Pioneer Hi-Bred is sponsoring the Iowa Corn Indy 250 again this year and I spoke to Russ Sanders, Marketing Director, about how the company is involved. He’s pictured here (left) with Team Ethanol driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay and EPIC Director of Communications, Joanna Schroeder.
Russ says that the company sees a great opportunity in the biofuels arena and their participation in this race provides them with a great opportunity to get the message out about the positive benefits of a fuel like ethanol.
You can listen to my interview with Russ here:
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Willie Vogt, ZimmComm NAMA iPod touch winner and Farm Futures Editorial Director, has a guest column that just showed up on the Pioneer GrowingPoint website. It’s all about farm podcasting with a title of “Tap Into Information On-Demand, Time to put that computer to work and pull in the information you need automatically.
You’re busy, yet you’re finding that the longer you farm the more information you need, and not always at the times it’s provided. Radio is a great tool when you’re in the tractor, the computer is great when you’re in the office. What if you could put both tools to work and get more information even easier?
That’s the value of a podcast. These controlled broadcasts of information allow you to subscribe to an information resource and listen when you want to - either on your computer or using an mp3 player in your tractor or pickup.
I know there are some of you reading this and saying “why hassle with it?” The answer is that there is a growing body of information from key information providers in agriculture offering news, in-depth information and more that you can listen to using this technology. So I’ll try to break it down so it’s easier to understand and you can then try it out.
He then proceeds to do just that in a way that shows that Willie gets it and he’s helping farmers get it. I find it interesting that more people with publication backgrounds like Willie are promoting podcasts than I see with farm broadcasting backgrounds. Add to that the fact that this is being promoted by Pioneer. But then, they’re not called Pioneer for nothing.
You may know that we produce a podcast for Pioneer called Forage Forum.
Forage Forum features “news and information important to dairy professionals working for successful animal nutrition.” It’s kind of interesting that a seed company provides this kind of service for dairy producers - and that is the topic of this week’s podcast as Dr. Bill Mahanna, coordinator of global nutritional sciences for Pioneer discusses to company’s integrated forage approach and the expertise available to producers.
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Bill Mahanna on Integrated Forage Program (4:30 min MP3)
To see all archived Pioneer Forage Forum podcasts, click here.
Previous Forage Forum podcasts are also archived at the Pioneer GrowingPoint website. To access them, go to www.pioneer.com/growingpoint and click “Livestock Nutrition” and “Forage Blog.”
A sample from Kip Cullers’ world record soybean yield was on display in a trophy case at Pioneer’s Commodity Classic trade show booth and it certainly received a lot of well-deserved attention. Kip’s record in 2007, you may recall, was an astonishing 154 bushels per acre.
Pioneer and BASF are two of the companies Kip credits with helping him break his own world record last year. Another is EMD Crop BioScience.
I talked with Matt Hays of EMD at the trade show and he told me how their product Optimize helps Kip and other growers optimize their yields.
“It’s a seed treatment that is LCO promoter technology that just turns on the vital growth processes in the plant,” Hays says. “Basically, it enhances your emergence, improves your plant health and handles environmental stresses better.”
Listen to my interview with Matt here:
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Victory Programs‘ ReVision Urban Farm has been chosen as 2008 Boston Social Innovator. The program, which serves the homeless in surrounding areas, is set to receive financial support from Boston-area venture philanthropists.
Victory Programs’ ReVision Urban Farm, a farm serving families facing homelessness in Dorchester, is among six area nonprofits selected as a 2008 Social Innovator by the Cambridge-based Social Innovation Forum to receive more than $80,000 in cash and services. The Forum was launched by Root Cause to help organizations like ReVision Urban Farm who have the field expertise, innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit develop the business frameworks and skills required to make a lasting social impact and grow to capacity.
Through the Forum, Victory Programs’ ReVision Urban Farm will participate in a 12-month support program that provides the organization with consulting services, executive coaching, and introductions to a network of venture philanthropists looking to support innovative nonprofits in greater Boston.
