Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • During the U.S. Grains Councils 52nd Annual Board of Delegates Meeting, Gerry Salzman of Case IH was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.
  • Archer Daniels Midland Company announced that Todd Werpy, Ph.D., has been appointed vice president, Research and Development.
  • The American Seed Trade Association will host is Corn, Sorghum & Soybean Seed Research Conference and Seed Expo Dec. 7-9, 2012, in Chicago, Ill., and online registration is now open.
  • Unverferth Manufacturing Co., Inc. announces the issuance of a new patent for its Seed Runner seed tender’s unique self-filling design.
    Agribusiness, Zimfo Bytes

    New IFAJ Leadership

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists elected new officers today.

    Pictured left to right are: Riitta Mustonen, Finland, Secretary General; Marcus Rediger, Switzerland, President; James Campbell, Ireland, Treasurer and Owen Roberts, Canada, Vice President. Congratulations to the new officer team as they take over and continue to grow and develop IFAJ globally.

    After the annual business meeting our whole group went to Hamra Farm for an evening and dinner with DeLaval. Tomorrow morning we’re all leaving bright and early for a day of tours. Posting will be light from here now until we conclude with the final banquet on Saturday night in Stockholm.

    2012 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the 2012 IFAJ Congress is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer
    IFAJ, Media

    The Drought

    Jamie Johansen

    Wells are running dry, cattle are being sold and crops are withering away. There is no question that farmers and ranchers across the Midwest are experiencing one of the worst droughts in history. Maybe it hasn’t directly affected you yet, but don’t worry it will. Producers and consumers alike will see the impact from our lack of rain. But lets forget about how depressing the topic is for a moment and take a few minutes to make light of the situation. Knuth Farms did just that by making a short video to put a smile on your face, even in this time of crisis. Check it out and share it with others to maybe brighten their day.

    Corn, Farming, Video

    Zimfo Bytes

    Jamie Johansen

      Zimfo Bytes

    • Osborn Barr added two to their account leadership roster. Welcome Aurrice Duke and Chase MacMullan as directors to support their client Monsanto’s commercial business.
    • TheAntiqueTractorShow announced that the U.S. Postal Service has granted a Commemorative Pictorial Postmark in recognition of the Sept. 29th Tractors on the Square event in West Plains, Missouri.
    • Animal Welfare Approved is offering $5,000 Good Husbandry Grants for farmers to make welfare improvements. Grants can go towards mobile housing, breeding stock, on-farm processing equipment and are available for slaughter plants working or seeking to work with Animal Welfare Approved.
      Zimfo Bytes

      RFS Waiver Might Lower Corn Prices… Eventually

      John Davis

      A new report from researchers at Purdue University shows that a waiver of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) could lower corn prices… but it could be a while until livestock producers and consumers at the grocery stores see those prices go down. Purdue’s Wally Tyner, Farzad Taheripour and Christopher Hurt presented their report, entitled Potential Impacts of a Partial Waiver of the Ethanol Blending Rules, this morning during a Farm Foundation webinar, claiming that if the EPA grants the waiver, demand for corn would drop, and thus so would the prices, anywhere from 47 cents to $1.34 per bushel, depending on what level the drought impacts the final harvest, how big the waiver is, and how many unused Renewable Fuel Identification Numbers (RINs) are cashed in.

      Tyner explained that technical and financial incentives could determine the impact of the waiver. “If refiners and blenders cannot change for technical reasons what they’re doing now, then a waiver has very little impact. But if they do have flexibility, then there is potential for a waiver having an impact,” Tyner said. Hurt added that there could be some unintended consequences, including what he calls demand destruction. “If we return to normal production in the next 12 months, then we have a fairly large supply, we have the possibility of looking at a 15 billion bushel corn crop with a utilization base of 11 billion bushels,” pointing out that we could see prices swing back to extremely low prices as quickly as they rose to these current high prices.

      Paragon Economics’ Steve Meyer and the University of Minnesota’s Vernon Eidman were also listening in on the call and offering their perspectives. Meyer said the projected reduction in corn prices could translate into $2.60-3.50 per head on hogs. “We’re not talking about peanuts here.” But Eidman was quick to point out any RFS waiver would not impact corn use for ethanol this year. “It will take more time than that to get the rollback to occur,” Eidman said.

      All on the webinar agreed that the EPA should not rush to issue any judgment until more complete information is known about the corn harvest, most likely in the next couple of months. “It’s important to get this right,” concluded Eidman.

      It’s a really good conversation, and you can hear the entirety of it here: Farm Foundation-Purdue Webinar on Drought and RFS Waiver You can see the associated slide show here.

      Audio, Corn, Ethanol, Farm Foundation

      Respecting the Rotation with Bayer CropScience

      Cindy Zimmerman

      At least 250 farmers, crop consultants, and retailers turned out Wednesday in Collinsville, Illinois for a plot tour of mostly lots of really tall and nasty weeds that don’t die easily.

