Our USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, Thomas Dorr was on hand here at the Farm Progress Show.
Ag Secretary Visits Farm Progress Show
Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns toured the Farm Progress Show today.
Afterward he met with the press. He basically summarized the action the administration is taking to help drought-stricken farmers and then talked about renewable energy and energy efficiency funding.
Vistive News
Second Press Conference was held today at 9:30a, talking about Vistive with Monsanto!
Celebrating 70 Years
During the Farm Progress Show, Monsanto’s seed partner, DeKalb is celebrating their 70th year anniversary.
Announcing Treus
One of the big announcements here at the show on opening day was from Bunge and Dupont who have a biotech alliance. Basically they’ve created a new brand, “Treus.” This is being done to “reflect their expansion of the companies’ soy collaboration beyond food and nutrition products to include industrial applications, biofuels and other opportunities.”
Get A Premium For Your Corn
while it was raining this morning the media was nicely cooped up in the media tent. I’m sure this didn’t disappoint Monsanto since they had the first press conference. One of the their representatives I met was Steve Peterson, Monsanto business manager for their Processor Preferred program. Steve’s pictured here during an interview with WITY. In my interview with Steve he describes how this program has developed about 90 varieties of corn that are yielding up to 2 to 4 percent more ethanol per bushel than conventional hybrids. He says this helps corn growers get a premium for their crops.
Debunking The Food vs. Fuel Myth
The incoming 1st Vice President of the National Corn Growers Association is Ron Litterer, Greene, IA. I talked to Ron about the impact of using more and more corn for fuel and what his thoughts are on the issue of how that affects other uses of the commodity. Ron’s being interviewed here by Tom Steever of Brownfield Ag News.
Sticky Trap Program
Earlier this morning, Monsanto had their first Press Conference. The topic being discussed was the Sticky Trap Program. Speakers Glenn Stith, Vice President of Monsanto U.S. Branded Business, Clint Pilcher, Corn Technology Development Manager, and Wayne Natress, Executive Director were present to speak about the Sticky Trap Program! The Sticky Trap Program was an experiment to determine the amount of …
Wind Powering America
New Ag Markets are coming out everyday but Wind Energy is becoming more popular. Many of you have seen the wind turbines in northwestern Iowa, and also in many other western states.
Fixing Rootworm Problem
This morning I’ve had the opportunity to meet with Dave Rhylander, Monsanto’s Director of Traits. He will be speaking later today in the Press Conference. The main topic we talked about was rootwarms and what Monsanto is doing to prevent/solve that problem. Monsanto recommends using YieldGard Plus to prevent rootwarms and the outcomes of using YieldGard Plus have been outstanding!! The roots grow deeper, being able to recieve more moisture and have had better consistant yields!