“Fertile Ground, Forward Thinking” is the theme for the new National Agri-Marketing Association Fall Conference. The event will be held at the Graves 601 Hotel in Minneapolis, MN, September 25-26. To learn more about the new NAMA Fall Conference I visited with NAMA President, Beth Burgy, Broadhead. She says the conference will be new and different this year with a …
Iowa Farmers Market App
Iowans now have a mobile way to locate a local farmers market thanks to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Listen to Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey talk about it today: Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey today unveiled the free Iowa Farmers Market app for smartphones that is designed to help Iowans access the more that …
New President of International Seed Federation
The new President of the International Seed Federation is Tim Johnson, Illinois Foundation Seeds. I spoke with Tim about his induction to the position at the ISF World Seed Congress 2012 in Rio de Janeiro. He says it’s an honor to be selected by the general assembly of ISF for the two year commitment. He calls it the “global ASTA” …
The John Deere PowerStick
As I sit in the Des Moines airport one of my helpful gadgets is the new John Deere PowerStick. It’s a 2GB USB drive that also charges up and includes multiple connectors to power up your other gadgets! That’s a cool combo. You charge it while you use it and it charges your iPhone or other device when you need …
John Deere Does Agile Development
Agile Development is not something you might think of when you think of John Deere. It’s a term associated with software development that is “based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.” Guess what? That’s what John Deere is doing according to Aaron Senneff, Development Manager at John Deere Intelligent Solutions …
New Chairman of American Seed Trade Association
It’s the passing of the gavel. This time at the American Seed Trade Association convention. Here is new ASTA Chairman, Blake Curtis, Curtis & Curtis, Inc. (left) with past Chairman Mike Gumina, Pioneer Hi-Bred. I spoke with Blake at the end of the convention to find out things went in his opinion and what the future priorities are for the …
John Deere Announces MyJohnDeere.com
Today John Deere announced MyJohnDeere.com and to learn a little about it I spoke with David Everitt, President, Agriculture and Turf Division. Dave has just announced his retirement from John Deere after a long career with the company. The announcements are being made at the John Deere FarmSight Tech Summit. David says this is the most exciting time to be …
It Will Be Dupont Pioneer
Beginning this weekend you’ll see a new name for Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business. As of July 1 it will be known as DuPont Pioneer. According to information I received the change is a part of the company extending DuPont’s efforts in the agricultural and food industries. The change in the name is to reflect a joint mission to find …
Ready For John Deere Technology Summit
Hello from the John Deere Technology Summit in Des Moines, IA. This is the welcoming committee for ag media. Starting this evening and continuing out on the farm tomorrow we’ll be learning about what’s new from John Deere. I don’t have any of that information to share with you yet but you can be sure I will. For those of …
ASTA Represents Vegetable and Flower Seed
During the American Seed Trade Association convention the organization’s divisions conduct business and report on activities. One of those is the Vegetable and Flower Seed Division, chaired by Kent Croon, Monsanto. I visited with Kent after his report was given. Kent works in technology development within Monsanto Vegetable Seeds. Kent says that many people think corn and soybeans when they …