Volvo’s new self-steering truck is changing the Brazilian sugar-cane harvest with precision steering through the fields to avoid damage to young plants that will grow into next year’s crop. Currently, growers face a four percent loss each season as plants are run over by vehicles, meaning each of these trucks has the potential to save tens of thousands of U.S. …
Dairy & Poultry Groups Say Modernize NAFTA
Leading animal agricultural groups representing the dairy and poultry sectors spoke out this week highlighting what a NAFTA modernization would mean for each of their prospective industries. The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) sent comments to the U.S. Trade Representative describing the existing North American dairy landscape as one in which U.S. dairy …
Precision Ag Bytes 6/16
Dow AgroSciences has announced that Enlist corn will be commercially available in the United States for the 2018 growing season now that China has officially approved the trait for import. Tracy Linbo has taken the position of Senior Vice President of Agronomy for Wheat Growers. She comes from 10 years at DuPont Pioneer where she most recently held the position …
Staying Credible in a ‘Fake News’ World
AAEA, The Ag Communicators Network, is holding a webinar right now titled, “Staying Credible in a “Fake News” World.” The webinar has a panel including veteran ag journalists Chris Clayton, DTN/Progressive Farmer, Willie Vogt, Penton Agriculture, and Betsy Freese, Meredith AgriMedia. They’ll discuss how ag journalists and communicators can advocate for trust in the media, writing for rural America, and …
Bayer Launches Sustainability Initiative for Horticulture
To meet the growing need for sustainability information about food, Bayer has introduced Grow On, an initiative to provide growers with tools to identify, implement and communicate sustainable farming practices. Grow On provides citrus, grape, pome and stone fruit, potato, tree nut and vegetable growers with the resources needed to continue to sustainably produce safe, nutritious food for the growing …
RFS Impacts: By the Numbers
Twelve years since the original Renewable Fuel Standard was passed in 2005 and 10 years after it was expanded in 2007, the numbers tell an objective story of how successful the legislation has been in a new analysis by the Renewable Fuels Association “RFS Impacts: By the Numbers”. RFA Senior Vice President Geoff Cooper says EPA is expected to issue …
ASTA Annual Meeting is Next Week
The 2017 American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Annual Convention is coming up next week, June 21-24 in Minneapolis with a theme of Voyage to Better Seed. “This year we’ve got a lot of topics in front of us with a new administration, a farm bill out there, all the issues within the farm bill, and how do we develop policy …
ZimmCast on Risk Management Solutions
In this week’s program I’m sharing a conversation with Chip Whalen, Commodity & Ingredient Hedging (CIH). The topic is uncertainty requiring flexibility. Think about how commodity prices are affected by weather, trade, exchange rates and more competition. There are more factors too. So, how do farmers manage risk with the uncertainty we’re seeing in the trade today? That’s where Chip’s …
Pork Pleased with Pruitt and EPA Reform
The Trump administration has certainly shaken things up, and nowhere is that more evident than in regards to environmental issues. Kraig Westerbeek, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) Board & VP of Environment and Support Operations for Murphy Brown spoke about top environmental priorities at the recent World Pork Expo, outlining the steps recently taken toward regulatory reform. The Waters of …
Disrupt, Don’t Fear New Ideas in Beef Production
ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference was all about causing a disruption in all forms of our life and of course in agriculture. And this includes the beef community. There was no better person to chat with when it comes to research in the beef industry than Dr. Vaughn Holder, Research Project Manager, Beef Nutrition, Alltech. A Head-Out-of-the-Sand approach, was the …