This ZimmCast comes to you from the ASTA CSS 2017 and Seed Expo in Chicago which I attended last week for the sixth year in a row, and Jamie got to experience for the first time. Founded in 1883, the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) is one of the oldest trade organizations in the United States. The CSS stands for …
Bayer Helps Fund ASTA Communications Efforts
The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) unveiled a new video at the CSS 2017 & Seed Expo to help explain plant breeding innovations in a brief and entertaining way. The video is one of the communications efforts that ASTA partner Bayer has helped to support. Bayer seed traits and seed treatments management lead Brad May, who serves on the ASTA …
Digital Ag and Big Data
As our digital world expands in agriculture, big data keeps getting bigger and making a bigger difference in how farmers make decisions. Digital Agriculture: Big Data was a session this week at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS 2017 & Seed Expo. University of Wisconsin agronomy professor Shawn Conley moderated the session which included presentations from: Paul Schrimpf Meister …
FarmLead Launches GrainCents Advisory Service
A new subscription service from FarmLead has been launched that can provides specific recommendations to farmers on when to sell, hold and/or hedge in various market conditions to improve balance sheets, operations, and grain marketing schedules. The new service called GrainCents also educates farmers by providing expert insights on global market conditions and how they impact farm operations for specific …
ASTA Announces Student Video Awards
The first-place winner of the first “Better Seed, Better Life” student video contest was awarded this week during the CSS 2017 & Seed Expo in Chicago. Sponsored by the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA), the National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB), and the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and Soil Science Society of America (Tri-Societies), the …
ASTA CSS 2017 Attendance Strong
The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) is ushering in the holiday season in its traditional way – with the annual CSS & Seed Expo in Chicago. ASTA president and CEO Andy LaVigne says turnout at the annual event that includes the industry’s biggest trade show is still very strong despite ongoing mergers and acquisitions. “We’ll probably have close to 2700 …
GROWMARK Opens New Tank and Truck Center
Bolt cutters instead of scissors cutting through a chain instead of ribbon marked the grand opening of GROWMARK’s new Tank and Truck Center in Morton, Illinois last month. The bolt cutters were a last minute change when weather forced the celebration inside. Tank and Truck Center Sales and Operations Manager Mike Davis says they were supposed to use a blow …
SMART Farmer Lauren Arbogast
Lauren Arbogast is a city girl who married into the farm and found it so interesting that she started a blog about it. On her blog “Paint The Town Ag”, which has also become her Facebook and Twitter platform, Lauren shares photos of musings of life on the farm with her husband and two “mini farmer” sons. She became a …
New Ag Retailers Chair Has Game Plan
The new chairman of the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) says 2017 was a championship year for the organization and he hopes to sustain that excellence moving forward. John Oster with Morral Companies in Ohio says one area where ARA will be very active in the coming year is in development of the new farm bill. “Although we are a small …
Agriculture Secretary Addresses Ag Retailers
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue topped off the ARA Conference and Expo on Thursday in Phoenix, covering a broad range of topics in his comments including tax reform, de-regulation, trade, food security, infrastructure, school lunches and the farm bill. Perdue, who noted his past experience in the fertilizer business and with ARA’s predecessor organization, the National Fertilizer Solutions Association, talked …