The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and innovation facilitator NineSigma recently announced the launch of The Consider Corn Challenge, a global competition to identify new and innovative uses for field corn as a renewable feedstock for making sustainable chemicals with significant market demand. Corn production in the United States has increased from 105.5 million metric tons in 1970 to 345.5 …
Volvo Trucks Improve Sugar-Cane Harvest
Volvo’s new self-steering truck is changing the Brazilian sugar-cane harvest with precision steering through the fields to avoid damage to young plants that will grow into next year’s crop. Currently, growers face a four percent loss each season as plants are run over by vehicles, meaning each of these trucks has the potential to save tens of thousands of U.S. …
RFS Impacts: By the Numbers
Twelve years since the original Renewable Fuel Standard was passed in 2005 and 10 years after it was expanded in 2007, the numbers tell an objective story of how successful the legislation has been in a new analysis by the Renewable Fuels Association “RFS Impacts: By the Numbers”. RFA Senior Vice President Geoff Cooper says EPA is expected to issue …
ASTA Annual Meeting is Next Week
The 2017 American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Annual Convention is coming up next week, June 21-24 in Minneapolis with a theme of Voyage to Better Seed. “This year we’ve got a lot of topics in front of us with a new administration, a farm bill out there, all the issues within the farm bill, and how do we develop policy …
ZimmCast on Risk Management Solutions
In this week’s program I’m sharing a conversation with Chip Whalen, Commodity & Ingredient Hedging (CIH). The topic is uncertainty requiring flexibility. Think about how commodity prices are affected by weather, trade, exchange rates and more competition. There are more factors too. So, how do farmers manage risk with the uncertainty we’re seeing in the trade today? That’s where Chip’s …
Pork Pleased with Pruitt and EPA Reform
The Trump administration has certainly shaken things up, and nowhere is that more evident than in regards to environmental issues. Kraig Westerbeek, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) Board & VP of Environment and Support Operations for Murphy Brown spoke about top environmental priorities at the recent World Pork Expo, outlining the steps recently taken toward regulatory reform. The Waters of …
Disrupt, Don’t Fear New Ideas in Beef Production
ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference was all about causing a disruption in all forms of our life and of course in agriculture. And this includes the beef community. There was no better person to chat with when it comes to research in the beef industry than Dr. Vaughn Holder, Research Project Manager, Beef Nutrition, Alltech. A Head-Out-of-the-Sand approach, was the …
AEM Releases Policy Plan for Infrastructure Advantage
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has unveiled a new policy report for the country called “The U.S. Infrastructure Advantage™” which makes the case for a U.S. infrastructure system that supports the safe and efficient movement of people and goods; provides connectivity between and within rural and urban America; and fosters strong economic growth and robust job creation. “The United …
Secure Pork Plan Creates Excitement at WPX
The World Pork Expo was buzzing with the news of the soon-to-be-launched Secure Pork Supply plan. “The Pork Board is taking a leadership role in preparedness,” said Terry O’Neel, vice president of the National Pork Board said at a combined press conference. “This is another collaborative effort between the National Pork Producers Council, National Pork Board, the American Association of …
A World of First’s in PRRSV Research
The world’s only provider of mucosal PRRSV and flu vaccines, Aptimmue, officially launched during the 2017 World Pork Expo. The vaccine utilizes the BARRICADE proprietary technologies and takes advantage of high-titer PRRSV antigen produced on ZMAC, the world’s only commercially available porcine based alveolar macrophage cell line. During the launch, I sat down with Dr. Jianqiang Zhang, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, …