I was so excited this week to be able to visit the U.S. headquarters of BASF Ag Products in Research Triangle Park, NC for the first time. The occasion was the BASF Southern Media Symposium, which also coincided with the Southern Weed Science Society‘s annual contest for college students majoring in weed science, hosted by BASF this year. I learned …
Historical Ag Data Online
If you want to amaze friend and family or just have some stimulating cocktail party icebreakers, check out the fun facts you can find in 77 years of historical data now available online from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Here are a few examples: U.S. egg exports skyrocketed from 5 million dozen in 1940 to 153 million dozen in …
AgriVisor Helps Market Grain to Maximize Profitability
Grain marketing in today’s world means diversification and minimizing risk to maximize profitability, and AgriVisor helps farmers do just that. Account manager Cory Winstead says there are several ways they work with farmers. “We work directly with brokerage services and then since 1973 AgriVisor has been putting out general advice with recommendations,” he said. They also work with elevators, offering …
Panera Portraying Farmers as Lazy?
I’m echoing Dairy Carrie’s comment that Panera Bread has lost another customer. She explains things much better than I can. This is the story of another company thinking they must portray their product as healthy while at the same time insinuating that other products are not. I have no doubt that there are Panera customers who want products like antibiotic …
What China Approval of Monsanto Trait Means
Monsanto officials are pleased with the recent import approval from China for the drought tolerance trait in Monsanto’s Genuity® DroughtGard® hybrids. According to Monsanto row crop launch lead, Sarah Pierce, the approval granted last month gives farmers who had purchased DroughtGard hybrids in 2013 more options. “(They) signed a stewardship agreement saying they would keep the grain domestic until we …
Apps for Agriculture
Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. In this week’s program I’m sharing a conversation with Brian Arnall, Oklahoma State University. Brian was one of the presenters at the 2013 InfoAg Conference on precision agriculture. Brian’s presentation topic was “Ag Apps for Smart Phones and Tablets.” That certainly got my attention. Brian is keeping a list of apps he finds that …
Southern Peanut Growers Team
The 15th annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference is officially underway in Panama City Beach and I had the opportunity to catch up with all four of the state executives for the associations involved in the event as soon as I arrived on the scene yesterday to get an update and a preview. Left to right, the fabulous four are Randy …
Farmers Need Conservation & Research
How important is conservation to farmers? John Hardin, Indiana grain and hog farmer, says that it is the last thing to cut in the farm bill and that coupled with research, they are the most government functions to help farmers! That’s saying a lot. Here’s a farmer who has real bottom line experience in how important being a good steward …
Find Farmers Markets With Market Mapper App
Looking for local farmers markets? Having trouble finding them? Michael Schade at Mobility Lab has you covered with his Market Mapper App. The image is of our local farmers market in downtown Pensacola, FL. Here’s how he describes it from his blog. Do you wish you could discover local farmers markets as you visited new places? Here’s a web app …
iPad-Conrolled Drones at Landmark
Taking your iPad out in the field to fly a drone sounds like a lot of fun. It definitely is for an agnerd! This “fun” activity is becoming a business task more and more. The agronomists at Landmark Services Cooperative are getting in on the fun by using tablet-controlled drones for field scouting. One of the advantages this provides is …