Monsanto Purchases Precision Planting, Inc.

In line with its vision of delivering yield to farmers sustainably, Monsanto Company announced it reached an agreement to purchase planting technology developer Precision Planting, Inc., a proven leader in improving yields through on-farm planting performance.

The Precision Planting team will become part of Monsanto’s Integrated Farming Systems unit, which utilizes advanced agronomic practices, seed genetics and innovative on-farm technology to deliver optimal yield to farmers while using fewer resources. Precision Planting has a long history of innovations that optimize planter performance and increase yield potential, including the new FieldView™ technology, which offers an application designed to monitor all critical aspects of planter performance and crop data analysis. That will complement Monsanto’s planned Integrated Farming Systems offering of science-based agronomic seed prescriptions combined with next-generation precision equipment to help farmers boost yields and reduce risk.

The Precision Planting operations will remain in Tremont and all Precision employees will be offered their continued jobs in Tremont. Monsanto agreed to pay $210 million for the business, plus a performance-based payment of up to $40 million.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close this summer.

LightSquared Implements Voluntary Chapter 11 Restructuring

LightSquared announced that it commenced voluntarily reorganization cases under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to give it time to resolve regulatory issues that have prevented it from building its coast-to-coast integrated satellite 4G wireless network.

The company fully expects to continue normal operations throughout this process. All LightSquared distribution partners and customers, including public safety, emergency response, government and military users of LightSquared’s satellite-based communications services can continue to rely on LightSquared to provide them with mission critical communications services.

LightSquared intends to work with all key constituents to conduct an orderly restructuring process to maximize its asset value and to exit Chapter 11 in the quickest and most efficient manner possible.

Read a previous reaction from agricultural and farm equipment organizations as they urged the Federal Communications Commission to withdraw the conditional waiver granted to LightSquared in 2011 and modify the company’s satellite license to prohibit the building of a ground-based network.

Precision Laboratories Announces Mix Tank 2.0

Today Precision Laboratories released Mix Tank 2.0, the new version of their Mix Tank App released a year ago. The new version in now available for Android in addition to the Apple iOS (iPhone/iPad). According to this morning’s announcement it should show up in both stores by later today. The company just held a webinar for media that included comments from Rick Wohlner, President, Precision Laboratories, Jim Reiss, VP of Agricultural Chemistries, Dan Ori, Marketing Specialist and it was moderated by Lynn Balinas, Hondo Group.

What’s new in Mix Tank 2.0 besides Android availability are the ability to create spray logs, add your location data, receive alerts and integrate weather. The purpose is to make more data more available and even faster. If you already have the Mix Tank App on your smartphone you will just upgrade to the new app the next time you sync your device.

If you would like to hear all about today’s announcement you can listen to the media presentation here: Mix Tank 2.0 Media Event

Pioneer FIT® Harvest Mapping System

During Commodity Classic Pioneer Hi-Bred was talking about farmers getting FIT®. At first I thought this was a new exercise program but it is actually the Pioneer FIT® Harvest Mapping System. I got the full explanation from John Chism, Pioneer Senior Marketing Manager. He says FIT stands for Field Information Tool.

As farmers look to 2012 planting John says the Pioneer FIT Studio software allows them to tie into their dedicated mapping center which provides high quality color maps on a rapid turn around basis. Here’s a description of how it works:

Move your yield monitor and GPS receiver to your tractor before planting – your Pioneer sales representative can help you with this. After planting, your local sales rep submits your GPS enabled planting data to the Pioneer Mapping Center and within a few weeks will provide you with high quality planting maps. These maps provide a visual reference of what products and traits are present and can help you apply the right herbicides and insecticides on the right acre.

In addition, you can easily identify the hybrids and varieties planted in each field and the date they were planted and at what planting rates, augmenting or replacing traditional handwritten planting notes.

