Agricultural Business Council Honors Two

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agbizkcOn June 18 at the Chamber of Commerce Board Room in historic Union Station, The Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City will honor two of the region’s leading business figures who have been civic champions for agriculture in separate but very key issue areas in our region.

The 2013 Award for Agricultural Leadership and Excellence, named in honor of the late Jay B. Dillingham, will be awarded to Harry Cleberg, Farmland Industries (retired) and Tom Waters, Missouri River Levee and Drainage District Association.

The June 18 event will be hosted at the Chamber of Commerce Board Room in Union Station (30 W Pershing Rd in Kansas City, MO) at 11:30 a.m. for networking and noon for lunch.

Tickets are $75 per person or $600 for a table of eight. Reservations can be made by contacting Erica Venancio at Erica.Venancio@agbizkc.com or by going to www.agbizkc.com.

Agribusiness

Honorees Inducted into Ag PR Hall of Fame

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The Agricultural Relations Council is pleased to announce two new inductees into the Agricultural Public Relations Hall of Fame: John Harvey and Paul S. Weller, Jr. The two longtime friends and colleagues were inducted at a ceremony held during the 2013 ARC Annual Meeting. The program is sponsored by the Agricultural Relations Council and AgriMarketing magazine.

harv.weller.Both inductees were on hand to accept the honor and offer their words of wisdom to the professionals gathered to discuss communication challenges facing agriculture today. Congratulatory letters sent to the inductees highlighted their impressive professional achievements but the one accomplishment recognized by all was their impact as mentors to up-and-coming agricultural public relations professionals.

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Agribusiness, ARC, Public Relations

Diverse Herbicide Program Needed for 2013

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BASFCommon waterhemp, Palmer amaranth, giant and common ragweed, Italian ryegrass and marestail are all part of a growing group of yield-reducing “watch-out” weeds in the United States. With confirmed resistance to multiple herbicides, these species are top of mind for farmers this season.

According to the Weed Science Society of America, weeds cause more yield loss and add more to farmers’ production costs than insects, diseases, rodents, birds, and grazers, such as deer. Experts recommend farmers carefully manage any weeds – resistant or not – with herbicides that offer multiple sites of action, ensuring they don’t turn into the next crop of “watch-out” weeds.

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“To keep ‘watch-out’ weeds in check, farmers should plan to use a herbicide program that effectively targets the weeds using herbicides with different sites of action,” said Luke Bozeman, Technical Market Manager, BASF (pictured left).

As an industry leader, BASF is dedicated to providing solutions, technical support and educational tools to help growers implement a weed resistance management program based on herbicide best practices. The BASF portfolio of solutions consists of herbicides targeting 12 different sites of action, more than any other company in the industry, for effective control of resistant weeds. This extensive line of herbicides also provides a multi-year rotational plan that allows growers to apply herbicides throughout the growing season to deliver the management flexibility today’s farmers need to drive success.

Agribusiness, BASF, weed management

REL Productions Launches FarmFootage.com

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FarmFootage.comFarmFootage.com is a stock video supplier specializing in high-definition, broadcast quality, royalty-free agricultural video footage. The high-definition footage is made available by REL Productions along with a network of consigning owners of agricultural footage.

Currently, the National Pork Board and other groups are using FarmFootage.com to share their video footage and broadcast video packages with the media and industry partners. FarmFootage.com is continuously expanding the selection of footage available on the site and welcomes interest from new contributors as well as footage requests.

Advertising, Agribusiness, Farm Shows, Video

Earth Day Skeptic Says Get Positive

Chuck Zimmerman

Earth Day 2013My “Face of Climate Change” says, “Why all the hysteria?” At least that’s what I would be thinking if you took a picture of me after mentioning the theme of this year’s Earth Day. I’m a skeptic when it comes to man made global warming or that man can and should try to change it. I’m not a skeptic of the fact that climate changes and that it can cause havoc in areas where man has decided to live or work.

I have a real problem with organizations that are raking in huge amounts of money by creating fear on the part of a not very well educated public and calling for immediate and drastic social change which of course includes big governmental tax increases and added costs to do business or impacts how you choose to live your life. I know that the folks who have imbibed the climate change kool-aid can cite “research” that seems to give their ideas credence. However, there are plenty of other studies pointing the exact opposite direction. All of them are making predictions based on models that don’t all agree. But even more foolish than thinking that science is not questionable is buying into the fact that just because we have a drought here or a cold weather event there we are facing armageddon (watched too many end of the world movies?). Last year’s midwest U.S. drought was a very real and severe event but even though climate activists want to point to it as proof of their assertions it just isn’t so. I’m pretty sure that supporters of organizations like the Earth Day Network or the FAO would dismiss this.

There’s no doubt that as civilization continues to grow we will also continue to manage it more and more efficiently and sustainably. We don’t need hysteria and monumental government change for it to happen. Since any credible definition of sustainability has to contain a financial element you can rest assured that businesses will continue R&D to operate more efficiently and produce products that are better for the environment. We see this happening all over in agriculture today. Biotechnology like that produced by our seed companies is just one example. Drought tolerant crops will become important in areas that either have new drought patterns or have always had them.

This Earth Day let’s get positive and FarmOn by raising #FarmVoices. Farmers are a great place to look if you want to see positive ways we can take care of our land and natural resources. We need to give them more credit than the activists seem to want to do. I’m pretty sure most climate activists are sustaining their bodies by eating the fruits of the land produced by the original environmental activists!

I’m sure many people will disagree with my outlook. Your comments are welcome as long as they stay on topic and offer something new.

Below is the Earth Day Network video. I like the FarmOn video much better.

