Corn Growers Adopting New Conservation Practices

Chuck Zimmerman

Dan Cole NCGAThe National Corn Growers Association is very supportive of the work of the Conservation Technology Information Council. That certainly makes sense as corn farmers have a strong desire to better manage their land in a sustainable way.

During the 2013 Conservation in Action Tour, Dan Cole, corn grower (left in photo) and member of the NCGA Production & Stewardship Action Team (PSAT), was on hand along with other growers to see the projects being worked on in the Indian Creek Watershed. NCGA sponsored the first tour stop at the Bachtold Farm which focused on soil health.

You can listen to my interview with Dan here: Interview with Dan Cole

2013 Conservation in Action Tour Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Conservation, Corn, CTIC, NCGA

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Avocados From Mexico (AFM), announced several leadership additions to the new marketing agenc.
  • NovaSource Inc. announced the expansion of its international organization and the establishment of a new position in Latin America.
  • The results of a survey about the 4R nutrient knowledge of and the communication between soil and water conservation districts and agricultural retailers will be discussed in a free webinar on Thursday, July 25 from 1-2 p.m. Central Daylight Time.
  • The Senate confirmed, on a mostly partisan 59-40 vote, the nomination of Gina McCarthy to serve as EPA administrator.
Zimfo Bytes

Southern Peanut Growers Team

Cindy Zimmerman

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.

spgc13-1Left to right, the fabulous four are Randy Griggs with Alabama Peanut Producers; Ken Barton with Florida Peanut Producers; Don Koehler with Georgia Peanut Commission; and Malcolm Broome of the Mississippi Peanut Growers Association.

As usual, I asked each of them to talk about the condition of the crop in their states and what the biggest concerns of the growers are right now. Randy says the Alabama crop is “wet, wet, wet” right now. In Florida, Ken says the state is pretty much a “mixed bag” with “an excellent crop in half the state and a questionable crop in the other half.” Don reports that the Georgia crop is “like a Clint Eastwood movie – the good, the bad and the ugly.” Finally, Mississippi is a little wet in the traditional southern peanut growing area of the state “but the northwest corner of the state, which is a new area, is extremely dry,” according to Malcolm.

Meanwhile, all farmers are waiting to see when and if they will finally get a farm bill this year, which we will be hearing more about on Saturday here at thhttp://www.processoptimizationseminar.com/e conference. The theme for the 15th annual event is Making Sustainability Work, an issue which is important to all the growers as well.

Randy and Don have been a part of the SPGC since the beginning in 1999. “We started out with about 3 or 4 sponsors and the first year we had about 250 people,” said Randy. “We’ve seen it just constantly grow ever since.”

Listen to my interview with the fab four: Interview with Southern Peanut Grower State Execs

2013 SPGC Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Farming, Peanuts, SPGC

New Program to Empower Farmers as Leaders

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DuPont_oval_redDuPont and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) announced a new program to develop corn farmers for agricultural leadership opportunities. With more focus on food than ever, the NCGA DuPont New Leader Program will help to empower growers to share their story of their farms and the benefits of a robust agriculture system with key audiences, including consumers, media and decision-makers.

The NCGA DuPont New Leader Program will bring farmers from each affiliated state to two sessions to develop and hone their communications and leadership skills. The first session will be held in November at the DuPont Pioneer facilities in Johnston, Iowa. The second session will take place in Washington in July 2014. In between the two sessions, those farm couples involved will be encouraged to be actively participating and honing their skills in state and national programs.

Applications for the inaugural class will be available later this summer.

Agribusiness, NCGA

Grant Program Supports Future Newscasters

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NAFBFoundation-color-compressedNearly a dozen future newscasters throughout the U.S. are gaining valuable experience in farm broadcasting this summer as part of the DuPont Pioneer NAFB (National Association of Farm Broadcasting) Foundation Internship Program.

The program assists 10 NAFB member stations and networks with $1,000 grants from Pioneer to provide interns on-the-job agricultural broadcasting experience — from news production to live reporting.

