Aptimmune Completes $6 Million Series B Funding

Jamie Johansen

Aptimmune Biologics has completed its Series B funding initiative, raising more than $6 million from several investors. This increases the combined total investment to almost $9 million, generated by the company through three rounds of funding. “Aptimmune is thrilled to receive strong investor support during this critical time in our development,” said Aaron Gilbertie, Aptimmune CEO. “The Series B funds …

Agribusiness, AgWired Animal, Animal Agriculture, Audio, Swine

Agrilyst’s 2017 State of Indoor Farming Report

Jamie Johansen

We first met Allison Kopf, founder and CEO of Agrilyst, at Alltech’s 2017 ONE. There she took part in the first Pearse Lyons Accelerator program. As a reminder, Agrilyst is a “web-based software platform that helps indoor farms manage their crops and gain data-driven insights to make more profitable production decisions.” Allison and her team have now released a 2017 …

Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, Alltech, Farming, Precision Agriculture

GROWMARK Reports 2017 Numbers, Names Directors

Carrie Muehling

GROWMARK reported $7.3 billion in sales for fiscal year 2017, up from $7.0 billion in 2016. The company shows a pretax income of $91 million, down from $116 million the previous year. “The fiscal year was not without its challenges, with economic conditions putting continued pressure on farm net incomes,” said GROWMARK CEO Jim Spradlin. “Warm winter weather lowered demand …

Agribusiness, GROWMARK

StollerUSA at #ASTACSS

Jamie Johansen

The 2017 American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS & Seed Expo has grown into quite the show over the years and serves as a great place for agribusinesses to communicate their works with their peers and ag media. StollerUSA took advantage of that holding a press conference to discuss their focus. “We are not growing anymore land so we have …

Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, ASTA, Audio

DuPont & Sumitomo’s Global Seed-Applied Tech Agreement

Jamie Johansen

DuPont and Sumitomo Chemical Company, Limited announced a global agreement to collaborate on the development, registration and commercialization of seed-applied technologies for use in key crops around the world. DuPont and Sumitomo Chemical formed this collaboration out of a shared objective to accelerate development and commercialization of novel seed-applied technologies to improve early plant growth and yields. The global agreement …

Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, ASTA, Audio, Crop Science, Seed

FMC’s 3RIVE 3D Part of Freedom Pass Program

Chuck Zimmerman

We’ve done several stories on FMC’s 3RIVE 3D technology and now growers have a way to get a free system! Jamie talked with Mike Harper, FMC Industry Relations Manager, during the recent NAFB Convention about how this can happen. According to Mike the FMC Freedom Pass program has a 3RIVE 3D option. As part of the FMC Freedom Pass program, …

Agribusiness, Audio, FMC, NAFB

ARA Conference Chair Optimistic Amid Challenges

Carrie Muehling

For the past nine years, Leroy Startz with ING Capital has chaired the committee that plans the Agricultural Retailers Association annual conference. Startz said this year’s conference had strong attendance and even stronger enthusiasm from participants, even though low commodity prices continue to challenge the industry. “Prices are not where they need to be. Everybody’s trying to figure out how …

Agribusiness, ARA, Audio

“Change not a Choice” for Agribusiness

Chuck Zimmerman

The recent merger of Dow and DuPont is just one of the high profile deals in the agribusiness world that mean significant changes for the industry going forward. DowDuPont Agriculture Division Leader Jim Collins addressed the current consolidation atmosphere in the industry as opening keynote speaker at the 2017 ARA Conference & Expo in Phoenix this week. “I know this …

Agribusiness, ARA, Audio

Ag Retailers Celebrating Silver Anniversary

Cindy Zimmerman

The Agricultural Retailers Association is celebrating 25 years of service to support sellers of seeds, nutrients, crop protection products, farm equipment, precision technology and agronomic services. The organization is holding its annual conference and expo this week in Phoenix to look back on the accomplishments of the past 25 years and ahead to the future of the industry. Tim McArdle …

Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, ARA, Audio

FS System Honors Enduring Farms

Carrie Muehling

The FS System is now recognizing farmers who are using sustainable practices that are good for the environment and good for the farm with the Enduring Farms designation. GROWMARK Strategic Agronomy Marketing Manager Tim Berkland said things like using nitrogen stabilizers and programs to monitor the nitrogen in the soil would give farmers points on the scorecard. “One of the …

Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, Audio, FS System, GROWMARK, NAFB