The View From Inside

Melissa Sandfort

Last night we had our first snow of the season, if you can call it a snow. It was more like hurricane winds blowing around a few specks of white stuff. The roads aren’t bad but I don’t dare take my little car out for fear of getting blown off the road! Our horse decided that cold triumphed over food …

ASTA

MS Technologies Collaborates to Innovate

Cindy Zimmerman

One company that was generating some buzz at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS 2012 and Seed Expo was MS Technologies, which made a name for itself a few years ago by collaborating Bayer CropScience on LibertyLink soybeans. At ASTA, MS Technologies was talking about two new projects – Enlist E3™ with Dow AgroSciences and another Bayer collaboration currently …

ASTA, Audio, Bayer, ZimmCast

BASF Builds on Becker Underwood History

Cindy Zimmerman

In 1982, two friends named Roger Underwood and Jeff Becker started a little company that bore their names with a single product. Several acquisitions and 30 years later, Becker Underwood is a global leader in the development and commercialization of seed-applied biological products and is now part of the BASF Crop Protection family. “It’s been quite a ride particularly over …

ASTA, Audio, BASF, Crop Protection, Seed

BASF on Becker Underwood Acquisition

Cindy Zimmerman

The acquisition of Becker Underwood by BASF brings together two market leaders in the areas of innovation, crop protection, seed and biological technology, which means a broader range of products for growers to increase yields. BASF VP US Crop Protection Paul Rea says Becker Underwood technology is complementary to BASF’s existing product portfolio and raises the bar for plant health …

ASTA, Audio, BASF, Crop Protection, Seed

Bayer Announces Bee Care Center at ASTA

Cindy Zimmerman

The seed may be first, but bees are still important when it comes to agricultural production and Bayer CropScience was pleased to announce plans for a new North American Bee Care Center during last week’s American Seed Trade Association expo. The company plans to break ground in February 2013 on the center which will serve as a gathering place for …

ASTA, Audio, Bayer, Seed

Syngenta & ASTA Help Feed Chicago Kids

Cindy Zimmerman

We talk a lot in agriculture about feeding a growing world population but Syngenta and the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) brought that broad message home during this week’s CSS 2012 and Seed Expo in Chicago. “We tend to think about hunger as being something that happens somewhere else, but it happens in our own backyard – it happens here …

ASTA, Audio, Food, Syngenta

Economic Review and Outlook at ASTA Expo

Cindy Zimmerman

The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) annual Corn & Sorghum and Soybean Seed Research Conference (CSS) and Seed Expo this week boasted a record 2,800 attendees and 150 exhibitors who were all excited about the future of the seed industry despite this year’s calamitous drought. During the general session on Thursday, AgResource Company president Dan Basse looked at the year …

ASTA, Audio, Farming

Enlist E3 Soybean Brand Announced at ASTA

Cindy Zimmerman

Developing new technologies to deal with herbicide resistant weeds is a major directive for agricultural crop protection companies, and a big announcement in that arena was made this week at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS 2012 and Seed Expo by one of the event’s major strategic partners, Dow AgroSciences. In collaboration with M.S. Technologies, Dow unveiled Enlist E3™ …

ASTA, Audio, Seed, Soybean, weed management

CropLife Foundation Previews Study at ASTA Expo

Cindy Zimmerman

CropLife Foundation (CLF) is publishing a comprehensive report next year on “The Role of Precision Seed Protection in Modern Crop Production” and preliminary findings of the report were presented today at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Corn & Sorghum Seed Research Conference 2012 & Seed Expo. CLF chairman of the board Jay Vroom says the report outlines the benefits …

ASTA, Audio, Biotech, Crop Protection, Seed

ASTA Looking Toward the Future

Cindy Zimmerman

The American Seed Trade Association is looking ahead to the future of the seed industry and developing a new long range plan. “We’ve always had a five year strategic plan which gives us direction for where we want the association to go and it was time to refresh that,” said ASTA immediate past chairman Mike Gumina of DuPont Pioneer. To …

ASTA, Audio, Media, Pioneer, Seed