Precision Laboratories Mix Tank App

Chuck Zimmerman

Need help mixing crop protection products? There’s an app for that from Precision Laboratories.

Want to know how to really get the attention of a new media reporter? Send your app pre-loaded on an iPod Touch! That’s just what Precision Laboratories did (thank you!).

And while you’re at it have an already prepared YouTube video with great music and a USB stick pre-loaded with your media kit. Then just to make it all come together have your staff strategically placed on a plane with the new media reporter. Just kidding. However, that’s what did happen when Cindy and I were traveling to Tampa for Commodity Classic. I just happened to overhear James Reiss, VP, Ag Chemistries Business and Daniel Ori, Marketing Specialist for Precision Laboratories talking about it behind me on the plane. So I introduced myself. They were going elsewhere but it was a nice coincidence.

By the way, there are a series of videos on water quality and compatibility in their YouTube Channel.



The new Mix Tank app is designed to support retailers, crop specialists, researchers and growers in providing accurate and efficient tank mix sequences that will enhance profitability and ease.

As mixing issues and interactions continue to cause more problems, the Mix Tank app will help reduce product and money lost from plugged sprayer equipment and cross contamination errors. The free Mix Tank app offers the first of its kind assistance in determining the accurate mixing sequence for herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, adjuvants and foliar nutrition products. With over 700 crop protection products from over 15 manufacturers, the new Mix Tank app can process mixtures to determine the correct mixing order.

“Evolving crop protection strategies lead to more tank mixing and the potential for more tank mixing errors. An improper mix can cause lost time and money, and even lower efficacy or failure of your crop protection products. By using the Mix Tank app, users can get the most out of every tank mix,” said Jim Reiss, vice president of Agricultural Chemistries at Precision Laboratories. “We’re excited to bring this new technology to the industry and offer another tool for growers, custom applicators and our retail partners.” Read More

Agribusiness, Apps, Precision Agriculture

Coufal-Prater Equipment Shows Green

Chuck Zimmerman

Spending a day at a farm implement dealership is not only fun when you can drive brand new equipment but also an education. It’s also a way to get to meet new farm friends too!

That’s what I did earlier this week at Coufal-Prater Equipment’s John Deere Day which was held at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock, TX. Pictured on the right is Tim Prater talking with one of his customers who came out to see new utility tractors and sub-compact tractors. Behind them is a new John Deere Gator XUV which is going to be given away at the end of this year’s Drive Green Challenge tour. You can see a lot of photos from the event in an online photo album.

Tim says Coufal-Prater Equipment is a five store operation that covers most of mid central Texas. He loves to have the John Deere Drive Green Challenge tour stop by since it adds excitement to a local promotion and brings in representatives who can interact on the lot with people who have questions. The day was divided into two parts with commercial operators in the morning and the landowners in the afternoon.

You can listen to my interview with Tim here: Tim Prater Interview

Audio, John Deere

Recording Digital Audio With Apps

Chuck Zimmerman

I keep you notified when new digital audio recorders become available and I have pointed out before that your iPod or iPhone can also handle digital audio recording duties. I thought it was time to point back to them as I see more and more ag journalists recording audio.

I currently have seven audio recording apps on my iPhone but the one I keep coming back to is the one that comes with the device and that’s Apple’s Voice Memo App. The latest versions of it do an excellent job of recording and even give you a nice microphone image to go along with it! Unless you’ve maxed your device memory you can record a lot of audio on these and just re-charge when necessary, saving you on batteries. You can trim audio with this app and then import into iTunes to convert to an mp3. If you don’t need to do major editing, that’s all you need! How easy is that? If you want to connect a hand held microphone to your device, or a mult box, consider an adapter like this one.

Here’s a list of the audio apps I’ve got on my iPhone:

Blue Fire
Castor
Recorder
Speakeasy
Tweetmic
iProRecorder
Voice Memo

What is your favorite audio recording app? Different one? How about on a device other than Apple?

Apps, Equipment

It’s a Cuisinart

Melissa Sandfort

Can’t you just picture someone’s scrunched up face when they say, “It’s a Cuisinart”? It grinds, it brews, it practically makes breakfast for you. And if you live on coffee alone in the mornings, it DOES make breakfast for you!

