Bette Lu Lerwick of Albin was nominated by her daughter, Kosha Olsen, who visited AmericasFarmers.com earlier this spring and submitted a 300-word nomination describing a few of the contributions her mother makes to her family, farm, community and the agricultural industry. She was selected as the Northwest Region’s Farm Mom of the Year by a panel of judges from American Agri-Women and Monsanto. Online voting determined Lerwick the national winner.

“This is a wonderful privilege and I feel honored to be the 2011 Farm Mom of the Year when there are so many deserving farm moms out there,” said Lerwick. “I am proud to be from Wyoming and I’m excited to bring recognition to this wonderful state.”

“What does it take to plant a garden the size of a townhouse, or a square mile of sunflowers?” asked Kosha Olsen in her nomination. “How do you raise teenagers 60 miles from the nearest fast food?” Kosha outlined a few of the ways her mother supports others – from serving as “event planner, caterer, custodian, hired hand and manager” at home to driving the tractors, baking bread and delivering calves on the farm to having served as EMT for the rural volunteer fire department and attending many memorial services in the community. In addition, Bette Lu and Ron Lerwick have welcomed exchange students and at-risk youths to their farm for months at a time.

I was in St. Louis visiting with Monsanto and learning more about some of the things they are doing in corporate communications. Hopefully it was a two way learning/sharing experience!

By the way, we’re nearing the deadline to submit nominations in the 2011 Farm Mom of the Year Contest.

The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit this week on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, against Monsanto Company as a preemptive measure “to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed, something Monsanto has done to others in the past.”

“This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto’s transgenic seed should land on their property,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. “It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients.”

Monsanto calls the organization’s allegations “false, misleading and deceptive.”

The plaintiffs’ approach is a publicity stunt designed to confuse the facts about American agriculture. These efforts seek to reduce private and public investment in the development of new higher-yielding seed technologies. This attack comes at a time when the world needs every agricultural tool available to meet the needs of a growing population, expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. While we respect the opinion of organic farmers as it relates to the products they choose to grow, we don’t believe that American agriculture faces an all-or-nothing approach. Rather we believe that farmers should have the ability to choose the best agricultural tools to farm their own land and serve their own end-market customers. We are confident that these multiple approaches can coexist side-by-side and sustainably meet the world’s food needs over next 40 years.

The two companies today announced a new agreement to “facilitate further development work and subsequent commercialization of a dicamba tolerant system, which includes innovative dicamba formulations proprietary to BASF and the dicamba tolerant trait for soybeans, which is proprietary to Monsanto. The system is expected to be introduced in the United States and Canada in the middle of the decade, pending regulatory approvals.”

“The introduction of dicamba tolerant crops combined with improved dicamba formulations will provide farmers the tools they need to combat the yield-robbing weed resistance some are facing in their fields today,” said Markus Heldt, President of BASF’s Crop Protection division. “Since the introduction of Clarity® in 1992, BASF has continually improved its dicamba offerings. Our next generation products will offer yet another step change in volatility reduction while maintaining the highest level of weed control. The system, along with proper stewardship measures, will ultimately deliver peace of mind for growers.”

“We are committed to providing farmers with the weed management tools they need to be successful,” said Robb Fraley, Monsanto’s chief technology officer. “Our work with BASF brings us one step closer to bringing more improved weed control offerings to farmers. We expect the formulations to be an excellent complement to Monsanto’s dicamba tolerant seed technologies when they are brought to market.”
Upon commercialization, the dicamba tolerance trait is expected to be stacked with the high yielding Genuity® Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybean trait. Monsanto also has corn, cotton and canola dicamba tolerant crops in its research and development pipeline. These next-generation technologies are aimed at offering farmers multiple modes of action and superior application timing flexibility in combating weeds.

Read more here.

I spoke with Kirby Bacon, Asgrow, who describes the new mobile web site: Kirby Bacon Interview

2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

AgWired coverage at the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by:

USDA made the announcement today. “After conducting a thorough and transparent examination of alfalfa through a multi-alternative environmental impact statement (EIS) and several public comment opportunities, APHIS has determined that Roundup Ready alfalfa is as safe as traditionally bred alfalfa,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

This means that, for the first time since 2007, U.S. farmers will have the choice to plant Genuity® Roundup Ready® alfalfa, which makes Monsanto very happy.

