American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Chairman Blake Curtis calls the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the US and China seed organizations Monday “monumental.” “Everything has to start somewhere and this is a great start,” said Blake, with Curtis and Curtis Seed Company of New Mexico. “China is a very aggressive force in our world today and we’re …
US and China Seed Groups Sign MOU
Leaders from the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) and the China National Seed Association (CNSA) signed an historic Memo of Understanding today to promote cooperation relating to innovation in the seed industry, said ASTA president Andrew W. LaVigne. “This agreement achieves two extremely important goals,” said LaVigne. “First, it is an important first step in providing new business opportunities for …
GROWMARK Excited About N-Watch
Ag journalists on the GROWMARK media tour in Iowa last month had the chance to learn about N-Watch, which started this year as a small scale, pilot program by GROWMARK in partnership with FS Member Cooperatives. The objectives of the program are to quantify the form of available, soil-applied nitrogen (N), where it is located, and what happens to the …
BASF Scientist is a Role Model for Girls
Dr. Jennifer Holland was hired by BASF Crop Protection right after graduating with a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from the University of Missouri and she is a perfect role model for young women to consider a career in science. “I had some fantastic opportunities when I was a youngster to develop my curiosity in science,” Jennifer said – including …
New GROWMARK Dry Terminal in Iowa
The first loads of fertilizer came in this week to test the new GROWMARK dry terminal in Stuart, Iowa but earlier this month I joined some of my fellow ag reporters in climbing to the top of the 15,500 ton facility. Notice it was all females – left to right, Rita Maloney of Illinois RFD Radio; Deanna Thomas of WMBD …
Seed Shindig in Chicago
It’s all about the seed next week in Chicago at the CSS 2012 & Seed Expo. That’s short for the 67th annual Corn & Sorghum Conference, 42nd annual Soybean Seed Research Conference and 36th Seed Expo which will be held December 4-7 at the Hyatt Regency. American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Chairman Blake Curtis of New Mexico says this is …
BASF Closes Deal for Becker Underwood
BASF has completed its acquisition of seed treatment company Becker Underwood. BASF purchased Becker Underwood from Norwest Equity Partners for $1.02 billion (€785 million). With the acquisition, BASF is now a leading global provider of technologies for biological seed treatment as well as seed treatment colorants and polymers. BASF has also expanded its product portfolio in the areas of biological …
Headline Helps Indiana Great Grower’s Crop
The last crop progress report on the corn harvest was issued by USDA on November 5, the earliest end to the reporting season since 1985 when they first started tracking the harvest progress. But, as of November 7, Kip Tom of Indiana was one of the growers with the 5% of corn nationwide that was not yet in the bin. …
Have a Sweet Thanksgiving!
Of the many foods we have to be thankful for in this nation, I’ll bet there are lots of people who are thankful every day for the gift of chocolate! Oh yeah! This is an image of our sweet Thanksgiving greetings sent this year to some of our clients. Hopefully most received them before leaving for the holiday, but if …
OMG GMO!
One of the positive outcomes of the 2012 election was that Californians actually voted against Proposition 37, which would have required the labeling of foods containing genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). However, those opposed to GMOs continue to attack the technology that increases safe, affordable and abundant food by stepping up their scare tactics. GMOinside, for example, is urging people to “Celebrate …