Listen to my interview with John to learn more here: Interview with John Chism

2012 Commodity Classic Photo Album

Coverage of the 2012 Commodity Classic Show is sponsored by BASF and New Holland

Ag Leader Moves Into Precision Water Management

Ag Leader Technology is moving into the fast-growing precision water management market with new company acquisitions.

To integrate water management into its expanding precision farming portfolio, Ag Leader has acquired Soil-Max, manufacturer of the market-leading Gold Digger tile plow, and the assets of Gradient, Inc., a related company which revolutionized the control of tile plows with the Intellislope GPS-based control system. These products allow growers and tiling contractors to solve water management challenges very cost effectively by greatly reducing the technical knowledge, labor and time required to install tile.

The acquisition will serve as a base for developing additional products for other water management tasks such as land leveling, waterway grading, ditching and levee building. “This is a great opportunity for Ag Leader to make a bold step into an increasingly important part of the precision farming industry,” said Al Myers, founder and President of Ag Leader Technology. “Water management is a very important part of any precision farming plan. Gold Digger tile plows and the Intellislope control system have been the market-leading products in this segment for many years and we’re thrilled to add these products to our product line.”

Find out more about the acquisition from Al Myers in this video press release:

OmniRow Planter Control Wins FinOvation Award

One of the FinOvation Award winners this year and presented at the 2012 National Farm Machinery Show was Raven Industries, sponsor of the AgWired App (got it yet?). Pictured is Doug Prairie, Product Manager, receiving his award from Jodie Wehrspann, Farm Industry News. I spoke with Doug about their award for the OmniRow planter control system. He says it’s one of their new products that is unique because it utilizes a hydraulic motor that installs directly at the row unit which gives you full individual row population control.

For maximum yields and efficiency, Raven’s groundbreaking new OmniRow™ advanced planter control system takes you where others can only dream of going. Its fully integrated design, with RTK sub-inch accuracy and patent-pending planter control technology, gives you the power to control seeding rates by row or sections with more precision and reliability than ever before.

Listen to my interview with Doug: Interview with Douglas Prairie

2012 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

Coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by Fastline AgRacer FMC New Holland

Ag Leader Technology Previews New System at NFMS

Ag Leader Technology was giving growers at the National Farm Machinery Show a preview of the coming-soon INTEGRA™ planter down force monitor and control capability.

The heart of the system is a hydraulic down force actuator (as compared to other pneumatic airbag systems), engineered by Dawn Equipment. The actuator is the fastest on the market, allowing the INTEGRA display to make quick row unit down force adjustments, according to Sales Representative Russ Morman. “The adjustments we’re going to be able to make to our down pressure will be a lot quicker than the other systems on the market and this being a metal system rather than an air bag it won’t have the risk of puncturing,” said Russ about the system that will be available to growers in 2013.

Listen to Russ explain about the new system here: Interview with Russ Morman

Watch Russ do a little video demo at NFMS here:

Coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by Fastline AgRacer FMC New Holland

Lowell Catlett Sees Bright Future for Ag

Dr. Lowell Catlett, New Mexico State University economist and futurist, has been looking into the agricultural crystal ball for nearly 30 years. I remember seeing him speak back when Timbuk3 had their one-hit wonder “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” and Lowell used to gallop on stage to that tune wearing sunglasses.

That song was a hit back in 1986 and Lowell is just as funny, interesting and relevant as ever. I saw him at the Pursuit of Maximum Yields event organized by the GROWMARK system’s FS Green Plan Solutions in Bettendorf, Iowa Thursday and haven’t laughed so hard and learned so much in a long time.

One thing that makes him so entertaining is his facial expressions – that’s why I wanted to use several photos here. He makes his points without the aid of power points – he certainly doesn’t need them!

All of the 250 farmers at the event this week will certainly remember without the aid of a power point what Dr. Catlett called “The Crap Factor” – that is higher disposable income to buy more crap. “The quality of our life has gone up dramatically and the price to have (the necessities) relative to our income has gone down,” he says. That allows people to buy more extras, and in the case of developing countries, it means they have more income to buy more protein.