      The Bayer CropScience “Respect the Rotation” field day offered a glimpse of what could happen in the Midwest if resistant weeds like pigweed palmer ameranth gain a foothold. District manager Eric Peters says Respect the Rotation is Bayer’s initiative to raise awareness about weed resistance issues. “We look at ourselves as providing solutions to growers and helping our growers feed the world,” he said. “If the weeds are overtaking the fields and you get reduced yields, or in some cases no yields, that’s not a good situation.”

      A couple of the stops on the tour featured experts from Arkansas, where a slow response to dealing with resistance has meant that many farmers can no longer use glyphosate at all.

      Listen to my interview with Eric where he talks about the field day: Eric Peters interview

      The new Vice President of Marketing for Bayer CropScience US was on hand to welcome guests at the event. Dave Hollinrake just joined the company three months ago and has enjoyed getting out to these field days and talk with farmers about ways they can protect their crops and preserve the crop protection tools they have at their disposal for the future. “The message is about preservation and long term use of that technology,” he said. “We want to encourage multiple modes of action, a transition of crops year to year, and using different traits.”

      Bayer’s Liberty Link technology with Liberty herbicide has been very successful in dealing with glyphosate resistant weeds, and Hollinrake says they are happy about that, but they believe the way to keep that effectiveness is through the rotation concept.

      Listen to my interview with Dave where he talks about the field day: Dave Hollinrake interview

      See pictures from the field day in Collinsville in the Bayer CropScience Respect the Rotation photo album.

      Audio, Bayer, Crop Protection

      IFAJ Awards

      Chuck Zimmerman

      Awards have been presented at the 2012 IFAJ Congress. Here’s the first place winner of the IFAJ-Yara Award for Sustainable Agriculture Reporting, Kerry Staight, Australia.

      Other awards were presented during our dinner last night that included the Star Prize for Broadcast Journalism, First Place – Online Video -Eric Poulsen, Denmark; Television – Kerry Staight, Australia; Radio – Damien O’Reilly, Ireland. You can find photos of them all in my photo album.

      2012 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

      AgWired coverage of the 2012 IFAJ Congress is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer
      IFAJ, International, Media

      Sweden Minister of Rural Affairs

      Chuck Zimmerman

      The Sweden Minister of Rural Affairs is Eskil Erlandsson. He was on our morning program here at the 2012 IFAJ Congress. After the morning session was completed he held a press conference which I recorded and have posted below.

      One of the questions that I thought was interesting pertained to Sweden’s use of biofuels and making use of ethanol by-products to feed animals. There’s something you don’t hear much about in the U.S. media btw. Eskil says they have a very large ethanol plant in Sweden. He says it is a goal not only in Sweden but also in Europe to become more self sufficient from the need to import protein and protein crops. Using the by-products of biofuel production is one way they’re doing it.

      You can listen to and download Eskil’s remarks at the press conference here: Press Conference with Eskil Erlandsson

      2012 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

      AgWired coverage of the 2012 IFAJ Congress is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer
      Audio, IFAJ, International

      A Dire Future Without Major Societal Changes

      Chuck Zimmerman

      Our opening speaker at the 2012 IFAJ Congress immediately dove into the deep end on the theme of “Solutions for a Green Future.” He is Johan Rockstrom, Executive Director of the Stockholm Resilience Center. As he opened his remarks he pointed to what he calls the most significant news of our age which was announced yesterday. He was referring to a report that shows a record amount of melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

      I visited with Johan on a break here this morning. I asked him to summarize a few of the key points relating to global environmental change that he made. I think you’ll find them rather provocative. He says that we’ve entered the age being called the Anthropocene in which man has evolved to the point of having a major impact on the world ecosystem. He paints a very dire future and points to agriculture as having one of the major impacts by now covering 40 percent of the world’s land mass. But he does think that we can learn from the past and make changes in the future and that agriculture can be a key part of the solution. He also says that it’s not just a growing population but a growing segment of the population in the middle class that is used to consuming too much, as in more food than they need. So affluence is a problem.

      Listen to my interview with Johan to hear more about his thinking on these issues and what he thinks the solutions are. Love to know your thoughts on it. Please feel free to post them in comments here.

      Listen to my interview with Johan here: Interview with Johan Rockstrom

      2012 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

      AgWired coverage of the 2012 IFAJ Congress is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer
      Audio, Farming, IFAJ, International

      2012 IFAJ Congress Underway

      Chuck Zimmerman

      The 2012 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Congress is officially underway. Here’s our happy group during the opening reception.

      The program kicks off with a variety of speakers addressing the theme of “Solutions for a Green Future.” Then we’ll have the annual IFAJ business meeting followed by a visit to Hamra Farm, headquarters for De Laval.

      2012 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

      AgWired coverage of the 2012 IFAJ Congress is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer
      IFAJ, Media