USPOULTRY Announces New Chairman

Jamie Johansen February 5, 2013

The passing of the “working man’s gavel” once again took place during the International Poultry Expo, now part of the International Production & Processing Expo. This year’s new U.S. Poultry and Egg Association chairman is James Adams, President and CEO of Wenger Feeds.

James has a long history in the poultry industry working in egg production, feed manufacturing, transportation, purchasing and sales and marketing. He has also served on the USPOULTRY board of directors since 2002.

Other newly elected officers:
Vice Chairman – Elton Maddox, Wayne Farms
Treasurer – Sherman Miller, Cal-Maine Foods
Secretary – Paul Hill, West Liberty Foods
Immediate Past Chairman – Mark Waller, Ingram Farms

U.S. Poultry & Egg Association is an all-feather organization representing the complete spectrum of today’s poultry industry, with a focus on progressively serving member companies through research, education, communication, and technical assistance. Founded in 1947, U.S. Poultry & Egg Association is based in Tucker, GA.

You can find photos from the event here:International Production & Processing Expo Photo Album

IPPE, Poultry, Poultry Expo

Three Pillars of Headline Plant Health

Cindy Zimmerman February 5, 2013

Growers at the recent BASF Crop Protection “Fields of Innovation” symposium heard from Technical Market Specialist Dr. Jennifer Holland about the three pillars of plant health – disease control, growth efficiency and stress tolerance, and how Headline fungicide plays a role in those.

“Headline fungicide really controls the pathogen in a preventative manner,” she explained, adding it keeps the pathogen from germinating and getting through the surface of the plant.

As far as the growth efficiency portion of the equation, Jennifer said Headline helps increase photosynthesis by up to 20 percent. “Even one of the growers spoke to that today: the longer you can keep your crop green, the better your potential is at the end of the season.”

And finally, the better the plant grows, the better its roots are, helping the third pillar: stress tolerance. “Stress tolerance and growth efficiency are actually related to one another by photosynthesis,” Jennifer said. She added that during heat and drought, the openings on the leaf surfaces will shut down, stressing the plant by building up heat in it… much like when car windows are shut on a hot day. Headline helps make sure those openings, stomates, stay open, allowing for a free flow of air and gases in and out of the plant.

Listen to an interview with Jennifer here: Dr. Jennifer Holland, BASF

BASF Grower Symposium Photo Album

Audio, BASF, Crop Protection, Farming

AG CONNECTers Invited to Agritechnica in Fall

John Davis February 4, 2013

The recent AG CONNECT Expo gave farmers across the U.S. a chance to see the latest in American agriculture. But if you want a more international feel, you might want to check out what next November’s Agritechnica in Hanover, Germany has to offer.

“Usually in America, you meet Americans. But when you go outside, especially to this #1 show [Agritechnica], you meet people from Russia, China, South America, and from every spot of the world, and they’re bringing their most topical innovations,” said Peter Grothues, Managing Director of DLG, Germany’s agricultural society.

With four million square feet of exhibition space and some 2,500 exhibitors from more than 100 countries, Peter said it is a great gathering of innovation and education. He urged attendees to plan to spend at least two-three days visiting… and maybe more time if you want to see some farms and sites in Germany.

More information is available at www.agritechnica.com.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Peter here: Interview with Peter Grothues

2013 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio

John Deere Recognized for Machine Sync Excellence

John Davis February 4, 2013

At the recent AG CONNECT Expo, John Deere was recognized for its efforts picking up an AE50 Gold Medal. Kathy Michael, Senior Product Manager, Intelligent Solutions Group for John Deere, explained to Chuck what their Machine Sync, which won the award, can do.

“What [Machine Sync does is allow] the combine to control the tractor of the grain cart and can do on-the-go unloading much more efficiently and eliminate some of that human error,” Kathy said. She added that U.S. custom harvesters, who are meeting in connection with AG CONNECT, have had good reactions to the product. “They’re really excited about the efficiency, especially since often their crews change year-to-year, so they’re able to make sure they have a little bit more logistics optimization in the field by being able to connect the combine to the tractor.”

Machine Sync is available now from John Deere dealers, and Kathy added they are really excited what the next fall will bring.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Kathy here: Interview with Kathy Michael

2013 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, John Deere

Understanding the Connections at IPPE

Jamie Johansen February 4, 2013

Connecting the interests of the poultry industry sums of the theme Novus International adopted for this year’s International Production & Processing Expo held earlier this week in Atlanta, GA.

Today’s poultry industry faces multiple and often contradictory challenges to profitability. Between managing margins and servicing customers, every stakeholder in the supply chain is working to meet financial metrics, strict quality expectations and dynamic market demands.

Novus recognizes these challenges and is here to help turn them into opportunity. From our unique position, we understand the perspective of all stakeholders and can facilitate the connections needed to solve problems and meet customer demands.

During the event I talked with Scott Hine, Vice President of Product Management Operation for Novus. Scott shared how their goal is to challenge their processers to not only think about the feed mill and poultry operations, but to think of all operations and connect the dots between them.

Check out my complete interview with Scott: Interview with Scott Hine

You can find photos from the event here:International Production & Processing Expo Photo Album

Audio, IPPE, Novus International, Poultry, Video

Farm Policy Facts Relaunches Education Campaign

Talia Goes February 4, 2013

A diverse coalition of agricultural organizations that came together during the 2008 Farm Bill debate under the name Farm Policy Facts announced that they are stepping up education activities during the 113th Congress.