Lowell also talked about how smart phones are helping farmers. “You’ve got the ability to take that mobile technology and do plant diagnostics with it,” he said. In the future, he sees the use of open source hardware (not just software) and 3D assembly that could allow manufacturing to actually be done on site with local materials, like building tractors on farms in developing nations.

Listen to my interview with Lowell Catlett here: Lowell Catlett Interview

Photos from Iowa Pursuit of Maximum Yields Event

MyWay RTK Grows in 2011

2011 has been a phenomenal growth year for MyWay RTK.

myway rtkThe service was launched in the fall of 2010 to bring subscription-based Real Time Kinematic positioning and wireless Internet access to the state of Illinois. That has been more than accomplished with coverage throughout the entire state and base stations being added almost daily in other states from Iowa to Idaho and Kansas to Mississippi.

growmark sid parks“It would be fair to say the number of people that are participating has exceeded early expectations,” says GROWMARK precision agriculture manager Sid Parks, who recognized the benefits of the service early on for FS member cooperatives. “We deal with lots of different venders, different colors of equipment, different brands, different service providers and we had a need to be brand neutral,” he said.

MyWay RTK was the perfect solution to provide high quality, cellular modem based RTK differential correction service with accuracy to the one inch range, an improvement from perhaps 3-6 inches often used and with better year to year consistency. “The RTK quality signal is delivered through the internet and cell towers rather than FM radio signal,” Sid said. One important benefit to that is improved repeatability from one base station to the next. “Any place I have cell phone access, I have the potential to deliver that signal via modem.” In the future, it will also give the capability to share files and maps back and forth between the field vehicle and the office.

Sid is quick to point out that neither he nor GROWMARK has any ownership in MyWay RTK, they just knew a good thing when they saw it. “When I first found out about it, I went around with a company representative to our FS companies to show how they could participate – whether they chose to be a member or not, participate in the sales of subscriptions or as a user,” he added.

You can listen to my interview with Sid about MyWay RTK here: Sid Parks Interview

Raven Simplified

ZimmCast 329It is hard to believe that the AgWired App has been out for over a year! And the company staking an immediate sponsorship claim was and still is Raven, Precision Simplified. In this week’s program we’re going to learn that Raven has just “Simplified” their website and sees social media as a great opportunity to engage with their customers.

I spoke with Paul Welbig, Director of Marketing and Slingshot Operations this morning. He says that as it relates to information, reaching customers and new technology, the sponsorship of our smartphone application fit right in with Raven’s strategy moving forward, “We thought it was a great avenue to communicate with customers through that venue because a lot of those customers using those types of tools are also going to be customers using Raven and the Slingshot solution in the future.” When it comes to social media Paul says Raven has ample evidence that it is helping them engage with their customers, “That’s what it’s all about is making those connections and really helping support those folks as well.” He says Raven actively watches their social media channels and responds quickly to their customers.

When it comes to the new Raven website Paul says they’ve included a brand new section that provides technical help which you can find at RavenHelp.com. The company is also running a promotion right now where farmers can enter to win a complete RTK system that includes: Cruizer II™ guidance with sub-inch RTK accuracy — delivered by Slingshot® via wireless networks. The company will be exhibiting at a majority of the winter farm shows if you need to see them in person. You can find their schedule here.

Listen to my conversation with Paul in this week’s ZimmCast and learn more about what’s going on with Raven: Raven Simplified

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.

This week’s program ends with a song called “Raven” by Mark Shepard from Music Alley. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for listening.

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.

Farm Bureau Says FCC Must Test Technical Fixes for GPS

afbfThe American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) says the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and an independent technical company must complete comprehensive and rigorous testing on all proposed technical fixes to ensure there is no interference between broadband and GPS signals that could be created by a broadband network being developed by LightSquared.

