Get More of Ag Leader’s Insights Magazine!

Melissa Sandfort

Insights Weekly

Want to know more about the SMS software learning curve, or how Ag Leader products help farmers produce a variety of vegetables, in addition to corn and soybeans, or how tile drainage brings the water table down and yields up? You can find it all, and more, in Ag Leader’s Insights Magazine.

“We want our customers to know that the people who are working on developing these new products are the same types of people they are,” says Lori Costello, Ag Leader Marketing Communications Manager. “A lot of Ag Leader employees either come from a farming background or are currently actively involved in farming. They are key to helping growers learn about their products and be able to keep them maintained and doing what they want them to do out in the field.”

Listen to Costello explain

AgLeader-Insights-Winter.pdfPrecision ag isn’t a “one size fits all” product, and Costello says Insights hopes to open up growers’ minds to the possibilities of different farming practices and uses of precision ag technology outside of their own geographic region.

Listen to Costello explain

So what kind of content will Insights deliver in 2013? Listen to more from Costello.

Listen to Costello explain

And, the magazine had such a great response after its first three issues in 2012 that they’ve added a fourth, making it a FREE quarterly magazine. Growers can either view Insights online (http://www.agleader.com/subscription/) or sign up to have a free copy mailed to their home or business.

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, Agribusiness, Audio

Protecting Your Crop Yield Potential

Chuck Zimmerman

Monsanto Roundup Ready PlusMonsanto is suggesting that farmers get proactive with early-season weed control as we near the 2013 season.

As farmers head into 2013, it’s never too soon to plan for spring planting. That’s why Monsanto is encouraging planned, proactive steps to prevent and manage resistant and tough-to-control weeds. That means putting down residual herbicides, according to Chris Reat, Monsanto marketing manager.

“A farmer has to have residual herbicides and overlapping modes of action with residuals for weed control in today’s cropping systems,” says Reat. “Weed competition at planting can make it more difficult to get a crop established. Additionally, weeds damaged by the planter are often harder to kill with later herbicide applications. With proper planning and a proactive management approach using residual herbicides, farmers can achieve effective, economical weed control throughout the season.”

Using residual herbicides in combination with Roundup® agricultural herbicides provides multiple modes of action to help reduce the risk of resistant weeds developing. Research shows that soybean farmers can realize a two- to three-bushel-per-acre greater yield advantage when weed management programs include the use of residual herbicides.

“Ultimately, when you apply residual herbicides in front of soybeans, you take care of a lot of problems before they come out of the ground. Being proactive in this way is the most impactful value that Roundup Ready PLUS™ Weed Management Solutions provides,” explains Reat.

These and other weed management recommendations are part of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready PLUS Weed Management Solutions. Roundup Ready PLUS offers integrated and diverse management practices for weeds developed in conjunction with leading academics, agronomists and other industry partners for control of all your weeds, including tough-to-manage and glyphosate-resistant weeds. Roundup Ready PLUS also offers financial incentives to help farmers offset the cost of qualifying residual herbicides and other weed management resources.

For more information, please visit www.RoundupReadyPLUS.com.

Agribusiness, Farming, weed management

Managing Your Equipment Maintenance

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 379There are lots of companies that have developed products or services without realizing how valuable they may be to the agricultural industry. In this week’s program we’ll meet one of them, eMaint Enterprises. I had an enjoyable conversation yesterday with Rona Palmer.

emaint logoWhen it comes to farming, eMaint offers farmers a system to keep track of equipment maintenance and it can be scaled from a one user, one tractor operation to a very large fleet operation. The first thing I learned is what CMMS stands for (see below). Rona says the system is very user friendly and that you don’t need a degree in computer management to use their service. Service plans start at $40/month. The service is managed by web browser access which you can do from any internet connected computer or tablet or smartphone. Find out some of the ways eMaint is helping a farmer’s bottom line in this week’s program.

eMaint Enterprises has been providing innovative CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Software) solutions since 1986. eMaint was one of the first CMMS providers to develop a completely web-based “Software as a Service” (SaaS) model for more rapid implementation at a lower total cost of ownership.