“This is great news for farmers who have been waiting for the green light to plant Roundup Ready alfalfa,” said Steve Welker, alfalfa commercial lead at Monsanto. “USDA’s action gives farmers the choice to enjoy the benefits of this product, including superior crop safety and high-quality yield opportunity.”

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is also pleased by the USDA decision. “This is the right decision,” said Wisconsin farmer Jim Zimmerman, vice chairman of NCGA’s Trade Policy and Biotechnology Action Team. “A clean, full deregulation is the best decision for producers and lets farmers plant the kind of alfalfa they choose this spring.”

The USDA announcement comes just one week after the U.S. House Agriculture Committee held a hearing to review the biotechnology product regulatory approval process where biotech alfalfa was in the spotlight and Secretary Vilsack testified.

Let the complaining by those opposed to genetically modified crops begin!

Take for example, Kim Lang who oversees the marketing department for Water Street Solutions. Their most recent hire was a former student competition competitor two years ago. This will be her second year as a judge and she became involved after other judges raved about what a great experience they had. I asked her what piece of advice she had for the competitors and she told me they should be networking with professionals through the entire event. By getting to know some of the companies, their products and their people, they can begin to lay the groundwork for their first job.

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to Kim’s interview here: nama-10-lang.mp3

I also spoke with Larry Stoller who oversees national sales for InCountry TV. In his role, he helps to secure programming and advertising for the channel. (Students, did you put them in your media plans?) Larry has been a judge for a few years and he has so much fun that he keeps coming back. He is passionate about the student marketing competition because it gives students a tangible experience. He also has some advice to share: get some good rest and rely on your instincts.

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to Larry’s interview here: nama-10-stoller.mp3

A special thanks to the student competition committee members, judges and all the student teams! Good Luck!

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
is sponsored by: . They know.

She says it’s a new project for farmers to sign up a local non-profit of their choice to win via a random drawing. There are 179 counties involved in Iowa/Missouri/Arkansas and you can see them listed on the official rules page.

Plant $2,500 in your community and watch it grow.

Together we can grow rural America…one community at a time. Apply now.

You can listen to my interview with Gayla below.

Iowa Power Farming Show Photo Album

According to a press release from Monsanto, the Justice Department “has issued a civil investigative demand (CID) requesting information on its soybean traits business, primarily seeking a confirmation that, as Monsanto has previously indicated, farmers and seed companies will continue to have access to the first-generation Roundup Ready soybean trait following patent expiry in 2014.”

“Monsanto continues to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice inquiries, just as we have over the last several months,” said Scott Partridge, Monsanto’s Chief Deputy General Counsel. “We respect the thorough regulatory process. We believe our business practices are fair, pro-competitive and in compliance with the law.”

Monsanto has voluntarily cooperated with regulators to address their questions about its business and the broader agriculture industry. This request represents a continuation of that process. During this time, the company has provided extensive access to millions of pages of documents to ensure that regulators’ questions are addressed. Monsanto noted that it will continue to provide information that is requested of its business.

Read more here.

For those of you on the Twitter fringe, tweetups are gatherings where people who tweet about a certain topic or industry meet up. Most of those who showed up for the tweetup are also very involved with #agchat , an agricultural industry Twitter conversation. The hash tag thing is a way to connect posts made on the same topic or from the same event.

Click on the photo for a bigger version and see some of the folks who are tweeting ag’s horn, including farm media, organization representatives like several in AFBF, company public relations like Monsanto, and real farmers and ranchers.

The Flickr photo album is now on-line with downloadable photos from the American Farm Bureau 91st Annual Meeting.

The Tweetups will be held at the Exhibitor Showcase in the Monsanto Booth #210. First one is Sunday at 3 pm, then they will do it again on Monday at 8 am. Come learn about the usefulness of Twitter and network with some of the agricultural leaders advocating for the industry online. Non-Twitter users are also encouraged to come and find out what it’s all about!

