From Farm to City

Melissa Sandfort

TeddyRIn the agricultural world, we oftentimes talk about farm to fork, farm to plate, gate to plate, you get the idea. I think it’s imperative that we educate folks who live in the city where their food comes from and about the people who work hard to grow safe, wholesome food for our dinner tables.

But as a mom, I feel of equal importance is teaching my son about how “the other half” lives. We stared that straight in the face last week during a family vacation to New York City. I say vacation with a smirk on my face because after dragging a 4-year-old and 7-month-old through the streets of NYC, I was exhausted!

Two experiences I want to note:
One of our cab drivers was from Africa and after asking where we lived and he learned Kansas and Nebraska, the first words out of his mouth were: Oh, I love those cowboy movies from Kansas! I very much dislike the city and want to move to Kansas and have some land and some cows.

Of all places, Kansas!

The other thing I observed was that on every city block, there were probably at least 20 restaurants. Think of how long it would take to “eat your way through NYC” and never eat at the same place twice.

Yes, Americans like to eat. And without farmers, where would they get their food?

I was thankful to return to the quiet roads of Nebraska and away from the bright lights and crazy traffic. It’s nice to visit and get away to the city for different experiences, but I’ll take my quiet nights any day.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

More Than Simply Killing Dieases

Jamie Johansen

classic-13-jamie-53-editedEveryone knows that fungicides kill diseases, but the message BASF continues to tell growers is that is does much more. Caren Schmidt, Technical Market Manager in corn fungicides for BASF, spoke with me at their booth during Commodity Classic and she was excited to share the feedback she was receiving from attendees.

Headline is our foundation fungicide that has been on the market for a number of years. It has been superior in the marketplace in terms of disease control, as well as plant health benefits, including growth efficiency and stress tolerance. Since the introduction of Headline we’ve introduced new innovations that have improved the consistency and performance of Headline. We now have Headline AMP for corn and Priaxor for soybeans.”

Caren, along with many other BASF crop experts, gathered to answer questions from growers and share information about the additional health benefits from their products. Along with growth efficiency and stress tolerance, Headline products increase photosynthesis, which increases energy and allows for higher yield potential.

“In a general year it is hard to know what the season is going to look like at this point in time, but typically what we are going to see across a large geography in early spring season is anthracnose. And later gray spot, northern corn leaf blight, common and southern rust, depending on what geography you are in. Those are going to be typical diseases that infect the corn during any given growing season.”

Listen to my interview with Caren from here: Interview with Caren Schmidt

2013 Commodity Classic Photo Album

Audio, BASF, Commodity Classic

Bringing Sexy Back to Agriculture

Cindy Zimmerman

The take home theme of the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum this year came to be “bringing sexy back to agriculture.” Which begs the question – when was agriculture sexy before?

bayer-issues-13-youngIf sexy means sustainable, here are a couple of pretty sexy farmers. On the left is the Bayer CropScience 2013 Young Farmer Sustainability Award winner Jeremy Jack of Mississippi and next to him is the 2012 winner John Shepherd of Virginia.

John was on a panel at the recent Bayer Ag Issues Forum to talk about how he does things differently on his corn, wheat and soybean operation where taking care of the soil is most important to him. “My goal is to get it in better shape for future generations,” he said. “So I sow aerial cover crops – plant cover crops in plants already standing. I’ll fly rye on in soybeans that are standing so there’s already a cover crop growing when I cut the beans.”

Listen to some of John’s comments on the panel here: Virginia farmer John Shepherd

Jeremy is a partner in an 8500 acre operation growing cotton, corn, soybeans, rice and wheat. He currently serves as President of the Mississippi Soybean Association, and formally worked in Washington, D.C., under U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran during 2008 Farm Bill negotiations. After college, he returned to the family’s farm rather than pursuing a career in agricultural policy.

Jeremy said talking about sustainability is less important than doing something about it. “Our method of sustainability is sustainability in action,” Jeremy said. “With outreach and education we can make sustainability interesting.” And sexy too.

Listen to Jeremy’s comments here: Mississippi farmer Jeremy Jack

Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer, Farming, Sustainability

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Talia Goes

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Will the sequester monster impact you personally?”

Our poll results: Fifty-two percent said No it will not impact you. Twenty-one percent said Yes, Major Impact, seventeen percent said Yes, Minor Impact, and ten percent said I Don’t Know. So most of you do not expect to be affected by the sequester monster. Wonder what all the fuss was about.

chart

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Have you recently purchased a gun?” The Second Amendment states that you have the “right to keep and bear arms.” Do you practice that right? Has all the talk about new gun laws stimulated you to go out an purchase that gun you’ve been wanting? Let us know.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by New Holland Agriculture.

ZimmPoll

Agriblogging Tool

Chuck Zimmerman

Tascam DR-05I just got a new tool in my awesome arsenal of agriblogging and farmpodcasting. It’s a Tascam DR-05 Handheld Digital Recorder and it will be out and about with me starting next week at National Ag Day activities. Here’s some information about it for you agnerds:

The TASCAM DR-05 handheld portable recorder records in MP3 or WAV format (including 96kHz/24-bit high-resolution audio) to microSD or microSDHC media. A pair of built-in condenser microphones handles up to 125dB SPL with the sensitivity to capture every detail, and you can add your own microphone or line-level source through the 1/8” stereo input, including plug-in power for microphones that need it. The DR-05’s digital and analog circuit boards are built separately to decrease noise performance, with a low-impedance design to further decrease hiss. A separate power supply is sent to the A/D and D/A converter for even better audio performance. The result is clean sound quality with over 92dB signal to noise ratio, under 0.05% total harmonic distortion and 20Hz to 40kHz response (-1/+3dB) at 96kHz/24-bit resolution.

