Sustainability in Bayer CropScience Expansion

Jamie Johansen

During the Bayer CropScience Greenhouse 5 grand opening, Chuck took a few minutes to sit down with James Blome, president and CEO for Bayer CropScience LP and head of Crop Protection for the North American region. Sustainability was the goal for Bayer CropScience as plans came into place in building Greenhouse 5.

“Greenhouse 5 is our lastest expansion with 62,000 sq. ft. of steel and greenhouse capability here in North Carolina and is the pinnacle for our new research operations for cotton, corn, soybean, canola and our leadership position in biotechnology to feed a growing world.”

“It is state-of-the-art. We focused on sustainability; capturing rainwater, filtering everything. Pollination is very important in separating research trials so everything is separated out with different air handling capabilities. We have flexibility in our heat lamps and in our lights to change crops as our research needs change in the future and really just optimizing the latest state-of-the-art use of water, light and air conditioning capabilities for this facility in North Carolina.”

Listen to or download Chuck’s entire interview with James Blome here: Interview with James Blome

You can find the photo album for the Bayer event here: Bayer CropScience Greenhouse 5 Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer

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Melissa Sandfort

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  • The 2012 Cambridge Tractor Show and Ag Day will be held Aug. 4, 2012 in Heritage Park in downtown Cambridge. For more, contact Karen Hutchinson at 309-937-5859 (Home) or 309-945-2858.
  • NCBiotech has established theBiotechnology Crops Commercialization Center, targeting potentially valuable crops adapted to the state’s diverse soil, climate and agribusiness conditions.
  • Broadhead announces six new hires at the Minneapolis office: Chris Strohmeyer, Matt Connell, Travis Thompson, April Hollander, Phil Rademacher and Amy O’Brien.
  • Leica Geosystems announces the new Leica GeoAce RTK base station.
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    RIP Beloved Farm Broadcaster Dix Harper

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Our beloved friend and veteran farm broadcaster Dix Harper went to his eternal reward today, surrounded by his devoted wife and members of their church family.

    Many of us have been following the journey of Dix and his wife Harriet after he was diagnosed with cancer in the spring of this year. She has been keeping friends and family up to date with Dix’s condition on CaringBridge, especially in the last couple of weeks. It has been a beautiful story of facing the end of life on Earth with the promise of eternal life in Heaven. Harriet’s description of her husband’s last moments are very poignant. “It was a Holy time, a moment of peace and love and joy that there was no longer any pain but a joyful reunion with those he loved who were waiting for him,” she wrote.

    Harriet says she is considering having his service at St. Luke’s in Hickory on Saturday morning, but no details yet. Dix was 89 years old and is survived by Harriet, two children and several grandchildren.

    Dix will be remembered by many in this industry as a prominent farm broadcaster who began his career in 1946 after graduating from Iowa State University. He was best known for his time with WRAL-TV and the Tobacco Radio Network with Ray Wilkinson and Ken Tanner. Dix was an integral part of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB) for 65 years of the association’s 69 year history as both a broadcaster and allied industry member. Dix received the Meritorious Service Award in 1959, served as President in 1988 and was Historian for a number of years. NAFB has honored Dix by inducting him into the Hall of Fame in 1988 and naming the meritorious service award in his honor in 2006.

    Watch Dix talk about farm broadcasting and his career on YouTube below:

    Rest in Peace with the Lord, Dix. You will be missed.

    NAFB, Video

    Agvocating With Kenny Wallace

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Illinois Corn Growers got to hang out with “The Agvocate” Kenny Wallace at Chicagoland Speedway today. It’s NASCAR racing weekend and Kenny will be driving in tomorrow’s Nationwide STP 300 race.

    Kenny attracted a big crowd to the exhibit area outside the grandstands this afternoon. He talked to them and signed autographs for an hour. I heard one fan say after he got an autograph that he had just had a conversation with Kenny Wallace and his day was complete. You’ll see why his fans love him in the video below.

    Kenny loves farmers and he loves ethanol and lets everyone know about it. He says there may be some people who disagree about using ethanol but they need to talk to him because he knows everything there is to know about the subject. I hope a lot of people talk to him!

    Listen to my interview with Kenny Wallace here: Interview with Kenny Wallace

    You can find photos from the weekend activities here: Illinois Corn Growers NASCAR Weekend Photo Album

    I’ll be doing some guest blogging for the Illinois Corn Growers Corn Corps this weekend.

    Ag Groups, Audio, Corn, Ethanol, NASCAR

    House Ag Committee Chair at Peanut Conference

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Peanut growers are very happy with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) for his work in crafting a farm bill that is very different than the Senate bill in that it addresses the needs of southern farmers.

    Speaking at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference     in Panama City Beach on Saturday, Rep. Lucas (R-OK) went through the process of how his committee worked to mark up a farm bill, technically called the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act, following the legislation that was passed by the Senate. “The Senate language works really well in the Midwest, but it doesn’t work very well, according to my experience as a farmer, for everybody else,” he said. “It violates that fundamental rule of everybody needs to be able to participate.”

