A new analysis of the two Farm Bills out there … the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012 that passed the full Senate in June and the House’s Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2012, which made it out of the House Ag Committee last month … shows some similar impacts of the two bills, especially …
Know the Enemy – Palmer Pigweed
It’s not just pigweed, it’s Palmer amaranth pigweed, and it was all over the Bayer CropScience Respect the Rotation plot tour in Collinsville, Illinois – towering over corn and soybeans and most other weeds. Waterhemp is also a member of the pigweed family that might be more familiar to growers in the Midwest and both are developing resistance to glyphosate. …
IFAJ Tour Day
It’s tour day number one at the 2012 IFAJ Congress. I’m on tour bus #4, now known as “The Meat Wagon.” We visited Stenhammar Estate, a beef cattle farm run by the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf. Here’s our group posing with Helios of Mattarp, a champion bull. We had lunch with the Minister of Rural Affairs, Eskil Erlandsson and …
RFS Waiver Might Lower Corn Prices… Eventually
A new report from researchers at Purdue University shows that a waiver of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) could lower corn prices… but it could be a while until livestock producers and consumers at the grocery stores see those prices go down. Purdue’s Wally Tyner, Farzad Taheripour and Christopher Hurt presented their report, entitled Potential Impacts of a Partial Waiver …
Respecting the Rotation with Bayer CropScience
At least 250 farmers, crop consultants, and retailers turned out Wednesday in Collinsville, Illinois for a plot tour of mostly lots of really tall and nasty weeds that don’t die easily. The Bayer CropScience “Respect the Rotation” field day offered a glimpse of what could happen in the Midwest if resistant weeds like pigweed palmer ameranth gain a foothold. District …
Sweden Minister of Rural Affairs
The Sweden Minister of Rural Affairs is Eskil Erlandsson. He was on our morning program here at the 2012 IFAJ Congress. After the morning session was completed he held a press conference which I recorded and have posted below. One of the questions that I thought was interesting pertained to Sweden’s use of biofuels and making use of ethanol by-products …
A Dire Future Without Major Societal Changes
Our opening speaker at the 2012 IFAJ Congress immediately dove into the deep end on the theme of “Solutions for a Green Future.” He is Johan Rockstrom, Executive Director of the Stockholm Resilience Center. As he opened his remarks he pointed to what he calls the most significant news of our age which was announced yesterday. He was referring to …
Preview of 2012 IFAJ Congress
The 2012 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists is about to kick off in Sweden. We’re somewhere to the west of Stockholm at the moment with farm tours coming up later this week. To get my coverage started I spoke with soon to be past IFAJ President Mike Wilson, Farm Futures, during the IFAJ leadership dinner this evening. Mike has been …
Managing Enteric Disease
Dealing with a tough subject at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Swine Health Seminar was Dr. Michael Appley, Kansas State University. He talked about antimicrobials and the control of enteric disease and the future of using them including the issue of resistance. He says producers need to know how and why they use them. But he also says that a lot …
TopCon’s New System 350
What’s new at TopCon Precision Agriculture is their System 350 which features their X30 console. TopCon was one of the exhibitors at the Ag Media Summit. The console features: Mini-view windows with drag-and-drop positioning Interaction keypads with “expandable menus” Dashboard readouts provide constant, convenient basic data Integrated LED lightbar for manual guidance Full-screen views available for more detailed information Advanced …