During the Commodity Classic I met April Hemmes, 2011 Midwest Region winner of the Monsanto Farm Mom of the Year contest. Thanks to Janice Person for taking the photo. April is the farmer in the family. Her husband works at a job in town. She was nominated by her daughter. Here’s an excerpt of the essay she wrote for the …
Both RFS and Farm Bill Important to Agriculture
Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Is maintaining the Renewable Fuel Standard more important to agriculture than the farm bill?” The statement was made during a recent meeting I attended that the Renewable Fuel Standard was more important to agriculture than the Farm Bill. In a show of how important it is 38% each of respondents said Yes and Both …
Outstanding Young Farmers Attend Ag Day Activities
During National Agriculture Day activities we heard from 2011 National Outstanding Young Farmer Chad Budy and his wife Danielle from Oklahoma. They were introduced during our Meet & Mingle lunch. Chad and Danielle were introduced by Orion Samuelson. Both Chad and Danielle come from families with five generations in farming. They have a diversified farm of row crop and livestock. …
Increasing Productivity Through Innovation
I met Lykele vanderBroek, Global COO, Bayer CropScience, during the 2012 Ag Issues Forum. He was on the welcoming committee to all the media who attended this event. When it was my turn for an interview with him I asked him what take away message he wanted us to have. He says that global trends like increasing population, higher affordable …
Important Issues to Sorghum Producers
During Commodity Classic I got to visit with Terry Swanson, Chairman, National Sorghum Producers. I asked him what his message is to not only sorghum producers but all the farmers belonging to the four commodity groups at Classic and he says, “We have to be unified.” He says that altogether they’re still a small group of people that need to …
Stabilized Nitrogen For Faster Plant Start
The Director for Agronomy for Koch Agronomic Services, Greg Schwab, visited with me in the media room at Commodity Classic. Greg runs the company research program. He says they have twenty five land grant universities working on their products. He coordinates that effort. Since it’s planting season I asked him what advice he has for growers. Greg says that with …
Get Registered For 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference
You will find Acres of Innovation at the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference. Let’s start with the featured speakers. Get registered now if you haven’t done so yet. How do you turn good ideas into action that influences customer behavior and accelerates the buying process? How do you grab market share and stay relevant to your clients and customers for years to …
Dupont Cellulosic Ethanol Program
During the recent Pioneer Hi-Bred media event, “Turning Insight Into Action,” Chet Holingshead visited with Steve Mirshak, Global Business Director for Dupont Cellulosic Ethanol. Steve conducted a presentation titled, “DCE – Achieving Sustainable Residue Harvest Goals for Energy Independence.” The company is constructing a cellulosic ethanol plant in Nevada, IA with construction to start later this year. Steve talks about …
Alltech Announces #AgFuture Blog Contest
Hey ag bloggers. Alltech has a contest you might be interested in. Three winners will get to attend one of the best private agricultural events on the calendar. In 2050 the population will be over 9 billion. How will we feed that many people? What does the future of agriculture hold for you? We are inviting ag bloggers to imagine …
Blogging Very Alive and Well
I couldn’t agree more with this opening statement of a post on Nielsen Wire about some new research results. It seems to me like many agrimarketers are solely focused on social networks as opposed to creating their own buzz via a well managed blog. Could it be because a good blog requires more effort? All too often new blogs I …
