Tributes to the life of Stewart Doan have been pouring out from all over the agriculture industry today as news of his sudden passing yesterday has been spreading. According to Sara Wyant, president of Agri-Pulse, where Stewart had been senior editor, they do not have all the details, “but we know that he had not been feeling well and saw …
GROWMARK Keeps IT Growing
As a multi-state agricultural co-operative system with over 6000 employees and numerous brands, information technology (IT) is a vital aspect of GROWMARK‘s ability to communicate on a number of levels. That keeps GROWMARK Manager of Network Services Scott Bross busy keeping up with the latest on-line communications tools – from improved websites to blogs and all the various social networking …
SmartTrax Boost New Holland Tractor Productivity
The New Holland T9 Series Tractors with SmartTrax have been getting a lot of attention at farm machinery shows since last fall and High Horsepower Tractor Marketing Manager Sean Dorosz says there are good reasons for that. “SmartTrax tracks boost the productivity and pulling efficiency of our T9 Series tractors,” Sean said at the recent New Holland media event, where …
AgCareers are Hot!
Careers in agriculture are hot right now, a bright spot in the overall economy. We talked with Eric Spell, president of AgCareers.com, at the recent National Agri-Marketing Association annual convention, where the company was actually born 12 years ago as a student presentation by the University of Florida. (Go Gators!) “It is an exciting time to be in agriculture,” Eric …
New Holland MegaCutter at Mega Media Event
One of the new offerings from New Holland featured at last week’s Mega Media event was the MegaCutter™. We already heard about this new mounted triple disc mower-conditioner when it debuted at the National Farm Machinery Show in February, but we got another look last week in more detail with the help of New Holland Hay and Forage Segment Marketing …
BASF’s Fassler Enjoys Helping Farmers
Growing up on a corn and soybean farm in Illinois is really what led Nick Fassler to his role at BASF Crop Protection in helping farmers keep their crops healthier. “We raised about 1200 acres of corn and soybeans,” Nick told me during an interview at Commodity Classic, noting that he got his undergrad degree from Western Illinois and got …
How GROWMARK Uses Social Media to Recruit
GROWMARK’s gold-standard internship program is over 50 years old and it keeps growing because they are using all of the latest social media tools to reach students about the potential for career opportunities within the vast cooperative system. “Social media has allowed us to continue to enhance our traditional recruiting efforts,” says University Relations Manager Ashley McClintock. “We utilize Facebook, …
NCBA Praised for Youth Labor Rule Efforts
In deciding not to pursue controversial youth labor regulations for agriculture, the Obama administration said it would work with rural stakeholders for safety education, specifically mentioning organizations such as the Farm Bureau, the NFU, FFA, and 4-H. But the livestock industry has been just as involved in the issue, if not more so, according to Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-MT). “I …
Driving a New Holland Combine
My personal thrill at the New Holland Mega Media event this week was test driving a CR8080 combine. Never drove anything like it before and it was so easy! You may not realize it, but New Holland is kind of a big deal in combines. “New Holland was the first company to launch a rotary combine in the market,” Combine …
Victory for Kids in Agriculture
Agricultural organizations are pleased that the U.S. Labor Department has officially withdrawn proposed rules that would have prevented many young people from working on farms and ranches. “The Obama administration is firmly committed to promoting family farmers and respecting the rural way of life, especially the role that parents and other family members play in passing those traditions down through …