    During a press availability after addressing the farmers, Lucas talked about might happen now with the bill, since Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has yet to commit to bringing it to the floor. “I served with him for three farm bills, John understands the base principals,” he said. “Mechanically, in the US House, it’s actually the majority floor leader who assigns floor time. That’s Mr. Cantor’s responsibility. So, I’m spending time with both of them.”

    “But, regular order, or whatever process we have to take, we have to have a farm bill,” he said.

    Listen or download Lucas’ press availability or watch the video below. Rep. Frank Lucas

    Check out the SPGC blog for his remarks to the growers and see the SPGC photo album for all pictures from the event.

    Audio, Farm Bill, Peanuts, SPGC, Video

    NASCAR and Ethanol at Chicagoland Speedway

    Chuck Zimmerman

    It’s NASCAR race weekend in Joliet, IL at Chicagoland Speedway. My home today and tomorrow. I’m joining the Illinois Corn Growers and Family Farmers for two races. First up will be tonight’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series American Ethanol 225.

    Then on Sunday we’ve got the second annual STP 300 which is part of the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The Sprint Cup Series has the weekend off.

    Family Farmers cannot be missed at the event, with a 17,000 square foot exhibit area onsite to be complemented with both a Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series “Family Farmers” entry. This work is aimed at improving the trust between consumers and family farmers. In corn checkoff funded research, it was revealed that most influential people in the Chicago area think that corporations own most of the farms in Illinois. This erodes the base of support among that same group for issues that are important to farmers regarding regulations, food safety, transportation, and trade.

    I’ll be hanging out with Kenny Wallace and Illinois Corn Growers this afternoon. Kenny will be driving the #99 Family Farmers car in the STP 300.

    “Chicagoland Speedway is a great track for me. We finished seventh in this race last year with our Family Farmers Toyota Camry. Since they closed Gateway International Raceway in 2010, Chicago has become sort of like a home track for me since it is only about four hours away from my hometown of St. Louis. Not only that, but it is the home of Family Farmers and American Ethanol, so I want to run well for them and I feel confident that we will run well.”

    So, look for photos and interviews later today and tomorrow from an Illinois NASCAR weekend. See you from the track.

    Ag Groups, Corn, Ethanol, NASCAR

    Bayer CropScience Greenhouse 5 Grand Opening

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The ribbon has been cut to open the Bayer CropScience Greenhouse 5. This massive facility will be the home to corn/soybean/cotton/canola research as soon as the company can get “moved in.” This morning we got a tour of the facility and you can see photos just as soon as I get them uploaded to the photo album.

    To learn more about the facility and what it means to Bayer CropScience and its customers I visited with Dr. Wolfgang Plischke who is on the Bayer Board of Management in Germany. He cut the ribbon as you can see in the photo and video clip below.

    Dr. Plischke says that it was about two years ago that they decided to “build a new world class greenhouse to accommodate the research for our corn and soybean programs.” The 30,000 sq. ft. of greenhouse space facility has massive air handling capabilities as well as complete control over lighting and other important elements of doing new plant research. You can more about the new facility in my conversation with Dr. Plischke.

    Listen to or download my interview with Dr. Plischke here: Interview with Dr. Wolfgang Plischke

    I’m putting photos from the Bayer event here: Bayer CropScience Greenhouse 5 Photo Album

    Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer, Video

    Other New Products Promoted During Anthem Tour

    John Davis

    While the focus of the recent Anthem Field Plot Tour in Ames, Iowa, has been on FMC‘s new herbicide, Anthem, farmers are also hearing about some other new FMC products in the works. One of those is Marvel. “This is a combination of two PPO products,” Brent Neuberger, Senior Technical Sales Manager for FMC, told Chuck during an interview. Neuberger said since it is actually two products, the soybean-only compound will give some differences in spectrum without sacrificing the individual control of each product.

    He said they will soon be submitting a package to EPA, looking for approval to make it available for next year’s growing season. Since it is two products already approved, he expects a pretty quick turnaround from the government on this compound. Neuberger said look for FMC to have more information on Marvel at the trade shows coming up this winter.

    Listen to Chuck’s interview with Brent here: Interview with Brent Neuberger, Senior Technical Sales Manager for FMC

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

    Agribusiness, Audio, FMC

    Bayer CropScience Opens New Greenhouse

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Bayer CropScience is about to cut the ribbon on the grand opening of Greenhouse 5 in RTP, NC. I’m here for the grand opening and will be conducting interviews and learning more about this new facility and the kind of work Bayer is doing in the seed and trait area.

    To get a preview I spoke with Scott Kohne during the dinner get together for our group at Chatham Hill Winery. Our group got a fascinating tour from Marek Wojciechowski, Owner/Winemaker, that included a barrel tasting and a post dinner wine tasting. Let’s just say I know where to get some good North Carolina wine!

    Scott says that “Bayer wants to show that we are growing a business in this seeds and traits industry. We’re traditionally known as more of a chemical company but we are expanding and growing a seeds and traits business that we feel will be a large and key competitor for this type of seeds and traits activity.”

    Listen to my interview with Scott here: Interview with Scott Kohne

    I’m putting photos from the Bayer event here: Bayer CropScience Greenhouse 5 Photo Album

    Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer

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    Melissa Sandfort

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