RFA Ethanol Podcast

John Deere Reaches Out to Developers

Chuck Zimmerman

This morning John Deere kicked off what’s becoming an annual conference for developers. The 2014 Develop with Deere conference brings together dealers, independent agricultural software application developers and John Deere staff primarily from their Intelligent Solutions Group. Kicking things off was a keynote presentation by Pat Pinkston, Vice President, Technology and Information Solutions, Agriculture and Turf Division. Pat talked about …

Agribusiness, Audio, John Deere, Precision Agriculture, Video

Diverse World of Farming Needs Diverse Solutions

John Davis

Farmers face a diverse world of challenges today, and that requires a diverse toolkit of solutions. During the recent Bayer CropScience Corn and Soybean Future Forum in Frankfurt, Germany, attendees of the event came from all over the world – from war-torn regions, such as Ukraine, to over-regulated areas of Western Europe, each bringing their own issues. “So the solution …

Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer, Precision Agriculture

Digital Storytelling from Deere

Chuck Zimmerman

During the Bayer CropScience Corn and Soybean Future Forum, Than Hartsock, John Deere, did some digital storytelling. In fact, his presentation was titled, “Digitalization – next level of corn and soybean cropping.” Than talked about how John Deere is developing new tools to deal with ways for farmers to make more money from their crop. This includes all the things …

Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

Calcium Products Opens World Headquarters in Iowa

Cindy Zimmerman

Calcium Products recently celebrated the grand opening of its new headquarters located at the Iowa State University Research Park, including a new research and development laboratory and customer support center. Calcium Products produces of precision soil amendments that improve soil quality to maximize nutrient uptake and strengthen yields. “Our new headquarters and R&D lab is located in the heart of …

Agribusiness, Precision Agriculture, Soil

Learn More About Plant Sap Analysis

Jamie Johansen

Michelle Gregg is the Executive Director for Crop Health Laboratories (CHL) and Leah spoke with her about the new company’s upcoming event and opportunities they have for growers across the country. Part of CHL’s business model is using an existing technology that is new to North America. This new technology is called plant sap analysis which offers a different management …

Agribusiness, Audio, Events, Precision Agriculture, Technology

Analysis of Soil Samples Using LIBS

Joanna Schroeder

Science is fun. Let me explain. During the Vedesian Life Sciences Los Alamos Media Tour we learned about a cool soil sampling technology coined Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LBIS). In an attempt to not use to much technical jargon, LBIS is a focused pulse laser beam that generates a microplasma (think spec or dot). From here, the emission from the plasma …

Agribusiness, Agronomy, Precision Agriculture, Verdesian, Video

Global Water For Food Conference Preview

Cindy Zimmerman

Mobilizing new data gathering capabilities to improve global water and food security is the subject of the sixth annual Water for Food Global Conference, hosted by the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska in association with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Oct. 19-22 in Seattle, Wash. This year’s conference theme, “Harnessing the Data …

Audio, data, Food, Precision Agriculture, Water

Ag Analytics Company aWhere Raises $7M Via Crowdfunding

Joanna Schroeder

Agricultural data analytics company aWhere has raised $7 million with the help of Elixir Capital and AgFunder, an online investment company. The investment will help aWhere bring its data analytics platform to international markets and help farmers increase yields and profitability as they incorporate cutting-edge technology into their growing operations. “aWhere’s big data platform brings tremendous value across the agricultural …

Agribusiness, data, Precision Agriculture

iCropTrak 5 Application Goes Native

Joanna Schroeder

iCropTrak 5 has gone native. Cogent3D has released its newest version of iCropTrak and the application now features “on-board” processing for mobile analytics that is based on technology originally developed for the military. This technology is a bit different than many that are based in the “cloud” or on your desktop. According to Cogent3D, iCropTrak version 5 performs all the …

Agribusiness, CropTrak, data, Precision Agriculture

New Holland PLM Connect Telematics

Chuck Zimmerman

New Holland’s Chris Carrier, PLM and T7 Tractor Manager, started his presentation on the new PLM Connect Telematics by mentioning New Holland’s four strategic pillars PLM which are Open, Connected, Smart and Supported. During New Holland Media Day Chris led us through some of the features of the new services and then walked ag media representatives through it on tablets …

Agribusiness, Audio, Equipment, New Holland, Precision Agriculture