“It is critical that costs for resolving this issue are not passed along to farmers and ranchers through higher GPS or equipment costs,” AFBF President Bob Stallman said during a House Small Business Committee hearing on Wednesday. “LightSquared should cover the expense of all technical fixes related to the interference issue to ensure the cost is not passed along to farmers and ranchers.”

Many farmers rely on GPS for precision agriculture. This includes using GPS for accurate mapping of field boundaries, roads and irrigation systems; for precision planting; and for targeting the application of fertilizer and chemicals that combat weeds and crop diseases. GPS also allows farmers to work in their fields despite low-visibility conditions such as rain, dust, fog and darkness.

“While the deployment of broadband services is important for economic development, better education and improved health services in rural America, the use of precision agriculture is vital to America’s farmers and ranchers as they continue to feed, fuel and clothe the world,” Stallman said.

AFBF submitted comments to the FCC
in July urging the agency to ensure there is no interference with GPS receivers prior to granting LightSquared permission to operate its high-powered base stations.

MyWay RTK Launches MyWay Xchange

The precision ag arena has certainly been seeing a lot of activity in the development of new online and mobile tools. Here’sa new one from MyWay RTK called MyWay XChange.

Today MyWay RTK LLC officially launched MyWay Xchange, a new online tool that will connect MyWay resellers and customers in real time. MyWay designed the reseller portal to give resellers live information about their customers and base stations within their respective coverage areas, enabling them to ensure their customers’ RTK service is always performing at optimum levels. MyWay Xchange features a real time map that indicates the current or last known position of each customer. Having access to this live information allows resellers to specify a user’s proximity to surrounding base stations, so they can easily diagnose a connection issue in the event a user leaves the coverage area inadvertently. In addition, live streaming from base stations means resellers know at once if a base station ever goes offline.

“In the event a customer ever has a connection issue, the reseller now has the tools to resolve the matter quickly,” said MyWay RTK general manager, Andy Hill. “MyWay Xchange was engineered to not only alert resellers about current problems, but to also help them anticipate possible risks. Essentially, this tool helps minimize the chance a customer ever gets disconnected because of distance or weather problems.”

As MyWay Xchange features live Doppler Radar coverage for the entire United States, resellers can see both active customers and current weather conditions simultaneously on one screen. In the event severe weather conditions limit a user’s RTK service, the reseller can easily diagnose the problem’s source without leaving the office. Resellers can also use the radar coverage to view weather forecasts and warn customers of impending severe weather conditions beforehand.

A mobile version of MyWay Xchange – available at www.mywayxchange.com – has also been developed, providing resellers an easy and effective way to manage subscriptions, mount points, and login credentials while on the go. The mobile site offers benefits to subscribers as well, letting them manage their accounts and create custom profiles right from the field.

“These MyWay mobile tools let you manage your account without having to return to the office or farm during a hectic day,” said Hill. “It’s a convenience that will help MyWay customers and resellers to keep moving while they’re moving.”

ScoutPro Announced at FPS

Entrepreneurship is alive and well at Iowa State University. I visited with Michael Koenig at the Farm Progress Show about it.

ScoutPro, a business started by 3 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students at Iowa State University will be launching their first products: ScoutPro Lite™ Soybean and ScoutPro Lite™ Corn at the 2011 Farm Progress Show on Aug 30-31 and Sept. 1, in Decatur, IL.

Seniors Michael Koenig, Holden Nyhus and junior Stuart McCulloh founded the new venture, ScoutPro, a software applications development company, following their involvement in an entrepreneurship in agriculture course taught by Kevin Kimle, director of the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative at Iowa State University.

The company has developed a crop scouting app which eliminates the guess work in crop scouting, while increasing producer’s efficiency and profitability. Through systematic questions, the app narrows down pests to ensure a correct identification. Additionally, the app creates field specific crop scouting reports to help producers make better management decisions. The ScoutPro Lite™ apps are compatible on all smartphones, iPads or other tablet devices.

In addition to the app, producers will also be able to manage all scouting reports and gain access to aggregated pest data through their own private, secure website.

