Come on down to my territory next April. You’ll be glad you did. The Sunshine State will be waiting for you. It’s registration time for the 2014 Agri-Marketing Conference.
Shed some new light on your agri-marketing career. NAMA is taking the conference to Jacksonville, Florida in 2014. Soak up the rays as well as the latest trends in ag communications, social media, and industry news. The location may be new, but the forecast for making new connections and chances to rub elbows with leaders in the ag industry is as sunny as ever. You bring the sunscreen — we’ll bring the fresh ideas.
Registration is open so get it done early. You’ve only got until March 20!
AgroNomics 2014
It’s time for some vision from the 2014 AgroNomics. This is just one of the places I’ll be this week while the rest of the ZimmComm team is in KC, MO for the NAFB convention. AgroNomics is a U.S. ag investment conference that is held in conjunction with the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers annual meeting and trade show.
AgroNomics – Vision 2014 to be held November 11-15, 2013 in Reno, Nevada offers interaction opportunities for investors and fund managers together with the land management, property valuation, agricultural consulting, and rural land & property sales experts of the American Society of Farm Managers & Rural Appraisers.
With the increasing interest among national and international investors and fund managers to acquire U.S. farm land, ASFMRA is working to meet the needs of all parties involved in these transactions.
14 Billion Bushels of Corn!
Despite all the challenges that faced farmers this season, the nation’s corn crop is on track to be a record high 14.0 billion bushels, according to the new crop production report released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
NASS revised the planted corn acreage downward in the new report, but increased the yield estimate to average 160.4 bushels per acre, with corn growers in 18 states forecast to reach record yields this year. Soybean production is forecast at 3.26 billion bushels, up 3 percent from the previous forecast and up 7 percent from last year.
Mike Krueger of The Money Farm gave a good overview of the new production estimates, as well as the new supply-demand report out from USDA, during today’s Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) Crop Report Conference Call. Listen to or download that here: MGEX November Crop Call
After a slow start, the 2013 harvest is pretty much back on schedule in most of the country, but it seems late compared to last year’s record pace. As of Sunday, USDA reports 73 percent of the corn crop was harvested, two points ahead of average, but more than 20% less than last year at this time. The soybean harvest is 86% complete, which is a bit ahead of normal, and only about six percent behind last year.
Found this YouTube video from Cross Implement in central Illinois using Luke Bryan’s Harvest Time to help celebrate this special time of year!
New Holland Perfect Combine Initiative
For New Holland the Perfect Combine is an initiative celebrating the production of the 50,000th TC New Holland. It happened in the Plock Poland plant in October.
To celebrate the milestone the company is taking a look back through the history of the combine model with the use of a Facebook App.
When users access this app, they will be involved in a quiz, having to answer some questions about the product’s history as well as the world’s history. Questions will trigger the ability of users, who can prove their knowledge about every single detail of TC Combine’s history… definitely a challenge for real New Holland fans! 🙂
The initiative is shareable thanks to the creation of special digital postcards, different according to the question answered. Each user who answers all the questions will gain a special info graphic, delivered by the app, to share with friends.
Celebrate this important goal for with New Holland in a funny and easy-going way.
Prince Agri Products Symposium
Next up on the AgriBlogging Highway for me is the pre-conference symposium at the Penn State Dairy Cattle Nutrition Workshop. The symposium is sponsored by Prince Agri Products and will focus on Mastitis Management and Transition Cow Health. Reducing the incidence of mastitis and enhancing transition cow health can have a significant impact on dairy cattle health, milk production and profitability.
I’ll be conducting interviews with the presenters during the morning on Tuesday, November 12. Here are the presentations being featured:
• “Management Practices for Enhanced Transition Cow Health and Production,” Robert Corbett, D.V.M., Dairy Health Consultation, Spring City, Utah.
• “Managing Mastitis in Dairy Heifers to Improve Overall Herd Health,” Steve Nickerson, Ph.D., professor of lactation physiology, Animal and Dairy Science Department, University of Georgia.
• “Revisiting Prepartum DCAD: Reducing Hypocalcemia of Transition Cows,” Dave Beede, Ph.D., professor of dairy nutrition and management, Department of Animal Science at Michigan State University.
• “Keys to a Good P&L: Strategies to Make Money,” Greg Bethard, Ph.D., G&R Dairy Consulting, Calmar, Iowa.
Prince Agri Products has created a new microsite for their OmniGen-AF product you will want to check out.