This hand-crank coffee grinder belonged to my great, great-grandmother. Manual hand mills came in handy when you only needed a small amount of grounds, or when you wanted a fine grind. Beans were filled into the hopper and then as they were ground, emptied into the bottom box. So, you got the satisfaction of a truly “fresh” cup of coffee, made from scratch.

Notice the bend of the crank handle. This is a right-handed model. The left-handed models were usually custom-made and very rare.

I don’t know the manufacturing company, but I’m betting it doesn’t roll off the tongue like a Cuisinart does.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

BIVI Offers A Triple Threat for Pig Disease Control

Joanna Schroeder

I learned a lot during Boehringer Ingelheim’s (BIVI) 2011 Swine Health Seminar, but maybe my biggest take away was that there are three diseases that seem to be a problem for the swine industry: mycoplasma, flu and PRRS. I also learned some other valuable information: BIVI has a triple threat for swine disease control called 3FLEX.

This I learned more about from Tim Bettington, BIVI’s Executive Director of the Swine Division who told me that as an animal health company, PRDC is a critical component of their business because it is one the biggest challenges they face in the swine industry. That is what drove them to create their 3FLEX product, which addresses three of the four key critical pathogens that comprise PRDC (Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex): circa virus, mycoplasma, PRRS and influenza. 3FLEX consists of three vaccines: Ingelvac CircoFLEX®, Ingelvac MycoFLEX® and Ingelvac® PRRS MLV in one 2 mL shot.

Bettington said at this time 3FLEX doesn’t address the flu, but that is an area of opportunity that they are working on.

The FLEX concept has dual meaning for the industry. The speakers all noted that oftentimes when a pig contracts one disease, it becomes more susceptible to others. This vaccine helps to address that issue. Second, each of the veterinarians mentioned that they have used the 3FLEX product in different ways with success so it is important to work with your local veterinarian on the best ways and the best times to integrate this new product into your sow management strategies.

To learn more about the FLEX concept, listen to my full interview Tim Bettington here: Tim Bettington Discusses 3FLEX

Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pork, Swine

Emerging PRDC Control Opportunities

Joanna Schroeder

A very engaging session during the 2011 Swine Health Seminar hosted by Boehringer Ingelheim was the practitioner panel focusing on Emerging PRDC Control Opportunities. It came as no surprise that PRRS, or Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, was a hot topic among the attendees. The three panel experts include veterinarians Mike Eisenmenger with Swine Vet Center, Tom Gillespie with Rensselaer Swine Services and Randy Jones with Livestock Vet Services.

Randy Jones is located in Eastern North Carolina and practices in a very pig dense area and PRRS is the number one disease that he deals with. He said it is a very frustrating disease to deal with from a control perspective. I asked him about the cycle of PRRS and he said that his area had been dealing with it, then circa virus came along and overwhelmed PRRS and to some extent it was forgotten about. Then once a vaccine became available for circa virus and they were so effective in protecting the pig that now they’re back fighting the same diseases again such as PRRS.

Jones also noted that because viruses change and mutate they are hard to control so diagnostics is key. “The core of our program is diagnostics. You’ve got to do diagnostics to know what you’ve got, when you’ve got it. Because the timing makes all the difference in the in world in what type of control program you put in place.”

You can learn more about PRRS diagnostics in my full interview with Randy Jones here: Randy Jones Discusses The Role of Diagnostics in PRRS

Mike Eisenmenger practices in St. Peter, Minnesota but travels throughout the upper Midwest and like Jones, PRRS is the most prevalent disease he sees. He notes its a very smart virus and it stays one step ahead of the industry’s control programs. However, he believes that in general, they have been able to develop methods to manage sow farms where they’ve been able to consistently make negative pigs even though the sow farm would be considered positive for the virus.

Also, like Jones, Eisenmenger promotes consistent diagnostics strategies and he stresses that pigs need to be tested frequently, for example at least one a month. If the pigs are negative, then he suggests vaccinating them shortly after weaning them with the PRRS virus. Then after they are sent off to go live in the “real world” tissue samples can be done to test to see if they continue to be PRRS negative. Should a finishing site become infected with PRRS, Eisenmenger said there are strategies, such as antibiotics, that can be taken, to mitigate the problem. If not treated, pigs will become much more susceptible to other bacterial diseases.

