Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in the United States. I still remember the very first Earth Day when I was in middle school and it was a very “hippy-ish” sort of deal. Today, everyone is in on the environmental act. That includes farmers and ranchers – the original environmentalists. As National Corn Growers Association president Darrin Ihnen, …
Plow Boys Make Planting Progress
The planters were tearing it up around the country last week in the glorious weather. What a difference a year makes! Last year at this time, just five percent of the corn was planted. As of Sunday, a whopping 19 percent was in the ground – more than twice the five year average! Illinois has 34 percent planted, compared to …
Ethanol “FlameDisk” Demo
“Drink the best and burn the rest” has been the unofficial motto of the ethanol industry – but you can literally do that when you grill with the FlameDisk® charcoal alternative. According to their promotional material, “the FlameDisk® is much more eco-friendly than charcoal and lighter fluid because it features renewable ethanol. Ethanol is extremely clean burning and generates 90% …
Let’s Put More Corn In The Classroom
Teaching children about where there food comes from is talked about a lot and the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council is doing something about it with their “Corn in the Classroom” program. This educational program helps students reconnect with today’s farmers and better understand the source of their food, fiber and fuel. “Informing students about Missouri’s corn industry allows them to …
Growers Give Stoller a “Green” Thumb of Approval
There was a lot to see and hear about at Commodity Classic but maybe the best testimonials for a product are the growers themselves. I spent a little time with two growers who gave several Stoller USA products their stamp of approval. Why? Because they have seen significant increase to their yields. Ken Miller, both a grower and ag retailer …
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 …
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 …