BASF recently announced plans to expand its services and initiatives for growers and agricultural professionals worldwide in 2014 through a significant investment in the development of new IT tools. “The initiatives that were announced reflect the very strong commitment by BASF to the agricultural industry to provide modern tools to help growers get the most out of every acre,” said …
Cow That Stole Christmas 10 Years Later
This week marks the tenth anniversary of the “cow that stole Christmas” – a day that will live in infamy for the U.S. cattle industry and one that Kendal Frazier with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association remembers well. Kendal recalls that NCBA received a phone call from USDA at 1:30 pm on December 23, 2003. “We immediately started to implement …
Ag Industry Dealt a Blow from EPA
The agriculture industry has been dealt a blow according to Adam Nielsen, director of legislation and policy development for the Illinois Farm Bureau. Nielsen, who spends a significant amount of time promoting the agricultural industry in Washington, D.C., said the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed 2014 reduction of the amount of corn ethanol blended as part of the Renewable Fuel …
Dow AgroSciences and John Deere Form Collaboration
Here’s a development that comes right out of the John Deere Developer’s Conference this year in which the company opened up it’s MyJohnDeere platform to other companies to develop applications that would integrate with all the data that the platform creates. Helping farmers get more value per acre through the expert analysis of production data is the goal of a …
AFBF Annual Convention Around the Corner
The 2014 American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Annual Convention is right around the corner in San Antonio, TX. January 12-15 marks the organizations 95th convention and the event is expected to attract 6,000 farmers and ranchers from across the country. Cindy caught up with AFBF’s Mace Thornton, Director of Communications, during the National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s Convention where he …
ASTA Takes Seed Theft Seriously
As the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) was concluding its annual seed research conference and trade show in Chicago last week, word came that arrests had been made in two separate conspiracies to steal seed and trade secrets of U.S. companies. ASTA president and CEO Andy LaVigne says they were pleased that the U.S. government took swift action on a …
BASF Advanced Seed Enhancement is Global
At the ASTA CSS 2013 and Seed Expo last week, we heard about the BASF portfolio of Advanced Seed Enhancements including inoculants, colorants, and biological and chemical seed treatments. Much of this new portfolio comes from the BASF acquisition of Becker Underwood in late 2012, according to Alyson Emanuel, Vice President of Global Business Management for BASF Functional Crop Care. …
Nufarm Tackles Weeds
Nufarm’s recent event allowed farm media to see first hand their facilities, ask the questions growers from across the land are asking and learn a little bit more about the ever-changing industry. Meghan Grebner with Brownfield caught up with Bob Bruss, Technical Services Manager for Nufarm during the event and talked with him about the company and where they are …
International Seed Federation Update
Illinois Foundation Seeds president Tim Johnson is currently serving as the elected president of the International Seed Federation (ISF), which represents seed industry interests on a global level. Tim gave an ISF update during the first general session of the ASTA 2013 CSS last week, first pointing out to attendees that as members of the American Seed Trade Association they …
AgAccord is Complete
The big topic at last year’s ASTA CSS 2013 and Seed Expo was The Accord, which is an industry agreement developed to provide a mechanism to transition from proprietary biotech events to off-patent or generic biotech events. Just prior to the expo this year, the second part of what is now called the AgAccord was opened up for signature. That …