Farmers Take Away A Lot From Wyffels Corn Strategies

Chuck Zimmerman

Farmers attending the Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies feel like they get real value from their experience and investment of time. I spoke with three Iowa farmers during the event in Malcom, IA. Let’s start with Sue Utt who farms on the central southern edge of the state. Sue is also a sales person for Troy Elevator. She brings a couple of her customers to Corn Strategies and says she she learns a lot from all the speakers on the program. She says that conditions in her area are pretty good although the corn is somewhat uneven from having too much moisture early in the season. However, she’s very optimistic about the crop this year.

You can listen to my interview with Sue here: Sue Utt Interview

Brad Klodt (pictured left) is a little further east in Iowa than Sue. He says conditions in his area are pretty good although sub surface moisture is starting to disappear. He’s very happy about his corn even though there are some spotty areas due to early season moisture. The heat has really evened up his corn. He says he takes away “a little bit of everything” from Corn Strategies. He says the program opens his eyes to a lot of things like the fact that we’re all in a global marketplace.

You can listen to my interview with Brad here: Brad Klodt Interview

In a completely different part of the state, south of Spencer, is Marcia Langner. She says that conditions are good but pretty wet. There was quite a bit of rain last week for example. She says educational opportunities like Corn Strategies are very valuable and she likes to get as much out of them as possible. I asked her what she heard that would be a take-away for her. She laughed about hearing the range of prices discussed by all the speakers but says that it’s good information you have to consider and figure out how it will work for you.

You can listen to my interview with Marcia here: Marcia Langner Interview

Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies 2011 Iowa Photo Album

Audio, Corn, Seed

Tractor Parts Talk

Chuck Zimmerman

Here’s a new blog to add to your feeds. It’s called, Tractor Parts Talk, from TISCO. The company provides “all-makes of aftermarket tractor and agricultural equipment parts and accessories in North America.”

“Tractor Parts Talk is an informative hub where everyone in the agriculture community can connect,” said William Stuckert, president of TISCO. “Our goal is to translate our many decades of experience serving the ag industry into an easy to use resource to help the farming community — whether they are a farmer in the field on their smartphone or a parts distributor in a store on their laptop.”

Tractor Parts Talk blog topics to date have covered the effect of heavy spring rains on the 2011 growing season, tractor part tips on air filter maintenance, a refresher on farm safety, and the importance of agriculture in creating jobs, stimulating the economy, housing wildlife and improving the environment. At tractorpartstalk.com, visitors can also find and purchase tractor parts through tractorpartmart.com to keep their equipment running in the field and connect with a local parts dealer in TISCO’s extensive dealer network.

Find TISCO on Facebook and Twitter too.

Agribusiness, Tractor

USDA Acreage Predicitions Way Off According To ZimmPoll

Chuck Zimmerman

The majority of you who responded to our latest ZimmPoll think USDA’s acreage predictions are way off. We asked the question, “How accurate do you believe the USDA acreage predictions are?” 55% said Way Off while 41% said Close and 4% said Spot On. So there you have it. Take ’em with a grain of salt. Hey, they’re a prediction after all. Does anyone know what the future looks like?

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “Are you worried about how government regulations will hurt your business?” This is a big topic in Washington, DC right now and applies to all businesses. Please chime in and let the world know what you think. Thanks.

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

ZimmPoll

Time for Peanuts on the Beach

Cindy Zimmerman

It’s time once again for peanuts on the beach in Panama City, Florida – where it’s cooler than it is here in the Midwest!

It’s the 13th Annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference (SPGC), being held once again at the beautiful Edgewater Beach Resort, July 21-23, and I will once again be the official SPGC blogger. This will be the fourth year we have been providing this forum for all the action from the event – photos, interviews and video – officially kicking off today with registration and yummy grilled PB&Js! Follow all the action, and check out the past three years of SPGC on the blog.

The theme this year is “Windows of Opportunity” and the schedule is packed full of powerful peanut production presentations, like the general sessions on “The Marketplace” and “Production Agriculture & The Land Grant System” as well as “Challenges for Agriculture,” including insight on the next Farm Bill debate coming in Congress. In addition, the motivational keynote speaker for lunch on Friday will be none other than AgChat Foundation founder Michele Payn-Knoper!