I waited until NAFB to get a one-on-one interview with the world soybean yield record-breaker Kip Cullers of Missouri. He is a great spokesperson for the ag industry as a whole, not to mention the products that helped him achieve the world record yield of 154.7 bushels per acre in his contest plot.
“I’m a lot more proud of our overall yield on our double crop soybeans,” Kip said. “We just took what we learned in our contest field and applied it to our normal acres. All we did was plant (Pioneer) 94M80s and we used six ounces of Headline and three ounces of Respect and we averaged 74 bushels across the board.”
Kip noted that he gets lots of advice and consultation with BASF and Pioneer experts, as well as state extension and university specialists - and he recommends that all growers take advantage of those resources to improve their profitability.
Kip left the family back at home when he headed to Kansas City after the official press conference announcing his record yield in Jefferson City on Tuesday. But, his adorable sons Noah and Naaman were on hand to charm the media at the press event, proudly sporting BASF Headline fungicide shirts!
Listen to my interview with Kip here:
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The world record soybean yield champion credits his winning 154.7 bushel yield to good genetics and crop protection.
“I run very extensive on-farm research every year on different genetics from all kinds of companies and then I pick the best ones to plant on my farm,” said Kip Cullers of Purdy, MO.
The best one this year was Pioneer® 94M80 soybeans and Greg Luce, Pioneer technical representative, worked closely with Kip over the season and watched the record crop grow.
“We want to share all the things that Kip is doing with other growers,” said Luce. “He does some things uniquely. He irrigates frequently at low volumes of water to cool the plant, an idea he got from his green bean production.”
Kip also protected his crop from disease threats. “I live far enough south that we have a lot of disease pressure and we use Headline fungicide to protect the crop when its up and growing,” said Kip. “A happy plant wants to produce.” He also used Syngenta Warrior insecticide.
Missouri Soybean Association Executive Director Dale Ludwig estimates that less than five percent of the soybeans in the state get a regular treatment of both fungicide and insecticide.
Dennis Belcher, technical service representative in the Midwest for BASF Agricultural Products, said BASF was honored to be considered a partner in Kip’s success.
“In 2006, the average on-farm trials for Headline increased soybean yields from four to eight bushels per acre and corn yields from 12-15 bushels per acre,” Belcher said.
Listen to Loose’s comments here:
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Listen to Belcher’s comments here:
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Missouri soybean grower Kip Cullers beat his own world record by 15 bushels this season to once again claim the title of soybean champion. Cullers produced an outstanding 154.7 bushels per acre on his southwestern Missouri operation, compared to last year’s 139.9 bushels and he believes he could do even better.
“200, 250 - it’s totally possible. The genetics are there, we just need to figure out how to do it,” Kip said.
The average yield per acre in Missouri last year was 38 bushels per acre. “So, as you can tell, Kip’s doing a little bit better than that,” said Missouri Soybean Association executive director Dale Ludwig.
Cullers was honored by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt who made the official announcement during a media event at the Missouri Soybean Association office in Jefferson City. He called Kip the “Babe Ruth” of soybean producers.
“Kip is setting records because he knows his business as well as anyone and works diligently to cultivate not just high yields, but record-breaking yields,” the governor said.
Cullers credited his success to a soybean dream team of professionals who helped him with his contest plots, including experts from Pioneer and BASF. He accomplished his record-breaking production by planting Pioneer® 94M80 soybeans on an irrigated and conventionally-tilled field and he used BASF Headline fungicide to protect against disease pressure. He also used Syngenta Warrior insecticide, Optimize technology from EMD Crop Bioscience, and a Monosem twin row planter.
Listen to Blunt’s announcement here:
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Listen to some of Kip’s remarks here:
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In this week’s ZimmCast you get to hear from Masaru Yamada, the main coordinator of the IFAJ Congress that just concluded and a number of the American delegates. Masaru is happy with how the event went and I don’t think he’s ready to do it again anytime soon. I can only imagine what it was like to conduct one of these for the first time.
