Over on our sister website, Precision Pays, the winner of the iPad mini Giveaway Contest has been picked via random selection. He’s Nick Leibold of New Hampton, IA. Nick farms about 600 acres of corn and 400 acres of soybeans. Cindy visited with Nick by phone to let him know about his winning and to learn a little bit about …
Farm Shorts Wants To Help Tell Farm Stories
A growing number of agvocates are learning how to use today’s social media platforms and that includes YouTube. How many of you farmers have given this a try? Here’s a story about a new initiative to showcase sustainable farms and farmers. Of course most farmers are sustainable. Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to stay in business. What do you think …
Harvesting The High Plains Documentary
Last year’s Midwest drought evoked images of the dust bowl of the “dirty 30’s”. But how many of you really know much about it or what it took to survive those trying times? Here’s one way you can get a glimpse into those times. It’s a film documentary called, “Harvesting The High Plains.” An advance copy is now available for …
Bringing Sexy Back to Agriculture
The take home theme of the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum this year came to be “bringing sexy back to agriculture.” Which begs the question – when was agriculture sexy before? If sexy means sustainable, here are a couple of pretty sexy farmers. On the left is the Bayer CropScience 2013 Young Farmer Sustainability Award winner Jeremy Jack of Mississippi …
BASF Spotlights Science Behind Successful Growers
BASF Ag Products spotlighted a couple of very successful and innovative farmers during the Science Behind event prior to Commodity Classic this year. One of them is pretty familiar to us all but the other is a newer face on the farming scene. The new kid on the block is Randy Dowdy of Georgia who just got into the farming …
Pharming for a Better Life
Treatment for cystic fibrosis from corn? Potatoes that produce an antibacterial protein for use in cosmetics? Welcome to what could be the future of pharming. One of the growers at the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum was Bill Horan, COO of Horan BioProduction in Rockwell City, Iowa. Bill, who is also chairman of Truth About Trade and Technology, talked about …
ASTA Seed Treatment Guide
A guide to seed treatment stewardship is a new project by the American Seed Trade Association along with a collaboration of seed companies, researchers and organizations like CropLife America, National Corn Growers Association and Farm Bureau. Growers will soon find “The Guide to Seed Treatment Stewardship” online. I spoke with Andy Lavigne, ASTA President/CEO, during Commodity Classic about this project …
AgFanatics Live From Commodity Classic
The AgFanatics were live from the Commodity Classic in Florida last week where they discussed what’s causing the recent spike in old crop futures and what the next few weeks look like ahead of several key USDA reports. That was Episode #14 in the can already! In Episode #13, the guys discuss what’s been new in the grain markets, possible …
Farm Bill Top Priority for Corn Growers
As it was last year at this time, getting a new farm bill was the top priority for delegates to the National Corn Growers Association Corn Congress policy meeting last week during the 2013 Commodity Classic. NCGA President Pam Johnson says NCGA supports fundamental changes to farm programs that include effective and affordable federal crop insurance to provide assistance only …
Happy 150th Birthday Bayer!
Bayer is celebrating 150 years of “Science for a Better Life.” “Not too many companies really have that heritage and we’re really proud of that because that really describes our long term commitment,” said David Hollinrake, VP of Agricultural Commercial Operations Marketing for Bayer CropScience. While agriculture is just one segment of Bayer, it is a significant one. “Agriculture is …