John Deere has refined the chassis of its popular autonomous vehicle to give the go-anywhere R-Gator an independent suspension and improved ground clearance. The updated R-Gator also boasts a faster top speed, travelling up to 35 mph in manual mode. A new Pfizer Animal Health was unveiled as Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth, including its subsidiary Fort Dodge Animal Health, was …
Syngenta Seeds Thinks Like a Farmer
When Syngenta Seeds considers new products to bring to market, they think like a farmer. “They’re our primary customer at the end of the day and we can have the greatest technologies, the greatest genetics but if we don’t understand their business and the challenges they face, it could all be wasted,” said Agronomy Marketing Manager Bruce Battles at a …
Husker Farmer Tweets Harvest Video
The Husker Farmer is harvesting some corn in south central Nebraska. “Finally” as he puts it. He is Ryan Weeks and you can find him active on Twitter as @huskerfarm. He’s another farmer using new media tools himself to tell his story and let the public know what farming like in America today. (Still amazes me that while so many …
Ag Degrees at U of F
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 …
May the Growth Force Be With You
If you are in agriculture and support ethanol, the Growth Force wants you. Growth Force is the individual membership arm of Growth Energy, the ethanol advocacy organization started about this time last year to help fight the attacks on farming and renewable fuels like ethanol. “Right now it’s more than 10,000 strong, and growing,” says Growth Energy director of public …
Another Sunbelt Under Our Belts
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 …
Trimble Precision On Display at Sunbelt
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 …
Planting With Precision
Precision agriculture applications continue to grow and develop and were on display at Sunbelt Ag Expo. Let’s use Precision Planting as an example. I spoke with Bruce Sauder about what is new with the company that producers were getting to see in their exhibit. He says that some of the new units that they’ve come out with this year include …
Zimfo Bytes
Global Animal Management announces the launch of its newly renovated Web site designed to educate consumers on the importance of animal identification. More than 150 area residents joined global animal health company Alltech to celebrate the opening of its new facility in Clovis on Thursday, Oct. 15. Farm Journal Media is proud to announce its new event, Marketing Rally 2009, …
State of the Blogosphere 2009
The 2009 Technorati State of the Blogosphere is worth your time to read through. The final segment of the report will be released today. Here’s just a couple of tidbits from the report and you can listen to my interview with Richard Jalichandra discuss the report here. The rise of the professional blogger continues. 70% of Part-Timers, Pros, and Self-Employeds …