Also included in this week’s program are short interviews with Greg Lamp, Kurt Lawton, Harlan Persinger, Joann Alumbaugh, Diane Johnson, Paul Queck, Den Gardner, Denny McClintic, Billy Frey and Marcia Taylor. I think everyone was surprised by the culture and how many small farms there are in the country as well as some of the problems which include a very aged farmer population.
The program concludes this week with music from the Podsafe Music Network. This week’s song is “Cost Cut Japan” by a group called Reggae Far East.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 138 (24 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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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
At least for a few hours. Once upon a time gunslingers notched their pistol for fights they’d won. Agribloggers just add another lanyard/name badge to the stack.
These are actually just from the last year or so since I start it over once the trophy I’ve got it hanging from falls off the book shelf. Now it’s got a 2007 IFAJ Congress one on top that also has an Alltech pin in it.
I think it took Cindy and me about 27 hours to get back from Japan. Nothing like leaving Sendai on a Sunday. I hope everyone made it home safely regardless of which country you are from.
You can look for some good stuff to come here on AgWired this week. Tomorrow I’ll be on the road again. I’ll be adding a couple more to the stack. See you then.
Here’s a fine looking group of Americans don’t you think?
We numbered 17 of the total in attendance. Maybe next year some more U. S. ag journalists will attend the IFAJ Congress? I interviewed the chairman, Franz Fischler, former Ag Commissioner for the EU and will be posting that later. He provides an overview of what we can expect and it sounds like it’s going to be a great event just like here in Japan.
Today we’ve got to take a cab to a train, train to Tokyo, pick up our bags from a hotel at the Tokyo train station and take a bus from there to the airport.
Since it will be a while before I’m back online I want to thank Masaru Yamada and all the Japanese delegation that worked so hard to put on this Congress and host people from so many countries. We learned a lot. I also interviewed most of our group here and will be posting their comments in my ZimmCast which should be up tomorrow.
The IFAJ Congress is over and we’re about to head on out for the long trek home. Here’s the ceremonial passing of the IFAJ flag from the Japanese to the Austrians.
Our events yesterday were held in different locations without me being able to get online again. So, I’ll be working up some posts with interviews and some video clips on the way home to post later.
In the meantime there’s about 450 photos in the photo album you can enjoy.
Today we had a free morning to shop or just plain relax here in Sendai. Our IFAJ Congress is coming to a close with tonight’s final reception. I’ll have some more posting to do which might have to wait until I’m home. Tomorrow is a travel day. The photo album is up to date though.
This afternoon we were bussed to the Sendai City Welfare Plaza for the International Symposium, “Japan’s Food and Agriculture From a Global Perspective.” Cindy was a participant in the first panel discussion. She’s seated 2nd from the right. She got to ask a question about biofuels which was answered mostly by Kazunuki Ahizumi, Professor, Miyagi University. He was sort of the featured 1st speaker on the program.
I’ll have more on the day’s activities later. For now though I’ve got to get moving to the final reception.
Here is our group from the United States at the IFAJ Congress in the lobby of the Sendai Excel Hotel doing some arts and crafts.
We were preparing our bottle opener presents to be given out to the group in preparation for our hosting of the 2009 Congress in Fort Worth, Texas. They are very nice boot-shaped openers with tags on them urging people to “saddle up.” The congress will be held July 29 - August 5, 2009 in conjunction with the Ag Media Summit. Next year’s IFAJ Congress will be in Austria and Slovenia. Looks like it will be beautiful and fascinating.
Chuck is busy right now out shopping at the “Bass Pro Shop” of electronics stores. We will have an international symposium this afternoon and tonight is our final farewell party. Tomorrow we head back to the United States and I am ready to get back home.
