Today John Deere announced MyJohnDeere.com and to learn a little about it I spoke with David Everitt, President, Agriculture and Turf Division. Dave has just announced his retirement from John Deere after a long career with the company. The announcements are being made at the John Deere FarmSight Tech Summit. David says this is the most exciting time to be …
ASTA Represents Vegetable and Flower Seed
During the American Seed Trade Association convention the organization’s divisions conduct business and report on activities. One of those is the Vegetable and Flower Seed Division, chaired by Kent Croon, Monsanto. I visited with Kent after his report was given. Kent works in technology development within Monsanto Vegetable Seeds. Kent says that many people think corn and soybeans when they …
Dr. Fred Below is Quotable on BASF Panel
Dr. Fred Below, Professor of Plant Physiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was one of many experts on a panel at the recent BASF Agricultural Solutions Media Summit but he had some of the best quotes that were most tweeted from the event. One of his more quotable comments was that because university extension budgets are being “cut …
ASTA Assists With Seed Phytosanitary Issues
During the American Seed Trade Association annual convention committees meet to set policies for the organization for the coming year. One of those is the phytosanitary committee. I visited with Darrell Maddox, Endless Sky Partners, about the work of this committee that he used to chair. Darrell says the committee works with USDA-APHIS to facilitate trade. They work with seed …
GROWMARK Celebrating 85 Years
GROWMARK has two reasons to celebrate this year – the International Year of the Cooperative and GROWMARK’s 85th anniversary. “The cooperative obviously has evolved a lot over those 85 years,” says Dan Kelley, Illinois farmer and president of the GROWMARK Board of Directors. “Energy is still a main part of GROWMARK’s product distribution. Nearly half of our sales continue to …
Educating for Ag Choice
During the 2012 American Seed Trade Association annual convention I met Chuck Larson, Executive Director, Americans for Choice and Competition in Agriculture. Although I had heard of this newly formed organization I didn’t know much about it until we had a chance to sit down and chat. It appears that the main focus of the group is to influence an …
ASTA Roger Krueger Scholarship Winner
Kansas State graduate student, Rodrigo Pedrozo, received the American Seed Trade Association Roger Krueger Memorial Scholarship during last week’s convention. He’s seen here (right) with Jim Tobin, Monsanto, who presented the award. The scholarship endowment, established in 2008 by the American Seed Research Foundation, is in honor of Roger Krueger who devoted his professional career to seeds and advocating the …
Harvesting Corn Stover
Much of the research that is presented during the Corn Utilization Technology Conference, held recently in Indianapolis, is about new uses for corn. During a session all about new uses at this year’s conference, Steve Peterson, Monsanto, gave a presentation on “Advances in Corn Stover Harvest and Treatment for Animal Feed.” He says Monsanto started a project about five years …
Learning More About ASTA
The President and CEO for the American Seed Trade Association is Andy Lavigne. We sat down for a visit during the organization’s 129th Annual Convention so I could learn more about ASTA. To start with Andy says that having the convention back in Washington, DC and coupling it with an opportunity to visit with legislators on Capitol Hill has been …
Sonny Beck Receives ASTA Lifetime Member Award
The American Seed Trade Association bestowed a Lifetime Honorary Member Award on Lawrence “Sonny” Beck, Beck’s Hybrids, during their annual convention. Pictured is Sonny on the left receiving his award from Mike Gumina. The award is one of the highest awards given out by the Association and is in recognition of untiring service to the Association as well as the …