USFRA Announces Four Fresh Faces of Farming

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) has announced four Faces of Farming & Ranching chosen from on-line voting and a panel of judges.

The four represent a range of agricultural commodities including corn and soybeans, hogs, cattle, and dairy and they were chosen from nine finalists announced last month at the New York Food Dialogues. The winners will act as national spokespeople, and will share stories and experiences on a national stage to help answer consumers’ questions about how food is grown and raised to feed our nation.

During an announcement this morning, each of them gave their views about what they believe is the most important story for agriculture to share.

usfra-chinnChris Chinn of Clarence, Missouri is a 5th generation farmer with her husband Kevin, his parents and brother raising hogs, cattle, hay and row crops. “I think it’s more important for us to listen to the concerns that people have about how food is produced so we can have a more open dialogue,” Chris said.

usfra-gilmerWill Gilmer and his father own/operate a dairy farm in Lamar County, Alabama that has been in continuous operation since the early 1950s. “It’s important that we help people understand what the new things we’re doing are, why we’re doing them and how it’s beneficial to them in giving them great choices at the grocery store,” said Will.

usfra-prattKatie Pratt and her husband Andy (7th generation farmer) and their two children raise corn, soybeans and seed corn in Dixon, Illinois in partnership with Andy’s family. “One of the stories that needs to be told is that we are families operating businesses,” said Katie.

usfra-stoneBo Stone jointly owns P & S Farms in Rowland, NC with his wife Missy and his parents where they grow corn, wheat and soybeans, hogs and cattle, as well as strawberries and sweet corn that are sold at their own roadside market. “We are all consumers of our products and I’d like for everyone to know that we’re in this together,” he said.

Listen to those comments in response to a question by farm broadcaster Jeff Nalley: USFRA Faces of Farming

Find out more about the winners here or watch this video to learn more about them.

Livestock, Pork, USFRA

AgriVisor Has AgFanatics Podcast

Cindy Zimmerman

agfanaticsCory Winstead and Nick Klump are AgFanatics and they are not afraid to tell the world about it.

AgFanatics is a new podcast from AgriVisor.com, an agricultural advisory firm that is part of the GROWMARK family of companies, and Cory and Nick are the happy hosts making stuff like Farm Bill, Fiscal Cliff, the river situation, marketing and USDA reports fun and interesting!

“You will notice we have a good time doing what we do,” Cory says. “The best part of this is we are starting to get a good number of listeners in just our short month of doing this.”

AgFanatics can be found on Itunes or right from the front page at www.agrivisor.com. It is a 15-20 min program updated on Tuesdays and Thursdays that touches on a variety of agricultural topics. We will be featuring them here on AgWired as well.

Here is the latest one: AgFanatics #7 - Risk Management Tools

Audio, Farming, GROWMARK

Poll Hijacking

Cindy Zimmerman

The question of whether agriculture should sit down with groups like HSUS to find “common cause” is our poll question this week on AgWired.com and while the answers had at first been running well against such dialogue, the poll has now been “hijacked” by HSUS supporters voting in favor. Overnight last week, the poll received nearly 400 responses in the affirmative – and some of the comments of those supporters show exactly why all of agriculture should be very afraid of their agenda.

“Let animals be animals, not commodities.”
“Stop the torture and Killing of the animals.”
“People should just stop eating animals period – there’s no such thing as humane murder.”

The ultimate agenda is obvious – the end to animal agriculture. Once the livestock industry begins to make concessions to animal rights activists that drastically change production methods 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.

This website is very well-read by animal activist individuals. We have an obligation to not just defend, but educate. We get lots of comments on our posts about topics like this and it is important for the agriculture community to use this forum for intelligent dialogue and healthy debate. Sometimes it’s easier to just call them wackos and be done with it, but better still to rationally explain that livestock producers know way more about how to care for their animals than HSUS does, and we really like to eat meat!

Do you think agriculture can find “common cause” with HSUS?

