The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee this week unanimously approved the nominations of Krysta Harden to serve as deputy secretary of agriculture and Robert Bonnie to serve as under secretary for natural resources and the environment. Harden has been nominated to succeed Kathleen Merrigan in the second-highest post at USDA Bonnie, while Bonnie, who has been a senior advisor …
MyAgCentral: Getting All Info in One Place
Recently, we told you about a new cloud-based precision data service called MyAgCentral.com. During the recent 2013 InfoAg Conference, Chuck was able to catch up with Steve Cubbage, the President of Prime Meridian, a company behind MyAgCentral.com and find out a little more. “It’s a subscription-based service for growers, retailers and service providers that brings technology together,” Steve said. “There’s …
Checking in with the AgFanatics
The AgriVisor AgFanatics podcast has logged 40 episodes since its debut in December 2012, and quite a few since we last talked to them in March, so we decided it was time to check in for an update on how these two wild and crazy ag guys are doing. “It’s going great, we’re continuing to gain listeners and we’re continuing …
Awards for Precision Agriculture
During the InfoAg Conference the 2013 PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence were presented, sponsored by the PrecisionAg Institute. Announcing the awards was Paul Schrimpf, Group Editor, Croplife Media Group and posing with each of the winners is K. Elliott Nowels, Meister Media Group. First up: Crop Adviser/Entrepreneur Award Laserplane Arkansas, Inc. The next award: Educator/Researcher Award Dr. John Fulton, Auburn University …
BASF at Peanut Growers Conference
BASF has always been a big supporter of the Southern Peanut Growers Conference and so has Becker Underwood – but this year the two were a single team together. “With the acquisition of Becker Underwood, VAULT as a peanut inoculant is a very important product we’re looking forward to launching from the BASF platform,” said southeast BASF rep Chris Maurer …
History & Future of World Trade Organization
Here’s some light reading for you. How about the History and Future of the World Trade Organization. It is “a comprehensive account of the economic, political and legal issues surrounding the creation of the WTO and its evolution. Fully illustrated with colour and black-and-white photos dating back to the early days of trade negotiations, the publication reviews the WTO’s achievements …
GEOSYS Announces Field Profit Planner
I learned all about GEOSYS during the 2013 InfoAg Conference by visiting with Dave West. The company just announced their Field Profit Planner, a comprehensive tool for farmers and their advisors who pursue high efficiency farming. The new cloud-based GEOSYS Field Profit Planner service gives growers quick analyses of their individual fields while also providing insight into productivity across the …
Vilsack Questions House Farm Bill
At the Iowa Farm Bureau 2013 Economic Summit on Monday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack expressed some skepticism about the farm-only farm bill passed by the House. “I’m not sure that what they’ve done up to this point is real or for show,” Vilsack told reporters after addressing the summit. He also wonders why the House leadership is delaying work on …
What China Approval of Monsanto Trait Means
Monsanto officials are pleased with the recent import approval from China for the drought tolerance trait in Monsanto’s Genuity® DroughtGard® hybrids. According to Monsanto row crop launch lead, Sarah Pierce, the approval granted last month gives farmers who had purchased DroughtGard hybrids in 2013 more options. “(They) signed a stewardship agreement saying they would keep the grain domestic until we …
Apps for Agriculture
Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. In this week’s program I’m sharing a conversation with Brian Arnall, Oklahoma State University. Brian was one of the presenters at the 2013 InfoAg Conference on precision agriculture. Brian’s presentation topic was “Ag Apps for Smart Phones and Tablets.” That certainly got my attention. Brian is keeping a list of apps he finds that …