Our growing client-base consists of over 16,000 users worldwide across 1,000 sites ranging from small & medium sized organizations to Fortune 500 corporations including manufacturers, service providers, fleet operators, energy and utility companies, health care facilities, universities, municipalities, and facility and property managers, among others.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: Maintain Your Equipment with eMaint

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.

Audio, Equipment, Precision Agriculture, Technology, ZimmCast

From Celery to Corn

Melissa Sandfort

celeryI live in the Midwest, which means I’m accustomed to seeing corn and soybean fields that stretch for miles. About 10 years ago I went on a tour to Canada and when we were in the test plots, I was “ooing and awing” over canola while other attendees were thrilled to see field corn. Once you get outside your own state’s borders, it’s amazing what the world of agriculture has to offer.

Over the years, I’ve learned about grape harvesters, took a cotton tour in Mississippi (even flew in a crop duster!), seen a pecan grove, visited a strawberry farm (they should’ve weighed us before and after because I swear I ate 10 pounds of strawberries!) and even rode on a tomato harvester. Needless to say, when I got off that thing, I wished I hadn’t worn a light colored shirt.

But the way we grow and harvest our food in this country is a thing of beauty. The technology behind it all … like the optic “eye” that detects a tomato’s color and kicks the green ones back off into the field as quality control; or the GPS equipment that allows growers to vary the rate at which they apply pesticides and nitrogen to a corn field. It’s amazing.

My uncle just had the opportunity to travel to Florida with BASF as a Nebraska representative where he went to A. Duda Farms. The tour group saw celery, cabbage, sweet corn and sugarcane being harvested. For the celery, they cut it right in the field, trim it to the purchaser’s needs, rinse it, put it in the bag, box it, and it is on its way to stores across the country. As they were harvesting, another crew was replanting the crop to replace what was harvested.

I’ve never seen a celery or sugarcane field but would like to someday.

So do you know where your food comes from? Do you appreciate the farmers who have grown that food for you? Did you also know we have one of the most affordable food sources in the world, right here in our own back yards? Be nice to those farmers – they grow what keeps us going.

Until we walk again …

* Photo courtesy of Dan Shaw.

Uncategorized

AgFanatics Market Talk

Cindy Zimmerman

agfanatics-2Cory Winstead and Nick Klump with AgriVisor have a new AgFanatics podcast discussing export and domestic demand along with other market related topics. The guys also touch on evaluating your marketing plan setting targets and reevaluate the plan. Also we learn about not only one but two things Nick does in his spare time.

Listen here – AgFanatics #8 - Market Talk

AgFanatics can be found on Itunes or right from the front page at www.agrivisor.com.

Audio, GROWMARK

How Many Machines are on Your Farm?

Talia Goes

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Should we sit down with HSUS in ‘common cause’?”

The results of this poll are skewed due to the hacking by HSUS. In the end, the poll read that eighty one percent voted Definitely, fifteen percent said Never, and four percent thought we Should in some cases. The attempt to affect our poll reflects the HSUS/PETA goal of an end to animal agriculture. They are working to get the livestock industry to make concessions that drastically change production methods. When that happens it becomes a very slippery slope very quickly. It will only be a short matter of time before allowing chickens more room in cages becomes allowing all animals the right to life. Treating animals humanely is not the same as treating them like they are humans – but many activists see no difference.

The hacking we are referring to was having almost 400 poll responses to the Definitely answer come in during a few hours one night last week and none since. If you take them out, the answer Never would have been the highest result by far.

1.23.12graph

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “How many machines (tractors, etc.) does your farm own?” Some of the urban folk believe that if you own more than 1-2 pieces of machinery, that would classify you as a large farmer. We disagree with that. So let’s see how many pieces of equipment most farmers/ranchers own. Let us know!

ZimmPoll is sponsored by New Holland Agriculture.

Animal Activists, Animal Agriculture, ZimmPoll

Activists Fail to Disrupt AgChat

Chuck Zimmerman

Last night’s AgChat topic was animal welfare. You can find some good information on animal welfare here. Apparently the animal rights activists got word of it and rallied their troops to try to disrupt the regular weekly conversation. In fact, the outreach coordinator at HSUS sent out an alert which I saw a copy of . It was pathetic to see. Very PETA-like IMO. He even sent out a form tweet for them to use. Here is one that was used. This same tweet was posted by numerous individuals who I am sure had absolutely no idea what they are doing.

