GROWMARK has made two new Vice President appointments for the cooperative’s executive team. Barry Schmidt has been named GROWMARK Region Vice President effective Nov. 1, 2014. Barry will report to GROWMARK CEO, Jim Spradlin, and will serve on the senior management team Schmidt will support FS member companies in the northern portion of the Central Region. GROWMARK CEO Jim Spradlin …
NACD Meets With EPA on WOTUS
Representatives of the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) met with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials last week to express concerns on behalf of member conservation districts regarding the proposed “Waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) rule. “We thought is was a very good meeting and we appreciated the opportunity to express some concerns,” said NACD President Earl Garber, a licensed …
USDA Unveils New Risk Management Programs
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today unveiled the new programs included in the 2014 Farm Bill to help farmers better manage risk. The new programs, Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC), represent the end of direct payments by offering farmers protection when market forces cause substantial drops in crop prices and/or revenues. Producers will have through early spring …
Canadian Farm Writers Conference Preview
This week on the ZimmCast we are previewing the upcoming Canadian Farm Writers Federation 2014 conference in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island October 2-5. That’s just a week from now, but if you have ever wanted to learn more about eastern Canadian agriculture, this would be the event to do it – and they would be happy to welcome more attendees! …
New Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture
The inaugural meeting of the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture was held this week in conjunction with the UN Climate Summit in New York City. “I am glad to see action that will increase agricultural productivity, build resilience for farmers and reduce carbon emissions,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “These efforts will improve food and nutrition security for …
FFA Membership at Record Level
Membership in the National FFA Organization is exploding. Membership in the student organization that was founded 86 years ago now stands at 610,240 – which represents an increase of more than 30,500 since last year. The number of new, local FFA chapters throughout the country grew to 7,665. “FFA, through agricultural education, is preparing our youth to ensure the security …
Nutrient Management with N-Watch
This is the second of a four part series on Nutrient Management sponsored by FS/GROWMARK Two years ago, GROWMARK started a pilot program in the state of Illinois called N-Watch to help farmers determine the concentration, form and location of plant-available nitrogen. It started with about 45 sites in Illinois and it has grown quite a bit since then. “Right …
My American Farm App
If you want to play My American Farm on your smartphone or tablet, there’s a new app for that. The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has released a new version of its popular My American Farm app for iPads, Android tablets and Kindle Fire. The app is available for download on iTunes, Google Play and Amazon. The new version …
Farms and Legs Relay
Twelve runners represented agriculture this past weekend on a more than 200 mile run through California wine country in the annual Ragnar Napa Valley relay. The “Farms & Legs” team, organized by Case IH, started out Friday morning from Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and ran 36 legs for 34 hours to wind up in Calistoga near the northern …
Subway Introduces “Crop Fit”
This is pretty funny. Maybe agriculture could develop a new side business of fitness training …. hmmmm??