During the Commodity Classic I met April Hemmes, 2011 Midwest Region winner of the Monsanto Farm Mom of the Year contest. Thanks to Janice Person for taking the photo. April is the farmer in the family. Her husband works at a job in town. She was nominated by her daughter. Here’s an excerpt of the essay she wrote for the …
Important Issues to Sorghum Producers
During Commodity Classic I got to visit with Terry Swanson, Chairman, National Sorghum Producers. I asked him what his message is to not only sorghum producers but all the farmers belonging to the four commodity groups at Classic and he says, “We have to be unified.” He says that altogether they’re still a small group of people that need to …
Stabilized Nitrogen For Faster Plant Start
The Director for Agronomy for Koch Agronomic Services, Greg Schwab, visited with me in the media room at Commodity Classic. Greg runs the company research program. He says they have twenty five land grant universities working on their products. He coordinates that effort. Since it’s planting season I asked him what advice he has for growers. Greg says that with …
Talking Corn and Soybeans with BASF
Weeds were a big topic of concern for farmers who visited the BASF Crop Protection exhibit at Commodity Classic this year and with planting season now upon us and commodity prices looking good, growers are really looking to control those yield-robbers. In soybeans, early-season weed competition poses a potential 6 to 10 percent yield loss. In corn, weeds allowed to …
2012 Conservation in Action Tour
The Conservation Technology Information Center has announced their 2012 Conservation in Action Tour and it’s going to be done “southern style.” At Commodity Classic I spoke with Karen Scanlon, CTIC Executive Director about this year’s program. I’ll be there again this year thanks to support from CTIC and AGROTAIN. Here’s information on the tour which is open for registration now. …
2012 Classic Officially a Barn Buster
It’s official now – the 2012 Commodity Classic was a major record-breaker. Final attendance at the event surpassed all previous turnout records with a total of 6,014 attendees, up 25 percent increase from last year’s record of 4,826 attendees. Once again, farm families represented over half of the participants, with 3,505 growers, spouses and children attending. “We broke records in …
John Deere Announces Final Tier 4/Stage IV Engine
During a press conference at the 2012 Commodity Classic, John Deere unveiled its final stage Tier 4 solution, the John Deere Integrated Emissions Control System. Deere’s Barry Nelson said this is a major announcement that continues John Deere’s 175 years of innovation. “The past few years we have been spending millions and millions of dollars to develop new technology for …
Pioneer Drought Tolerance Innovations
During Commodity Classic Pioneer Hi-Bred held a press conference titled, “Innovations in Drought Tolerance: Delivering Rain or Shine.” This featured feature Pioneer’s research innovations in drought-tolerant corn hybrids, 2011 performance data on Optimum® AQUAmaxTM hybrids, and improved management options for growers. On hand was Jeff Schussler, Senior Research Manager. Results from actual on-farm trials in 2011 show Optimum® AQUAmaxTM corn …
Ethanol on Stage at New Holland Club Blue
During the 2012 Commodity Classic New Holland held a “Club Blue” event at the Grand Ole Opry for their dealers to discuss their new national marketing campaign. It was also a time to talk about partnerships with industry related organizations and that included Growth Energy, another AgWired supporter. On hand to talk to the attendees was Tom Buis, CEO, Growth …
Sending Animal Agriculture Offshore Would Increase Food Costs
Leading off a press conference during Commodity Classic for the United Soybean Board was Vanessa Kummer, Chair. The topic was Consumer and Food Safety Costs of Offshoring Animal Agriculture (pdf). This is a Soybean Checkoff funded study. Also pictured on stage are Lewis Bainbridge, USB Director (seated) and André Williamson, Agralytica, (standing) the company that conducted the study. Paying more …