Ag Groups, Farming

Vilsack: “Farm to Fly” Rural Job Producer

John Davis

vilsack-lahood3Two members of Pres. Obama’s cabinet have signed their names to an agreement that will extend the administration’s commitment to the production of biofuels for use in airplanes, and that should be good news for the rural economy. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood have extended by five years the “Farm to Fly” program, an initiative to partner the USDA and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to help develop a viable biofuel for the aviation industry.

During remarks at the ceremony at the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference (ABLC) near Washington, D.C., Vilsack said this is a real job producer, especially for rural parts of the country.

“By continuing to work together to produce American made ‘drop-in’ aviation fuels from renewable feedstocks, we will create jobs and economic opportunity in rural America, lessen America’s reliance on foreign oil and develop a thriving biofuels industry that will benefit commercial and military enterprises,” Vilsack said. “USDA is pleased to partner with the FAA in our quest to develop alternatives to fossil-based fuel, which is critical to reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment.”

LaHood pointed out that it’s been the hard work of people in attendance at the ABLC that made this agreement even a possibility.

“Through the use of sustainable alternative jet fuels, we are showing the world that we can come together to solve our greatest environmental challenges,” said LaHood.

vilsack-lahood4During a news conference after the signing, Vilsack said that while there are some that want to muddy the waters and try to make it seem as though the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) would hurt farmers and ranchers, he remains one of biofuels’ biggest allies.

“I am positive consumers benefit from this. I am positive that hundreds of thousands of jobs are connected to this industry. And I am positive that it has stabilized farm income,” he said.

Listen to Vilsack and LaHood’s remarks here: Secs. Vilsack and LaHood at ABLC

Audio, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Ethanol, USDA

Zimfo Bytes

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    Zimfo Bytes

  • The nomination window for Monsanto’s America’s Farmers Mom of the Year contest will close April 23rd.
  • DMA Solutions, Inc., a leading marketing agency in the fresh produce industry, announces the promotion of Megan Zweig to Strategic Marketing Director.
  • Bumper ES fungicide has received approval by the EPA for its new state-of-the-art formulation that provides broad-spectrum control of foliar fungal diseases on corn, soybeans, sorghum and other crops.
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed a series of changes to make it easier for agricultural producers and rural small businesses to apply for renewable energy and energy efficiency funding.
Zimfo Bytes

Best in Agricultural Marketing

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 391It’s time for the best in the agricultural marketing world – the 2013 Agri-Marketing Conference. It is quite literally the best since this is where you’ll see the Best of NAMA awards. ZimmComm will be there and you’ll find lots of information being posted right here on AgWired.

NAMA Agri-Marketing Conference 2013In this week’s program we get a preview of some of what you’ll find at an Agri-Marketing Conference. I visited with Jeff Hartz, Wyffels Hybrids, who is the Chair for the Best of NAMA committee. He says it’s the biggest ever!

Then I visited with Bryan Kelley, National FFA Organization, who is Chair for the Trade Show committee. We call the trade show the Connection Point. That’s where you’ll find the ZimmComm team hanging out in booth 402. The Connection Point is just one of the professional networking opportunities provided by this annual conference.

Listen in on what Jeff and Bryan have to say about this week’s event in this week’s ZimmCast: Best in Agricultural Marketing

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

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

Ag Groups, Audio, NAMA, ZimmCast

Zimfo Bytes

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    Zimfo Bytes

  • Monsanto Company and Dow AgroSciences LLC, have reached new cross-licensing agreements for creation of the next generation of advanced weed and insect control technology in corn.
  • The National Pork Producers Council praised the Obama administration for agreeing to accept Japan into the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations.
  • David C. Aeschliman has been named as Cornelius Seed’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
  • AgBiome LLC announced that it has secured $14.5 million in Series A financing that will further advance the company’s research and development programs, and support the launch of the company’s first products.
Zimfo Bytes

Getting to Know Ag Leader

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Insights WeeklyHere is the next in our series as we introduce you to a few of dedicated precision ag equipment dealers in a series called “Getting to Know Ag Leader”.

We caught up with Keith Byerly of Advanced Cropping Systems by CVA in Nebraska.

1. From an agronomy standpoint, what do you consider to be the biggest issues facing growers today?
KeithB[1]
In our part of the world, it still comes down to water. We haven’t had much relief from the drought yet, and are facing water restrictions on irrigation if the drought continues into another growing season. That all being said, we are seeing the market explode when it comes to technologies for soil moisture management and VR Irrigation. To that extent, I think that growers are again going to be faced with a decision that cannot be made too quickly on who to partner with for a provider of this information. From a service provider standpoint, there are so many people out there with a “Me Too Attitude” offering data and prescription services to match the capabilities of the hardware they are selling. We firmly believe the “One Size Fits All” mentality does not work with it comes to working with growers and their data. Just like any other aspect of a growers operation, they need to make sure they find a Precision Ag service provider that understands the whole picture of what they are doing, and customizes programs around them.

2. Tell us about how growers in your area are using precision agriculture.

VR Fertilizer is the standard now, not the option. We are seeing the second generation of VR Seeding come about now as well. What I mean by that is that there were quite a few early adopters who went out and did VR seeding just because they could. They based it on soils maps and called it good. The results were less than great, and they abandoned the technology. Now they are coming back to it again, and this time they are looking for that right service provider to help them design a program. Section control of planters and sprayers was slower to be adapted in this area because we are fortunate enough to farm rectangular and square shaped field for the most part, but they are now the rule rather than the exception. RTK adaptation is really coming on strong now as well, with private CORS networks outpacing radio based systems. And of course automated steering continues to take over the cabs of these machines. We see more systems going into tractors that are more than 20 years old than I could have ever imagined.
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Ag Leader, Agribusiness