The Partnership for a New American Economy and the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform released a report Tuesday entitled “No Longer Home Grown: How Labor Shortages are Increasing America’s Reliance on Imported Fresh Produce and Slowing U.S. Economic Growth.” The report found that the share of fresh fruits and vegetables imported and consumed by American families has grown by almost …
PCV2 Vaccination Strategies
Did you know that most piglets are born with PCV2? I didn’t until I spoke with Dr. Michael Murtaugh, professor at the University of Minnesota who has been researching PCV2 over the past six years. Dr. Murtaugh gave an update on his presentation to several hundred attendees of Boehringer Ingelheim’s annual Swine Health Seminar. He noted that piglets are vaccinated …
BASF Fights Weed Resistance in Colorado
At the BASF “Science Behind the Advanced Acre” media event before Commodity Classic a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to learn more about how BASF helps farmers in various parts of the country. Bob Leisy is a business representative with BASF based in Eastern Colorado. He works with retailers and crop consultants, helping them help local growers, like …
PCV2 – A Retrospective
In one way, you can consider this year the 40th anniversary of PCV (Porcine Circovirus or PCV2) said Dr. Brian Payne, FLEX technical manger for Boehringer Ingelheim during the recent Swine Health Seminar. He explained that in 1974 it was first isolated but the industry didn’t know what it meant. During the next 25 years or so, more studies were …
Kip Cullers in Africa
About a week or so before Commodity Classic, I got a call from our good friend and rock star soybean grower Kip Cullers who was all excited about the trip he had just taken to South Africa. So, I did an interview with him while I had the chance, which was a good thing because I barely saw him at …
Dr. Borlaug to be Enshrined at U.S. Capitol
National Agriculture Day celebrations in Washington DC this year just happen to fall on March 25, the centennial anniversary date of the Father of the Green Revolution. As a fitting tribute, the State of Iowa will install a bronze statue of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug in the U.S. Capitol on that very day. “The unveiling with be a historic event …
Hortau Tweet Gets our Attention
As I said before, we were so busy at Commodity Classic even with four people we were unable to cover everything we wanted to cover, but one company did something that caught our attention and made us go out of our way to meet them. @Hortau Simplified Irrigation sent a tweet to @Agriblogger asking him to come by and do …
iCropTrak Soil with 1 Tap Entry for Serious AgNerds
AgNerd Alert! One tap data entry is important. Because as Aaron Hutchinson, President, Cogent3D, says, “Every click is money.” That’s part of the improvements in the latest release of iCropTrak. Aaron says the company has also created a new version of the product called iCropTrak Soil. This version provides a lower cost alternative for those who don’t need an advanced …
Impressive StollerUSA Grower Panel at Classic
We really, really tried, but even with four people at Commodity Classic we were just unable to see and do everything, and one of the companies we regret missing was StollerUSA. However, the good news is that hundreds of growers from around the country were able to find out more of what StollerUSA has to offer from farmers like themselves. …
FarmLink Offers TrueHarvest Benchmarking Tool
A new benchmarking tool has been developed by FarmLink that can help farmers get the fullest potential from their operations. “We’re helping a farmer identify where he should go find yield in a cost effective manner and other areas where he’s doing great,” says company president Scott Robinson about the tool they call TrueHarvest, which uses objective data to show …