“This program complements the Pioneer commitment to providing expanded opportunities to young people who want to enter agriculture as a career,” says Jerry Harrington, DuPont Pioneer sales and marketing public relations manager. “This also reflects the company’s support for farm broadcasters and the valuable service they provide agriculture.”

Working with NAFB, Pioneer doubled the number of grants for 2013 compared to prior years. The support expands station and network involvement and allows more interns to experience farm broadcasting.

Agribusiness, NAFB

Stabilizing Nitrogen Important for Conservation Tillage

Chuck Zimmerman

2013 CTIC TourI want to say a big thanks to Koch Agronomic Services for being the sponsor of our coverage of the 2013 Conservation in Action Tour again this year. During the tour I visited with Greg Schwab, Director of Agronomy. He says that some of the products they make help farmers do conservation tillage. One of the challenges is maintaining the fertilizer nitrogen that you apply which can be lost as a gas. That’s where their product AGROTAIN plays a role since it is a nitrogen stabilizer. There are a number of research plots that we saw during the tour in the Indian Creek Watershed.

You can listen to my interview with Greg here: Interview with Greg Schwab

2013 Conservation in Action Tour Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Conservation, CTIC, Koch Agronomic Services

Fate of Catfish Program in Farm Bill Conference

Cindy Zimmerman

catfish-imageThe House farm-only version of the farm bill includes repeal of USDA catfish inspection program but the Senate bill does not and those who are in favor of getting rid of the program are hoping it will survive the conference committee.

“Its fate now lies with the Farm Bill conferees who will have to decide if they support American farmers or a special interest handout that wastes 170 million taxpayer dollars and puts U.S. Ag exports at risk for retaliatory measures from our trading partners,” said Gavin Gibbons with the National Fisheries Institute. “As this process unfolds it’s important to remember a bipartisan group in the Senate opposes the program, a bipartisan group in the House opposes the program, the GAO opposes the program, countless Ag groups oppose the program, and even the White House opposes the program.”

The House bill was sent to the Senate this week and the next step is putting together a conference committee.

Farm Bill

Analyzing Social Media

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 403Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. You agrimarketers out there are sure including social media in your strategies judging by the audience I had at the 2013 InfoAg Conference session on the topic. I asked for a show of hands if they had a company Twitter account and almost everyone raised their hand, the same when I asked if they had a company Facebook page. That’s the highest response I’ve ever had when doing a presentation on social media.

Jay Harrison, Maritz HoldingsJoining me for the session was Jay Harrison, Maritz Holdings. He works with their evolve24 division and focused on social media analytics and had some great information to share with us. His company does “social media intelligence” which includes monitoring and interpreting what people are saying on social media as well as advising on ways to respond, especially in a crisis situation. He says one of the biggest challenges they have is analyzing all the publicly available social media data which they then start organizing in a way that allows them to search for specific subjects or terms. He provides some examples in this week’s program.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: Social Media Analytics

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong and Monsanto, Roundup Ready Plus, for their support.

Audio, Social Media, ZimmCast

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Melissa Sandfort

20130715_205750I know people usually post amazing pictures for “Wordless Wednesday” or funny ones for “Throwback Thursday” but this one was just too good to pass up.

My Aunt Jeanette writes: Some very good friends of ours snapped this picture while they were out doing their evening irrigating. The photo shows the sun going down behind our farm. It was the perfect end to a hot, tiring July day! (Thank you to Troy and Trish Shuck for the photo.)

I don’t think I need to say any more…

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Southern Peanut Growers Meeting in PCB

Cindy Zimmerman

spgc-132013 marks the 15th year for the Southern Peanut Growers Conference and the agenda this year is once again chock full of opportunities to learn more about the latest products and equipment, what’s going on in Washington, and how marketing and research is making the peanut industry better, more sustainable and more profitable than ever.

It all starts today so we are heading off to Panama City Beach for a few days of finding out what’s going on in the world of peanuts here in the Southeast. Check out the SPGC blog, which we have been doing for them since 2008, for complete coverage.

Ag Groups, Events, Peanuts