The new hybrids will contain BASF’s NutriDense® traits that are designed to enhance animal feed performance. NutriDense corn has higher levels of essential amino acids and energy, greater phosphorous availability and is more digestible.

BASF’s NutriDense traits will be combined with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready® Genuity™ VT Triple PRO™ and Genuity™ SmartStax™ corn. The new high quality hybrids are expected to deliver the best feed value and yields equivalent to elite conventional corn. Once launched, seed companies will market the new hybrids through licensing agreements.

Read more here.

The new product contains F500®, the same active ingredient found in Headline® fungicide, BASF’s top-selling Plant Health fungicide, and will be part of Monsanto’s AcceleronTM Seed Treatment combination.

BASF is expanding its portfolio of seed treatment offerings with the launch of F500-containing products like Stamina® fungicide seed treatment, which is marketed for corn, sweet corn, wheat, barley, legumes, and rye. Several additional new seed treatments will be launched this year, and in 2010.

A little over a year ago Monsanto made a commitment to people around the world to sustainable agriculture. The company is working on products that will produce more than double current yields while reducing the resources needed to grow the crops by nearly one-third. They are so committed that they launched a website to discuss this topic: www.producemoreconservemore.com.

I was curious to learn more about Monsanto’s initiatives in the sustainability department so I caught up with Kevin Eblen, Vice President Public Policy & Sustainable Yield for Monsanto.

“What we’re trying to to get the world and the public to see and know is that we have the capability to produce more food and conserve resources at the same time,” explained Eblen. “So we went on record saying in the core crops that we focus on as a company which is corn, soybeans and cotton, that we can double the yields of these crops by 2030 with the starting year of 2000. And at the same time, through the use of technology we have and others’ have, that we could conserve resources by one-third to produce each unit of corn, beans and cotton.”

Eblen mentioned that the UN has determined that the world will need to produce as much food in the next 50 years that has been produced in the last 10,000 years. That is why Monsanto is working with farmers around the world to help them grow crops that are both sustainable and profitable.

You can see all our pictures from the Ag Media Summit in the IFAJ/AMS 2009 Photo Album.

You can listen to my full interview with Kevin Eblen here.

Prior to joining SDSU in 2007, Dr. Chicoine held various positions of increasing responsibility with the University of Illinois, most recently as Vice President for Technology and Economic Development. His higher education administrative experience at the University of Illinois also includes service as Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Dean of the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the Urbana-Champaign campus.

This appointment has caused quite a stir at South Dakota State University. While many think that this partnership with Monsanto could bring advanced research opportunities to students and faculty, many are concerned about the politics of President Chicoine serving on the Monsanto Board of Directors. While he makes $300,000 as SDSU’s president, Monsanto will give him $400,000 compensation for his time on the board. I have listened intently to both sides of the story, and I can see why there are differing views. If you haven’t read up on this scenario, I have included some of the “hot button” articles in the news for you to read. Let me know your thoughts in this situation. Should a president of a university sit on a company’s board of directors? Are people overreacting, or is the community outburst warranted? What needs to change at land-grant universities, or what could be improved upon in the future? Looking for your thoughts and opinions today.

Some question Monsanto-Chicoine relationship

SDSU president’s dual role as head of Monsanto concerns some

SDSU’s ‘cozy’ deal questioned

Students and faculty concerned Chicoine’s ties to Monsanto could “taint” SDSU research

Collegian Questions Chicoine Monsanto Board Appointment

Other places you’ll find Monsanto include:

Monsanto Twitter
Monsanto’s Sustainabile Agriculture Initiative
Monsanto Today
Monsanto’s Blog

Obviously Monsanto is not relying on their main website to be the only destination for their customers. They’re reaching out beyond the confines of a web destination to engage them and interact with them. If you doubt that’s happening then you should start following them on Twitter. Is it easy for Monsanto to quantify the exact ROI on this? I doubt it. Does that mean they shouldn’t do it? No.

