Hey folks let’s FarmOn! Now, I know that’s not real easy these days, especially for young people who want to get started. Here’s an organization that’s trying to help. The FarmOn Foundation is compiling a number of online resources while also conducting social media awareness campaigns like #FARMVOICES. We’ll learn all about it in this week’s program. I had a …
Farm Bureau Sends Up Farm Bill Proposal
The American Farm Bureau Federation sent a farm bill proposal to Capitol Hill this week that offers a diverse mix of risk management and safety net tools to benefit a wide range of farms and it saves $23 billion compared to the cost of continuing the current program. “We’ve tried to look at providing farmers a three-legged safety net stool …
Vilsack Speaks to North American Ag Journalists
After speaking to 4-H members for breakfast, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined North American Agricultural Journalists for lunch on Monday, covering a variety of important issues, including immigration and getting a new food, farm and jobs bill. “I believe we will have a bill this year because we have to have a bill this year,” Vilsack said, noting the need …
Support for Repeal of Catfish Inspection Program
There’s a whole boatload of folks who think something is fishy about the USDA catfish inspection program that was included in the 2008 Farm Bill and they’d like to see it thrown back. An effort to repeal the program apparently has widespread support in Congress and with a variety of agricultural companies and organizations. National Fisheries Institute spokesperson Gavin Gibbons …
MGEX Commentary on Plantings Report
A little more corn, a little less soybeans, more wheat and a lot less cotton – that summarizes the USDA 2013 Prospective Plantings report out today. Corn growers intend to plant 97.3 million acres of corn for all purposes in 2013, up slightly from last year and 6 percent higher than in 2011. If realized, this will represent the highest …
ARC Learns About Oklahoma Ag Priorities
I was not able to attend this year’s Agricultural Relations Council meeting in Oklahoma City but have been following along some of the social media posts like in the Ag Relations Council Facebook Group. Here’s one example of what you would find there thanks to John Blue, Truffle Media Networks. Shawna McWaters-Khalousi of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, highlights what …
New Monsanto – Dupont Pioneer Licensing Agreement
Monsanto and Dupont Pioneer announced today “a series of technology licensing agreements.” These agreements will expand the range of seed products they can offer farmers. The agreements include a multi-year, royalty-bearing license for Monsanto’s next-generation soybean technologies in the United States and Canada. I spoke with Lisa Safarian, Monsanto, US Row Crops lead, to get some details. Some of the …
Smart Machine Technology Growing Bigger Farms
Dr. Terry Kastens is an Emeritus Professor from Kansas State University. He’s back to farming now and spoke during a Learning Center Session at Commodity Classic sponsored by John Deere. The session topic was “Better Data, Better Decisions: the ROI of Smart Machine Technology. One of the first points Dr. Karstens makes is that every new technology requires an investment. …
BASF Promotes Comprehensive Pest Management
Behind every successful grower is science and strategy – both of which come together in a comprehensive pest management program, as BASF Technical Crop Production Specialist AJ Woodyard helped explain during the recent BASF Science Behind event. The program also featured farmers Randy Dowdy of Georgia and Kip Cullers of Missouri. AJ emphasized that each farmers challenges are different, leading …
Agvocating on Ag Day
There were lots of agvocates in Washington, DC last week for National Ag Day activities. They included some great young people and we’ll hear from a few of them in this week’s program. Let’s start with Troy and Bobbie Uglem, North Dakota. They are 2012 National Outstanding Young Farmers. During the lunch program on Ag Day Troy addressed those attending. …