The Tascam DR-05 is currently on sale for a great price at BSW USA.

Equipment, Podcasts

Dupont Pioneer Press Conference

Chuck Zimmerman

Pioneer Press ConferenceDupont Pioneer held a news conference at the recent Commodity Classic to introduce a new set of services.

The focus of the press conference was the new Pioneer Field360 services. These new services are meant to help farmers increase productivity and profitability by providing more control of field-by-field data without having to become a technical expert.

Pioneer Field360The Pioneer Field360 Services include agronomic decision support tools which are ready for this growing season. They include Pioneer Field360 Notes which streamlines and organizes field-by-field agronomic information among the farmer and Dupont Pioneer agronomists and sales professionals. It is mobile access ready by being compatible with iPad, iPhone and Android devices. There’s also a Plantability App to scan seed tags to indicate suggested planter settings.

Also coming later this season will be Pioneer Field360 Select which is a mobile subscription service. Like the others this service is mobile device compatible.

Listen to or download the Dupont Pioneer press conference here: Dupont Pioneer Press Conference

2013 Commodity Classic Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Commodity Classic, Pioneer, Precision Agriculture

Protecting Wheat in 2013

Jamie Johansen

classic-13-jamie-94-editedBASF brought out all the stops when it came to educating attendees at this year’s Commodity Classic. Whether growers had questions about herbicides, fungicides or simply wanted to hear the latest research, experts were on hand to give answers.

I chatted with Dr. Brianne Reeves, Technical Marketing Specialist with the BASF’s Plant Health Fungicide group. Wheat was the main topic we covered and she shared what products BASF offers farmers to protect their crop. She also shared what growers might expect when it comes to diseases in the 2013 growing season and what is in the research stages at BASF.

“We are actually seeing a mild winter in the south and generally all the rust starts in the south and then they go up in the ‘Rust Pathway.’ They go up in the wind and they move north. The leaf rust and stripe rust could possibly be bad again this year because we have had a mild winter. Having Twinline in that portfolio at flag leaf is a really good tool to have to protect your wheat crop.”

“We have with Priaxor fungicide our newest innovation into the row crop market. We are doing some research on that product to show the increased root growth, increased photosynthesis and increased plant health Priaxor is actually bringing to the wheat market.”

Listen to my interview with Brianne from here: Interview with Brianne Reeves

2013 Commodity Classic Photo Album

Audio, BASF, Commodity Classic, Wheat

Converting from AFS/PFS to SMS Software

Melissa Sandfort

Insights WeeklyPrecision ag software … it’s necessary but can be, at times, daunting and confusing. There’s so much data growers need to compile and store from year to year, and data has really become a necessity versus a “perk” because it brings all of the information together in one place where growers can pencil out and see the value from the information and map out where their highest ROI potential lies.

CNH to SMS Conversion_v2

Luke James, Ag Leader SMS software sales manager, says Ag Leader now has the capabilities to convert current CNH users over to the Ag Leader SMS software system. Listen as he explains why data software is important to any grower’s operation.

Listen to James explain

ImportToSMSGraphicGrowers are accustomed to the CNH system and will be happy to know that converting is only a matter of a few button clicks. It’s the same software, same interface, and same technical support that comes along with it, just a different logo. Listen to James as he explains more about conversion benefits.

Listen to James explain

Read more about converting to SMS software here and to begin the process, call Ag Leader’s tech support at 515-232-5363 ext. 1 or email smsunlocks@agleader.com.

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.

Ag Leader

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

Getting Educated About Nozzles

Jamie Johansen

classic-13-jamie-95-editedThe ever-changing world of technology can be a little overwhelming and since farming is full of technology, it is very understandable that growers across the country could use some extra education. BASF listened to growers when they admitted that they didn’t always feel comfortable with the new technology and partnered with Bob Wolf to bring them On Target Application Academy.

Bob has a long history studying the application process at the university level. His research has focused on nozzles and selecting the correct nozzle for different jobs. During the recent Commodity Classic, Bob was busy talking with growers passing through the BASF booth about the On Target Application Academy. Attendees had the opportunity to ask questions and see first hand the effects of different nozzles.

“BASF was interested in taking a message to the growers to help them understand a better way to apply crop protection products so we wouldn’t have some of the drift issues that we have today. And do a better job controlling the targeted pest and specifically the weeds for the herbicide program.”

“The course began in 2013. We had around 20 meetings and we talked to about 2,000 applicators. Essentially what we are doing in those programs, wherever they might be – field days or in conjunction with a scheduled meeting, is taking anywhere from one to two hours training. Talking about nozzle application and the proper selection of spray nozzles. The focus to that attention is how can they increase their application efficiency, have more control over the pest they are shooting for and reduce spray drift.”

If you are interested in attending an On Target Application Academy, contact your local BASF representative to find out where the closest event is scheduled.

Listen to my interview with Bob from here: Interview with Bob Wolf

2013 Commodity Classic Photo Album

Audio, BASF, Commodity Classic, Education