Syngenta Builds on Garst® Seed Legacy

Cindy Zimmerman

Even as the Syngenta-owned Garst and Golden Harvest® brands are being launched under the revised Golden Harvest brand, Syngenta intends to uphold the quality, reliability and legacy that have become synonymous with the Garst brand and the Garst Seed Advisor.

“Roswell Garst’s commitment to customers – to be a trusted advisor in addition to a seed dealer – is the very essence of what the Syngenta Seed Advisor network embodies,” said Lori Thomas, customer marketing manager for the dealer channel commercial unit for Syngenta in North America. “Even though the Garst name won’t have the same market presence, the integrity, tradition and history of the company will continue to live on.” Thomas and her husband, Mike, were Garst Seed Advisors for 10 years.

golden-harvestFounded as Garst & Thomas Hi-Bred Corn Company in 1930, the Garst brand has a rich history of bringing many innovative corn solutions to market, from developing herbicide-tolerant hybrids, including the first IMI-corn, to offering European Corn Borer (Bt) control and herbicide tolerance together in one corn hybrid, to transcending borders and taking the new technology to farmers in other countries, including the former Soviet Union.

Since Syngenta acquired the Garst brand in 2004, the company has focused on building a diverse genetic portfolio, using the genetics from the Garst, Golden Harvest and NK® brand breeding programs and incorporating the market-leading line-up of Agrisure® traits. Earlier this year, Syngenta announced the decision to rebrand the existing Garst and Golden Harvest corn seed brands and launch a unified Golden Harvest brand stemmed from ongoing efforts to strengthen and grow the network of Syngenta Seed Advisors.

A new logo and numbering system for Golden Harvest hybrids will be in place for summer 2013 trials and the 2014 planting season. “The new logo brings elements from the Garst legacy as well as the Golden Harvest legacy,” Lori says, stressing that growers who have counted on Garst seed to maximize their yields will still have access to the same high-quality genetics under the Golden Harvest name through their Syngenta Seed Advisor.

Listen to or download my interview with Lori here: Interview with Lori Thomas

Agribusiness, Audio, Corn, Seed, Syngenta

NAFB Watching Washington

Chuck Zimmerman

NAFB Washington WatchIt’s time for National Association of Farm Broadcasting members to gather in Washington, DC for their annual Washington Watch program. It has been a few years since I’ve attended but thanks go out to GROWMARK for making it possible this year!

We’ll kick off activities this afternoon with the Issues Forum. It’s kind of like a mini Trade Talk with representatives of many different organizations attending and available for interviews. I’ll do as many as the time allows and be sharing them with you. The Issues Forum session is sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association. You can find a list of all sponsors here (pdf).

I’m going to miss the evening’s Press Club dinner with a representative of the World Wildlife Fund. Don’t think I’ll be missing much with that.

Tomorrow morning we meet up at USDA and will be speaking with a number of department heads including the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. It looks like Wednesday morning will be all about the Farm Bill as we hear from different members of the Senate and House where their versions of the new legislation are going through mark ups.

So that’s where in the world of agriculture I’ll be this week. See you from there.

GROWMARK, Media, NAFB

BASF to Produce Renewable BDO

Cindy Zimmerman

BASFBASF plans to begin production of 1,4-butanediol based on renewable feedstock (renewable BDO) using the patented process of California-based company Genomatica. The one-step fermentation process is based on sugars as a renewable feedstock.

genomaticaBDO and its derivatives are widely used for producing plastics, solvents, electronic chemicals and elastic fibers. The starting materials for the production of conventional BDO are natural gas, butane, butadiene and propylene. BASF currently produces conventional BDO at facilities around the world and the new agreement will now allow BASF to build a world-scale production facility that will use the Genomatica process to manufacture BDO based on renewable feedstock. Under the terms of the agreement, Genomatica will continue to advance its patented renewable BDO production process technology based on sugars while BASF will produce renewable BDO, which will be available in the second half of 2013 for sampling and trials.

“We chose the Genomatica process because we consider it to be exceptionally advanced and reliable,” said Sanjeev Gandhi, President of BASF Intermediates division, and added: “In line with our ‘We create chemistry’ strategy, we aim to offer renewable BDO and create additional value for our customers, in the plastics, textile and automotive industries.”

Read more here.

Agribusiness, BASF

Invitation to Ag Media Summit

Chuck Zimmerman

2013 Ag Media SummitIf you haven’t registered for the 2013 Agricultural Media Summit then now is the time. To learn what’s being planned I got an update from Steering Committee Chairman, Greg Horstmeier, past AAEA President. We did this during the recent Agri-Marketing Conference. There was no script used. We decided to Just Wing It.

Ag Media Summit, Media, Video

Sharing Media Ideas with Farm Credit

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Credit Idea ShareHere’s the “Meet the New Media” panel at the 2013 Farm Credit Idea Share. More on that in a moment.

But first, to learn more about Idea Share, I spoke with Leigh Picchetti, Senior VP, Communications, Farm Credit Reputation Management Program. She says, “Idea Share is an annual meeting for Farm Credit System employees who have a responsibility within their Farm Credit organization for marketing, communications, public relations, sponsorship and giving and a variety of different reputation management activities.”

Leigh PicchettiI asked her what reputation management means to Farm Credit and she says, “We can’t take for granted the perception of the publics that we serve and the borrower/owners who are at our foundation.” Leigh says they know that they need to earn and keep the trust of those borrowers and owners as well as members of Congress who are their sponsors and the investors who make it possible to raise the capital to serve their customers and owners.