Animal Activists, Animal Agriculture, ZimmPoll

Iowa Wind Energy Day Attracts Good Crowd

Joanna Schroeder

branstad-iwea-13January 16, 2013 was Iowa Wind Energy Day, and dozens of companies showcased their wind energy technologies to Iowa Governor Terry Branstad along with state legislators. The second annual event was hosted by the Iowa Wind Energy Association (IWEA). Branstad gave remarks as part of the program, and congratulated IWEA for its fifth year of continuous operations. “You sure have done a lot to make Iowa a better place these last five years,” said Brandstad who was recently the chairman of the Governor’s Wind Energy Coalition. “And you have build an impressive membership of nearly 200 members representing all aspects of wind energy.”

“As governor way back in 1983, my first in office, I had the honor of signing the first renewable generation portfolio. And as a result of that, we now have over 20 other states that have copied Iowa’s law,” noted Branstad.

Branstad said that Iowa remains a “real leader” in installation and capacity. Iowa is number one in its electricity produced by wind exceeding 20 percent, more than any other state. “Something we can be very proud of,” he said. “We’re first in the number of wind energy related manufacturing facilities and wind related businesses as well. Perhaps the most important impact wind has had on our state is high quality, good paying jobs and also been a good source of rental income for our farmers,” continued Branstad.

Wind farm development and wind energy manufacturing has attracted an estimated $10 billion of capital investment to Iowa and over $4 billion in increased property tax valuation in the past few years. Iowa landowners are receiving almost $20 million annually in land lease payments. Further development will add billions more in capital investment, thousands of good paying jobs, millions of dollars in annual landowner lease payments and billions of added property tax valuation, according to IWEA.

Listen to Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad’s full remarks here: Iowa Wind Energy Day

See the 2013 Iowa Wind Energy Day Photo Album.

 

Agribusiness, Audio

BASF Working Against Weed Resistance

Cindy Zimmerman

basf-13-lukeOne of the facts presented at last week’s BASF grower symposium that surprised me was that only about half the growers in this country are concerned about weed resistance. But, BASF Herbicide Technical Market Manager Luke Bozeman says that has increased tremendously in recent years and will keep increasing. “We’re seeing a greater recognition of the impact of resistant weeds and those growers that haven’t yet experienced it are learning from their neighbors that it can be a problem,” he said.

Because of that, BASF Crop Protection has been very proactive in getting new sites of action (SOA) on the market for growers to fight resistance and now has half of the current 24 registered SOAs. “Quite a range of products that can be utilized to control weeds on the growers’ fields,” he said.

Luke explains more in this interview: Luke Bozeman, BASF

basf-13-arnellWe talk about sites and modes of action when it comes to weed control, but BASF’s Greg Arnell says they are not the same. “We often use those interchangeably and that’s not right,” Greg explained. “Mode of action tells you how a herbicide kills a weed, site of action tells you where the herbicide kills the weed, what target site it’s actually hitting.”

Greg says BASF has the MOST sites of action in the industry, the STRONGEST herbicides and the most FLEXIBLE. Among the herbicides BASF offers are those powered by Kixor, including Verdict, Optill and Sharpen.

Listen to my interview with Greg here: Greg Arnell, BASF

BASF Grower Symposium Photo Album

Audio, BASF, Crop Protection, weed management

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Cotton, RFA, Zimfo Bytes

Book Review – Remember Roscoe Filburn

Joanna Schroeder

I recently read the book “Remember Roscoe Filburn,” by Douglas J. Lising. I felt that there was a bit of a bait and switch going on but in reality, I guess I just wasn’t paying enough attention. The premise of the book is to revise the Commerce Clause and the basis for Lising’s argument was in 1941, the Commerce Clause was used to force a small Ohio wheat farmer named Roscoe Filburn to burn his crops.

Remember Roscoe FilburnAs the story goes, during this time, the federal government was regulating wheat farming under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938. The purpose of the Act was to regulate wheat prices by setting quotas on the amounts of wheat produced by farmers. Filburn’s allotment was established at 11.1 acres at a yield of 20.1 bushels per acre (my, hasn’t the industry come along way in production). Despite being told of his allotment, Filburn plated 23 acres and thus harvested 239 bushels of wheat in excess of his allotment. As a result, the government ordered Filburn to destroy his entire crop and pay a fine.