Announcement of the first year’s winners is planned to correspond with the World Food Prize held in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 15, 2009.

He says they launched the product line last fall. They had in-field plots out and saw great performance and yield increases. He says growers should know that the beans will be a different color and they’ll see good plantability and early season performance. There is a pretty tight supply this season on Round Up Ready Yield on bean varieties so he suggests calling your dealer now.

New Acceleron™ Seed Treatment System helps maximize the performance potential of your seed and traits right from the start. Designed to complement new seed and trait products, Acceleron can improve stands and plant health to help maximize the performance potential of your crop.

Available in 2009 as a feature of Genuity™ Roundup Ready 2 Yield™ soybeans. Followed by the introduction of corn in 2010 and expansion into other crops and vegetables in 2011 benefiting hybrids, varieties and traits across a broad geography.

You can listen to my interview with Tom here: cc-09-monsanto.mp3

Genuity is a new brand that provides Monsanto with a new platform to deliver new technologies to the marketplace. The name came from the work of a brand development team that talked to farmers across the country. The name meant things like genuine and the “gen” part seemed to suggest genes or genesis so Genuity it is. Dion says that the Monsanto brand covers a lot of things and with Genuity they can focus on a brand that “promises to deliver technology products that help farmers do what they do best, even better.” A media and public relations campaign is scheduled to start immediately to begin introducing the brand to farmers.

You can listen to my iPhone interview with Dion here: cc-09-genuity.mp3

You can also download the interview with this link: Monsanto Genuity Interview (mp3)

We had a nice chat in the media room at Commodity Classic. Brooke is a junior ag communications and journalis major at Texas A&M University and Megan is a Sophomore at the University of Illinois and also majoring in ag communications. They were taking photos, recording audio interviews and shooting video clips during their stay which are posted on their blog. I think that, like me, they’ve still got stories to post too. They’re really grateful for the opportunity they have to attend Classic and see and learn what’s going on in the industry. I’m sure this will help them in their careers.

Both of them are quite familiar with Facebook. I thought it was funny when Megan said she was a little scared when her Mom got on Facebook. Both agree that the internet is where communication is today. They had never heard of Twitter before coming to Classic but found out right away how many people in ag communications were tweeting away.

This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s a song called, “Answers From Me” by Classic Tragic Hero. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 210 (19 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Brooke Hoelscher and Megan Ott - ZimmCast 210

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes

I had the fortune of participating in the very first Monsanto Future Ag Journalist Fellowship project. One of them is now a very respected member of the professional ag journalist ranks. I guess I’m wondering how these media room policies are promoting good media relations and the development of professional ag journalists who will be the leaders in the industry tomorrow. I’ll be featuring my interview with Brooke and Megan in my ZimmCast podcast on Monday. They’re awesome young talents and just talking with them helps inspire this old ag journalist as I hope it will you.

You can follow Brooke on Brooke’s Commodity Insider and Megan at Megan’s Classic Chronicle.

2009 Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2009 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: and

Monsanto has a fair number of critics. Technology in agriculture is an emotional topic and there are organizations or individuals who generally oppose modern agriculture or biotechnology. This blog will be used on a rather frequent basis to respond to criticism leveled against Monsanto and the use of technology in agriculture. On occasion we’ll use the blog to levy some criticism ourselves. We expect that some of these postings will generate controversy. Creating controversy isn’t the intention of this blog, but it’s inevitable.

ZimmComm has had the pleasure and honor to work on various projects with Monsanto btw. It’s great having them more involved in the online conversation!