You can learn more about PRRS diagnostics, and control and mitigation strategies in my full interview with Mike Eisenmenger here: Mike Eisenmenger Discusses All Things PRRS

Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pork, Swine

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

    Media Partnering With AgHaven

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 293Let’s learn more about this new thing called AgHaven in this week’s program. In the photo below you can see AgHaven President, Srik Soogoor, discussing the agricultural search engine and social networking community that’s a whole lot more, during Commodity Classic.

    AgHavenOne of the board members of AgHaven is Tom Taylor, High Plains Journal. I sat down with Tom during the show to learn how he got involved with AgHaven. He says he got a call from Srik about getting ag input into what they were doing with an online search engine. At first he wasn’t really sure what Srik was talking about but after listening they put together a meeting and then they were off to the races.

    One of the first aspects of AgHaven we talked about was the intent to partner with media companies like High Plains Journal to distribute news and information. HPJ is a media partner and Tom says the agricultural search engine is what really drew them to the project. I asked him what he suggests for agrimarketers when it comes to looking at this unique online destination. He says to first go visit AgHaven.com and that he thinks that as it grows it will offer opportunities to those in agricultural marketing.

    Learn more about AgHaven in this week’s ZimmCast: ZimmCast 294 - AgHaven

    Here’s how AgHaven describes itself:

    All the ag. None of the aggravation.

    Relevant web search results. Streamlined social networking. Concentrated industry news and advice. AgHaven combines technology and expertise to provide you with a single source for all your online ag industry business. If you’re a producer, rancher or other industry professional, AgHaven is everything you need, and nothing you don’t.

    2011 Commodity Classic Photo Album

    Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, Growmark, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.

    AgWired coverage of the 2011 Commodity Classic
    is sponsored by: BASF New Holland and AgHaven

    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

    Audio, Commodity Classic, ZimmCast

    Public Does Not Understand GMO Crops

    Chuck Zimmerman

    It sure looks like we have a long way to go to help educate the general public on GMO’s! In answer to the question, “How much do you think the public understands about GMO crops?” an overwhelming 70 % say Majority know nothing. Wow. Only 22% or our readers say Some think they know. Only 4 % say People totally understand and 4 % say Most are well informed. This sure seems to suggest that there’s a real disconnect between consumers and science, at least in the minds of our readers. What do you think?

    Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What social network do you use most?” Let us know and thanks for participating!

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

    ZimmPoll

    What To Do If Your Pig Has the Flu

    Joanna Schroeder

    Did you know that just like humans, pigs can get the flu too? To learn more about how to treat and prevent the flu in pigs, I spoke with Tom Gillespie, DVM, with Rensselaer Swine Services. Gillespie, a veterinarian who lives in northwest Indiana, participated in the Emerging PRDC Control Opportunities Panel as part of Boehringer Ingelheim’s 2011 Swine Health Seminar.

    What happens when a pig gets a flu? Gillespie explained that the flu virus is very similar to what happens in people. In 1918 the classic H1N1 flu strain caused a lot of death in humans. It was thought for many, many years that the virus jumped from pigs to humans and infected them at that time. What we know today is that humans, more than not, affect the hog units. So we have biosecurity programs in place. “That’s been the biggest change in the past three years in how we’re looking at influenza,” said Gillespie.

    Flu symptoms in pigs are similar to those in humans but don’t usually last more than 3 or 4 days. I asked Gillespie how to diagnose if your pig has the flu. He said that you can do nasal swabs. Once you’ve determined that the flu is in fact what your pig is suffering from, then you treat the secondary bacterial infections. From there, you go into a preventative type program where you determine if there are any commercial products available to help. He noted that these are now becoming multi-strain so they provide better cross protection.

    You can learn more about what to do if your pig gets the flu in my full interview with Tom here: Tom Gillespie Discusses Treatment For The Flu

    Check out the 2011 BIVI Swine Health Seminar Photo Album.

    Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pork, Swine