ScoutPro Interview

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album


AgWired Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland GROWMARK Trellis Growing Systems

PrecisionEarth Soil Sampling For iPad

You might remember PrecisionEarth being introduced at InfoAg this summer. Well it’s now available for your iPad (or other iOS device)!

PrecisionEarth makes Soil Sampling Simple, Faster, with less mistakes, and with less paper. Build up the Grower, Farmer, Field information as well as collect new boundaries, grids, and samples all inside PrecisionEarth, even when 3G/WiFi is not available. When complete export your sample results as vectors for use in other applications and backup your information to the included WebConnect Cloud Storage Account.

Already Have Source Data?

PrecisionEarth comes with Localconnect to automatically re-project and format vector and raster/imagery information. These can be vectors for boundaries and directed sampling locations, and images/rasters of your fields.

All of this comes for a one time fee of $250 USD in the Apple App Store.

Dale Minyo Speaks at Mavis Farm Stop on CTIC Tour

It’s always great to see farm broadcasters as featured speakers at events, so it was fun to see our good friend Dale Minyo with the Ohio Ag Net as luncheon speaker at the Conservation Technology Information Center tour August 9 in Northwest Ohio.

Dale talked about the importance of messaging for agriculture. “Sometimes we’ve got to clear up the message,” he said, using the example of increasing profitability in farming. “The way we’ve been able to make a profit is we’ve become more efficient,” Dale said. “It’s more about efficient, it’s about environmental concerns, it’s about being more effective about what we’re doing.”

Dale was pleased that the CTIC chose the Ohio region around Lake Erie to showcase some of the important initiatives that farmers are doing.

Listen to my interview with Dale here: Dale Minyo on CTIC Tour

The luncheon where Dale spoke was on the Mavis Farm near Edgerton, Ohio. The corn and soybean operation is a fourth generation farm owned by Gary Mavis (pictured) and his wife Pat with son Scott and his wife Jenny. Gary says they follow a corn-soybean rotation on nearly 3,000 acres and divide each field into different yield zones. “We started yield mapping back in ’95 and after a few years of collecting data was able to established yield zones that we felt comfortable with,” he said. “Now we’re applying fertilizer based on those yield zones and we’re varying the rate as we go across the field it might varying 150-200 pounds depending on what the soil test has showed.”

That results in more efficient use of fertilizer and lime, less pounds applied, and money saved.

Listen to my interview with Gary here: Gary Mavis on CTIC Tour

CTIC 2011 Conservation in Action Tour Photos

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by AGROTAIN

Walking Away From Wyffels Corn Strategies With INTEGRA Display

During the Wyffels Corn Strategies in Malcom, Iowa, Ag Leader Technology held a drawing for an INTEGRA™ Display. Our young farmer in the photo did the name drawing.

The winner is Jeff Peterson of Port Byron, IL. He’s flanked by Rick Hofer, Iowa Territory Manager (left) and Travis Goedken, Minnesota Territory Manager. That’s a nice prize to go home with!

While I was at this event I spoke with Katie Beeler. She says Ag Leader Technology is very happy to participate in a Corn Strategies event. Looking ahead to harvest she says auto steer and yield monitoring will help corn growers. The company will be at a number of summer farm shows and I know I’ll see them again soon.

You can listen to my interview with Katie here: Katie Beeler Interview

Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies 2011 Iowa Photo Album

Lightsquared Threat To GPS

I spent a lot of my career in the broadcasting business and never saw the Federal Communications Commission take action like they have been on the proposal from a company called Lightsquared to utilize high-powered, close-proximity transmissions from a network of ground stations that would cause substantial interference with GPS signals.. It is unheard of for them to allow a company to move ahead on a major project like this without doing full testing first. However, that’s what they’ve done. Fortunately the whole thing is on hold at the moment pending public comment. I think we’d all like more high speed internet access in rural America but not at the expense of GPS. Think about how much has been invested in GPS systems!