Listen to my interview with Leigh here: Interview with Leigh Picchetti

Now back to the panel. We had an interesting mix with KayDee Gilkey, Northwest Ag Information Network; Dan Looker, Successful Farming; Emily Zweber, AgChat Foundation and myself and moderated by Becca Yaklich, AgriBank. Thanks to James Shaw for photos.

Our panel provided a mix of perspectives on the media landscape of today and how that impacts Farm Credit and the communications professionals attending Idea Share. You can find a number of ideas in the conference tweet stream and here are my notes for my opening remarks. Read More

Agribusiness, Audio, Farm Credit

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

Uniting Partners With One Voice

Jamie Johansen

ncba-logoPartnerships are what the Animal Agriculture Alliance is based on. These partnerships unite the agriculture community, creating one voice. Instead of ‘preaching to the choir,’ attendees at the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit, heard from outside voices and some challenges were presented that made us all think about how we can join together and address them.

I spoke with Chase Adams, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, about their involvement with the Animal Ag Alliance and how they plan to share the message presented at the summit with their producers from across the country.

“National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has been a longtime supporter of the Animal Ag Alliance. We’ve got a member on the board and we believe, as all the groups do, it’s so important that agriculture puts a unified face against those that really want us put out of business and thats animal rights folks. Animal Ag Alliance allows groups like NCBA to join with other groups like pork and even a lot of grain and agribusiness partners around the industry and put that unified voice together and respond to so many of the things we get attacked on.”

Listen to or download my interview with Chase here: Interview with Chase Adams

Check out photos from the event: 2013 Animal Ag Alliance Stakeholders Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit is sponsored by National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Animal Agriculture, Audio, Beef, Food, NCBA

Studying Affects of Weather and Climate on Cattle

Melissa Sandfort

USDA-LogoThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded $19.5 million to support research, education and Extension activities associated with climate solutions in agriculture aimed at the impacts of climate variability and change on dairy and beef cattle. USDA remains focused on carrying out its mission, despite a time of significant budget uncertainty. The announcement is one part of the Department’s efforts to strengthen the rural economy.

The University of Wisconsin (UW) in Madison, Wisconsin, received $9.9 million over five years to study the environmental impact of various dairy production systems and develop best management practices for producers to implement at the farm level. The University of Wisconsin is partnering in the project with the University of Arkansas, Cornell University, the University of Michigan, North Carolina A&T University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Washington, along with four USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) laboratories, the U.S. Department of Energy and the industry-sponsored Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. Oklahoma State University (OSU) in Stillwater, Oklahoma, received $9.6 million over five years to better understand vulnerability and resilience of Southern Great Plains beef in an environment of increased climate variability, dynamic land-use and fluctuating markets.

Agribusiness, Beef, Research, USDA

A Personal Story of Lessons Learned

Jamie Johansen

aaa-13-158-editedThe past can’t be changed, but we can learn from it. That’s what economist, public speaker, farm girl, wife and mom, Janet Hufnagel Thompson, stressed with her message to attendees at the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit. The event focused on how we can protect our animals, our farms, the food we eat and the confidence of consumers.

Janet shared her families fight against environmental groups to save their family farm. Unfortunately, her story doesn’t have a happy ending, but her hope is to educate others by sharing the lessons they learned the hard way. Talking publicly is something she thinks would have changed the outcome of their situation. She stated that if at least have of the people who supported them privately, spoke out publicly then they could have saved the business. But the take home message she wants all to remember is the sanctity of private property.

“The most important thing is the sanctity of private property. Private property owners need to decide what happens on their property and with their business. I think this idea that we need to regulate more to keep the bad actors from being bad doesn’t stop the bad actors. It make it hard for good people to do business. So I think we have to go back to the fundamentals that this country was founded upon, the protection of life, liberty and property. And until we do that, until we go back to treasuring private property and what it truly means, I think we are going to continue to see an erosion and deterioration of circumstances for producers and thats producers of all kinds, not just farmers and ranchers.”

Listen to or download my interview with Janet here: Interview with Janet Thompson

Listen to or download audio from Janet’s complete presentation here: Janet Thompson - Presentation

Check out photos from the event: 2013 Animal Ag Alliance Stakeholders Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit is sponsored by National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Animal Agriculture, Audio, Beef, Food, NCBA, NPPC

Purina Launches Cool Cow App

Talia Goes

CoolCow Mobile App_Store Graphic_114x114The Cool Cow mobile app puts the tools dairy producers need to monitor and address heat stress at their fingertips. Research shows that cows can begin to show the effects of heat stress at a Temperature Humidity Index or THI of 68. Reproduction can be impacted at a THI of 55.[1]

Heat stress and an associated 10 percent to 35 percent milk production loss[2] may cost a dairy producer $1.60 to $5.60 per cow per day.[3] These losses can continue to mount when reductions in reproductive performance and increased days open are added into the equation.

The mobile app features an easy to use heat stress calculator for inputting the current temperature and humidity readings. The temperature and humidity is then translated into a THI reading that shows the severity of heat stress, ranging from mild to extreme risk; providing dairy producers insight on the current conditions inside their barn. In addition to the heat stress calculator, the mobile app offers tips on mitigating heat stress from management to nutrition.

The Cool Cow mobile app is available to download for Android phones at: http://bit.ly/AndriodCoolCow and for iPhones at: http://bit.ly/iPhoneCoolCow.

Agribusiness, Animal Health, Apps, Dairy