Farm Policy Facts will communicate with the media and members of Congress via regular email alerts that will include a mix of farm policy news, detailed analysis and case studies of farm policy in action. Former journalists and legislative experts – including Rene Pastor, a longtime commodities reporter with Reuters, and Tom Sell, a former Hill aide and USDA official and cofounder and managing partner of Combest, Sell & Associates, LLC. – will be regular contributors.

Agribusiness, Education, Farm Bill, Farm Policy, USDA

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes February 4, 2013

Mathews Company a global manufacturer of high quality, innovative agricultural equipment, promoted Joseph Shulfer to President.
Laurie Ovesen won the 2012 Drive Green Challenge grand prize of a John Deere 1023E Sub-Compact Utility Tractor with loader and box blade from Washington Tractor in Sumner.
Valent U.S.A. Corporation is pleased to announce that Jim Petta has been promoted to manager of its biorational business unit.
The new normal for animal feed costs will be at least $5 corn and $300 soybean meal according to Thomas Elam of FarmEcon who spoke at the Meat and Poultry Research Conference.

Zimfo Bytes

Great American Wheat Harvest Documentary

Chuck Zimmerman February 4, 2013

Here’s a great project to show your support for. It’s a film documentary in production now called The Great American Wheat Harvest. In this week’s program I’m sharing a conversation with film producer Conrad Weaver during AG CONNECT Expo and U.S. Custom Harvesters Convention. I put the program together in a noisy Atlanta Delta Sky Club this morning because that’s how the @AgriBlogger rolls!

Conrad is a video producer that helps companies who want to tell their story. He also produces documentary films and grew up on a dairy farm.

How does your bread get to your table? What’s involved in producing the food that we eat? How does wheat get harvested? These are a few of the questions we’ll answer in this exceptional new documentary film that’s in production right now.

Over the course of the next 10 months we’ll be filming the story of the harvest. Every year in May dozens of harvesting crews head to Texas for the annual harvest run. The wheat belt states – as they are often referred to – run from Texas to the Canadian border and custom harvest crews travel across these states and into Canada harvesting the wheat that feeds the world. We’ll be traveling with a couple of harvest crews this Summer, filming the stories of harvest. More than 2 Billion bushels of wheat are harvested every year from American and Canadian wheat fields and half of this wheat is shipped overseas to feed a hungry global population.

Be sure to check our web site to follow our progress! www.GreatAmericanWheatHarvest.com

Learn more about the documentary project in this week’s ZimmCast here: Great American Wheat Harvest

Watch the trailer here:

Find out how you can support this project here. You can even sponsor a day of film production! In coming days I’ll also be sharing interviews with families being featured in the film as well as with sponsors.

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.

Agribusiness, Audio, Harvest, ZimmCast

Headline AMP Makes Headline Even Better

Cindy Zimmerman February 4, 2013

Headline fungicide has been one of the most successful crop protection products in the history of agriculture, but combining Headline with other chemistries makes it even better.

At the recent BASF Crop Protection “Fields of Innovation” symposium, BASF Technical Service Representative Dr. Caren Schmidt talked about how adding Caramba™ fungicide to Headline created Headline AMP for maximum protection from foliar diseases and improved Plant Health.

“[We’re] trying to make Headline better,” Caren explained. “We wanted to look at bringing post-infection control to Headline [and] some complementary movement withing the leaf to aid in disease control.” But she was quick to add that this is not a cure for fungal growth once it’s actually visible; no fungicide can cure it at that stage.

Caren said they’ve seen about a two bushel per acre increase in corn yields using Headline AMP compared to Headline, adding that when fungicides were used, it produced the top yields among corn using fungicides in the National Corn Growers Association numbers in 2011 and 2012.

Caren also explained why some growers would still use just Headline. “I think having multiple sites of action is really where people want to be, especially if they’re using multiple fungicides within a given season. People have had such great experiences with Headline… it’s been on the market for eight years… if you like it, why would you switch?”

Listen to an interview with Caren here: Dr. Caren Schmidt, BASF

BASF Grower Symposium Photo Album

Audio, BASF, Corn, Crop Protection, Farming

2013 is Ram Brand Year of the Farmer

Chuck Zimmerman February 3, 2013

There was no way I couldn’t take some post Super Bowl time to share the Ram Trucks commercial. It sure caught us by surprise and pleasantly so. Here’s why:

In our newest Ram brand commercial, we dedicate 2013 to celebrating the American farmer. Share the video, and join the Ram brand throughout the year as we celebrate the people, the food and the lifestyle that keep America growing.

WELCOME TO THE YEAR OF THE FARMER.

And just to sweeten it a little bit how about helping the FFA?

You watch the video, you share a badge, the Ram brand makes a donation. Help us raise $1 million to support FFA and assist in local hunger and educational programs.

So watch the commercial. It’s worth it just to listen to broadcast legend Paul Harvey!

Post Update: I neglected to add that this project is being conducted by Ram Trucks in alliance with sister company Case IH.

Video

Page 1,155 of 2,395
←
1
...
1,154
1,155
1,156
...
2395
→