The American Agricultural Editors Association held a reception for members attending this year’s Commodity Classic. Quite a few of the 126 members of the ag media attended including past president Karen Simon, Iowa Soybean Association. I spoke with Karen and Willie Vogt, Farm Progress Companies, about this summer’s Ag Media Summit. Karen is the Conference Chair and Willie is chairing …
Self Propelled Guardians From New Holland
The biggest machine in the New Holland booth at this year’s Commodity Classic is their Guardian Rear Boom Sprayer. There wasn’t enough space for it to “spread its wings” though. I talked with Tyler Roberts about the self propelled sprayers now being made by New Holland. Tyler says these machines are ready to get out in the field after being …
BASF Presents Kip Cullers Bobblehead
On behalf of a number of well-wishers in the agricultural world, BASF Crop Protection congratulated soybean yield world champion Kip Cullers during a special presentation at Commodity Classic in Tampa, Florida. Kip, a corn and soybean grower from Missouri, is a rock star in the ag world. He set yet another new world soybean production record in 2010 – for …
The Technical Side of AgHaven
The Chief Technology Officer for AgHaven is Pat McGinty. He’s responsible for the software that runs AgHaven. We talked about their agricultural search engine which is really tweaking the interest of a lot of people. He says that it allows for search results specific to agriculture. It’s not search results from other search engines. He says they crawl the web …
Classic Commodity Group Unity
We’re talking commodity group unity here at Commodity Classic. Here’s the leaders of each of the participating groups, Bart Schott, NCGA, Alan Kemper, ASA, Gerald Simonsen, NAWG and Jerry McReynolds, NSP. Emceeing this morning’s general session once again was Mark Mayfield. He asked them each to answer the question, “What are you doing to enhance public trust and what efforts …
Ag Secretary Vilsack at Commodity Classic
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack gave the keynote address today to an audience of more than 4,500 farmers and commodity group representatives during the General Session of the 16th Annual Commodity Classic in Tampa, Florida. In his remarks, Vilsack commended American farmers, ranchers and producers for helping to lead the United States’ economic recovery by shattering agricultural trade records, creating jobs …
BASF Announces NCGA and ASA Scholarships
Along with the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA)and the American Soybean Association (ASA), BASF Crop Protection announced the winners of six scholarships during the 2011 Commodity Classic on Thursday in Tampa. This is the fourth year for both scholarship programs. “BASF is dedicated to providing the next generation of agricultural industry leaders with resources to further their education and advance …
Trade Top Issue for Corn and Soybean Leaders
The issue at the top of the list for the farmer leaders of the American Soybean Association (ASA) and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is trade. “In the last marketing year, over 60% of the soybeans in the U.S. were exported, compared to 55% just a year ago,” said ASA president Alan Kemper of Indiana during a press conference …
AgHaven An Ag Destination
New AgWired sponsor AgHaven is now ready for anyone in the agricultural industry to sign up. You can create a free account and use their one of a kind search engine or get social with their built in social networking tools. This morning I spoke with Srik Soogoor, President (pictured left), who gave me some background on how the idea …
BASF Xemium Fungicide Difference
BASF Crop Protection is well known for the super effective and ever popular Headline fungicide, but company officials say the newly developed Xemium is a totally different animal that will serve to complement Headline. BASF is developing uniquely-designed formulations that provide complete coverage of the leaf surface and systemic distribution to ensure the product not only moves within the leaf …