2019 may not have been the best of years for agriculture, but there’s always 2020. ZimmComm spent the year as usual, traveling along the Agriblogging Highway to nearly 40 events around the country from Beltwide Cotton Conferences in January to American Seed Trade Seed Expo in December. Click on the photo below to see where we have been and some …
Happy Holidays for Hemp
The burgeoning hemp industry got some early Christmas gifts last week as it celebrated the one year anniversary of the 2018 Farm Bill which legalized hemp farming in the U.S. EPA approved adding hemp to the use sites of 10 pesticides. Nine of the products are biopesticides and one is a conventional pesticide. As EPA receives additional applications to amend …
U.S. Hemp Growers Association Launched
The U.S. Hemp Growers Association (USHGA) was announced this week in Indianapolis as the “only national farmer-directed hemp trade association.” Founding partners that came together to create USHGA include U.S. Hemp Farming Alliance, First Crop, International Hemp Solutions, HiLo Seed, GenCanna and Farm Journal. At launch, more than 300 farmer-members of U.S. Hemp Farming Alliance will fold into USHGA. Caren …
Biofuels Stakeholders Disappointed with EPA Final Rule
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a final rule today that establishes required renewable volumes under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program for 2020 that is basically the same as the proposed rule that industry stakeholders say still falls short. Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper says the rule fails to deliver on President Trump’s commitment to restore …
FMC Announces CEO Change in 2020
The Board of Directors for FMC Corporation has elected Mark Douglas as president and chief executive officer of FMC, effective June 1, 2020, replacing Pierre Brondeau who will continue to serve as chairman and CEO through May 31, 2020, at which time he will become executive chairman and remain a member of the Board of Directors. “Mark has been elected …
Pork Producers Set 2020 Priorities
The president of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is celebrating progress made in 2019 despite the challenges and setting priorities for 2020. On a call with reporters Wednesday, NPPC president David Herring of Lillington, NC pointed to both USMCA and the recent Japan agreement as successes in 2019 for pork producers, and getting the China phase one deal across …
Hula Sets Corn Yield Record of Over 616 Bushels
David Hula of Charles City, Virginia has once again broken his own record in the National Corn Growers Association 2019 National Corn Yield Contest and set the bar pretty high for the future. Hula produced the highest yield on record at 616.1953 bushels per acre, beating his previous record of 542-plus bushels in 2017, which broke his 2015 record of …
Hemp Farmers Need Good Seed
The hemp industry is in dire need of good genetics and a weeding out of bad actors in the seed supply business, according to two hemp farmers who helped Arcadia Biosciences announce the launch of GoodHemp in Chicago last week. Chris Adams (pictured left) of Adams Family Farm in North Dakota and Weston Walker (right) of Gold Dust Farm in …
BASF and Arable Partner to Provide Field Analytics
Arable Labs and xarvio™ Digital Farming Solutions are partnering to provide weather and plant insights to farmers across Europe The resulting integration of Arable’s unique dataset with xarvio FIELD MANAGER allows for optimized crop production decisions. BASF’s digital platform is built on decades of experience in crop production and protection, with Arable’s hyper-local crop and weather data it enables more …