Ensuring access to biotechnology was the topic Biotechnology Industry Organization’s (BIO), Dr. Cathleen Enright, presented on during the 2014 American Farm Bureau Federation convention this week in San Antonio. Cathleen is the Executive VP for Food and Agriculture at BIO. Her presentation focused on the need to advocate on behalf of biotech in light of challenges from activists and others. …
Drones to Increase Profitability
Kansas State University’s Dr. Kevin Price was one of the presenters at the 2014 American Farm Bureau Federation Convention. His presentation was titled Drones: Turning Technological Controversy into Profit. The use of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) to fly over crops and livestock to maximize profits is one of the hottest topics entering the agriculture sector. He shared how this …
Bob Stallman Addresses AFBF Convention
This morning American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman gave his annual address to members during the 2014 Convention. Stallman is a rice and cattle producer from Texas. As you might guess, the farm bill was a key topic of his remarks. He called on Congress to get a farm bill passed. He used Farm Bureau members themselves as an …
iCropTrak MyJohnDeere.com Integration
The MyJohnDeere.com platform has now become integrated with iCropTrak. This even includes the use of Dropbox. Mobile Field and Farm App iCropTrak just announced their integration of the new John Deere wireless connection technology MyJohnDeere.com and DropBox in iCropTrak Version 4.0 for 2014. These technologies will allow for seamless movement of data between your Deere tractor, your iCropTrak enabled iPad …
AFBF Convention Social Communicating
An estimated 7,000 farm and ranch leaders from around the country are heading to San Antonio this weekend for the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 95th Annual Convention (Twitter hashtag #AFBF14). The meeting begins January 12 and runs through January 15 in San Antonio. Numerous speakers will be on hand to address topics, ranging from crop and livestock outlooks to farm …
Thune: Farm Bill Closer to Finish Line
Senator John Thune (R-SD) believes a farm bill is “getting closer to the finish line” but he still has concerns about aspects of it. “Particularly the lack of reform in the commodity title of the bill, I think that’s a real missed opportunity,” said Thune during a press call with reporters this week. Thune voted against the farm bill that …
Farm Bill Might be Making Progress
Farm bill conference committee member Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) says they worked on the legislation during the holiday break and are making progress. “The conference committee is making steady progress,” Leahy said during a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Chairwoman Stabenow, a Democrat, and Chairman Lucas, a Republican, deserve credit and our appreciation, for working closely together to bridge …
Agri Marketing & AgWired Top Tens
Happy New Year. Now let’s look back at 2013. In this week’s program I visit with Lynn Henderson, Agri Marketing Magazine. We’ve each put together our top ten story posts from AgriMarketing.com and AgWired.com based on the traffic from our respective audiences. We only had one story common to our lists. You can find the Agri Marketing list here and …
San Diego Site for Meeting Biodiesel Challenges
The National Biodiesel Conference & Expo is less than a month away, and the CEO of the National Biodiesel Board stresses that they need as many people involved in biodiesel as possible there, especially in light of the challenges facing the industry. “Congress, for the third time in five years, through its inaction, is going to allow the biodiesel tax …
Ethanol is a Win for Illinois, A Win for Agriculture
Illinois State Representative Donald Moffitt knows agriculture. He grew up on a family farm, on which his son still farms (and Don occasionally helps). This has been a huge asset for him in his role as state representative because agriculture is the number one industry in both his 74th District as well as the state of Illinois. Rep Moffitt was …