The world’s population is growing and simultaneously, malnutrition is growing. The World Soy Foundation (WSF) is a nonprofit organization that is helping to eradicate malnutrition around the world through soy protein. I had the chance to spend a few minutes with Nathan Ruby, Executive Director of the World Soy Foundation to learn more about what they do. Ruby explained that …
Case IH CVT Hits the Sweet Spot
CVT stands for Continuously Variable Transmission and Case IH was spotlighting its benefits over power shift during Commodity Classic, both at their exhibit and during a WIN session. “The advantage of having a completely variable transmission is that you can allow the computer to operate both the engine and the transmission to dial in the ‘sweet spot’ for power and …
ASA Vice President Works for Agriculture
His wife calls him a “PMG” – Professional Meeting Goer – because Alan Kemper has been serving on the boards of state and national agricultural organizations for over two decades now. As First Vice President for the American Soybean Association, Alan will soon be the first person to have served as president for both ASA and the National Corn Growers …
BASF Supports Future of Agriculture
The future of agriculture is important to BASF and that is why the company sponsors scholarships for young people along with both the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and the American Soybean Association (ASA). The NCGA program awards five $1,000 scholarships to college students studying agriculture, while the ASA program chooses one student to award $5,000. So, each year for …
Corn Ethanol Still in Its Infancy
The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) is relatively new to Commodity Classic with this being their third year. You could tell when you talked with John Caupert, the director of NCERC, how excited he was to be there so I asked him why. “There’s energy, there’s enthusiasm back around around ethanol and biofuels. Some people believe that corn ethanol is …
Dow AgroSciences Develops SmartStax for Corn
A recent focus of Bill Hendrix, the Biology Team Leader, Insect Management Traits & Seeds Treatments for Dow AgroSciences, is developing the new SmartStax technology for corn with Monsanto. I spoke with Hendrix about the new SmartStax traits in more detail during Commodity Classic. The SmartStax technology brings eight traits in a package of corn. It received registration in 2009 …
Channel Brand Launches Genuity SmartStax Products
Commodity Classic was full of new products and technologies and two new product lines have come from the Channel Brand. The Channel Brand is under the Channel Bio company (launched in September 2009) which is a Monsanto company. I spoke with Stacy Markovich, Channel Brand Manager about Channel Bio and the new Channel Brand products. “Our mission is to serve …
Future of Soybean International Marketing Efforts
International marketing was the focus of a press conference held by the United Soybean Board at Commodity Classic. First up on the podium was Phil Bradshaw, USB Chairman and a soybean farmer from Griggsville, IL. He spoke about future efforts to increase soybean exports as conducted by the USB. A record 1.56 billion bushels of soybeans were exported in the …
Cadet and Authority Assist Big Sellers for FMC
I had a chance to spend some time with Gail Stratman, the Midwest Technical Sales Lead for FMC, during Commodity Classic and I learned two things. First that Cadet and Authority Assist are big sellers, selling out the past two years, and second, why both products work so well. Cadet is a post emergence herbicide that was introduced about two …
Vermeer Launches Corn Cob Collector
As Project Liberty gets closer every day to completion (The POET project is set to be online no later than 2012), farm equipment manufactures, such as Vermeer, are developing corn cob harvesting technology. During Commodity Classic, I caught up with Jay Van Roekel, the product manager for Vermeer’s Ag Division to learn more about their biomass technologies. Van Roekel explained …