When I attended the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Tour last year it was in the middle of the drought and the ground was so dry that Roger Windhorn, USDA-NRCS, couldn’t even find moisture when he dug a soil pit. Different situation this year since he found water about 30 inches down on the Bachtold farm. Roger was giving a presentation …
Max Armstrong is Tractor Boy
Veteran farm broadcaster and vintage tractor lover Max Armstrong has come out with a new music video. Yeah – you read that right. It’s called “Tractor Boy” and Max is ready to show those Peterson Boys just how it’s done. Our friend Marilyn Cummins with Martinez Creative Group sent us the link just now. Max produced the video with MCG …
Senate Passes Immigration Reform
Unlike last week’s farm bill vote in the House, it was no real surprise to see the Senate pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation Thursday by nearly the 70 vote margin supporters had predicted. And the email reactions from agriculture groups are coming in fast – again, unlike last week when prepared statements on farm bill passage had to be furiously …
New Effort to Repeal Death Tax
While all eyes were on the farm bill in the House last week, Senator John Thune (R-SD) and Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX) re-introduced legislation to permanently repeal the federal estate tax, better known as the death tax. “We don’t think death should be a taxable event,” said Thune, Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and member of the Senate Finance …
Conservation in Action Tour Almost Full
My next stop on the agriblogging highway will be the 2013 Conservation in Action Tour in Illinois. There are only a few seats left. I’ve been attending Conservation Technology Information Center tours for years now and they are loaded with information. This tour is July 9-10 in Livingston, IL. A pre-tour seminar on July 9 has also been added. Learn …
NMPF Creates REAL Cartoon Character
The National Milk Producers Federation is getting REAL serious about the REAL Seal. Well, maybe not so much serious as having some fun. This is the cartoon character that has been created to help “revitalize and build awareness of the dairy industry’s iconic REAL® Seal.” There is already a “cartoon” with the character on YouTube. What would you name it? …
Immigration Policy Forum in Kansas City
With the Senate poised to vote on comprehensive immigration reform this week, USDA held a forum on the issue Friday in Kansas City, featuring Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, former Kansas City mayor and current Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, and representatives of the nation’s dairy industry. “We are blessed by the most productive, most innovative and most hard-working farmers and ranchers,” Vilsack …
NCGA Tools for Water Quality
To help corn farmers understand water issues and ways to enhance water quality on their farms, the National Corn Growers Association has added a video and an interactive educational module to its online learning tools concerning water quality management. The video, titled “Driving Change,” showcases NCGA members describing the practices they are implementing to enhance water quality on their farms …
Farm Bill Blame Game
The shock over the defeat of the farm bill in the U.S. House of Representatives had barely sunk in Thursday when the blame game began. It started on the floor of the House when Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) was giving an update on next week’s schedule and Minority Whip Steney Hoyer (D-VA) asked whether the student loan program would …
IFAMA Student Competition Winners
A team of MBA students from Santa Clara University won first place in the IFAMA Student Case Competition Wednesday at the World Forum in Atlanta. The competition consists of teams representing universities worldwide who simulate a fast turnaround analysis and presentation which they make to a panel of senior management judges on a corporate hot topic. This year there were …