He’s known as The Twittering Farmer. He’s @Tykerman1 or rather Steve Tucker. You know someone on Twitter by their handle and sometimes it gets difficult to call them by their real name! I “met” Steve via Twitter and enjoyed how he handled himself on a CNN interview and them talked with him myself. That was over two years ago. But …
Difference Between Herbicide Tolerance and Resistance
The problem of resistant weeds, especially glyphosate-resistant broadleaf weeds, continues to become more worrisome, but some weeds have always had a tolerance for certain weed killers. BASF Herbicide Technical Market Manager Dr. Dan Westberg says there’s is a difference between resistant weeds and tolerant weeds. “Tolerant weeds are ones that a herbicide never really controlled in the first place,” Dan …
John Deere R Series Tractors Overview
In the big John Deere product launch this week there were a lot of tractors to look at. I visited with Brad Tolbert and Jarrod McGinnis about what new features are being offered on the lineup of 6/7/8/9 R Series models. Pictured is a 9510 R tractor on the demo track. According to Brad, John Deere has increased the cab …
New S Series Combines From John Deere
The big stars of the John Deere product launch this week were the new S Series Combines. We had a fleet of them set up as stationary “displays.” As part of our media preview we all got into a cab and Deere broadcast a walk through exercise through the in-cab radio. We even had a text book to follow along …
GROWMARK Reports Record Sales, 2nd Best Year
GROWMARK CEO Jeff Solberg had great news for the system’s stakeholders at the Annual Meeting in Chicago Friday. “Our sales this year are $8.5 billion, which is a record level of sales for us,” Jeff said. “A lot of that is price inflation, we’re a commodity based business, but we also have a lot of volume growth there – higher …
BIVI’s New State of the Art Research Facility
It may not look like much on the outside, but the new Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) livestock vaccine research facility in Sioux Center, Iowa is everything a pig could want on the inside. “It’s a state of the art facility,” said Dr. Phil Hayes, BIVI Executive Director for Biologicals Development. “To demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of new vaccines, we …
GROWMARK Annual Meeting is Value Driven
The theme of the 2011 GROWMARK Annual Meeting is Value Driven and there are over 1,000 stakeholders attending the meeting in Chicago this week. I spent a few minutes with Dan Kelley, Chairman of the Board and President of GROWMARK, prior to the opening reception Thursday night about what value-driven means to GROWMARK. “The GROWMARK system has historically been recognized …
NCBA’s Forrest Roberts Wraps It Up
Within all discussions, the core question always asked is, “How do we get more people to eat more beef?” This question was the center of all the business decisions made during the 2011 Cattle Industry’s Summer Conference, explained National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) CEO Forrest Roberts. The purpose of the conference, said Roberts, was to come together and make business …
John Deere Introduces Machine Sync
John Deere unveiled a product that you couldn’t see on the show floor at this week’s product launch. It’s called Machine Sync. This new technology provides “timely, critical information on equipment location, operational status and automates equipment during harvest.” “Having real-time data is critical for equipment operators during harvest,” says Holli Brokaw, AMS product manager for John Deere. “Our new …
BIVI Research Facility Meets VTI Vision
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica’s (BIVI) new livestock vaccine research facility in Sioux Center, Iowa meets the company’s vision of Value Through Innovation, or VTI, according to Dr. Edward Robb, vice president of research and development for BIVI. “The facility really allows us to test novel vaccine concepts to really see if these ideas can have an impact on the welfare of …