At the InfoAg Conference our closing session was titled, “GPS Under Seige: Lightsquared and the Threat to High-End Global Positioning.” This presentation was conducted by Kevin Kobb, Topcon (right) and Doug Schmuland, NovAtel. I spoke with them after their presentation. Kevin and Doug told me it has caused the major GPS producers and distributors to come together to understand the threat and then present that to the public and then work toward a favorable conclusion to the situation. The potential exists for this proposal to affect just about every device relying on GPS satellites. They say that now is the time to act and make your voice heard before the proposal receives a final FCC decision. You can find a lot of information on the website, Coalition To Save Our GPS.

Listen to my interview with Kevin and Doug here: Interview with Kevin Kobb and Doug Schmuland

2011 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

Precision Gets Social

Social media was part of the buzz at the InfoAg Conference this year. The conference is held every other year. This means that since the last one we’ve had a new iPhone, the iPad and Android! I’ve got some interesting stories to post on our Precision Pays website that include how a new company is using the iPad for precision applications.

So this is the stage from this morning when Paul Schrimpf, Croplife Media Group, Jeremy Wilson, Crop IMS and I conducted back to back session on social media. I want to thank all the folks who tweeted in using the conference hashtag – #InfoAg. Click on the link to see what the conversation was all about.


2011 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

USDA May Get Precision Ag Data

infoag conference michael scuseI have now moved from Nebraska to Illinois for the 2011 InfoAg Conference. This is all about precision agriculture so most of our coverage will be found on Precision Pays. Thanks to Cindy we have coverage already started since I was a little slow moving this morning. Here’s her report on the opening session:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative Project (ACRSIP) may well be the “most important thing that USDA has ever done,” according to Acting Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse.

Scuse talked about the initiative as the keynote speaker at the opening of InfoAg 2011 in Springfield, Illinois on Tuesday. The concept is to simplify and provide new reporting options for producers. “Rather than a farmer or rancher going to the local FSA office to do their crop reports as they do now and have to give a second report to their agent, they can actually do the report from home,” Scuse said. “Our ultimate goal is for those that have precision ag equipment in their planters and combines to actually use the information that’s collected from that equipment to be downloaded directly to their Farm Service Agency and to the crop insurance agent, to simplify the process even further.”

Scuse says they plan a pilot test of the program this fall and hope to have it implemented by 2013. “This is how we’re going to provide a better service for farmers and ranchers,” he said. “It will ultimately save the taxpayers a great deal of money with this initiative.”

Listen to my interview with Scuse from InfoAg here: Interview with Michael Scuse, USDA

Chuck and I are tag-teaming this InfoAg Conference. He will be covering tomorrow while I head to Dixon, IL for a Wyffles corn strategies field day. Chuck will be doing a presentation on using social media here at the conference on Thursday.


2011 InfoAg Conference Photo Album

Our coverage of the InfoAg 2011 Conference is sponsored by: Ag Leader Technology.

InfoAg 2011 Conference App

This is the newest app on my iPhone and will be on my Android phone later this morning. It’s the InfoAg 2011 Conference app.

The InfoAg 2011 Conference, hosted at Springfield Illinois’ Crowne Plaza, from July 12-14th, is pleased to add a digital Conference Companion available exclusively for the InfoAg 2011 exhibitors and attendees. Designed to supplement the online conference program, this app allows its user to view an at-a-glance program, search speakers, exhibitors, and presentation synopses, as well as create a personalized conference itinerary.

As you can see from this screenshot I’ll be on the program talking about social media. Our moderator for that session is Paul Schrimpf, Group Editor, Croflife Media Group. Also in our session will be Jeremy Wilson, Technology Specialist, Crop IMS. Our session will be offered twice next Thursday. Hope you can make it.

The app is the creation of Quentin Rund, PAQ Interactive. Get it and let him know what you think. I think this is going to become a standard offering of shows of all kinds, farm included. Kind of like the “old” conference brochure but much easier to use and carry around!