Cindy and I have had a very relaxing stay in Sendai the past two days. We’ve wandered around town, including the Sun Mall Ichibancho. It’s a big shopping mall that goes on for blocks in every direction.
This big clock plays music on the hour and the doors open and things move. I don’t know what it meant but it was interesting to say the least.
We also visited the Yodobashi Camera Store next to the Sendai Train Station. Think Bass Pro Shop of electronics stores. I’m going to try to get a group to go over tomorrow morning for a little shopping venture.
We’re talking two stories of nothing but all the electronics gadgets you could dream of and can’t even find anywhere else and they stock it. I think a couple of the people in our group are hoping to purchase a camera while they’re here. This is the place to go.
This is one of the workers at the Furukawa Agricultural Research Center. He was posing for us ag journalists so I’ve got to post him for you.
Cindy and I both like rice and we’ve noticed that people do eat it for breakfast as well as other meals during the day. It mostly seems to be white rice and not what we call “wild” rice which raises a nutrition question I would think. We’ve been hearing a lot about nutrition concerns during our trip and this might be something that people are going to have to deal with if they want to improve their diet. I guess this is a worldwide issue.
This post kind of gets me caught up for now. We’re going to be joining people for dinner tonight as they return from their various tours that started yesterday. I’m hoping to obtain some photos from each one to share in the photo album too.
Cindy just got done being interviewed by the main organizer of the Congress here, Masaru Yamada. It was interesting listening in while I was doing my posts. He was especially interested in Cindy’s thoughts on policy since she was just at EU headquarters in Brussels last week.
I interviewed Yoshisada Nogasaka, Research Team for Farm Machinery and Systems for NARC, the National Agricultural Research Center. He’s the guy who’s developing the software to run the prototype Autonomous Rice Transplanter we saw on demonstration at the Furukawa Agricultural Research Center. This guy is enthusiastic to say the least. He says that when he demonstrates this thing on a farm the farmer asks, “Can you leave it here on my farm?” They’re really looking forward to it but they’ll have some waiting to do. He says it could be up to 10 years before commercial production.
You can listen to his remarks here:
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During our visit to the Tokyo University of Agriculture we attended a press conference with Mr. Masanori Sato, Director General in charge of International Affairs, Japan Ministry of Agriculture.
I’ve got a video of his presentation so you can see him make a statement and then listen to the interpreter. In this segment he talks about the dietary policy and situation with Japanese consumers. I was interested to find out that Japan only supplies about 40 percent of their food needs. This is obviously of concern when it comes to trade. The presentation didn’t leave much time for Q&A, which might have been a good thing considering the turmoil recently in the Ministry. Primarily he gave an overview of Japanese agriculture.
This is the way people have transplanted rice into paddies for who knows how long. That’s changed a lot now that machinery has been built to make the task much easier and faster.
When I interviewed one of the officials with the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization he asked me why man invented machines. I was stumped so he answered for me. “To do the work for us.” Right. And when it comes to this type of work I can see why you’d want a machine. The mud in the field is necessary but looked difficult to walk in.
We got to watch a demonstration of a machine with a man at the wheel but the main attraction was a prototype of a new GPS-guided planter. I’ll have more on that in another post.
One thing is obvious and that is that what we call precision ag is making it’s way around the world with applications in all types of farming. This stop at the Furukawa Agricultural Research Station was the highlight of our long travel day.
We moved on from Tokyo to Sendai via Furukawa on Wednesday. Moving a couple hundred people through a crowded train station is not an easy task. The Japanese journalists helped out though by stationing themselves at various places with signs pointing us to the right track.
Our train ride was very nice. Somehow the beverage cart only made it halfway through our car before it ran out of beer though. I hate it when that happens!
We stopped at Furukawa and transferred to buses for the visit to the ag research facility there.
Pioneer Hi-Bred is sponsoring the Iowa Corn Indy 250 again this year and I spoke to Russ Sanders, Marketing Director, about how the company is involved. He’s pictured here (left) with Team Ethanol driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay and EPIC Director of Communications, Joanna Schroeder. 
