Corn Crop is in Worst Condition Since 1988

Cindy Zimmerman

Drought conditions in the Midwest are “almost historic” with 38 percent of the nation’s corn crop now rated poor to very poor, according to USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey.

“That 38% represents the highest amount of U.S. corn rated poor to very poor since the end of the 1988 growing season,” said Rippey. “We now see in 13 of the 18 major production states in the U.S., at least one quarter of the corn crop rated poor to very poor.” Leading the pack in low ratings are Kentucky at 77%, Missouri 72%, and Indiana 71% poor to very poor according to the latest USDA crop progress report. At least half the soybean crop in those states is also rated poor or worse.

Rippey says both of the crops are progressing along faster than normal in the hot, dry weather, which is a very bad thing right now.

Corn, Soybean, USDA, Weather

International FarmSight

Chuck Zimmerman

Attendees at the International Conference on Precision Agriculture got the full overview of the John Deere FarmSight strategy from Mark Stelford who does Solutions Marketing in the Intelligent Solutions Group. I visited with Mark afterward.

Mark says that when you look at some of the megatrends in agriculture and outside the industry like demand for food, fiber and fuel between now and 2050 it has really helped John Deere understand what the company needs to do to help drive efficiencies to the producer. So FarmSight is the strategy that helps drive them to the products they are creating. Those are driven by three pillars that include machine optimization, logistics optimization and agronomic decision support. In his comments here Mark says he emphasized John Deere sitting at the table with other companies via AgGateway to create data standards to increase the efficiency of data movement.

Listen to my interview with Mark here: Interview with Mark Stelford

11th International Conference on Precision Agriculture Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the International Conference on Precision Agriculture is sponsored by John Deere
Ag Groups, Agribusiness, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

Midwest Drought Puts FMC Products to the Test

John Davis

The Midwest drought has hit farmers in the region with a double-whammy this summer. First, obviously, many crops are just withering and dying in the hot, dry conditions. Second, the lack of rain hurt some of the pre-emergence herbicides out there, allowing weeds to choke what crops were able to beat the heat. During the recent Anthem Field Plot Tour, FMC officials got the chance to talk with farmers throughout the Midwest. In Ames, Iowa, Chuck caught up with FMC Midwest Regional Business Manager Randy Young, whose territory covers from Minnesota to Colorado and has seen a wide variety of conditions this year, but everyone is dry. He said FMC’s Authority brands have performed well, and they can’t wait to add Anthem, the herbicide on display during this plot tour, if the EPA approves it for use this fall.

“What I see is a lot of excitement from retailers. It’s another tool in the tool box,” adding that they expect Anthem to bring a lot more flexibility to the market, from early pre-planting application in corn to post-emergence in soybeans.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Randy here: Interview with Randy Young, FMC Midwest Regional Business Manager

You can find photos from the event here: FMC Anthem Field Plot Tour Photos

Agribusiness, Audio, FMC

Checking Soil is Dusty Work

Chuck Zimmerman

Getting down and dirty during the Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour is Roger Windhorn, Illinois NRCS State Office. You can watch his presentation in the video below. Roger had a tough job since it is dry and hot in Illinois and as you’ll see in his presentation, there’s a big lack of moisture even down past four feet in the soil pit he had dug. This meant he needed a water spray bottle to use on a sample he chopped out to show soil coloration! The drought has not only had an impact on crops but also on field test plots. During this stop on the tour the nice breeze we had meant swirling dust clouds through the field. We can only hope they’ve had some rain there by now.

2012 Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by AGROTAIN
Ag Groups, Conservation, CTIC, Video

Wyffels Hybrids Ready for Tale of Two Seasons

John Davis

If you look at the last two summers in the upper Midwest, you couldn’t find a sharper contrast: plenty of rain, too much of it in many cases last year, and bone dry and hot across much of the corn growing areas this year. That’s part of what the folks at the Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies event in Vincent, Iowa heard this year. While Chuck reports that the corn looked pretty good on the Harmon Farm, Wyffels’ Adam Ploog says it’s been hit or miss this season in his territory, with “spots where the crop looks decent, hanging in there” to lighter soils and corn in rough shape.

Ploog explained to be ready for these unusual seasons, you have to be constantly changing the lineup. “You’ve got to always be striving to have a few more bushels than the year before,” he said, adding that Wyffels has rolled out several new Genuity® SmartStax® hybrids to meet the challenges of rootworms. “We just continue, continue, continue to spend money on research to really strengthen our lineup to put together a full package for growers.”

Don’t forget, the Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies team will be setting up tomorrow, July 18th on Nicholas Farms near Litchfield, Illinois.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Adam here: Interview with Adam Ploog, Wyffels Hybrids

2012 Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Corn

Monsanto Learning More on CTIC Tour

John Davis

The more you learn, the more you know… that seems to be the approach our friends at Monsanto are taking, especially this year when drought is making for some real challenges on Midwest farms. During the recent Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour, Chuck caught up with Dave Gustafson, who serves on Monsanto’s sustainable agriculture team and is a board member of the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC), one of the organizers of the tour. He pointed out how what he does at Monsanto really goes hand-in-glove with what the CTIC is trying to accomplish.

