Philippa Stevenson is blogging on the Rural Network in New Zealand. She’s “a freelance journalist and columnist with a 26-year career in journalism. She specializes in reporting primary industries, science and the environment. ” Here’s some information on the Rural Network. It’s “a community for, by and of rural people. Here, you’ll find news, information, topical opinion and useful advice …
The Worm Farmer
I have never met someone who grows worms for a living but that’s what Dr. Patrick Meeus is doing for Pfizer Animal Health. He’s a parasitologist and specializes in worm research. So at the Pfizer VMRD facility he works on the development of de-wormers. They call his part of the facility the “Worm Farm.” You can hear him tell how …
Wait to Re-Treat Cattle For BRD
Dr. Merlyn Lucas is Associate Director, Pharmaceutical Clinical Development, VMRD for Pfizer Animal Health. At the recent Pfizer media event he spoke to us about some of his research that focused on single-dose therapy, specifically on Excede and Draxxin. These products are used to treat cattle for bovine respiratory disease. He says that producers are starting to learn that these …
John Deere Product Launch Overview
After the big show at the John Deere product launch all the dealers were invited down to the floor and the next room to see all the new equipment up close and personal. While I was wandering around the floor I met Chris Whitehead, John Deere Manager of Advertising and Marketing Communications. He provided me with an overview of what …
Seth Crawford Talks John Deere Combines
The big combines just have that “wow” factor when it comes to a show and this week’s John Deere product introduction was no exception. The marketing manager for combines for John Deere is Seth Crawford. I interviewed him right after the field demonstration portion on combines. The one in this picture is one of their new 70 Series with the …
Sprayers and Spray Controlling From John Deere
Here’s where we got to see new sprayers in action at the John Deere product introduction. We had three presenters including Iowa farm brothers Brent and Lee Madden and Adam Hart. They also talked about how some of the new John Deere precision ag equipment works with these sprayers to more precisely apply product. You can watch a portion of …
Getting Precise With John Deere Upgrades
Kayla Reynolds works in the John Deere Ag Management Solutions area just like Mike Park. She was our teacher in the “classroom” part of our media/analysts session this week at the John Deere product introduction. Kayla focused on 4 main topics related to precision ag. They are long range RTK, shading optimization, GS2 rate controller expansion and Swath Control Pro …
Scalable Accuracy in Precision Ag Products
At the John Deere product introduction we got to see some big iron in action. One demo involved this 9630T which has an amazing stability functionality built into it including a new AirCushion walking I-beam suspension system. While I was at this field station I interviewed Mike Park, Factory Marketing Manager, Ag Management Solutions. Mike talks about John Deere’s precision …
John Deere Recommends Biodiesel
The Director of Ag Industry Relations for John Deere is Don Borgman. Here he is getting interviewed by Mike LaPorte, KRVN. Don says that although biofuels isn’t a real focus for John Deere at their product launch what’s going on in the development of biofuel products is having a real impact on their business. He highly recommends that producers use …
Sesitivity Surveillance By Pfizer Animal Health
Dr. Jeff Watts is the associate research fellow, head, Laboratory Sciences, Microbiology Support Laboratory at the Veterinary Medicine Research and Development facility for Pfizer Animal Health. That’s a long title and he’s in charge of some pretty serious research. At the recent media event held at the VMRD he spoke about, “antimicrobial susceptibility testing of BRD pathogens.” Wow. You may …