Nothing runs like a Deere. Especially a Deere running with biodiesel. John Deere demonstrated its vast array of diesel equipment able to run on biodiesel during the Biodiesel Vehicle Showcase. Why Biodiesel? Well, in addition to security benefits for Americans, it also improves lubricity, reduces sulfur emissions, and reduces aromatics. Biodiesel has a high cetane content for faster ignition. These …
Harvesting The High Plains Documentary
Last year’s Midwest drought evoked images of the dust bowl of the “dirty 30’s”. But how many of you really know much about it or what it took to survive those trying times? Here’s one way you can get a glimpse into those times. It’s a film documentary called, “Harvesting The High Plains.” An advance copy is now available for …
More Than Simply Killing Dieases
Everyone knows that fungicides kill diseases, but the message BASF continues to tell growers is that is does much more. Caren Schmidt, Technical Market Manager in corn fungicides for BASF, spoke with me at their booth during Commodity Classic and she was excited to share the feedback she was receiving from attendees. “Headline is our foundation fungicide that has been …
Bringing Sexy Back to Agriculture
The take home theme of the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum this year came to be “bringing sexy back to agriculture.” Which begs the question – when was agriculture sexy before? If sexy means sustainable, here are a couple of pretty sexy farmers. On the left is the Bayer CropScience 2013 Young Farmer Sustainability Award winner Jeremy Jack of Mississippi …
Dupont Pioneer Press Conference
Dupont Pioneer held a news conference at the recent Commodity Classic to introduce a new set of services. The focus of the press conference was the new Pioneer Field360 services. These new services are meant to help farmers increase productivity and profitability by providing more control of field-by-field data without having to become a technical expert. The Pioneer Field360 Services …
Protecting Wheat in 2013
BASF brought out all the stops when it came to educating attendees at this year’s Commodity Classic. Whether growers had questions about herbicides, fungicides or simply wanted to hear the latest research, experts were on hand to give answers. I chatted with Dr. Brianne Reeves, Technical Marketing Specialist with the BASF’s Plant Health Fungicide group. Wheat was the main topic …
Getting Educated About Nozzles
The ever-changing world of technology can be a little overwhelming and since farming is full of technology, it is very understandable that growers across the country could use some extra education. BASF listened to growers when they admitted that they didn’t always feel comfortable with the new technology and partnered with Bob Wolf to bring them On Target Application Academy. …
BASF Spotlights Science Behind Successful Growers
BASF Ag Products spotlighted a couple of very successful and innovative farmers during the Science Behind event prior to Commodity Classic this year. One of them is pretty familiar to us all but the other is a newer face on the farming scene. The new kid on the block is Randy Dowdy of Georgia who just got into the farming …
USFRA Announces Documentary on Next Gen Farmers
There’s another film documentary in the works to showcase America’s farmers and ranchers, this time with a focus on the younger generation. Today the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance held a press call with the filmmaker. Oscar® winning and two-time Emmy® winning filmmaker James Moll is proud to announce the production of a feature-length documentary about the next generation of …
Pharming for a Better Life
Treatment for cystic fibrosis from corn? Potatoes that produce an antibacterial protein for use in cosmetics? Welcome to what could be the future of pharming. One of the growers at the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum was Bill Horan, COO of Horan BioProduction in Rockwell City, Iowa. Bill, who is also chairman of Truth About Trade and Technology, talked about …