Ed Schafer got confirmed today as our new Secretary of Agriculture just in time to sit in with the Cabinet at tonight’s State of the Union speech. Here’s what President Bush had to say about it. I appreciate that the Senate today unanimously confirmed Ed Schafer to be our next Secretary of Agriculture. As a two-term governor and business leader, …
Hey Pumpkin, Visit Austria/Slovenia
Yes, pumpkin. They’re big in the part of the world that this year’s IFAJ Congress is taking place. Two countries for the price of one. Listen to this week’s program to find out more. Cindy and I are hoping to attend this year and sample what Dr. Franz Fischler says are some of their exceptional wines. This morning I talked …
Successful Crop Tech Tour
The folks at Successful Farming are getting more involved in online multimedia and their Crop Tech Tour is a good example of how they’re doing so. Basically, they’re trying to document how farmers are using new technologies like precision ag. To do it they’re using audio, video and pictures on their website in addition to regular updates in the magazine. …
What The Bayer Season Is
At last week’s Beltwide we learned about the Bayer Season. Basically, it’s about taking care of your plants during the critical first 40 days. One of the presenters was John Smith, Bayer CropScience director of marketing. He says that the Bayer Season is a collection of products, innovation and people. They’re meant to help the cotton grower during those first …
Learning More ABout Cotton Precision
One of the new product development guys at John Deere in their precision area is Patrick Sikora, John Deere Ag Management Solutions Group. He was one of the guys I interviewed at last week’s Beltwide. Patrick says that cotton growers have been some of the earliest adopters of precision farming technology but that there may be some not familiar with …
Marketing MANA
I’m really glad that Makhteshim Agan is using the name MANA Crop Protection since it’s a lot easier for me to say. They held a media breakfast last week that I attended and it provided an opportunity to get to know them better. I interviewed Dave Downing, Senior Product/Marketing Manager – Herbicides and now know a lot more about the …
Headlining a New Developments Session
One of the New Developments From Industry sessions at Beltwide was done by Greg Stratman, BASF Technical Services Representative (left). Of course he talked about Headline. One of the questions he says he gets most often from growers is about the yield increase they can get by treating foliar diseases. He says that when it comes to the work they’ve …
Dealing With Cotton Acreage Change
This afternoon I had a chance to meet Dr. Mark Lange, President and CEO of the National Cotton Council. This is him speaking at a lunch earlier today. I actually interviewed him along with Don Molino, Louisiana Agri-News Network and Keith Merckx, Texas State Networks. Of course Don had to ask Mark about the WTO so we got him on …
Headline History
The Marketing Manager for Headline for BASF is Jerry Minore (right). He was working the booth this morning and from the sound of it the traffic has been heavy with growers wanting to know about this new fungicide tool. I know I’ve posted several interviews about Headline but in this one I got Jerry to talk a little bit about …
Sustainable Challenges For Cotton Incorporated
One of the participants in our media round table on sustainability was Berrye Worsham, President & CEO of Cotton Incorporated. Thanks to my good friend Brad Robb I was able to interview Barrye today. He says that one of the key challenges for marketing cotton today is that word, sustainability, especially from an environmental standpoint. For one thing he says …