gleaner brand marketing manager in a company press release.

Listen to our conversation here: Interview with Jay Kriss

Here’s the trailer to give you a taste of what you can expect in the documentary. You can find more information on the “Harvesting The High Plains” website.

Bringing Sexy Back to Agriculture

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Cindy

The take home theme of the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum this year came to be “bringing sexy back to agriculture.” Which begs the question – when was agriculture sexy before?

If sexy means sustainable, here are a couple of pretty sexy farmers. On the left is the Bayer CropScience 2013 Young Farmer Sustainability Award winner Jeremy Jack of Mississippi and next to him is the 2012 winner John Shepherd of Virginia.

John was on a panel at the recent Bayer Ag Issues Forum to talk about how he does things differently on his corn, wheat and soybean operation where taking care of the soil is most important to him. “My goal is to get it in better shape for future generations,” he said. “So I sow aerial cover crops – plant cover crops in plants already standing. I’ll fly rye on in soybeans that are standing so there’s already a cover crop growing when I cut the beans.”

Listen to some of John’s comments on the panel here: Virginia farmer John Shepherd

Jeremy is a partner in an 8500 acre operation growing cotton, corn, soybeans, rice and wheat. He currently serves as President of the Mississippi Soybean Association, and formally worked in Washington, D.C., under U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran during 2008 Farm Bill negotiations. After college, he returned to the family’s farm rather than pursuing a career in agricultural policy.

Jeremy said talking about sustainability is less important than doing something about it. “Our method of sustainability is sustainability in action,” Jeremy said. “With outreach and education we can make sustainability interesting.” And sexy too.

Listen to Jeremy’s comments here: Mississippi farmer Jeremy Jack

BASF Spotlights Science Behind Successful Growers

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Cindy

BASF Ag Products spotlighted a couple of very successful and innovative farmers during the Science Behind event prior to Commodity Classic this year. One of them is pretty familiar to us all but the other is a newer face on the farming scene.

The new kid on the block is Randy Dowdy of Georgia who just got into the farming business in 2006 and has already been a multiple National Corn Yield Contest winner on pretty marginal farm land that he bought as an investment. “University guy told me I had some of the poorest soil in the state,” Randy told us. “Now that same university professor told me that I had made him rethink corn production in Georgia.”

Randy brought a different perspective to farming in his area. “Having the ability to change and the willingness to change quite often separates a good farmer from an average farmer,” he says. That includes using multiple modes of action for herbicides to work against resistant weeds and fungicides are extremely important in the south. “We are in a disease haven,” Randy said, noting that he uses several different BASF products to help prevent disease in his crops, including Headline, Headline AMP and Priaxor.

Where most of the country suffered from drought last year, Randy had just the opposite in Georgia. “We had a lot of rain events but our biggest problem was lack of sunshine,” he said.

Listen to Randy being interviewed by a couple of reporters at the Science Behind BASF event: Randy Dowdy interview

The more familiar face is that of Missouri rock star farmer Kip Cullers, who still holds the title of World Champion Soybean Grower.

Kip wrote the book on being able and willing to change farming practices to get better and better yields, but he still can’t control the weather, which hurt him bad last year. “It’s kind of heartbreaking when you work all year long and try and do everything right and Mother Nature just cuts the rain off and you’re done, but that’s farming!” Kip said.

That’s why Kip has been the poster child for BASF Headline to keep his crops under the least stress possible, even under stressful conditions like drought. And Kip uses Kixor technology to fight against resistant weeds. “I just hate weeds and once you let them go to seed you have to fight them for the next ten years,” he said. “I just want to have sterile ground.”

Listen to my interview with Kip here: Kip Cullers interview

Check out more photos from the Science Behind BASF here

Pharming for a Better Life

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Cindy

Treatment for cystic fibrosis from corn? Potatoes that produce an antibacterial protein for use in cosmetics?

Welcome to what could be the future of pharming.

One of the growers at the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum was Bill Horan, COO of Horan BioProduction in Rockwell City, Iowa. Bill, who is also chairman of Truth About Trade and Technology, talked about how he got into the business of growing pharmaceuticals. “About 11 years ago we started with a French company,” he said. “They had inserted canine lipase into a corn plant to produce a lipase for cystic fibrosis patients.”

Bill and his brother Joe farm over 4,000 acres of corn in northwest Iowa and he says they are currently the only commercial farmers that he knows of producing pharmaceuticals. “It’s very difficult to get permits from USDA to grow these biologics,” he said, noting that because they have been working at it now for over a decade they know how to get it done.

Listen to some of Bill’s comments here: Iowa Farmer Bill Horan

ASTA Seed Treatment Guide

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Chuck

A guide to seed treatment stewardship is a new project by the American Seed Trade Association along with a collaboration of seed companies, researchers and organizations like CropLife America, National Corn Growers Association and Farm Bureau. Growers will soon find “The Guide to Seed Treatment Stewardship” online.

I spoke with Andy Lavigne, ASTA President/CEO, during Commodity Classic about this project which is very timely since growers are getting ready to get back out in the field. The guide will answer questions like, “How can I protect my treated seeds; What environmental factors should I consider when planting treated seeds; Am I following state and federal regulations for treated seed and What should I do with unused treated seed?”

Right now growers have an incentive to visit and sign up for notifications at www.seed-treatment-guide.com. Two lucky people will win a $500 cash prize!

Listen to my interview with Andy here: Interview with Andy Lavigne

2013 Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgFanatics Live From Commodity Classic

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Cindy

The AgFanatics were live from the Commodity Classic in Florida last week where they discussed what’s causing the recent spike in old crop futures and what the next few weeks look like ahead of several key USDA reports. That was Episode #14 in the can already!

In Episode #13, the guys discuss what’s been new in the grain markets, possible port strikes in Brazil, and their thoughts on price direction. As always, it’s live, un-edited, agricultural discussion!

The AgriVisor AgFanatics podcast can be found on Itunes or right from the front page at www.agrivisor.com. You’ll love these guys!