No-till products in 11 specific categories were also selected as the best of their field for 2008. Each of the products and their manufacturers were honored during an awards ceremony last week at the 17th annual National No-Tillage Conference in Indianapolis. Other winners were:

No-Till Equipment: Early Riser Planters, Case IH
Planter/Drill Attachments: Martin Row Cleaners, Martin Industries
Strip-Till Equipment: Blu-Jet StripTill System, Thurston Manufacturing
Spray Equipment: AGCO Spra-Coupe 7000 Series, AGCO
Residue Management: The Spreader, The Spreader Inc.
Fertility: Agrotain, Agrotain International
Insect Protection: YieldGard VT Triple, Monsanto
Fungicides: Headline, BASF
Seed Treatment: Cruiser, Syngenta Seed Care
Precision Tools: RTK AutoSteer, AutoFarm
Weed Control: Roundup PowerMax, Monsanto

According to Monsanto Global Chemistry lead Sean Gardner, “Combining a second type of herbicide resistance with Roundup Ready® technology would offer growers multiple tools for weed control through the use of Roundup®, dicamba, or combinations of both herbicides.”

Dicamba is a benzoic acid herbicide and BASF is currently the largest provider of dicamba and dicamba-based solutions.

The Weather Channel Interactive, in partnership with agricultural products leader Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON), announced a new section on weather.com® dedicated to weather and farming at www.weather.com/farming. Within the Agriculture News & Forecast, the main feature is the Farmers Forecast, which includes up-to-date weather information that matters most to the agricultural community, such as severe weather alerts affecting crops and detailed data about precipitation, wind and soil moisture.

Along with the new section within the weather.com site, Monsanto will also run an online campaign throughout 2009 featuring many of its brands such as Deltapine, DEKALB, Asgrow, Yieldgard, Roundup Ready and Roundup PowerMax.

Post Update: If you’re an iPhone owner make sure that when you use your browser that you select the “Classic Weather Channel” link instead of the mobile version. This isn’t available in the mobile version yet.

To apply, go to http://www.MyFutureInCotton.com for complete eligibility and criteria requirements. Winners will be announced on Jan. 6, 2009 at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in an Antonio, TX, and listed on the Web site Jan. 7, 2009. All winners will be notified via email prior to this date.

“Either how we’re using it and here’s what it’s done for us or we’d like to use it and our government won’t let us,” Kleckner said. “They just sit around a table and talk. It’s really fun, interesting and intellectually stimulating.”

Last year, TATT established a Trade and Technology Advancement Award to recognize “leadership, vision and resolve in advancing the rights of all farmers to choose the technology and tools that will improved the quality, quantity and availability of agricultural products around the world.” This year’s winner was Jeff Bidstrup of Queensland, Australia – pictured here with his wife Marilyn as Dean presented them with the award.

Listen to an interview with Dean here: wfp-08-kleckner.mp3

Another farmer who took part in the global roundtable was Oliver Ransmann of Germany, who was able to attend at the last minute because he happened to be visiting Monsanto in St. Louis last week prior to the World Food Prize symposium. I had a very interesting conversation with him about the lack of acceptance of biotech in his country and Europe in general. He just started using biotech crops two years ago on his 400 ha farm that grows mainly corn and rye to generate biogas.

He told me that farmers who choose to grow biotech crops in Germany are “branded” in a way and subject to vandalism. “This year my ground was damaged by activists – we had iron sticks in the fields and spoons and knives in the grain,” he told me. “We can’t understand why people are doing it and it’s very dangerous.” Why does he do it? “If I’m not using Bt maize, I have 30-40 percent less productivity and I can’t afford it,” he said.

Listen to this interesting interview with Oliver here: wfp-08-oliver.MP3

See photos of the World Food Prize event here.

Pam Fretwell, Conklin Companies, was working here at the Farm Science Review and shared a few photos of the damage in Illinois.

That’s going to be tough to harvest!

Farm Science Review Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the Farm Science Review is being sponsored by Monsanto and the Propane Research and Education Council.

He says they had been running for two days and that they were getting between 130 to 150 bushels with 18 to 20% moisture.

I asked him what’s new from New Holland and he says it’s their 8 row corn head with stalk chopper on each row unit which he says, “Allows us to chop the stalk as the ear is being pulled off from it to help with the residue on the ground.” He says it’s on display at their exhibit. Mike also says he really enjoys the interaction with farmers at the show.

You can listen to my interview with Mike here: fsr-08-craig.mp3

Farm Science Review Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the Farm Science Review is being sponsored by Monsanto and the Propane Research and Education Council.