“One of the things I’ve really been impressed by is the way CTIC is able to get information to growers in a way that actually helps influence their adoption of conservation practices. So Monsanto sees CTIC as playing an extremely valuable role in helping to encourage the greater adoption of conservation practices that really benefits everyone… and not just in agriculture but society in general,” he said.

Gustafson said he’s also learning more about nitrogen management and the adoption of cover crops, a new interest for Monsanto. He said he’s hearing from farmers that cover crops can help with water penetration into the soil, especially important in the drought-stricken Midwest this year.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Dave here: Interview with Dave Gustafson, Monsanto

2012 Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Field Tour is sponsored by AGROTAIN
Audio, Conservation, CTIC, Farming

FMC Shows Potential of Anthem in Field Plot Tour

John Davis

FMC officials are hoping to have EPA approval of their new herbicide Anthem by this fall. In the meantime, this summer they launched a series of plot tours across the Midwest to show off the new product. Chuck caught up with the Anthem Field Plot Tour as it made its swing through Ames, Iowa and spoke with Rick Ekins, FMC Product Manager, who said they wee really able to show the flexibility of Anthem in pre-emergence to later post-emergence treatments.

“The way these trials were set up was really designed to show pre-emerged grass control and pre-emerged broadleaf control, the spectrum of control, as well as residual control you get out of Anthem,” he said. Ekins continued that compared to some competitors, Anthem did have bigger spectrum of control and longer residual out of the low-water soluable product. He also said that Anthem is really showing its worth in water hemp control. “[All herbicides] have to have grass control. But where we’re starting to see separation from Anthem is the water hemp control, whether it’s resistant or non-resistant.” Plus, he said Anthem is showing some great control against lambsquarter, velvet leaf, and even morning glory.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Rick here: Interview with Rick Ekins, FMC Product Manager

You can find photos from the event here: FMC Anthem Field Plot Tour Photos

Agribusiness, Audio, FMC

Will FARRM Bill Make it to Floor?

Cindy Zimmerman

Agricultural organizations are calling for the House to move the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act, but whether that happens before the current bill expires is in question.

American Farm Bureau Federation Farm Policy Specialist Mary Kay Thatcher is doubtful a new farm bill will be finished by September 30. “Our best option is probably to have some kind of a conference committee between what the House Ag Committee approved and what the Senate approved and hope to find a vehicle that’s moving,” she said. “Possibly one of the tax extenders that’s expiring in December and the lame duck session tying this to that using some of the cost savings presumably somewhere between the 23 and the 35 billion dollars that is being saved and trying to use that to offset the cost of extending a tax provision and to get the farm bill done.”

Farm Bureau was one of 46 ag and commodity groups that sent a letter last week to House leadership asking them to bring the legislation up for a vote after Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said no decisions had been made about when the bill would come to the floor. That has led to speculation that the bill might go straight to a conference committee with the Senate.

With all the controversy surrounding cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps, there has also been talk that the bill could be split. “I think there is frustration and concern about the size of the food stamp program,” said Congressman Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) last week. “I think it’s time that we split the bill.”

Rep. David Schweikert has also taken up that cry. “The first step in long-term farm bill reform is to split agriculture away from food stamps and let each provision stand or fail on its own merit,” Schweikert said in a column.

In the House FARRM bill, food stamps and social programs are budgeted at $750 billion, while the commodity title budget is just $35 billion.

Farm Bill

Growing Options for Nutrient Management

Chuck Zimmerman

Keynote speaker Dr. Newell Kitchen, USDA-ARS, had a unique title to his presentation, “From Poking Holes to Precision Sensing: Options Growing for Nutrient Management.” He wanted to be clear that the options available to farmers today for managing nutrients are growing. He started out with a historical perspective on what has taken place in this area in recent years.

One of the things he brings up early on is the question, “What is precision agriculture.” It’s basically a moving target and we’re probably not going to come up with a concise definition. I agree with that since precision agriculture applies to everything from row crop farming to the dairy industry.

When it comes to nutrient management he says about half the papers being presented are on this subject. It’s a big part of what the technology has been developed to control. He says there are three phases we’ve gone through that start with soil fertility. And looking ahead he says, “We do need to be visionary.” That means to see the challenges ahead of the industry and see them as opportunities and be able to respond to them and be able to convince others about the things we should be doing and if we do that we’ll find “a great frontier ahead of us.”

Listen to or download Dr. Kitchen’s remarks here: Remarks by Dr. Newell Kitchen

11th International Conference on Precision Agriculture Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the International Conference on Precision Agriculture is sponsored by John Deere
Ag Groups, Audio, Precision Agriculture

Google+ Hangout Highlights Local Food Initiatives

Melissa Sandfort

Tomorrow, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Jon Carson, White House Director of Public Engagement, will host a Local Foods in Our Community As Told By Women Google + Hangout to highlight efforts to strengthen local and regional food systems.

The event will be an opportunity to talk about local food with inspiring women from around the country.

This Google+ Hangout isn’t just a chance to hear these women’s powerful stories. It’s also a chance to see more stories like theirs when we unveil the 2.0 version of the USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass. An innovative digital guide and map, the KYF Compass highlights USDA-supported local food projects around the country. The 2.0 version features thousands of local food projects in all 50 states and includes keyword and zip code search features.

Watch on WhiteHouse.gov/live, or on the White House Google+ page. Participants can ask questions on the White House Google+ Page, or on Twitter using the hashtag #WHHangout.

USDA