Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The Mosaic Company announced that it recently received patent approval for Nexfos, a granulated feed-grade monodicalcium phosphate for use in animal and poultry feed.
  • The Nebraska Corn Growers Association presented a $66,588.07 ceremonial check to the American Red Cross at the Nebraska State Fair.
  • At the Farm Foundation Forum on Tuesday, Sept. 13, discussion will focus on Data Collection on Agriculture in a Time of Fiscal Constraints.
  • The new Fendt “Build and Quote” website lets producers configure and price new tractors from the comfort of home.
    Zimfo Bytes

    New From New Holland

    Chuck Zimmerman

    During the New Holland press conference at last week’s Farm Progress Show we learned what’s new. Abe Hughes, New Holland Agriculture Sales & Marketing Vice President introduced three members of the team to talk about their market segments and products. We heard from Ed Barry, New Holland Cash Crop Marketing Manager; Mike Cornman, New Holland Hay and Forage Segment Marketing Manager and John Elliott, New Holland, Director, Marketing NAR. Some of the items they discussed include:

    New SuperFlex draper head specifically designed to match the high capacity of New Holland CR Series Twin Rotor® and CX8000 Series Super-Conventional combines.

    Special limited edition of New Holland’s FR9000 Series, which we’re producing in 2011 to celebrate the 50th anniversary New Holland’s first self-propelled forage harvester.

    Tier 4A engines with the addition of five new CR Series Twin Rotor® combines and three new CX8000 Series Super Conventional combines equipped with ECOBlue™ Selective Catalytic Reduction engine technology.

    Listen to their presentations in the video:

    2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

    AgWired Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland GROWMARK Trellis Growing Systems
    Agribusiness, Equipment, Farm Progress Show, New Holland, Video

    Commercial Cellulosic Ethanol Production Still Years Away

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “How many years before cellulosic ethanol matches corn ethanol production?” So what did you say? 42% said More than ten years; 23% said Five to ten years; 18% said Five years; 14% said Never and 3% said Next year. We’ve seen huge strides in the efficiency of corn ethanol production and research on the use of new feedstocks but we’re not quite there for mass quantity cellulosic production. Will we be? What do you think? Feel free to add your comments here.

    Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “Which is more important to rural America: GPS Service or Broadband Internet?” We thought it would be interesting you get your thoughts on this in light of the Lightsquared rural broadband service that seems to pose some serious problems for GPS service. Your input and thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

    ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

    ZimmPoll

    NASCAR Driver “Blown Away” by FPS

    Cindy Zimmerman

    farm progress show 2011There were quite a few race cars mixed in with the tractors and combines this year at the 2011 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois.

    In addition to the American Ethanol NASCAR Sprint Series car at the Growth Energy exhibit, over at the Illinois Corn Growers exhibit, the Illinois Family Farmers NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Kenny Wallace was signing autographs and doing interviews.

    farm progress show 2011Kenny said he was “blown away” by the Farm Progress Show. “This is like our Daytona 500! I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said in an interview with Chuck.

    Kenny visited with lots of farmers during the three day show who made him feel very happy to be the Family Farmer American Ethanol spokesperson. “Farmers make me feel good,” he said. “They say thank you so much for putting up for us and that really humbles me,” he added.

    Listen to Kenny’s interview here. NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace

    The next big races for Wallace and all of NASCAR are coming up Chicagoland on September 16-18. Speedway president Scott Paddock says that triple header NASCAR weekend is a the first race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – the first of ten ‘playoff’ style NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in pursuit of the 2011 championship. “NASCAR was looking for a major media market and a big platform to kick off their playoffs and they chose Chicagoland and we’re honored to have that designation,” he said.

    Scott says Illinois’ corn farmers will have a major presence at the Chicagoland event. “They’re going to have some combines and harvesters out there,” he said. “We’ll have over 100,000 fans out there that weekend so it’s a great way to get their message out about the important role farmers play in society.”

    Listen to Chuck’s interview with Scott here. Chicagoland Raceway president Scott Paddock

    The Fast Five 225 truck series will kick off the weekend on Friday, September 16. The Dollar General 300 Nationwide series, Kenny’s race, will be Saturday, Sept. 17 and the three day weekend will conclude on Sunday, Sept. 18 with the GEICO 400 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

    2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

    AgWired Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland GROWMARK Trellis Growing Systems
    Audio, Corn, Ethanol, Farm Progress Show

    Early Registration Open For NAMA Trends in Agriculture

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Trends in Agriculture 2011 returns to Kansas City in November just before the National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention and I’ll be there. Looking forward to a great program again this year.

    Get the dates on your calendar now and save on registration when you take advantage of the special early bird rate.

    Progress through Productivity is this year’s theme, and you’ll have the opportunity to examine it from every angle as it pertains to American agriculture.

    Here’s an at-a-glance look at conference topics:

    Find out about the new technologies and policies needed to meet the growing demands for increased export and trade.
    Discover the latest trends in the development of plant-based fuels.
    Get the real story on consumers’ perceptions of the use of technology in food production.
    Learn tips you can use right away to increase your productivity.
    Reconnect with colleagues and expand your network.

    Go to nama.org/trends for more information and full speaker line-up.

    NAMA

    QR Codes Add Mobile Info To Farm Shows

    Chuck Zimmerman

    See the funny looking black and white design in the picture? That’s a QR code. If your mobile device has a QR Code reader on it, just point it at that image and voila, you’ll be taken to the latest Boomer information on the web. It’s that simple. Got your device with you now? Give it a try. It even works right off your computer screen right now! I saw a lot of these around the Farm Progress Show last week.