Willie Vogt, ZimmComm NAMA iPod touch winner and 
Forage Forum features “news and information important to dairy professionals working for successful animal nutrition.” It’s kind of interesting that a seed company provides this kind of service for dairy producers - and that is the topic of this week’s podcast as Dr. Bill Mahanna, coordinator of global nutritional sciences for Pioneer discusses to company’s integrated forage approach and the expertise available to producers.
A sample from Kip Cullers’ world record soybean yield was on display in a trophy case at Pioneer’s Commodity Classic trade show booth and it certainly received a lot of well-deserved attention. Kip’s record in 2007, you may recall, was an astonishing 154 bushels per acre. 
I waited until NAFB to get a one-on-one interview with the world soybean yield record-breaker Kip Cullers of Missouri. He is a great spokesperson for the ag industry as a whole, not to mention the products that helped him achieve the world record yield of 154.7 bushels per acre in his contest plot. 
Kip noted that he gets lots of advice and consultation with BASF and Pioneer experts, as well as state extension and university specialists - and he recommends that all growers take advantage of those resources to improve their profitability.
The best one this year was 
Dennis Belcher, technical service representative in the Midwest for BASF Agricultural Products, said BASF was honored to be considered a partner in Kip’s success.
Missouri soybean grower Kip Cullers beat his own world record by 15 bushels this season to once again claim the title of soybean champion. Cullers produced an outstanding 154.7 bushels per acre on his southwestern Missouri operation, compared to last year’s 139.9 bushels and he believes he could do even better.
“Kip is setting records because he knows his business as well as anyone and works diligently to cultivate not just high yields, but record-breaking yields,” the governor said.
In this week’s ZimmCast you get to hear from Masaru Yamada, the main coordinator of the IFAJ Congress that just concluded and a number of the American delegates. Masaru is happy with how the event went and I don’t think he’s ready to do it again anytime soon. I can only imagine what it was like to conduct one of these for the first time.
At least for a few hours. Once upon a time gunslingers notched their pistol for fights they’d won. Agribloggers just add another lanyard/name badge to the stack.
Here’s a fine looking group of Americans don’t you think?
The IFAJ Congress is over and we’re about to head on out for the long trek home. Here’s the ceremonial passing of the IFAJ flag from the Japanese to the Austrians.
Today we had a free morning to shop or just plain relax here in Sendai. Our IFAJ Congress is coming to a close with tonight’s final reception. I’ll have some more posting to do which might have to wait until I’m home. Tomorrow is a travel day. The photo album is up to date though.
Here is our group from the United States at the IFAJ Congress in the lobby of the Sendai Excel Hotel doing some arts and crafts. 
Cindy and I have had a very relaxing stay in Sendai the past two days. We’ve wandered around town, including the Sun Mall Ichibancho. It’s a big shopping mall that goes on for blocks in every direction.
This is one of the workers at the Furukawa Agricultural Research Center. He was posing for us ag journalists so I’ve got to post him for you.
Precision agriculture is hitting the rice industry in Japan. At least it’s in R&D now at the 
During our visit to the Tokyo University of Agriculture we attended a press conference with Mr. Masanori Sato, Director General in charge of International Affairs, Japan Ministry of Agriculture. 
This is the way people have transplanted rice into paddies for who knows how long. That’s changed a lot now that machinery has been built to make the task much easier and faster.
We got to watch a demonstration of a machine with a man at the wheel but the main attraction was a prototype of a new GPS-guided planter. I’ll have more on that in another post.
We moved on from Tokyo to Sendai via Furukawa on Wednesday. Moving a couple hundred people through a crowded train station is not an easy task. The Japanese journalists helped out though by stationing themselves at various places with signs pointing us to the right track.
Digital cattle news pioneer, Rob Cook, is now working for Vance Publishing after the company acquired CattleNetwork.com.
