“In My Barn” Online Game Launched

Melissa Sandfort

A new online game developed for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students is now available on MyAmericanFarm.org, the popular agricultural gaming site. “In My Barn” is the first game for a pre-K–K audience on My American Farm.

Students use math skills to help Farmer Faye, a character in the game, care for her animals. As they play the game, students earn points which help them fill a grain storage silo. Once students fill the silo they earn a new stamp to add to their Passport for Sustainability—the tool that helps youth keep track of their journey through the various My American Farm online games.

In My Barn is closely aligned with the PBS Kids Ready to Learn Math Framework, which supports STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) learning. The game also meets national standards for mathematics instruction.

The My American Farm educational gaming resource is a special project of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.

AFBF, Agribusiness

Chicago Sets Stage for BASF Ag Media Summit

Cindy Zimmerman

The city of Chicago is the stage for the 2012 BASF Agricultural Solutions Media Summit again. The summit was held here in 2010 at the amazing Trump Towers.

The theme of the event is the concept that innovation and sustainability are very closely linked, according to Paul Rea, BASF Vice President, U.S. Crop Protection. “You’ll hear from a range speakers and panelists from across the industry talking about the role that innovation plays in solving sustainability issues in agriculture,” Paul told me in a brief preview interview this morning.


A wide range of journalists are represented at the event, from mainstream media to targeted specialty crop publications. “We’ve brought together a lot of our different business units here in North America, including our plant science group, Canadian business, U.S. ag business, specialty business,” Paul said. “So, it’s really a good collection of the entire breadth of the ag solutions BASF has to offer the North American market.”

Paul is pictured here (left) with Markus Heldt, President, BASF Crop Protection and the Chicago skyline in the background during last night’s opening reception for the media event.

Listen to my interview with Paul here. Paul Rea Interview

Follow the media event on Twitter with the hashtag #AgMsBASF

Audio, BASF, Crop Protection

Delta F.A.R.M. – Farmers Practicing Conservation

Chuck Zimmerman

Trey CookeOne of the workhorses on the 2012 Conservation in Action Tour was Trey Cooke who is the Executive Director for Delta F.A.R.M. He says that water conservation and water quality is the main focus of the organization right now since it is so important to area farmers. Sediment has always been an issue since many of the non-point source pollutants are due to sediment. So a real simple strategy is “You stop the dirt you stop everything else.”

Trey says Delta F.A.R.M. was founded on the principle that conservation should be mandated and is in fact a mandatory part of a long term business strategy to ensure sustainability for farmers and agriculture in general. He says that farmers can address conservation issues themselves better than someone five hundred miles away in an office. Farmer participation in Delta F.A.R.M. is very high in the region.

Trey was also one of the tour speakers and talked about wildlife conservation.

Listen to my interview with Trey here: Interview with Trey Cooke

2012 Conservation in Action Tour Photo Album

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

AGROTAIN Efficiently Using a Limited Resource

Chuck Zimmerman

Greg SchwabThanks to Koch Agronomic Services (AGROTAIN) I was able to attend the 2012 Conservation in Action Tour again this year. I visited with Greg Schwab, Director of Agronomy, during the Conservation Technology Expo which is held after lunch on the tour. Greg is in the photo at their booth in the expo.

We talked about how farmers are proactively investing in conservation research and practices on their farms. He says it’s all about “efficient utilization of what your limiting resources are.” That’s where their AGROTAIN product comes in when you’re talking about nitrogen. “Using AGROTAIN whenever you apply urea helps to conserve that limited resource.”

I asked him what he was hearing from farmers on the tour and he said that the issue of water in areas like Illinois has come up a lot with some Illinois farmers wishing they had some center pivot irrigation. But he says that it’s looking like a good year across the corn belt judging by what people are telling him.

Listen to my interview with Greg here: Interview with Greg Schwab

2012 Conservation in Action Tour Photo Album

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

2012 Corn Tech Conference Underway

Chuck Zimmerman

The 2012 Corn Utilization Technology Conference is underway, the ribbon has been cut. Cutting the ribbon are (l-r) Garry Niemeyer, President, National Corn Growers Association and Dr. Mike Ladisch, Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University and our keynote speaker this afternoon. Once again at this every other year conference I’ll be conducting interviews and posting them on the NCGA award winning Corn Commentary blog.

