The Agronomics Vision 2014 conference got kicked off this morning with opening remarks from Karen Ross, California Secretary of the Department of Food and Agriculture. Karen is very proud of the agricultural industry in California as you’ll hear from her remarks. I also interviewed her afterward and will be sharing that interview soon. You can listen to Karen’s remarks here: …
NAFB Scholarship Recipients Awarded
On the opening day of the 70th National Association of Farm Broadcasting Convention the NAFB Foundation awarded this year’s scholarship recipients during a luncheon sponsored by the CME Group. Gina Olsen is the first recipient of the George Logan Scholarship. She is attending the University of Missouri and seeking a degree in agriculture. Amie Burke is the recipient of the …
Relevancy in Changing Media Landscape
Charlie Moger with Wizard of Ads, spoke to the afternoon session of professional development at NAFB Annual Convention. Charlie’s discussion was about how and where people find their information is changing. He says that a decade from now the landscape will change again, as producers and growers become younger and taking over family operations. Twitter and Facebook are the go-to …
ZimmCast with NAFB President Elect
The lovely and talented Janet Adkison is our guest on this week’s ZimmCast, live and unplugged from the 70th annual National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) convention in Kansas City. Janet is the president-elect of NAFB and has been in farm broadcasting for many years, starting with local radio in Springfield, Missouri. We hired her from there to work at …
Do You Know Prince Agri Products
Prince Agri Products sponsored the Penn State Dairy Cattle Nutrition Workshop pre-conference symposium and I was invited in to cover it. To learn more about the company I spoke with Dave Calabotta (right), VP of Marketing and Business Development. Dave says that Prince Agri Products has been around for about 150 years and is part of Phibro Animal Health. Prince …
Iowa Farmer Claims AP Report is Misleading
Leroy Perkins is an Iowa farmer who will be featured in an Associated Press “investigative report” being released this week about ethanol and the environment. He claims that his comments were taken out of context and reporters who interviewed him never told him it was for a “story to put down ethanol.” “I think the AP folks wrote a little …
14 Billion Bushels of Corn!
Despite all the challenges that faced farmers this season, the nation’s corn crop is on track to be a record high 14.0 billion bushels, according to the new crop production report released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). NASS revised the planted corn acreage downward in the new report, but increased the yield estimate …
iCropTrak Updates Improve Soil Sampling
Cogent3D, makers of iCropTrak, have taken soil sampling to a whole new level for farmers this fall. Aaron Hutchinson, Cogent3D president and co-founder, says they took the best practices from their dedicated soil sampling apps and feedback from soil sampling customers to upgrade iCropTrak Soil Sampling capabilities. “iCropTrak is the third generation of our farming technologies that we’ve built,” he …
Catfish on the Farm Bill Conference Plate
Catfish was a word only heard once in the first farm bill conference committee meeting, giving some hope that it might be one of the less contentious issues in completing the legislation. “We’re certainly hopeful of that,” says Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, which has been actively engaged in the push to repeal the USDA catfish inspection program …
Farmland – The Movie
Award-winning filmmaker James Moll has announced the release of his first trailer for the new film called “Farmland.”. The documentary chronicles the next generation of American farmers and ranchers from across the United States. You can view the trailer and additional information about the film at farmlandfilm.com. Mark your calendars for Spring 2014 when the film is released for the …