Have you ever wondered what switchgrass looks like? That’s it behind Cory Christensen, Director of Product Managment, Ceres, who was conducting Sunbelt Ag Expo presentations in the field. He says it’s a first season stand of their Blade energy crop. It was developed specifically for the southeast. Since it’s the first season for this crop they won’t harvest it at Sunbelt until next year. A mature yield for the crop is about 8 tons per acre of dry matter.
Switchgrass is native to the United States everywhere east of the Rockies. Ceres, has been working on varieties that will yield better in different growing environments though. Cory says that they don’t expect it to displace corn in Iowa but in the southeast with the difficulties in cotton and tobacco it becomes a viable alternative on open acres. He provides some estimates of what the crop can mean financially as the market for a fuel crop like switchgrass develops.
Cory describes the current market as a “developing market.” They have a map that shows developing opportunities where plants will be located to process energy crops. He says that biomass is a local business so you need to be located near a biorefinery. He also points to the USDA’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program that provides monetary assistance to facilitate the transition of eligible land to energy crops.
US Farm Data is the new name of what we knew as GoLeads Farm. The new name goes along with a new commitment to agricultural marketing.
At the Sunbelt Ag Expo I spoke with Chris Sidles, National Accounts, who tells us what the company offers and why they created a new name. To start with he says they’re a full service direct marketing and database management company.
Their ag database has 2.5 million U.S. farmers and ranchers. They can pull specific farmographic data like number of acres, type of crop and how they own that farm. They also cross reference the farm data with their residential database of 220 million consumers as well as a business database of 14 million of which about 1 million are specific to ag. Clients range from technology to seed to irrigation and includes small business and Fortune 500 companies.
Chris says they help a client understand their customers and figure out ways to increase their footprint and market to new customers. Strategies can include direct mail, telemarketing and email blasts. They are also looking at ways to include new social networking strategies into their campaigns.
I’d like to thank AgWired Sponsor, Fluidigm, for their support of the ZimmCast.
There are a lot of colleges involved with farm shows all over the country. At Sunbelt Ag Expo I spoke with Charlotte Emerson, Director of Student Development and Recruitment, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Florida. We’re sitting in their exhibit chatting about my alma mater.
She says the college has 24 majors and over 50 specializations ranging from agriculture education to animal sciences to family youth and community sciences. They also have a famous soon to be graduate who will be leading the #1 ranked Gator football team tonight, Tim Tebow!
You can listen to my interview with Charlotte below:
The 2009 Sunbelt Ag Expo was another good one. It’s big enough that there’s just no way to cover it all. You really need three days to check out all the exhibits and field demonstrations.
Here’s to hoping I’ll be back again next year. I still have a few stories to post and will get them on over the next couple days.
The largest field demonstration of precision applications at Sunbelt Ag Expo was conducted by Trimble. I stopped and spoke with Matt Hesse, Autopilot Sales Manager.
The company was showing various levels of precision integration. They had two different land leveling systems. One used a GPS control and one used a 2D laser system. They also had their new TrueGuide passive implement steering system in use. This system puts an antenna on the implement to tell the tractor where it is so the tractor knows how much to move in relation to the desired line to optimize the placement of the implement. They also had their TrueTracker System on multiple tractors and implements.
Matt says that they take applications that are not possible for human beings and put them into a machine to do it for us. This ultimately increases efficiencies that have produced up to 20 bushels per acre increases in corn.
There are exhibits from land grant colleges throughout the southeast at Sunbelt Ag Expo. As a member of the Gator Nation I had to spend some time with the University of Florida.
One stop in their building was with a display for the Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals & Fuels. On hand to tell their story was Sheilachu P. Gomez, Assistant Director, pictured here. She says the Center is primarily for the development of the technology to convert biomass to ethanol and organic acids. They have two patents that have been purchased by two companies already (an ethanol patent to Verenium and organic acids patent to Myriant). They have a pilot plant for cellulosic ethanol production to optimize biomass conversion at the campus and have a planned plant to be located in Perry, FL. The last is a partnership with Myriant and Buckeye. In the future Sheila says they’re looking more into the value added products of the production process.
I don’t know how much of a security concern there is at farm shows today like Sunbelt Ag Expo but in Moultrie, GA the police looked like they were on the cutting edge with their unique tricycles.
I noticed more security around the second day than the first. Perhaps that was due to more kids out?
I got out in the field on Wednesday at Sunbelt Ag Expo and the most active area was hay baling. As you’ll see in the video clip, there were a lot of machines being demonstrated. I also stopped at the precision ag demonstrations and will have an interview from there to post later as well as getting to learn about switchgrass at a plot that was grown here for the first time this year.