SMS Training and Resources
One goal of the Ag Leader SMS Software team is to provide training opportunities and resources that are effective regardless of the users SMS knowledge and fit into their busy schedules. This is why they have put all of their resources in a simple, single location for growers to get to: sms.agleader.com (or go to agleader.com and click Support).
At the beginning of every month, Ag Leader offers free online webinars that growers can sign-up to attend. If you don’t have time to attend during our scheduled times, there are pre-recorded versions that have been posted for you to watch at your convenience. These serve as great precursors before attending one of the online or classroom trainings that will be held throughout the winter, which you can now sign-up for.
Under the SMS Resources page, here are links to other resources such as:
– Documentation: i.e. getting started guides and manuals
– YouTube tutorials: videos that describe individual tasks like reading in files and exporting field and product names, prescriptions and crop plans, guidance, and variety tracking information
– Discussion Forum: a dedicated discussion board for SMS products where you can ask questions and get answers from Ag Leader and other SMS users
– Spatial Data Links: links to assist you in finding other data to import into SMS or used for other purposes in your operation
Become a fan of Ag Leader on Facebook today, and get the latest precision ag videos on the YouTube channel. For more information about Ag Leader products and services, or to visit the blog site, go to www.agleader.com.
Zimfo Bytes
- In a special ceremony at Chicago’s historic Drake Hotel Sunday, the Meat Industry Hall of Fame inducted six new members into the Class of 2013.
- Jerry Burns has joined the Wheat Growers’ MZB Marketing Team as a key account specialist.
- DuPont recently received two prestigious Agrow Awards in recognition of innovation and excellence in its R&D pipeline and packaging innovation efforts.
- World Dairy Expo announced that as of Dec. 1, 2013 Susan Orth will be stepping into a newly created role, Sponsorship Manager and Crystal McNett has been named Trade Show Manager.
What’s Your Choice for Hunting Ride?
Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, ”What’s the biggest threat to getting the Farm Bill done?”
Our poll results:
· Lack of bipartisanship – 39%
· Nutrition reform – 36%
· Other – 18%
· Animal ag issues – 7%
The farm bill conference committee has still only met once, but there is some hope they will have a compromise bill by Thanksgiving. In the meantime, fall means it’s hunting season in many areas of the country for various types of game and more hunters these days are using off-road vehicles. Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Which vehicle do you prefer for hunting?” Are you good with the basic four wheel ATV or does a bigger utility terrain vehicle better suit your hunting needs? Let us know.
Zimfo Bytes
- Two farmers from Illinois and Minnesota – both growing Roundup Ready 2 XtendTM soybeans – are seeing first-hand the efficacy of dicamba for weed control, as well as seeing the value that Diversified Weed Management Practices (DWMPs) can have on their fields.
- Zoetis introduces Excenel RTU EZ (ceftiofur hydrochloride) Sterile Suspension with a lower viscosity formulation that improves syringeability by 40 percent.
- Kinze Manufacturing, Inc. is launching a new blog called “Sparks of Innovation.”
- Nearly all of the strawberries in the United States are grown in Florida or California, but faced with growing competition in the industry from Mexico, a team of UF researchers is looking for ways to diversify the industry.
New Sponsor for Great American Wheat Harvest
There is a new gold sponsor for the Great American Wheat Harvest documentary film. C & B Operations, LLC which represents
24 John Deere dealerships in South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, all featuring agricultural equipment, service and parts has jumped on board.
“We value the family-owned business traditions of C & B Operations, LLC, and the historical impact this company and the town of Gettysburg, SD brings to the overall narrative of our film project,” Weaver says. “Their management and marketing practices provide the leadership that has laid the foundation of attracting generations of loyal customers, which we appreciate.”
Gettysburg was founded in 1883 by veterans of the Civil War, and in 1991, because of their shared heritage, became “sister-cities” with Gettysburg, Penn. C & B Operations, LLC began in 1988 when Dan Cronin and Rod Burwell purchased the John Deere store in Gettysburg to maintain a John Deere dealership in Cronin’s hometown. In 1999, Cronin passed away and his son, Matt, took the role of president to date, while Burwell remains chairman.
“A film like the Great American Wheat Harvest encapsulates the heritage of farmers, custom harvesters and life in rural America,” says Matt Cronin, president and CEO, C & B Operations, LLC. “It is important to use communication vehicles, such as this documentary, to show the American public how important the agricultural industry and the family farmers are in feeding the world.”