The annual event is hosted by the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation, which includes the producers associations of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi and has a whole host of great sponsors. The blog is once again jointly sponsored this year by Trimble Agriculture and Ag Technologies. Be sure to check it out and feel free to download and use any of the photos or audio you happen to find there.

See you on PCB!

Peanuts

Should’ve Been a Cowboy

Melissa Sandfort

As a parent, it’s hard NOT to steer your children toward a career path. However, it IS our job to introduce them to new ideas, give them a solid foundation then let them decide for themselves. Some kids are born with the desire to be a doctor at age 5; others get through years of school only to find that the job wasn’t what they thought it was and go back to school for something entirely different.

By moving back to the farm, I hope to have a little influence on our son’s passion for agriculture. Whether it be farming or ranching or cowboying, as long as he knows where his food comes from and appreciates agriculture, that’s fine by me.

We took him to a rodeo in Kansas a couple weekends ago and he LOVED bull riding. Now here’s the caveat about me loving rodeos: I love the dirt, the boots, the horses, the smell, the calves and the people. But the one thing that scares me about rodeos is bull riding! I enjoy it as a spectator but talk about an adrenaline rush knowing that someone’s son just sat down on a 2,000-pound pile of rage and muscle! That’s enough to give any mom the hand sweats.

And maybe that’s something a woman can’t understand – a man’s desire to conquer the great beast – to battle the fiercest warrior and win. And if that’s what my son decides to do, I guess I’ll have to learn to be a better spectator.

I personally think trail riding with horses sounds much more enjoyable, but then again, I’m his mom.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

Regulatory Trainwreck Video

Cindy Zimmerman

All aboard for the Over-Regulation Express!

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has just released a clever new YouTube video calling attention to the current administration’s onslaught of “burdensome, costly and scientifically unfounded regulations as a way to cut spending and prevent further job loss in rural America.” When you see the list of regulations coming down the track that will impact agriculture, you will have to agree it looks like a train wreck in the making!

Kudos to NCBA’s Mike Deering for the production of this video, which is also posted on the Beltway Beef blog.

NCBA, Video

House Hearing on How GIPSA Hurts Small Business

Cindy Zimmerman

The last post we did with a lawmaker’s opinion on GIPSA, we got hammered with comments. That was fun – let’s do it again!

Last time, it was Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) who had negative comments about USDA’s controversial Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyard’s Administration (GIPSA) proposal. This time, it’s Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO), chairman of the House Small Business Committee’s Agriculture, Energy and Trade Subcommittee. Earlier this month, Tipton held a subcommittee hearing entitled “How USDA’s Proposed GIPSA Rule Hurts America’s Small Businesses.”

Tipton says if the “Job-Crushing GIPSA Proposed Regulation” is adopted it “has the potential to reduce gross domestic product by over $1.5 billion and cost the U.S. economy nearly 23,000 jobs.” He’s most concerned that USDA “fully comply with the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) and ensure that USDA understands the private-sector costs of the regulations it is imposing on all sectors within the livestock industry.”

One of the witnesses at the July 7 hearing was USDA Undersecretary Edward Avalos, who said the agency is “fairly close” to completing the final economic analysis on the proposed rule, but that it was “too early in the process” yet to answer any specific questions related to economic impact.

Robbie LeValley of LeValley Ranch in Hotchkiss, Colorado was also a witness at the hearing. “The proposed GIPSA rule will destroy our small business model, force us to lay off our employees, cripple our ability to market our cattle way we want to and limit consumer choice,” she said.

Other witnesses with similar messages included Gary Malenke of Sioux-Preme Pork Products and Joel Brandenberge, President of the National Turkey Federation.

You can watch the whole hearing here:

Beef, GIPSA, Livestock, NCBA, Pork, Poultry, Video

AG CONNECT Expo 2013 Set for Kansas City

Cindy Zimmerman

AG CONNECT Expo is going to Kansas City in 2013.