He says he’s been the media director for Sunbelt Ag Expo for 32 years and he’s Mr. Peanut. Actually he’s Tyron Spearman, Spearman Marketing. Tyron also reports for Southeast AgNet.
At Expo Tyron coordinates all the requests of the media here covering the event. In the photo he’s giving us an overview of the show during our media breakfast. Tyron says the show is “excellent.” The weather has cleared up from the rain of last week and he thought the setup went a lot easier than normal. He says the first day crowd was estimated between 40 – 50,000 which was very good for an opening day. The challenge now is the good weather which has farmers out in their own fields. I asked him about the peanut crop and he says that after the largest crop in history last year the crop was reduced this year. Challenges during the planting season meant that there are actually 3 separate crops being harvested this year with the last one coming in later in November.
The old water tower on the grounds of the Sunbelt Ag Expo makes a good platform to look out over the show. I climbed it last year for the first time and again this year.
I’ll be out on the grounds today finding more stories and taking more photos. So keep an eye on my photo album as I add to it.
The main sponsor of the Southeastern Farmer of the Year program is Swisher Sweets. Representing them here at Sunbelt Ag Expo is Mr. J. Thomas Ryan, Swisher International. I talked with him prior to the Willie B. Withers luncheon.
He says it’s the 20th year that the company has sponsored the awards program. He says business is good for his company which makes cigars and smokeless tobacco products. The bulk of their business is domestic but they also sell products in 80 other countries.
You can listen to my interview with Mr. Ryan below:
The emcee for the Willie B. Withers luncheon at Sunbelt Ag Expo was Mr. Jimmy Hill, President/CEO, Georgia Agri-Leaders Forum Foundation. Jimmy says they develop leaders in agribusiness and forestry with a 12 month program. He says they have 18 people involved in this year’s program. The goal is to develop leaders who will get involved and help solve challenges faced by the industry.
The Study Institute Program of the Georgia Agri-Leaders Forum is an intensive exposure to a wide range of issues and policy discussion. These range from the economy to governmental process, as well as, a liberal opportunity to broaden leadership skills. The one-year program consists of six Study Institutes covering issues affecting those committed to agriculture, agribusiness, forestry and leadership in rural Georgia. Four In-State Institutes are structured in a three-day/two night format; A Government-in-Session (Atlanta/Washington DC) Institute covers eight days; and a National Travel Experience Institute in another state covers six days. Each Institute stresses leadership skills and generates sensitivity to pertinent issues, giving the participants an in-depth understanding of what it takes to get involved in bringing about solutions to political, economical, cultural, social, agricultural, agribusiness, forestry and leadership issues in rural Georgia.
There’s more than one way to farm fish. Usually you think ponds of tilapia or catfish right? Well there’s also sports fishing pond management of game fish like bass and bluegill. At Sunbelt Ag Expo they have a “fishing ponds” exhibit area. One of the exhibitors is Southeastern Pond Management. Seen in the photo is Kedric Nutt. He says his company helps a land owner manage their fish ponds which includes fish selection, weed control, pond evaluation and more.
Here at Expo the exhibit area is conducting seminars and has a demo pond which Kedric says has a bass species that is trained to eat pellet fish food but will still strike a fishing lure.
At this year’s Sunbelt Ag Expo, Alpacas are popular, especially baby ones. Promoting them is the Southeastern Alpaca Association. Representing the Association here is Carrie Gamblin, Southern Hummers Alpacas, pictured with her husband Jay.
Carrie says the organization is the “hub” for all the member farms. Each farm gets a web page that’s part of the organizational website. They also have an annual show in March and do seminars throughout the year. One of the main projects they’re working on is to get enough animals in the country to convince the millers to take their fiber and run it through the milling process. So far there hasn’t been enough to make that happen. Apparently alpaca fiber would require different milling equipment than wool.
KIOTI has just introduced a new utility vehicle – The MECHRON. Sounds kind of like a character in Transformers. But a couple of different versions were on display at Sunbelt Ag Expo. Now just about everyone has a utility vehicle in their product lineup. I spoke to Ron Parrish in the KIOTI exhibit about their new offering.
This Ultimate Transport Vehicle™ is driven by a fuel-efficient 22hp, 3-cylinder Daedong diesel engine that gives superb power and excellent fuel economy. With one of the widest tracks on the market and 4-wheel drive, the MECHRON™ delivers stable operation and superior traction over challenging terrain and up steep slopes. Front limited slip differential and rear differential lock are standard. The KIOTI UTV offers a 56″-wide dump bed – the widest on the market – for a 1600 pound payload capacity, 23% higher than the market leader.
