Today President Obama will sign a new executive order to make broadband construction cheaper and easier according to the White House. This would mean more people in more places can join the AgWired community! The Executive Order (EO) will require the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Interior, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs as well as the US Postal Service to offer …
Split Vote on Corn Sugar vs. HFCS
Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Do you prefer corn sugar to high fructose corn syrup?” In what is a first for our poll, the response was split evenly! See the chart below. Recently the FDA denied a request from the Corn Refiners Association to allow food labels to use the term corn sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. …
Twive to the AgChat Foundation
It is better to Twive than receive. Especially if it benefits the AgChat Foundation. To help this effort out all you have to do is make a donation here. My name is Chuck Zimmerman and I approve this message. AgChat Foundation was selected to take part in a nationwide giving event on Thursday,June 14th. Across the nation, not-for-profit organizations will …
Precision Laboratories Celebrates 50 Years
It’s golden anniversary time for Precision Laboratories this month. In 1962, Chicago entrepreneur Jim Wohlner left his sales position with a national chemical distributor and founded Precision Laboratories. The new company specialized in private-label maintenance chemicals for industrial applications. Jim would often spend four days on the road selling, and then return on Fridays to fulfill the orders. As the …
Wrapping Up Conservation in Action Tour
It’s time to wrap up my coverage of the 2012 Conservation in Action Tour. To do so I’m sharing a couple of interviews I did at the end of the tour. To start with you’ll hear Danny Murphy, Mississippi soybean grower and First Vice President of the American Soybean Association talk about what he saw and learned during this year’s …
Finding Balance Between Business and Environment
At the closing dinner for the 2012 Conservation in Action Tour, Trudy Fisher, Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality spoke to our group. Trudy told us that she’s a farmer’s daughter and has farming experience herself. For that reason, the things we were seeing and hearing about on the tour are near and dear to her heart. …
Precison Ag Puts Medicine on the Hurt Place
We like new technology and we like our gadgets. We’re called AgNerds. And AgNerds are pretty open to precision agriculture. John McKee is one of us. John is a farmer of corn, cotton, soybeans and wheat. He was a civil engineer prior to farming so precision ag has come natural to him. He was also one of the speakers on …
Corn Technology Utilization Conference Concludes
The 2012 Corn Utilization Technology Conference has come to a close and attendance was officially higher than in 2010. It has been a tremendous showcase of all kinds of research being done to continue to make new products and improve others made out of corn which is “Rooted in Human History (pdf).” To close out the conference and give us …
Precision Ag is a Conservation Tool
During the 2012 Conservation in Action Tour the word “precision” came up multiple times. As precision ag continues to develop it is being seen as an effective tool for conservation plans and practices. One of our speakers addressed this subject. He’s Terry Griffin, farmer and also VP, Applied Economics for new precision ag company, CrescoAg. Terry says one example of …
Conservation Benefits Wildlife
During the afternoon of the 2012 Conservation in Action Tour our speakers talked a lot about how soil and water conservation systems benefit wildlife. One of our presenters was Kay Whittington, Chief of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s Management Branch, Surface Water Division. Kay says that the same conservation practices that help farmers manage soil and water quality also …