The third AG CONNECT Expo will be held January 29-31, 2013 at the Kansas City Convention Center, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), which started the global agribusiness trade show in 2010. The show is now on a biennial schedule synchronized with Agritechnica, the global agriculture trade show in Hanover, Germany, owned by the German Agricultural Society, DLG. The two global agriculture trade exhibitions – Agritechnica in Europe and AG CONNECT Expo in North America – coordinated timing of their show dates for the convenience of exhibitors and attendees with global business interests.

“Agriculture today is increasingly global, and AG CONNECT Expo is a global trade show offering industry professionals the best information and the best people possible, without boundaries,” said Tim Merrett with Deere & Company, who is serving as AG CONNECT Expo 2013 chair. “We have succeeded with this goal and will continue to provide a quality gathering place for sharing global agricultural ideas and management trends.”

Exhibit space sales for AG CONNECT Expo 2013 are now open, and deadline is September 15, 2011 to receive priority status with the first round of exhibit space assignments.

AG CONNECT Expo and AEM will be visiting with attendees at the 2011 AMS InfoExpo next week in New Orleans, so we will be sure to find out more there!

AEM, Ag Media Summit

Wyffels Corn Strategies Discussion On U.S. Farm Report

Chuck Zimmerman

During the 2011 Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies held in Malcom, IA, growers watched the taping of a U.S. Farm Report show, hosted by John Phipps. That show will air this weekend. Guests included Sue Martin, Ag and Investments Services, pictured here with John. Sue had a pretty strong message for corn growers. She says, “I don’t think that we’re done trying to rally this market, that we’re just too vulnerable, late planted this year and all hopes are pinned on the old crop corn that is with the huge basis we’ve got.” She says there’s a good potential for a rally in September. Of course there are a lot of factors coming in the play when you look ahead to Dec corn.

You can listen to my interview with Sue here: Sue Martin Interview

Another guest on the show was Chip Flory, Pro Farmer. Chip told corn growers that the way the market uses crop condition information from USDA has changed a lot in recent years with hedge funds coming into the market. Most of them plug it into a model that tells them what to do. He says we’re probably going to see conditions continue to deteriorate in the next report and it will trigger another round of fund buying. But he says weather may not be the most important factor he says. It all depends on what they’re looking at that day. He says, “We’re in a corn economy. Watch corn. It’s calling the shots for the whole grain complex.”

You can listen to my interview with Chip here: Chip Flory Interview

I also spoke with John before the program got started. He says the message he has for corn growers is that if you’re not careful you’ll start thinking you’re disassociated from the rest of the world. He wanted to talk about the “end of the outside world.” We’re inundated with too much information and we need to realize that on the farm we’re part of the rest of the world. He finds it interesting that people seem to be unwilling to think about “what if things get better?” He has a very positive message for growers and says they need a backup plan for when things get better. He’s a pretty good “nonsense filter!”

You can listen to my interview with John here: John Phipps Interview

Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies 2011 Iowa Photo Album

Audio, Corn

Still Time to Enter Corn Yield Contest

Cindy Zimmerman

Corn growers still have a few more days to submit entries for this year’s National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) National Corn Yield Contest.

Due to widespread planting delays, the final entry deadline for the popular contest was extended an extra 10 days, to July 25. Entries must be submitted online or postmarked on or before that date and are subject to the standard entry fee of $110 per entry, according to NCGA.

“It was a late, long planting season for many growers throughout the Corn Belt,” said Steve Ebke, chairman of the Production and Stewardship Action Team. “At NCGA, we recognize the strain farmers experience while attempting to get the crop in the ground. Furthermore, early delays can cause tasks to pile up. We want every grower interested to have an opportunity to participate in the contest and hope that by extending the deadline we make it easier for them to do so.”

Winners receive national recognition in publications such as the NCYC Corn Yield Guide, as well as cash trips or other awards from participating sponsoring seed, chemical and crop protection companies. In Nashville, Tenn., during the 2012 Commodity Classic, state winners will be presented awards at the NCYC Breakfast and national winners will receive awards at the Awards Banquet.

Find out all the important info about the NCYC on-line here.

Corn, NCGA