The long and short of it was the federal government argued that under the Commerce Clause, Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce, and agricultural production fell under interstate commerce. Filburn argued that his wheat production did not fall under interstate commerce because it never entered the national marketplace because it the wheat was grown for his personal use. Ultimately, Filburn lost his case.

Lising argues that this is a gross overstepping of the federal government, who today uses this clause to regulate farm and crop subsidies, utility pricing to environmental control and regulations. He says that we need to take back control from the government, and the first step is to propose and ratify a new amendment, the Twenty-eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This amendment, he writes, will curtail the power of the federal government and strengthen the independence of the states.

While I agree that the government seems to be a disaster these days (just look at the past two years where they have literally been unable to “balance the budget”) I don’t agree with Lising’s proposed Twenty-eighth Amendment. While he admits he is no scholar, he says his goal is to create a dialogue and awareness regarding the government’s overreach of power, and this he does. However,  all in all, I don’t recommend this book unless you are willing to take a similar radical stance to Lising.

Agribusiness, Wheat

IFAJ Meeting During International Green Week

Chuck Zimmerman

IFAJ at Green WeekIt is time for International Green Week in Berlin, Germany. That means that many members of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists are their and having their own meetings. It has been several years since I’ve had the opportunity to attend this massive show.

Thanks to Riitta Mustonen for sharing this photo on Facebook with a description of the seminar she is attending.

IFAJ Freedom of the press seminar going on. Oliver Vujovic (in the middle): “If you have a dangerous information, don’t try to be a star. Share your information with colleagues. Then it doesn’t help if they kill you, the info is already spread.”

“In every country you can increace democracy, and it is the work of journalists.”

IFAJ, Media

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Syngenta launched a landmark e-licensing platform to provide plant breeders and researchers with easy access to patented native traits from its commercial vegetable varieties.
  • Monty’s Plant Food Company launched a redesigned website this month to enhance overall customer experience.
  • The U.S. Department of Education has appointed a highly experienced and accomplished education professional to help develop, implement and manage policy for the National FFA Organization.
  • CIC & NCBA mobile app for the Cattle Industry Convention & Trade Show is now available for download.
Cattle Industry Conference, FFA, Syngenta, Zimfo Bytes

Together We Are Ag Leader

Melissa Sandfort

Insights WeeklyAn end user’s most important resource is their precision farming dealer. Ag Leader recognizes the importance of their dealer network and that’s why, in 2013, we’re going to introduce you to a few of those dedicated professionals in a series called “Getting to Know Ag Leader”.

To kick things off, we caught up with Todd Peterson of Peterson Ag service in Remington, Indiana:

1. From an agronomy standpoint, what do you consider to be the biggest issues facing growers today?
Being able to maximize profit from every acre by controlling input cost, managing pests and diseases, applying what the crop needs and analyzing data to make good decisions.

ToddPeterson2. Tell us about how growers in your area are using precision agriculture.
In my area of row crop corn and soybean production, growers have seen the benefit of many things from precision agriculture from guidance to machine control. SeedCommand and DirectCommand have been big to help reduce seed and input costs, while maximizing yield. Guidance has also played a large part, allowing my growers to cover more acres more efficiently. With the addition of Intellislope, it allows my growers to improve drainage and make these acres more productive.

3. What benefits are growers seeing by using precision ag on their farms? Give us some examples.
With the use of SeedCommand and clutch control, growers have been able to reduce seed cost from overplanting end rows and point rows. In turn, this has increased yield on end rows. With the use of guidance, growers are able to cover more acres in a day with less overlap and skip, as well as less operator fatigue, which allows them to be more productive.

4. What do you believe is on the horizon when it comes to technology and agriculture?
Since technology is an ever-evolving thing, I can’t wait to see what’s next. As we have the ability to better understand and analyze the data we collect, and manage our operations to maximize yield and reduce costs, the possibilities are great.

5. What’s your best piece of advice to a grower who might be looking at using precision ag products?
My best advice for a grower starting to use precision ag, or one that has been using it for a while, is to work with a trusted advisor that has the grower’s interest in mind. As technology moves fast, you have to have a plan of where you are and where you are wanting to go. Precision ag products are great IF you know how to use them and they fit and work for your operation.

Check back next month to “Get to Know” another Ag Leader dealer!

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