You don’t normally think of shrimp and agriculture at the same time. However, here at Sunbelt Ag Expo the Georgia Shrimp Association would like to educate you and feed you at the same time. John Wallace is the President and I caught him frying shrimp early on opening day of the show.
He says their shrimp are from the Atlantic Ocean so they’re “farmers of the sea.” They harvest between four to six million pounds of shrimp a year. Their food booth is actually a good fund raiser for their association.
Steve Troxler is the Commissioner of Agriculture for North Carolina. His state is the spotlight state at this year’s Sunbelt Ag Expo. Steve is here to help kick things off and then I’ll bet he heads back home since their state fair is taking place right now too.
He cut the ribbon this morning at their tent to kick off this year’s Expo and I talked with him. He says their Got To Be NC Agriculture program is one of the ways they’re promoting NC farm products to consumers.
Steve says that agriculture is a $70 billion industry in North Carolina. In the picture with Steve above you can see a tobacco plant on the left. He says NC is the number one tobacco producing state in the country. They’re also number one in sweet potatoes.
The Willie B. Withers Luncheon honors excellence in agricultural production and management, leadership in community and farm organizations and recognizes family contributions in producing safe and abundant supplies of food, fiber and shelter for U.S. consumers. Lightsey is the sixth overall winner of the award from Florida.
I’ll post a video clip of Cary’s speech as soon as I get it uploaded. We’ve been internet challenged today but I think it’s getting better now. Post Update: Here’s that video:
Commodity Classic took place in Anaheim, CA. You'll find all of Chuck, Cindy and Joanna's photos here.
Exposing HSUS
If you're involved in agriculture then you should become familiar with HumaneWatch.org.
HumaneWatch.org is the work of David Martosko and in this week's program you get to meet him via my phone conversation with him. He's compiling a great online library of information on this group.
Have you ever wondered what switchgrass looks like? That’s it behind Cory Christensen, Director of Product Managment, Ceres, who was conducting Sunbelt Ag Expo presentations in the field. He says it’s a first season stand of their Blade energy crop. It was developed specifically for the southeast. Since it’s the first season for this crop they won’t harvest it at Sunbelt until next year. A mature yield for the crop is about 8 tons per acre of dry matter.
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Their ag database has 2.5 million U.S. farmers and ranchers. They can pull specific farmographic data like number of acres, type of crop and how they own that farm. They also cross reference the farm data with their residential database of 220 million consumers as well as a business database of 14 million of which about 1 million are specific to ag. Clients range from technology to seed to irrigation and includes small business and Fortune 500 companies. 
There are a lot of colleges involved with farm shows all over the country. At Sunbelt Ag Expo I spoke with Charlotte Emerson, Director of Student Development and Recruitment, 
The 2009 Sunbelt Ag Expo was another good one. It’s big enough that there’s just no way to cover it all. You really need three days to check out all the exhibits and field demonstrations.
The largest field demonstration of precision applications at Sunbelt Ag Expo was conducted by Trimble. I stopped and spoke with Matt Hesse, Autopilot Sales Manager.
There are exhibits from land grant colleges throughout the southeast at Sunbelt Ag Expo. As a member of the 
I don’t know how much of a security concern there is at farm shows today like Sunbelt Ag Expo but in Moultrie, GA the police looked like they were on the cutting edge with their unique tricycles.
He says he’s been the media director for Sunbelt Ag Expo for 32 years and he’s Mr. Peanut. Actually he’s Tyron Spearman, Spearman Marketing. Tyron also reports for 
Field demonstrations are in full swing at Sunbelt Ag Expo. I’ve updated the photo album for you and am taking off but have a lot more to post.
The old water tower on the grounds of the Sunbelt Ag Expo makes a good platform to look out over the show. I climbed it last year for the first time and again this year.
The main sponsor of the 
The emcee for the Willie B. Withers luncheon at Sunbelt Ag Expo was Mr. Jimmy Hill, President/CEO, 
There’s more than one way to farm fish. Usually you think ponds of tilapia or catfish right? Well there’s also sports fishing pond management of game fish like bass and bluegill. At Sunbelt Ag Expo they have a “fishing ponds” exhibit area. One of the exhibitors is 
At this year’s Sunbelt Ag Expo, Alpacas are popular, especially baby ones. Promoting them is the 
KIOTI has just introduced a new utility vehicle – 
You don’t normally think of shrimp and agriculture at the same time. However, here at Sunbelt Ag Expo the 
Steve Troxler is the 
Steve says that agriculture is a $70 billion industry in North Carolina. In the picture with Steve above you can see a tobacco plant on the left. He says NC is the number one tobacco producing state in the country. They’re also number one in sweet potatoes.
The 2009 
If you're involved in agriculture then you should become familiar with HumaneWatch.org.
