We were shocked to hear this week of the passing of National Agri-Marketing Association friend Denny Eilers, the Iowa Photo Farm photographer. The news came from the NAMA e-Newsletter: A Cornbelt NAMA member since 1990, Denny has been the photographer for many NAMA Agri-Marketing Conferences and will be greatly missed. The Iowa Photo Farm was operated by Denny and Gwen …
GIPSA Dominates Senate Committee Hearing
The topic of the hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee yesterday was “The State of Livestock in America” but much of the testimony centered around USDA’s controversial Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyard’s Administration (GIPSA) proposal. In a strong statement at the start of the hearing, ranking member Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) said that GIPSA proposal is in direct opposition to …
Boats Go Fast on Ethanol
Whoever says that ethanol hurts marine engines has never seen boats running at more than 80 miles an hour on E-10. Boat racers from coast to coast gathered this past weekend in the ethanol-producing town of Garnett, Kansas for the National Boat Racing Association (NBRA) “Garnett Ethanol Hydroplane Nationals.” The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) partnered with NBRA earlier this year …
Novus International Partners With Verenium
Novus International will be expanding its animal nutrition products thanks to a new partnership with enzyme company Verenium. The focus of the partnership will target the development of products using Verenium enzymes for the global poultry, swine, beef, dairy, aquaculture and companion animals markets. “These new enzyme products will give us the ability to offer new solutions to the performance …
Boat Racing Powered by Ethanol
Ethanol will be in the spotlight this weekend as boat racing teams from more than twenty states will gather to compete at the National Boat Racing Association (NBRA) “Garnett Ethanol Hydroplane Nationals” this weekend, June 23-26 in Garnett, Kansas for a chance to break national straight away speed records using E10. The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) partnered with NBRA earlier …
G-20 Agricultural Ministers Make Action Plan
Agriculture Ministers from the G20 nations reached agreement this week on a plan to reduce world food price volatility. “The consensus reached today by the G-20 Agricultural Ministers marks an historic union of resolve in combating the pressing challenges of hunger and food price volatility confronting our world with greater regularity,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement from …
Proposal Could Cost Farm GPS Users
A company that wants to create a new, integrated wireless broadband/satellite network is facing opposition from agricultural global positioning system (GPS) providers and users. As we reported on Precision Pays, Virginia-based company LightSquared has proposed to set up 40,000 wireless broad-band stations across the nation on a frequency that is right next to the one used by GPS. Opposition to …
Two Former Presidents Share World Food Prize
Winners of the 2011 World Food Prize announced today are two former presidents, but not of the United States. The World Food Prize Foundation is honoring John Agyekum Kufuor, former president of Ghana, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil, for creating and implementing government policies that alleviated hunger and poverty in their countries. They were commended …
Raven OmniSeed System Introduced
Raven Industries is already getting great response from growers with the new OmniSeed Advanced Air Seeder Control System they just introduced last week. Raven’s Ryan Molitor says the system provides growers with more reliability, efficiency and control. “OmniSeed allows for variable rate technology, it’s a very scalable system with a lot of unique features on it that we think are …
Interactive Website for American Century Farms
Celebrating our nation’s rich agricultural heritage and educating others about it are the goals of a new interactive website launched by the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture with the sponsorship of Bayer CropScience. Appropriately named “Agriculture’s Lasting Heritage,” this website tells the story of American farm and ranch families who have shaped the history of our nation. “Agriculture’s Lasting …