    You’ll notice that the picture also includes a New Holland Boomer. I can’t forget to mention the New Holland Boomer 555 Contest we’ve been helping promote. New Holland is giving away a five year lease on a new Boomer 30 with front end loader to eight regional winners. Here’s where you can enter. While at the Farm Progress Show I spoke with Abe Hughes, New Holland Agriculture Sales & Marketing Vice President about the contest.

    Listen in to my conversation with Abe about the Boomer 555 Contest: Interview with Abe Hughes

    2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

    AgWired Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland GROWMARK Trellis Growing Systems
    Agribusiness, Audio, Farm Progress Show, New Holland, Tractor

    USFRA Announces The Food Dialogues

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Are you ready to talk about food? The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance is. On Sept. 22 they’re holding The Food Dialogues. During the event you’re encouraged to follow the Twitter hashtag: #FoodD and participate!

    During the Farm Progress Show last week USFRA held a press conference to announce the upcoming event. In the photo is General Manager, Hugh Whaley (left) and USFRA Secretary Bart Schott. You can listen to or download a portion of the press conference remarks and Q&A here: USFRA Press Conference
    Americans have a lot of questions about how our food is raised, the impact on our health and the health of the planet. Today it seems there are more questions than answers. Join us, journalist moderator Claire Shipman and Chef John Besh right here on September 22 for The Food Dialogues – the launch of a new effort to bring together different viewpoints on farming and ranching and the future of food to solve our most challenging problems. This Town Hall-style discussion will take place in Washington, D.C., California, New York and the Midwest, and virtually – to connect Americans interested in a dialogue about their food.

    The Food Dialogues will be held in four locations:

    The Newseum in Washington, D.C.
    Chelsea Studios in New York City
    UC-Davis Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science in California
    Fair Oaks Farm in Fair Oaks, Indiana

    You can participate in The Food Dialogues remotely through our webcast on this site and on our Facebook page.

    2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

    AgWired Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland GROWMARK Trellis Growing Systems
    Ag Groups, Food, USFRA

    Richard Childress Races Green, Farms Blue

    Cindy Zimmerman

    farm progress show 2011NASCAR team owner and former racer Richard Childress was at the 2011 Farm Progress Show last week to talk about the partnership between the racing series and American Ethanol, but he also put in a plug for the New Holland equipment he uses in his farming operation.

    “I been over to the New Holland booth,” Richard said during a press availability with Growth Energy and the National Corn Growers Association. “That’s what we run on our farm, our vineyards. They have special tractors and it really works out great.”

    Listen to Richard sing the praises of blue tractors in this sound bite, courtesy of Dave Russell, Brownfield Ag News (Thanks, Dave!)
    Richard Childress likes New Holland

    Richard says he has had a cattle operation since the 1980s and is growing some soybeans this year in addition to his vineyard. “I got about 100 acres of grapes at home that we make some good North Carolina wine out of,” he told me.

    The agriculture connection is what made Richard want to be a part of the American Ethanol NASCAR partnership when the series started using a 15% ethanol blend this year. Richard says it has been great. “I’m a huge supporter of everything we do in America, from our farmers to our military,” he said. “This country has to quit depending on so much foreign energy and resources. We gotta do better.”

    He says that NASCAR has had no problems making the transition to 15% ethanol fuel and next year they will go to fuel injection. “The fuel injection and the American Ethanol is really going to work out great,” Richard says.

    Listen to or download my interview with Richard here. Richard Childress and American Ethanol

    2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

    AgWired Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by New Holland GROWMARK Trellis Growing Systems
    Audio, Ethanol, Farm Progress Show, NASCAR

    PrecisionEarth Soil Sampling For iPad

    Chuck Zimmerman

    You might remember PrecisionEarth being introduced at InfoAg this summer. Well it’s now available for your iPad (or other iOS device)!

    PrecisionEarth makes Soil Sampling Simple, Faster, with less mistakes, and with less paper. Build up the Grower, Farmer, Field information as well as collect new boundaries, grids, and samples all inside PrecisionEarth, even when 3G/WiFi is not available. When complete export your sample results as vectors for use in other applications and backup your information to the included WebConnect Cloud Storage Account.

    Already Have Source Data?

    PrecisionEarth comes with Localconnect to automatically re-project and format vector and raster/imagery information. These can be vectors for boundaries and directed sampling locations, and images/rasters of your fields.

    All of this comes for a one time fee of $250 USD in the Apple App Store.

    Apps, Precision Agriculture

    Hand To Harvest App From Farm Family

    Chuck Zimmerman

    If you’ve wondered how you can incorporate an app into your marketing strategy then take a look at Harvest to Hand. This is a unique, functional tool that a lot of people will appreciate. How do you think that makes them feel about the Farm Family Insurance Company that produced it? This screenshot is from my current location on my iPhone searching for events.

    Harvest to Hand is a Labor of Love from Farm Family, part of the American National Family of Companies, providing insurance protection for farms, families, individuals and small businesses in rural and suburban areas for over 50 years.

    We are committed to supporting agriculture through a knowledgeable agency force and a full range of insurance products that can address a diversity of needs. We help to educate our local farms and family generations on safety and risk mitigation with the focus on prevention and sustainability. Harvest to Hand is just another way Farm Family can support our agricultural communities and help connect locally produced agriculture with consumers across the USA.

    We are proud of our own agricultural roots and happy to introduce you to Harvest to Hand. We encourage you to download and visit this app often as the listings continue to grow. And most importantly we hope you will remember to BUY LOCAL!

    Apps, Food