Post Update: You can now see the archive of last night’s AgChat here.

Bottom line is that their tactic didn’t work. AgChat was moderated last night by founder Michele Payn-Knoper and she handled the situation professionally, calmly and in a very classy way. I say classy because it was such a contrast to the wacktivists and their tweets and complete refusal to participate in a way that allows for genuine interaction.

This effort comes right after a similar effort we’ve seen in the last week regarding our report on Ag Secretary Vilsack’s HSUS remark at the American Farm Bureau annual mtg. and attempt to disrupt our latest ZimmPoll. There is no common ground with these folks and fortunately they are a very small but vocal minority. However, the militant vegans at HSUS/PETA have conned a lot of money out of people by playing on their emotions. They are using that money to impact legislation to the detriment of farming in America. The lies they tell that I’ve seen in their online posted comments is appalling. I think these folks are becoming more active as they see farmers become more engaged in social media and adept at telling their story. They don’t like their money base to learn the truth about animal agriculture and animal welfare. Hopefully it’s hurting them where it counts, in their pocket book!

Ag Groups

Pioneer Announces New T-Series Soybeans

Chuck Zimmerman

Dupont PioneerDupont Pioneer held a press conference this morning to announce a new series of Pioneer brand soybeans – the T Series (pdf). I participated in the call so you can listen to what was said including opening comments from Don Schafer, soybean marketing manager, and Dr. Jessie Alt, research scientist. It looks like there will be new product available throughout the soybean growing regions. The new soybean line also included a new product numbering system (pdf) similar to that of Pioneer corn products.

A new series of Pioneer® brand soybean products, developed through the innovative DuPont Pioneer Accelerated Yield Technology (AYT™) process, will bring soybean growers across North America a broad range of high yielding varieties. The new line of soybean products – named the T Series – includes 39 new products and will be introduced in this year.

Signaling an exciting new era in soybean production, the T Series supports soybean growers committed to seeking the right product for the right acre on their soybean fields. Available in seven maturity groups, T Series products represent the largest number of soybean varieties advanced in a single year by Pioneer. The new T Series varieties succeed the popular Pioneer Y Series soybeans introduced several years ago.

“The next generation T Series soybean products provides growers a total package that helps them gain the most from every acre,” says Don Schafer, DuPont Pioneer senior marketing manager – soybeans. “A step change from earlier offerings, the T Series is a direct result of the AYT system that allows Pioneer soybean breeders to maximize yield potential, agronomic traits and resistance to yield-robbing pests.”

Listen to Don describe this new product launch here: Don Schafer Remarks

Listen to Jessie talk about the AYT system here: Jessie Alt Remarks

You can also listen to and/or download the full press conference call here: Pioneer T-Series Press Call

Agribusiness, Audio, Pioneer, Seed

New Look for Precision Pays

Chuck Zimmerman

Precision.AgWired.comLast night we launched a new look for PrecisionPays.com, the industry’s source for news and information about precision agriculture.

If you’re new to Precision Pays please consider subscribing. This is the RSS feed. Just use your favorite feed reader software to subscribe to it. We are also producing a Precision Pays Podcast on a regular basis. Here’s the link to subscribe to it (iTunes recommended).

Let’s not forget following Precision Pays on Twitter and liking it on Facebook.

Let us know what you think. We always appreciate feedback. Thank you!

Precision Agriculture

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Iowa Farm Bureau Federation is pleased to welcome Andrew Wheeler as their new Public Relations Coordinator.
  • FCS Financial is offering up to 35 scholarships valued at $1,000 each to encourage and support higher education.
  • Beck’s Hybrids is pleased to announce the purchase of Imboden Farms in central Ohio.
  • Dairy Farmers of America’s Board of Directors and management announced the Cooperative has reached a settlement agreement in the class action lawsuit against DFA in the southeastern United States.
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