Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was honored at the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference (ABLC) in Washington DC this week with the Holmberg Award for Lifetime Achievement in Bioenergy. Accepting the award, Grassley said he was honored, but noted that his “work’s not done yet.” The Iowa senator, who has been a champion of renewable energy for decades, gave a fiery address …
Study Finds Lamb Checkoff Has Positive ROI
U.S. lamb producers have received a positive return on investment from the American Lamb Checkoff Program since it started in 2002, according to a new Texas A&M University report. The study prepared by agricultural economists Gary Williams, Ph.D., and Dan Hanselka concluded that the American Lamb Checkoff Program added 2.4% to 2.7% of the annual value of retail lamb. The …
Censky Addresses Ethanol Group
USDA Deputy Secretary Steve Censky addressed members of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) meeting in Washington DC this week, just a day after the agency released a new study showing the significant greenhouse gas benefits of corn-based ethanol compared to gasoline. Censky talked about that study, as well as many other topics of interest to the farmers and ethanol …
Farmers Expected to Plant More Corn, Record Low Wheat
More corn, but less soybeans, wheat and cotton is USDA’s forecast for Prospective Plantings this season. The report released on Friday puts corn planted acres for this year at 92.8 million acres, up 4 percent or 3.66 million acres from last year. Soybean planted area for 2019 is estimated at 84.6 million acres, down 5 percent from last year. All …
Biofuels Advocates Testify at EPA Hearing
The Environmental Protection Agency held a hearing Friday on proposed regulatory changes related to retail sales of 15% ethanol blended fuel (E15) and the renewable identification number (RIN) compliance system Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. Biofuels advocates, organization representatives and company officials testified at the hearing about the proposal and other related topics. Below are links to audio files from …
New Ag International Brings Two Events to Brazil in August 2019
New Ag International is hosting two conferences to Brazil in August 2019. InfoAg International Conference & Exhibition, a three-day event jointly organized with the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), will run in Campinas, São Paulo State, Brazil August 26-28. This is the ideal event to learn how digital revolution is changing agriculture in South America. After years of success in …
Managing Bollworms with Prevathon® Insect Control
Research conducted at Texas A&M University has shown wide-spread bollworm/earworm resistance to the majority cotton and corn Bt technologies and that cotton bollworms have developed resistance to pyrethroids to some degree in most of Texas. One of the insecticides recommended for growers to manage cotton bollworm populations is FMC Prevathon. At the recent Mid-South Farm and Gin Show, we talked …
ZimmCast 612 – Happy 15th Agri-Pulse
2004 was a pretty good year to start a company. ZimmComm was born the same year as Agri-Pulse so we are both celebrating our 15th anniversary this year. Our friendship with Agri-Pulse founder and president Sara Wyant is at least twice as old, and we have known her husband and partner Al Johnson about the same length of time. We …
President of World Food Prize to Retire
Ambassador Kenneth Quinn will retire as president of the World Food Prize Foundation on January 3, 2020 after 20 years leading the organization. Quinn made the announcement earlier this week at the Hall of Laureates in Des Moines during a reception commemorating the 105th anniversary of Dr. Norman Borlaug’s birth. “Leading the World Food Prize and endeavoring to fulfill the …
Nation Seeing #NebraskaStrong
The images of dead and dying cattle and calves as a result of the blizzard and flooding in Nebraska are hard for people in the livestock industry to see. As USDA Under Secretary Greg Ibach said last week at the Agri-Pulse Policy Summit, “It’s almost like losing family.” Ibach is former Nebraska Director of Agriculture who says he is, “first …