Farm Progress Show Here We Come

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Progress Show 2007It’s show time in Progress City, IL (near Decatur) and the weather is looking beautiful.

I’m off to the big show today and will be reporting on all the activities of the 2007 Farm Progress Show. My sponsor for this year’s coverage is New Holland. We’re going to find out what’s “new” with New Holland right here so don’t forget to check your feeds or just browse on back.

New HollandI know that one of the highlights of the New Holland tent is going to be Jay Leno’s Ecojet car which runs on biodiesel. It will be on display and on Wednesday a very important person will be stopping by to pay a visit.

Laura McNamara will be helping me out this week for a couple days. We’ll be working out of the New Holland sponsored media tent so if you’re trying to find either of us that’s the first place to look.

Here’s the weather outlook according to the Weather Channel:

Today Aug 27 Sunny 90°/65°
Tue Aug 28 Sunny 94°/68°
Wed Aug 29 Mostly Sunny 94°/68°
Thu Aug 30 Partly Cloudy 81°/63°

AgWired coverage of the 2007 Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland

Farm Progress Show, New Holland

Corn Is Being Harvested

Chuck Zimmerman

Harvested CornThis is the field I posted a picture from last week which shows that corn harvesting has begun here in Missouri. It’s the first field I’ve seen that’s been combined.

With some beautiful weather in store in the midwest there might be some competition for farmer’s time this week as the Farm Progress Show kicks off in Decatur, IL.

Corn

New Zealand Rural Network Blog

Chuck Zimmerman

Rural Network BlogPhilippa Stevenson is blogging on the Rural Network in New Zealand. She’s “a freelance journalist and columnist with a 26-year career in journalism. She specializes in reporting primary industries, science and the environment. ”

Here’s some information on the Rural Network. It’s “a community for, by and of rural people. Here, you’ll find news, information, topical opinion and useful advice contributed by specialists and community members.

The Rural Network is the initiative of Dow AgroSciences, which has been providing New Zealand farmers with cost-effective solutions to pasture and crop production problems for 50 years. It just seemed like a good idea for a new era.”

International

The Worm Farmer

Chuck Zimmerman

Pfizer CattleI have never met someone who grows worms for a living but that’s what Dr. Patrick Meeus is doing for Pfizer Animal Health. He’s a parasitologist and specializes in worm research. So at the Pfizer VMRD facility he works on the development of de-wormers.

They call his part of the facility the “Worm Farm.” You can hear him tell how they do the research in my interview with him. He says they are constantly looking for the latest parasites in the field which they bring into the lab to do tests with. There are only about a half a dozen people working in his facility and they have a pretty tough schedule since as he puts it “worms don’t take a day off.”

You can listen to my interview with Dr. Meeus here: pfizer-vmrd-07-meeus.mp3

Or if you’d like you can download it here: Download MP3 FileDr. Patrick Meeus Interview

Animal Health, Audio

Wait to Re-Treat Cattle For BRD

Chuck Zimmerman

Pfizer BeefDr. Merlyn Lucas is Associate Director, Pharmaceutical Clinical Development, VMRD for Pfizer Animal Health. At the recent Pfizer media event he spoke to us about some of his research that focused on single-dose therapy, specifically on Excede and Draxxin. These products are used to treat cattle for bovine respiratory disease.

He says that producers are starting to learn that these products have really changed their need to treat cattle frequently. In fact, the research he’s done makes it pretty clear that waiting to re-treat cattle after using these products is cost effective. Who doesn’t want to save some money?

You can listen to my interview with Dr. Lucas here: pfizer-vmrd-07-lucas.mp3

Or if you’d like you can download it here: Download MP3 FileDr. Merlyn Lucas Interview

Animal Health, Audio

John Deere Product Launch Overview

Chuck Zimmerman

John Deere RevealAfter the big show at the John Deere product launch all the dealers were invited down to the floor and the next room to see all the new equipment up close and personal.

While I was wandering around the floor I met Chris Whitehead, John Deere Manager of Advertising and Marketing Communications. He provided me with an overview of what John Deere has been showing their dealers. Besides dealers he said that they’re also bringing in customers for to see the same demonstrations and product reveal here at the end of the last week of the introduction.

Chris says the product introduction this year is one of their biggest ever and that it focuses on all the customer segments their dealers have.

You can listen to my interview with Chris here: launch-07-whitehead.mp3

John Deere Product Launch Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the John Deere product launch is sponsored by Precision Pays

Audio, John Deere

Seth Crawford Talks John Deere Combines

Chuck Zimmerman

John Deere Combine & Corn HeadThe big combines just have that “wow” factor when it comes to a show and this week’s John Deere product introduction was no exception. The marketing manager for combines for John Deere is Seth Crawford. I interviewed him right after the field demonstration portion on combines. The one in this picture is one of their new 70 Series with the easy to adjust 600 Series Corn Head.

You can learn all about the these new items in the following interview.

John Deere Product Launch Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the John Deere product launch is sponsored by Precision Pays

Corn, John Deere, Video

Sprayers and Spray Controlling From John Deere

Chuck Zimmerman

John Deere Product Launch Field DayHere’s where we got to see new sprayers in action at the John Deere product introduction. We had three presenters including Iowa farm brothers Brent and Lee Madden and Adam Hart. They also talked about how some of the new John Deere precision ag equipment works with these sprayers to more precisely apply product.

You can watch a portion of their presentation here and learn more. They did fire up the equipment like the 4830 sprayer in the background.

John Deere Product Launch Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the John Deere product launch is sponsored by Precision Pays

John Deere, Precision Agriculture, Video

Getting Precise With John Deere Upgrades

Chuck Zimmerman

Kayla ReynoldsKayla Reynolds works in the John Deere Ag Management Solutions area just like Mike Park. She was our teacher in the “classroom” part of our media/analysts session this week at the John Deere product introduction.

Kayla focused on 4 main topics related to precision ag. They are long range RTK, shading optimization, GS2 rate controller expansion and Swath Control Pro for planting. Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with what these mean. She explains it in an interview I did with her after her presentation.

It appears that John Deere has made some significant strides in the area of precision ag. For example the new long range RTK allows a grower to operate their equipment with sub inch accuracy at up to 12 miles from the base station instead of the 6 miles previously possible.

You can listen to my interview with Kayla here: launch-07-reynolds.mp3

John Deere Product Launch Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the John Deere product launch is sponsored by Precision Pays

Audio, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

Scalable Accuracy in Precision Ag Products

Chuck Zimmerman

John Deere 9630TAt the John Deere product introduction we got to see some big iron in action. One demo involved this 9630T which has an amazing stability functionality built into it including a new AirCushion walking I-beam suspension system.

While I was at this field station I interviewed Mike Park, Factory Marketing Manager, Ag Management Solutions. Mike talks about John Deere’s precision ag products including their new APEX 2.0 software. He says that although not every customer is ready to invest in some of these tools he highly recommends they talk about them with their local representative. When I asked him if a grower can stair step into the precision products he says they call it, “scalable accuracy,” meaning that there are different levels of investment that will all utilize similar components.

John Deere Product Launch Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the John Deere product launch is sponsored by Precision Pays

John Deere, Precision Agriculture, Video