Farm Bureau Proud and Optimistic

Cindy Zimmerman

The 96th annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation is underway in San Diego, kicked off by president Bob Stallman Sunday morning telling the membership that agriculture must push harder for important policy reforms in 2015. “We cannot ignore the extremes of the left and right, but we must speak to the center: the legislators in both parties who …

AFBF, Audio

Contamination Prevention at Beltwide Cotton

Chuck Zimmerman

Earlier this week the 2015 Beltwide Cotton Consultants Conference took place in San Antonio, TX. One of the hot topics discussed during the event was contamination prevention. Dale W. Thompson, National Cotton Council, spoke to the group in attendance about the potentially growing problem. Dale said this is no new problem for cotton growers and has a huge impact on …

Ag Groups, Audio, Beltwide Cotton, Cotton

Lawmakers Back Cuba Ag Trade Coalition

Cindy Zimmerman

Lawmakers of both parties from across the country lined up to back the launch of the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba (USACC) on Thursday. Democrat Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri made a special point to be in Washington for the event to represent all agriculture states. “This is an extremely bi-partisan issue,” said Nixon. “We have been presented with an …

Audio, Trade

Ag Coalition for Cuba Launched

Cindy Zimmerman

More than 25 companies and organizations launched the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba (USACC) in Washington Thursday to liberalize trade and re-establish Cuba as a market for U.S. food and agriculture exports. Among the speakers who introduced the new coalition were a list of lawmakers from a variety of states, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, and representatives …

Audio, Exports, Rice, Trade, USDA

Farm Bureau Convention Preview

Cindy Zimmerman

The 96th annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation is being held in San Diego starting this weekend. Among the highlights are a new IDEAg Innovate Conference and Trade Show that will preview for invited guests on Friday night and officially kick off on Saturday morning at 8 am featuring topics such as big data, drones, and Internet strategies …

AFBF, Audio

Corn Growers Welcome New Congress

Cindy Zimmerman

The National Corn Growers Association spent Tuesday on Capitol Hill this week, welcoming the 114th Congress to Washington and talking up the importance of agriculture to the American economy. “We are here to welcome the new Congress, and to encourage them to work together with one another and the Obama Administration to advance policies that help agriculture and family farmers,” …

Audio, Corn, NCGA

Nufarm Growing in Cotton Market

Chuck Zimmerman

In 2015 cotton growers have some new tools courtesy of Nufarm. These include Cheetah and Cheetah Max. Presenting at the Cotton Crop Consultants Conference for NuFarm was Jerome Kovar. Jerome is a marketing manager for the company and we sat down to discuss what Nufarm is doing in cotton with these new herbicide options. Here’s a quick description: Cheetah™ utilizes …

Agribusiness, Audio, Cotton, Nufarm

Cotton Crop Consultants Gather at Beltwide

Chuck Zimmerman

The man who coordinated the Cotton Consultants Conference during the Beltwide Cotton Conferences is Bill Robertson, Professor, Cotton Extension Agronomist at University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture. He says the Consultants Conference is broken into two parts. On day one the focus is on new developments from the industry. This includes new equipment, seed varieties and more. Throughout the day …

Ag Groups, Audio, Cotton

2015 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Underway

Chuck Zimmerman

The “new format” is now in its second year. That is the new format of the annual Beltwide Cotton Conferences. The conferences have been slimmed down to three days and there is no trade show. I missed last year’s in New Orleans but thanks to my sponsor, Nufarm, I am able to spend a day here in San Antonio. To …

Ag Groups, Audio, Cotton

AgNerd Cloud – Ayrstone Ayrmesh

Chuck Zimmerman

It’s time for another edition of the AgNerd Cloud, a fairly regular column on new technology for the farm. In this program we’ll learn about how you can obtain a good internet cloud on your property that can include remote ethernet connections via a new wireless device! Thanks to Bill Moffitt, Ayrstone Productivity, for working with us by supplying some …

Agribusiness, Audio, Internet, ZimmCast