To get a preview of this year’s CUTC I sat down with Garry and we talked about the program as well as the corn crop and farm bill. Garry says this conference provides a great opportunity to hear about new technology and the research that’s being done. He’s got his research glossary out so he can keep up with the terminology! From a farmer perspective he says it is very important to know if this new technology will help him maintain a sustainable and profitable operation. He also says that the importance of holding a conference like CUTC is becoming more apparent to farmers “as they need to step up to the plate so that we know what will happen with our investment in our future and our livelihoods.” He says technology has taken us from a culture of scarcity to one of abundance and he wants to share that with world. That means more research.

Speaking of research, we turned to the farm bill which is coming back up for work on the Senate side. He says they’ve worked very hard on this version since it’s the first one up. He thinks that the ARC program (Agriculture Risk Coverage) is very compatible to most farmers however it represents a $23 billion decline from where we currently are. But the money just isn’t there which is why we don’t have direct payments. There’s optimism that this will move through the full senate soon.

When it comes to the corn crop he says, “I have never ever seen corn grow like it has this year.” He left home with corn that he planted in March that was shoulder high on him. So that sounds pretty optimistic to me. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for the rest of the season.

Listen to my interview with Garry here: Interview with Garry Niemeyer

You can find photos from the 2012 CUTC in my online photo album: 2012 CUTC Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Corn, CUTC, Technology

Center of the Earth

Melissa Sandfort

This is one of the many cracks in our front yard. Granted, no grass grew here anyway, but look at how wide that crevasse is – you can almost see to the center of the Earth. At least it feels that dry. A drought alert has been issued in the state of Nebraska and if you look at the drought monitor map, if anything south or southwest of us moves our way, it’s only going to get worse.

Last year I felt horrible for farmers and ranchers trying to make it in Texas and Oklahoma. But when my husband returned from a weekend in western Kansas yesterday and I had to dump out pocket-fulls of dirt/dust from his jeans, it hit a little closer to home.

We may be looking at higher hay prices so the horses might be on a diet this winter. Also not a good year to plant new trees.

And my son refuses to join in on a rain dance with me. I’m not sure why.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Iowa Market to Market Host Dies

Cindy Zimmerman

We were so saddened to hear the news this morning that Mark Pearson, the long-time host of Iowa Public Television’s popular “Market to Market” show, passed away suddenly yesterday at his farm in Madison County. Mark, who was 54 years old, was also co-host of WHO-AM radio’s “The Big Show.”

I just had the opportunity to interview Mark in February when he emceed a GROWMARK FS Pursuit of Maximum Yields event. When I asked him first to tell a little bit about himself, he said he started doing Market to Market 21 years ago. “I was 11, so I violated some child labor laws,” he joked.

Mark grew up in central Illinois and after going to the University of Arizona, where he says he “studied golf,” he got a job at WHO Radio and stayed. He will be greatly missed by those whose lives were touched by his great sense of humor and grasp of agricultural issues. We will pass on information about services for Mark when we get them.

Listen to my interview with Mark here. Mark Pearson Interview

Audio, Media

NRCS Chief Dave White on CTIC Tour

Chuck Zimmerman

Dave WhiteThe Chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is Dave White. Dave was our lunch speaker during the 2012 Conservation in Action Tour. He also participated in the tour and talked about NRCS’ voluntary, incentive-based conservation work with private landowners.

I recorded Dave’s remarks for you and also interviewed him at the end of our lunch. He said there are three trends in government right now which are less money; fewer people but the same amount of work. These will compound the challenges for conservation programs and are why he’s enthused about partnership programs.

Listen to NRCS Chief White’s remarks here: Dave White Remarks

2012 Conservation in Action Tour Photo Album

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

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

    Farmers Need to Stand Up and Advocate

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 352Hopefully you’re one of the thousands who have viewed the Farmers Fight – Stand Up video. I visited with the star of that video, Jasmine Dillon. Jasmine is a graduate student at Texas A&M University and part of the student led initiative called Farmers Fight.

    Jasmine says the initiative started when a group of students got tired of all the negative press that agriculture receives. They decided to band together to advocate for agriculture. They are not alone of course. If you read AgWired regularly you’ll find that there are an increasing number of efforts to help non-farmers better understand and appreciate where their food comes from.

    Jasmine was encouraged to write a poem for the project which she performed for the video. It’s a type of art called spoken word or slam poetry. She first performed it for a spring training conference before it was recorded and released to kick off Farmers Fight. Hear some more of her thoughts on advocating for agriculture and the feedback she has received. We need more Jasmine Dillons!

    Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: Farmers Fight and Advocate

    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.

    Ag Groups, Audio, Education, Social Networking, University, ZimmCast