The Soil Health Partnership knows that further research is needed to show farmers the benefits of soil health. Dan Towery, Field Manager with the Soil Health Partnership in Indiana, spoke with Chuck Zimmerman at the Soil Health Summit this week in Indianapolis about the purpose of the Summit as well as the field research trials they are currently conducting. “We’re …
The Nature Conservancy Supports Soil Health
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) provides technical support for the Soil Health Partnership (SHP), and it’s something that fits in well with the organization’s mission “to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.” “The Nature Conservancy has been working in agriculture for several decades,” says Larry Clemens, TNC North American Agriculture Program Director. “We’ve been wanted to scale …
Soil Health From the Ground Up #SHPsummit16
The Soil Health Partnership (SHP) is not even two years old yet, but already the group has made some great strides in learning more about soil health to share with farmers. Hans Kok is a field manager for SHP in Indiana, where the second Soil Health Summit is being held this week. “We’re setting up a network of demonstration farms …
New Sustainability Initiative by @GROWMARK
One of the definitions of sustainable is “able to endure or continue for a long time” and that is the main characteristic that GROWMARK has chosen to focus on with a new system sustainability initiative. GROWMARK Executive Director of Agronomy Marketing Ron Milby says the initiative fits in with the cooperative’s overall goals. “Our mission statement is ‘To improve the …
Straight from the Nufarm Zebra’s Mouth
We’ve been telling you about Chip, the Nufarm zebra, who was at the 2016 Potato Expo last week – and if you check out the Potato Expo photo album you’ll see quite a few of Chip – but we wanted to get the story straight from the zebra’s mouth. So, I had a little chat with the striped star to …
Real Interviews with Real Growers about LibertyLink
If you listen to farm radio you probably have heard spots for Bayer’s LibertyLink system. Last fall they included promotion for the RealYield game which ended December 31, 2015. Those commercials, moderated by Cindy, came from real interviews with real growers like Reid Atha from northwest Missouri. I thought you might want to hear one of the full interviews instead …
Vilsack: Farmer Greatest Job on Earth
Being a farmer is the greatest job on earth noted USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. He spent the morning back in his home state of Iowa (Vilsack is a former Iowa Governor) to kick off the 10th Annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit. He kicked off his speech noting that he is proud of the work the USDA has done to help …
Comedian Damian Mason at #PotatoExpo
Damian Mason is a very popular, very funny speaker for agricultural groups that we’ve heard several times at different events but he always has a serious underlying message for his audience. One topic he hit on at the Potato Expo last week was the organic trend. “I’m not anti-organic, I’m actually pro-organic because it’s a profitable niche and it gives …
All About Spuds and Politics
In this week’s program we will meet the CEO’s of the National Potato Council and the United States Potato Board. I met both of these guys while covering the Potato Expo last week for my first time. Let’s start our with John Keeling, CEO of the National Potato Council. We focused on potato policy issues which as you might guess …
Expanding @NufarmUS Portfolio
Nufarm is the eighth largest crop protection company in the world and just keeps getting bigger while not changing its stripes. At the 2016 Potato Expo last week, I talked with Nufarm North America‘s Vice President for Innovations and Regulatory Affairs Rob Schwehr about what’s new at Nufarm. “What we’ve done over the last couple of years is continue our …